Obsession Falls(114)

Not anymore.

We sat in silence for a while. Gram sipped her tea and I devoured the slice of pie. It was the perfect blend of tart and sweet, with a flaky crust that melted in my mouth.

I ate my last few bites, still thinking about Grace. The last time I’d seen her, the distance between us had felt like a canyon. It had sucked, but after she’d gone back to school, I’d mostly put her out of my mind. I was busy all the time, so that had made it easier. But now she was home, and I once again had to face the truth.

I had a thing for Grace. I had for a long time. And I’d never told her. Never told anyone.

I had my reasons, and it didn’t matter now anyway. She was dating someone else. In a few short months, she’d go back to school. And maybe next summer would be the year she didn’t come back home.

Thinking about a world without Grace—my world without her—was putting me in a shitty mood. Maybe I needed more pie.

“This was amazing.” I gestured to my empty plate, then stood and took it to the counter where the pies were cooling.

“Don’t even think about it, Bear.” Gram wagged her finger at me. “You want more, you go pick me more strawberries.”

“There’s two more in the oven.”

“I expect we’ll have company soon.” She paused to sip her tea. “In fact, go next door and ask Naomi and the kids to come on over before that wild pack of wolves you call brothers gets back.”

I shot Gram a look. I should have known she’d have an ulterior motive for giving me the first slice of pie.

“Go on, now,” she said, shooing me with her hand. “Don’t make me tell you twice.”

With a soft chuckle, I put my plate in the sink and lifted my hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, okay, I’m going.”

I gave Gram a kiss on the head, then left to go tell Naomi and Elijah—and Grace—that we had pie.



Continue reading Protecting You





Dear Reader





Dear reader,

If you’re new to Tilikum, I hope you enjoyed your stay! And if you’re making a return trip after the Bailey Brothers, I hope it was fun to be back.

Starting this book, I found myself in a bit of a conundrum. I’d always planned to write the Haven brothers as their own series after the Baileys, which meant I was contemplating these stories several years before it was time to begin writing. I had a loose outline that included the series order and basic ideas for each book.

But when it came time to start this book, none of it felt right anymore.

I know why. I lost my husband unexpectedly in 2021 and my life changed in every way imaginable. As I slowly and gently picked up the pieces of my life and heart, and began finding ways to move forward, there was a lot from “the before” that no longer felt relevant. That included my loose outline and ideas for the Havens.

However, I wasn’t ready to give up. I’d set myself up to write this series and I knew there was a way to get excited about it. I just had to find it.

So I let go. I let go of my loose outline, the order of the books, the female main characters, the plot ideas, all of it. I looked at it with fresh eyes and spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to write.

The solution came in the title. I was thinking of ideas and already felt the nudge to lean into romantic suspense. I started playing around with words and, long story short, came up with this and several other title ideas.

I loved them and so did my team. I could picture them on book covers and they told me something about the direction I needed to go to jumpstart my brain again.

So I ran with it. Did I worry that existing readers would balk at the emphasis on romantic suspense? Oh yeah. Did I worry that new readers wouldn’t take a chance on me? For sure. Was I afraid that I was straying too far from reader expectations? Definitely.

But did I do it anyway? Yep. Sometimes you just have to do it scared.

I also have to share with you how I came up with the identity of the stalker.

I have three kids who, at the time of this writing, are all in their teens. I was chatting with my oldest son about what I was working on and said I knew the heroine would have a stalker, but I wasn’t sure who he was or why he was stalking her. He said something like, what if he’s the brother she didn’t know she had because her dad had an affair and he hates her because their dad rejected him? I thought hey, that’s pretty good.

But the story doesn’t end there. Later, I was talking with my middle son, and the subject came up. He suggested the EXACT SAME IDEA. His brother wasn’t there and neither of them realized the other had suggested the unknown half-brother idea.

I figured that was a pretty good sign that I needed to run with it. So I did!

A big thank you to my boys for helping with the twists.

I loved writing this book and taking on the challenge of a suspense plot. I’m definitely in my small-town romantic suspense era and I hope you’re enjoying the ride!

Love,

Claire



P.S. I don’t know if you’re ready for the next Haven book, my friends. This one was just a warm up…





Acknowledgments





Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this book happen!

To Nikki and Alex for not holding back when there were ISSUES. This book is so much better because of you.