A Moment in Time: A Novel

By Lou DeCaro

This is the authors seventeenth romance novel. Its a love story about a skier and a figure skater at the Winter Olympics. Dimitri Lenin and Sasha Sakarov are on their way to win their gold medal until a tragic event changes everything. A Moment in Time is also about the power of love. This novel will capture the readers attention from the very first page. Many readers already agreeLou DeCaro has once again crafted a novel that is an absolute must read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984521194

Lou DeCaro

Lou DeCaro is the author of In The Dim Light Of The Day (Xlibris, November 2012), Marshmallow Dreams And Bitter Tangerines (Xlibris, October 2013), Anthony (Xlibris. January 2014), The Blind Eye of Love (Xlibris, October 2014), Once A Widow, Ever A Wife (Xlibris, January 2015), The Champion of Love (Xlibris, April 2015), Forever and a Day (Xlibris, August 2015), The Rose of Cuba (Xlibris, November 2015), The Writer of Lies (Xlibris}, January 2016), The Lonely and the Disabled (Xlibris, March 2016), Like Father, Like Son (Xlibris, July 2016), Maria (Xlibris, October 2016), The Pharaoh Club (Xlibris, January 2017), The Love Armada (Xlibris, May2017), Infirmed (Xlibris, October 2017), The Anger of Love (Xlibris, January 2018), A Moment in Time (Xlibris, March 2018), Johnny Reb's (Xlibris, May 2018), Jar of Broken Hearts (Xlibris, September 2018),Tears from the River of Love (Xlibris, September 2018),and False Love (Xlibris, June 2019).

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

S EVERAL YEARS AGO, I went to the Winter Olympics with a good friend of mine. His name was Mark. Mark was a great guy. We first met on a tour of South Africa in 2008. I didn’t even know his name when we both climbed aboard a large Land Rover to search for lions. The driver made it very clear that if anyone sighted a lion, that person had to tell him to stop.

I decided to sit in the front seat next to the driver. Mark sat immediately behind me. A woman sat next to Mark. She had already earned a reputation as a whiner. Nothing was good enough for her. She was a malcontent, and made everyone’s life miserable. Later on when Mark and I became friends, we would occasionally talk about her and have a good laugh.

Otherwise, we had a great time. There were seven people on the tour. Aside from the whiner, the rest were really very nice people. One woman in particular kept us laughing almost non-stop. Her name was Mary. She was a retired high-school guidance counselor. I think Mark had a crush on her. She was very attractive, and had a fabulous personality.

It was close to 11:00 A.M. when the driver left the camp and began driving into the bush. Everyone was excited except the whiner. All she did was ask ridiculous questions. At one point I turned around to take a look at Mark. You had to see the expression on his face. He looked like he was ready to vomit. Poor guy. Whatever possessed him to sit next to her I’ll never know. But then, things got interesting.

Just as we turned the corner, Mark told the driver to stop. There, no more than five yards lying under a tree, were several lions. There was at least one male. He was too busy resting in the shade and didn’t pay attention to us. But the females were another story. One in particular raised herself off of the ground and looked at me square in the face. Apparently, the driver had seen enough. Time seemed to stand still. The driver swung over his right shoulder a rifle he had been carrying. Loaded, and ready to fire if necessary, the only thing we heard was the screeching sound of the whiner’s annoying voice crying out for help. Then I heard the clicking sound of cameras, and finally the roar of the Land Rover’s engine as we hastened a retreat.

Later that afternoon, we gave the whiner the silent treatment for jeopardizing everyone’s life with her frantic behavior. But all things considered, the tour was a tremendous success. Mark and I became really good friends. I visited his home in Southern California several times. Mark visited me twice on Long Island. Come to think of it, the last time he came to Long Island we visited a model train store in Mineola. He was very knowledgeable about model trains, mostly because his father worked for the railroads for most of his life.

CHAPTER 2

S IX YEARS PASSED. Mark and I had always wanted to attend a Winter Olympics. Even though we visited each other during those six years, the African Tour was the only time we went away together. So we promised each other there would be no excuses this time. As a matter of fact, we both used the same travel agent.

Mark was a pretty good athlete in his day. He grew up in Indiana where they got a lot of snow and became a really good skier. I also did some skiing in my time, but I also did a lot of skating in my teens. He was definitely interested in the downhill events. I became really focused on figure skating. There was one Russian female skater I particularly admired and followed during the three weeks I was in Russia.

Her name was Sasha Sakarov. She came from a very wealthy Russian family. Her father was a high-ranking government official during the Gorbechov years. Her mother was a former figure skater from St. Petersburg. Sasha’s mother began teaching her how to skate when she could barely walk. The Sakarovs had one goal in mind from the day Sasha was born. Her sole purpose in life was to win the gold medal. There was no other desire or purpose in life. Madame Sakarov would drive Sasha to skating lessons at 5:00 A.M., and drop Sasha off to school by 8:00 A.M.

Day in and day out, the two followed the same routine. Again, there was only one goal in mind. Make the Russian Olympic team and win the gold medal. There was never a doubt in Sasha’s mind until she met a young American downhill skier named Dimitri Lenin. They actually met at the airport several days before the opening ceremony. It was a simple encounter. Sasha dropped her boarding pass. Before her coach, Luca Toporov, could pick it up, Dimitri flew in like a hawk and snatched the boarding pass right out of Luca’s hand. Dimitri then clicked his heels as he handed the boarding pass to Sasha. For one brief moment their eyes met. Before they knew it, a fire was ignited in their hearts. No words needed to be spoken.

Luca Toporov did not find the moment amusing. He knew better than anyone that any distraction could cause Sasha to falter on the ice. Too much time and effort was made to jeopardize her chances for a gold medal. In fact, Luca was hand picked as Sasha’s coach by Madame Sakarov because he could be completely trusted and make sure Sasha stayed focused on her mission. He was considered the finest coach in the skating world.

As he led Sasha through one checkpoint after another, he turned around to get