In the Name of Love!

After a long wait, my brand new title is available for sale! You can snag your copy from Passion in Print. Or by clicking here.  Here is a peek and the blurb.

If Jessa isn’t afraid to beg for forgiveness, she could make her wildest dreams come true.

Jessa Phillips has the life she’s always dreamed of—a thriving wedding gown boutique, a loving sister and a wonderful brother-in-law. The only thing missing is the love of her life, Cassius Oppa.  But her bubble is about to burst when her sister is in a severe car accident and on her death bed reveals a secret that changes everything.

The night his courtship of Jessa Phillips went horrible wrong, a young Cassius Oppa packed up, jumped on his motor cycle and fled the small town.  After spending days homeless, he sold his family’s prized guitar and joined the Air Force.  Years later, he’s out and living his dream when Jessa Phillips turns up on his doorstep.  A storm is brewing and after, what will be left?

Excerpt:

Jessa scanned through the racks of white wedding dresses. It was taking too long. This bride was starting to get on Jessa’s last nerve. Finding a gown in the back of the stack, she pulled it out and held it up to the light. The dress wasn’t going to work—she could just feel it. The truth was she was running out of options. It was as if the woman didn’t understand Jessa had a life outside the damn store. Stopping, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes in an attempt at reigning in her quickly shortening fuse. All she had to do was pick the perfect dress for the overly picky bride without killing her and things would be perfect. She glanced at the clock. Time was quickly running out or she would have to work overtime. She finally found a dress, said a small prayer and slipped a smile to her lips. 

            If this chick doesn’t like this dress I swear someone is going to have to bail me out of jail!

            She brought the dress into the room where the soon-to-be bride sat and held it up. “All right,” Jessa said, hanging the dress up and slipping the protective covering off. “This dress I found in our storeroom. It’s two thousand over your budget but you said price wasn’t an option.”

            While the woman’s maid of honor, mother-in-law, and her sister waited in the sitting room, Jessa helped her client put on the dress and pinned up the back properly so it fit. She then walked her client back to her entourage. “So? What do you think?”

            “Well,” the bridge-to-be started. She turned one way, then the next, looking at herself in the mirror. Her family was sitting there with looks of amazement, but Jessa was beyond giving a damn anymore. They’d been at it for at least three hours and Jessa just wanted to go home. “What do you think?”

            “This is the dress!” The bride flailed happily.

            “You’re serious?” Jessa questioned, fixing the veil.

            “Yes! I love it!”

            Finally!

            The woman hugged Jessa so tightly she thought she was going to burst. But she finished up the sale, put in the order for the wedding dress and after the wedding party left, she turned around and stared at the empty store. Rushing, she closed the front door before someone else walked in. She’d long since sent home her two other consultants and wasn’t about to handle another bride by herself that day. Her temper wouldn’t hold out—she knew it.

            She stared now at the cash register with contempt. Now she had to cash it out and do all the mathematics for the day’s sales. She set it up to print the day’s receipt and was going to get some coffee when the telephone rang.  Arching a brow, she glanced at the clock debating whether or not to pick it up.

            With a roll of her shoulders, she reached for the cordless and trudged her way towards the back room. “Happily Ever After, Jessa speaking. How may I help you?”

            “Is this Jessa Phillips?” The voice questioned.

            “Yes. Who’s calling?”

            “My name is Andrew Mullings from the Mercy of Grace Hospital. I’m calling about your sister, Kelly.”

            “What about her?”

            “I’m sorry to be the one to inform you of this.” His voice cracked. “But your sister is in surgery. If you could…”

            He didn’t have time to finish for she had dropped the phone and was reaching for the keys. The cash register was still going but she couldn’t wait for it. If her sister was in surgery, she couldn’t really stop to wait the hour it took to cash out. With her cell phone and keys, she darted through the door, -only stopping long enough to turn off the lights and lock the doors behind her- then ran as fast as her stilettos could carry her to her Corvette. She sped from the parking lot, zooming into traffic without looking. That caused a whole bunch of horns to blare, but Jessa couldn’t care. She sped through a yellow light. Her heart hammered against her chest as worry danced through her mind. When she spoke to her sister the day before, Kelly was ecstatic. She was getting married in three weeks and her career had finally taken off. What in the world could have happened between that conversation and the end of the day?

            She got caught behind a truck. Rage surged through her veins as she slammed her fist over the horn, darted out into the left lane, sped up and cut in front of the truck before ramming her foot against the gas. 

            At the hospital, Jessa shoved her beautiful, silver bullet into a parking spot and slammed the door after her. With her purse in hand, she ran through the front door. Skidding to a halt at the front desk she leaned half her body over the counter and tapped the nurse on the shoulder. The poor nurse, whose back was to the front, gasped and swung around but Jessa couldn’t think to apologize.

            “I’m Jessa Phillips. Someone called me about my sister, Kelly Phillips?”

            “Oh yes! Miss Phillips. Take that elevator to the sixth floor and go left out the elevator to the front desk. They’ll be able to tell you about your sister’s condition.”

            With a simple nod of her head, Jessa did as the nurse bade her. At the front desk she nodded numbly as the nurse asked her to wait a few minutes for a doctor. She probably should have been angry they weren’t telling her anything but by then she was exhausted. Pacing the space, she tried telling herself that things weren’t as bad as she thought. Nothing could be as bad as her mind was telling her. Her sister would be fine—Kelly had to be fine. The truth was, Kelly and her fiancée Chris were the only family she had left.

            “Miss Phillips?”

            Jessa spun around at her name. A doctor stood there with a clipboard shoving a pen into his breast pocket and looking at her as though his best friend had just died.

            “How’s my sister?” Jessa questioned.

            “Your sister was in a car accident,” he replied. “Does she have a boyfriend, husband, or any other family?”

“Yes. A fiancé—wha-what’s going on?”

“He should probably be here right now.”

            “He’s in Japan on business. I’ll try getting a hold of him but tell me about Kelly!”

            “She’s bleeding internally—severely. We’ve tried for the past two hours to stop it but we can’t. Her blood just isn’t clotting and right now there’s nothing we can do for her but make her as comfortable as possible.”

            “No— No,” Jessa whispered. “You can’t tell me that there’s nothing you can do! She’s getting married, damn it! She can’t die!”