Half Moon Hill
Authors: Toni Blake
Half Moon Hill: A Destiny Novel
Toni Blake
Avon (2013)
Rating: ****
You never know what destiny has in store . . .
A rugged loner and ex-biker-gang member, Duke Dawson is looking for some peace and quiet while recovering from an accident. But when Anna Romo comes wandering through his woods and into his cabin, she completely rocks his world. The last thing he expected or wanted was to find himself hungering after a woman whose eyes held hurt even deeper than his own . . .
Running from a troubled past, Anna is building a new life in Destiny. When she first meets Duke, she's terrified—but something about him calls to her very soul. The hard-bodied rebel is soon helping her turn her new home into a bed and breakfast, and close quarters quickly lead them into her bed. Their passion is palpable, but can she convince a man who has turned his back on life to take the biggest leap of faith of all and fall in love?
About the Author
Toni Blake's lifelong love of writing began when she won an essay contest in the fifth grade. Soon after, she penned her first novel—nineteen notebook pages long. Since then, Toni has become a multi-published, RITA®-nominated author of contemporary romance novels that are both sexy and heartwarming. Her work has been excerpted in
Cosmo
and reviewed by
USA Today
and
First for Women
magazine. Toni lives with her husband in the Midwest and, when not writing, she enjoys traveling, quilting, and scrapbooking.
To Lindsey Faber
for being by my side through thick and thin,
and for being the most patient, caring,
considerate friend a girl could ever have.
I don’t know what I’d do without you!
My sincere appreciation goes to:
Lindsey Faber, for early brainstorming, note-taking, plot-problem-solving, and being an amazingly supportive friend and cheerleader as I wrote this book.
Renee Norris, for lightning-fast feedback as my official “first reader” and for, as always, finding the problem spots and figuring out how to fix them. You help me make every book better than it was when I gave it to you.
Michael Perry, for answering my questions about home repair and renovation, and for giving me a couple of ideas that made their way into the story.
My agents, Meg Ruley and Christina Hogrebe, for their fantastic support in so many ways over the last eight years.
My editor, May Chen, for her incredible patience when I ran late, and for always being super fun and easy to work with.
Pam Spengler-Jaffee, Shawn Nicholls, and everyone else at Avon who does such a great job getting the word out about my books!
Contents
An Excerpt from
One Reckless Summer
“ . . . one can get used to everything . . . if one wishes . . .”
Gaston Leroux,
The Phantom of the Opera
A
nna Romo had actually begun to like the peace and quiet. Maybe a little too much. As she stepped off the porch of the old Victorian house she’d bought last summer on Half Moon Hill, soaking up the solitude and delighting in birdsong coming from the trees that surrounded the place, she stopped in her tracks and cringed.
Who am I? When did this happen?
She’d never delighted in birdsong in her life. And she’d never consciously used the word
birdsong
, out loud or in her thoughts, either. Clearly, the town of Destiny was getting to her.
Oh God, I’m becoming one of them.
Not that she was sure why that sounded so unpleasant to her. She liked the people here. She even loved some of them—in particular, her brothers, and she’d grown quite attached to their wives, too. And the rest of Destiny’s residents—well, they were just good, kind people, no two ways about it. She’d begun to make real friends here. And she’d come to appreciate the small town welcome she’d received—even if it had overwhelmed her a little at first.
But no matter how much she loved or liked them all, she really
wasn’t
one of them. She’d grown up in the city. And her life had been . . . well, all things considered, words like
bizarre
and
challenging
didn’t even begin to scratch the surface.
Then, just over a year ago, her mother had died. Well, her “other mother.” And that had come with money—an unexpected and ample amount that had been passed down through the family and saved just for her. Yet an inheritance had done little to make up for the shocking truths that had been revealed on her mother’s deathbed. That was when
bizarre
and
challenging
had taken on whole new meanings.
And somehow it had all led her
here
, to a hometown she didn’t remember, to a whole family she didn’t remember, and to this house she was refurbishing with plans of opening a bed-and-breakfast—if she ever got the renovations done.
She’d come out to check the mail, but now stopped and turned to face the house. Parts of the awning that covered the wraparound porch sagged as if being pulled down by invisible anchors, and most of the gutters were rusted, some sections having disintegrated altogether. The roof desperately needed replacing, several shutters hung at a tilt, and parts of the porch had begun to rot, the decorative gingerbread trim suffering most of all. And the whole once-white house, along with the detached garage, was sorely in need of paint.
She’d spent the entire winter and most of spring working on the inside, room by room, and she was proud of her progress. But now that she’d flipped the calendar page over to May and warm weather was here, she couldn’t avoid starting on the outside any longer. The only problem being that the project made her feel the same way the town of Destiny, Ohio once had: overwhelmed.
“Meow.”
Flinching, she glanced over at the fluffy black cat who was always sneaking up on her. One minute she was alone—the next the cat appeared out of nowhere. She eyed him warily. “Why don’t you go catch a mouse or something?”
“Meow.” He looked at her like he wanted something, but she had no idea what. She’d fed him already today—twice. That was always what she did when he came meowing around—because she had no idea what else he could be asking for.
“Look, I don’t know what you want from me. And I’m beginning to think this was a bad idea.”
A bed-and-breakfast needs a cat
, Amy had said.
People will think it’s quaint. He’ll curl up in the front window, or in a rocking chair on the porch, and he’ll give the place a feeling of warmth.
Okay, that much she had bought.
And besides
, Amy had gone on,
you’ll love having a cat. And he’ll love having a real home.
Those parts, though, weren’t quite happening.
Amy Bright owned the bookstore on the town square, Under the Covers, and as Destiny’s resident cat lover, she was always taking in strays at the shop, letting them live there until she could find someone to adopt them. And the truth was, Anna had only adopted Erik—as Amy had named the cat, after the “Opera Ghost,” upon once finding him asleep on a shelf next to the original
Phantom of the Opera
novel—because she and Amy had gotten off to a rocky start when she’d first come to town. She’d felt it might help cement their growing friendship—and besides, she’d seen Erik as a bit of an outsider, just like her.
But so far, she hadn’t fallen in love with having a cat. Amy had apparently succeeded in making everyone
else
in Destiny fall in love with cats—both of Anna’s brothers and their wives had adopted a bookstore cat, as well as her real estate agent, Sue Ann. So she’d taken the cat on faith. But this just provided more proof that, deep down, she’d never really be like everyone else here. She’d never really fit in the way the rest of them did.
Which maybe explains why you spend all your time alone in this big, empty house.
In the beginning, the idea had made perfect sense. Buying the old home that had been on the market for nearly ten years had been about starting over, finding her place here, finding a way to take her background in the hotel industry in Indianapolis and integrate it with life in Destiny. And the fact that the home was in a relatively isolated area outside town, on the tall bluff overlooking Blue Valley Lake far below, had been convenient for putting a little much-needed distance between herself and her brothers—especially the oldest, overprotective one, Mike.
It had seemed like the ideal solution to numerous problems. And maybe it still would be. She remained excited and energized by looking forward to the day when the Half Moon Bed & Breakfast opened its doors for business. But somehow or other, without quite planning it, she’d become a hermit at the tender age of thirty-one. And as someone who had been a very confident, outgoing woman when she’d first arrived here, she wasn’t sure how that had happened.