HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO
MUST HAVE FAITH!
Must Have Faith
A Darling Cove Novel
by Deborah Garland
Release Date: June 4, 2018
Publisher: Roane Publishing
Keywords: Contemporary Romance, Novel, Series, Small Town, Family Drama, Runaway Bride, Reunion, Second Chance, Police, London
Greg Mallory isn’t the kind of man to wallow just because he was left at the altar. Not when there are plenty of women to help him forget his heartbreak. But as the only Mallory son he has an obligation to carry on the family name. When Greg’s runaway bride returns, his head tells him to keep his distance, but his body and heart are both begging for a second chance.
Faith Copeland bolted out of Darling Cove with a shameful secret and stayed away for ten years thinking Greg Mallory would never forgive her. Coming home means facing her past and Greg. She just didn’t think he still had the power to make her melt after all this time.
One moment alone proves their attraction is stronger than ever. Are they brave enough to start fresh? Or will past secrets destroy their second chance at happy-ever-after once and for all?
Faith Copeland bolted out of Darling Cove with a shameful secret and stayed away for ten years thinking Greg Mallory would never forgive her. Coming home means facing her past and Greg. She just didn’t think he still had the power to make her melt after all this time.
One moment alone proves their attraction is stronger than ever. Are they brave enough to start fresh? Or will past secrets destroy their second chance at happy-ever-after once and for all?
PURCHASE LINKS
GUEST POST:
Greg
sat in his truck after Faith’s train pulled away.
For
more than an hour. He tipped his head back listening to AM Radio. At ten to
midnight, he drove to the police station to start his shift. The locker room’s
perpetual winter chill unnerved him every other night, but he was so charged up
from being with Faith, he didn’t feel it.
“Hey
Mallory, I saw your name in the bulletin,” Dennis Carlin said stepping through
the locker room. “I didn’t know you’ve been on for twenty years.”
Greg
removed his jeans. “Yep. You should have listened to me when we were kids.”
They’d
worked the beach concession stand together one summer. Greg had kept Carlin out
of trouble, since he’d ogled every girl in a bikini who came in for a soda,
including Skye. It was that summer Greg had seen Faith for the first time. She
was ten years old. At fifteen he didn’t look at her as anything more than a
redheaded blur standing next to Gwen.
“You’re
not kidding.” Carlin prodded him out of his thoughts. “Still, it’s rare these
days that guys start so young.”
“With
my dad here, it made sense for me to join.” Greg pulled his shirt off and
folded it. A trace of Faith’s perfume still clung to the fabric, setting off a
tightening in his chest. The way she could so easily affect him after all this
time was unsettling.
Carlin
rambled on, oblivious to Greg just standing there holding his shirt and
smelling it. “And now you can leave this shit-hole and go do something else.”
He
shook his head and yanked his cargo pants on. “What the hell else would I do?”
“Plenty.
Go work for an insurance company as an investigator. Go to the city and work
for the Feds. School security.” Carlin stepped closer. “That’s the sweetest
gig. Summers off. Holidays. Snow days.”
“Shaking
down kids isn’t very exciting.” He continued to mindlessly get dressed.
Twenty
years of putting on the same damn uniform, he could do it in his sleep. Carlin touched a nerve when he mentioned
working for the Feds, though.
That was something he’d be interested in. But as long as his father was staying
on the force, Greg felt he needed to as well. Martin’s shooting last year had
shaken Greg up. It could have been him.
Greg
buttoned his uniform shirt. He liked his job. Darling Cove PD was one of the
few village forces on the North Fork of Long Island. And like his dad, he loved
the idea of patrolling his own neighborhood. Twenty years of full time pay,
night differential, overtime and the absence of any major expenses except his
house and truck, piled up a very nice nest egg.
He could leave the force and do nothing. If
he wanted to.
He
took his gun belt and secured it around his waist. Methodically he filled it
with his Glock, taser, mace, a radio and handcuffs. His nightstick was the last
to be secured to the belt. Most calls, however, were aided assist cases for the
fire department’s ambulance team.
While
dragging his bomber jacket across his shoulders, he stepped out into the lobby
to stand at the front desk for roll call. He kept his head down, but a whiff of
perfume lifted his head. He gave a smile to Laura, Darling Cove’s only female
officer.
After
roll call, Greg zipped up his jacket to go warm up his patrol car.
“Hey
Greg.” Laura slapped him on the back. “Who was that girl you were helping at
the winery the other night?”
He
spun around. “Were you at the winery?”
“No!”
She waved her hands like he asked if she’d been to a rodeo. “It’s a small town,
Greg.”
“That
it is.” He turned to continue walking to his car.
“You
didn’t answer me.” She crossed her arms smirking.
Laura
was a mother of five and married to a Corrections Officer. She was a damn good
cop, and he treated her like any other officer. If she was asking him about a
girl, she had a genuine, friendly interest. Most of Greg’s friends were either
married or had moved away. In a way, his only close friend now was…Andrew.
Greg
exhaled. “That was Faith.”
Laura’s
eyes opened wide. “The Faith.”
“The
one and only.”
“Darling
Cove’s runaway bride?” She wiggled her hips. “I think it’s so cool we have one.
It’s like a tourist attraction.”
Greg
jammed his eyes closed while Laura hooted with laughter as she walked to the
back of the precinct, where she ran the surveillance desk. He considered for
the very first time what leaving had done to Faith. What it had made her.
A
damned tourist attraction?
“We’ll
see about that,” he muttered getting into his car and escaping the cold.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Deborah Garland is a former computer and sports journalist, turned romance and women’s fiction author. She likes to write about love and the struggles of complicated relationships. Her heroines are strong, and the heroes fall hard for them. She lives on the North Shore of Long Island with her husband and when she’s not writing, she’s either in the gym, or reading, cuddled up with their two pugs, Zoe and Harley.
