by SUE FINEMAN
Now Charlie knew, even if Taylor didn’t, and between Charlie and her parents, her little girl could end up in the midst of a nasty custody battle. No matter what her parents said, no matter what Charlie did, she would not give up her little girl. If she had to leave River Valley to keep her, she would, because her daughter meant everything to her.
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The doctor came in to see Taylor the next morning and proclaimed her well enough to leave the hospital. Alex had slept in the chair in the corner, a blanket draped over her, but Charlie stayed in the chair by the side of the bed, as close as he could get to Taylor.
Charlie’s stomach rumbled with hunger, so while Alex got Taylor dressed to leave, he stepped outside with his cell phone and called his mother.
“Charlie, where are you?”
“At the hospital. They’re releasing Taylor now. I was wondering if… I mean… Would you like to meet your granddaughter?”
“Of course I would.”
“I promised her breakfast. Pancakes and bacon. If you don’t want to cook, I could take her—”
“I’ll start the bacon now.”
“Thanks, Mom.” He yawned. “We all missed dinner last night.”
“Then I’ll make plenty.”
Charlie didn’t tell Alex where they were going for breakfast. He drove to the big house on Livingston Avenue, where he’d grown up, and parked on the side street. Since Livingston Avenue was a busy street, nearly everyone came in through the kitchen door.
Alex pulled up behind him and rolled her window down. “No, Charlie. Not here.”
“My mother is already cooking, and she wants to meet Taylor.”
“Oh, God,” she said under her breath. “My father will have a stroke if he knows I brought Taylor here.”
“Then don’t tell him.” Charlie opened the doors for Alex and Taylor. Taylor scampered out as if she hadn’t just spent a long night in the hospital.
Alex hung back and stared at the big golden house with the round corner. “Your parents won’t want me in their home.”
“Whatever happened between your parents and mine happened before we were born.”
“Yes, but—”
Taylor tugged on her mother’s arm. “C’mon, Mommy.”
Alex reluctantly followed Charlie and Taylor to the gate in the white picket fence around the backyard. Coming here could only bring trouble at home, but she didn’t want to be rude to Charlie’s mother.
A beautiful collie ran over to greet them. Charlie opened the gate and rubbed the dog’s head. “This is Wilma. You can pet her, Taylor. She won’t bite.”
She put her hand on the dog’s head, and Wilma slurped her on the face. Taylor giggled and wiped her face with her sleeve.
The back door of the house opened and Hannah Kane stepped out. Alex had seen her picture in the newspaper many times, but she’d never met Charlie’s mother. She had Charlie’s black hair and gray eyes like Taylor’s. And she wore a big smile. “Welcome. I hope you’re hungry.”
“Starving,” said Charlie.
“Where have I heard that before?” Hannah reached out to take Alex’s hand. “I’m Hannah. Come in and sit down, and I’ll pour you a cup of coffee.”
She leaned over and spoke to Taylor. “Hi. I heard you got a big bump on your head. What happened?”
“Jimmy Morrison hit me with the bat, but he didn’t mean to.”
“I’m sure he didn’t. Did it hurt?”
“Yeah, but it’s all better now. I squeezed Charlie’s hand and the hurt went away.”
Alex watched Hannah share a smile with Charlie. His little trick helped Taylor get through her ordeal. Someday Taylor would look back on the night she met her daddy and remember how holding his hand made her feel better.
Alex glanced around the kitchen, a warm, friendly room with a farmhouse sink, a butcher block island, and a bay with a round table and eight chairs. The room smelled of bacon and cinnamon and coffee. “What a wonderful room.”
Charlie put his hand on Taylor’s shoulder. “Would you like to help me carry the syrup and butter to the table?”
Taylor grinned. “Yeah. We never get to eat in the kitchen at my house.”
“Why not?”
She shrugged. “Grandmother said we had to eat in the dining room.”
“We eat in the kitchen all the time,” said Hannah. “We save the dining room for special dinners.”
“It smells better in here,” said Charlie.
Hannah brought a plate of pancakes and another of bacon to the table while Charlie poured the juice. They’d just started eating when the mayor himself came in and sat down beside his wife. He winked at Taylor. “Did you save me some?”
“Yeah. It’s good.”
“I know. That’s why I married the cook.”
Taylor giggled.
Hannah said, “Taylor, Alex, this is Donovan, Charlie’s father.”
Donovan smiled at Taylor, then stared at Alex, his eyes widening in recognition. “Alexandra Porcini?”
Alex nodded. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No, I’m just surprised to see you here. I didn’t realize you and Charlie knew each other.”
“We met after he came back from Iraq.” In the beginning, they were too hot for each other to care about last names. And then she was so much in love it didn’t matter.
Donovan turned to Hannah. “She’s Vinnie’s daughter.”
All the color left Hannah’s face.
Alex put her fork on her plate. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“Please stay,” Hannah said. “No matter what happened in the past, you’re Taylor’s mother, and you’re welcome here.”
“Thank you.” In spite of their kind words, Alex felt intensely uncomfortable in their home. She wasn’t sure exactly what happened between her father and Charlie’s father all those years ago, but her father still loathed Donovan Kane. Her whole family hated him.
Taylor had syrup dripped on her shirt, but she was flirting with Charlie, and Alex couldn’t help but smile. She looked so happy.
They needed to tell her daughter who these people were, but if they told her now, Taylor would tell Mother as soon as they got home, and Alex wasn’t up to a confrontation with her parents. Not today.
After they finished eating, Taylor yawned, and Alex used it as an excuse to escape from this house and these too-nice people.
“Will you bring Taylor back for another visit?” Hannah asked.
“Of course.”
Charlie drilled into her with stormy gray eyes. “I’ll expect to hear from you by the end of the week.” He handed her a card with his cell phone number.
Staring at the card, she said, “Yes, all right. I’ll call you.”
Alex drove her daughter home. Villa Drive was only a mile or two from Livingston Avenue, but it felt like a different world. The homes in this neighborhood were huge mansions hidden behind lush landscaping and privacy fences. Aside from her college years, she’d always lived here. Papa didn’t believe a proper Italian girl should leave home until she married, but Alex didn’t mind living here. After college, her parents had given her the apartment in the south wing, which gave her and Taylor some privacy.
“Taylor, let’s not tell Grandmother and Papa about Charlie and his family, okay?”
“Why not?”
“Because your grandparents don’t like them, and we don’t want to make Papa angry.”
“But I like Charlie.”
“I know, honey. I like him, too.”
As they walked inside, Taylor said, “Mary Beth Snyder says everybody has a daddy.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah. Is Charlie my daddy?”
“Did he tell you that?”
“No.”
But Taylor knew. She knew the man who held her hand in the hospital was her daddy.
“Don’t tell Grandmother and Papa. It’ll be our little secret.”
Taylor grinned. “Okay.”
I hope you
enjoyed this excerpt of The Ghosts in the Attic. If you’d like to read the book in its entirety, it’s coming to Kindle and Nook soon.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed reading Andy and Julie’s story.
For any of you who have not had weird dreams or had a past life experience, this story might seem strange. But to some, it’s not so strange. And seeing ghosts? Perfectly normal for some people.
Julie’s experience with a stalker is frightening and happens way too often, especially on college campuses. If you have someone following you, making threatening phone calls, or breaking into your home or car, document it each time it happens and report it to the police. Stalking is illegal, and stalkers are unpredictable and dangerous. Don’t take any chances. Your life could be in danger.
The next book in the series is The Ghosts in the Attic, Charlie’s book. He’s the ornery twin, the one who flirts with every woman he meets. He’s stunned to discover he has a six-year-old daughter he’s never met, a kid with his ornery disposition and an unusual gift. She sees ghosts.
The little girl’s mother is Alexandra Porcini, the daughter of a man Charlie’s father hates. Although Charlie has dated a lot of women and slept with most of them, Alex is the only woman he’s ever loved.
In spite of their fathers long-standing feud, Charlie still loves her. If only he could trust her.
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THE KANE GHOSTS SERIES
The Ghost in the Basement
When Hannah Taylor inherits her grandfather’s home, the attorney tells her there are strings attached. She must share the house with Police Detective Donovan Kane and his family for a year, and if she doesn’t stay, Donovan gets the house. He’s sure Hannah won’t stay the full year and he’ll end up with the house, but she’s not about to give him her home.
In a letter to Donovan, Grandpa said to “find the diaries, open the house, and send the wandering spirits on their way,” but nobody expects the old diaries to lead them to a secret staircase, a body buried in the basement, friendly ghosts, and a love that will last a lifetime.
The Ghosts Upstairs
Billy Kane, a teacher in a private academy, inherits his grandfather’s mansion in River Valley, but he doesn’t expect to find three ghosts there. His mother and grandmother made his childhood a living hell, and he wants their ghosts gone, but his grandmother’s ghost won’t let his mother’s ghost leave.
His grandmother’s heir, Kayla Blanton, is crazy about Billy, but she knows she can’t have him. He’s a teacher in a school that has a morals clause, and her last job was in a topless club. Billy wants a wife who can give him children, and she can’t. But love finds a way.
The Ghost at the Farm
A gypsy fortune teller convinces architect Andy Kane his dreams are of a past life, that of the man who was murdered and buried in his family’s basement in 1918. He must resolve the issues of the past life or his life will end the same way, but how can he do that from this life?
After he rescues Julianne Tandry from an abusive man in a bar, Andy’s mind isn’t just on his dreams, but he can’t move forward with a relationship until he figures out what issues need to be resolved. Julie, a real estate agent, helps Andy find a farm to buy, where things get really strange. But she loves Andy, and despite his past life visions, she’s not willing to give him up.
The Ghosts in the Attic
Someone tracks down Charlie Kane and tells him his daughter is in the hospital, a kid he didn’t know he had. He’s been with a lot of women, so who is the child’s mother, and why didn’t she tell him about the adorable little girl with the big bump on her head and his gray eyes?
Alexandra Porcini’s father hates Charlie’s father, the former police detective who put him in jail many years ago, but Alex has always loved Charlie. When she sees him with their little girl, she knows she has to explain and hopes he can forgive her for choosing her family over him seven years ago. She wants to build a future with Charlie and their spirited psychic daughter.
The Ghosts in the Audience
Police Detective Ginny Kane asks psychic entertainer Steffen Marchand, on tour in River Valley, to help her find a missing friend. She’s excited by him, yet frustrated with the way he can plant thoughts in her mind. She doesn’t need a man in her life anyway.
When someone shoots Steffen in the shoulder, Ginny can’t leave him alone to fend for himself, and he can’t drive home to Chicago until he heals and she finds the shooter. She takes him home with her to recuperate. After the shooting, his psychic abilities are gone, and he can’t pull up a vision of the shooter’s face. Psychic or not, Steffen finds himself falling hard for Ginny. She doesn’t want to love him; she knows he’s not the kind of man who stays.
Books by Sue Fineman
The Martinson Ranch Series
The Mitchell Money
Ginger’s Grief
Maggie’s Man
The Gregory Series
On the Run
On the Lam
On the Hunt
On the Edge
The Donatelli Series
Nick’s Journey
Maxine
Blind Love
The Inheritance
The Inn at Dead Man’s Point
The Kane Ghosts Series
The Ghost in the Basement
The Ghosts Upstairs
The Ghost at the Farm
The Ghosts in the Attic
The Ghosts in the Audience
Single Title
Gran’s Guilt
BIO SHEET
Sue Fineman
Sue’s Blog
Sue Fineman lives in a small town in Washington state with her husband of forty-nine years, a tiny poodle with no tail, and a scruffy rescue dog who wags her tail all the time. Her three grown children are nearly old enough to join AARP. She also has one adorable grandson and multiple grandpuppies and grandkittens. At one time she and her husband took in foster kids, but that was when they were younger and had more patience. These days her husband manages to try Sue’s patience on a daily basis, but she’s decided to keep him anyway. She doesn’t want to start over training a new husband.
She’s been a secretary, technical writer, real estate agent, and foster mother to five children. Always an avid reader, she began writing in her mid-fifties, when she quit her day job. Sue has written over two dozen books in the past fifteen years.
To contact Sue, send an email to [email protected]. To read her blog, go to http://suefineman.blogspot.com/.
