Carter Grayson
New York Times, USA Today & Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author
Sandi Lynn
Carter Grayson
Copyright © 2018 Sandi Lynn Romance, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Photo & Cover Design by: Sara Eirew @ Sara Eirew Photography
Editing by B.Z. Hercules
Table of Contents
Prologue
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
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Prologue
The memories of that day would stay with me forever. Even twenty years later, it still felt like it happened yesterday. The vivid pictures in my head were like a movie reel that wouldn’t stop playing, but despite the tragic events that took place that day, I lived my life in peace.
I could hear the scrambling of people, fire trucks, and sirens. The voices of the men and their footsteps as they walked through the horrific scene that was in front of them echoed in the distance.
“My god, I can’t believe this,” one man spoke in a horrified voice.
I opened my eyes and began to slowly crawl out from the debris and ruble that engulfed me. As I stood up, a man who stood tall stared at me from a distance, his face impaled with shock.
“There’s a survivor! A child!” he shouted as he made his way over to me.
The pink dress with the white daisies my mom had bought me was torn and stained with black. One of my white patent leather shoes was missing and blood poured down my leg as I looked at the open wound. When the man reached me, he bent down and grasped my shoulders, staring at me with teary eyes.
“You’re going to be okay, sweetheart,” he spoke as he hugged me.
He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. As he carried me from the site, I gently smiled as I stared at the shadowy figures that were making their way back home. They were at peace and filled with light. I wanted to follow them, but it wasn’t my time, and at the tender age of five, I fully understood what that meant.
I remember the sun hitting my face as he carried me out from the debris and laid me down on the stretcher that was waiting for me. People hovered with shocked expressions on their faces as they took my vitals and scrambled around while tears fell from their eyes in disbelief that I was alive. I was transported to the hospital, where I was treated by a tall and handsome young doctor who made me feel safe.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?” he asked as he examined me.
“Zoey.”
“Nice to meet you, Zoey.” He gave me a friendly and warm smile. “I’m Dr. John Benson. Do you know your last name?”
“Anderson.”
“You’re safe here and we’re going to take good care of you. I don’t want you to be afraid.”
“I’m not afraid,” I spoke in a soft voice as I reached for his hand. In that moment, on that day, my life was forever changed.
Chapter One
Twenty Years Later
Zoey
I raced down the stairs and grabbed my purse from the table. I was almost out the door when I heard my dad yell my name.
“Zoey, stop!”
“Yeah, Dad?” I smiled as I turned and looked at him.
He tapped his cheek with his finger.
“Sorry.” I ran over to where he was standing and gave him a kiss.
“Be careful and tell Holly I said hi.”
“Always am, and I will.”
I flew out the door, running late as usual, to pick up my best friend Holly for a day trip to New York City. As I climbed into my Jeep Grand Cherokee, my other dad pulled up.
“Where are you off to?” he asked with a smile.
“I’m picking up Holly and we’re going to do some shopping in the city.”
“Ah. Tell her I said hi and be careful.”
I rolled my eyes with a smile. “Always am, and I will.”
“Love you, Zoey.”
“Love you too, Dad. I’ll see you tonight.”
I pulled up to Holly’s house where she stood in the driveway, looking at her watch.
“It’s about time, Zoe,” she spoke as she climbed into the car and shut the door.
“Sorry. I was on the phone talking to Brendan as I was getting ready.”
“What’s going on with you two anyway?” she asked as she chomped on her gum. “I thought you were on a break?”
“We are, but he thinks he wants to get back together.” I rolled my eyes.
“He thinks? He actually said that? What did you say?”
“I told him that he needs his space, and if it was meant to be, then it would be in due time.”
“Good answer.” She grinned. “You aren’t really into him that much anyway. Are you?”
I shrugged. “I wanted to be, but I just don’t feel that connection.”
“Well, all I can say is if you aren’t feeling it after eight months, it’s never going to be there.”
Holly Stanfield had been my best friend since my parents moved to Greenwich, Connecticut when I was five years old. She was the only person who knew my real story. We were soul sisters who told each other everything. We were inseparable. Her parents knew a different version of my life. The version of John and Scott, my fathers, who adopted me when I was a baby after I was found on the stairs of the church they attended. That was the story we had stuck with since I was five years old because if the media found out who I really was, the chaos would start all over again. I trusted her. She never told a soul and I knew she never would. She was a beautiful girl who stood five foot five, slender build, long wavy auburn hair and eyes that looked like emeralds.
While she attended beauty school, I was at the University of Connecticut getting my bachelor’s degree in nursing with a specialty in hospice care. Since it was a two-hour drive from where I lived, I stayed on campus during the week and came home every weekend. I completed my bachelor’s degree in less than four years, taking on several extra classes during the summer months. The one thing I loved about my job was th
e traveling aspect of it. I didn’t work out of a facility or hospital. My patients who required hospice care preferred to do it in the privacy of their home. Most of the time, I lived with them when their life expectancy was as little as two weeks, with the exception of Charles, a fifty-year-old man who was dying from lung cancer and lived four weeks longer than the doctors expected. The way people found me was on a site called HospiceCareforYou.com. I had a profile, background check, and my list of experiences. Since I was only twenty-five, some thought I was way too young with not enough experience to care for their loved ones, until they met me.
“So now that Mr. Patterson passed away, what’s your next job?” Holly asked as we walked down Fifth Avenue and did some window shopping.
“I don’t have one yet, but I’m not worried. Someone will message me soon.” I smiled.
“With the money you make from those families, you can afford not to take care of a few patients for a while.”
“True, but you know I don’t like to go too long without working. There are patients out there that need me.”
“I don’t know how you do it, Zoey.” She hooked her arm around me. “I need coffee.”
“Me too.” I smiled. “There’s a Starbucks right around the corner.”
As we entered through the doors to one of my favorite coffee shops, we were both surprised there wasn’t a line.
“May I help you?” the blonde barista asked as we walked up to the counter.
“Two Grande Americanos, please.”
“I’ll go get us a table,” Holly spoke.
“Anything else?” the barista asked.
My eyes diverted over to where the muffins sat behind the glass.
“One chocolate chip muffin.” I grinned.
“Coming right up.”
I grabbed my muffin from the counter and patiently waited for our Americanos to be made.
“Two Grande Americanos for Zoey.” The cute guy with the short brown hair behind the counter smiled.
“Thank you.” I smiled back.
I grabbed the coffees and took them over to the table where Holly sat. Pulling the muffin from the bag, I set it in the middle of the table for the two of us to share. We sipped our coffee, picked at the muffin, and we laughed at a funny video our friend Morris sent Holly.
“Could the two of you take your laughter outside? I’m on a phone call,” an incredibly attractive but rude man sitting at the table next to us spoke.
We both stared at him in disbelief that he had the nerve to tell us that in a public place. Actually, it was Holly giving him the dirty look. My eyes were fixated on how handsome he was.
“Dude, this is a public place. Maybe you should take your phone call outside,” Holly snapped at him.
He looked at me with his sapphire blue eyes and I gulped at his cold gaze. He hung up the phone, got up from his seat, and stood in front of our table.
“This may be a public place, but it’s not a child’s playground,” he spoke in an authoritative tone.
I couldn’t help but admire his almost perfectly symmetrical face with a hint of scruff that graced his jawline. He turned around and I watched him walk away and out of the coffee shop. He stood approximately six foot two with brown hair that was in a classic taper cut with the top just long enough to run a comb through. His build looked hard and lean and the black designer suit he wore was tailored to perfection. He was almost perfect, except for the darkness that resided inside him, something I picked up on the moment he spoke to us.
“What a dick!” Holly laughed.
My eyes never left the doorway of the shop as Holly snapped her fingers at me to quickly bring me back to reality.
“Zoey, what the hell?”
“What?” I looked at her.
“Oh my God, don’t tell me you thought he was hot.” She laughed.
I picked up my coffee cup and took a sip from it.
“He was cute. You can’t deny that,” I spoke.
“Doesn’t matter. He was rude and the type of person who thinks they own the world. I can’t stand people like him.”
Chapter Two
Carter
Shaking my head, I walked out of Starbucks and headed back to the office. “Immature idiots,” I mumbled to myself. I arrived at the office and told Breanna, my secretary, that I didn’t want to be disturbed. Today was already a shit show and I was going to explode if anyone else pissed me off.
“No phone calls and no disturbances, Breanna,” I scowled as I walked past her desk.
“Sure, Mr. Grayson.”
Slamming my office door, I took a seat behind my desk and brought up the projections on my computer for the shopping center I wanted to acquire. As I was in deep concentration going over numbers, my cell phone rang. It was Nora.
“Nora, I can’t talk right now.”
“I just wanted to let you know I fired that ratchet bitch of a nurse you hired,” she tiredly spoke.
“For fuck sake. Why?”
“Because I didn’t like her attitude. So, you’re going to have to find someone else.”
I sighed into the phone.
“She’s the third nurse in a month you fired. You can’t keep doing this!”
“Then find me someone with a personality and I won’t have to.”
“Is Sadie still there?” I asked.
“Yes. She said she’d stay until you got home,” she replied.
“Fine. I’ll call the agency right now and set up some interviews. I have to go. I’m very busy.”
“Carter, wait. I want to interview them with you. Conduct the interviews at the house. I need to get a feel for these people before you hire them. This is the end of my life and I refuse to spend it with an uncaring monster nurse!”
I took in a deep breath to calm myself.
“Fine. Now I have to go. I’ll see you later.”
As I threw my phone across my desk, my friend and vice president, Ross, walked in.
“Someone sure as hell pissed you off.” He smiled as he took a seat across from me.
“Now is not a good time, Ross.”
“Breanna warned me you were in a mood and didn’t want to be disturbed, but this can’t wait.” He threw a file across my desk. “Cecil Campbell upped the price of the Long Island property.”
I opened the file and looked at it.
“That son of a bitch. We’ve been working on this deal for the past six months. The property isn’t even worth this much. What the hell is he thinking?”
“I can guarantee that his gambling debt increased,” Ross spoke.
“Get Lucas on it right away and stall Cecil. Tell him I’m thinking about it and I’ll have an answer for him next week.”
“Okay. What was that phone call about?”
I sighed as I leaned back in my chair.
“Nora fired another nurse.”
“Again?” Ross cocked his head.
“Yep. As much as I love my sister, she’s really pissing me the fuck off. I don’t have time to deal with this shit.”
“I might be able to help you out,” he spoke.
“How?”
“My cousin, Reggie, hired a hospice nurse for his father-in-law who lived with him and Samantha, and he just recently passed away. From what Reggie said, this nurse was a godsend. She was amazing and took very good care of him right up until the end. And if you knew his father-in-law, he was a bastard. I can call him and get her number if you want. It might save you some trouble.”
“I guess. What does it hurt? Nora wants to be in on the interview since I seem to make piss poor choices in hiring nurses for her.”
He gave me a small smile before walking out of my office.
“I’ll go call him now.”
“Thanks, Ross.”
“No problem, man.”
About thirty minutes later, as I was leaving the office, Ross stopped me in the hallway.
“You leaving already?” he asked.
“Yeah. I need to get home to Nora.”
“I have that number for you. Reggie said you won’t be disappointed.” He handed me a white piece of paper.
I unfolded it and stared at the women’s name and number.
“Thanks, Ross. I’ll give her a call.”
“You’re welcome. I hope it works out.” He patted me on the back.
I climbed into the back of the Bentley and told Juan to take me home. Pulling out my phone, I dialed the number on the piece of paper.
“Hello,” a soft voice answered.
“Hello. Is this Zoey Benson?”
“Yes. Who’s this?” she asked.
“My name is Carter Grayson and I received your number from a friend of mine. I understand you’re a hospice nurse?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I’m hoping you’re available for an interview. My sister is in need of a hospice care nurse and you were highly recommended.”
“When would you like to schedule the interview?” she asked.
“As soon as possible. Actually, if you’re available, let’s say about an hour.”
“It depends, Mr. Grayson, what’s your address?”
“212 Fifth Avenue, Apt. 21A.”
“That’s perfect. I’m already in the city, so I can meet you in an hour.”
Her words caught me off guard. Didn’t she live in New York?
“I’ll see you then.” I ended the call.
She sounded young. Too young, in fact. Maybe she was just one of those women who sounded differently on the phone. As soon as Juan dropped me off in front of my building, I climbed out and was greeted at the door by Joseph, the doorman.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Grayson.” He nodded as he held the door open for me.
“Hello, Joseph. I’m expecting a woman by the name of Zoey Benson for an interview in about an hour. Just send her up.”
“Ah, I did see the last nurse leave here with her suitcase a few hours ago. Another one bites the dust, eh?”
I heavily sighed. “It seems no one can make Nora happy these days.”
I headed to the elevator and took it up to my penthouse. When the doors opened, I stepped out, set my briefcase down, and headed to the kitchen where Sadie was cooking dinner.