A Family Affair: The Return Read online

  A Family Affair: The Return

  Mary Campisi

  Mary Campisi Books, LLC

  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  Introduction to Excerpt

  Letter to Readers

  Chapter 1

  About the Author

  Other Books by Mary Campisi

  Introduction

  Magdalena, New York.

  Home of memories long buried, steamy nights, and one regrettable summer…

  Grace Romano had been seventeen, impressionable, innocent to the power of attraction and desire.

  Max Ruhland taught her about both. He loved Grace and thought they had a future together, until she crushed his heart and told him he wasn’t part of her life plan.

  Twenty-two years later, Grace Romano Clarke is a widow with two children and a pile of broken dreams. When her aunt dies, she must return to Magdalena, the town she’d rather forget, to honor the woman’s last wishes: stay in her house for thirty days, and complete a list that, according to her aunt, will reveal a bit about life and maybe reveal something about herself, too. What Grace doesn’t know but will find out soon enough is that Max Ruhland must stay in the house with her and help complete the list!

  Max Ruhland isn’t the same lovesick puppy from the wrong side of the tracks who had his heart broken all those years ago. He’s a wealthy, successful businessman who owes his good fortune to Grace’s aunt, the woman who never gave up on him. Max can have any woman he wants, but he’s never forgotten Grace, or how she hurt him. Now he’ll have to spend the next thirty days with her—in close quarters—to honor her aunt’s last wishes, and he’s not looking forward to it.

  It’s going to get very interesting as the town watches and wonders what’s going on between those two. Of course, Pop Benito understands exactly what’s happening in the house on Bayberry Street, even if Max and Grace don’t. He’s the one who helped Grace’s aunt create the thirty-day list, which he insists will finally get this couple their happily-ever-after!

  * * *

  Are you wondering how Pete Finnegan and Elissa Cerdi’s Christmas wedding plans are progressing? Well, they aren’t progressing. Seems some people in town can’t forgive Elissa for partnering with Gloria Blacksworth, and they’re determined to shred her reputation. Plus, Elissa is suffering from a case of mistrust every time a woman talks to her fiancé, and that’s driving Pete crazy. They better figure things out quick, or Elissa won’t be walking down the aisle…

  * * *

  See you in Magdalena!

  BONUS MATERIAL: Included in this e-book is the first chapter of Strangers Like Us, Book 1 in the Reunion Gap series.

  To Annie—sister, best friend, champion of dogs in need, old-school rock ’n’ roller

  * * *

  Copyright 2017 by Mary Campisi

  * * *

  A Family Affair: The Return is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and situations are all products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to real persons, locales, or events are purely coincidental. This e-book is copyright protected. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  1

  There’d never been anyone like him, not before or after.

  Bold, passionate, untamed. So sure of what he wanted, and at seventeen, he’d wanted her.

  Max made her feel things she’d never felt before, things no good girl should admit to wanting. But she had wanted them; and while twenty-two years later, she might deny everything else about their relationship, she could not deny the physical attraction they’d shared. Nor could she pretend to forget what they’d done about it, which was almost everything. The first time she met Max Ruhland, he devoured her with blue eyes so bright they looked as though they’d been dipped in silver. The second time, those eyes undressed her, slowly, with great intention… The fifth time, his tanned fingers slid under her sundress and worked their way up her thigh…created a white-hot burn she still remembered.

  She’d never known that intensity since, not even with Grant, the man she married, shared two children with, and spent years convincing everyone, especially herself, that they were the perfect couple.

  But they weren’t. Not even close. Yet, with his last breath, he still tried to manipulate the truth, make it look like something other than what it was. This time, he failed and the truth won out, leaving Grace a widow with two young daughters, a life she didn’t recognize, and an uncertain future.

  If she’d listened to Max all those years ago and run off with him, would he have ended up betraying her, too? She’d wondered about that over the years, as Grant grew less interested in her and more absorbed with rising in a law career that required time away from home, late nights, diligence, and, of course, socializing. I’m doing this for us, he’d said. Don’t you want me to make senior partner? Don’t you think I’d rather be home with you and the girls instead of sitting through some boring dinner, listening to a has-been recount his glory days with the firm? I’ve got to do it to get ahead, Grace. He’d gifted her with a gentle smile and a touch on the arm. But I would always rather be here with you. Another smile, this one deeper, almost reaching his eyes. Always. A kiss on the cheek and he was gone.

  Her husband hadn’t been at boring dinners or listening to has-beens, at least not every time. Probably not most of the time. No, he’d been with Lisette or Heather or whoever else had caught his eye and required rescuing. Grant Clarke rescued women in need: the greater the need, the more powerful the attraction. Those women didn’t tie him down with mortgages, children, or talk about the ant infestation in the kitchen. They didn’t drive vehicles with car seats or fall asleep before 10:00 p.m. in a T-shirt and sweatpants, and they certainly didn’t ask where he was going or when he’d be back.

  Not like a wife.

  But then he had one of those, and while she served a purpose and fulfilled certain needs, she did not fulfill every need.

  That’s where the girlfriends came in, and as long as the wife and the girlfriend didn’t intersect, everyone was happy.

  Weren’t they?

  Or if they weren’t, who was going to do anything about it? Not the girlfriend, and not Grace, not until she witnessed the whole sordid unraveling of her marriage in a French restaurant one sunny afternoon three years ago.

  Life had not turned out the way she’d planned. When Max asked her to run away with him all those years ago, he’d been so certain they belonged together, so positive they’d make it, that she almost believed him, almost veered off the course she’d set for herself and followed him. But how could she do that when Max Ruhland had a murky future with unsure footing? His parents were drinkers with no direction who only worked some of the time and mostly depended on the luck of the lottery to change their lives. It only takes one big win to change our fate, they’d told Max.

  They couldn’t see that their fate rested in their ability to make good choices, and that meant control the drinking, find steady work, show up when they said they would. Max didn’t like to talk about them, preferred to skirt the subject and concentrate on her. And when Max Ruhland set his mind on something, it was hard to resist.

  I’ve
never met anyone like you…

  You’re beautiful, Grace, inside and out…

  A kiss, a trail of his tongue along her neck… Beautiful…

  When she was with him, she believed anything was possible, including a life together. But when summer ended and she was back in her comfortable home in Pennsylvania with college applications scattered on the bed and a notebook of to-do’s and future goals, Max didn’t fit anywhere.

  He wasn’t heading to college, a family business, or a white-collar career. In fact, he wasn’t heading toward any career, unless you counted tearing apart a car, poking under the hood and listening to engines, a career. Sure, you could make a living doing that, but…

  How could she throw away her future or derail it for someone who was fascinated by the sound of engines and didn’t have the time or interest in college? It was a huge risk, and Grace wasn’t a gambler. She preferred the sure thing, the one that didn’t require guesswork or uncertainty, and Max wasn’t either or those. The more she thought about this, the more she convinced herself they were unsuitable and mismatched.

  She preferred not to remember the way she broke it off with him several months later, the cruel, unbending words she’d used, the coldness in her voice, the pain on his face. He’d driven from Magdalena to her home in Pennsylvania to surprise her, offer her a future, but she’d been the one who surprised him.

  I’m sorry if I misled you, Max. She’d forced out the words, told herself when the time came, she’d meet the right man, the man of her dreams. But not yet. Please, try to understand.

  Understand? Understand what? Those blue eyes glittered. You love me, Grace, I know you do. We’ve waited all these months to be together, and now we can. If you just let it happen. Can’t you take a leap and trust your heart, just this once? Stop being so afraid and trying to map out your whole life. That’s not what life’s about. We can figure this out together.

  Max—

  You don’t have to say yes, not right now. He’d paused, studied her, his voice rough. Just don’t say no.

  It was such a simple, heartfelt request, almost a plea. But it didn’t matter, not to a person who had mapped out her whole life, added goals and achievements, according to a five-year, ten-year, fifteen- and twenty-year plan. Insert college, career, husband, and children. Suburban home. Flower garden. Maybe a dog. Max Ruhland wasn’t her future. He wasn’t the only man she would ever love.

  Had it really been love or merely desire? He had a way about him that made her forget everything but being with him, and that was dangerous. Did she want to be with someone who suffocated her senses and stole her logic? Made her forget what she wanted out of life? Muddied her plans? No, she did not. She could not. As she stood on the porch steps of her home that cool spring night, she convinced herself Max wasn’t good for her, she’d never loved him, and choosing him would destroy her future.

  They were all lies, but she wouldn’t realize this until many years later.

  For now, she had her future and it did not include him. Grace opened her mouth and told him all of it, not stopping until she’d torched whatever they’d shared with emphasis on his lack of goals, his disinterest in education, and his less-than-reputable parents.

  He’d stared at her, his blue gaze shifting to silver, mouth a slash of disbelief, jaw twitching. Go to hell, Grace. I hope you get exactly what you deserve.

  Then he’d turned and walked out of her life.

  * * *

  Twenty-two years later.

  * * *

  “But why do I have to go to Magdalena?” Grace stared at the letter from her aunt’s lawyer. “Why can’t you come with me, Jenny? We could take the kids, make a long weekend of it. Better yet, you and Elliot could go, think of it as a mini getaway. I’ll watch Sydney and Ruby Red.” The idea of watching her niece and their dog sounded a lot better than landing anywhere near Magdalena, New York.

  Her sister raised a dark brow, broke off a piece of salted caramel chocolate from her candy bar, and handed it to her. “Elliot and I can’t go, not that it doesn’t sound tempting. But the letter says you, Grace, not me or any of the kids.”

  Since when had her younger sister turned into the more logical one? That had always been Grace’s role, until three years ago, and the car crash that killed her husband and put her in a coma. Jenny had flown from California to care for the girls, and that’s when she’d met Elliot, her future husband, and current father-to-be. “I don’t understand it, Jenny. You spent more time with Aunt Frances than I did. Why would she pick me to go, and why the stipulation that I stay thirty days?” That was the real issue. Thirty days in Magdalena? It would be bad enough to zip in and take care of the house and whatever details Aunt Frances had left, but to be locked in that town for a month?

  That was a long time.

  Too long.

  What if she ran into people who remembered her? Remembered who she’d spent time with the last summer she visited…

  What if she ran into him?

  “Grace? What’s wrong? You look all pasty, like you might throw up.”

  “I’m fine.” Grace stuffed the chocolate in her mouth, chewed. Of course, he could be in California for all she knew. Hadn’t he planned to head west? We can go anywhere you want, Grace. How about California?

  “You definitely don’t look good.” Jenny shoved a glass of water at her. “Here, take a drink and have another piece of chocolate.”

  Grace sipped the water, eyed her sister. “If my stomach were upset, why do you think eating chocolate would be a good idea?”

  Jenny shrugged, broke off another piece. “Because one way or another, you’d get sick, and then you’d be that much closer to feeling better.”

  “That makes absolutely no sense.” Now her sister sounded more like the old Jenny, before she took care of Grace’s kids, before she fell in love with a psychologist and his young daughter.

  Her sister ignored her, leaned forward, and plunked her elbows on the kitchen table. “You know what makes no sense? You trying to wiggle out of Aunt Frances’s request. Elliot and I will take care of the kids, and a month will fly by.” She patted her belly, which at five months was no larger than a cantaloupe. “Besides, if you don’t go, it says we both forfeit whatever she gifted us.” The eyes people called “stunning and mesmerizing” narrowed. “I loved that old secretary desk she had. Remember how she’d sit there and pen her thank-you notes?” Jenny let out a laugh and shook her head. “There was always a lesson with Aunt Frances. ‘Write thank-yous no later than two days after the receipt of a gift. A phone call in lieu of a written thank-you does not suffice. Handwriting must be legible.’” Her voice dipped, filled with worry. “I’ll bet she’s gifting me her books on grammar, dangling participles, and the correct use of the colon versus the semi-colon.”

  Frances Romano had taught English to ninth graders for forty-one years; she’d never married, kept a garden she vowed would never see a weed, and boasted ten shelves filled with books. Grace loved visiting her, loved learning the rules of life according to her father’s only sibling, though she wouldn’t realize until years later that the rules were just ways to keep her aunt safe from emotional ties and situations that could hurt her—or break her heart. This “epiphany” didn’t come until after she learned of her husband’s first affair, a betrayal that left her dazed and wondering how such a heartbreak could happen when she’d done everything that was expected of her. The anger followed, but Grant had been so adept at lies, and she’d been so desperate to believe them, that she buried the pain and refused to see the truth: he would cheat again.

  “Grace?” Her sister bit her bottom lip. “Do you think Aunt Frances’s last wish was to organize me? Please tell me that’s not it because I don’t need organizing.” She paused, dark brows pinched together. “Well, maybe I do, but just a little, and Elliot said I’m making progress.”

  Elliot Drake could get his wife to do anything, but he wouldn’t, because love didn’t force someone into a role or a situati
on where they didn’t belong. Some said he’d tamed her sister, led her away from her bohemian lifestyle and the photography career that had her jetsetting around the world. But it was the love in his heart and his acceptance of her, just as she was, that made her want to do those things. Not all the time, but a lot of the time.

  Why couldn’t Grant have accepted Grace as she was instead of always trying to change her, turn her into a free spirit…more like Jenny? What would it be like to have a man accept her with all her faults and shortcomings and love her despite them? She wouldn’t know, would probably never know. It had been three years since Grant’s death and the few attempts she’d made to date had proven dead ends. A ski trip with a teacher friend who wanted to be more than a friend had never developed. Friday night dinners with a widower from church had turned into book discussions. There’d been a few more, equally nonstellar engagements, despite her counterparts’ wishes for more. But Grace hadn’t been able to let anyone in, let alone trust them.

  And intimacy? Forget that. If you didn’t have trust, you could never have intimacy, not the kind she wanted. But it was more than that and she knew it, though she didn’t want to admit it to anyone, not even Jenny. There was nothing left in her, not for a man. Grant had torched her heart, left her barren and filled with the charred remains of regret and betrayal.

  How was she supposed to return to the town that would remind her of a time when she believed her whole life lay ahead of her, filled with dazzling accomplishments and good fortune? All she had to do was follow the plan she’d created and play by the rules of good behavior and smart choices.