Love to Believe: Fireflies ~ Book 2 Read online

  A woman in a man’s world…

  CPA Rebecca Walker wields a hammer and saw with skill, but it’s like fighting tooth and nail to prove to her chauvinistic father that she’s capable of managing the family construction business. Romance is a luxury Rebecca can’t afford.

  A man with secrets…

  Thanks to his past, romance isn’t in Sean Kinkaid’s future, so when Rebecca proposes ‘friends with benefits,’ Sean agrees. It’s the perfect scenario until love sneaks in—and Sean’s secrets tear them apart.

  Believe…

  But Rebecca has a secret too, one she fears Sean will never accept. It will take intervention from an unlikely source to convince these two lovers they have the one thing neither of them ever expected to find…a love to believe.

  KUDOS FOR LOVE TO BELIEVE

  In Love to Believe by Lisa Ricard Claro, Rebecca Walker is the sister of Caleb Walker from the first book in the series. Rebecca’s got it bad for Sean Kinkaid who happens to be the brother-in-law to Maggie Kinkaid, the widow of Sean’s brother Jack. Rebecca doesn’t have time for romance and wants a nostrings arrangement for sex. Or so she thinks. So Sean is the perfect choice since he claims to want the same thing. Except they’re family—sort of. And if things don’t work and there are hard feelings, it could cause awkward family gatherings for years. It’s a risk neither of them are sure they want to take. Then there’s the guy stalking her, a missing cat, and secrets from the past on both sides that complicate the mix. The story is a fun read, with a strong unpredictable plot, and plenty of fast-paced action. A good book for an evening when you’re home alone, and don’t want to be, as it lets you connect with old friends from the first book and meet new ones. ~ Taylor Jones, Reviewer

  Love to Believe by Lisa Ricard Claro revolves around Rebecca Walker who’s working in her family’s construction business, against her father’s wishes. Rebecca, sister to Caleb from Love Built to Last, is a strong, independent woman, more than capable of taking care of herself. But she’s up to her ears in alligators, trying to do the work of three people and prove to her father that she can handle running the family business while he recovers from his heart attack. She doesn’t have time for a serious relationship. All she wants is some great, nostrings sex with a hot hunk—and who can blame her?—but when she chooses Sean Kinkaid to have it with, it’s a recipe for trouble. Love to Believe is a story about love, self-reliance, and miscommunication that’s well-written, heartwarming, exciting, and fun. Claro just gets better with every new book. I can’t wait for the next one. ~ Regan Murphy, Reviewer

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I’d like to offer my heartfelt thanks to the following people:

  Lauri Wellington, Faith, Elise, and the rest of the team at Black Opal Books for your efforts on this manuscript. I appreciate each of you.

  Melissa Stevens at The Illustrated Author for another gorgeous book cover. I can’t wait to see the summertime cover for Love to Win!

  Capt. Hayden Hodges with the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office and Jeff Montgomery, Public Information Officer, Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, for answering all of my questions pertaining to Georgia law enforcement. You were both generous and thorough in your responses, and any errors contained herein are solely my own.

  My gal pals: Terry Lynn Thomas, critique partner and touchstone, for dealing with my angst and catching me on all my bad writing habits—you never let me get away with anything. Rochelle Spurlock and Leslie Hachtel, beta readers extraordinaire, for coming through in a pinch to keep me on deadline and calm my crazies. All you ladies rock.

  Last, but never least, Joe Claro—because you are my only somebody and you will always count—the love of my life, beat of my heart, and my real life hero.

  Love to BELIEVE

  Fireflies ~ Book 2

  LISA RICARD CLARO

  A Black Opal Books Publication

  Copyright © 2015 by Lisa Ricard Claro

  Cover Design by Melissa Stevens

  All cover art copyright © 2015

  All Rights Reserved

  EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-626944-00-8

  EXCERPT

  It was over between them, so why did the sound of her voice still destroy him…

  “Sean?”

  Rebecca’s voice poleaxed him and a powerful wave of awareness washed over him, several things manifesting at once: She had the power to slay him with a single word, she sounded shaken and scared, and this must be serious because she hadn’t initiated contact with him even once since their split. A quick flash of their brief, but passionate, coming together at the gazebo stabbed into his gut, as did her statement before she retreated. ‘I can’t do this,’ she’d said, and he assumed she meant she couldn’t cheat on Nate. Which didn’t negate the fact that she’d been as involved in the kiss as Sean had been, but, he reminded himself for the thousandth time, just because he and Rebecca shared history and a powerful physical attraction didn’t mean that Nate hadn’t managed to win her heart, or at the very least, her loyalty. In either case, she didn’t belong to Sean. He needed to remember that.

  “Sean? Are you there?”

  “You sound upset.” He heard sirens through the phone and his heart damn near stopped beating as icy fear sluiced over him. “Are you okay? Have you been in an accident?”

  “No, but I need you, Sean.”

  His heart started pumping again and relief flooded through him. “Where are you, sweetheart? I’ll be right there.”

  “No, no. Its—I need you, but I’m not asking—I need a lawyer, Sean. I’m about to be arrested.”

  Comprehension doused him like an unexpected cold shower. She didn’t need him, she needed his legal expertise. Ouch.

  He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Arrested for what?”

  “Resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.”

  A surprised laugh escaped him. “Are you serious?”

  “Can I count on you or not?”

  “Jesus, yes. Of course. Are you still at the scene of the…uh…crime?”

  DEDICATION

  For my sweet, beautiful cousins, JoJo and Annie, because you both deserved a happily-ever-after.

  Chapter 1

  A key scraped in the front door of the Walker & Son Construction management office. Rebecca Walker jerked her head toward the sound, her eyes going wide. A second later the deadbolt slid to the unlocked position with a thunk.

  “No, wait!” She scrambled for her jeans. “Don’t come in!”

  The door swung open and the two men at the threshold watched with surprised appreciation as their operations manager shimmied into a holey pair of skinny jeans, affording them a brief glimpse of her butt-hugging boy-shorts. When their attention rose to her lacy push-up bra their smiles expanded.

  “Rebecca? You still there?” A disembodied voice crackled from the glow of a laptop sitting on the desk, facing away from Rebecca.

  Rebecca thrust her face in front of the laptop video cam. “Hold on, Vern, okay? Just gimme a second.”

  “Holy crap,” fifteen-year-old Vern choked through a mouthful of sparkling orthodontia. “Are you naked?”

  Rebecca slapped the laptop shut, grabbed the sweater lying on her desk and yanked it over her head without regard for the clip keeping her coppery curls under control. Helped along by the wrenching of the bulky knit, the clip popped free and bounced out of sight. When Rebecca’s head popped through the neck of the sweater her spirals sprang out in wild abandon. She opened the laptop and stuck her face in view of the screen again. “Hold on, Vern, okay? Just a sec.” To the men grinning in the doorway, she said, “What part of ‘wait, don’t come in’ did you two not understand? Shut the door, for Pete’s s
ake, you’re letting all the cold air in. And how’d you get a key?”

  “It ain’t that we didn’t hear ya,” Trey, the younger and lankier of the two men drawled, “we just was already fixin’ to open the door.” He gulped, and his eyes bulged with the effort.

  Rebecca stared, ever fascinated by Trey’s uncanny ability to look like a human Chihuahua.

  “And if I may say,” the older and fleshier of the two began, his eyes bright with amusement, “you’re looking particularly lovely this—”

  “No, Howard, you may not say and, if you do, you’re fired.” Rebecca dragged her gaze from Trey’s protuberant eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. She mustered a stern look and directed it at Howard, who was old enough to know better, annoyed that both men continued to gawk although she was now covered ankle to throat. “It’s after hours, and I locked that door for a reason.”

  “Right. Well.” Howard shrugged and swallowed his smile. “Big Will gave us the key and the code. We’ve got finishing work on the Bartholomew building in Gainesville tomorrow and there’s some notes we’re supposed to bring. Cal made some changes.”

  “Rebecca? You still there?” Vern called from the ether. “Becca?”

  She grabbed the laptop and lifted it up to eye level. Vern’s pimpled face filled her line of vision. “Sorry. I’m trying to multitask, and failing. You want me to call you later?”

  “I just wanted to make sure you’re still there.”

  “Still here, Vern.”

  “I’ll wait. You’re the best tutor out there, and this econ homework is killing me.” He adjusted his chunky glasses, and his face loomed large as he leaned closer to the camera on his end. “Hey, are you still naked?”

  Rebecca snapped the laptop shut. A second later her cell phone rang out the Hawaii 5-0 theme song she had designated for the sheriff’s deputy she was dating. She set the laptop down and snatched up the phone.

  “Hey, Nate. Can you hold on?” She muted the call and turned back to the two men in the doorway. “I assume Dad told you where you’d find them.”

  “Uh, yes’m.” Trey pointed to the closed door beyond Rebecca’s desk. “On a clipboard on his desk.”

  She waved them in with her hand. “Be speedy. I’m trying to get out of here. I’ve got someplace to be.”

  Rebecca stood in the doorway to the office her father sometimes shared with her brother, Caleb, and watched Howard and Trey poke around on the desk, a scarred and dented monstrosity purchased new by her Grampa Boone at an office supply sale down in Atlanta sometime in the 1950s. She tapped her bare foot on the thin carpet and made a mental note to talk to her father about not handing out keys to the office without first giving her a head’s up.

  “Got it.” Howard held the clipboard over his head like he’d won a prize.

  “Okay, guys. Out.” She closed and locked the inner office, strode across the room to the front office door and opened it with a flourish. “Not one word to anyone about seeing me in my undies. I’d hate to have to bury you under a ton of concrete. ”

  “Yes’m.” Trey nodded, his Chihuahua eyes warm and sincere.

  “And don’t forget who does your time cards.”

  The men grinned and waved on their way out. Rebecca smiled back, locking the door behind them—not that doing so would keep anyone out, apparently—and took her boyfriend off mute.

  “Hey, Nate. Sorry about that. I’m trying to do too many things at once.”

  “I’m used to it.”

  Rebecca cringed. “Are you at the party already?”

  “Yes, Rebecca, I am and you’re not. Big surprise.”

  “Oh, c’mon, big guy, don’t be mad. My meeting with the inspector ran over, and I promised Vern I’d help him with his econ paper.” Vern. Oh, crap! “Hey, Nate, hold on a sec, will you?”

  “Rebecca—”

  She hit the mute button and opened the laptop. Vern’s face popped into view. “Sorry about that. Can you hold on just another sec?”

  “You still naked?”

  She cringed. “Ice those hormones, buddy. That was a flash you weren’t supposed to see. Listen, I’ve got Nate on the phone. Wait two seconds and I’ll give you my undivided attention. Okay?”

  Rebecca shut the laptop again, took a breath, and unmuted the phone.

  “Nate?”

  “Rebecca, this has to stop. You can’t keep standing me up.”

  “I’m not standing you up. I’ll be there. I mean I have to, right? It’s my brother’s engagement party. Can’t miss that.” She forced a laugh. Nate’s silence spoke for him. “I’m really sorry. There was a problem at one of the job sites and—look, I’ll be there within the hour. Who all’s there?”

  “Almost everybody. If you’re not here before eight, you’re going to miss surprising Caleb and Maddie.”

  “Let’s hang up so I can help Vern with his homework, and then I’ll be on my way.”

  “Can’t the kid figure it out himself?”

  “Do you want to argue with me, or let me go so I can finish helping Vern and get to the party?”

  After a protracted silence, Nate responded with a curt, “Bye.”

  Rebecca shut her eyes and took a breath. She blew it out in a puff, tossed the phone on the desk, dropped into her chair and checked the time. She could give Vern twenty minutes and still get to the Kinkaids’ house by eight as long as nothing else held her up. She tucked her long legs underneath her, opened the laptop, and plastered on a smile.

  Thirty minutes later she powered off her computer and made a final trip to the bathroom before heading off to the party. She wrestled her curls into some semblance of submission with an elastic band she’d found at the bottom of her purse and perused the results in the bathroom mirror. Giant topknot messy buns were in, right?

  So what if she looked like the love child of Pebbles Flintstone and Marge Simpson. Fussing with makeup wasn’t her thing, but she figured she owed it to Nate to at least look like she tried, so she flicked a mascara wand against her lashes and smoothed tinted balm on her lips before flipping off the lights. She double-checked the alarm and lock, checked them again for good measure because you never could be too careful, and power-walked to her car. The parking lot was well lit, but she was still alone out here, with the building situated away from the road and behind a stand of Georgia pines so draped in dormant kudzu they looked like a cluster of muddy swamp monsters.

  The November wind gusted. The shrouded pines shivered, and the whispering rustle caused Rebecca to glance around her with unease. She increased her pace, clicking the button on her key fob in rapid succession and breathing easier when the chirp-chirp signaled the unlocking of her car door. She checked the backseat for serial killers—yep, all clear—and slid behind the wheel, yanked the door shut, and hit the locks. Being inside the vehicle didn’t relieve her of the notion she was being watched, but at least she was locked up and out of the cold, safe and sound.

  She took a deep breath and sighed. She really had to stop watching crime shows with Maddie and Brenna. They were making her paranoid.

  Yeah, right. Like TV is to blame.

  She blew out another long breath and buried the thought.

  Rebecca drove from the parking lot and cranked the radio full blast, singing loud and proud with Miranda Lambert, undaunted by her own lack of a musical ear. Who needed pitch? What she lacked in talent she more than made up for with attitude and enthusiasm.

  Between the pounding bass and her own singing, she never heard the boom of thunder warning of an impending downpour, nor the telltale thwunk-thwunk-thwunk when her tire went flat. The car’s suspension suddenly vibrated and the vehicle pulled to the right.

  No stranger to flat tires, she gripped the steering wheel and guided her car to the shoulder of the road where she parked and gave herself a moment to curse her bad luck.

  The heavens opened up the second she stepped her suede boots onto the ground. She zipped her jacket and ran around the car to confirm the flat—yep, front
passenger side—and then got back in the car to call Nate.

  She grabbed her phone, groaned, and tossed it back into her purse. No service. Perfect.

  The dashboard clock glowed the time, and she knew she would miss the surprise portion of Caleb and Maddie’s engagement party if she didn’t get back on the road. She’d have to brave the elements. She chewed the side of her thumb, while eyeing the steady fall of rain, and steeled herself for another blast of the wet cold, courtesy of the North Georgia mountains’ November night.

  “Man up, Rebecca,” she said aloud and climbed from the car.

  A few minutes later, she stared into the trunk which looked just as she had left it earlier in the week. Empty, save for the folded comforter still tagged and bagged from a journey to the dry cleaners—a trip made necessary by her cat, Mr. Peabody, who had puked up two fur balls along with the remains of an unfortunate catnip mouse—and the space beneath the matting that should have housed her spare tire lay hollow.

  Oh, yeah, she remembered now. She’d loaned her spare to Vern’s mom, her neighbor Etta, a few weeks ago. Never got it back. Great.

  “Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Do either and you’re a damned fool idiot.” So went the altered quote by Rebecca’s Grampa Boone.

  Rain sluicing over her, she slammed the trunk and would have run to get back into the car, but headlights winding up the two-lane highway held her to her spot of relative safety on the road’s shoulder. She cursed the other car—no, not a car, a Chevy Silverado, tricked out and badass—and its driver as she waited for them to pass. The falling rain, mixed with sleet, pricked the skin of her hands. Great. Just freaking great. She hunkered into her jacket and shivered, willing the truck to hurry by. Damn, it was cold. Since when did it sleet this early in the year anyway? It was usually January before this kind of precipitation invaded the region, and even then, this sort of bad weather wasn’t always a given.

  The truck slowed as it approached. Panic trickled into Rebecca’s extremities.

  No, no! Don’t slow down. Keep going!