The Soldier And The Author

After twenty-two years of service to her beloved United States Air Force, Bailey Barker decides to retire. She does so with trepidation. Upon the recent death of her mother, Clarissa, the young Lt. Colonel decides that she must focus on the estate which she inherits. The fortune entails a significant amount of money and land. As she walks across the airfield in Mobile, Alabama, finally “free,” Bailey bemoans the loss of her officer status and position as a registered nurse.

Fear assaults her when she realizes that she has never enjoyed the luxury of wasting time. How does one waste a day? Her last deployment to Afghanistan inflicted a severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome upon this dedicated soldier who sacrificed so much.

Finally arriving at the swanky mansion, which her mother named Sunny, she realizes many more challenges other than settling the massive estate await her. Bailey’s refusal to visit her mom for the past five years now brings incriminating thoughts. What kind of daughter never checks on her dying mother? Immediately on arrival at the swanky mansion, Sunny, the soldier learns that her mother lived with a handsome, much younger, famous author for the past five years? This stranger loved her mom filling her final days with excitement and joy. Where was she when her mother died of cancer? The entire town of Fairhope, Alabama claim to have loved the woman with platinum hair and her famous lover, the author Oliver Greene. Now, the village is hesitant to welcome the child who spurned the “belle of the town.”

Bailey quickly discovers that Oliver Greene is not only kind. He is gorgeous. In no time, the arms which once held her mother, now embrace her. Shame that she would dare to entertain her mother’s lover assaults her as well as the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress from her last deployment to Afghanistan. The young woman has no time to regret her decision of retirement as circumstances pull her into the bizarre life of the beautiful Clarissa Barker.

Award-winning author, Linda Heavner Gerald, recently received the silver medal from Florida Authors and Publishers Association for her work in fiction. She also received international acclaim from NovelUnity as well as voted One of Fifty Great Writers You Should be Reading. Linda lives with her husband in Florida where she writes each day.