Her Man

By Amanda M. Holt

When the health of Sara's beloved Aunt Caroline takes a turn for the worst, the CEO of a Silcon Valley graphics software firm finds herself on an airplane headed for Vancouver. A fellow passenger with a fear of flying and a quirky sense of humor manages to make the trip a little more enjoyable. At this very difficult time, Brian's charm and witticism are a great comfort to Sara. They exchange phone numbers and empassioned glances... Sara finds herself intrigued. Brian has awakened something in her, something nameless and feminine and pleasantly distracting.

Will she meet up with this charming stranger again?

The beauty of British Columbia is the backdrop for this contemporary modern romance that cherishes family love, mourns loss and celebrates the hidden potential of all chance encounters...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amanda M. Holt
• Release date: Apr 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476184470

Amanda M. Holt

Let's see... I was born in Revelstoke, British Columbia. Raised in Small Town, Manitoba and spent my adult life in different Manitoban locales: Dauphin, Ste. Rose du Lac, Ochre River, The Pas, and now - Thompson! I'm the oldest daughter of an oldest daughter. I believe that guns don't kill people: people kill people. I also believe that, contrary to the behavior of the main character in my Shades of Grey Series, people with mental illness are not typically violent (read the statistics, it's true...and besides, if you make it to Book 4 of Shades of Grey, you will be [spoiler alert] wondering if she is ill, or not ill, or...? What the-? I intend to keep you guessing! Until I leave you quivering and satisfied, that is!) I've worked many JOBS over the years, but am now in a CAREER in Health Care that I find very gratifying. That being said, as you would likely hear from any aspiring author, if there comes a day that my first love (writing) enables me to write from day thru night without having to worry about making the rent or putting groceries on the table (anotherwords, a steady writing income), then of course I would consider retirement from my "real world" career. My first and forever true love? Writing! And there is SO much that I want to write about! Working on about seven projects in regular intervals at the moment, plus some novellas and the six completed projects that are in revision/editing...all of which will appear here on Smashwords, if they meet with their (Smashwords') standards for quality that is. At the time of writing this, I am childless (thank Heavens), seeing someone who is very special to me, and I've no pets and no houseplants. I enjoy chocolate, chai tea with a lot of milk, and coffee dolled up the same way. I eat too much ketchup (Heinz, there ain't no other kinds) and not enough sushi... I have more journals than i know what to do with, but they seem to have a starring role in keeping me sane...if not for them, if not for reflecting on my goals and motives fairly regularly, I'm certain that I would have made some very poor choices in bedpartners, purchases, habits and careers. My advice to anyone literate? Journal. Write down your thoughts, goals, aspirations and reflect on them at least once a month. If I am on a track, on a path, it seems to me as though journalling seems to keep me on it. My advice to anyone who wants to write a book? If you can carry on a conversation during a coffee break and tell a well-spun tale or joke, you are entirely capable of writing a book...especially if you have some noteable life experiences to draw from. There's inspiration for that book (or books) all around you. Don't look: SEE!!! And don't procrastinate: DO!!! (Now if I can just follow my own advice :) ). I've had 15+ stories (novellas and full length novels) published at publishers other than Smashwords, but I don't think that it's in good taste to print the names of those companies here, where i'm supposed to be promoting Smashwords novels. Suffice to say, they are small publishing houses, not New York publishing house giants! All that being said, i'll update this if/when anything noteworthy happens in my life. Sincere regards and happy reading! Amanda M. Holt NOTEWORTHY NOTE: All of my titles that were available as Kindle format at Amazon will soon (all) be available here at Smashwords. I just have to hurry up and do the formatting, and ideally they will pass the Smashwords standards review. Thank you for your patience, understanding and support of both my work and my chosen charities, which benefit from a portion of my royalties/sales. Future works will feature donations to other charities near and dear to my heart. Writing has taken a back-seat to other pursuits... will increase writing productivity soon. Sincere regards & happy reading, Amanda M. Holt July, 2013

Book preview

Her Man

Amanda M. Holt

Dedication: For my Aunts Ellen and Nadina, who lost their battle with cancer. For all that they meant to us and all that they will never have the chance to mean.

Published by Amanda M. Holt at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Amanda M. Holt

Discover other titles by Amanda M. Holt at Smashwords.com

Winter 2011/Spring2012

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Donation Pledge:

I will be donating a portion of the proceeds of this eBook to the Canadian Cancer Society in memory of my Aunt Ellen and Aunt Nadina.

Your purchase has contributed to cancer prevention, finding a cure and supporting those affected by cancer.

You can visit the Canadian Cancer Society at http://www.cancer.ca/

Chapter One:

Sara Lawman had been an intelligent child and her aptitude and appetite for things of an academic nature only improved as she aged. By the time she turned thirteen, her name had become synonymous with words like genius and protégé. Taking an early childhood interest in computers meant that anything with a keypad that ran on programming software soon fell under her domain of study.

In raising their daughter, the Lawmans, John and Felicia, took great pride and effort in nurturing Sara's two greatest interests: computers and art. They provided their brilliant daughter with an art studio in one of their estate's spare rooms, or as she called it Cave One. They had also outfitted Sara with several thousand dollars of computer equipment in her large upstairs bedroom, or as she called it, Cave Two.

It was in effect everything she could ever want. She rarely left her Caves except to eat, attend school, and interact with family. She remained something of a loner, an introvert, well into puberty.

Even as a teenager, it had been hard to coax her away from her desktop computer or most recent canvas.

Electronics and art were indeed her two first loves.

Her first human love she had met in the tenth grade. Enter Jonathan Myers, the tall gorgeous shaggy haired guy in her Advanced Calculus course… After her bold attempt at asking him out on a date – the very first date of her teenaged life, no less – she had been heartbroken to learn that he did not date nerds.

After the tears, Sara had more or less accepted her fate.

She was a nerd.

If a crush in Advanced Calculus considered her to be a nerd, then…well…chances were she was a nerd.

The life of a nerd it was, then!

To many, it now looked as though she might follow in her father's footsteps. In some ways, she did.

Her father had, at twenty-six years of age, founded the MicroCorp computer software corporation that would make him a multi-millionaire by age thirty.

A true child of the Silicon Valley and the electronic age, Sara had cut her teeth on programming languages like LOGO, BASIC and Pascal. In high school, she studied the higher level languages of COBOL, C, C++ and .Net. She spent her childhood years with her electronic friends Commodore and Macintosh. Spent her teenage years with IBM, Apple, Toshiba and Dell.

While this love affair with the machine world fed her hunger for things technological, the artist in her quenched its thirst for fantasy in the impressionist paintings of Claude Monet, the surrealist work of Salvadore Dali, the abstract genius of Picasso and even the dark futuristic whimsy of the contemporary artist H.R. Giger.

Sara mimicked the styles of these, her favorite artists, creating several pieces of art in her spare time. Trips to the art gallery satisfied her appreciation for fine art. eBay purchases of Giger pieces and Luis Royo prints satisfied her love of the realm of fantasy art.

Her parents denied her nothing, as their lifestyle granted them the freedom to do so.

John's fame and fortune had come at a price, though. Sara had been raised in the public eye, beneath the constant scrutiny of the tabloids who took every opportunity they had to invade the privacy of the family.

She became the poster child sweetheart of the electronic frontier. Anyone who knew of the legendary John Lawman could likely name her as his daughter.

Sara graduated from high school, with honors, at the tender age of sixteen. At age twenty, fresh out of university, she drew up a business plan for a computer graphics software company and began looking for investors.

It was in computer graphics that she could effectively combine her many talents. Following a hefty loan from her father, her company Draw! Inc. was born and with it her newfound savvy for the business side of the software industry.

She was indeed following in her father's footsteps...

Sara was able to repay her loan from John shortly after her first software title Draw! 1 hit the market. It sold thirty million copies in its first release: she was a self-made millionaire in a matter of two years. Upon taking her company public, her personal fifty one percent stake in Draw! Inc. swelled to the tens of millions of dollars.

John and Felicia were proud.

Though founder and CEO of Draw! Inc., Sara still spent much of her time overseeing the company's Research and Development Division. Many of her ideas were good - some would even say visionary - so between her and the rest of Draw! Inc.'s think tank, they were able to keep the demand for their products a high one.

With the release of Draw! 7 scheduled in three months, she had even more to be proud of.

Now, at age twenty-six, she was looking forward to semi-retirement at thirty.

Her plans for the building of her dream home were already well underway in Sausilito and she was looking into other properties around the globe.

Spouseless and childless, Sara had moved out of home during college.

She lived alone in the upper floor of an old peanut factory that had been renovated and subdivided into two huge living spaces. Beneath her polished wood floors lived the pleasant gay couple, Bruce and Terry, who often invited her over for their specialty treats: margueritas and teriyaki shish kabobs. The couple owned a boutique in San Francisco that did very well and even had its own mail order catalogues and online shopping site.

As much as she adored her neighbors, so did she love her condo.

The peanut factory had been a handyman's dream which now revealed her eclectic, if not diverse tastes. She hadn't seen it fit to remove the exposed piping that ran along the ceiling; instead, she'd had it painted black and put a coordinating black fireplace in one of the red brick walls. An original H. R. Giger painting of a futuristic New York City hung over the fireplace. On the mantel were a few of the statuettes she had brought back from a trip to Kenya with her parents and two antique bronze plates.

Her black leather sectional and entertainment center occupied one half of her step-down living room, a mirror-backed bar area and home office occupied the other. Her kitchen was stainless steel everything.

Everything from the cupboards to the pantry doors to the fridge to the stove to the dishwasher - even the sinks - were done in the same stainless steel.

Bruce and Terry thought that it was butch, or masculine of her to have such an industrial feel to her living arrangements, but she felt comfortable here, as comfortable as she had been in her parents’ home outside of Silicon Valley.

Her bedroom was on an outcropping that one could reach by ascending a spiraling wrought iron staircase. There, a print of Claude Monet's Water Lilies overlooked the black satin sheets that covered her king sized bed. Beneath the outcropping was her walk in closet and the large bathroom where she was now just stepping out of the shower she had taken after her long hard day at the office.

Sara toweled herself off quickly and dressed simply, in a white tank top and khaki shorts.

She looked herself over in the mirror as she put a brush through her wet strawberry blond hair. There were the intelligent green eyes that she had in common with her father, but there also was her mother's small nose, on which there was a light dusting of freckles. She also had her mother's lips, the top one thinner than its pouty bottom counterpart. They were rosebud-shaped lips, kissable lips.

Hers wasn't a face that one would call overly beautiful, she thought, but more along the lines of pretty, perhaps even cute.

Cute doesn’t get a nerd like me very far in the dating scene though, she decided aloud, a small frown touching the corners of her mouth.

Sometimes, life was very lonely at the top and she often found herself longing for that life mate, that companion that some people in the world seemed able to find – and keep. Other times, she valued her independence so much… She had no one to answer to, could come and go as she pleased, could do as she liked, could go anywhere, do anything, be anything she wanted to be.

Still, let’s not kid ourselves, it does get lonely. Especially at night. And especially bad at night around holidays and special occasions…

With a wistful sigh Sara left the bathroom and glanced at the clock on the red brick wall. It was five thirty. If she was going to meet her father for supper at six o'clock at the family home in San Rafael, she'd better hurry.

With no time for makeup and no real need for any, she rubbed a bit of sunscreen into her lightly tanned skin, slipped on her sandals, grabbed her purse and her keys and headed out the door, unto her small verandah. As she walked down the steps that would take her to the garage, she regretted not bringing her sunglasses.

It was as bright as it was hot outside, though a bit humid for mid-May in San Francisco.

She unlocked the door of the garage she shared with Bruce and Terry and stepped inside. It was a bit cooler in here, though not by much. She walked past Bruce's flashy red Corvette and Terry's silver BMW, until she was standing in front of her modest but tasteful pewter colored VW Jetta. There she unlocked the door with her keyless remote, climbed in and activated the garage door opener. The Jetta purred to life as soon as she turned the key in the ignition - she pulled out of the garage into the back alley and was soon on her way to San Rafael.

On the way there, she had plenty of time to wonder about the somber tones her fathers' voice had taken over the phone. He had said he had something important to discuss with her and in truth, she couldn't imagine what that 'something' could be.

Would she care to join him for supper? Of course she would! Since she had moved out of home, between his busy schedule and hers they didn't see each other as often as they'd like.

With her mother Felicia in Vancouver these last few months, her father had been taking his spare time to fly up there to spend time with her.

She couldn’t help but wonder if there her Aunt Caroline’s health was taking a turn for the worst. Aunt Caroline was the reason her mother was up in Vancouver in the first place.

Caroline, a cancer patient whose health had recently gone from bad to worse, had been the recipient recently of more bad news.

Just how bad things had gotten, it was hard to Sara to say.

The last she had heard, the doctors had been hopeful in their diagnosis, but only just.

Caroline was a very sick woman.

In denial about her illness, true, and a fighter in every quarrel, also true – but ill and no amount of feisty spirit was going to change that.

Sara wondered how her Aunt was doing and knew that she should soon take time out of her schedule to go up to Canada to see her, as she had many times in previous years.

The twenty minute drive to San Rafael passed quickly. She was soon cruising through the security gates and down the long paved driveway that ended at the grand Tudor mansion that served as the Lawman family estate. She parked in front of the garage, left the Jetta and rapped twice on the white front door.

Her knock was soon answered by Martin, the Lawman's six-foot-five cocoa-skinned butler. She kissed the large man on the cheek before he could offer his cordial greetings.

Hi, Martin. She beamed up at the friendly giant, Good to see you.

The friendly giant smiled in kind. Good to see you too, Miss Lawman. Your father's waiting for you in the dining room.

Sara walked the short distance from the front door to the dining room, saw that her gray haired father was already seated, at the head of the table, reading a newspaper. There was a setting laid out for her at his right. His green eyes sparkled as they beheld his red haired daughter.

He looked happy to see her, but also guarded somehow, which made her wary.

Hi Daddy, she sang, crossed the room and kissed him on the cheek.

Good evening Sara. He replied, as Martin seated her. How was your day?

Busy as always. She sighed. It was a nice change, leaving work early to take supper with you.

And I appreciate it, dear. John studied his daughter a moment. You know, it's been a while since we've had a meal together.

I know, I'm sorry. I've been rather busy lately. She cut to the chase, her curiosity getting the best of her: You said you had something you wanted to discuss with me?

I'm flying out tomorrow morning to join your mother in Vancouver. I think you should come with me. His dark green eyes watched her intently for her reaction. She felt like a bug beneath a magnifying glass, under his close perusal...

His tone had implied that she's better go with him. She had a good idea why.

Aunt Caroline. She said weakly. Has she gotten worse?

He nodded and couldn’t hide his frown of concern. Much worse. The doctors say her cancer has progressed from being treatable to terminal. It has spread to areas they cannot even treat with surgery. The chemotherapy has all but failed her. She is adamantly refusing to undergo any more treatment. She’s considered palliative now. They have given Caroline less than two months to live.

Shock hit Sara squarely in her chest. Two months? She gasped. That can't be right - I just spoke with Aunt Caroline...

She just found out today, with the most recent barrage of tests. John folded his paper in two. Her liver is failing and the cancer spread months ago to her lymph nodes, her brain.

I had no idea things had gotten so bad...

Caroline kept us all in the dark until she became frustrated enough with her situation to tell your mother the truth. She wanted to suffer the worst in silence, while hoping for the best. John grimaced as he considered Caroline's courage. You know your aunt better than most, Sara. She's as stubborn as your mother. If only that stubborn streak could have healed her some, rather than hindered, in the beginning of her illness. It's a shame, really. If she had stopped drinking when the symptoms first appeared…if she had gotten the help she had needed…

Sara straightened in her chair and returned his woeful green eyed glance. When are you leaving?

Nine tomorrow morning. He replied. I know it's awfully short notice, but from what your mother has told me, it seems your aunt may have only a matter of weeks left. It would be good for us to be there, in support of them both. His tone became even more grim. There’s no mincing words Sara. It will be the last time you'll see your Aunt Caroline alive.

Trust Daddy to cut right down to the heart of the matter in the most blunt, most matter-of-fact way. Sara thought of her commitments at her company and felt guilt touch her as she considered declining his offer or negotiating a shorter trip out.

Seeing the look on his weary face, Sara felt her reluctance vanish.

I'm sure I can juggle things around at the office. It wouldn't be the first time I've been away from work. I should be able to leave there by late afternoon, provided there's a flight then.

Martin came through the short hall from the kitchen, two steaming plates in his hands. He set one before each of them and her senses were tantalized by the aroma of chicken, herbed rice and steamed broccoli. As good as it looked, as hungry as she was, the bad news had quelled her appetite a great deal.

Her Aunt Caroline was going to die.

Food had never looked more unappetizing.

You can't join me on the Citation? The Cessna jet was one of her