Hope's Dream

By Peggy Jaeger

Hope Kildaire gave up her dream of becoming a nurse practitioner when a car accident killed her father and left her mother an invalid. Working two jobs and caring for her mother leaves the twenty-seven-year-old with no time for fun or relationships. When a law firm representing her paternal grandparents sends her several letters, Hope ignores them. She despises the family who disowned her father and wants nothing to do with them.

Lawyer Tyler Coleman's job is simply to obtain Hope's signature on a legal document. Getting it is harder than planned, though, when an unexpected attraction blossoms between them. If Ty is honest with Hope about why he's in Willow Springs, he'll fulfill his assignment but may risk hurting her.

The opportunity to have everything she's ever desired is at Hope's fingertips. Will her dream come true at the expense of Tyler's love?

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
• Release date: Nov 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781509223510

Peggy Jaeger

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes Romantic Comedies about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer! Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child. When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales. As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go "What??!"

Book preview

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As he started back toward the inn, his hands secured in his pockets against the night chill and his neck burrowed under his scarf, he realized he needed to tell her who he was before this went any further. He should have done it tonight, as he’d originally planned. Why he hadn’t was as clear to him as the night sky above: he was frightened once she knew the truth she’d want nothing to do with him.

Could he blame her? While he hadn’t outright lied, he hadn’t told her the truth, either. Which was worse? An intentional fabrication or a lie of omission? Both felt equally wrong right now.

Disappointment had clouded her face when he’d broken their kiss. She felt something for him. That look proved it. He could only hope once she knew who he really was and why he was in her home town, she’d be able to forgive his subterfuge.

Books from Peggy Jaeger

The MacQuire Women Series

The Voices of Angels

Passion’s Palette

Skater’s Waltz

There’s No Place Like home

First Impressions

The San Valentino Family

3 Wishes (A Candy Hearts Romance)

A Kiss Under the Christmas Lights

Christmas and Cannolis (coming December 2018)

A Match Made in Heaven Series

Dearly Beloved, Book 1

Hope’s Dream

by

Peggy Jaeger

Deerbourne Inn

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Hope’s Dream

COPYRIGHT © 2018 by Margaret-Mary Jaeger

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Cover Art by Diana Carlile

The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

PO Box 708

Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History

First Sweetheart Rose Edition, 2018

Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-2351-0

Deerbourne Inn

Published in the United States of America

Dedication

For Larry—who taught me how to get up again

when I fell, in skiing and in life.

Chapter One

Quaint.

A description Tyler Coleman had never used before, but it fit the structure he stood in front of with his suitcase in one hand, his briefcase slung across his shoulder. The Deerbourne Inn. A sprawling gothic Victorian mansion in Willow Springs, Vermont, where he’d booked a room for a week, determined to put an end to one of his most daunting assignments.

Tyler stomped the wet snow from the bottom of his designer shoes and flexed his toes to get some warmth back into them. When he entered the inn, he was immediately greeted by a tall man who appeared a few years older than his thirty-one. Where Tyler was still garbed in the somber suit he’d worn to the office before driving up from Manhattan, the man looked comfortable in a long-sleeved plaid shirt, the cuffs rolled back, a white T-shirt beneath it, and jeans. Work boots covered his feet.

Mr. Coleman?

Tyler offered his hand and nodded.

Nate Harte. I’m the owner. He swiped his hand down across one thigh before shaking Tyler’s outstretched one. Sorry. I was just in the kitchen doing some prep work.

That accounted for the slight aroma of garlic wafting from him.

My receptionist, Jared, is out running an errand for me, or he’d be the one greeting you. Your room’s all ready. Follow me.

He escorted Tyler up a main staircase, wide enough for both of them to fit across. At the top, Nate turned to the left and continued to the end of a long hallway. The wooden floors groaned under their footfalls.

When you booked the room, you mentioned you’d be working while you stayed with us—Nate slid a brass key into the door lock and turned it—so I gave you a corner room. It’s quieter at this end of the house.

Tyler glanced around the room, taking in the period design and furnishings. Wallpaper covered with red and white cabbage roses adorned the walls from crown molding around the ceilings to the floor. A queen-sized bed jutted from one wall, a comforter patterned similarly to the walls, draped across it. The only other furniture in the room, aside from the braided and frayed rug on the floor next to the bed, were a bedside table with an antique glass-domed lamp on top of it and a large armoire settled in one corner. A bowl of potpourri on the table brought a momentary flashback of Christmas trees to his mind.

Rustic and homey replaced quaint in his description.

You shouldn’t be bothered by any strange noises down here, Nate said.

The inquisitive lawyer in him asked, Strange noises?

The innkeeper cupped the side of his neck and tossed him a half grin Tyler took for embarrassment. Old house. It tends to creak and moan, especially now the weather’s gotten cold and we’ve had our first snowfall. Plus…

Yup, embarrassed it was. But why?

Plus?

Well, since you’re booked for a week, I’m gonna assume you’ll hear someone mention our resident ghost. You might as well know about her up front. She won’t cause any trouble, but you might hear her laughing. Not everyone does, though.

Tyler stared at him for a beat. After practicing law for over six years and dealing with all manner of people, he could tell more times than not when he was being gaslighted. Nate Harte was as serious as a heart attack.

I’ll be one of those who won’t hear a thing, he assured the man. No worries.

Nate handed him the room key. The fireplace isn’t operational, but the room should be warm enough for you. Anything you need, you let me or my housekeeper, Liz, know. She’s around every day. You can’t miss her.

I’m planning on doing some skiing at Sugarbush while I’m here, and I didn’t have a chance to get any gear before I drove up. This was a last minute trip. Is there a place around here I can buy some outerwear, rent some ski equipment?

Well, you can rent skis at Sugarbush, but you can also get them here in town from North Sports Outfitters. You’ll find everything you need—jackets, hats, all the rest. Plus, Jacques Demers, the owner, rents equipment. Mention you’re staying here, and he’ll give you a discount.

Before he left, Nate told him the breakfast dining room hours, gave him the password to the wireless network which was only live in the common room of the inn, and reiterated his directive to notify him or his housekeeper if he needed anything specific.

No wi-fi in the rooms posed a problem. Tyler didn’t want to take the chance any of the other inn guests or staff would see what he was working on if he opened his laptop in the public area. He understood more than anyone the benefits of privacy. Most libraries had wi-fi, and he’d spotted a café when he’d driven through town sporting a free wi-fi sticker in the window, so he had a back-up plan.

Alone now, he tossed his suitcase on the bed, then plugged in his laptop and opened a file on the desktop. A picture of the reason he’d come to this tiny town a few days before Thanksgiving popped up on the screen.

Hope Kildaire.

The photo he’d grabbed off one of her social media sites stared back at him. Yards of icy blonde hair framed a smiling face filled with enormous, captivating, hazel eyes. Floating in those beautiful eyes, though, were shadows of sadness and weariness.

It was his job to erase the sorrow and ease the fatigue, and he only had a few days to do so.

****

The first run of the day down the slopes was always Hope’s favorite. From the time her dad had brought her to work at the mountain when she’d barely been a toddler, this time of the morning had always been perfect. The snow was virgin, fresh and slick, the trails blissfully quiet except for the swooshing of her skis as she glided down the mountainside. That would change the moment the resort opened and the chairlifts filled. Since it was a few days before Thanksgiving and many schools had let out early, families were already checked into the numerous hotels and ski lodges surrounding the mountain and nestled into the Mad River Valley.

Soon, all too soon in Hope’s mind, her solitude on these trails would end. But this first run of the day from the very top of the mountain she called a second home, she cherished.

Hope glided her skis from side to side, her poles stabbing the deep snow with each twist of her legs as she flew down the trail. She’d braided her long hair and tucked it under her warm woolen cap due to the dip in the recent temperatures, but she loved nothing more than to ski sans hat, scarf, and gloves in order to feel the crisp air slice around her as she made her way to the bottom of the mountain.

What a rush.

A brisk, stiff breeze blew across her face as she raced past towering evergreens, their needles glistening with frozen dew droplets. The pungent scent of the fresh wood fire blazing at the lodge drifted in the air as she sliced her way down the unmarred snow. Angling around a tight turn, Hope came to an opening in the tree line affording her a full, glorious view of the mountainous landscape and the resort where she worked. Buses were already pulling into the spacious parking lot; dots, who she knew were other