Holding Out for an Angel

 By Skye Taylor

     “So?” Tony asked, leaning back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head. “You guys making any New Year’s resolutions?”

Jake looked up from his book. “Why? Nobody ever keeps them?”

“Top of my list is to stay away from she-devils.” The fact that his ex-fiancé had thrown his ring in his face the night before their wedding had left Sam Westmoreland more than a little hurt and wary of women in general. A recent blind date had reinforced his self-protective instincts.

“Not all women are like that,” Tony argued. Newly married himself and still over the moon about his bride, he was eager to share his happiness with his closest friends. Jake was already married, to his high school sweetheart with a precious little girl to love. It only remained to get his buddy Sam hooked up with the right woman.

The three friends had grown up together and while they all had very different day-jobs, they really loved their part-time volunteer positions with the Tide’s Way fire department, and always did their best to get scheduled to work the same shifts – usually the night shift.

Tonight was New Year’s Eve and likely to be crazier than usual, at least for the ambulance crew, which included Tony and Sam. They’d tried to talk Jake into taking the EMT courses with them, but he’d had an unfortunate experience with a premature birth the previous year and didn’t think he was cut out for medical emergencies. He preferred dashing into burning buildings to perform his rescues. But for the moment, nothing bad was happening in town and they were sitting around the table in the firehouse, feet up and relaxing with the television tuned into the festivities in Time’s Square.

“You just need to meet the right woman.”

“That’s what you said when you talked me into taking your wife’s co-worker out to dinner.” Never had Sam enjoyed an evening with a beautiful woman less. The woman had been so full of herself no one else mattered, including the man who was footing the bill and trying to remain a gentleman in spite of her nastiness to him and everyone else.

Tony had the grace to look sheepish. “Yeah, that was a mistake. I had no idea.”  He’d been embarrassed by the woman’s behavior and eventually he and Sam had retreated to the bar and left Tony’s wife to cope with her friend alone. The double date had been her idea, and her responsibility.

“So, what do you think, Jake?” Tony pulled Jake’s attention out his book a second time.

“What do I think about what”

“Sam here. He needs a good woman. Know any?”

Jake looked at Sam with a strange, sad expression in his eyes. Sam suspected Jake’s marriage wasn’t the blissful union Tony’s was, but Jake would never admit it. He’d gotten his girlfriend pregnant and done the right thing by her, giving up his plans to go to college and diving into the working world to support his new family.

“What are the criteria?” Tony asked holding up one hand, fingers splayed. “Dynamite looks.” He folded down one finger. “Fabulous cook. Great in the sack.” He continued to fold down fingers as he ticked off desirable traits in the perfect woman.

“I’m holding out for an angel,” Sam said shaking his head. “Looks can be deceiving. I can teach her how to cook if I have to, and we can teach each other what feels great in bed. But she has to have the heart of an angel.”

“How will you know?” Tony raised his brows. “Barbara seemed pretty angelic to me and you did put a ring on her finger so you must have thought so at the time.”

“I’ll just know.” If experience had taught Sam anything, it was to see beyond the tumbling locks of silky hair and a sexy body. He’d be looking into her eyes. Into her soul next time. He wanted a woman who was kind and loving from the inside out. A woman he could trust with his heart. “I’ll know it here.” He tapped his chest. “Gut feeling.”

Jake snorted. “Good luck with that.”

Before either Tony or Sam could reply the blare of the alarm brought their feet slamming to the floor. The evening mayhem had begun.

     Ariel couldn’t believe she’d been talked into this stupid party. A costume party? On New Year’s Eve? Who had costume parties on New Year’s Eve? Worse was the man she’d agreed to attend with.

The only reason Craig would have asked her to be his date had to be pressure from her uncle who was his boss. Poor Ariel, always the wall-flower, and Uncle Max was determined to get her married off to an up-and-comer. A handsome man with a rich future. You need to have confidence in yourself, Uncle Max liked to tell her.

If only it were that easy. Men didn’t get in line for mousy little women like her. Everything about her was mousy, from the mousy brown hair to her slightly overgenerous curves and too few inches to her less than vivacious personality. It was easy for Uncle Max – he was outgoing, handsome, and bigger than life. He had no idea what it was like to be her. Or what it had been like to be overlooked her entire life – last girl chosen for any team, least likely to be asked out, never called on in class.

She had two truly dear friends and she wished she’d stayed home with them tonight, curled up in her jammies, eating too many forbidden treats, watching the ball drop in Time’s Square. But no. Here she was, dressed in this ridiculous angel costume, waiting for an Uber ride because Craig hadn’t even waited until midnight to find someone with long legs and a willingness to jump into bed. As the ball dropped and everyone else was kissing and tooting horns, she was once again relegated to wall-flower status. No New Year’s kiss for her. No happy wishes and hugs. No flute of champagne to clink against her date’s.

“Are you Miss Thomas?”

So wrapped up in her little pity party, Ariel hadn’t seen the little blue Toyota pull up.

“I am. Sorry.”

The young man leaned across and pushed the door open for her. He had dark skin, a head full of unruly curls, and a wide, friendly grin. “Hop in. You look cold.”

“It’s this absurd outfit,” Ariel said as she slid into the front seat, doing her best to fold the flapping wings behind her and subdue the flowing white gown before shutting the door. “A teddy bear costume would have been a better choice tonight.”

The man eyed her from the ring of glitter meant to be a halo to her feet clad in white ballet slippers and shook his head. “What made you choose it in the first place?” He pulled away from the curb and melted into the flow of traffic.

“Not my idea,” she defended herself. “It was my date’s.”

Uber man glanced at her quickly before turning his attention back to the road that appeared slick and black and maybe even icy. “Where’s the date now?”

Ariel gazed out the side window, not wanting to see the pity in the man’s eyes. She shrugged. “Not a clue.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to pry.” He hunched forward in his seat, looking more closely at the road. “It sure is nasty out tonight.”

“Umm.” Ariel agreed. Nasty in more ways than just the weather.

Not that she’d expected anything better from Craig.

Somewhere, out there, she was sure the right man for her existed. It was how to go about finding him that had her baffled. He had to be kind. And thoughtful. He had to be the sort of man who did things for others because he cared and not because it brought him gain or advancement. The kind of man who would rescue an abandoned animal, or offer comfort to a frightened child and didn’t expect to get paid for doing it. In her line of work, she hadn’t met many men who fit that description, though. Everyone in the investment firm where her Uncle Max had gotten her a job seemed to tag dollar signs onto every transaction, even human ones.

Her attention was suddenly jerked back to the road as the little Toyota slithered sideways and her driver fought with the wheel. A mini-van coming in the other direction was having the same problem. All that inky black was ice after all.

She saw it coming and braced her feet hard against the floorboards. The Uber driver cursed fluently, and Ariel tried not to scream, but fear won out. Then came an awful crashing, the sound of shattering glass, and the car spun wildly. Three times it spun before the rear struck something immovable and the Toyota came to a jarring, painful halt.

     Sam was out of the ambulance before Tony brought it to a complete stop. He opened a hatch and grabbed a first-in bag and then ran toward a little Toyota with its rear end crumpled against a telephone pole.

He tried the passenger side door and thankfully, it opened easily. An angel half fell into his arms, restrained only by her seat belt.

He gaped at the vision, the glittering halo in her soft brown curls, and the flowing white gown that swallowed her small body. Then he shook off his stunned hesitation and spoke to her.

“Ma’am? Are you hurt?”

She pushed at his chest trying to right herself. “Please check on the driver. I think he’s hurt worse than me.”

Sam glanced across the interior of the car. His angel was probably right. The man did look worse.

“Don’t move,” he advised her as he reached across to put two fingers on the man’s neck checking for a pulse. The man was alive, at least for now. But blood poured from a gash across the man’s forehead.

Sam straightened and whistled to get Tony’s attention. He pointed toward the driver’s side, and his partner altered his course to come up on the other side of the Toyota.

“What’s your name?” Sam squatted down beside the fallen angel and began a visual assessment of her condition. “Do you know what day it is?”

She pushed his hand away when he shone his penlight into her eyes. “Ariel and it’s New Year’s Eve. But there’s another car. A minivan, I mean. It went into the ditch.” She tried to sit up and point.

She had cuts on her face and hands, but her seat belt had kept her from smashing her head on the dash and she appeared to be coherent, so Sam reluctantly stood and looked toward the ditch.

The taillights of the other vehicle glowed red in the dark, but that was all he could see of it.

“Don’t move. I’ll be right back,” Sam told the angel. Then he jogged toward the ditch.

     Ariel hurt everywhere, but considering the frantic work going on next to her, she was lucky. She glanced back toward the edge of the road and saw her rescuer assist a man up onto the road. With his shoulder under the other man’s armpit they made their way toward the ambulance. The EMT helped the guy to sit, but the other driver kept pointing toward his minivan and arguing. Finally the EMT left him and trotted back to the minivan.

Someone else must have been inside besides just the driver. She wanted to help, but the man had told her to stay put. He’d been gentle, about it, but there had been a no-nonsense tone to his voice. She did as he asked.

A moment later he reappeared, carrying a golden retriever in his arms. The dog was clearly alive because he was licking the man’s face, but it looked like the dog’s leg might be broken. It hung at an odd angle. Their rescuer pulled a blanket from the ambulance and kicked it open with one toe, then gently laid the dog down. He squatted next to the dog and scratched it behind the ears before giving it a quick examination. Then he pulled a cell phone from his pocket and made a call.

~~~~~

     “You two are a match made in heaven,” Tony said grinning.

“I told you I was holding out for an angel. I just didn’t know God would take me so literally.” Sam was grinning, too. He hadn’t stopped grinning in months. Not since his angel had fallen into his arms. The fact that her name meant Angel was just frosting on the cake. She’d been more concerned about everyone but herself that awful night. Even the dog had come before worrying about her own injuries. As they’d gotten to know each other better, he’d discovered she was everything he’d had on his list. Kind from the inside out. Sweet, caring, gentle and oh, my God, could she kiss.

She could kiss the socks off him, and as he watched her dance with her Uncle Max, her white wedding dress swirling about her perfect little body, with a halo of tiny white flowers in her hair, he was looking forward to a lifetime of angel kisses.

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Falling for Zoe (where Sam is first mentioned) is on sale for only $0.99!

Today is the last day!

Happy New Year!

What inspired you to write Iain’s Plaid?

My first historical romance is a time travel set during the beginnings of the American War for Independence, and several people along the way to getting it published have asked me what inspired me to write this particular book. So here’s the answer to that query.

Back when I lived on the Maine coast, I came across a book by Bill Caldwell, The Islands of Maine, Where America Really Began. It was a fascinating book about the earliest European settlers in New England. From my front yard I could one of those islands mentioned in Mr. Caldwell’s book. Historian Charles K. Bolton also mentioned this island called Damariscove in his book, The Real Founders of New England, noting that four hundred years ago, “Here was the chief maritime port of New England. Here was the rendezvous for English, French and Dutch ships crossing the Atlantic. Here men bartered with one another and with Indians, drank, gambled, quarreled and sold indentured servants.” Four hundred of years ago, two hundred years before the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth on the Mayflower, there were “wharves, salting houses (for fish) sheds, boatyards, taverns and perhaps a bawdy house or two for sailors coming ashore after a long Atlantic Crossing” clustered on this tiny island.

Edward Winslow, the Pilgrim representative who came begging for food and supplies in 1622, wrote in his journal that he and his group were graciously welcomed with “Kind entertainment and good respect and a willingness to supply our needs . . . and that there were 30 ships of sail anchored in the harbor.”

Damariscove Island is only two miles long and not more than a quarter mile wide, yet, in 1675 three hundred refugees fleeing Indian wrath sheltered here. A century later, just before the start of the Revolutionary War, a British Naval captain put ashore here and stole 75 sheep to feed his sailors before turning south to burn present day Portland to the ground. During the war of 1812 (the Second War of Independence) the HMS Boxer and the USS Enterprise fought a famous sea battle so close to the island that the inhabitants of Damariscove watched the fight from their own shore. (Just another bit of interesting history, the captain of HMS Boxer, Samuel Blyth, who was just 29 years old, and the American Lieutenant William Burrows, age 28, who captained the USS Enterprise, were both killed in the battle and were buried side by side in a cemetery in Portland, Maine with full military honors.)

Is it any wonder that I was fascinated with this scrap of land I could see from my front yard? So, one glorious summer day, my dad, my daughter, and I sailed out to Damariscove to explore this scrap of an island with so much history. As I stood gazing down at the narrow harbor, Winslow’s words came back to me, and I marveled that 30 sailing ships big enough to cross the Atlantic could have fit in that long gut of bright blue water. There were, just as Bill Caldwell had described, many old granite foundations scattered on the high ground above the harbor and as I stood on the cornerstone of one of the largest foundations, I tried to imagine this island full of people and what life might have been like here in an era when brave young captains ventured forth to harass the British Navy or carry ships filled with salted cod and furs across the Atlantic to Europe. There were tales of a ghost who roamed the island with his faithful dog, but I saw no sign of him. Or any of the other souls who had called this place home for hundreds of years.

Then the rock beneath my feet wobbled. I jumped back alarmed, not wanting to tumble into the long abandoned cellar hole. But as I watched a small shower of loose gravel and dirt tumble into the daisy-lined hole the seemingly random thought came to me, “What if I fell in, hit my head, and was knocked unconscious. And what if when I came to my senses again there were sturdy floor joists over my head and a door enclosing me in a basement filled with the sorts of things kept in basements a long time ago?” As we climbed back in our dinghy and headed back to the sailboat, that question continued to rattle around in my head and that was inspiration for my story, Iain’s Plaid. My heroine, Dani Amico. did just as I had done. With a fascination in American History, she sailed out to explore and she really did fall into that hole and woke up over 200 years in the past, shut up in a cellar belonging to a reluctant patriot. I hope you enjoy reading Dani and Iain’s story as much as I enjoyed imagining and writing it.

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Was she sent back in time to change Iain’s fate . . . or share it?

Caught between a job offer she should take and a marriage proposal she doesn’t want, Dani Amico is dying for some adventure. So she takes off to visit some of the places on her bucket list. The first – an abandoned island she read about while researching her American History thesis. While there, she tumbles into an abandoned cellar hole . . . and wakes up more than two centuries in the past.

It’s 1775 and Iain MacKail’s ship is loaded with contraband he is smuggling into Boston. This unknown Dani, the “boy” he found in his cellar, could be a spy for the British customs agents, so Iain is forced to take the boy with him to insure that he and his mission are not compromised. Only he soon finds out that this ”boy” is so much more.

As they travel through pre-revolutionary New England, Dani realizes she’s falling for the rugged Scotsman. But she can’t forget something she came across in her studies—the fate of Iain MacKail. He would be betrayed by someone close to him and suddenly disappear from history. Could this be the reason Dani fell through time—to save Iain? Could they live and love together in this war-torn time?

Then again, if she tries—and fails—to change his fate . . . will she end up sharing it?

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Around Christmastime that year, Josh and I were talking about trips and places we’ve been and he started talking about how much he loves Universal Studios, how many times he’d been, how he hadn’t been since they opened up the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and how he’s been dying to go for that reason. And I told him how I had been once on a trip in high school, but I didn’t really get to enjoy it. I also told him how I barely remembered anything about it. So Josh insisted that we take a vacation, but then he told me he wouldn’t take me until I watched all the Harry Potter movies since I had never seen any of them or read the books. We then watched all eight movies in a two week period. We saved our money and bought a trip and in April 2016, we went to Orlando. I had never been on a plane before and I thought it was really cute that Josh wanted to be the one to take me on my first airplane experience.

            We arrived on Friday and Saturday was our first day at the park. Saturday night after dinner we took a walk on the City Walk and Josh started peppering me with questions. Wondering if I’d had fun, what my favorite section of the park was (It was Harry Potter World, BY FAR, by the way), and what my favorite ride was. I didn’t think anything of it, so I answered his questions and asked him the same things. Well the next morning we got up and went back to the park again for our second day. The only part of the park that’s open the first hour of the day is the Harry Potter rides. So we headed there, rode those, and afterwards we just walked around checking out all the stores and stuff. Josh asked me if I wanted to take a picture together. I should have known something was up right then because he never wants to take pictures. Because of that fact, I was excited and said yes! So we found a costumed park employee and asked him to take a picture of us. He was super nice and agreed. He took several shots of us, even getting all artsy trying to make sure he was getting some good ones. Then suddenly as the employee went to hand me my phone back, Josh intervened and said to him “Actually, could you take one more picture?” and got down on his knee! I was so surprised. My face turned red and all I could say was “Nuh uh.” There were people walking around all around us and a lot of them stopped to watch and were already clapping for us. He asked me to marry him and there was so much going on, I swear he whispered it because I could barely hear him. Luckily I couldn’t take my eyes off him, so I know what he said by reading his lips. Of course I said yes! Our “photographer” took photos of the whole thing on my phone, and I was really glad he did because those are some of the sweetest pictures that I have. Not to mention, it was one of my requirements of being proposed to. I always told Josh that if he wanted to propose to me, he had better plan a secret photographer to capture it. After our celebration, filled with lots of hugs and kisses, we finally came back to reality. Josh told me to be sure to call my dad and tell him that he did it. I asked him what he meant and he explained that before our trip, he’d asked my dad’s permission to propose. After my father agreed, he told Josh to tell me to call him to tell him as soon as it happened. I’m very much a Daddy’s girl, so that was another one of my requirements to being proposed to. That was actually the first one on the list. It makes me feel so relieved that my dad loves Josh as much as I do and I just felt so incredibly blessed that the perfect guy had just given me the perfect proposal.

I guess some people really do get a second chance at love. And if you do get a second chance, don’t waste it! Josh and I are getting married June 10, 2017, and we couldn’t be more grateful that we get a second chance at happily ever after.

THANK YOU FOR READING! REMEMBER TO LIKE AND COMMENT ON THE FACEBOOK POSTS TO WIN A FREE EBOOK OF HEALING A HERO BY SKYE TAYLOR!

Fast forward all the way to 2014. Josh and his previous girlfriend had broken up that March and I had been dumped in August of the year before. One day that May, I posted a picture on Facebook of my friend and I that I had taken at church that same morning. Little did I know that that picture was going to cause Josh to send me a private message. Apparently, in that photo, the way I had my hair pulled to one side and my friend blocking the side my hair was pulled to, it appeared that I had cut all of my hair off. Some people had already commented on the photo bringing it to my attention when Josh said something about it. His message said that he had noticed the picture I had posted and had to look twice because he thought I cut all my hair off. When the other people had told me I found it annoying, but when he said it I laughed. From that message, we continued talking and eventually one of us suggested texting instead of communicating via Facebook. We continued texting every day until one day Josh asked me to hang out. And we attempted to hang out several times, but things kept coming up where one of us couldn’t meet. I think Josh even got a flat tire halfway to see me once. But one night we were both finally free. I went over to Josh’s house, and I have to admit, when he answered the door, it was a tiny bit awkward since it had been so long since we had seen each other last and I was nervous. But I went in and we just talked with the TV playing something in the background. We sat there all night and talked. It didn’t take long for my nerves to go away. Nothing was off limits, we talked about everything. I went home sometime in the wee hours of the morning but we continued texting every day whenever we could, and hanging out more and more.

On June 10, 2014, Josh and I were hanging out at my place watching TV and he said to me “If you wanted to tell people I’m your boyfriend, that would be okay with me.” I laughed and immediately said to him “No way! You have to officially ask me.” So he cheesily said “Will you be my girlfriend?” or something like that. I, of course, said yes. We were dating for about a year when Josh suggested I move in with him and his roommate. I was nervous at first because what if we didn’t work out? And I didn’t know what my parents would think about it. But I talked to them about it and I moved in, in July of 2015. And later that month Josh surprised me by texting me at work one day asking me if I wanted a kitten. I thought he was joking. I had wanted a cat for so long. Before I moved in and after, we would be watching TV and someone would get a kitten and I would be like “Awww babe!” and he would say “No!”. The first thing I said to his was “Are you for real?” because I didn’t think he would get me a cat. The next text that came through was a picture of a litter of kittens that needed homes and Josh told me how a co-worker was trying to find them homes and if I wanted one, we needed to tell him right away. I picked out the one I wanted from the picture and the next day Josh picked up and brought home our precious fur child. I came home from work and he and our roommate had already named her.

READ THE FINAL CHAPTER IN OUR SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE SERIAL TOMORROW!

That July, Josh went to Oklahoma on family vacation and called me, as young people did back then before texting was a thing, on a Sunday night. We talked for a little while then, out of nowhere, Josh broke things off. I just sat on the phone and cried for what seemed like a really long time. For me, it was a total shock. After a while of sitting on the phone while I cried, he told me he couldn’t just sit there and listen to me cry on the other end so he said he should go and hung up. I was a mess that whole week. That Friday night, five days after the breakup, my best friend and I went to the movies to see a movie Josh and I had been planning on going to see for a while. When the movie ended and the lights came back on, everyone started getting up and we stood up to exit and looked around the theater and who did we see several rows behind us? Josh. With a girl. A girl that I knew for a fact was a pretty good friend of his who he talked to fairly often. I was hysterical. He had moved on that fast. Of course when I got home I had to get on MySpace to see what I could find out. They were dating. We had only been broken up a few days! Of course I assumed since he had a girlfriend so soon after we broke up that he had been cheating on me with her. Even if they were just talking behind my back and not even spending any one-on-one time together yet.

First day of junior year, I went to English class and there was Josh. I was so mad. I didn’t want to see him every other day for the rest of the school year. Luckily our teacher seated us in alphabetical order so I got to sit far away from him. I pretty much avoided Josh our entire junior year. However, during my junior year I started dating someone else and I started slowly getting over Josh. Eventually I got over the whole thing but we really didn’t communicate much because he was still dating that girl.

Fast forward to senior year, Josh and I have economics class together. By that point I had long forgiven him for what happened between us and had put it all in the past. I still made it a point, though, to joke with him about it here and there mentioning how he broke my heart. We enjoyed having that class together and we talked all the time. I looked forward to going to that class because of him. I remember a few specific conversations we had in that class that I will never forget. He always knew how to make me feel better about myself. We became pretty good friends again by the end of senior year, and eventually graduated in the class of 2010.

I don’t know if it was because we ran in different crowds or because I had a boyfriend, but we didn’t keep in touch after graduation. But we did seem to run into each other fairly often it seemed. It didn’t matter if either of us was dating someone or not, every time we ran into each other, we always stopped to talk to one another. I remember a few times when we ran into each other he would have his girlfriend with him or I would have my boyfriend with me, and we saw each other and had to stop and catch up. And we always hugged before we went our separate ways. I remember one time a few years after we broke up he called me on my birthday just to wish me a happy birthday. It made me feel special that he still had my number and that he remembered my birthday. Of course I always remembered his too. There was just something between us I can’t explain that was always there.

Read more tomorrow in SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE: THE REKINDLING!

Josh and I first met in eighth grade, in algebra class. Our desks were right next to each other. Josh was nice but quiet. I wouldn’t say we were close friends but we were friends who talked occasionally in class. Fast forward to high school, I don’t really remember ever seeing Josh during freshman year but, during sophomore year, Josh and I were in Algebra 2 together. Again, we sat right next to each other. That class was horrible, but we made the best of it. In February of that same year, I had to have back surgery and I was out of school for a month. My last day of school before I was out for surgery, My best friend at the time and I were waiting in the car pick-up line for her sister to pick us up. Josh was there waiting too. I don’t remember whose ride got there first but, before we parted, he came up to me, wished me luck on everything, and gave me a hug. Having never really been hugged by a boy before, I felt rather special.

Even though I was not able to go to school during my recovery time, I felt well enough to attend church as I always had. Well, somewhere around the same time that I was having surgery, a mutual friend of ours had invited Josh to come to our church. So on my first night back to church, Josh was there. At the time it was still a little difficult for me to get up and down out of chairs and such, so Josh would offer his hand to help me. I thought he was so sweet. From then on, we became even better friends and he continued to come to church. In April, Josh asked me to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Apparently we were walking side-by-side when he asked me and he tripped over a bush, but I have no recollection of that part at all. I said yes. We “dated” for the next few months. You know how it is when you’re fifteen and can’t drive on your own yet, so I would hardly call it dating, but we had fun together. I loved being around Josh’s family and my parents liked Josh as well. I thought everything was going great with us….

Tune in tomorrow to find where the ellipses lead!

My mother’s smile.

by Skye Taylor

My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when she was seventy-seven, but even then we all wondered if she’d had it for a lot longer than we or the doctor knew. She’d been completely deaf since her late thirties and while she lip-read very well, she also got to be an expert at pretending she knew what strangers or casual acquaintances were saying even when she didn’t have a clue. In retrospect, we began to realize that she’d been faking it with us as her memory began to fail.

She never seemed frustrated by her loss of memory. In fact, it was the rest of us who were frustrated and she always responded with a big smile that defused our exasperation.

Even before she went into assisted living care, she began to be foggy about who I was. One night when she asked, and I told her, she didn’t believe me. So I hauled out my driver’s license thinking to prove I was who I claimed to be and her shocked reaction was to ask why I was in possession of my sister’s driver’s license. Even she laughed about it two nights later when she did remember who I was. Conversing with a deaf person who can’t recall how the sentence began has moments of humor, but it’s mostly frustrating and increasingly sad. A few things she never forgot – like the fact that it was me who took her car away. Until nearly the end of her life, she held that indignity against me. And she never forgot that her Johnny was the love of her life.

One thing I remember most about her last few years was that in spite of not being sure who I was, she still loved me and it showed. Until she went into care, she lived next door and I always stopped by on my way home from work. She always lit up with welcome and opened her arms for a hug when I walked into her living room. I  “talked” to her mostly through written notes on her multitude of notebooks which had the advantage of being able to flip back a page or two when she continued to repeat the same questions. But the visits were always good ones because I knew she enjoyed our moments together even if she remembered nothing of them as soon as I disappeared from sight.

When the call that I’d been dreading for some time came, I rushed to her side at the hospital where her labored breathing was the only sound in the room. Her heart had failed and although the EMTs had gotten it started again, she never did regain consciousness. When her last breath came, my sister was with us and we were talking on the phone with my brother who lived several states away. So we were all together, hanging on to each other and our memories of a mother who had always loved us with her whole heart. I will always remember the stillness and love that filled that room at that moment. But even more, I will always remember the thousand-watt smile that greeted me every time I went to visit her, even long after she’d completely forgotten either my name or my place in her life. Sometimes a mother’s love is felt more than spoken, and ultimately it transcends even death. I see her smile in billowing white clouds against a brilliant blue sky and a dozen other things she loved, and I feel her touch in the soft darkness as I fall asleep each night.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. You were and are the best.

Pick up Skye Taylor’s Bell Bridge titles today:

Get into the holiday spirit with this yummy recipe

from Skye Taylor’s novel – TRUSTING WILL (The third

in The Camerons of Tide’s Way)

Blueberry & white chocolate Scones – from Sandy Cameron’s Kitchen

2 cups flour                              4 TBSP butter melted or veg oil

1 tsp salt                                   2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar                           ½ cup cream or milk

4 tsp baking powder                 1 cup frozen  blueberries (or raspberries​)

½ cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°

Stir all dry ingredients together, then add butter, eggs, cream or milk and mix well.

Fold in berries and chocolate bits.

Spoon onto baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with Pam. Sprinkle tops with a little white sugar if desired. Bake for 20 minutes until bottoms of scones are lightly browned and top springs back with pressed with finger.  Eat still warm from oven or cool.

Go grab FALLING FOR ZOEY and LOVING  MEG today!

And make sure you grab TRUSTING WILL – coming soon! 

An interview with Ben Cameron

by Skye Taylor

Today we are pleased to have Ben Cameron visiting with us at Blogging on the Beach. He is the hero of Skye Taylor’s latest book, Loving Meg and the third son (by mere minutes) of Sandy and Nathan Cameron of Tide’s Way. The baby of the family, Jake Cameron, was with us earlier when his book, Falling for Zoe, came out in April, and Will, Ben’s identical twin, will hopefully come for a visit next year when Trusting Will comes out.

Skye: So – Welcome, Ben. We know you grew up in Tides’s Way and come from a big family, that you’re married, to Meg, of course, and have two sons, Rick and Evan.  But who is Ben Cameron? Tell us about yourself.

Ben: You know, my wife and I had a discussion about that not so long ago. She seemed to think that my job was who I was, but I think I got her turned around.  At least I hope I have. Meg is the light of my life. She has been since I first met her. She was my best friend’s kid sister, and I had to pretend we were just friends for the first few years because I was way too old for her. But it was worth the wait. We’ve been married for ten years come next May and I can’t imagine life without her. Being a dad is another big part of who I am. Until Rick was born I never had a clue how terrific fatherhood could be. I have a fantastic dad of my own, but being a dad is even better.

Skye: What do you do for a living?

Ben: I raise and train German Shepherds for police work. It does keep me pretty busy, but I love working with the dogs, and I love seeing them succeed. I’ve got a new project in mind, too. It’s a long story how I got involved, and I’m sure that’s not what you’re interested in here so I’ll skip to the punch line. I want to enlarge my operation to include training dogs to work with returned veterans who are struggling with PTSD and other disabilities brought on in their service to our country. It’s be awhile before I can get it up and running, but eventually I want to have a home where the veterans will come to be paired with their dogs and training can happen. From what I’ve discovered having a service dog often can make the difference that all the drugs and psychiatric work can’t in helping these guys get their lives back, and I can’t think of anything more rewarding that making that happen.

Skye: Didn’t Meg just return from Iraq. She’s been in the Marines for most of your married life, but this was her first overseas deployment. That must have been difficult for you and the boys. What was the hardest part for you?

Ben: All of it. (Ben shakes his head and a cloud passes over his face.) I hated watching the news. It just made me more afraid than I already was. I knew she was out there, accompanying conveys along roads that those bas— sorry, terrorists love to booby trap with IEDs. So, I didn’t watch the news, and I tried to stay busy and not worry. But the hardest part was probably the nights. She tried to call as often as she could,and she’d time it when she knew I was climbing into bed. I’d lay there in the dark, clutching the phone to my ear, listening to her voice and wishing desperately that she was laying next to me instead, and that the nightmare of her being gone and in danger was over.

Skye: Have you ever told Meg that?

Ben: Yeah. I’ve told her, but I’m not sure she understood how really hard it was for me being left behind while she went off to conquer her world.  I told Will, too. He’s my twin you know. He’s the other half of me. I told him everything. Or most everything.

Skye: What’s it like being an identical twin?

Ben: You mean being the other half of me? (Ben chuckles) Will says the same thing. He thinks I’m the better half and if only he could be a little more like me, he’d be a better man. But I think it’s the other way around. Will is a lot like Meg and I admire that – that ability to strike out into the unknown – to take on a task that seems far bigger than it might have seemed at the start. Something bigger than just themselves, but they stick it out. They put themselves out there and do jobs others can’t. Me? I’ve been on the same path all my life. Everyone, including me, knew where I was going with my life since I was just a kid. And there wasn’t anything dangerous or adventurous about it.

Skye: What started you on your path in life so early?

Ben: You sure you want to hear this? It’s not all that exciting. Not when compared to the places Meg’s been.

Skye: We’re sure.

Ben: Well, when I was maybe nine or ten someone gave my dad this dog, Taffy. We’d always had dogs as long as I could remember, usually more than one at a time, and Dad was always the one who trained them. But Taffy just seemed like she was going to break him. I think she was a golden retriever, but so inbred there’s no doubt where her less than stellar brain capacity came from. She had one ear that popped up and flopped over half way up – the other hung down like a retriever’s is supposed to. It gave her this really silly goober look. Very fitting, considering.

Anyway, one day Dad was trying to teach her to stay. He’d take her out to this spot about 20 feet from the front steps and tell her to sit. She was great at sit. Then he’d give her the signal and verbal command to stay and he’d turn his back on her and come over to the steps. By the time he got there and turned around she was right behind him grinning up at him as if he’d told her to follow instead of stay. Finally, I asked Dad if I could try. He handed me the leash and said go to it. Neither of us really expected much. But I walked out to the magic spot and told her to sit, put my hand in front of her nose and said stay as sternly as I could with my little kid’s voice and headed back to the porch. Dad was sitting with his elbows resting on the step behind him watching, but even before I got to him, he sat up and looked from me to somewhere behind me. I turned around expecting to see Taffy right on my heels like she’d been on dad’s every time. But I was gobsmacked. She was still sitting where I’d left her. I called her and she dashed toward me so fast she ran me down. And that was when me and everyone else knew I’d end up training dogs for a living.

Marrying Meg was another thing everyone knew long before it happened. Long before Meg knew it anyway. I grew up in my parents house by the sea and I told them I was always going to live there too. I saw this spot of land when I was still in college. I didn’t have scratch for money, but I begged my dad to give me the down payment and I worked two jobs all through college to make the mortgage payments. So, you see, Will and I are like the other half of each other. He’s Alpha. I’m Beta. He’s the adventurous one. He’s impatient to see new things, go new places, meet new people all the while I’m living the life I planned out years ago. I’m so settled down I can’t imagine life any other way. Will’s still trying out every new extreme sport that catches his fancy and dating lots of really nice ladies but not settling for just one. Although I really hope he finds his Miss Right. I’d like him to have what I have with Meg.

Skye: I know you’re a busy man with things to do and places to go, even if they aren’t far from home or dangerous, so I’ll let you go. But we’ve enjoyed having you. Thanks for coming.

Ben: Thanks for having me.