Prologue
Bella opened the email once more and read it again slowly as the plane took off. She felt a shiver run down her spine when she got to the part about signing the contract with Sunflower Records. She was officially going to be an artist.
Here she was, her eighteenth birthday only three weeks behind her, and she had made it. Or was about to, at least.
Her brother Ben had had a hand in making this happen, but for the most part, it was her hard work and talent that had gotten her this far.
Now, she just needed to rely on that talent to carry her through her first record deal.
Maggie, her agent, was going to be meeting her at the airport in Atlanta where they would travel to LA together. She’d signed on with Maggie Harris, one of the top vocal agents, shortly after her brother had introduced them when the woman had been staying at her sisters-in-law’s elite resort, East Haven.
Bella had moved out of her parents’ home shortly after her sixteenth birthday and moved in with her brother and his new wife, Sarah, in their brand-new home. And she’d never been happier.
As her brother knew firsthand, their parents could be a little—okay, a lot—to handle.
They had actually wanted to ship her off to Europe somewhere for school. Back then, she’d been sure it was because they hated her. But now she understood it was because she had been more than they had wanted to handle at the time.
Her father’s career and her mother’s social life had been their priority, not raising their “oops” child.
She’d been even more hardheaded as a child than her brother had been and had been determined to have things her way. So, naturally, when she’d found out that they were about to ship her away, she’d run away. Straight into the arms of her brother. Thankfully, he’d taken her in and fought for her.
Spending two years with Ben and Sarah had been wonderful. She’d gone to school at Brighton, a private school. Ben and Sarah ran Elite Resorts International and East Haven, an exclusive resort on a private island off the coast of Maine. Elite Resorts was a business their father had desperately wanted to sink his teeth into all his life.
Since Sarah had inherited the lucrative business from her late grandfather, Bella’s parents had focused all their attention on their only son and their new daughter-in-law, instead of their only daughter.
She’d talked to them only a handful of times since moving out and had only seen them twice, during holidays. Ben and Sarah played nice to them but kept them at arm’s length. They were wise to their tactics.
Bella smiled down at the email once more. She figured that the path laid out in front of her would dim the hurt and pain of being shunned by her folks.
She didn’t need them. The only family she needed she had, and they supported her one hundred percent. After all, Sarah and Ben had bought her the plane tickets and had helped her arrange for the apartment in LA. In the two years that she’d lived with them, they had given her far more personally and emotionally than her parents had in the sixteen years she’d lived under their roof.
Now, because of her brother and Sarah, she knew she could handle being on her own in California, starting her career as a singer and becoming a star. She told herself that once she stepped foot in LA, she would never think about her parents again.
Chapter One
Four years later…
Bella stepped off the boat and took a deep breath. How had she forgotten how fresh salt air smelled? Closing her eyes for a moment, she enjoyed the sounds of the seagulls floating overhead and the water lapping at the rocks under the dock. More importantly, no vehicles were blasting their horns.
“Are you okay?” JT Thomas asked her. She’d known the man since first coming to Silver Cove. She’d been shocked to find out that he was one of her favorite authors, the infamous JT Whistler. Some of his horror stories had kept her up at night before she’d met him and now one of his latest books was tucked in her suitcase. She’d almost finished it on her flight and had every intention of finishing it later that night. Even if it meant staying up late.
“Yes.” She smiled up at him. “I heard you’re a father now.” She picked up her small backpack, leaving the larger bags for the crew at Holley Hall to take up to the main lodge in their carts.
JT’s smile tripled, if there was such a thing. “Yes.” His chest puffed out slightly. “Twins. They just had their first birthday last month.” He laughed. “Who would have thought…” He whipped out his phone and showed her a picture of two sleeping babies.
“A boy and girl.” She took his phone and looked at the kids closer. “She looks like you.”
“Sophia and Liam,” he added with a smile.
“Sophia looks like you, Liam takes after Emma. How is she doing by the way?” Bella asked.
“Great,” he answered when she handed him back his phone. “Enjoying having me working the ferry again and out of the house two days a week.” He chuckled.
“Getting underfoot?” she asked.
“No. Apparently, I keep waking the kids up. Checking on them too much.” He shrugged.
“Well, I for one am glad you were here to greet me and take me to the island.” She touched his arm.
“Had enough of your brother and sister-in-law?” he asked.
“No, I’m planning on telling them I’m in town later tonight,” she admitted.
That stopped him. “They don’t know yet?” JT’s tone turned worried and he glanced around.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s just… last time I knew something before Sarah…” Bella remembered that JT had known Sarah his entire life. “She about skinned me.” He wiped the sweat from the back of his neck. Since Bella had known him, JT had kept his blond hair long, but now it was cut shorter, and she wondered if it was because of the kids or the summer heat.
“Then don’t tell her you know,” she joked as she touched his arm. She walked off the dock just as a golf cart came rolling up to the end of the dock.
She squinted behind her sunglasses and shielded her face from the sun with her free hand to get a better look at who was driving. Then she stopped.
“What’s he doing here?” she asked quietly. JT shifted her bags under his arms and glanced up. She hadn’t let him take her guitar case from her, since his hands had been full with her other luggage.
“Oh, that’s Calvin. He runs the place now.” JT continued down the dock.
She’d known Calvin Winters for what seemed like her entire life. The man was her brother’s best friend. She’d only met him personally a handful of times back in her preteen years, when Ben and he had been going to the same boarding school. Back when she’d been an awkward teen with pimples, uncontrollable hair, and skinny legs that were too long for her body.
She’d had a crush on him from the moment she’d laid eyes on the picture Ben had sent of the pair of them at school.
The first time she’d met him was the year he’d tagged along with Ben on their summer vacation, when his parents had had something to deal with and hadn’t wanted their son around. Calvin had gone along with their family to Cancun for two weeks. He’d been a broody thirteen-year-old and Bella’s nine-year-old heart had been lost instantly. The entire trip, he’d barely said two words to her, but she’d lost her heart all the same.