Love to the rescue, p.1
Love to the Rescue, page 1
The last time Brody Clark left the Rivers, she walked away from her life—her foolish dreams, her few friends, and the secrets she'd kept from everyone. For ten years she'd told herself there was nothing in her past she cared about—not the family who'd given her a home or the one girl she never stopped thinking about. But now she’s back as part of the new medevac flight crew, for at least as long as it takes to finally bury her ghosts.
Val Valentine, DVM, planned on a big city boutique vet practice with high profile clients, easy hours, and lucrative profits. All until the man who was more father to her than her own asks for her help, and she ends up back in the backwater where all she has are bad memories.
Brody figures cutting her ties to the past would be a hell of a lot easier if she could only avoid the woman she’s never been able to forget. Since Val never even knew she was alive back in high school, that shouldn’t be too hard now. When their lives collide, both women discover what might have been is closer than they think.
Acclaim for Radclyffe’s Fiction
“Dangerous Waters is a bumpy ride through a devastating time with powerful events and resolute characters. Radclyffe gives us the strong, dedicated women we love to read in a story that keeps us turning pages until the end.”—Lambda Literary Review
“Radclyffe’s Dangerous Waters has the feel of a tense television drama, as the narrative interchanges between hurricane trackers and first responders. Sawyer and Dara butt heads in the beginning as each moves for some level of control during the storm’s approach, and the interference of a lovely television reporter adds an engaging love triangle threat to the sexual tension brewing between them.”—RT Book Reviews
“Love After Hours, the fourth in Radclyffe’s Rivers Community series, evokes the sense of a continuing drama as Gina and Carrie’s slow-burning romance intertwines with details of other Rivers residents. They become part of a greater picture where friends and family support each other in personal and recreational endeavors. Vivid settings and characters draw in the reader…”—RT Book Reviews
Secret Hearts “delivers exactly what it says on the tin: poignant story, sweet romance, great characters, chemistry and hot sex scenes. Radclyffe knows how to pen a good lesbian romance.”—LezReviewBooks Blog
Wild Shores “will hook you early. Radclyffe weaves a chance encounter into all-out steamy romance. These strong, dynamic women have great conversations, and fantastic chemistry.”—The Romantic Reader Blog
In 2016 RWA/OCC Book Buyers Best award winner for suspense and mystery with romantic elements Price of Honor “Radclyffe is master of the action-thriller series…The old familiar characters are there, but enough new blood is introduced to give it a fresh feel and open new avenues for intrigue.”—Curve Magazine
In Prescription for Love “Radclyffe populates her small town with colorful characters, among the most memorable being Flann’s little sister, Margie, and Abby’s 15-year-old trans son, Blake…This romantic drama has plenty of heart and soul.”—Publishers Weekly
2013 RWA/New England Bean Pot award winner for contemporary romance Crossroads “will draw the reader in and make her heart ache, willing the two main characters to find love and a life together. It’s a story that lingers long after coming to ‘the end.’”—Lambda Literary
In 2012 RWA / FTHRW Lories and RWA HODRW Aspen Gold award winner Firestorm “Radclyffe brings another hot lesbian romance for her readers.”—The Lesbrary
Foreword Review Book of the Year finalist and IPPY silver medalist Trauma Alert “is hard to put down and it will sizzle in the reader’s hands. The characters are hot, the sex scenes explicit and explosive, and the book is moved along by an interesting plot with well drawn secondary characters. The real star of this show is the attraction between the two characters, both of whom resist and then fall head over heels.”—Lambda Literary Reviews
Lambda Literary Award Finalist Best Lesbian Romance 2010 features “stories [that] are diverse in tone, style, and subject, making for more variety than in many, similar anthologies…well written, each containing a satisfying, surprising twist. Best Lesbian Romance series editor Radclyffe has assembled a respectable crop of 17 authors for this year’s offering.”—Curve Magazine
2010 Prism award winner and ForeWord Review Book of the Year Award finalist Secrets in the Stone is “so powerfully [written] that the worlds of these three women shimmer between reality and dreams…A strong, must read novel that will linger in the minds of readers long after the last page is turned.”—Just About Write
In Benjamin Franklin Award finalist Desire by Starlight “Radclyffe writes romance with such heart and her down-to-earth characters not only come to life but leap off the page until you feel like you know them. What Jenna and Gard feel for each other is not only a spark but an inferno and, as a reader, you will be washed away in this tumultuous romance until you can do nothing but succumb to it.”—Queer Magazine Online
Lambda Literary Award winner Stolen Moments “is a collection of steamy stories about women who just couldn’t wait. It’s sex when desire overrides reason, and it’s incredibly hot!”—On Our Backs
Lambda Literary Award winner Distant Shores, Silent Thunder “weaves an intricate tapestry about passion and commitment between lovers. The story explores the fragile nature of trust and the sanctuary provided by loving relationships.”—Sapphic Reader
Lambda Literary Award Finalist Justice Served delivers a “crisply written, fast-paced story with twists and turns and keeps us guessing until the final explosive ending.”—Independent Gay Writer
Lambda Literary Award finalist Turn Back Time “is filled with wonderful love scenes, which are both tender and hot.”—MegaScene
Applause for L.L. Raand’s Midnight Hunters Series
The Midnight Hunt
RWA 2012 VCRW Laurel Wreath winner Blood Hunt
Night Hunt
The Lone Hunt
“Raand has built a complex world inhabited by werewolves, vampires, and other paranormal beings…Raand has given her readers a complex plot filled with wonderful characters as well as insight into the hierarchy of Sylvan’s pack and vampire clans. There are many plot twists and turns, as well as erotic sex scenes in this riveting novel that keep the pages flying until its satisfying conclusion.”—Just About Write
“Once again, I am amazed at the storytelling ability of L.L. Raand aka Radclyffe. In Blood Hunt, she mixes high levels of sheer eroticism that will leave you squirming in your seat with an impeccable multi-character storyline all streaming together to form one great read.”—Queer Magazine Online
“The Midnight Hunt has a gripping story to tell, and while there are also some truly erotic sex scenes, the story always takes precedence. This is a great read which is not easily put down nor easily forgotten.”—Just About Write
“Are you sick of the same old hetero vampire/werewolf story plastered in every bookstore and at every movie theater? Well, I’ve got the cure to your werewolf fever. The Midnight Hunt is first in, what I hope is, a long-running series of fantasy erotica for L.L. Raand (aka Radclyffe).”—Queer Magazine Online
“Any reader familiar with Radclyffe’s writing will recognize the author’s style within The Midnight Hunt, yet at the same time it is most definitely a new direction. The author delivers an excellent story here, one that is engrossing from the very beginning. Raand has pieced together an intricate world, and provided just enough details for the reader to become enmeshed in the new world. The action moves quickly throughout the book and it’s hard to put down.”—Three Dollar Bill Reviews
Love to the Rescue
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Love to the Rescue
© 2019 By Radclyffe. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-62639-974-7
This Electronic Book is published by
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, New York 12185
First Edition: April 2019
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editors: Ruth Sternglantz and Stacia Seaman
Production Design: Stacia Seaman
Cover Design By Sheri (graphicartist2020@hotmail.com)
By Radclyffe
The Provincetown Tales
Safe Harbor
Beyond the Breakwater
Distant Shores, Silent Thunder
Storms of Change
Winds of Fortune
Returning Tides
Sheltering Dunes
PMC Hospitals Romances
Passion’s Bright Fury (prequel)
Fated Love
Night Call
Crossroads
Passionate Rivals
River Community Romances
Against Doctor’s Orders
Prescription for Love
Love on Call
Love After Hours
Love to the Rescue
Honor Series
Above All, Honor
Honor Bound
Love & Honor
Honor Guards
Honor Reclaimed
Honor Under Siege
Word of Honor
Oath of Honor (First Responders)
Code of Honor
Price of Honor
Justice Series
A Matter of Trust (prequel)
Shield of Justice
In Pursuit of Justice
Justice in the Shadows
Justice Served
Justice For All
First Responders Novels
Trauma Alert
Firestorm
Taking Fire
Wild Shores
Heart Stop
Dangerous Waters
Romances
Innocent Hearts
Promising Hearts
Love’s Melody Lost
Love’s Tender Warriors
Tomorrow’s Promise
Love’s Masquerade
shadowland
Turn Back Time
When Dreams Tremble
The Lonely Hearts Club
Secrets in the Stone
Desire by Starlight
Homestead
The Color of Love
Secret Hearts
Short Fiction
Collected Stories by Radclyffe
Erotic Interludes: Change of Pace
Radical Encounters
Stacia Seaman and Radclyffe, eds.
Erotic Interludes Vol. 2—5
Romantic Interludes Vol. 1—2
Breathless: Tales of Celebration
Women of the Dark Streets
Amor and More: Love Everafter
Myth & Magic: Queer Fairy Tales
Writing As L.L. Raand
Midnight Hunters
The Midnight Hunt
Blood Hunt
Night Hunt
The Lone Hunt
The Magic Hunt
Shadow Hunt
Acknowledgments
Quite a long time ago I started a series where a place was as much a character as any of the people in the stories. Sometimes the community, the land, the spirit of a place affects how we live and see the world. That first series turned out to be the Provincetown Tales, and sixty books later I have added a new novel to a new series also defined by place as well as people. The Rivers Community novels follow friends, new and old, as they come home, find love, and find themselves. I don’t think I could tell these stories in any other setting, and I hope you feel at home here, too.
Many thanks go to: senior editor Sandy Lowe for her advice, insights, and supreme publishing skills; editor Ruth Sternglantz for understanding what I mean to say on every page; editor Stacia Seaman for treating every book like the only project she has going on her busy schedule; and my first readers Paula and Eva for feedback, suggestions, and critiques.
And as always, thanks to Lee for home. Amo te.
Radclyffe, 2019
To Lee, where the roads lead
Chapter One
At a quarter to seven in the morning, Brody sat in her pickup truck staring at the Rivers. She’d pulled into the guest lot around the east side and had the place mostly to herself. Too early for regular visiting hours. The smattering of dusty vehicles parked here and there probably belonged to the families of patients in the ICUs. The cup of takeout coffee from the café that now occupied the old bank building on a corner in the center of town sat growing cold beside her. Almost as cold as the stone lodged in the pit of her stomach. Her mouth was dry and so were her eyes. She blinked and rubbed at the grit behind her closed lids. Too many hours on the road in the last week and not enough sleep. The trailer had been hot and stuffy, and she’d tossed and turned all night. Even with the window cracked above the almost-double platform bed, the breeze had been mostly hot air laced with a hefty helping of dust.
The hospital looked exactly as she remembered it, as unchanging, it seemed, as the rolling hills and distant mountains that stretched north to Canada and east into New England. The two-story central brick building with its arching wings and white colonnades stood as regally as it had for over a hundred years. The gardens that bordered the road circling the front and branching off to secluded parking areas were lush with flowering hydrangeas, roses of Sharon, and late-blooming perennials. Ivy climbed the cut stone foundation and trailed over trellis-covered walkways. An ache settled in her chest, an unbidden and unwelcome reminder of just how much she had not forgotten.
Damn Matt. Damn her too for not asking where to, when he’d offered her a promotion with more pay and more responsibility if she was willing to move. And why wouldn’t she have said yes? She didn’t have any ties in Ohio, and she hated the place. Not the people and, to be fair, not even the countryside so much. It was just that everything was so flat, and so…yellow. She’d never gotten past missing the countless variations of green in the hills and valleys of upstate New York, with the surprising stretches of pastureland punctuated by orchards and streams and the sweep of mountains appearing unexpectedly around a bend in the road. Maybe the Midwest flatlands just reminded her too much of the desert, another endless dry, hot yellow place. So of course she’d said yes to the offer—a bump to senior flight medic and shift supervisor with a nice jump in pay. Besides, Jane had signed on already, and Brody didn’t have enough good friends that she could afford to lose one. Then, when Matt’d told them where they were going, she’d been stunned speechless. He had to be joking. But he wasn’t, and then it was too late.
She watched out her rolled-down window as a stream of vehicles came steadily up the winding road from the village, climbing toward the hospital that sat on a hilltop overlooking the town nestled below and still dominated everything around. Ten years, and the changes hardly amounted to anything. Maybe that was just her memory, though. She hadn’t actually walked around in town yet. She’d managed to convince herself staying holed up in her trailer wasn’t cowardice. She had a good reason, after all. After nine hundred miles and twenty hours on the road, the used, eighteen-foot Gulf Stream she’d hauled her worldly goods across half the country in was in need of an overhaul.
She hated to think she was hiding. Wanted to think she’d come a lot further than that, and it was terrifying to even think that time could roll back so easily just by returning to a place she’d never expected to see again.
She sucked in a deep breath and reached for her coffee. Well, she wasn’t who she had been, and she wouldn’t let herself be pulled back to a place she’d escaped. She had a job to do, and the job mattered more than whatever ghosts beckoned when she wasn’t on guard. She had every right to be here. More than that, she had an obligation to her team.
Resolved, she set the cold coffee aside. It was good, nothing like the diner coffee she remembered getting from the only place that had been open in town back then. She just didn’t have any taste for it. Maybe that’s why the chill had spread into her bones. She couldn’t blame the temperature outside for the way she was feeling. Mid-August, the dog days of summer, hot and oppressively humid. Nothing like the heat of the Midwest, either. Funny, she hadn’t realized she’d missed those seemingly endless days of languid heat and hazy afternoons until now. Probably the only thing she’d come to discover she missed.
A Pathfinder, as out of place for its mud-free shining white exterior as for its Ohio plates, pulled in and parked beside her black Dodge. Matt climbed out and sketched her a wave, and a little of the weight lifted off Brody’s shoulders. After rolling up her window, she got out, locked the truck, and squared her shoulders.
