Finding Our Forever Read online

  New York Times bestselling author Brenda Novak welcomes readers to the town of Silver Springs, where surprises wait around every corner!

  The search for her birth mother brought Cora Kelly to the New Horizons Boys Ranch. Getting a job there was easy enough, but confiding in Aiyana, the ranch’s owner, that she’s really her daughter? Cora’s not sure she can do that, not unless she’s confident the news will be welcomed. And once she gets to know Elijah Turner—Aiyana’s adopted son and ranch manager—that decision becomes even more difficult.

  Although Elijah can’t deny his deep attraction to Cora, he’s always struggled with trust. Anyone with his past would, and there’s something about the ranch’s newest employee that isn’t exactly as it seems. But if the feelings she awakes in his guarded heart are any indication, she might be just what he’s long been waiting for.

  “So I’d only get hurt if I got involved with you,” Cora said.

  “Yes. You’d essentially be getting a locked box.”

  He was being transparent, completely up-front. She was the one who’d set that tone. So it surprised him when she barked out a laugh. “You think you’re doing me a favor by staying away!”

  He was trying to adhere to the decisions he’d made after that last ugly blowout with Tina. He’d been glad for the peace and balance he’d found since they’d broken up a year ago. But twelve months was a long time to go without a woman... “Essentially.”

  “Well, you’re taking a lot for granted, Mr. Turner. First of all, how do you know I’m going to want you to love me?”

  “Experience,” he said wryly. “I have yet to encounter the opposite problem.”

  * * *

  SILVER SPRINGS: Where love changes everything!

  Dear Reader,

  I’m so excited to introduce you to my new Silver Springs series! If you’ve read much of my work before, you’ll probably know I like to change things up. I’m an eclectic reader, which inspires me to be an eclectic writer. I currently write women’s fiction (like The Secrets She Kept and The Secret Sister), suspense (e.g., the Stillwater Trilogy, the Last Stand series or the most recent Evelyn Talbot Chronicles). I’ve even written four historical romances (that’s where I got my start—with a historical titled Of Noble Birth). But I always come back to straight-up contemporary romance. It’s my home, if you will—where my heart resides. I love building a small-town community, am fascinated by the dynamics that take place in a setting where everyone knows everyone else. How and when strangers can and do impact that type of insular world makes it even more fun. Places like the fictional Gold Country town I created for my Whiskey Creek series—and Dundee, Idaho, the fictional setting of the series before Whiskey Creek—really excite my imagination, because I’d love to live in such a place. So I hope you will enjoy the latest. Like Whiskey Creek, Silver Springs is located in California, where I live, but it’s in a very different part of the state, and the characters, and the challenges they face are very different, too.

  I love to hear from my readers. I have an active Facebook page, where I interact on almost a daily basis. If you’re also on Facebook, please join me there (Facebook.com/brendanovakauthor) and/or visit my website at brendanovak.com, where you can sign up to receive release information, news of signings and other events, my favorite recipes, notice of sales and promotions, and the opportunity to enter various giveaways, etc. There’s also a list of all my fifty-plus titles you can download from the website, which will make it easier to follow a certain series or trilogy.

  Welcome to Silver Springs!

  Brenda Novak

  Finding Our Forever

  Brenda Novak

  New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Brenda Novak is the author of more than fifty books. A five-time RITA® Award nominee, she has won many awards, including the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Booksellers’ Best Award and the Silver Bullet Award. She also runs Brenda Novak for the Cure, a charity to raise money for diabetes research (her youngest son has this disease). To date, she’s raised $2.5 million. For more about Brenda, please visit brendanovak.com.

  Books by Brenda Novak

  Harlequin Superromance

  Sanctuary

  Shooting the Moon

  A Family by Christmas

  Dear Maggie

  Baby Business

  Snow Baby

  Expectations

  Dundee, Idaho

  A Baby of Her Own

  A Family of Her Own

  A Husband of Her Own

  MIRA Books

  Dundee, Idaho

  A Home of Her Own

  Stranger in Town

  Big Girls Don’t Cry

  The Other Woman

  Coulda Been a Cowboy

  Whiskey Creek

  Discovering You

  A Winter Wedding

  This Heart of Mine

  The Heart of Christmas

  Come Home to Me

  Take Me Home for Christmas

  Home to Whiskey Creek

  When Summer Comes

  When Snow Comes

  When Lightning Strikes

  When We Touch

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  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from No One But You by Brenda Novak

  Chapter One

  Cora Kelly had never met her birth mother.

  The records had been sealed when she was adopted as a newborn twenty-eight years ago. Her adoptive mother didn’t even know her birth mother’s name, so it wasn’t as if Lilly Kelly had ever mentioned it. Cora had had very little to go on. Even with two different attorneys, a website designed to help families reconnect and a private investigator who’d taken her case for free since he was an adoptee himself and did what he could, in his spare time, to help others who’d been through the same thing, it’d taken six long years to glean the information she craved. But here she was, only moments away from coming face-to-face, for the first time since the day she was born, with the woman who’d brought her into this world.

  Would she like her mother? Would they resemble each other more in person than in the one picture she’d seen? Would Aiyana Turner somehow recognize her for who she was?

  Those questions churned in Cora’s mind, making her stomach churn, as well. But one question weighed heavier than the others: Was she making a mistake?

  Wiping her palms on her slacks, she told herself to calm down. As far as Aiyana knew, they were only meeting to talk about Cora’s new job working as an art instructor at New Horizons Boys Ranch, a boarding school for troubled teens, ages fourteen to eighteen, ninety minutes outside LA. No way
would Aiyana have any reason to suspect Cora’s true identity. And Cora didn’t plan to tell her who she was. Not today. Maybe not ever. That was why she’d sought this job—and accepted it. So she’d have the chance to see what she might be getting into before making that decision.

  Hopefully, her mother would be someone she could admire, at least. From what she could tell, Aiyana had done a lot to help teenage boys who acted out, some who’d been orphaned as well as many who hadn’t. Her work as executive administrator of the school she’d founded twenty years ago seemed to be her one true love. She’d never been married, and she’d never had any more of her own children. According to a newspaper article honoring Aiyana on the anniversary of the date the boys ranch opened, something the private detective who finally solved the mystery of Aiyana’s identity had provided, Aiyana had adopted quite a few of the residents who’d come to the school through the years—eight of them, so far. The oldest, Elijah Turner, was now a man in his early thirties. He helped run New Horizons. Cora knew because he was the person who’d interviewed and then hired her. That was why she hadn’t yet met Aiyana. Aiyana had been out of town when Cora came two weeks ago.

  “I’m sorry it’s taking a few moments. Ms. Turner is on an unexpected but important call.” The receptionist, a gray-haired woman who had to be in her sixties, smiled kindly as she imparted this apology. “I can’t imagine it’ll be much longer.”

  Hauling in a deep breath, Cora smiled. “It’s fine. I don’t mind waiting.” She didn’t mind, except that she was beginning to fear she’d have a heart attack right there outside of Aiyana Turner’s office. Somehow, she had to stem her anxiety...

  “Are you too warm, dear? I can turn down the air...”

  She glanced up at the receptionist again—and realized she’d been fanning herself. “Um...no. I’m okay, thanks,” she said and dropped her hand.

  “It’s been hot this summer.”

  “Yes, it’s particularly warm today,” Cora said, but it was generally worse where she lived in Burbank. Along with Jill, her best friend, Cora rented a small condo just outside of Hollywood, where her adoptive parents still owned the lovely four-bedroom home where she’d been raised.

  She felt a twinge of guilt when she thought of her parents, Brad and Lilly. They’d been good to her, treated her just like her brother, who was two years older and their biological child. They wouldn’t be pleased that she’d landed this job if they knew the driving force behind it.

  Don’t think about that. What they don’t know can’t hurt them. It would be premature to drag them into this, anyway, since she had no idea where it might go. For all she knew, it wouldn’t go anywhere. And maybe that was for the best. Several years ago, when she’d first mentioned that she’d like to find her birth mother, Brad and Lilly had acted shocked and disappointed. They’d taken it personally, didn’t understand that they didn’t do anything to cause the emptiness inside her and weren’t the ones who could fix it. The hole was just there, and Cora felt it would be until she could figure out where she came from, who she was and where she belonged.

  She hoped this would help. Her boyfriend—ex-boyfriend since she’d broken up with him last month—claimed it was her personal problems that’d destroyed their two-year relationship. He said she needed to let go of her past and move on, that she could be opening Pandora’s box.

  He could be right. But it was too late to change her plans. She’d already made a yearlong commitment to New Horizons. Today’s meeting with Aiyana was merely a formality—an orientation, of sorts. Cora had given notice that she’d be vacating her condo at the end of the month, at which point her friend would get a new roommate and she’d move to Silver Springs, a town of only 5,000 people located slightly east of Santa Barbara.

  After spending her whole life in the big city, Cora wasn’t sure she’d like living in such a rural area, but if she had to pick a small town, this one wasn’t bad. Known for its robust arts community, the renovation of its downtown, its clean water, green energy, recreation and quaint small businesses, there was a lot to recommend it. Life was just slower. Those who didn’t grow up here came to retire, raise a family in a “safe place” or enjoy the beauty of the surrounding mountains—

  “Ms. Kelly?”

  Cora’s heart jumped into her throat. The drone of the voice she’d heard coming from the inner office had fallen silent. This was it! The receptionist was about to tell her she could go in...

  “Yes?”

  “Ms. Turner will see you now.”

  For a moment, Cora’s determination faltered. But when she didn’t move, the receptionist—Betty May, according to the placard on her desk—stood expectantly. “It’s right through here,” she said with a puzzled expression.

  Swallowing to ease her dry throat, Cora nodded. “Right. I was just...” About to run the other way... Letting her words fall off, since she couldn’t readily lay her mind upon a good excuse, she threw back her shoulders and crossed the room to step inside an expansive office with several rows of pictures on the wall—every graduating class of New Horizons.

  Those pictures melted into the background as soon as Cora’s eyes landed on the diminutive woman with long black hair that fell in a braid down her back. This was where she’d gotten the golden color of her skin, Cora thought as she stared. That detail hadn’t been quite so apparent in the grainy picture she’d seen with that newspaper article, but her mother appeared to be part Mexican, South American or maybe Native American.

  Wasn’t that something she should’ve had a right to know without having to go to all the trouble and expense she did?

  Cora had always been conscious of the difference in her skin tone compared to the Kellys. Lilly had blond hair and blue eyes and, like many of her friends, had indulged in a fair amount of Botox and cosmetic surgery. Aiyana, on the other hand, didn’t look as though she’d ever altered anything.

  “Ms. Kelly, I’m so sorry for making you wait. That call was about another candidate for the school. Considering the mischief he’s been in, I figured I should handle it as soon as possible. His poor grandmother, who’s raising him, is beside herself.”

  Cora blinked rapidly, battling a sudden upwelling of emotion. She’d longed for this day. And here it was. She was looking at her mother.

  But she couldn’t act strange or she might give herself away. What had Aiyana just said? Something about the wait and the reason for it... “Of course,” she managed to respond, dragging what she’d heard out of short-term memory before it could disappear into the ether. “I understand that the welfare of the boys has to come first.”

  Aiyana’s smile as she gestured toward the chair on the other side of her desk suggested she appreciated Cora’s response. “Please, take a seat.”

  Cora could hardly pull her gaze away long enough to sit without missing the chair.

  “Eli tells me—”

  “Eli?” Cora echoed.

  “Elijah,” she clarified. “My son.”

  “Oh right.” Aiyana was talking about the incredibly handsome but imposing man who’d interviewed Cora two weeks ago. If only Cora could think clearly, she would’ve made that connection as instantly as she should have. He’d certainly left an impression.

  “He told me you graduated from the University of San Diego with a BA in art education six years ago.”

  “Yes. I love art, and I love teaching, so...putting the two together seemed like a natural for me.”

  “You’ve been working as a substitute since then?”

  “That’s right. When I first graduated, I was grateful for the flexibility subbing gave me, because I was doing a bit of traveling with my parents. Since then it’s been difficult to find a full-time position, given that so many schools are cutting back on their art, music and sports programs.”

  “I understand. So that’s why you answered our ad?”

 
; One of the reasons—though not the most important. Ironically enough, she’d been offered a full-time position for the coming year at the school for which she’d substituted most often, so she’d no longer needed the opportunity. The art teacher at Woodbridge High was retiring and had put in a good word for her. But, to her parents’ consternation, Cora had turned it down. Aiyana was here. That meant New Horizons offered something no other school could. “Yes.”

  Aiyana peered at her more closely. “Is something wrong?”

  Tears were getting the best of her despite all her efforts to suppress them. “Allergies,” Cora explained. “It’s that time of year. Fortunately, they don’t last long.”

  “Would you like me to get you a tissue?”

  Cora used her finger to remove the tear that was about to roll down her cheek. “No, I’m fine. My eyes are just...a little itchy, that’s all.”

  “Let me know if you change your mind,” she said. “I’ll get you something if you need it. Meanwhile, I’d like to talk to you about the importance we place on art here at the ranch. Most other schools focus on core subjects, and as an accredited high school, we certainly make that a priority here, too. But it’s my feeling that our students cannot excel in those classes—in anything—if they’re too broken to care or try. I believe in healing those who will be healed by showing them the beauty of life and giving them a healthy form of expression. I guess it would be safe to say that, around here, you aren’t merely an extra, the first teacher to go when the budget gets tight. You are our most important teacher, which is why I asked to meet with you before you started in a couple of weeks.”

  “I admire your philosophy.” Cora agreed with it, too. But hearing that she was the most important teacher at the ranch was intimidating, since this was her first full-time position.

  “I want my boys to be educated,” Aiyana continued, “but even more than that, I want them to be whole, to find peace.”

  “Makes sense to me.”

  “Good. I should warn you that most have never been introduced to drawing, painting or pottery. They think school has to be boring and hard, which is what makes it so rewarding to introduce them to the fun side of learning. Creative endeavors are one of the best tools we have to ease the pain and anger that’s inside so many of them.”

 
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