Waiting for Your Love (Excerpt) by Anna DeStefano

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 1

Praise for Anna DeStefano “Anna DeStefano is a treasure!” — Teresa Medeiros, New York Times–bestselling author

“Fans of this series, Echoes of the Heart, are going to love this one.” — My Book Addiction, for His Darling Bride

“Anna DeStefano is a rare talent.” — Brenda Novak, New York Times bestselling author

“A completely captivating story.” — The Reading Café, for Let Me Love You Again

“One of the most powerful novellas I’ve ever had the fortune to read and review.” — Fresh Fiction, for Here in My Heart

“A beautiful story showing how love can overcome all obstacles” — 4.8 Amazon STARS out of 5, for Christmas on Bellevue Lane

“You won’t want to put it down.” — Night Owl Reviews, for Love on Mimosa Lane

“One of the best books I’ve read all year.” — Kristan Higgins, New York Times–bestselling author, for Three Days on Mimosa Lane

“Celebrates the resilience of not only the holiday spirit, but the human spirit as well.” — USA Today, for Christmas on Mimosa Lane

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 2

Also by Anna DeStefano ECHOES OF THE HEART SERIES Here in My Heart: A Novella Let Me Love You Again Christmas on Bellevue Lane: A Novella His Darling Bride SEASONS OF THE HEART SERIES Christmas on Mimosa Lane Three Days on Mimosa Lane Love on Mimosa Lane DAUGHTER SERIES The Unknown Daughter The Runaway Daughter The Perfect Daughter ATLANTA HEROES SERIES Because of a Boy To Protect the Child To Save a Family The Firefighter’s Secret Baby OTHER CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE A Sweetbrook Family All American Father The Prodigal’s Return

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 3

ROMANTIC SUSPENSE Shattered Witness Daughter Series Atlanta Heroes Series SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY Secret Legacy Dark Legacy OTHER NOVELLAS/ANTHOLOGIES “Weekend Meltdown” in Winter Heat “Baby Steps” in Mother of the Year “A Small-Town Sheriff” (Daughter series)*

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 4

Waiting for Your Love an Echoes of the Heart novella

Anna DeStefano

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 5

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imagination or are used fictitiously. Text copyright ÂŠ 2016 Anna DeStefano All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author/publisher. Published by Anna DeStefano www.annawrites.com ASIN-B01CPO5KIK Cover design by Dayna Linton Editing by Tiffany Yates Martin, FoxPrint Editorial

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 6

Chapter One

“Happy Independence Day,” Clair Summerville toasted. It was outrageously warm outside. And refreshingly silent, apart from the sizzle-pop-BOOM! of the pyrotechnics being set off down by Chandler Lake. Fireworks preened across the sky. She raised her beer to the indigo night, toasting her first solo July Fourth since high school. Not that she minded the solo part. Not a bit. In fact, she should have called things quits with Don Lovette sooner. Like two weeks ago, when he’d moseyed up to her at Bethany Darling and Mike Taylor’s housewarming party. It had been too early to tempt fate again. Or her mother’s well-intentioned meddling into Clair’s love life. Not when Clair had only just the night before parted company in the friendliest of ways with Travis Bryant—after her mother had

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 7

cornered him at Grapes and Beans and sweetly but unabashedly lobbied him to make an honest woman out of Clair. Travis. A guy who was even less interested than Clair was in cultivating forever. So she’d happily backpedaled away from him…and straight into Don’s orbit. Why had she assumed that relationship wouldn’t end in disaster, too? Everyone had been having fun tonight at her friend Nicole’s Fourth of July potluck, despite the meteorologist’s prediction of rain. Then Don had mentioned running into Clair’s mother yesterday. He’d tried not to look panic-stricken as he’d related his and Barbara Summerville’s bizarre conversation. But before Clair’s eyes, his easy-come, easy-go manner had done a complete one-eighty. He’d all but broken out in hives. She’d finally put them both out of his misery by saying that maybe things between them weren’t working out. Her mother had officially cut the final tendril of dignity tethering the woman to reality. And tomorrow Clair was due to endure another wave of Babs’ bless-your-heart running commentary on what Clair should be doing with her personal life. And should not be doing about the monumental decisions looming in her business world.

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 8

Shuddering, she added her empty Stella bottle to the growing nest of its hollowed-out friends. Then she opened a fresh beer and tipped it back, reveling in imported tanginess. She’d left her friends behind over an hour ago to play their third round of Cards Against Humanity. Escaping in Bethany’s truck, she’d headed for her favorite alone spot in Chandlerville, Georgia, at the edge of a family friend’s farm. The bluff’s greenish-yellow, waist-high meadow grass swayed beneath a full moon. From her vantage point, cozied up under a light quilt, she could pretend the fireworks cascading through the starry sky were for her alone. She should be celebrating, and not just because sulking was a waste of time. Her life was great, satisfying, fulfilling. ALL PAWS, her pet-grooming and petconcierge business, was thriving. So what if she’d fallen short of the relationship milestones her mother had groomed her daughters to achieve, since Clair and Rachael were in diapers? Clair had no interest in nabbing herself a nice young man of her mother’s choosing. Or in securing a marriage she could pretend was the be-all, end-all of her life’s dreams— even if it meant settling the way her mother had. Clair’s

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 9

busy life, if not always as nice as her mother would like it to be, suited her just fine. Except that after another breakup from yet another guy she should have been sadder to see go, she was a little tipsy. And drinking the night away had never been her thing. Staring into the steadily increasingly drizzle, she accepted that she was fast becoming a mirror image of the soggy doberman pinscher snoozing beside her. “We’re wild and free single ladies, Tilda,” she announced to her companion, while the tailgate of Bethany’s truck left divots in Clair’s backside. “Living the good life.” She shifted her weight, shoved drooping blond bangs away from her face, and drank more of the final beer she’d nabbed from the party. Matilda, a regular client’s pampered princess, raised her head. Soulful, knowing eyes blinked at Clair. Then Tilda yawned and resettled her chin onto her paws to watch the fireworks that would be called off soon if the rain kept up. Clair pinned her skeptical sidekick with an accusing glare. “Why can’t Babs get it through her head? Settling isn’t for me.”

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 10

Not when Clair’s heart belonged to someone who was never going to be hers—her best friend in the world, whom she had no business spinning forever-after fantasies about. That was one disaster that she was determined to steer clear of, whatever she had to do. She finished her Stella and hiccupped. Matilda gave a doberman sigh, confirming that their freedom ride to the meadow had officially become sloppy. How was Clair going to get them home now? Almost everyone she knew was happily engaged in their holiday plans. In fact, she could think of only one designated driver to call for a rescue. A certain someone whom, if she reached out to him, would most definitely put a crimp in her night’s disaster-aversion plans. Matilda stood on the truck bed and shook herself. Gumball-size blops of chilly rain began to fall. She jumped to the ground with a thud and took shelter under the cab. Clair scowled at the next spray of fireworks—likely the last. She sighed, gave in to the inevitable, and rummaged her smart phone from her purse. She thumbed to her Favorites list and its top entry. Two rings later the call connected to a mumbled curse. “What?” demanded Conrad Lancaster.

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 11

“Feel up to taking a lovely drive into the country?” she prompted. “Pardon?” “I’m a weak woman, Conny. I usually know my limits, but I seem to have barreled over them tonight.” “Like Houdini over Niagara? What did your mother do this time?” “She told Don she thought he and I would make beautiful babies together.” Clair’s Stella-induced pity party shifted into high gear. “‘I had no idea you were on the baby track,’ he said to me tonight. Me. Some guy was looking at me as if I were picturing us driving around town in a SUV filled with Don-and-Clair-Forever doppelgängers.” Conrad grunted. “At which point you pitched a tantrum in the middle of Nic’s party?” “Hardly. Folks were heading to McC’s Tavern next, to pregame before taking in the fireworks at the park. I didn’t want to put a damper on the night. Especially for poor, shell-shocked Don.” “Another guy you set your sights on because you knew he’d run far and fast at the first hint of either one of you getting serious.” “Precisely.”

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 12

“So you went for exfil one,” Conrad mumbled, mostly asleep still. “Was there any other choice?” Clair had years ago gotten used to Conny’s military combat jargon as he tracked her relationship status. “Polite public extraction was the perfect tactic. Don nearly fell to his knees in gratitude.” And hadn’t that been a high self-esteem moment. Thanks, Mom. “He could have at least acted like he was sorry to see me go.” “Darlin’”—Conrad’s deep chuckle rumpled up her insides the way no other man could—“if you want to be more than an instant afterthought when you ditch the next poor bastard who falls at your gorgeous feet, you’ll have to let a guy mean more to you than a way to convince your mother that you’re still looking for the one. Especially when she seems determined to see a ring on your finger before the summer’s out.” Clair used her free hand to swipe wringing-wet hair behind her ears. “You make her sound positively predatory.” “You’re a gentle, loving woman, Clair Bear. But your mother’s gone off her rocker. And if you wanted support tonight, you should have drunk-dialed another man from deep sleep.”

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 13

She squinted blearily at her watch. Its oversize face swam into focus. “It’s barely ten o’clock.” “And I just came off my third double in five days. Which you would have remembered if your terrible, horrible, no good, very bad evening hadn’t gotten the best of you.” “Right.” Conrad’s work schedule was crazed, and he was a single father, a widower, whose number one priority outside the ER was keeping his son’s life as calm and normal as possible. “Sorry.” She sneezed and eased off the tailgate. A sizzle of lightning cut across the churning sky. Thunder clapped, making her jump and lose her footing. She slid to the ground with a shriek, mud swooshing over every exposed inch of her. A coating of sludge slimed its way inside her redwhite-and-blue, tie-dyed miniskirt. “Eww…” “Everything okay?” Conrad asked. She dragged herself to her feet. “Never better.” She trudged through the soggy grass, opened the truck’s passenger door, and whistled for Matilda. The doberman slithered from her hiding place and nimbly launched herself inside, mud and wet dog smell and all. Bethany, an artist to her core, wouldn’t blink at a little superficial grime. But Clair nevertheless made a mental

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 14

note to have her friend’s perky ride detailed before returning it. “I’m sorry, Conny,” she apologized again. “I’ll call someone else to pour me into bed. But be a pall, okay? Stay on the line a little longer. Help me clear my head?” “Where are you?” He sounded more alert. The sexy roughness was fading from his voice. “The Millers’ field.” She slid behind the wheel and slammed the driver’s door shut, exhausted and soaked and not smelling any better than Tilda. “Up on the bluff.” “In a thunderstorm?” She took stock of her ruined Independence Day ensemble. “The way I look, not even lightning would get close enough to hurt me.” “I’m sure you’re a knockout.” “Says the man who can’t keep his eyes open.” “You’ve been Chandlerville’s resident goddess,” he mumbled over a yawn, “since boys in elementary school pulled your pigtails to get your attention. Stop fishing for compliments.” She wasn’t. Not from him. That had never been what she and Conny were about, no matter how much more than best friends she wanted now.

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 15

“All I’m fishing for,” she said, staying within the boundaries that had protected their friendship since they were children, “is enough sober brain cells to get me home.” “How much have you had to drink?” “Enough.” She heard him—pictured him—sitting up in bed. “Since when do you get sloppy over a guy? Bachelor number whatever.” “Don.” “Whom you only latched onto to put the kibosh on your mother’s meddling. Why not tell Babs straight out that the married, domestic perfection she’s lobbying for isn’t for you?” Clair’s mind flashed to Barbara’s would-be future for her. Quaint and cozy. Dinner simmering on the stove after Clair picked up the kids from carpool. Her handsome, successful husband rushing through the door after a long day at work, claiming a kiss from his perfectly coiffed wife. She rested her head on the steering wheel, picturing Conrad in the staring role. “Aren’t you due to walk the plank tomorrow,” he asked, “at your mother’s shindig?”

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 16

“What would Independence Day weekend be without a Summerville family barbecue? I’m doomed.” “Especially now that you don’t have Don as your plusone shield.” “That’s not why I was dating him.” “Of course not.” She squared her shoulders. “I’ll be fine. By morning my Stella-induced psychosis will fade, and neither of us will remember a word of this.” “I’ll remember.” Conrad’s concern caressed her. His never-fail compassion for her situation was a pillow she wanted to snuggle up to. “So will you. Stop letting what your mother thinks about your life be your compass.” “I’m not.” “Then stop overthinking what you think about your life every time you’re alone and you’re not working your butt off and there’s nothing and no one to distract you. Or, if you’re that unhappy with things lately, do something to fix whatever’s wrong. I’m not sure what’s been going on the last few weeks, mostly because you’ve been avoiding me. But—” “I’m not unhappy,” she insisted.

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 17

But she had been avoiding him. And she felt like a rat because of it. Sooner rather than later, she’d have to tell him why. But not tonight. “Nothing’s going on,” she insisted. “Of course not.” She stared out into the pouring rain that had definitely put a premature end to the fireworks. Unhappy was too simple an emotion to describe the sense that she was drowning. Her life was on the precipice of irrevocably changing for the better. But instead of being excited by her prospects, she felt lost. Each time she spoke with Conrad, it was all she could do not to blurt out the crazy notion that he could share the new world opening up for her. That it could be a fresh start for both of them. That maybe she was ready to build her life around him, the way her mother had always told her she’d want to when she finally found the right guy. Meanwhile the last thing Conrad needed disrupting his recently settled world, after years of fighting not to lose everything he valued most, was for Clair to pull the rug out from under their friendship. Which was exactly what she’d be doing if she messed with the good thing they’d always had. Especially when she had no way of knowing where they’d land on the other side. Look at what had happened

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 18

with Travis and Don, and all the guys she’d dated before them. “Don’t scold me,” she said into her smartphone. “I could take that right now from anyone but you.” Conrad had known her the longest. Since before she and Nicole had swapped lunches in first grade. Or she and Bethany had met in middle school art class. Clair and Conny’s mothers had become close when they were pregnant. He and Clair had spent most summer mornings as toddlers playing in her palatial sandbox, beneath the shady magnolia tree that had grown even more massive in the last twenty-five years. Since those safe, early moments of their memories, he’d remained an unfiltered, nonjudgmental witness to her family’s well-bread, genteel dysfunction. Lately she’d been there for him in return, when he’d needed someone the most. Their friendship was eternal. The most important of her life. And that would just have to be enough for her. What was she saying? It was already everything. He inhaled, long and loud. “I’m sure by the time you present yourself at your parents’ casa on the eighteenth green, you’ll be spiffed up and putting the rest of the shiny, happy Summervilles to shame.”

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 19

“Damn straight.” Clair gave Matilda’s head a cathartic pet, running her fingers through warm, damp fur. Poignant memories sparked of her long-deceased Winston, a West Highland terrier that had followed Clair home from school one day and owned her heart from that moment on. The doberman Clair was boarding for the night—if that’s what you could call the custom, one-on-one care she and her ALL PAWS associates provided through her wildly popular PAWSMatch app—offered a companionable lick that Clair would miss tomorrow when she returned Matilda to her owner. She grew too attached to her charges. It was an occupational hazard of caring short-term for an everrevolving menagerie of other people’s creatures. Still, her business surrounded her daily with unconditional love. Without her needing to own as many of the furry, feathered, scaled, and slithering creatures as she’d want to otherwise. And now ALL PAWS and PAWSMatch could be her exciting future. A total do-over, once she got her head around the idea of building a life away from Chandlerville. And away from Conrad. Assuming she didn’t let herself be sidetracked by her mother’s misgivings over the business deal that had dropped into Clair’s lap a little over a month ago. A too-

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 20

good-to-be-true offer that she’d so far shared only with her family. “I need to go.” Before she dumped the whole mess in Conrad’s lap, and kept him up all night obsessing over what she should do. “I have to take Tilda home in the morning before I can break free for the barbecue. My crew’s keeping the rest of the business going while I’m off for the day. But Janie York only trusts Tilda with me. When she PAWSMatched me last-minute, she said she was fine with wherever I was going tonight. As long as Tilda could tag along, while Janie last-minute watches her deathlyallergic-to-dogs granddaughter.” And of course Clair had said yes. Her business had expanded now to four pet-service storefronts, in as many North Georgia counties. Plus three kennel locations where pets that were less high-maintenance than Matilda could be boarded. Each ALL PAWS location, plus the bonded, insured, and carefully trained associates providing PAWSMatch services to clients looking for more customized care, were running at maximum capacity. It had been exhilarating the last few years, watching her vision for her company soar beyond her wildest expectations. Exhilarating, all-consuming, and exhausting.

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 21

“Lord,” she said, knowing Conrad would listen and understand, even if she hadn’t found a way yet to let him in on the full scope of what she was dealing with. “I don’t think I remember what not being tired feels like.” Conrad started rustling around. “Hang tight,” he said. “Let me get Harper into his car seat. We’ll be there in fifteen.” “Don’t wake him, Conny.” She could hear her friend stumbling about, presumably pulling clothes on. She swallowed at the unintended visual. “I’m sorry about all this. Really, I’ll be fine.” “You bet you will be”—keys jangled—“because you’re staying put until we get there.” “But—” “No worries. I may want to wring your neck sometimes. But I’ll always have your back, Summerville. There in ten.” “But I can call someone el—” She was arguing with herself. The cell connection had dropped. She tossed her phone into her purse. “No worries,” she repeated to Matilda. As long as on the short ride home with Conrad, Clair managed not to make even more of a mess of her Independence Day.

EXCERPT

Anna DeStefano

Waiting for Your Love 22

“No pining for a future with a guy who’s never going to pine back,” she reminded her four-legged companion. “It’s time to move on.” It had been time, since Conrad had returned to Chandlerville. He’d needed their friendship. And she’d have done anything to help him—including hiding how increasingly difficult it was to protect her heart whenever he was around. But it had been three years now, he still had no idea that her feelings for him had changed, and she was exhausted keeping up the charade. Things were finally settling down for him and his little boy. Now it was her turn to get her life situated. Even if that situation turned out to be several hundred miles away.

EXCERPT