REBEL WRITER: Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy: SAMPLE SUNDAY

Saturday, August 13, 2011

SAMPLE SUNDAY - LOVE NEVER FAILS

This week's sample comes from my contemporary romance from Rebel Ink Press available in both ebook format and paperback, LOVE NEVER FAILS.

First the blurb, then the excerpt (and more details after the excerpt)

Old love sometimes fades away...

When a late night phone call from the former love of her life interrupts
both her sleep and her otherwise quiet existence, Caroline Cunningham
finds she can’t refuse Reid Ramsay's request for help. As the call pulls
Caroline back to her small hometown and into the heart of the search for
Reid’s missing brother, Caroline finds the feelings she thought she'd
buried where Reid was concerned are indeed alive and well.

And sometimes it refuses to die...

Reid Ramsay is still in love with Caroline Cunningham. As they work
together searching for Reid's brother, Reid and Caro finding themselves
attempting to rebuild the life they once shared together. But their
future remains uncertain. Before they can find the happiness they seek,
each must work through the emotional baggage of the past and test the
theory they desperately hope rings true.

It was early in the day and they were alone. He parked the car under a shade tree and got out and Caroline followed as he walked over near the water. Reid stood staring out over the water as it spilled over the dam and flowed downstream. Midstream, a fish jumped, the scales reflecting silver in the sunlight. With tall trees changing to autumn hues and a few wildflowers like Queen Anne’s lace and Brown-eyed Susan’s' surrounding them, it was a peaceful place. Over the sound of the water, she could hear bird songs trilling from the treetops and somewhere above their heads, a squirrel chattered and fussed.

"Reid?"

He turned around, his face sad, eyes worried. Caroline resisted the urge to go put her arms around him and hold him tight for comfort.

"Yeah?"

"Where was his truck parked?"

Reid strolled over about fifty steps to the opposite site of the graffiti marred, round pump station and stopped near a fence.

"It was right about here." He knelt down and pressed his fingers to tire tracks in the mud. "That’s from his tires."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "He runs ring treads and that’s what these are. Besides, I came out here while the truck was still here when the cops let me go through it."

His voice deepened as he spoke, his tone ragged with defeat. As he stared out at the fast moving water, Caroline asked more questions.

"Did he have a boat?"

"What?" He frowned and stood up, turning away from the water. "Oh, did Ross have a boat? No, he doesn’t own one."

Caroline sighed. She tried to imagine Ross pulling up, parking his truck, and getting out. What would he have done, she wondered. Would he have walked along the creek bank or sat down to watch the water? She looked at the stream, remembering summer afternoons spent splashing in another, shallower, tamer creek with Reid and Ross.

"Why didn’t we ever come swimming here?" she asked, caught up in the memory.

Reid frowned and looked down at her, perplexed.

"It’s too dangerous for swimming here. The current is too fast and up by the dam, it’s treacherous. Several people have drowned there, caught by the undertow. That’s why we always swam in Hickory Creek."

"Would Ross have gone swimming?"

"I wouldn’t think he would and it’s too cold now. Why?"

"I don’t know. Let’s walk along the bank a little bit and see if we find anything."

His expression darkened but after a moment, he nodded. When she offered him her hand, he took it, twining his fingers through hers. They walked with slow steps along the bank, mindful not to slip and fall into the water, eyes scanning the weeds and trampled grass for any tiny clue. Underbrush and trees lined most of the access to the water, so thick that it was impossible to see let alone reach the water. Another boat launch opened on the creek.

"The water’s running high," Caroline said.

"Yeah, it rained all last week. On Saturday, it would have been close to bank full, probably with a swifter current. There was a lot of flash flooding in town."

Three fourths of the way down to the old bridge, Caroline saw the sun glint off something metallic near one of the few breaks in the brush. She said nothing but kept her gaze on the object and when they were close enough, she veered toward it.

"Reid, look!" She used the toe of her shoe to point at the keys, highlighted by the sunlight, and the cell phone beside it at the base of a tree. Beside them, off in a patch of taller weeds, a man’s watch stuck out of the first of a pair of men’s work boots. Nothing concealed them but unless someone searched, they wouldn't find them.

"Oh, shit," Reid said, coming to an abrupt stop. "Those belong to my brother."

"Are you sure?" She snatched up the key ring and dangled it from her free hand. Various keys hung from an old silver Liberty dollar made into a key fob.

"Yeah, I’m sure." He sounded sick, voice strained and she looked up to see him turn pale. "Let me see the phone."

Reid turned on the screen and blanched further when it lit up to reveal a background highlighted with the words "ROSS PHONE." He scrolled through the address book to confirm it and handed it to her.

"It’s his. Those are his boots, too." He picked them up and looked them over after sticking the watch in his pocket. "Oh, God, Caro, I think I’m going to be sick."

He dropped the boots and staggered a few paces away and bent from the waist toward the water below. Reid retched hard, bowed over as he vomited up the coffee and part of last night’s dinner into the edge of the water. Caroline shoved the keys and phone into the front pocket of her jeans and hurried to his side. She put her hand against his back as he puked again, heaving with a terrible sound. When he finished, his body sagged like a balloon with a leak, his face ravaged and his eyes brimming with tears.

"Ross must be dead."

His flat tone scared her. She'd never seem him like this, lifeless and wooden. Not even on the last night before she left or when his mother, Jane, died.

"Don’t say that. Do not even think it, Reid. Just because we found his stuff here by the creek doesn’t mean that he's dead."

Reid used the back of one hand to scrub the tears out of his eyes.

"They were right, he must have drowned. I just don’t know what he could have been thinking swimming in this damn water."

His voice was as barren as a windswept prairie; the pain behind it was too much for Caroline to bear.

"Reid, stop it," she cried, seizing him by both arms so that he had to look at her. "Don’t give up hope yet. I don’t believe that Ross is dead."

He met her gaze, his mouth twisted and then he began to tremble.

"Caroline – "

"Hush. Don’t say it again." Caroline dug into her purse and pulled out a wipe. She dabbed at his face, then cleaned his mouth with it and then put a mint on his tongue. "Your brother isn’t dead."

Some of his calm returned but it was a heavy silence, like the stillness before a tornado.

"Then where is he?"

"I don’t know yet but we’ll find him."

"Together? We haven’t been together for five years and I was an idiot to call you. You were foolish to come home. I can’t give you anything but heartache and tragedy."

Now his voice was as bitter as crushed acorns as he vented his grief on her. She flinched at his words, each one striking her heart like a stone, but she didn't turn her face away.

"You’re not an idiot, Reid, and if I'm a fool, it’s because I left, not because I returned. Lay off your pity party, babe, and focus on Ross. It appears he went into the water but that doesn’t mean he’s dead."

"And you know this because?" His voice was still strident but in his eyes faint hope kindled.

"There's no body. If Ross drowned, after three or four days, the body would have come up somewhere."

His face worked as he processed the idea, wanting to believe it was possible that Ross was alive but afraid to accept it.

"Maybe."

Reid spat the single word with the force of a fired bullet but Caroline felt the change in his body. He stared out at the churning, swift moving water as if he could find another clue or spot Ross hanging onto a limb waiting for rescue. Caroline stood beside him, close enough that she could feel the heat of his skin and feel his ragged breathing. After several minutes, he repeated the word but with more of a measure of hope.

"Maybe."

Caroline exhaled the breath she'd been holding. "I know so. We'll find him, Reid."

He turned to her and swept her into his arms, pulling her so tight against his chest that she couldn't breathe. The metal buttons of his denim jacket cut into her breasts but before she could protest, he kissed her. His lips claimed her, rough and greedy, as the powerful kiss stirred her soul. All the old feelings surged back, renewed and now combined with new emotions that threatened to swamp her. His lips marked her as his and she couldn't deny the truth. No matter what passed between them and despite the years of separation, there was no doubt that they fit; like sun to sky, stars to night, and Adam to Eve.

They'd spoken words of love but this vow went deeper than words, and settled into the very core of their being. The old hurts were salved and their love was restored--a phoenix from the ashes.

When they parted, Reid’s eyes shimmered with hope again and his mouth tilted upward in that grin Caroline loved so well.

"We still have to talk," he said, his voice husky with emotion, winded from the long kiss. "Whatever happens, I don’t want to lose you again. Tell me, Caro, what do we do now?"