Today marks the official launch of FIRST KISS, the first novel in the Aspen Creek Series by Amazon and iTunes Bestseller, Bernadette Marie! Check it out!
First Kiss
Promises made as
children have a funny way of working themselves into reality when fate is
orchestrated for them as adults.
Olivia Baker wants the
best life for her young son, and that meant raising him in the small town she
grew up in, but where her past still haunts her and rumors drip from the
tongues of the local gossips.
Cade Carter moved away
from Aspen Creek the moment they handed him his high school diploma. Now a
washed up ex-professional football player he’s headed back after his father’s
death to settle the estate of the man he’d left and forgotten about.
The friendship Cade
and Olivia shared so many years ago is just now a haunting memory. People
changed and moved on. Secrets were kept and loved ones around them buried with
them. But when they are thrown back together to face the reasons their
friendship faltered, and forces greater than them are in charge, anything can
happen with the person whom they shared their First Kiss with.
Excerpt from First
Kiss:
There was a chill in the air, even in June. Cade Carter
rolled the windows up on his Porsche as he began his decent into the valley.
The mountains of Colorado could deliver any unprepared traveler an array of
weather to cope with, and it could change without warning in a matter of
moments.
Though the higher peaks still boasted snow, he’d found the
entire, long and boring trip from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to be fairly dry. Cade
had considered driving his Bronco to Aspen Creek, but he’d needed the speed of
the sports car and Ashley had needed it to move.
He glanced at his Rolex for the sixth time in the past half
hour. He was going to be late.
Who was he kidding.
He’d had no intentions of getting to his own father’s funeral on
time. Had it not been for Ashley, he’d
have blown it off all together. But
no. The words still rang in his
ears. “You have to go. He was your father. He loved you.
You owe him…”
Cade gripped the steering wheel tighter. He did owe him the decency to be at his
funeral, because Cade Carter had been the worst son, and he knew it.
The first sign that would alert drivers to the small town of
Aspen Creek was coming up on his right.
A left would take him over the next hill to the elite ski resort town of
Aspen Hills. The road he veered down
would drop him into small town hell.
As the deep groves of Aspen trees thinned he could see the
small town at the bottom of the valley.
Each street was visible, the cars looked small, and the town stood there
as if someone had taken a picture of it fifty years earlier, not one thing had
changed. He did see a 7-11 sign peeking
above the buildings. Corporate America
had moved in. That was new. At least he’d know what the coffee tasted like.
He could see City Park in the center of town. The grass was green. Green’s Market had the most cars in the
parking lot and Sloan’s Diner must have just finished with their lunch crowd.
Aspen Creek rolled along the sides of town and under the
Rose Bridge. It was fast, unforgiving, and cold all year long. He’d had his share of dunks in that water,
some on purpose, some not. Beyond the bridge and the white rapids of the river
that rushed through town with its new melt off he could see the street where
he’d grown up, where his father had lived, and where he’d fallen in love as a
young boy.
Cade pulled the car to the shoulder of the narrow road and
slammed it into park. He lifted his
sunglasses from his eyes and rubbed them.
He hadn’t been back to Aspen Creek in twelve years. Long had been forgotten the sentiments of
home, like people knowing your name, and not because you were some famous
football player, but because you were Austin Carter’s son. High school football
games, swimming in Aspen Creek, and the girl next door were things a man forgot
about when he was an M.V.P.
He blew out a long, ragged breath. The comforts of a sports
car were limited to the power of the engine on a man Cade’s size. He tried to stretch his legs, but to no
avail. If he didn’t get out and walk
around soon he’d be paralyzed in the car seat.
Just another thing he deserved he supposed. Career killing injuries were just another
daily reminder that he was lucky to be alive, even if he now stood on the
sidelines and basked in the glory of what used to be.
It was easy for the team to cut him loose when he was no
longer able to perform. The position needed to be filled by someone younger and
able to play. He was just a washed up has-been now who’d collected his payout.
Adjusting his sunglasses back on his face, he put the car
back into drive. He had demons to face
and he’d better just get it over with.
Ashley was housesitting in Green Bay and Cade was expected back in three
days. He couldn’t imagine closing out
his father’s life could take longer than that.
Olivia Baker sat in the cemetery alone, next to the new
grave and sobbed. The funeral had been
small, but Austin had kept to himself for the past two years. She wasn’t sure everyone had even heard he’d
passed. She wiped her eyes. No, they all knew he’d died. He’d died right in her arms and that had
gotten the attention of the local gossips.
The casket had been lowered, the chairs had been collected,
and now the only man she’d ever cherished lay beneath the mound of red Colorado
soil with a spray of wilting flowers atop it.
It didn’t seem dignified enough.
Her jaw clenched when she looked at the few bouquets and
sprays that still lingered near the grave.
Not one of them had Cade’s name on it.
Damn him anyway.
What kind of son didn’t even make it to the funeral of the
man who raised him? The kind like Cade
Carter.
The arrogant, self-centered bastard probably had some
pressing football engagement and couldn’t be bothered with his father’s
passing. Some dry-cleaners probably
needed him to cut their big obnoxious grand-opening ribbon with an oversized
pair of scissors, and to Cade that would have always been more important than
respecting his father.
Olivia noticed she’d twisted the head off a carnation at her
fingertips. She unclasped her hands and
looked beyond the new grave to the one next to it.
CONNER CARTER.
Looking at the name written in stone sent chills up her
spine. She looked away. She wondered if anyone at all had come to
that funeral. She hadn’t. She’d been tucked away safely in Grand Junction,
again, when Conner had died. She was
sure Austin had paid to bury him and had splurged for the headstone too. And she couldn’t help but wonder if guilt
over Conner’s death had in some way contributed to Austin’s death.
Just beyond the gate to the cemetery she could hear the
sound of tires on the gravel. It didn’t
phase her. Neither did her
responsibilities at the bank. Her boss Parker
Woods had told her to take her time and that was what she was doing. She was in no condition to head back to town
and act professional.
Tears streaked down her face from under her dark sunglasses,
and she let them fall.
The hole in her heart from Austin’s absence ached and she
wondered if she’d get over her loss. Her
son Gabe would never remember the man she adored and loved. He’d never know how much Austin Carter
cherished him and loved him.
Olivia squeezed her eyes shut tight. Would she miss Austin everyday when she
looked into Gabe’s eyes and saw the resemblance?
She wiped away the tears and then noticed that the driver of
the car, which had parked in the lot had walked across the gravel and stood
only a few feet from her. She did what
she could to compose herself. After all,
she owed it to Austin to be gracious and welcoming to his mourners.
Olivia pushed herself up from the ground, brushed off her
black skirt, and turned toward the person standing behind her.
There was an uneasiness that settled in Cade’s gut when he
saw the mound of dirt before him. Could
guilt kill a man of his stature?
The woman who had been sitting at his father’s grave stood
before him, her elegant black dress covered in dust, but she didn’t seem to
mind.
He swallowed hard. “Is this Austin Carter’s grave?”
The woman shook her head more in an effort to convey disgust
than to signal that he was in the wrong place.
“Why did you even bother?”
“I beg your pardon.”
“Why show up now, Cade?
You couldn’t even give him the decency of being here on time?”
“I…” he had no answers.
Besides who was she to be criticizing him?
Cade examined the lean, yet curvy woman in the well-worn
dress who stood before him. Her hair was pulled back and dark glasses covered
her eyes. Little gold bands adorned each
of her ring fingers, so she could have been someone’s wife. Hell, he’d grown up in the town, maybe he did
know her. But still, what he did to get
the funeral on time, or not, was not her concern.
“I guess you know me.
Who might you be?”
The woman opened her mouth, and then shut it again. Instead of answering she picked her purse up
off the ground and searched inside. She
pulled out a business card and handed it to him. “I’m the one in charge of closing out your
father’s estate.”
With that, she started off to the parking lot and he
watched. Back in town five minutes and
he was already pissing off the women there.
He ran his hand over the back of his neck and looked at the
card as the woman sped away down the hill toward town.
Olivia Baker, Vice President Aspen Creek Bank.
His head shot back up and the air in his lungs escaped
him.
A man could drive into town, and the girl next door, whom
he’d fallen in love with as a child, could hand him a card with her name on it
and he didn’t even recognize her.
Suddenly the aches and pains in his leg, from his brush with
death, didn’t hurt as bad when he was faced with a woman scorned and a week in
small town hell.
####
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Bio for Bernadette Marie:
Bernadette Marie has been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends. Her journey into novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her an old typewriter. At all times of the day and night you would find her on the back porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for the next 22 years.
In 2007 – after marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children – Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being published. That year she wrote 12 books. In 2009 she was contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born. In 2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, and has released contemporary titles and began the process of taking on other authors in other genres.
In 2012 Bernadette Marie found herself on the bestsellers lists of iTunes and Amazon to name a few. Her office wall is lined with colorful PostIt notes with the titles of books she will be releasing in the very near future, with hope that they too will grace the bestsellers lists.
Bernadette spends most of her free time driving her kids to their many events. She is also an accomplished martial artist who will earn her conditional second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do in October 2012. An avid reader, she enjoys most, the works of Nora Roberts, Karen White, Megan Hart, to name a few. She loves to meet readers who enjoy reading contemporary romances and she always promises Happily Ever After.
Author Contact Info:
@writesromance on Twitter
