Home to Solace Lake

        Sometimes going home is the hardest thing to do.

 Wild Women Authors focus on Home to Solace Lake by Jana Richards

 

After Jerry Fields buried his mother twenty-two years ago, he cut all ties to the small town in Minnesota where he grew up. He swore he’d never return. But when his biological father, a man who never acknowledged him, leaves Jerry his entire estate, curiosity has him returning to Minnewasta. Why did Earl Rogers will him everything he owned when during his lifetime he didn’t give Jerry a minute of his time?

Denise Rogers wants to save the business that her deceased husband loved so much. But when her father-in-law Earl leaves all his property to his illegitimate son, saving the business gets much more complicated. Denise is determined to buy the property from Jerry Fields to keep it from being demolished and turned into condos. She wants to continue to run the business as a marine repair shop, knowing it's what her husband would have wanted. But events throw her plans into disarray, and she has to give up on her dream. Until Jerry offers to work with her over the summer to help her buy the property.

Jerry can’t stomach the idea of putting his half-brother’s widow out of a job and a home, so he decides to stay in Minnewasta to help her. At the end of the summer, Denise will purchase the property from him, and they’ll go their separate ways. But as they work together, their feelings for each other deepen into love, and they uncover long-held secrets that force Jerry to question everything he thought he knew about his parents. Can Jerry overcome past hurts and fears for a chance at love?

 

Excerpt: 

Denise stared at him. “Are you saying you didn’t see Luke growing up?”

He found it painful to confess his shortcomings, especially to Denise. “Not as much as I would have liked. But I sent money to Abby every month, the whole time Luke was growing up. I made sure my son was well provided for.”

“It’s not the same as being there.”

“When Abby told me she was pregnant, I offered to marry her, but she refused me. I tried to do the right thing.” Abby had been right, of course. They didn’t love each other. Hell, they’d barely known each other at that point. A marriage wouldn’t have worked. But even so, his excuse sounded lame.

Denise’s face darkened with her frown. “If I had a child, nothing would keep me away from him. Nothing.”

The vehemence, and the accusation in her voice, angered him. “You don’t know anything about my son or my life.”

She lifted her chin. “I know enough to know you abandoned Luke the same way Earl abandoned you. After everything you’ve told me about how hurt you were by his treatment, how could you do the same thing to your son?”

Her words stung him to the core. He was nothing like Earl. Nothing. Hadn’t he tried to do the right thing by Abby and by Luke? His son never went without the way he had. Abby never had to work two jobs like his mother had.

He got up from the table. “I need to go. Thank you for dinner.”

He hurried out of her apartment and crossed the hall to his own. When the door was safely closed, he leaned against it and closed his eyes.

No matter what he told himself about providing for Luke, Jerry couldn’t deny he’d never been a real father to his son. And that made him no different than Earl.

 

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