Page 1 of Driven Daddy

ONE

Crescent Lake 5 Miles

So close andyet so far away. It had been an eternal drive. My GPS had gone out three times in the dense treelines of this ridiculously out of the way area of New York.

I was used to loud city streets, darting across four lanes of traffic against the blinking walk sign and hoping for the best, and most of all, a freaking cell signal.

Did this town even have a cell tower?

I swore as my phone went into SOS mode for the fourth time.

“Now is the important part, you stupid piece of crap.”

I pulled off the side of Lakeview Road at what seemed to be a rest area or something small town-ish. At least I was pretty sure that was the last road mentioned before my phone went on the fritz. I unplugged my phone and huffed my way up the incline to the stone wall and held up my phone to see if I could possibly wave a single bar into my phone.

“C’mon.” I held it up and twisted around, pacing up and down along the wall as the single bar of service flickered on andoff. Disgusted, I dropped my hand and shoved my phone into my dress pants pocket.

I’d been driving in my court clothes for the last five hours. I was wrinkled and more than wilted and I just wanted to make it to my little lakeside cottage in this…

I paused at the stone wall and my breath caught. Now that I wasn’t ranting in my head about my stupid cell signal, I got a good look at Crescent Lake. More like Crescent Ocean from this vantage point. It was massive. The endless horizon of calm blue was spectacular. A bird coasted above the water, its long legs skimming the ripples before it snatched some sea—err, lake creature with its crazy accurate feet.

Was that a heron?

I had researched birds for one of my books set in the fake small town of my book series. We’d created an amalgam of places from the Adirondacks.

We.

Me and Jenelle.

No longer thewe.

I tipped my head back and lifted my face to the fall sun. It was a warm day in the last week of September. The first official day of my new career alone.

As of this morning at the courthouse in Manhattan, we had dissolved our entire business and all our assets. Jenelle had been my business partner and co-writer for the last eight years. Until New Year’s, I had thought she was also my best friend.

Hell, we’d been married for all intents and purposes.

Everything had been intertwined from our finances to our sixty-some-odd books. A girl lost count after twenty, by the way. Especially when we’d had such plans for the future. We had built many series between us.

And now… I had half of our catalog. Well, less than half.

I had gone hard at her to get the rights to our Sara Springs series. Sacrificing over twenty of our more current books to get my hands on it.

The one thing I had created mostly by myself.

One of the few things that didn’t have an avalanche of memories attached to it.

It also might save my career.

If I could get my head on straight.

I hadn’t written a word since that night in January. When Jenelle had cut me in half.

I dug into the stone before me until the tips of my fingers throbbed in reaction. Was I like a starfish and would regenerate? Or would I only be half a person? I was determined to figure which it would be this fall and winter.

In Crescent Cove.

If I ever found my damn cottage.

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