Starting Over: Starting In Henderson County, #1

By Pamela Q. Fernandes

Cara Wallace is stunned to find Nathan Reynolds back in Henderson County. His sudden arrival brings to the fore unresolved questions of what might have been.

How could she unwrite the past?

How could she undo the mistakes?

How could she unlove him?

Nathan Reynolds can't understand why Cara chose to stay in this small town. How could she sacrifice her career, her future and their love for a small run-down cottage in the middle of nowheresville? 

Whatever her reasons, Nathan intends to find out and start over again!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pamela Q. Fernandes
• Release date: Oct 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781540121172

Pamela Q. Fernandes

Pamela Q. Fernandes is a doctor, author, and medical writer. She hosts The Christian Circle Podcast and plays the piano. When she's not writing or practicing medicine, she's baking or traveling the world. She started as an author with Seoul-Mates and since then has written many romances, UNDER A SCOTTISH SKY, CINDERS OF CASTLEREA & other short stories. Pamela writes romance, speculative fiction, women's fiction, and Christian non-fiction.

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The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, places, or events is coincidental and not intended by the author.

If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher. In such case the author has not received any payment for this stripped book.

Starting Over Copyright © 2018 Pamela Q. Fernandes

All rights reserved.

Edited By Shelly Small

Cover art By Les GermanCreative

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The copying, scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions, and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

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DEDICATION

For Betsy, Brittany, & Eleonora. 

The Friends I Made Last Fall!

Chapter 1

They say the leaves fall at a rate of five centimeters per second in autumn. Cold weather makes them fall faster. It was certainly getting colder now. The rust tones were deepening on the trees and leaf blowers had already made their appearance in many yards along her street. Cara hadn’t anticipated another fall so soon. Yet, here she was sitting at the desk watching the students complete their test.

She wiped her clammy hands on the simple burgundy cardigan she wore. Despite the pleasant chill and the cool breeze, she’d worked up a sweat as she walked from the carpark to the massive University campus to deliver her lecture and the subsequent test on Aquatic Botany. The clamminess had nothing to do with the exercise though. The students had their heads down, not that the majority had bothered to attend. She was looking at a class of twenty instead of forty and all her students were boys. Needless to say, they weren’t here for the lecture.

And that made her smile. At thirty-one she still had that girl next door look, which was exactly why her dressing had become so conservative. A long skirt that reached her ankles, simple ballet flats kept her looking tall at five six and a polo neck underneath her cardigan made her appear dowdy enough to keep away fans and potential love interests. She’d long given up on them.  

Many of the students were busy revising their papers and it gave her time to prepare. Instantly her heart kicked up and she felt the clamminess return. Someone had finally bought the Parkmore estate complete with its sprawling gardens and had asked her for a quote.

Cara occasionally dabbled in landscaping for private homes, but Parkmore was way bigger than any other private residence. Roughly ten acres and a separate lawn, private gardens within the house, and with a conservatory, it was quite a monstrous project.

A contracting company had asked her two weeks ago to submit a proposal and today she was one of three people whose designs were favored by the owner. She hadn’t been nervous while submitting her designs but today an odd sense of foreboding crept into the pit of her stomach. She’d have to deliver a presentation, say why her designs were better and that competitive streak had died in her a long time ago.

There was a time when Cara was an ace. The topper of her class and voted to be the person most likely to succeed in life, she’d been a firecracker then. Winner of every science project and class valedictorian, Cara had been on the cusp of the world. Tears laced her eyes and she looked out at the fallen leaves strewn in the yard. Her life had fallen apart like those leaves. But if anything, she wasn’t a person who wallowed in self-pity. No regrets, she murmured to herself and turned back to her class.

The alarm on her phone buzzed and she clapped her hands.

Alright pens down.

Groans and mumbling filled the room.

Time’s up guys. Turn over your paper and pass them to the front of the class.

The rustling of papers and the murmurs slowly escalated into a din as she collected the papers from the students and placed them on her desk.

Settle down, tomorrow we’ll start the chapter on lichenology and I want you to read up as much as you can on lichens. I’d appreciate if you can even do a little research on it and give me an example of one.

She quickly dismissed them, not that they required her dismissal. Most of them were already filing out by the time she finished her announcement.

Cara’s anxiety intensified. After shoving all the papers into a file, she packed her worn out satchel and proceeded to leave for the day. What’s the worst that could happen, she asked herself, she’d be rejected. It wouldn’t be the first time.

At the entrance of the college, the Dean, Benjamin Evans, stood monitoring the grounds despite the jabs from the students about his bald head and pinstripe suit. He was above such petty jokes and had been the Dean of this establishment for as long as she remembered.

She waved to him and at once he walked to her with that slight waddling gait. For a round man, he walked pretty fast. Cara didn’t have to wait long.  

Leaving so soon? Don’t you have papers to grade? he asked her fully aware of her schedule and the rest of his staff’s timings.