Little Love Stories
Little Love Stories Podcast
Writing The Sweetwoods...
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Writing The Sweetwoods...

A few thank-yous, some BTS, and an excerpt

From book 3, Sweetwood Christmas

Zena needed to splash some cold water on her face before she

met with this guy. She made her way to the bedroom that was

always reserved for her. The nerve of Holly Blake! And how come Miss

Divorced from NYC knew about her aunt and uncle before Zena did?

It was maddening.

She rounded the corner at the top of the stairs and headed down

the hall leading to the set of rooms that were designated for Zena and

her brothers. Ever since she was little, it was a source of pride that she

had a bedroom to herself while Jacob and Keith had to share. Auntie

A was a fierce defender of the decision. “A girl needs a space of her

own,” she’d said.

But as she approached the doorway of her room, she was horrified

to find it occupied—so horrified that she let out a shriek.

“Ah!” shouted a tall, dark-haired man in his thirties. He recovered

quickly, more quickly than Zena. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “You

startled me.”

She could not help the expression her face made at that. “I startled

you? This is my room!”

The man looked confused. Zena put together that this was the “underwear

lawyer” and yes, he was good-looking. And well-dressed. And

smelled like leather, lemons, and smoke. He pointed to a suitcase on

the floor, then to himself. “I—uh, this is where Joseph left my things

but I can absolutely move if this is your room, Ms.?”

“Sweetwood,” she said. “And I think I see what has happened.

Joseph thinks he’s hilarious.”

He stepped toward her, his hand outstretched. “Ms. Sweetwood,

I am Gabe Da Silva, and I’m very sorry for the mix-up. I’ll gather my

things at once if you can point me to a different room.”

Zena shook his hand and sighed. “Yeah, come on,” she said, already

hating that he was being nice and so, she had to be nice in return. “You

can sleep in my brothers’ room next door.”

“They won’t be needing it in the coming days?” Gabe asked.

Pre-Order The Sweetwood Series

She laughed. “God, no. They haven’t set foot in this house since we

were all kids. I’m the only one who is still in regular contact with our

aunt and uncle.”

“Ah, so you’re the niece.”

“And you must be the smart lawyer because you put that together

so quickly,” she said, regretting the sarcasm almost immediately. Why

could she never play it cool in these situations? Her emotions always

seemed to get the better of her.

But Gabe let the comment go as he grabbed his things and followed

her to Jacob and Keith’s room. “Thank you for this,” he said curtly.

He was clearly waiting for her to leave, and she realized that she

had probably offended him. Well, too bad. She wasn’t apologizing.

This guy was literally here to break up her Aunt and Uncle. Who

cared if he looked like he belonged on a billboard in Times Square?

She wasn’t going to go out of her way for him. No way. She was going

to break him, make him feel like garbage for what he was doing to

her family.

“You’re welcome,” she uttered in spite of herself.

~~~

Gabe closed the door and swallowed hard. The niece was here! And

she was beautiful… and kinda mean. He really should be accustomed

to being automatically disliked based on his line of work, but

this felt different. She seemed genuinely hurt by his presence.

Even now he was picturing how tightly she’d held her red lips and

how her dark hair kept getting in her eyes the more frustrated she

became. And the way his body reacted to her—as if she glowed with

both excitement and warmth. He felt instinctively drawn to her, which

was confusing considering the circumstances.

In fact, his thoughts were going against every cutthroat lawyer

instinct he normally had. He found himself mentally researching

ways to help her. But maybe it wasn’t just the beautiful niece inspiring

these ideas. Adora had seemed so sad and almost… dissociated. Gabe

didn’t know her, of course. But that didn’t change the fact that something

was off.

So, what was he going to do about it? As Adora’s lawyer, he was

meant to be working on her behalf. Of course, she hadn’t officially

hired him yet. Cherry was on vacation for a few days, not back until the

day after tomorrow so Gabe was waiting on the papers to be drawn up.

No money had been exchanged. Nothing had been signed. This meant

he had some time to help the niece. Was it a sketchy, unprofessional

move? You betcha.

After a hot shower, shave, re-application of cologne, a fresh suit

change, and one last look in the mirror, Gabe was ready to knock on

her door. And a minute later, they were face to face.

Credits: Book Trailer created by viocreatevfx.com, Music by Keoni

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Danielle Hines