Love at Owl's Roost

He says love is weak. She says love is strength.Together, their love may leave them weak in the knees.

Victor doesn’t believe in love. Love was the reason his sister died,leaving him with her two children. Love made people weak.But he loved his sister, and she asked him to take her kids to Inheritance Bay,so that is what he’ll do. Just this one show of weakness, for love of his sister.Carrie knows that love is all that matters. Even though her first lovetore her heart into pieces, she still believes love can heal. Which is handy becauseshe’s the town’s doctor . . .and science teacher . . .and pharmacist in a pinch.She only wishes love could help her have kids of her own. When she meets Victor’s kids,she can see they need more love than most. Which is handy again becauseshe has more than her fair share to give. But Victor is impossible, and Carrie is a little much for him. But the kids need more love to grow from their pain.Can these two survivors of love’s battlefield find common ground? Peaceful ground? Love?Anything is possible in Inheritance Bay!Grab your copy now!!

Prologue

“You
can’t be serious,” Sheila said, tapping her foot in front of the door.

“I
don’t know what you expect me to do,” Victor Phillips asked the woman he
thought would understand.

“Vic,
I expect you to be reasonable. Now, I know your sister dying is sudden and tragic,
but you can’t throw away your life when there’s another way.”

“Another
way?” he echoed. Sheila walked up to him and placed both of her hands on his
shoulders.

“Vic,
the kids could go with their grandmother.”

It
was then that Vic knew whatever they had was over. Oh, he had known that Sheila
was self-serving and selfish, but he could have never guessed that she would be
this way about kids.

“A
sixty-three-year-old woman, taking care of an eight-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old
girl alone. Does that sound right to you Sheila?” Victor asked, already knowing
what she was going to say but hoping for once that he was wrong. Victor felt
Sheila massaging his shoulders as if that would help loosen his resolve.

“They
have services for people in that situation. Think about what you are saying Victor.
You’ve been working up the ladder, and you’re about to make VP. VP doesn’t have
time for two kids. We have a path that we’ve sacrificed and paid for in time
and commitment. This is our dream. Are we supposed to just throw it away and
move to some hick town just because - ”

Victor
placed his hands atop of Sheila’s, removed them from his shoulders, and then
took a step back.

“Just
because my sister died of complications in the hospital two days ago? The father
of those children was driving the car and he’s also dead. The only family those
kids have is a grandmother and me!”

“What
about us? What about our plans? Children were not in our plans!”

Victor
ran his hands through his hair, closed his eyes, and thought of his sister
Callie. His sweet sister bruised and broken. According to the doctors she had
some bruises that were older than from the accident that had raised questions.
The doctors didn’t know how she had held on as long as it took him to fly from
California to New York. The doctor had told him a couple of times they thought
they had lost her, but she came back.

Her
words permeated his dreams and drove him like no other.

“I
don’t want my babies to grow up like we did. I got a letter from a woman named
Marjorie Talton. She sent it to mom, but they didn’t know she had died. They
said we could go there and start over. I talked to her via zoom, she seemed
nice. Victor, please give my babies a chance to heal and know what it's like to
live like a family.”

“Victor!”

Just
like that, he was back in his apartment facing Sheila with the remnants of that
memory shaking him.

“Victor,
stay with me. This isn’t just about me. We built this dream, don’t walk away
from it.”

Vic
reached out and grabbed both of Sheila’s hands in his and then brought them to
his lips and kissed them both.

“Sheila,
understand,” he whispered.

She
yanked her hands away.

“No!
You have to be reasonable. You can’t do this to me, to us!”

His
father hadn’t said many things after his mother had died, but one of them was to
clean a wound; sometimes you have to rip the scab off; if you do, pull it quick
and get it done. Victor stood up and let out a breath.

“I’m
going to get my sister’s kids.  I’m going
to honor her last request. I have no idea how it’s going to work, but I
wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I did anything less.”

Sheila
gave him a long look and then nodded.

“Then
you’ll do it without me,” she said. When Victor had no response, Sheila turned,
gathered her purse, took out the spare key he had given her to the apartment,
and left it on the counter before walking out the door. When the door closed,
Victor reached into his jean pocket and started to roll the dice that he kept
there. It was days like this that he had to remind himself that he had been
four years clean. The answer to life’s problems could not be found in a casino.

He held the dice in
his hands and then let them go. He would try to fulfill his sister’s last
request. He wasn’t family material. He wasn’t father material. He just knew he
loved his sister, and for him, there weren’t any options at all. Victor
Phillips, one niece, and one nephew were going to Inheritance Bay.