Amber Williams - A Place with Briar

He’s in some serious trouble

Cole Savitt does not want to deceive Briar Browning. But if he hopes to see his son again, he has to find the weaknesses in her charming bed-and-breakfast, then get out of town fast! But the quaint inn isn’t the only thing charming him….

Cole’s straightforward plan becomes anything but when he begins to fall for the beautiful innkeeper. Suddenly everything’s on the line—his future with his son, a chance at happiness and the love of a good woman. Cole must rethink his priorities…and the stakes have never been higher.

“There’s something you need to know….”

Cole’s lips curved as he turned back to the bike. “I know.”

“You do?” Briar asked, sounding astounded.

“You’ve never ridden a bike before.”

“Is it that obvious?” she asked, rubbing her palms on her jeans.

“A little,” he said wryly. “Just lean with me into the turns. And hold on.”

Hell, if he didn’t coax her on now, she’d probably run for her life. And while that might have been better for the both of them under the circumstances, he found himself jerking his thumb behind him, motioning for her to get on.

After a brief pause, Briar dropped down her visor and stepped to the bike. Gripping his offered hand for balance, she climbed on behind him and placed her feet on the small passenger pegs.

Just this once, he was going to give Briar Browning the ride of her life. God help them both.

Dear Reader,

For fourteen years, Fairhope, Alabama, was the place I called home. While brainstorming A Place with Briar, I often found myself in my car driving toward the Eastern Shore of the Mobile Bay, where my hometown rests, snug on a sweeping, green bluff. I drove the scenic route that still makes my heart soar…maybe because I was retracing my first motorcycle ride, which a cute nineteen-year-old boy who would someday be my husband took me on.

I’m proud of the place I once called home. I love the pace of life in Fairhope, the view of the bay from the scenic bluffs along the shore…. It’s a dreamer’s paradise. As a girl, it was where I discovered my love of reading and writing. From the sailboats gliding across the bay, to the grand homes lining the streets, to the couples strolling hand in hand, growing up on the Eastern Shore jump-started my imagination. My mind has not stopped painting stories since. I had little doubt that one day I would share the stories I conjured there with the world.

I’m thrilled I finally get to share A Place with Briar with you, readers! This story is close to my heart in so many ways. Like Briar and Cole, I fell in love on the Eastern Shore. (I might even somewhat re-create my first motorcycle ride within its pages!) It was such a pleasure bringing in a haunted outsider like Cole, who needed a good dose of healing, and giving him the home and love he never knew his heart needed.

I hope you enjoy Briar and Cole’s story. I always love to hear from readers! You can find me on the web at www.amberleighwilliams.comor contact me via email at amber@amberleighwilliams.com!

Happy reading!

Amber Leigh Williams

A Place with Briar

Amber Leigh Williams

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

AMBER LEIGH WILLIAMSlives on the Gulf Coast. A Southern girl at heart, she loves beach days, the smell of real books, relaxing at her family’s lakehouse and spending time with her husband, Jacob, and their sweet blue-eyed boy. When she’s not running after her young son and three large dogs, she can usually be found reading a good romance or cooking up a new dish in her kitchen. Readers can find her on the web at www.amberleighwilliams.com!

First and foremost, I dedicate this book to my sister, H.P.W. As always, here’s to reading ’til midnight, eating too much ice cream, and living like there’s no tomorrow. Life wouldn’t be the same without you…. (Olivia is for you, Boo!)

I would also like to thank my father and mother, who moved the family to Fairhope in the early ’90s and were full of encouragement when I began writing shortly after….

To my husband, J.J.S.—there’s a lot of us in this book, babe. Thank you for being the inspiration I needed to tell this story….

And finally to the brave volunteers of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup. Endless gratitude for making our coastline beautiful once more.

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

Extract

CHAPTER ONE

COLE SAVITT HAD MADE a deal with the devil. He did so willingly because the prize far outweighed the cost.

That is, if the devil stuck to her end of the deal.

The devil, in this case, happened to be his ex-wife. If the past three years had taught him anything, it was that Tiffany could be the most manipulative person he’d ever met. He didn’t at all like that his fate was in her hands—or that he’d been the one to lay it there all over again.

But if she did stand by her end of the bargain, not only would his life be his own again, he would also no longer be barred from seeing his son.

Though it had been months since he had seen six-year-old Gavin inside a courtroom as an unsympathetic judge gifted Tiffany with full custody, stripping Cole of any visitation rights, he didn’t need a picture to remember his son’s face. The young visage so like his own was stamped across his temporal lobe—memory of all that had been, all that there was, and reminder of what could be.

The Fairhope pier was calm and deserted but for the early fishermen reclining in beach chairs. Their lines drooped over the railing into the shallow bay below. The only sounds that penetrated the peaceful lull of silence and the foggy gloom of the morning were the pelicans doing their far-from-graceful dive for breakfast and the heavy splash of crab nets hitting the water.

The bells of buoys trilled over the quiet, and water lapped against the hulls of boats tethered off the restaurant that some clever individual had christened Yardarm. Part of Fairhope’s most enduring residential park, the pier had survived hurricane forces and modern industrialization. Along with the adjacent park and the scenic bluff that crested far atop the shoreline, it was an Eastern Shore trademark. One of Alabama’s best-kept secrets.

As Cole sat drinking coffee inside the restaurant, his eyes didn’t stray to the seagulls that swooped into view, the pelicans dozing on isolated posts or the sailboats that well-to-do hobbyists had taken out early. His eyes were trained on the strip of land half a mile away, waiting for the clouds to part so he could get his first look at the target, a bayside bed-and-breakfast called Hanna’s Inn.

Why Tiffany wanted to buy the place so badly was beyond Cole. He knew her family hailed from Fairhope and the coastal cities surrounding it. He also knew that her hard-hitting, real-estate tycoon father had done his best to get his hands on as much land along the Eastern Shore over the course of his business life—and Hanna’s Inn had always eluded him. The old man had bitten the dust three years ago, leaving Tiffany in control of his legacy.

That her transformation from loving wife to manipulative bitch had occurred around the same time she came into family fortune and her own business didn’t strike Cole as a coincidence. Though looking back, he had to admit there’d been earlier signs of her ruthless ambition that he’d chosen to ignore at the time.