The Rebound Project

By Mia Silverton

After being left in tears weeks before her wedding, Kelsey Channing’s only goal was survival. Survival meant paying her debts—by working multiple jobs if necessary—and keeping her professional dream alive. Kelsey was not—repeat not—looking for a rebound to mend her broken heart, no matter how often her friends said that was a solid plan.

Screenwriter Cade Grinner’s new farm came with a home to rehab, peace and quiet from his ex from hell, and a chance to get over his damaged pride. Unfortunately, since saying yes to hiring Dr. Kelsey Channing, it also came with a hot housekeeper who flipped his world upside down every time he saw her.

Then one joking comment sparked a new kind of interest, the start of a journey to heal themselves, and a crazy project outline that may or may not get them in trouble.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mia Silverton
• Release date: Oct 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9780999102640

Mia Silverton

Mia Silverton is a St. Louis born, contemporary women’s fiction and romance author. As a writer, she feels called to help change lives in a different way — by crafting dynamic stories. She promises to bring worlds full of strong characters, witty fun dialogue filled with heroes and heat. She strongly believes that we can all find happiness, sanctuary and even healing in a beautifully written book. Many times in the past, a well crafted phrase, word or story created a shift in her when the time was needed and she feels called to pay that forward. Mia loves to interact with her readers and you can connect with her on FB, Instagram, Twitter or visit at www.miasilverton.com. Make sure to stay up to date with the latest and greatest news by joining Mia’s Silver Pen Tribe on her website. https://twitter.com/miamsilverton https://www.instagram.com/miamsilverton/ https://www.facebook.com/mia.silverton.5

Book preview

Part One

I told her I was lost in this world,

and she smiled,

because she was too,

we were all lost somehow,

but we didn’t care,

we had, in the chaos,

found each other

—Atticus

CHAPTER 1

The end table of polished walnut went out the door.

Next went the four kitchen chairs.

And the kitchen table went with them…

She was graciously left with the TV, but the console it had rested upon—and she had loved—went out soon after, along with the solid brass lamp that, well okay, Kelsey wasn’t really all that fond of.

She stood there in a mind-numbing daze as four men stripped her place, piece by piece, of each item listed on Jason’s decree of ownership. One thing after another that they had bought together and created their home with.

Each thing was ultimately just a thing in the wide, wide world of things and therefore easily replaced, but what hurt was what all of it had represented together.

What they had been together. A couple on their way to a great future. At least that was what she thought they had had.

Near crippling pain hit when two guys wrapped up and carried out the landscape she and Jason had broken their budget on at an art fair when they had been newly dating.

Each time a uniformed man walked away with something, it was like they tore off and took another piece of Kelsey’s heart and soul with it.

Her inner Wolverine claws managed to come out when they tried to pack up her first edition Tolkien’s that had taken an entire summer’s worth of savings to win off eBay, and Kelsey found her spine again when they dared to go after her healing crystal collection.

Some things were still sacred and worth fighting for.

And they were definitely not on Jason’s list.

Other than those two encouraging moments that she would survive the humiliation, Kelsey Channing spent the morning sniffling back tears and trying to present a stoic facade until Kaitlin arrived to provide a solid wall of friendship, animosity, and narrow-eyed shrewdness. She stood at Kelsey’s side, muttering rude threats at the moving men who had jerked Kelsey abruptly out of bed with a knock on her door that sounded like a cannon going off.

I hope one of them trips and trashes that tacky mirror Jason insisted on having. Why did he want it again?

Defeat almost won, but Kelsey dug deep. Wallowing could come later and she still had to go to work. Something about the Spanish Baroque period. It’s okay. Let them take it. The equally tacky brass lamp goes perfectly with it.

Kaitlin wrapped an arm around Kelsey’s shoulders and smiled without any warmth as the burly guy who looked like a hairy blond ape came back in to grab another box of just packaged up items.

The man Kelsey had loved had coldly sent movers to take back his furniture from the apartment they had shared together up until a few weeks ago, when everything in her life had started to fall apart. Her business plans, her life plans, and most certainly her plans for a home, husband, and family of her own.

To nail down exactly how much he cared about her feelings and how much of a priority she was in his life, Jason hadn’t even bother to notify her that they were coming. Blank shock had left her staring at the papers the movers had shoved under her nose while they stood there waiting to see if she would move out of their way. Her protests had been met by deaf ears, along with the casual mention of legal action.

Her phone rang. Kelsey grabbed it off the counter, and her hands shook as she hit the button, moving away where Kaitlin couldn’t hear. Jason. Thank God. Could you have waited any longer to call me back?

Please, some of us have actual lives. I had an eight a.m. tee time to catch.

There are movers here. Why are you doing this?

Cold laughter rang in her ear. I think that would be more than obvious. I have a new place and sent for my things. Don’t tell me you believed any differently.

I thought… I just thought maybe we could try to talk again. Kelsey hated herself more for nearly begging.

Jason sighed. The kind of sad and frustrated sigh he got when trying to make her understand why something was important. Kelsey heard him call to someone in the background to wait up. Golfing while her home was being dismantled.

Look, Kelsey, I don’t know what it’s going to take for you to get the message, but we’re over. All of it. I took my clothes out weeks ago and I closed on a new condo last week. Do you get it now? I’m sorry. Move on and face reality.

The call cut off abruptly, leaving Kelsey bent over and trying to breathe as her lungs seized up. Her chest slammed with pain as though she’d been kicked.

Jason had said to face reality. Well, that was a harsh lesson to learn and life was teaching her a mean one right now. Denial of reality was something those that had hope clung to and hope for a different reality had just burned up on a green manicured fairway somewhere far, far away.

When she managed to straighten up again, the first thing Kelsey’s eyes focused on was the World’s Most Exotic Places calendar, which held some of her travel dreams, still hanging in her kitchen. One little square was circled in an effervescent heart of red and pink, oblivious to her misery.

Today was the day she would always remember as Jason’s final act of betrayal.

Saturday, August ٢٢nd.

One week from what would have been her wedding day.

CHAPTER 2

I’m fine. Really. Kelsey insisted as she sat in her car, talking on the phone.

Are you sure? Today had to have been awful with Jason getting his things like that. He could have been a little nicer about it, but of course not. His Royal Piggyness had to be a jerk, as usual.

Really, I’m all right. Jason didn’t show up in person, just the movers were there, and Kaitlin came by to make sure I was okay. And Kaitlin would have taken care of telling Tara, which was why Kelsey was currently on the phone with her. I didn’t call you because I knew the boys had a big game today.

Tara huffed in irritation. Regardless, you should have called. This was important, and I would have been there.

Kelsey had to smile at Tara’s loyalty and vengeful tone. I know you would have. Listen, I have to run and get this last job done.

They hung up a few minutes later, but Kelsey just continued to sit in her car, staring at the three-hundred-plus-year-old farmhouse. It stood as a testament to time and represented resilience, no matter what life or Mother Nature might throw out. The wraparound porch and tin roof might have been quaint to some, but Kelsey found it so charming that she couldn’t help but fall in love. The house spoke of nothing but home and peace waiting inside the old white walls. Acres of rolling hills and autumn-colored forests lining the edges of fields provided the perfect backdrop to the house. Finishing the view was an old cedar barn faded to aged silver resting a ways off from the house, capable of storing anything in its vast depths.

The view helped soften the pain of Jason’s actions and all she had lost. A normally upbeat and happy person was allowed to wallow in an itty bitty shitty committee pity party for just a few moments, where no one could see it.

And no one could see where she was right now, stalling before going in to work her second job of cleaning houses to make ends meet. Jason hadn’t only bailed on their personal relationship; he’d abandoned their professional partnership as well. Lending companies didn’t really care what your personal saga was — they just wanted their payments on time or else.

It was all figureoutable. Kelsey Channing had grown up in a house where you figured things out yourself because, most likely, everyone else was busy with some detail of their own lives. That was the downfall of a large family. So she was doing exactly that — figuring it out and paying her bills instead of going under as she supposed Jason gleefully and snidely predicted she would. Kelsey would be damned if she was going to lose all the years of hard work she’d put into the amazing little office she’d built for her Chiropractic practice.

It took a few more sniffling and stuttering deep breaths, along with a promise to herself that she could cry later, before she could walk up the lawn to let herself into the farmhouse.

Hello? she called extra loud, just in case.

Sometimes the owner was outside on the farm, and sometimes he was still lazing around, napping on one of the huge leather couches in the living room. Cade Grinner definitely liked his downtime.

She let herself indulge momentarily in the fantasy of lazing around on a beach somewhere in a sun-dazed coma — before remembering that would have been her honeymoon in Cancun. Another sniffling breath came out and was forced back down.

Focusing on the sounds of the house, Kelsey called out again and got no answer. Carrying her cleaning tray inside, she got to work.

The two-thousand-square-foot house wasn’t a whole lot to clean, but she’d learned over the past six weeks that Cade was kind of a slob when he got lazy. Glancing into the kitchen as she passed, Kelsey sighed. Dishes were piled in the sink, and the remains of breakfast and possibly lunch were scattered across the counters. He had chosen to be a slob this week, or he’d forgotten she was coming. Again. At least the man recognized his own limitations and had someone scheduled to shovel him out once every couple weeks.

The sounds of a tractor filtered through the open back windows of the upstairs bedroom. Hay baling season was at hand. She looked out and saw Cade rolling up the field adjacent to the house, pulling the raker to roll the already mowed hay into easy rows that could be baled later. He was far enough away that she could just make out the favored black ball cap covering the lighter brown of his hair, and a denim long-sleeved shirt he wore with jeans. For a city guy and part-time farmer, he was making good progress figuring out what worked on a farm and what didn’t.

Moving quickly, Kelsey had the heavy wrought-iron master bed stripped and the linens in the washer in just a few minutes. After the laundry was sorted and waiting for the next load, Kelsey moved on to give the bathroom a scrub. Here, the owner was, surprisingly, mostly clean.

Fresh linens on the bed, vacuuming and dusting done upstairs, she listened to the music playing via her ear buds as she hummed her way down the stairs and left the kitchen for last, since it was the worst. Tidying up the living room, Kelsey avoided entering his adjoining office. That was the one area Cade said he would personally take care of, preferring his piles of papers and books as they were for the screenwriting and scripting business he ran. Cade was still in the process of rehabbing certain areas of the house — his Farm Experiment, as he called it.

The office was clearly under construction now. She could see through the doorway that the furniture had all been moved to the center of the room. Seams of cracked plaster had been opened up and were in the process of being patched and repaired. Paint swatches were tagged on the wall. He seemed to be leaning toward a dark navy or forest green to set off the massive Mission-style desk, rolling chair, and open metal bookshelves. Kelsey took a moment to consider the angles, different light spectrums and hoped that Cade would go with the green. It would set off the honeyed oak tones of the wood better. The room would be beautiful when it was done, just like the rest of the house.

The late afternoon sun left the living room walls in faded tones of yellows and creams, and it showcased the stairwell’s heavily carved spindles that mimicked the moldings and fireplace mantel. Every room held unique touches, from exotic handwoven rugs to ethnic primitive art to make the house pop with unexpected color.

Finished cleaning the main floor, Kelsey took a deep breath and steeled herself to walk into a kitchen full of cream-colored Shaker-style cabinets and dark-veined granite counters. A bomb had clearly and recently gone off in here, making it the longest and hardest place to clean.

The sound of the tractor increased as it came up the line of field closer to the house and faded away in the distance again as it turned to make a sweep down another row. What on Earth had possessed a guy to split living between the city and ninety minutes away in Millbrook?

As Cade’s housekeeper, she was bound to respect his privacy, but she was still curious. Kaitlin and Tara also wondered, and had asked on more than one occasion since Kelsey had started working for him, what the new guy, Farmer Cade, was like.

She didn’t know much more than they could have already figured out by seeing him around town. Cade wasn’t one to talk much and was always working or outside when she came by. She often thought that he was a loner and needed to smile. Those brown eyes carried a hint of loneliness, sometimes frustration and the heaviness that came with regret. Kelsey had also wondered more than once what had put that look there and if it was as bad as what she’d been through recently.

That line of wondering made her mood pop again like a bubble.

Needing to feel something other than miserable, she sneaked a glance out the window at the tractor and man still at work as she switched on a new album. Letting her voice carry with the music, Kelsey set in to work on a kitchen that obviously hadn’t been touched since the last time she’d been there.

And she sang and dreamed of a day when she wouldn’t have to clean houses anymore and the heartache of betrayal would go away.

The tractor drove smooth and straight down the last section to rake. Cade grinned. Playing around on a farm with big machinery never got old. He’d bought the property a year back to have somewhere to unwind and had never once regretted it. The twenty acres came with flowering fields, forests, and a huge pond he could fish in when the mood hit. It surprised no one more than himself how much he liked being away from the frantic pace of New York City that he had known all his life. He came up here for the quiet and to get away from people in general.

Wheeling the big machine around, Cade headed for the barn to park, with The Hills blasting from the rock station he’d tuned in to. After shutting off the tractor, he swung down to walk toward the back of the house, dusting the gloves he’d tugged off along his leg as he went.

His hand was already on the door handle and a foot inside when he registered movement, jerked out the ear buds, and took in Kelsey swaying in his kitchen while she worked. Her back was to him as she belted out some song he didn’t know in a sultry voice perfectly suited to front a band.

Dammit.

Easing out the door, practically on tiptoes, Cade left her to it and went back to the sanctuary of the barn. He’d forgotten she was coming today. Here on the farm, he didn’t worry about schedules and deadlines unless it was necessary. Kelsey always left the kitchen for last, so she should be done soon. Then he could shower off the dust of the day and puzzle out the dialogue for the scene they’d been trying to nail down for a new show in development.

Satisfied and thinking he’d figured it all out, Cade cursed again the second his feet hit the concrete pad of the barn. Kelsey would need to be paid because, once again, he’d forgotten she was coming and hadn’t left her money out where she could find it. She was so stubborn about not letting him set up an automatic system, instead preferring every payment in cash.

Automation was invented for a reason — it makes people’s lives easier, he grumbled to no one handy to listen to him complain.

He could either go back in and face a dancing, singing Kelsey, who moved the way no woman should move while cleaning a house — with grace, groove, and sensuality depending on what she was listening to. Choice number two, he could be a coward and hide in the barn until she found him after she got done.

Cade was no fool. He chose the coward’s way out and grabbed a broom. He didn’t mind taking care of the outside but hated, with a passion, cleaning his own house. In the city, he had the perfect setup with a nice grandmotherly type from Bosnia. She barely spoke a word of English and expected nothing of him in return. She showed up, cleaned, and was gone within an hour.

Kelsey, on the other hand, had been recommended by the couple who ran the hardware store in town. What Cade had expected and what he’d gotten were two entirely different things. Since they were closing in on seventy, he’d expected their daughter to be old. As in, over fifty or something. Once again, some kindly older woman who wouldn’t expect much of a guy on a farm.

Yes, technically Kelsey was their daughter, but she was the youngest of thirteen siblings and somewhere close to thirty. Maybe even younger. Cade hadn’t exactly asked. All he knew was that she was too damn attractive, sweet if not a little shy at times and given half a chance, she’d have him talking because of her natural curiosity for everything and anything.

Then there was the rest of her. Man, the Hollywood agents of the Golden Age would have considered her for endless leading lady roles. Every inch of her was packed with curves that went perfectly with the way he’d just caught her dancing. Like no one was watching.

Except him.

God, he noticed her in an unhealthy way and had learned to make it a point to be out of the house when Kelsey cleaned — except when he forgot. Which wasn’t unusual, as he tended to forget more than a few things. Currently, Cade had no idea what he would do when she came by after the colder weather hit. Buy some fucking snowshoes so he could cross-trek. Yes, that was a sound plan. He’d find some at the outfitter store in town this week. It paid to be prepared.

He still didn’t quite know how it had happened that he’d hired her. She’d stopped by to see about the job. They’d wound up talking. Well, Kelsey had talked. Cade had stood there listening, since he couldn’t make his tongue work right. She needed the job for maybe a year or less, until her primary business was up and running. Apparently, the partner she’d had lined up had bailed on her. If she was upset about it, she’d hid it well behind her sunglasses. According to her, until she had enough clients, she was doing odd jobs like cleaning and housesitting to fill in the gaps.

All Cade did remember was the flash of a dynamite smile, complete with a dimple above the right side of her lips, sparkling blue eyes when she’d removed the sunglasses, and before he knew it, he’d hired her. Now he had to live with that moment of weakness for at least a year. It didn’t seem gentlemanly to fire her before that. Besides, she was safe enough since she had a ring on her finger and was probably headed down the aisle any day now.

The idea of weddings and commitments almost made him break out in hives. He’d thought once about the possibility with another and had luckily dodged the bullet of stupidity.

Hi, Cade. How’s it going?

Cade stopped to see his housekeeper standing at the barn door. Today, all those curves were packed into faded jeans and an equally faded New York Rangers T-shirt. The New and the York were strained just enough to leave him wishing for a handy bucket of water. He could either toss it