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    Tides Turn
    Tides Turn
    Tides Turn
    Ebook124 pages1 hour

    Tides Turn

    By Cristina Grenier

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A Sexy and Dangerous BWWM Interracial Romance

    After losing her father and husband, young Charlotte is trying to cope with facing the world alone and finding herself again. Presented with the opportunity to run the old beach side inn that her father left for her, Charlotte decides it's the best opportunity for a chance to start over. But running the inn is harder than she imagined, but Charlotte refuses to give up, especially to anyone who would just turn it into a fancy hotel. But something's got to give and she soon meets a sexy and mysterious young man from the wrong side of the tracks. After hiring him as a cook Charlotte finds out about his violent past, but it doesn't stop her deep feelings for the young man who seems to be determined to protect her from people trying to bring her down and steal the inn. Can the tides turn on love in this tale of damaged hearts?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMonster Media LLC
    Release dateApr 22, 2014
    ISBN9781498945783
    Tides Turn

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      Book preview

      Tides Turn - Cristina Grenier

      Chapter 1: What Dreams May Come

      When she opened the door and found two police officers on her doorstep, Charlotte just knew something was terribly wrong, but she never could have imagined just how wrong. As the officers reluctantly told her the news, she imagined the usual scene of a woman falling to the floor in tears, but that woman wasn’t her. She was just frozen. She just told herself that it couldn’t be real. It had to be one of her husband’s jokes or a nightmare. That’s what she had to believe.

      Time seemed to stand still as she grabbed her inconsolable mother by the arm and tried to get her into the car. It took awhile, or at least it felt that way. Everything felt like it was in slow motion. Every light they passed on the way to the hospital was green, but it seemed to take twice as long as usual to reach Rordan Medical Center.

      The kind officers met Charlotte and her mother there and escorted them in two different directions. Her mom was still in hysterics, but she couldn’t bring herself to reach out to her. She had her own challenge to face. All she could do was pray that she’d wake up before she reached him.

      When Charlotte entered the hospital room she half expected him to jump out of some door and yell surprise! Instead, she saw him, her husband, lying unconscious in a hospital bed.

      ––––––––

      Once Charlotte finally managed to scrawl her name on the release forms, it seemed like time began to speed up. She was given a few minutes alone with him before they unhooked all the machines she had just signed off on removing. As much as it hurt, this was his wish.

      She sat down and grabbed his hand, just holding it for a little while. Brushing his hair back as she always did, Charlotte kissed his forehead and lips, noting that they were still warm. How could he truly be gone if he's still warm?

      Charlotte asked him what kind of dream he was having and if she was in it, though she knew he’d never answer her, and she squeezed his hand one last time. She told him she loved him more than she ever loved anything and to not be afraid. She told him she was right there and would be through everything and that his wishes were going to be carried out.

      Sooner than she expected, the nurses came into the room and began removing all of the machines, and she held his hand until they came to wheel him away. That was the moment it felt real. She screamed and cried and ran after him. She couldn’t let him be alone. She wanted to go with him.

      The seven o’clock alarm made Charlotte shoot straight up in bed. Her face was soaked and she couldn’t tell where the tears ended and the sweat began. Looking around her, Charlotte felt partially thankful she was waking up with wooden boards surrounding her instead of the sea landscape that she used to wake up to painted on the wall of the bedroom she shared with her husband, Ben.

      The other part of her remembered who it was that had given her this place and why she was there. That just made her ache for the other loved one she’d lost.

      It had been a year since she lost both her husband and her father on the same day, and time hadn't made things much easier, not in the way people had promised her. She thought of her mother and felt jealous at times. Her mother had rented out her childhood home and gotten an apartment in the city where she decided to go back to school and get a new job. Now, she was even dating again. Charlotte didn't have such luck in the moving on department, and wasn’t even sure she wanted it.

      When they’d found out her father left his beachside inn to Charlotte, she and her mother knew immediately that that’s where Charlotte needed to be. She took off within a month of his funeral to start running it. The charming inn was old and didn’t get as many customers as the newer resorts that littered the area, but Charlotte had been confident that fixing up this inn was just what she needed to get over the pain and thoughts that constantly plagued her nightmares. This was how she would move on, eventually.

      Ever since, Charlotte had been busting her ass to fix up the inn and try to get some business. She hadn’t had much success, but she had managed to maintain the regular visitors that came throughout the year. It was a balance of large families, old timers, and then a few local who were hiding from their own secrets. If only she could make money from keeping those secrets, she'd be a rich girl.

      Charlotte took her time getting dressed before heading down to the main lobby. Normally she would’ve woken up two hours earlier to started cleaning and preparing breakfast for guests, but she only had one guest. Charlotte knew that the woman would wake up around ten, check out, and leave without eating. This particular woman had been a regular for three months, coming in once every week or so. Sometimes she was alone and other times she was accompanied by a man; usually a different man every week.

      As Charlotte bounded down the stairs she whipped her long hair up into a messy ponytail. Before her husband Ben passed she had cherished her long hair, always taking good care of it, but now she just didn’t see a point. It was just easier to pretend it wasn’t there.

      She glanced out the large windows that covered the entire front end of the inn and gave a perfect view of the ocean. She sighed, awe-stuck by the view even after all this time. She could never grow tired of getting lost in the natural beauty that surrounded the inn. It was something Ben would have loved. They’d always talked about saving up for a beachfront property so their children would grow up by the beach. That’s why they had put up a picture of an ocean scene to decorate their bedroom. Ben had insisted, even though they had only been renting the place, that they had to have this one decoration.

      She hadn’t been out there too much lately. The winter had been particularly cold, and it was just now starting to warm up. Plus, she’d had a lot of turn over and had yet to find anyone else to help her out at the inn. Not that she could afford to pay salaries right now with barely any business coming in. However, she knew from experience that the warmer weather would bring an influx of customers.

      The day before last Charlotte had put up a sign in the window saying 'help wanted'. She knew that there might be a few people looking for temporary work as they came into town for the summer. As she went about her daily routine she hummed to herself. She avoided putting on any music because she didn’t want to disturb even one guest. She couldn’t afford to lose any customers.

      At ten o’clock exactly, her one guest came and checked out, sending her date out to the car, and then following him shortly after. Then, she was alone to sip coffee and watch the waves crash and the few people that lived around the beach stroll through the sand.

      Chapter 2: Getting Caught Up

      By seven that night only two people had come through for a room. Both were truckers on a stop that really wanted a nice place to sleep. They were both quiet and already sleeping as far as she knew. She decided to sit down in front of the fireplace and call her mother. It had been a few weeks since they’d talked and, as usual, she could tell that her mother was keeping busy.

      Hey, honey, how are you? How’s the inn? Charlotte could hear the bustle of people in the background. She sighed internally as she felt a ping of jealousy.

      I’m okay. Is this a bad time?

      Oh, no honey, I’m just making some dinner for John and his family. His parents and his son are in town for the week.

      Oh, okay. It sounds like you’re still trying to be super mom even though you don’t have a kid of your own anymore. Charlotte chuckled.

      I do have a kid of my own, she just doesn’t live here. She could hear the smile in her mother’s voice and it made her smile too. After everything, she was so glad that her mother was doing okay. After the way she had acted the day she had to go identify Charlotte’s father’s body, Charlotte was not so sure her mother would ever be okay. Though, now, she wasn’t sure why she’d ever doubted her. She’d always been a strong woman that Charlotte never could emulate.

      You know what I mean, mom. As far as the inn, it could be better. It’s been very slow, and it’s just me right now. I’m hoping to hire some people for busy season, though. Wanna come and cook for me? Charlotte tried to joke with her mother, attempting to get the fact that she couldn’t talk to her mother without being reminded of Ben or her father off her mind.

      Well, I believe in you sweet pea, and dad did too. That’s why he left it to you. I’m sure, now that it’s getting warmer; you’re going to be bombarded by business.

      I hope you’re right, mom. Charlotte started to tear up and was glad when a potential customer walked into the inn. It gave her an excuse to get off the phone. Well, I really wanted to see how you were and get caught up, but I have a customer.

      Oh, okay honey. Keep your chin up. Love you!

      As she got a good look at the customer she hung up the phone without saying a real goodbye. He was tall and had a buzz cut, but he definitely wasn’t military. He had on an old rock tee shirt with a bunch of holes with a motorcycle jacket over it. His acid wash jeans looked like they were hand me downs form the eighty's and looked worse for the wear, but his face was masculine and his eyelashes were enough to make any girl want to pluck them

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