Monday, June 4, 2018

Exclusive Excerpt from MUST HAVE FAITH by Deborah Garland #Contemporary #Romance #SecondChance


HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO
MUST HAVE FAITH!



Must Have Faith
A Darling Cove Novel
by Deborah Garland
Release Date: June 4, 2018
PublisherRoane 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?

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.