Snowbound second chance, p.1
Snowbound Second Chance, page 1
Sebastian’s eyes drifted closed, and the tension in his back and shoulders seemed to ease.
Nolan had practically blackmailed him into spending the next three months here in town. But perhaps his brother was right. Magnolia Lake was a good place for him to get some much-needed rest.
“Sebastian?”
He opened his eyes and stared, blinking. Was the woman standing before him real? Or was she a figment of his imagination, where she seemed to reside since their meeting a year ago?
“Evelisse?”
“You remembered.” She offered a playful smile, her brown eyes twinkling.
He studied the plump lips painted a deep pink shade. Scanned the black, ribbed turtleneck sweater and tan leggings that hugged her curves. The briefest image flashed through his brain of those black, knee-high riding boots dangling over his shoulders.
Sebastian swallowed hard, his throat parched. “Of course, I remember.”
His response hadn’t come out the way he intended because her countenance fell, as did her slim shoulders.
Shit.
He’d uttered four words and already he’d pissed her off.
It’s not what you say, Sebastian. It’s how you say it.
Dear Reader,
We’re made to believe that we should have it all figured out by a certain point. But unexpected life lessons can completely alter our paths. I enjoy writing about characters on such a journey.
In Snowbound Second Chance, Sebastian Valentine is the CEO of his firm, a job he’s worked toward his entire career. But the job is stressful and unfulfilling. When a health scare sends him on sabbatical, he stays at the Sweet Magnolia Inn, near his family. To his surprise, the gorgeous innkeeper is the woman he encountered a year ago and hasn’t stopped thinking about.
Evelisse Jemison takes a break from her floundering acting career and returns to her hometown to take on the role of innkeeper while her injured sister recovers. When Sebastian and Evvy get snowed in during an unprecedented storm, they discover the depth of their growing feelings for each other. But will they sacrifice what they’ve always believed they wanted for something more genuine?
Want to know what comes next in my Valentine Vineyards series? Visit reeseryan.com/desirereaders and join my newsletter list for book news, giveaways and more.
Until our next adventure!
Reese Ryan
Snowbound Second Chance
Reese Ryan
Reese Ryan writes sexy, emotional stories featuring thirty-plus-somethings finding love while navigating career crises and family drama.
Reese is a native Ohioan with deep Tennessee roots. She endured many long, hot car trips to family reunions in Memphis via a tiny clown car loaded with cousins.
Connect with Reese via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or at reeseryan.com. Join her VIP Readers Lounge at bit.ly/VIPReadersLounge. Check out her YouTube show, where she chats with fellow authors, at bit.ly/ReeseRyanChannel.
Books by Reese Ryan
Harlequin Desire
The Bourbon Brothers
Savannah’s Secrets
The Billionaire’s Legacy
Engaging the Enemy
A Reunion of Rivals
Waking Up Married
The Bad Boy Experiment
Valentine Vineyards
A Valentine for Christmas
One Summer of Love
Snowbound Second Chance
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
You can also find Reese Ryan on Facebook, along with other Harlequin Desire authors, at Facebook.com/HarlequinDesireAuthors!
To my readers:
Thank you for coming along for the ride!
To my incredible husband and loving family:
Thank you for your patience
and continued support.
To K. Sterling, Leigh Carron, Belle Calhoune, Karen Booth, Katherine Garbera, Joss Wood and Joanne Rock: Thank you for the hand-holding, cheerleading and genuine encouragement.
I wouldn’t have finished this book
without your support.
To reader Sharon Eatmon-Roland:
Thank you for your continued readership and support online and at reader events.
And thank you for coming up with the
perfect name for the Sweet Magnolia Inn.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Excerpt from Alaskan Blackout by Joanne Rock
One
Sebastian Valentine felt groggy. He had a splitting headache, his chest ached, and his mouth felt dry. When he raised his hand to scratch his nose, he was startled by the IV drip attached to his wrist.
He shot upright.
“Relax, Sebastian. You’re okay.” His older brother Nolan’s voice was concerned but calm. He placed a hand on Sebastian’s shoulder. “You’re in the emergency room, but you’re going to be fine.”
Sebastian rubbed his forehead with his untethered hand and blinked, trying to recall how he’d ended up there. Then it hit him.
He’d been working alone on a Saturday afternoon—nothing unusual. Suddenly his heart raced. He had intense chest pains, shortness of breath, and dizziness. His hands had trembled so much he couldn’t write. When he stood, he’d been unsteady on his feet and tumbled to the floor. A security guard making the rounds had come to see what the commotion was. Sebastian asked her to call an ambulance and then call his brother because he was pretty sure he was having a heart attack.
He grabbed his chest in a sudden panic. “Did I have—”
“No, it wasn’t a heart attack,” Nolan assured him calmly, settling onto a chair beside Sebastian’s bed. “The doctor believes you suffered a severe panic attack. Have you had them before?”
“No. I don’t think so.” Sebastian eased back against the pillow and thought hard, which made his head hurt more.
“But you have been under a lot of stress in your new role as the CEO of Valentine Textiles,” Nolan noted with concern.
“Comes with the territory.” Sebastian shrugged, as if being sprawled out on the floor of your plush executive suite, feeling as if you were dying, was simply par for the course. “Things have been different since we sold the company.”
Valentine Textiles had been run by generations of Valentines until Sebastian’s father—the previous CEO—sold the family-owned firm to a California conglomerate a year ago. The conglomerate had appointed Sebastian as the new CEO—the job he’d had been vying for since college. But running the firm without his family and under the new organization’s strict rules and unrealistic expectations was far more stressful than he’d anticipated.
“I know being CEO is what you’ve wanted for a long time. But bruh, this job is literally killing you,” Nolan said. “You’ve aged five years in the past year.”
“Not really the best time to trade insults.” Sebastian stared at the ceiling.
“I’m not insulting you, Bas, I’m stating a fact,” Nolan said. “You’ve got dark circles around your eyes, bags underneath them, some serious frown lines, and you’re graying—which is a bit premature for thirty-six in our family.”
Sebastian ran a hand over his head. “You think I don’t own a mirror?”
“I think you’re ignoring the signs that this job is killing you because you’re too damn proud to admit that it isn’t all you’d hoped it would be.” Nolan’s dark eyes seemed sad. “There’s no shame in admitting that, Bas. Even if you don’t want to join us at Valentine Vineyards, there are lots of other opportunities out there that won’t drive you to an early grave.”
A year ago, after learning that he’d been adopted by the Valentines, their father had purchased a vineyard once owned by his biological mother’s family. His dad was determined to create a wine empire in honor of his biological parents. And he wanted all of his children to join him. Nolan and their two sisters, Chandra and Naya, were on board. But Sebastian and his two younger brothers hadn’t joined the company. It didn’t stop his father and siblings from consulting them on winery business.
“You know this is the only job I’ve ever wanted. I realize we aren’t Valentines by blood. But we carry Gram and Pop’s last name. It’d be a shame not to have someone from the family sitting at the head of the table.”
“Dad didn’t feel obligated to maintain the business,” Nolan noted.
“And on that, we disagree.” Sebastian shrugged, then coughed.
Nolan handed him a cup of water.
Parched, Sebastian drank most of it. He felt drained and a little foggy.
“If it was only a panic attack, then why the IV?” Sebastian held up his arm.
“Because you were severely de hydrated, Mr. Valentine.” A petite Black woman wearing a white lab coat floated into the room and washed and dried her hands. Her dark brown locs were twisted atop her head. “It seems you haven’t been taking very good care of yourself.” She studied her tablet. “I’m Dr. Violet Benson, the emergency physician on duty.”
“And you’re sure it wasn’t a heart attack because...” Sebastian assessed her carefully.
“Because we’ve run a complete battery of tests.” Dr. Benson set her tablet down and checked his pulse with her icy fingers. “You’re feeling calmer now, I hope.”
“I am.” This was the calmest he’d felt in weeks.
“That’s because of the benzodiazepine we administered.” She typed something on her tablet. “How long have you been having these symptoms? The breathlessness, shakiness, dizziness, dry mouth, and irregular heartbeats?” She read the symptoms he’d no doubt rattled off upon his arrival.
Sebastian frowned, then glanced over at Nolan, whose look of concern heightened in the wake of hearing his symptoms.
Dr. Benson followed Sebastian’s gaze to Nolan’s, then glanced back at him, her voice lowered. “Would you prefer we speak alone?”
“No. It’s fine.” Sebastian heaved a quiet sigh. “I’ve been having the symptoms for a while, I guess. More notably for the past month or so. But they’ve never been quite so...intense.”
“The dehydration can act as a trigger, intensifying the symptoms, to the point where it feels like you’re dying,” Dr. Benson explained calmly. “Let me guess...you spend your day drinking countless cups of coffee but very little water?”
“Something like that.” Could this embarrassing scene really have been avoided if he’d just been conscious of drinking more water? “So if I promise to stay hydrated and drink less caffeine, can I get out of here?”
“Those are factors in your panic attack,” Dr. Benson acknowledged. “But so are stress and anxiety. Is your work or family life particularly stressful?”
“I’m the CEO of a firm that’s in transition. For the past few weeks, I’ve admittedly been under quite a bit of pressure to meet some pretty exacting standards.” Sebastian could practically feel his blood pressure rising.
“Are you happy in your job, Mr. Valentine?” Dr. Benson typed out more notes on her tablet.
“As much as most.” Sebastian ignored the tightening of his jaw and the clenching of his teeth.
“I’ve seen patients younger and healthier than you in here with strokes and heart attacks because of job-induced stress. I would prefer it if that didn’t happen to you.” Dr. Benson rolled a stool over and sat beside him. Her voice was warm but firm. “I realize our jobs are often a huge part of our identities. But no job is worth your health and possibly your life, Mr. Valentine. If you don’t make some serious changes, you’ll find yourself back here again. Only we’ll be having a very different conversation. Understood?”
Sebastian nodded, then listened as the doctor suggested a variety of lifestyle changes—starting with taking a break from his intensely stressful job.
* * *
“Dr. Benson was clear about you needing to make some lifestyle changes. So what are you going to do?” Nolan asked as he drove Sebastian home.
Sebastian glanced down at the prescription in his hand. “Cut out the energy drinks, cut back on the coffee, hydrate more, I guess.”
“What about work?” Nolan asked.
“What about it? It’s my job, Nolan. I’ll figure it out.”
“You heard what the doctor said, Bas. Do you have any idea how terrifying it was to get that call that you thought you were having a heart attack?” Nolan, who was usually even-tempered, sounded hurt and angry.
“You didn’t tell Dad or the girls?” Sebastian had made his brother promise to keep this quiet until they knew more. When Nolan confirmed he hadn’t, Sebastian said, “Good. No need to worry them. I’m fine.”
“You are not fine, Bas. And if you let this job kill you, I swear to God I’ll shake you back to life for the express purpose of kicking your ass.”
Sebastian laughed, and Nolan did, too. It diffused the tension between them.
“Okay, point taken. What exactly would you have me do?”
“Take a vacation. You haven’t taken one since we were all in Magnolia Lake when Dad told us about buying the winery,” Nolan said.
“You call that a vacation? I’m pretty sure that’s when my anxiety began.” Sebastian rubbed his chest.
“Maybe it wasn’t a week in the Caribbean, but it was great being together as a family for the first time in years.” Nolan made a turn.
“It was.” Sebastian smiled, thinking of the late nights playing cards, watching movies, and hanging out with his siblings. Something they hadn’t done in ages. “But it won’t be a good look for me to suddenly take a vacation in the midst of the company executing changes everyone knows I’m opposed to.”
Being the CEO, in name only, of the company his family had owned for generations was the hardest thing he’d ever done. But he’d never been one to back away from a challenge.
Nolan pulled into Sebastian’s driveway and parked.
Sebastian stepped out of the car, hoping Nolan hadn’t noticed that he was a bit unsteady.
“Those anti-anxiety meds are sedatives, you know.”
“I’m aware, Nolan. Thank you.” Sebastian grabbed the banister and slowly climbed the stairs to his front door.
He’d never much liked the house. But he’d purchased it in a last-ditch effort to save his marriage five years ago. It hadn’t worked. What his now ex-wife had really wanted was a husband who wasn’t married to his work, and Sebastian had been. Though back then, he’d actually enjoyed his job.
Sebastian let them inside the house, which was as dark as it was cold and empty since Tiffany had packed her things and left four years ago.
“It’s too late for you to drive all the way back to Magnolia Lake.” Sebastian flipped on the lights in the living room and then the kitchen. “Why don’t you stay in the guest room? And order whatever you want. Dinner is on me.”
“We can talk about dinner later, Bas.” Nolan, who was a couple inches shy of Sebastian’s five-foot-ten, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and frowned. “Right now, I want to discuss why you feel compelled to keep doing a job you clearly don’t enjoy. Are you doing it because you really want to or because you’re desperate to prove a point?”
“Kind of like Dad trying to revive the winery once owned by his maternal relatives? The winery that just happens to be in the same town as his half brother’s billion-dollar distillery?” Sebastian folded his arms.
“We’re not discussing Dad’s issues right now,” Nolan said. “We’re discussing yours. Besides, Dad actually loves the work he’s doing, we’ve made amazing strides with the winery, and he’s never been healthier or happier.”
“As opposed to me, floundering and apparently needing to be medicated to do my job?” Sebastian shot back.
Nolan removed his smudged glasses and massaged his eyes before replacing them. “No one is calling you a failure, Bas.”
“So now I’m a failure?”
“I literally just said you weren’t.”
“Then why mention the word at all?” Sebastian retrieved a crystal decanter of brandy from the glass bar cart in the great room.
“You probably shouldn’t be drinking that with your meds,” Nolan warned.
“Shit.” Sebastian muttered under his breath. He set the decanter down roughly, staving off the desire to throw the damn thing.
Sebastian pulled the prescription from his pocket and slapped it on the counter.
“You have no intention of filling that prescription, do you?” Nolan sat beside him.
“I can’t do my job if I’m sedated and not fully functional,” Sebastian grumbled.
“That’s a bullshit excuse. Plenty of folks in high-powered jobs take anxiety meds,” Nolan countered. “It’s called taking care of your mental health.”
Sebastian didn’t respond.
“And what about the doc’s other suggestions?” Nolan pressed.
Sebastian grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and handed Nolan one. “See? I’m hydrating.”
