Ann Jeffries
What is a southern, gentile society lady of impeccable taste, breeding, and education to do when her husband of nearly 20 years announces he is divorcing her on the day they deliver their youngest son to college? Loretta Hill Mason, head mistress of the Columbia Academy in South Carolina, did not see her husband’s declaration coming and had no idea what she should do next. She couldn’t just emulate Miss Scarlet and say “Fiddly dee, I’ll think about it tomorrow.” Her soon-to-be ex-husband, Randolph, gave her a few weeks to clear her belongings out of the home she made into a show place once featured in Southern Living, listed on the Fabulous Gardens Tour, and envied by their circle of high-society friends and relations. Now she doesn’t even have a bank account or credit card in her own name or any other resources to fall back on.Multi-billionaire Justin W. McCoy learned the hard way from the background of a meager beginning to becoming a titan in the hotel industry. Though he stumbled a few times along the way with an ill-fated marriage, he is now happily divorced, and his teenaged daughter is the brightest spot in his life. Business is good and would be better when he closes the deal to acquire the Delaware Group’s hotel chain. That acquisition would make McCoy Hotels, Resorts and Conference Centers one of the top ten travel industry chains in the world. Yet it could come with a dangerous price tag. A pilgrimage to the first resort he ever purchased suddenly reunites him with a woman he fell in love with from afar over 20 years earlier, but had never met. Tagged with the nickname The Rejuvenator in the hotel industry, he never lets an opportunity slip through his fingers in business, and he won’t let it happen in his private life this time.Fate is a fickle finger when the Delaware Group’s criminal syndicate wants more than a sale of their hotels to McCoy Enterprises and they will stop at nothing, even involving Justin’s daughter, Jessica, and anyone else they can use to their advantage to get what they want. Justin gambles it all to save his business from the criminal element, win his safety, and the safety of the ones he holds most dear, including Loretta.
