Somewhere to Fall in Love

By Verna Clay

Is there somewhere that the edges of reality and fantasy overlap? (A Beauty and the Beast Tale)

Saul Flanahan, a physically challenged young man, has lived an off-grid, solitary life with his parents and enjoyed their tales about mermen and mermaids inhabiting the oceans. As a child he believed their stories, but now in his mid-twenties, he indulges their whimsical proclivities because of his love for them. However, when a beautiful young woman "supposedly" washes ashore and claims to be the Princess of the Pacific, he is sure that his parents have hired a consummate actress. As to their motive, he hasn't a clue.

Raymond Johnson, III, decides to expand his non-profit veteran's organization headquartered in Portland, Oregon, to the charming and friendly coastal town of Somewhere, the birthplace of his deceased grandfather. While dining at Mama Pink's, the most popular eatery in town, he meets a cute, but clumsy waitress named Suzy, who trips and dumps his order in his lap. Rather than berate her, however, he hires her as his personal assistant. When Raymond meets Suzy's grandmother, he is confronted by a mystery involving his grandfather. Soon Raymond and Suzy are trying to piece together the senior Raymond's reason for leaving Somewhere in 1950.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Verna Clay
• Release date: Sep 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463282106

Verna Clay

"2020 Finalist - Readers' Favorite International Contest (Paranormal Romance) for SOMEWHERE by the Sea.""2014 Gold Medal Winner - Readers' Favorite International Contest (Historical Romance) for Abby: Mail Order Bride."My perfect day: coffee shop; laptop; latte; characters demanding their stories be told; a plot that comes together; and hours to live in an alternate reality.Seriously, I have always loved reading, and now I love writing. As a preteen, I devoured Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Mysteries. When I reached my teen years, the romance genre became my favorite and that has never changed. After years of procrastinating, I tried my hand at writing and I've been doing so with a passion ever since. I have written over thirty romance novels and novellas in the genres of contemporary, contemporary western, historical western, fantasy, and paranormal. Because I hate saying goodbye to characters who have lived with me for months, I usually create a series so they can be revisited from book to book. I have also written a Young Adult novella titled "Fragile Hearts" using the pen name of Colleen Clay.

Book preview

Preface

This latest book in the Finding SOMEWHERE Series is my take on the timeless narrative of Beauty and the Beast. My desire was to create a hero who doesn't realize how lonely he is until he comes face-to-face with a woman who pushes the boundaries of reality. At first, he considers her to be an actress hired by his parents to reinforce their impossible tales about mermaids. He expects that before long she will simply disappear, at which time his lovable, but simple-minded parents will smile and say, See, our tales are true.

Of course, he believes they have contrived their scheme not to emotionally harm him, but to bring magic into his otherwise monotonous existence; an existence hampered by physical deformity.

It was fun bringing Saul's story to life and watching him change through the power of love.

Verna Clay

Finding SOMEWHERE Series

SOMEWHERE by the Sea

SOMEWHERE to Spend Christmas

SOMEWHERE for a Hero to Hide

SOMEWHERE to Begin Again

SOMEWHERE to Fall in Love

Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue

1: Saul

2: Her

3: Meet the Parents

4: Baby Steps

5: Raymond, III

6: Suzy

7: Klutz

8: Shocking Encounter

9: Continuity

10: Research

11: Time's Up

12: Fiasco

13: Supper Invite

14: Shocking Revelation

15: Invitation

16: Bathing Suits Galore

17: Waves

18: Sophisticated Lady

19: Mama Pink's Diner

20: Search and Rescue

21: Time to Leave

22: Flee

23: Panic

24: Bulletin Board

25: Seagulls

26: Plea

27: Circle

28: Rehash

29: Return

30: Event

31: Savior

32: Shocker

Epilogue

Author's Note

Fragile Hearts (excerpt)

Jazmine (short story excerpt)

Novels and Novellas by Verna Clay

Prologue

Standing at the crest of Hope Hill where his house had once stood, Oliver Hope, the founder of the coastal town of Somewhere, Oregon, surveyed the ocean before turning southward to reflect on the town he had once loved—and still loved. So much so, that he had yet to enter the light of eternity.

His birds-eye view of the countryside was similar in many respects to his birds-eye view of the past. However, his ignorance during his sojourn on earth to the happenings around him, much chagrined him. After his death, he'd discovered just how much Elizabeth, his wife, had grown to detest him after he'd shattered her life by selling his import business in San Francisco, uprooting his family, and following a lifelong passion to found his own town in the wilds of Oregon in 1890. Unreasonably, he had believed everyone wanted a life of adventure, but his callousness had been the beginning of the end for his dear wife and son, Randall. They had needed adventure of a different sort. They had needed the thrill of theater, politics, parties, and anything having to do with societal accomplishments. Sadly, his wife had died a bitter woman and Randall an unfulfilled sycophant.

Turning his sad thoughts away from his family, he moved his gaze past the southern peninsula of his cove, to a grove of pines and maples protecting a small log and stone cabin, built decades before his discovery of the inlet that would accommodate his town. And again, he marveled at his narrow understanding during his lifetime. There was so much that humans either couldn't or wouldn't fathom. There were forces for good and forces for evil vying for dominance in the supernatural realm, as much as among the living.

There was also a world called fantasy that most humans didn't believe in. How wrong they were. As evidence to that fact was the family living in the cabin nestled among the trees—the Flanahans.

1: Saul

Saul Flanahan sat on his favorite boulder on a windswept dune and watched an ever roiling sea below. Shifting his deformed body to ease the pain that always occurred when he kept it in the same position for too long, he moved his gaze northward beyond the peninsula toward the town of Somewhere tucked into its beautiful cove. Every month he visited the community to stock up on supplies for his family, and always fought a desire to completely retreat from society. He mostly went to the local grocery, hardware and feed stores, so he was well known to the clerks there, but occasionally, children would stare at him or teenagers snicker among themselves. More than once he'd heard a child being scolded by a parent for staring, or an adult deride young people for their insensitivity. Long ago, he had come to expect every untoward gesture, and hated that it still hurt. And the fact that spring was on the cusp of becoming summer meant that more people would arrive in town.

As the luminous orange sun dropped farther below the horizon, infusing the sky with golden swirls, Saul watched the lights of Somewhere twinkle to life and mentally began ticking off a list for an upcoming supplies run. After completing the list he still wasn't ready to follow the path back to the cabin where he lived with his parents. There was something so magical about twilight with a full moon blazing down on the town's shimmering lights. He watched a shooting star zip downward until its brightness faded, followed by two more. Seeing three shooting stars within seconds was unusual and he remembered something his father had recently said.

The stars will bring her.

Thinking about his short, rotund and loveable father, with his shiny bald head and overactive imagination, Saul smiled. His mother, even shorter and more rotund, with a mane of flaming red hair that hadn't a hint of gray, and an imagination to rival her husband's, made his smile widen. As far back as he could remember his parents had spoken reverently of the mermaids and mermen that inhabited the seas of the world. They had even gone so far as to declare that the Flanahans had been chosen two hundred years ago to protect the Pacific Ocean Princesses during their short sojourns on earth.

Saul chuckled into a sudden gust of wind that blew in from the ocean. According to his father and mother, another mermaid was destined to arrive because it was Saul's providence to teach the young royal the ways of the land people. Supposedly, before he was born, they had tutored the previous Pacific Princess, as had every generation of his family, every princess, for the past two centuries.

Of course, Saul loved the fantasy they had created with such conviction, but in reality he considered it to be poppycock. And when one day he'd said, So, since I shall never marry and have children, what will become of our mandate to enlighten mermaid princesses.

His father had smiled and replied, It will end when it ends. Of that I am sure.

His mother had agreed, So, true, my darling.

2: Her

Forcing her body upward toward the evening light that was rapidly fading, the young female broke through the surface of the water and gasped for air. She fought to remain conscious as excruciating pain in her lungs surged outward to engulf her entire body.

So much pain.

Turning onto her back she floated and fixed her gaze on three stars shooting across the sky in rapid succession. When the trail of the final one was extinguished, so was her pain. Inhaling slowly and deeply of salty air, she closed her eyes and moved with the swells, no longer fearful.

In her mind she relived her father's final admonishment to be brave, strong, and know that the spirits were with her. Then she remembered her mother's embrace and goodbye kiss; the shimmer of tears in her eyes. Her mother's final words had been, It's time to face your destiny, my dear daughter.

Damaris moved her gaze toward land and watched tiny dots of light spring to life. They weren't stars. They were the lights that came alive every evening when the sun died. They were the lights on land that she saw whenever she surfaced at night by thrusting upward with the golden tail unique to her royal family.

Thinking about her tail made Damaris gasp and glance downward. Her beautiful tail and fins were gone, replaced by…legs. She almost panicked, but then her mother's words again comforted her. It's time to face your destiny, my dear daughter.

The waves were bringing her close to shore, which caused flutters to swirl in her stomach. Soon she would have to leave the only home she had ever known, the ocean, and brave the unknown—land.

Saul rose slowly from his perch, reached for the cane that assisted with his hip deformity, and awkwardly turned toward the trail leading to his home. As he did so, however, something on the shore in the distance captured his attention. He squinted and then gasped. Was he seeing an injured seal, a large bird, a human?

Using his cane to propel himself, he descended as fast as possible down the trail to the beach and the shadowy figure. Soon, he realized he was moving toward a human. Oh, hell! he shouted into the now whipping wind and pushed himself even harder. Please don't be dead, he whispered.

At twenty feet away he saw long, dark hair spreading across the sand and the body of a naked female. He reached her and awkwardly dropped to the ground. Her head was turned away so he only saw half of her face, and the full moon now shrouded by clouds, blurred any details. Instinct, however, told him she was beautiful. With trembling fingers he felt for a pulse in her neck.

Again, he whispered, Please don't be dead. His fingers felt a pulse and she moaned. He rasped, Thank God! Thank God! With more certainty than he felt, he said, Lady, I'm going to help you, but first I have to see how badly you're injured. Gently, he reached for her arm and felt for broken bones. Not finding any, he tested her other arm. It also seemed intact. He glanced back at the young woman who had opened her eyes and was watching him. Rearing backward he explained, I'm…I'm testing for broken bones.

She blinked and croaked, Thank you.

Saul, conscious of the female's nakedness, awkwardly jerked his jacket off and spread it over her. I need to check your legs for broken bones, too, he said.

The woman moved her legs and replied, My legs appear to be working appropriately.

Although her response was strange, Saul honed in on the fact that her legs seemed to be fine. When she started to sit up, he said, Whoa. I think you'd better stay very still and tell me who you are and how you got here.

Damaris knew that revealing her identity as Princess of the Pacific to anyone other than her caregiver was forbidden and recalled her mother's coaching. Reveal nothing until you are certain you are in the presence of your caregiver. When you can feel the heart of the chosen one, you will know it is your duty to reveal the truth. And even though your human will know the truth, he or she will not speak of it until you make yourself known. It is the way of our people and theirs.

Replying cautiously, Damaris said, I cannot tell you how I came to be here, nor can I reveal my name.

The young man leaned slightly backward and it was then that she became aware of his misshapen form. His body was curved in an unusual way toward his right side and then sprouted upward again with a slight hump on his back. It seemed most ungainly and awkward. In the burgeoning darkness she could see very little of