Brenda Novak - Take Me Home for Christmas

Ive had many of you request Ted and Sophias storyso Im excited to see it published, especially at Christmas because Christmas is such a perfect time for forgiveness, and thats what Sophia longs for. If youve read the rest of the books in this series, you already know that she needed to learn a few lessons. Fortunately, they were nothing that the school of hard knocks couldnt teach her. By the time I finished this story I admired her as much as (or even more than) all the other characters in Whiskey Creek, even the ones whove lived exemplary lives. I hope youll agree as you come to know her and her situation better.

I am often asked if my Whiskey Creek books can be read as stand-alone stories or if they need to be read in order. The answer to that question is, yes, they can be read alone and should be just as enjoyable. So dive in and meet the group of friends whove made Whiskey Creek The Heart of Gold Country.

Please visit my website at www.brendanovak.com for more information about this book and all the others Ive written (I think Im getting close to forty-five, although its been a while since Ive counted). If youre all caught up on Whiskey Creek, you might be interested in trying my other small-town series (with a total of eight books) set in the fictional town of Dundee, Idaho, until Come Home to Me (Aaron and Presleys story) is released in April 2014.

At my website you can also drop me an email, enter my many giveaways and participate in my annual online auction for diabetes research. So far, weve managed to raise nearly $2 million to help those (like my son) who have diabetes.

Enjoy!

Brenda

Major Characters

Cheyenne Christensen: Helps Eve Harmon run Little Marys B and B (formerly the Gold Nugget). Married to Dylan Amos, who owns Amos Auto Body.

Gail DeMarco: Owns a public relations firm in L.A. Married to movie star Simon ONeal.

Ted Dixon: Bestselling thriller writer.

Eve Harmon: Manages Little Marys B and B, which is owned by her family.

Kyle Houseman: Owns a solar panel business. Formerly married to Noelle Arnold.

Baxter North: Stockbroker in San Francisco.

Noah Rackham: Professional cyclist. Owns Crank It Up bike shop. Married to Adelaide Davies, chef and manager of Just Like Moms restaurant, owned by her grandmother.

Riley Stinson: Contractor.

Callie Vanetta: Photographer. Married to Levi McCloud/Pendleton, veteran of Afghanistan.

Other Recurring Characters

The Amos Brothers: Dylan, Aaron (who was in a relationship with Presley), Rodney, Grady and Mack.

Olivia Arnold: Kyle Housemans true love but married to Brandon Lucero, Kyles stepbrother.

Presley Christensen: Cheyennes sister.

Sophia DeBussi: Jilted Ted Dixon to marry Skip DeBussi, investment guru and richest man in town.

Joe DeMarco: Gail DeMarcos older brother, owns the Whiskey Creek Gas-n-Go.

Phoenix Fuller: In prison. Mother of Jacob Stinson, who is being raised by his father, Riley.

Sophia DeBussis husband was gone. As in...disappeared. Nowhere to be found. At ninety feet, the Legacy was a sizable yachtSkip never bought anything except the very bestbut not so sizable that a full-grown man could easily be overlooked. The six-member crew had just helped Sophia and her thirteen-year-old daughter scour every inch of the boat.

Other than his cell phone, which he wasnt answering, Skips things were where they should be, but he was not.

Holding back her long hair, Sophia squinted against the sunshine glinting off the water, trying to see the coast of Brazil a few miles to starboard. Could her husband have gone for an early-morning swim and somehow reached land?

That was a possibility, but it was a remote one. Why would he go off on his own? It was too windy to enjoy the beach today. And although he traveled all over the world for business, shed never heard of him meeting anyone in Rio de Janeiro.

Besides, hed planned this trip for their thirteenth anniversary because he wanted to spend quality time as a family. She couldnt imagine he was working, not when this vacation was supposed to be about starting over, about saving their troubled marriage. Hed said he wouldnt take one call. If hed made that promise just to her, maybe she wouldnt have relied on it. Hed said such things before and hadnt followed through. But hed also promised their daughter, and he and Alexa were very close.

So...where was he?

Sophia gazed down at the water itself. Had he fallen overboard and drowned in the choppy Atlantic?

That thought led to a surge of relief. It was macabre to wish anyone dead, but only if Skip was gone for good would she ever escape him. Shed lived with him long enough to know hed never willingly let her go. Hed said as much.

The moment Alexa came to the railing to stand beside her, guilt replaced the relief shed been feeling. Her poor daughter might have lost her father. How could she be happy about that?

What happened, Mom? Lexi asked, her big blue eyes filling with tears.

Sophia put an arm around her childs thin shoulders. I dont know, sweetheart. She kept going over the past twenty-four hours in her mind, but could point to nothing out of the ordinary. Skip had gone to bed with her last night at eleven, as usual. Hed demanded sex, as usual. If he was around, he insisted on some sexual favor at least once a day. She was pretty sure he slept with other women when he was traveling, especially since he was often gone for a week or longer. But she never tried to check up on him. She just did what she had to when he was home to keep the peace, to survive. She knew how hed act if she refused him. Even if he didnt strike her, hed sulk for days.

Except for the embarrassment of having to tell everyone, including their daughter, that shed tripped and fallen into a door or slammed on her brakes and hit the steering wheel, she wouldve hated the sulking even more. Sometimes it lasted far longer than the bruises.

Alexa wiped her wet cheeks. You really dont remember when he got up this morning?

Theyd already been over this. Sophia didnt remember. She didnt rise as early as he did. It wasnt as if hed allow her to have a job. On a school day, she typically went back to bed after Alexa left, staying there until ten or so. Then shed get up slowly, work on maintaining her beauty, which was all-important to Skip, and drink away the rest of the afternoon. Alcohol was the one thing that seemed capable of dulling the disappointment, not to mention the boredom, she lived with on a constant basis.

But it also gave him a club to use when he needed it. I thought I was getting something special when I married you. You were someone, remember? The mayors only child. The most popular girl in school. Now look at you. Youre nothing but a lazy drunk.

She tried to shove those hateful words into the back of her mind, where they resided. They made her crave a gin and tonic, but it was too early for that. She couldnt have one, anyway, she reminded herself. Not only had she just spent thirty days in rehab, shed promised Skip, as part of their starting over, that shed really quit the booze this time. Hed threatened to have her committed to a mental institution like her mother if she didnt. She wasnt sure what hed use to make her seem crazy, but hed figure it out. Her mothers condition, the fact that there was mental illness in the family, definitely wouldnt work in her favor.