“I’m suggesting I move to L.A.”
Audra stepped back, trying but failing to free her hand from Jack’s. “You’d leave Trinity Falls?”
“For you.”
Audra caught her breath. Did the stubborn, dense man even realize what he was saying? What he’d been saying since he’d showed up on her doorstep? “Your family founded Trinity Falls. You can’t throw away your heritage.”
“I’m not throwing away anything. I can always visit Trinity Falls, but I want the chance to build a life with you.” Jack pressed her hand to his heart. “You make me a better person.”
“Then why can’t we live in Trinity Falls and visit Los Angeles?”
Jack frowned. “Don’t you need to be in L.A. for your career?”
“I can write songs anywhere.” Audra cupped his face, looking deep into his onyx eyes. “Trinity Falls feels more like home to me than Los Angeles ever has. I fell in love with your town—the place and the people.”
“What about me?” Jack’s voice was rough. “How do you feel about its rental cabins owner?”
Audra lifted up on her toes. She placed a soft, brief kiss on his yielding lips. “I fell in love with him, too. He’s my Prince Charming. And I know he loves me back.”
Jack smiled into her eyes. “How do you know that?”
She shook her head. “Oh, you silly, silly man. I knew you loved me when I saw you standing on my steps. When I first met you, you wouldn’t leave Harmony Cabins. Now you’re flying twenty-four hundred miles to say you’re sorry? That could only be love.”
Jack’s laughter rumbled in his chest, making her knees weak. “I’d take a rocket to the moon, if that’s where you were. You’re my ‘happily ever after.’”
Don’t miss Regina Hart’s
Trinity Falls
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CHAPTER 1
“I can’t do this.” Ean Fever closed the client folder. He leaned forward and laid it on Hugh Bolden’s imposing teakwood desk. Hugh was his boss and one of the principal partners with the New York law firm of Craven, Bolden & Arnez.
“Why not?” From the other side of the desk, Hugh’s laser blue eyes took aim at Ean’s face. His frown deepened the fine wrinkles between his thick gray brows. “It’s like all the other corporate litigation cases you’ve worked.”
“I can’t represent this client.” Ean steeled himself for his boss’s reaction.
“‘Can’t’ or ‘won’t’?” Hugh seemed more curious than confrontational.
“Won’t.”
The walls were closing in on him. Ean freed his gaze from the older man’s steely regard to take in the spacious office. It smelled like power and prestige. Thick silver carpeting complemented the teakwood furnishings—conversation table with four white-cushioned chairs, executive desk, cabi-netries and bookcases. The entertainment center, including the high-definition television, was black lacquer. The picture window behind Hugh framed several Manhattan skyscrapers as they pierced the hot August sky.
Commendations and civic awards decorated the walls and shelves. But the partner’s office didn’t give any insight into the man: his loved ones, his hobbies, his beverages of choice. And after almost seven years with the firm, Ean knew the older man little better than on the day he’d interviewed with him.
Hugh shifted in his chair. He crossed his right leg over his left and adjusted the crease in the pants of his navy Armani power suit. “What’s on your mind, Ean? You haven’t been yourself for months.”
Six months. Since his father’s death in February, after a long illness Ean had been unaware of. Why hadn’t anyone told him? “I need a change, Hugh.”
“To what? Employment law? Contracts? Torts?”
Ean shook his head as Hugh rattled off the divisions within the firm. “I have to go home.”
Hugh’s gaze flickered. His frown deepened. “Is your mother sick?”
Ean appreciated his boss’s concern. “No.” At least, not as far as he knew.