When We Fall (Kindle and ePub)

Building a future means tearing down the walls of the past...

Chance Palmer is the hottest bachelor in Kings Grove, and even his younger brother Sam sees him as a playboy and a charmer. It's nice to be admired, but Chance is ready for something serious, something like the love he had once before. The love he refuses to talk about.

Michaela "Mike" Grayson fell in love once. And that relationship gave her the son she'd never trade for anything, but it came with a darker side she's still trying to escape.

When Michaela's job requires her to scout a tiny town called Kings Grove as a potential resort destination for her company, she's not prepared for what awaits her there: a charming playboy with a knack for making her feel like everything in her world just might work out fine. And Chance is unprepared for the feelings he finds inside himself for Michaela, and for her son, Finn.

Can Mike overcome the darkness in her past enough to trust that Chance might be more than just a fantasy? Can Chance Palmer move past the pain of his first love and fall again?

“Wakey wakey!” I called, pushing through the back door into Sam’s house. 

No answer came from the bedroom down the hall, but that wasn’t unusual. Sam had developed an affinity for sleeping in, now that he and Miranda spent most nights together. I guess if there was a gorgeous woman in my bed, I might never get out of it either. 

But that wasn’t the case. Hadn’t been for a long time.

I bustled around in the kitchen, making coffee and stirring up batter for pancakes. I’d be lying if I said I was trying to be quiet. 

And I’m not a liar. 

I generally spent mornings at Sam’s house, even though my own house was about three hundred yards away and I had a modern and functional kitchen I liked very much. In fact, when Sam and I built our houses after the fire took our family’s old home, we spared no expense, and my kitchen here was nicer than most homes in the valley. It was nicer than Sam’s because my tastes were a little higher end. Sam was a quartz countertop kind of guy, but I chose concrete. He was happy with a Mr. Coffee, but I had a Dalla Corte home barista set up that made better espresso than most coffee shops. 

But Sam’s whole house felt more comfortable in some way I couldn’t put my finger on, and much as I hated to admit it, I preferred his perpetually messy place to the cold austere elegance of my own home. Old habits, I guessed. We’d lived together so long maybe I just wasn’t used to being alone. 

When the coffee pot was full and the sausages were sizzling, I heard movement down the hall and poked my head around the corner to see Miranda shuffle out of the bedroom, her hair sticking up in all directions and her glasses slightly askew. She wore loose pajama pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt, but the thing you noticed first about my brother’s fiancee was her blazing smile. 

“Morning, Chance,” she said, her voice thick with sleep as she grinned at me and got herself a cup of coffee. She settled into a chair at the end of the table as I finished up, and a few minutes later Sam appeared, looking far less adorable than his wife-to-be. 

“Dude,” he said, his grumpy demeanor settled firmly in place. “You have your own house. Why do you barge in here every weekend and make a bunch of noise at five o’clock in the morning?” 

“It’s after eight,” I informed him. 

“It’s not your house,” he said, picking up a sausage and sticking it into his mouth. 

“Who would cook for you guys if I didn’t come up here and do it?” 

“I have an idea,” Sam said, and I prepared myself for a sarcastic assault. “Why don’t you cook breakfast at your own house on that insane Viking stove you had to have, and then use your phone to invite us over?” 

I raised a shoulder and shot him a grin. 

“It’s fine, Sam,” Miranda said. “It’s nice having breakfast made for us. Chance is like our own personal chef.” 

“No, he’s like my own personal brother I can’t get rid of.” 

Sam might have had a point, actually. The thing was, I had never planned to stay in Kings Grove, never wanted to. When I went away to college, I wiped my hands of this place and never planned to come back, except maybe for the occasional holiday. And when I’d met Rebecca at grad school and she had accepted my proposal … Well, that sealed the deal. Kings Grove was firmly in the rear view.

But if my life so far had taught me anything, it was that there was no value in making plans for yourself. The universe had some kind of twisted, screwed-up blueprint for each of us, and trying to point yourself in a different direction ended only in heartache. I’d had enough of that. If the universe wanted me in Kings Grove, living my life three hundred yards from my baby brother, that’s what I was going to do. 

And I couldn’t help it if my house felt lonely compared to the warmth Sam enjoyed here with Miranda. 

I was staying close. The universe intended it this way. 

“You’ll be happy to know I have a meeting today, and if all goes well, I’ll probably have to go down to the valley for a couple days this week or next,” I told Sam, making a plate of pancakes and sausage for myself and settling into my spot at the long table. “A developer is looking at bringing a high-end resort up here and I’m going to go charm his pants off.” 

“Why do you want his pants off?” Sam asked. 

I threw a pancake at him. “You know what I mean.” 

“Do we need a high-end resort up here?” Miranda asked, smoothing her hair back into a ponytail. “What about the inn?” 

“Not sure yet,” I said. “Maybe we expand the inn, maybe we replace it. Maybe both properties serve slightly different populations. I’m not sure if Annette and Joe want to keep the inn going anyway.” Annette and Joe Piper had been running the Kings Grove Inn for decades, and were in their seventies. I had a strong feeling they might be looking for an exit strategy, especially since Joe Piper had been sick. 

“Anyway, thanks for breakfast,” I said, taking my plate to the sink after I’d finished. “I’ll see you guys later on. Stay out of trouble.” I kissed Miranda on the cheek, stuck a hand into Sam’s hair and rubbed it around, and was out the door before he could shout at me. 

I walked back to my own house, the clean clear air filling my lungs as the endless blue sky of the Sierra Nevada stretched cloudless over my head. Summer was mild and beautiful, and fall was shaping up to be cool and crisp. Anyone would look around here and feel lucky to be alive, lucky to be in such a magical place. 

Anyone but me. I opened the door to my darkened house and felt my energy sink. Back at home. Back in my quiet, perfect, empty home. 

An hour later, I parked the truck in front of the Palmer Construction office. I glanced over at the main parking lot, surrounded by the central buildings of the village’s downtown. There were plenty of cars parked around, good news for local businesses that depended on tourists in the warmer months to keep themselves going the rest of the year. 

There were little groups of hikers clustered on the sidewalks in front of the ranger’s station and the diner, and the lot in front of the inn was packed. Kings Grove was pumping. It was perfect, considering I was trying to sell this developer on the place being busy enough to support a high-end property. 

I got out of the truck and looked around for the guy I was supposed to be meeting. He didn’t seem to have made it yet, so I unlocked the office and pushed open the door to wait inside. 

My office usually needed some tidying up, so I forced myself to get to work doing that until the guy appeared. The bell over the door rang after a few minutes and I stepped into my doorway, confused to find a tall woman with dark wavy hair entering the lobby. She was pretty—not just pretty, actually. She was striking, and as she pushed aviator shades back into her hair, a little surge of attraction went through me, unbidden. I should have greeted her, but instead I just stared. It was possible my mouth was gaping open. Very smooth.

“Hello?” She said in a voice low and resonant with just a touch of sandpaper in it. “Hey, are you Chance?” 

I stepped fully into the lobby feeling a little bit off balance. I’d been expecting a man, a guy named Mike Grayson. This woman was clearly lost, but as she stood there with those dark eyes holding my gaze and a little flush on her cheeks, I found myself wanting to find a reason to keep her here for a minute. Or longer, if possible. 

“Guilty,” I said, smiling wide. “Can I help you with something?” 

The woman gave me an evaluative look and shifted her weight. She wore dark jeans and boots with a low heel, and a sleeveless shirt that was professional, but also revealed a figure that was both fit and curvy. 

“We had a meeting this morning?” She sounded the tiniest bit annoyed.

Confusion made my smile slip a touch. “I do have a meeting this morning,” I agreed. “With a guy named Mike.” 

“With a girl named Mike, actually.” She sighed and reached out to shake my hand, and I got the sense she’d had this conversation many times. “Michaela Grayson,” she said.