Heart to Heart

One more shot at the real thing...

With her recording career on the slide, Deanna Hart heads home to Cleveland to search for new inspiration. What she finds is a man who has never stopped thinking about her. Eric Bell is now the principal at their former school, and he’s never been shy about trying to get her attention. Down-to-earth and downright sexy, Eric is about to open Deanna up to new possibilities.

But just as soon as they find each other, a crushing Hart family secret could end Deanna’s dream of starting over. Will she be able to capture the kind of love she has never believed in, the kind that lasts forever?

Though there was no need for him to continue touching her, he didn’t remove his hand. Deanna stared up at him, feeling her internal temperature rise.

And then he did something she didn’t expect. He lowered his hand to her waist, then put his other hand on the other side of her waist.

Deanna didn’t need the jacket to keep warm. Not at all…

“I never forgot about you,” Eric said in a low, throaty voice.

Dusk had turned to dark since they’d arrived for dinner, and the streetlights provided the only illumination as they stood on the sidewalk. But Deanna wouldn’t have needed that to see the heat swirling in Eric’s eyes.

“I…” She didn’t know what to say. This moment was surreal. Certainly one she’d never expected to experience. Not after she had run from Cleveland and left everyone and everything here in the rearview mirror.

“But truly,” Eric went on, “this is what I thought about. Wondered about. Wished I’d gotten the chance to do.”

“Hmm?” Deanna asked, not understanding.

But a moment later, Eric’s comment became crystal clear when he placed a finger beneath her chin, tilted her head toward his, brought his mouth down onto hers and kissed her.

KAYLA PERRIN

has been writing since the age of thirteen and once entertained the idea of becoming a teacher. Instead, she has become a USA TODAY and Essence bestselling author of dozens of mainstream and romance novels and has been recognized for her talent, including twice winning Romance Writers of America’s Top Ten Favorite Books of the Year Award. She has also won a Career Achievement Award for multicultural romance from RT Book Reviews. Kayla lives with her daughter in Ontario, Canada. Visit her at www.KaylaPerrin.com.

Heart to Heart

Kayla Perrin

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dear Reader,

If you’ve been reading my Harts in Love series, I hope you’ve thoroughly enjoyed Callie’s and Natalie’s stories. This is the final book in the trilogy, featuring the middle sister, Deanna.

Have you ever had a male best friend? He’s the one you felt comfortable telling everything to, sharing all of your problems with. But…he’s your friend. And though he has all of the qualities you want in a partner, you don’t want to risk losing the friendship by taking a chance on love with him.

Sound familiar? Sometimes, we fear losing a friendship with someone who would otherwise be ideal for us. It’s amazing how often we let fear stand in the way of what we want and need.

That’s the dilemma Deanna faces. And just like those faced with this scenario in real life, she’ll have to make a decision—cling to the friendship, or take a chance on love?

I hope you enjoy Deanna’s journey!

Kayla Perrin

This book is dedicated to my parents’ love story.

Forty-five years ago, they met each other and knew.

Sadly, my father’s recent passing brought an end

to their forty-two-year marriage.

But one thing is certain:

Love never dies.

Cling to that, Mom.

Remember the love you shared.

In this world full of breakups and divorces,

you had something special and rare.

And it will never die.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

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

Epilogue

Chapter 1

The woman’s scream pierced the air. The room was dark, and she was struggling with the man, trying to escape his strong grasp. But the more she jerked and fought to free herself, the rougher he was with her.

She screamed again, a blood-curdling cry. And then the man slapped her. Slapped her so violently that she fell to the ground.

“Nooo!”

Deanna Hart awoke, bolting upright in the bed. Her chest was heaving, and her pulse was racing. And the sheets were damp with her sweat.

It took no more than a couple of seconds for her to realize that she’d been dreaming. That the last scream came not from the woman in her dreams but from her own lips.

Deanna drew in a deep breath, the image still fresh in her head. She’d had this dream before. And it was always the same. The man roughing up the woman. The woman being slapped and falling to the ground.

Every time, that’s when Deanna woke up. As the woman fell to the floor in the dark room.

Her heart still beating rapidly, Deanna hugged her knees to her chest. She’d been having this dream ever since Brian James had hit her when she tried to end their relationship six months ago.

Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was just after three in the morning. The house was quiet and still. But she could hear the pounding of her heart in her ears.

Deanna was at her uncle Dave’s house in Cleveland. She was out of harm’s way. And yet, whenever she had this dream, she felt distinctly unsafe.

There are thousands of miles between you and Brian, she told herself as she lay back down and snuggled up against her pillows on the opposite side of the bed, where the sheets were still dry. Besides, since that night, you haven’t heard from him. There’s no reason to fear him anymore.

Her mental pep talk helped ease her mind. He had hit her only once, but it was a truly ugly exchange that Deanna never wanted to experience again in her life.

We’re better off as friends, Brian. I realize that now.

You’re breaking up with me?

We shouldn’t have mixed business with pleasure. Things have become complicated. Let’s finish my album first—

That was when Brian had violently grabbed and shaken her, and Deanna had been seized with fear. But she wasn’t about letting a man terrorize her, so she had wriggled and pushed against him, struggling to get free of his grip.

“You think you’re going to walk away from me?” Brian had screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. And as Deanna had continued to tussle with him, he had smacked her. Smacked her so hard that he’d busted her lip and drawn blood.

Seeing the blood, he had immediately looked horrified. Then he had apologized. Apologized over and over again, as if that would absolve him of what he’d done.

Deanna now understood how some people suffered post-traumatic stress for long periods of time over one life-altering event, because something about Brian’s attack had left her with a disconcerting feeling. Even though she had cut off all contact with him, had not returned his calls and had not heard from him since April, here she was, away from Los Angeles for four months, and she was still dreaming about the attack.

Deanna frowned—there was something weird about the dream. Something she couldn’t quite place. And it went beyond the fact that she couldn’t see her own nor Brian’s face. Every time she woke up, there was a sense of something that left her anxious. Because sometimes, she got the odd sensation that she wasn’t even dreaming about her and Brian at all.

Which didn’t make sense, of course. The nightmares had started only after Brian had assaulted her.

Deanna closed her eyes, but it took only a short time for her to realize that she wasn’t going to fall back asleep. So she got out of bed, opened up her MacBook and did what she had done practically every day for the past three weeks. She went online to do a search for “Hart” in Georgia.

Georgia was a big state, and Deanna had been hoping to find a trace of her mother online. Ever since her sister Natalie had gone to Philadelphia to search for their mother and found a clue that pointed to her being in Georgia, Deanna had been extremely hopeful. Natalie had met a woman who had known their mother, and she had been adamant that Miriam Hart, who’d gone by a different name, had been in Philadelphia as recently as a few months earlier. According to this woman, Miriam had headed to Georgia to deal with an issue “once and for all.”

What that issue was, Deanna had no clue. But during the talks that she’d had with Natalie and their other sister, Callie, they’d come to the conclusion that something bad had happened with their mother and aunt. Auntie Jean had never talked about her parents, nor any other members of their extended family. As kids, neither Deanna nor her sisters had questioned that. Uncle Dave had had plenty of relatives, so they hadn’t paid attention to the fact that Auntie Jean had none. Now, in the wake of their aunt’s death—where no one from her side of the family had even shown up at the funeral—it finally dawned on them that something was odd.

Of course, Miriam and Jean’s parents could have been deceased, and perhaps they had been the only two children. There were certainly logical explanations as to why Auntie Jean had never been in touch with extended family members.

She went back to deal with something once and for all….

Those were the words that gave Deanna pause. The words that had all of the sisters both hopeful and concerned.

Callie, the eldest sister and always the most rational in her thinking, was adamant that whatever their mother needed to deal with could have been taken care of in three months. Deanna tended to agree.

So where was she? Why hadn’t she finally come back for them?

Was her mother still afraid of her old boyfriend, Rodney Cook, the man she had run from twenty-three years ago? Back then, Miriam had agreed to testify against him, but she had fled before doing so, deciding to take her chances on her own while leaving her three daughters with her sister. Did Miriam not know that Rodney was back behind bars? Could she still view him as a threat to her life all these years later?

Still so many questions, no answers.

Though Deanna had thus far not had success with her search, she would not be deterred. She opened her browser and typed in the White Pages search engine. It was easier to search city by city, so she chose one she hadn’t already, looked up the Harts that were listed and saved those numbers in a document. Come morning, she would call each.

Callie’s fiancé, Nigel, was, of course, doing things on his end as a police officer, and he certainly had more resources than Deanna and her sisters did. But Nigel’s investigation had led to a dead end in Philadelphia. It was Natalie’s search in the neighborhood that had yielded results.

Which only served to show that with more hard work and determination, Deanna and her sisters could track down their mother on their own if need be.

Finally exhausted, Deanna went back to bed, where she hoped she would sleep and not have another bad dream.

* * *

“Auntie Deanna,” Kwame said excitedly. “Will you come to my school and talk to my class?”

Deanna looked up from her iPhone, where she had been once again searching for Harts in Georgia. Every one she had called that morning had led to more dead ends.

“What’s that, sweetheart?” Deanna asked her nephew. She had zoned out of the family gathering at Callie and Nigel’s place which was only a few blocks from Uncle Dave’s. Having consumed a burger, potato salad and a cup of lemonade, Deanna had headed inside, where she had picked up her phone and begun her search again.

“Will you come to my school and talk to my new class?”

“Talk to your class?” Deanna repeated. “About what?”

“About your music!” Kwame said with enthusiasm. “You’re famous. Everyone in my class is excited that you’re my aunt. So I asked my teacher if you could come and talk to us, and she said that’d be awesome.”

Deanna wouldn’t exactly say that she was famous…not now, anyway. Not when she had dropped off the map for three years. But that wasn’t something that Kwame needed to concern himself with. To him, she was an aunt who had had success in the music industry. There was no doubt that the kids in his class would be fascinated with her, as he was.

Kwame had asked her a million questions about her career, but the toughest one was, “When are you gonna make another album?”

That question had been the hardest to answer, and the most painful, given what had recently happened with Brian.

Pushing the thought from her mind, Deanna said, “Sure, hon. That sounds like something I can do.”

“Cool!” Kwame exclaimed. Then he bounded out of the room and back onto the patio.

No sooner than he was gone Callie stuck her head through the door and said, “Why are you in here by yourself? Everyone’s going to think that you’re antisocial.”

“Sorry,” Deanna said. “I was just trying to check something.” She held up her iPhone.

“That’s the problem with today’s technology—people are too addicted. They forget their families exist, even when they’re at a family gathering.”

“I know, I know,” Deanna said. “And you’re totally right. It’s just…I was trying to find more leads regarding our mother. I keep feeling that the one clue we need is just around the corner.”

“I hear you,” Callie said. “And you know I want the same thing. But there’ll be time for that later. Besides, who knows how many more beautiful weekends we’ll have like this?”

Callie was right. It was mid-September, and the weather had already started to cool down. There had been some downright chilly days in the past couple of weeks, but today was bright and sunny, definitely a day that should be spent outside.

So Deanna slipped her phone into the pocket of her slacks and headed back out onto the patio. Happy chatter filled the air. It was a small gathering, the immediate family with one notable guest: Michael Jones.

Natalie was now dating the wide receiver for Cleveland, and they both seemed radiant. Even Uncle Dave’s spirits had improved dramatically in the past month. Seeing two of his nieces find love was bringing him immeasurable joy.

Deanna’s gaze went from Natalie and Michael, who were sitting side by side and holding hands, to Callie and Nigel. They both stood at the barbecue, where Nigel was placing the newly grilled corn onto a plate, and Callie was basting them with butter. The two had fallen into a happy, domestic routine, and to the outside world it would seem they had been together for years. Perhaps they had been—in their hearts. Deanna had never seen two people more in love than Nigel and Callie, and the fact that they had reunited after being apart for ten years proved that they had the kind of love that could stand the test of time.

“Grilled corn,” Callie announced, walking with the plate toward the patio table. “Get it while it’s hot.”

“My favorite,” Deanna said, snagging the first piece. The others quickly snatched up the remaining ones.

“So, Deanna,” Callie said as she took a seat beside her. “Nigel’s wondering if you have a boyfriend in California.”

At the question, Deanna’s eyes widened. “What?”

“A boyfriend,” Callie repeated. “You know, someone you’re seriously dating.”

“I know what you mean.” Deanna made a face. “But I’m wondering why the question. I’ve been here four months and you haven’t heard me mention any male friend.”

“I know,” Callie said, “but Nigel didn’t want to assume.”

Deanna eyed her sister tentatively. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Oh, good.” Callie smiled. “So you’re free and single.”

Deanna noticed that Michael and Natalie were no longer gazing into each other’s eyes but staring at her with interest. She made a face. “I’m wondering why Nigel is concerned about the status of my love life.”

Callie looked toward Nigel. He gave a nod, indicating his agreement for her to explain why. “Nigel has a friend at the police station,” Callie said. “He thinks that maybe you two will hit it off.”

Deanna raised both eyebrows. Her future brother-in-law was interested in her finding a man? Deanna highly doubted that. She would bet her last nickel that Callie had put him up to it, and maybe even Natalie, too. Now that both Callie and Natalie had found love, would they have a steady stream of police officers and football players for Deanna to choose from?

“So because both of my sisters are happily coupled off, I have to find someone, too?” Deanna asked.

“Something like that,” Natalie said, grinning widely. Though she and Michael were sitting beside each other and holding hands, Natalie’s legs were now extended and stretched out on Michael’s lap. They were completely at ease together, totally content. Deanna didn’t remember seeing her sister ever look quite so happy.

“And Nigel thinks that Marshall would love you,” Callie went on. “You said he’s a fan of her music, didn’t you, sweetie?”

“Yep,” Nigel agreed. “He said he’s followed your career, loves your music, thinks you’re beautiful.”

Deanna refrained from rolling her eyes. She didn’t want a man who liked her for her music. All too often, a man was enamored with her public persona and not the real her.

“If it’s all well and good, I think I’ll pass on being set up.”

“Come on,” Callie said. “What could it hurt?”

“I never do well on blind dates. I don’t know why, I just don’t. I guess I feel too awkward, which causes the whole date to spiral downhill.”

“Then don’t think of it as a blind date,” Callie said. “Think of it as an evening where you’ll be meeting someone new.”

“I’ll still say no,” Deanna said with a frown.

Callie shook her head. “So stubborn.”

“What could it hurt to meet him?” Natalie asked. “Maybe Callie and Nigel could have us all over, so it’d be less awkward.”

“Right now, the last thing on my mind is dating,” Deanna said. “I’m more interested in finding our mother.” She didn’t want to add that the experience with her ex Brian had really

shaken her. She could happily remain single for a long, long while.

Deanna hadn’t chosen wisely before when it came to love. She’d had her heart broken, and she knew that she had also broken her share of hearts. There had been men who were into her—perfectly nice men whom she hadn’t been able to give all of her heart. For the most part, her career had been her everything, her main focus.

Which was what made the demise of her relationship with Brian even harder to stomach. In a sense, he had been the perfect man for her because he was involved in the music industry. He was an established producer, and Deanna had met him at a party and had been ecstatic when he told her that he admired her music and wanted to work with her. It hadn’t taken her long to realize that Brian was also romantically interested in her. They’d gotten along well, their banter had been easy and the flirtation had been fun. So Deanna had decided to throw caution to the wind and take a chance on love with Brian. She had begun to fantasize that they could become a music industry super-couple….

Instead, Deanna had learned a horrible lesson about mixing business with pleasure.

It was a lesson she had learned when she first left Cleveland and went to Hollywood. When, as a twenty-one-year-old girl, she met the man who would help get her career off the ground.

“Dee?” Natalie said tentatively.

Jerking her eyes to her sister’s, and seeing the look of concern, Deanna realized that she was gripping the beer bottle in front of her…one that didn’t even belong to her.

“You okay?” Natalie asked.

“Sure,” Deanna replied, trying to sound as casual as possible.

She released the bottle, but she couldn’t as easily release the painful memories that plagued her.

Chapter 2

Deanna saw Kwame waving enthusiastically as she approached the doors to his school. The same school she had attended as a child.

It was weird being here after all these years, like a definite step into the past. The building looked so much smaller than Deanna had remembered. Funny how when you became an adult your perspective changed.

It was two days after Kwame had asked if she would come talk to his class, and he had called her over the lunch hour to say that his teacher would like to meet her to discuss the idea. Deanna had promised that she would come at the end of the school day to speak with the teacher, which she guessed would be a meeting to determine how best to incorporate her visit with whatever studies the children were doing.

Kwame was beaming now as she approached, clearly thrilled at the fact that his idea of her talking to his class was one step closer to coming to fruition.

Deanna couldn’t help but smile in return. A child’s energy and happiness were infectious, and giving just a little bit of her time was clearly worth it. Just seeing how happy it made her nephew was already repaying her in leaps and bounds.

Kwame opened the door as she reached it, saying, “Auntie

Deanna! I already talked to the principal about it, and he thinks it’s a great idea. And he wants to meet you, too. Actually, he says he knows you already but that he wants to see you again.”

Kwame was speaking in a rush, and Deanna quietly shushed him. “Whoa, you’ll have to slow down. Your principal wants to meet me?”

“Uh-huh. He said he knows you.”

“He knows me?” Deanna gave Kwame a skeptical look. “Or he knows who I am?” She would bet that it was the latter. Given that she had grown up in Cleveland, most people here knew that she was the Deanna Hart who had made a name for herself in the music industry.

“He knows you,” Kwame stressed. He took her hand. “Come this way. He’s in the office.”

“I’m sure he means that he knows who I am,” Deanna said as Kwame led her toward the office doors.

Kwame stopped mid-stride and faced her. “Uh-uh. He said he was excited about seeing you again.”

“You mean he knows me knows me?”

“Yeah. He said he knew you before you got famous.”

Deanna frowned slightly, now curious. Had she known any principals?

Before she even thought to ask the man’s name, Kwame was opening the office doors and leading her inside. And that’s when Deanna stopped dead in her tracks.

Eric Bell. Good Lord in heaven, was it really him?

His lips curled in a smile—the same room-brightening smile she had seen many times years ago—and Deanna was absolutely certain. Just over six feet tall, with that flawless golden-brown complexion—yep, it was definitely Eric Bell.

Her former boyfriend’s brother.

“Eric?” Deanna said cautiously, though she knew it was him. He was more muscular than he had been before—most notably in his chest and his shoulders. And unlike years ago, he now had a neatly trimmed goatee framing his mouth. A decidedly sexier look, Deanna couldn’t help thinking.

“Deanna.” He stepped toward her, his dimples evident as he continued to grin. His smile always did exude warmth. It had brought her comfort in the aftermath of Marvin’s betrayal. “You’re back in town.”