Chapter One
Zuria watched the sign that read “Welcome to Aves, North Carolina, Population 9,000”, pass by the taxi’s side window, and her stomach dropped. She’d thought she never had to return here, that she had escaped, and now she was a big city girl, cut off from the ties of small town living. Why did circumstances have to be this way? Why did my lying, cheating almost-ex-husband have to go and die before I could cut him loose?
Her eyes burned, and she pressed her lips together while blinking rapidly. She had shed enough tears for that bastard before he and his blonde bimbo of a mistress had drowned together on his yacht. Besides, now was not the time to look a hot mess when she arrived in her hometown.
As the taxi turned onto Main and headed into the downtown area, tension between her shoulders increased, and pain creeped up her neck toward her head. For the millionth time, she debated whether she would play the part of grieving widow or just admit she’d been talking to a lawyer before Richard died. Did it even matter? She wasn’t here to impress anyone, and the only person who counted was her brother, Sam. He had told her to come on home when she found herself destitute and alone.
His fault!
Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes, and she cursed Richard again, but before she could humiliate herself in front of the cabbie, who kept darting glances at her in the rearview mirror, he slammed on the breaks and screeched to a halt. The sudden stop threw Zuria forward, and she bumped her nose on the seat in front of her.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” the driver hurried to ask.
Zuria straightened, frowning. “I’m fine. What happened?”
She looked past him through the windshield to spot a man speeding off atop his sleek black motorcycle. He held a hand up as if in apology, but he never looked around. Zuria threw a few muttered curses at the back of his head and assured her driver once again that she was fine, and no she didn’t need to detour to the local hospital.
“No harm done,” she said, but recognized the ass occupying the motorcycle seat. She’d let him know what she thought of his driving when she saw him face-to-face.
A short while later the taxi pulled off Main Street and turned onto J Avenue. The eccentric red brick building on the corner with the license plate welcome sign was her destination. Her brother Sam and his best friend, Fane Valentine, owned the coffee shop, and she had made the unwise decision to stay with Sam until she could get on her feet.
Zuria paid the driver and waited while he unloaded her luggage from the trunk. If her stomach hadn’t knotted enough already, it did somersaults when she spotted Fane’s motorcycle parked on the sidewalk just outside the door. Probably still hot from almost running me off the road.
The coffee shop door banged open. Dixie Ann Wilkes burst through the opening. “Oh my goodness, why if it ain’t Zuria Mae Belle come back home!”
Zuria cringed. Mae Belle. What had her mother been thinking? Zuria never told anyone her middle name in the big city. She’d left it off all documentation and the second Richard had slapped a ring on her finger, she took advantage of the right to change her name. She had kept the last name of Belle but dropped Mae all together. Now her legal name was Zuria Belle. Period. Maybe it was a bad sign that Richard had never cared that she didn’t take his last name. Of course, all of her choices became meaningless the moment she set foot in Aves.
“Hello, Dixie Ann,” she said with little enthusiasm.
A beat after Dixie appeared, Sam stepped into doorway, and a rush of love came over Zuria. She’d missed her brother, the quiet, sweet man who never spoke much but when he did, everyone listened. Zuria took in the almost white-blond hair, baby-blue eyes and the smooth, tanned skin. Sam looked nothing like anyone in her family given the fact that he was Caucasian and she was African American. Her dad had found him
Zuria watched the sign that read “Welcome to Aves, North Carolina, Population 9,000”, pass by the taxi’s side window, and her stomach dropped. She’d thought she never had to return here, that she had escaped, and now she was a big city girl, cut off from the ties of small town living. Why did circumstances have to be this way? Why did my lying, cheating almost-ex-husband have to go and die before I could cut him loose?
Her eyes burned, and she pressed her lips together while blinking rapidly. She had shed enough tears for that bastard before he and his blonde bimbo of a mistress had drowned together on his yacht. Besides, now was not the time to look a hot mess when she arrived in her hometown.
As the taxi turned onto Main and headed into the downtown area, tension between her shoulders increased, and pain creeped up her neck toward her head. For the millionth time, she debated whether she would play the part of grieving widow or just admit she’d been talking to a lawyer before Richard died. Did it even matter? She wasn’t here to impress anyone, and the only person who counted was her brother, Sam. He had told her to come on home when she found herself destitute and alone.
His fault!
Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes, and she cursed Richard again, but before she could humiliate herself in front of the cabbie, who kept darting glances at her in the rearview mirror, he slammed on the breaks and screeched to a halt. The sudden stop threw Zuria forward, and she bumped her nose on the seat in front of her.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” the driver hurried to ask.
Zuria straightened, frowning. “I’m fine. What happened?”
She looked past him through the windshield to spot a man speeding off atop his sleek black motorcycle. He held a hand up as if in apology, but he never looked around. Zuria threw a few muttered curses at the back of his head and assured her driver once again that she was fine, and no she didn’t need to detour to the local hospital.
“No harm done,” she said, but recognized the ass occupying the motorcycle seat. She’d let him know what she thought of his driving when she saw him face-to-face.
A short while later the taxi pulled off Main Street and turned onto J Avenue. The eccentric red brick building on the corner with the license plate welcome sign was her destination. Her brother Sam and his best friend, Fane Valentine, owned the coffee shop, and she had made the unwise decision to stay with Sam until she could get on her feet.
Zuria paid the driver and waited while he unloaded her luggage from the trunk. If her stomach hadn’t knotted enough already, it did somersaults when she spotted Fane’s motorcycle parked on the sidewalk just outside the door. Probably still hot from almost running me off the road.
The coffee shop door banged open. Dixie Ann Wilkes burst through the opening. “Oh my goodness, why if it ain’t Zuria Mae Belle come back home!”
Zuria cringed. Mae Belle. What had her mother been thinking? Zuria never told anyone her middle name in the big city. She’d left it off all documentation and the second Richard had slapped a ring on her finger, she took advantage of the right to change her name. She had kept the last name of Belle but dropped Mae all together. Now her legal name was Zuria Belle. Period. Maybe it was a bad sign that Richard had never cared that she didn’t take his last name. Of course, all of her choices became meaningless the moment she set foot in Aves.
“Hello, Dixie Ann,” she said with little enthusiasm.
A beat after Dixie appeared, Sam stepped into doorway, and a rush of love came over Zuria. She’d missed her brother, the quiet, sweet man who never spoke much but when he did, everyone listened. Zuria took in the almost white-blond hair, baby-blue eyes and the smooth, tanned skin. Sam looked nothing like anyone in her family given the fact that he was Caucasian and she was African American. Her dad had found him
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