“Mommy? Please let me wake up Daddy.”
Audra clasped her daughter’s small hands and kissed the center of each palm. She had her father’s fingers. And his chin. “Go get dressed first, pumpkin. Then we’ll wake Daddy.”
“Can I call Grandma before we leave, too?”
“If we have time.”
“I wish you were coming so you could see the swing set Grandpa built for me.” Her lips pulled into a wide smile, revealing a missing front tooth. “The rope is really fun. And he added a fort and a ladder.”
“Be careful, there won’t be a net underneath.”
She made a face. “I don’t need a net. I’m eight years old.”
“Such an old lady.”
“Yeah.” Kara’s smile flipped then faded. “Why can’t you come with us?”
“You know why.” It was easier to slip a lie into the reason Audra couldn’t return to her hometown than to try and explain the truth.
“I wish you didn’t have that stupid job.”
“Kara—”
“Why can’t you have a job like Daddy? He can take off in the summers.”
“Well, that’s because Daddy’s in love with things like the Truman Doctrine and the Yalta Conference and he spends his summers learning about them.”
Kara giggled. “He’s in love with you, too.”
“Yes, sweetheart, he’s in love with me, too.” She pointed at her daughter and whispered, “And you.”
“Yup.” Kara bound off Audra’s lap as though her mother were a balance beam and said, “Uncle Peter said he’d take me to Universal Studios when I got back from Holly Springs.”
“Good. He can ride with you on Jurassic Park.”
“’Cause your tummy jumps too high right before you hit the water.”
“Right.” Talk of Peter Andellieu always got Kara’s attention. She’d been infatuated with the plastic surgeon and star of Dr. Perfection since the first time Audra invited him home to dinner five years ago. Despite his impeccable wardrobe and the fact that he’d never engaged in conversation with a child, much less an over-inquisitive one like Kara, he’d crouched next to her and accepted the soggy puzzle piece she thrust at him with good grace and a dazzling smile. By the third visit, Kara dubbed him “Uncle” Peter, a title that gained him official entry into the Wheyton family.
“Daddy said he and Uncle Peter will take me to a Padres game when we get back. You can go, too, if you want.”
Relieved to have the conversation shift to more pleasant topics, Audra wrinkled her nose. “I’ll wait for football. Now scoot and get ready, then we’ll wake Daddy.”
“Be right back.” Kara flipped down the hall toward the stairs with three cartwheels and a round-off.
Audra straightened the pillows on the couch and tucked a copy of Soap Digest into the magazine rack. She’d better wake Christian and warn him his daughter would be pouncing on him in a few minutes. She moved down the long hallway and tapped softly on the bedroom door, waiting for the low mumblings of sleep to surface. “Christian?” She eased the door open and peered inside. Slits of light poked through the blinds, casting strips of brightness on the room. The oxford shirt and khaki slacks for the trip hung from a hook outside the closet, loafers and socks resting beneath it. His suitcase stretched open on the floor, socks with socks, shirts with shirts, pants with pants, folded and compartmentalized. Her lips twitched as she thought of the special shoe covers he used to protect his clothing from coming into contact with “the contaminants on his soles.” He’d brought order and love into her life, along with a sense of belonging and simple acceptance, and for that, she would always love him.
“Come on, sleepyhead. Time to get up.”
He lay on his stomach, his head half-buried under a pillow, arms extended, shoulders and back exposed. The rest of his torso was covered with a single sheet. Even in the dimness of the room, she could make out the sleek definition of muscle. She reached over and lifted the pillow from his head. His right hand thudded against the bed, his eyes remained closed, mouth partially open. “Christian?” She shook his shoulder, gently, then harder as the iciness of his skin seeped into her hand. She grabbed for his fingers, felt their stiffness. “Christian!” Her scream bounced off the walls in desperate, agonizing pleas, but she knew he couldn’t hear them, knew he would never hear them. Her husband was dead.
Pulling Home is available for purchase at all major retailers.
Copyright 2011 by Mary Campisi
First published 2006 by Jocelyn Hollow Romance
A Family Affair is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and situations are all products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to persons, locales, or events, are purely coincidental.
About the Author
Mary Campisi should have known she’d become a writer when at age thirteen she began changing the ending to all the books she read. It took several years and a number of jobs, including registered nurse, receptionist in a swanky hair salon, accounts payable clerk, and practice manager in an OB/GYN office, for her to rediscover writing. Enter a mouse-less computer, a floppy disk, and a dream large enough to fill a zip drive. The rest of the story lives on in every book she writes.
When she’s not working on her craft or following the lives of five young adult children, Mary’s digging in the dirt with her flowers and herbs, cooking, reading, walking her rescue lab mix, Cooper, or on the perfect day, riding off into the sunset with her very own ‘hero’ husband on his Electra Glide Classic aka Harley.
Mary has published with Kensington, Carina Press, The Wild Rose Press, and Jocelyn Hollow Romance.
website: www.marycampisi.com
e-mail: mary@marycampisi.com
blog: http://www.marycampisi.com/blog/
twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/MaryCampisi
facebook http://www.facebook.com/marycampisibooks
The Story Behind the Story
Several years ago, I read an article about a man who had kept a secret family for years without anyone’s knowledge. I was fascinated that someone could and would actually do this. That one small article lived in my subconscious for years, emerging occasionally as I considered how a person might achieve this, the effects on the primary family as well as the other family, the pain, the grief, the anger, the emotional, financial and psychological entanglements between the two, and the ultimate question; which was the real family? I became so engrossed with the emotion of the situation that I knew I had to create my own characters and my own story and so emerged, A Family Affair. I have loved this story from the first page, to the final edit. I hope you will love it, too.
Other Books by Mary Campisi:
At Amazon:
Contemporary Romance
A Family Affair - link
Pulling Home (That Second Chance Series-Book One) - link
The Way They Were (That Second Chance Series-Book Two) - link
Simple Riches (That Second Chance Series-Book Three) - link
Paradise Found (That Second Chance Series-Book Four) - link
Not Your Everyday Housewife (That Second Chance Series-Book Five) - link
Pieces of You (The Betrayed Trilogy-Book One) - link
Begin Again: Short stories from the heart - link
The Sweetest Deal - link
Regency Historical
The Redemption of Madeline Munrove (The Model Wife Series-Book One) - link
The Seduction of Sophie Seacrest (An Unlikely Husband Series-Book One) - link
Innocent Betrayal - link
A Taste of Seduction - link
Young Adult
Pretending Normal - link
At Barnes and Noble:
Contemporary Romance
A Family Affair - link
Pulling Home (That Second Chance Series-Book One) - link
The Way They Were (That Second Chance Series-Book Two) - link
Simple Riches (That Second Chance Series-Book Three) - link
Paradise Found (Tha
t Second Chance Series-Book Four) - link
Not Your Everyday Housewife (That Second Chance Series-Book Five) - link
Pieces of You (The Betrayed Trilogy Book One) - link
Begin Again: Short stories from the heart - link
The Sweetest Deal - link
Regency Historical
The Redemption of Madeline Munrove (The Model Wife Series-Book One) - link
The Seduction of Sophie Seacrest (An Unlikely Husband Series-Book One) - link
Innocent Betrayal - link
A Taste of Seduction - link
Young Adult
Pretending Normal - link
At iTunes:
Contemporary Romance
A Family Affair - link
Pulling Home (That Second Chance Series-Book One) - link
The Way They Were (That Second Chance Series-Book Two) - link
Simple Riches (That Second Chance Series-Book Three) - link
Paradise Found (That Second Chance Series-Book Four) - link
Not Your Everyday Housewife (That Second Chance Series-Book Five) – link
Pieces of You (The Betrayed Trilogy Book One) - link
Begin Again: Short stories from the heart - link
The Sweetest Deal - link
Regency Historical
The Redemption of Madeline Munrove (The Model Wife Series-Book One) - link
The Seduction of Sophie Seacrest (An Unlikely Husband Series-Book One) - link
Innocent Betrayal - link
A Taste of Seduction - link
Young Adult
Pretending Normal - link
At Kobo:
Contemporary Romance
A Family Affair - link
Pulling Home (That Second Chance Series-Book One) - link
The Way They Were (That Second Chance Series-Book Two) - link
Simple Riches (That Second Chance Series-Book Three) – link
Paradise Found (That Second Chance Series-Book Four) - link
Not Your Everyday Housewife (That Second Chance Series-Book Five) - link
Pieces of You (The Betrayed Trilogy Book One) - link
Begin Again: Short stories from the heart - link
The Sweetest Deal - link
Regency Historical
The Redemption of Madeline Munrove (The Model Wife Series-Book One) - link
The Seduction of Sophie Seacrest (An Unlikely Husband Series-Book One) - link
Innocent Betrayal - link
A Taste of Seduction - link
Young Adult
Pretending Normal - link
Table of Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
An excerpt from Pulling Home
Copyright
About the Author
The Story Behind the Story
Other Books by Mary Campisi: