Ladd Haven Read online

  LADD

  HAVEN

  by

  Dianne Venetta

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

  *****

  PUBLISHED BY:

  BloominThyme Press

  Ladd Haven

  Copyright 2013 by Dianne Venetta

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  LADD HAVEN

  Ladd Springs Series:

  LADD SPRINGS ~ #1

  LADD FORTUNE ~ #2

  HOTEL LADD ~ #3

  LADD HAVEN ~ #4

  LOSING LADD ~ #5

  Other novels by Dianne Venetta

  Romantic Women’s Fiction

  The Gables Trilogy:

  JENNIFER’S GARDEN

  LUST ON THE ROCKS

  WHISPER PRIVILEGES

  Women’s Fiction

  CONDEMN ME NOT

  Ladd Haven

  Copyright 2013 by Dianne Venetta

  ISBN: 978-0-9884871-7-8

  Publisher: BloominThyme Press

  Editor: Best Foot Forward

  Cover Design: Jaxadora Design

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from the copyright owner.

  Acknowledgements

  As an animal lover, I find any and all abuse of animals abhorrent. Doesn’t matter how big or small the creature, animal cruelty is senseless and repulsive. Troy Parker, the hero in Ladd Haven, is a young man who has dedicated his life to working with horses, turning a childhood passion into his career. Rough and tumble country boy on the outside, Troy’s a man with a gentle heart. Especially when it comes to those he loves, including his horses.

  Many of you might be familiar with a horse trainer by the name of Monty Roberts. I was introduced to his work years ago via a novel I read, written by Nicholas Evans. An unforgettable read, The Horse Whisperer is one of those books that breaks your heart, then turns around and mends it by weaving a story filled with incredible acts of kindness.

  Many of the horse training moves my character demonstrates are rooted in the principles emphasized by Monty Roberts: a gentle tone, non-verbal communication, and patience. Translated: Never push an animal to do what it’s not ready to do. Mr. Roberts developed his approach after witnessing the violent training methods of his father. I imagine watching a man tie a helpless animal and almost torture him into submission would change a person. It would me.

  If you ever get the opportunity to see a live demonstration by Monty Roberts, don’t miss it. Years ago I watched him perform in Ocala, Florida and walked away from the event amazed and joyous.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to horse lovers everywhere.

  LADD HAVEN

  Book #4

  When Troy Parker returns home, a pregnant Casey Owens rejects him outright asserting he lost his right to honesty when he abandoned her to pursue his fortune in Kentucky. Jimmy Sweeney, friend and ally to Casey, never cared for Troy and is more than willing to take part in her deception.

  Jack Foster has a few tricks of his own, beginning with reconciling his daughter Felicity Wilkins with the Foster family. Her mother, Delaney Wilkins, wants nothing to do with family reunions, knowing some relations are best left buried.

  But as time passes, lies unravel. Casey can no longer deny her feelings for Troy and confronts him about the pregnancy. Felicity is doing some confronting of her own now that she’s learned a disturbing truth. Yet it’s Delaney's confession that causes families to collide as folks take sides, shattering both past and future generations, ensnaring Casey and Felicity in painful complications for which neither is prepared...

  Family feuds run deep and wide, threatening even the most solid of unions. Find out who survives the perils in this chapter of Ladd Springs…

  Meet the cast of characters of Ladd Haven...

  Ernie Ladd – Original owner of Ladd Springs

  Albert Ladd - Ernie’s brother

  Jeremiah Ladd - Ernie’s son, forsaken by the family

  Susannah Ladd Wilkins – Ernie’s sister (deceased)

  Delaney Wilkins - Ernie’s niece, daughter to his deceased sister Susannah

  Nick Harris - Developer responsible for Hotel Ladd, married to Delaney

  Felicity Wilkins - Delaney’s daughter, half-owner of Ladd Springs

  Casey Owens – Jeremiah Ladd’s daughter, half-owner of Ladd Springs

  Troy Parker – Casey’s boyfriend, childhood friend to Felicity

  Jimmy Sweeney – Friend and co-worker of Casey

  Annie Owens Foster -- Casey’s mother

  Calvin Foster – Annie’s husband, Foster son moved back home from Arizona

  Jack Foster – Cal’s brother & Delaney’s ex-husband

  Gerald and Victoria Foster – Parents to Cal, Jack, and brothers Beau & Clint

  Travis Parker – Twin to Troy, boyfriend to Felicity

  Malcolm Ward – Hotel manager and business partner of Nick

  Lacy Owens Ward – Annie’s sister, married to Malcolm

  Ashley and Booker Fulmer - Ernie’s sister Susannah’s best friend & her husband

  Candi Sweeney - Annie’s best friend, Jimmy’s aunt

  Fran Jones - Owner of Fran’s Diner, aunt to Annie

  Hank Dakota – Town lawyer

  Chapter One

  “So they can’t take a honeymoon?” Seated across from Casey Owens in a red-vinyled booth at Fran’s Diner, Jimmy Sweeney shook his head. Bright light flooded in through the pane of front windows, red-checkered curtains serving to cast his fair complexion in warm shades, accentuating the naturally red highlights in his brunette hair. Casey noted most of the black hair dye had grown out, the dark ends the only visible hint of Jimmy’s Goth stage. He refused to cut his hair short which would have eliminated the color altogether, claiming he wasn’t comfortable with short hair. Too mainstream. At least it was only the tips, Casey mused. The brown hair made him appear semi-normal and not half-bad looking, no longer sullen, brooding and rebellious.

  Jimmy was a loner at school, torn between his desire for attention and his debilitating shyness. He couldn’t make the first friend yet it was all he longed for. Friends, people who understood him, accepted him. He was a little on the quirky side, but Casey had come to learn it was due to his extreme intelligence. Jimmy was a brainiac born to a family of dysfunction. His aunt Candi was Casey’s best friend, a thirty-eight-year-old woman who still lived at home. His Uncle Clem was a no-good bum, a man who tried to loot gold from Ladd Springs, land that now belonged to her thanks to her mother’s vigorous battle to prove paternity. A victory Casey had only recently come to appreciate. While she was glad to own part of Ladd Springs, Jeremiah Ladd was a dirt bag. Could anyone expect her to celebrate the fact he was her father?

  Her change in attitude was due in large part to Jimmy. He’d convinced her to see the posi
tive in owning half of Ladd Springs, as opposed to the negative. Forget the reason she had the land and focus on what it meant going forward. But that was Jimmy. He was her constant. The guy who’d been there for her when everyone was else was too busy with their own lives. The two struck up conversation one night while rolling silverware after working a shift at the diner. Going through troubles of her own at the time, she’d needed a friend and was willing to chance a conversation with the extremely odd Jimmy Sweeney. Turns out, he wasn’t so weird once you got to talking to him. He was smart, generous, and a good listener. They even had a few things in common. Peering into his dark eyes, eyes that held affection, friendship, she sighed. If it hadn’t been for Jimmy and his friendship, Casey would have lost her mind. Lost her life, really.

  “It doesn’t seem right,” Jimmy said. “If I were newly married I’d want one.”

  Staring at him, a part of her knew Jimmy wouldn’t mind that marriage to include her. Only she wasn’t interested. “They’re too busy with opening the hotel,” Casey replied, picking at a biscuit on her plate, one of two her Aunt Fran had delivered along with a cheese sandwich, none of which she’d ordered. She didn’t want biscuits or sandwiches or her customary cheeseburger and fries, but if she didn’t eat, Fran would get on her and she wasn’t in the mood for another lecture. Now fill up, sugar, you’re eatin’ for two. Don’t go starvin’ that baby or I’ll report you to your doctor. With the amount of food Fran was trying to pile down her throat, one would think Casey was eating for two hundred! She was pregnant, not vying for an eat-a-thon.

  “But no honeymoon?” Jimmy pressed. “I thought that’s what newlyweds were supposed to do.”

  “Eventually they will.” Swiping a finger against a thick drip of honey, Casey sucked the sweet substance from her fingertip. “My mom wants to go to Bermuda for her honeymoon.”

  Jimmy gaped. “Bermuda?”

  Casey nodded. “Says it’s the closest exotic destination she could think of.”

  “What—she afraid to go far?”

  “She’s not sure about flying.” Annie Owens was almost forty years old and had never been on an airplane. Casey would say that was weird, except she hadn’t been on one either. Growing up in a small town with little money to their name, they never had reason. Now that her mom had married Cal Foster, things were different. He had money—lots of it—and he was more than willing to share, offering to build her a small house of her own on the land her mother had secured for her. Warm feelings washed over her. Mr. Foster was a good man. A loving man. Casey was glad her mother had married him. Better yet, the marriage came with a new step-sister, one she hadn’t met yet. Cal’s daughter, Emily, was eleven and lived in Arizona with her mom. Unable to attend the wedding, Emily was scheduled for a visit later in the summer and Casey couldn’t wait. With no siblings of her own, Casey thought it would be neat to have a kid sister. Cal said if things went well, Emily might be able to spend summers here. Well, if Casey had anything to say about it, Emily’s first trip to Tennessee would be memorable.

  Jimmy nodded, as though flying anxiety were completely normal. “Cool.”

  Casey smiled. So easygoing. Jimmy accepted life as it came. He was smart, wise. It was Jimmy who was able to convince her of the futility in taking drugs. There’d been a time when she was so unhappy, so miserable, life didn’t seem worth living. But he made her see there was hope over the horizon. Change, freedom. Despite the people around you, life could be enjoyed. And Jimmy knew what he was talking about. His parents fought non-stop. They were loud and obnoxious but refused to get a divorce. His grandparents took him in but they weren’t much better. They were miserable. Yet throughout it all, Jimmy said he never gave up hope. He hid behind a wardrobe of black for a while but said he always believed in himself and his future. Today he lived on his own in a cute apartment downtown, drove a nice car and was taking classes to earn his degree. He didn’t know what he wanted a degree in yet. Only that it would be something that would get him a good job and get him out of this town.

  Unfortunately, Jimmy wasn’t her type. He was too tall, too skinny, but he was nice and he was her friend. Casey set a hand on the enormous swell of her stomach. Two things she had come to appreciate after Troy Parker left town. The love of her life, and father of her child, had deserted her. By the time he finally got around to telling her what he’d done, where he’d gone, she’d been so mad she refused to take his calls. He’d moved to Kentucky. Took a job on a ranch there and planned to settle down. Troy didn’t ask her to come with him. He didn’t insist they never spend another night apart. Nope. He up and left and didn’t call her for a week.

  A strange sensation pushed into Casey’s stomach. It wasn’t nausea, it wasn’t a cramp. Pushing back in her seat, she slid a hand over the rise of her belly, rubbing in a circular motion as she allowed the feeling to pass. They seemed to be occurring more often these days, feelings in and around the baby inside her. They were physical sensations, but she was beginning to have emotional ones too. An intuition she never had before. Too bad it didn’t exist before she started dating Troy. Maybe then she would have seen him for the train wreck he was.

  Jimmy looked down at her stomach as though it were a ticking time bomb. “Are you all right?”

  “Fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She nodded. Like everyone else, Jimmy was a worry wart when it came to her condition. There was nothing wrong with her. It was just a feeling. Continuing to caress her belly in a rhythmic motion, calming, Casey wondered if it could be indigestion. Staring at the tall glass of half-drunk coke, she wondered if it might be the carbonation unsettling her stomach. Or maybe the biscuit drenched in honey butter. Strange how pregnancy changed things. Not only was she experiencing new sensations and feelings, but her tastes had changed. She used to love French fries, but now they soured her stomach. Too greasy. Same with cheeseburgers. She could no longer eat the two staples of her diet. She glanced around the restaurant, her gaze landing on a waitress carrying a heavily loaded tray of food through the diner. Circling a table, she delivered fried chicken, fried okra, fried tomatoes and cornbread. Casey frowned. Practically everything in the restaurant was fried, which made her cringe. Good thing she only had another two months or so. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could tolerate it!

  The front door opened, the clang of bells reverberated in her heart.

  “Casey?” Alarm careened into Jimmy’s gaze. “What’s a matter?”

  Panic closed her throat. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move.

  Troy Parker, in the flesh, was standing by the hostess stand.

  Jimmy whirled around at the same moment Troy spotted them. Removing his black hat as they made eye contact, his familiar brown eyes latched onto Casey like a bee on a blossom. Her heart squeezed, her legs dissolved beneath her. Troy was here.

  But why?

  He hesitated, glanced around tables and booths in the crowded diner. Even from ten yards away, partially concealed beneath those long brown bangs of his, she could see his anger flash hot. Troy clenched his jaw and headed straight for them. Instinctively, she jammed elbows to the table and leaned forward, crossing her arms protectively over her stomach, catching the edge of her plate which toppled, then spun loudly back in place. Casey’s pulse shot wildly out of control—thudding so hard—she feared it would break loose from her chest.

  Troy’s long jean-legged strides closed the distance in seconds. Jimmy turned back to face her, the full impact of what was coming gripping his expression steps before Troy made it to their table, arriving in a sweep of tension, emotion churning the air around him. He stared down at the two of them, eyes darting between her and Jimmy, hostility pulsating beneath his surface of calm. Casey gulped. “Casey,” he said tersely.

  “Troy,” she returned, scratching out the single word.

  Jimmy sat pensive, clearly unsettled by the surprise appearance of her ex-boyfriend, a position he’d been vying for himself of late. Jimmy wanted to g
ive her baby a name. He wanted to support her, be there for her where this man had not. It was a gesture she appreciated but declined. She couldn’t be with Jimmy. She wasn’t interested.

  There was only one guy who held her interest and he was standing before her very eyes, glaring at her like she was a traitor or something. He stood bolted in place, looking between the two of them, as if waiting for Casey to fill the void. “I thought you were in Kentucky,” Casey sputtered, even as she battled a chest full of nerves and her heart sang, Troy’s home.

  “I’m not,” Troy replied. “I’m here.”

  “We can see that,” Jimmy wisecracked, swiping Casey with a sidelong gaze.

  Troy’s hand flinched, giving Casey a start. “Why are you here?” she asked quickly, diffusing the powder keg between the two. Troy didn’t care for Jimmy and the feeling was mutual.