Forever and a Day (Seven Brides Seven Brothers Pelican Bay Book 5) Read online

  Forever and a Day

  Belle Calhoune

  Seven Brides, Seven Brothers (Pelican Bay)

  This series centers around seven brothers and one sister raised by Penelope and Jude Donahue in the idyllic Florida seaside town of Pelican Bay. A blended family of adopted and biological siblings, the Donahue clan always have each other’s backs as they face life’s challenges and search for love. A spin-off of the Cape Cod Donahue brothers, the Pelican Bay clan are their southern cousins. With sun, surf and sand at their doorstep, The Donahue’s embrace faith, family and happily-ever-afters.

  Daniel Donahue: Quirky and highly intelligent, Daniel has always felt a little bit different than the rest of the Donahue clan. He’s struggled in his life to make connections with people outside of his family members. Deeply misunderstood by most, Daniel is a generous and caring man who has big dreams and extraordinary vision. Daniel has become wealthy due to his video game company, DD Studios, yet he fears he’ll never find a woman who will except him as he is. When he collaborates with a beautiful model on a business venture, Daniel is able to see his future unfolding right before his very eyes.

  Lorelei James is a well-known model whose face and figure has graced dozens of magazines. Emotionally abandoned by her parents, Lorelei dreams of belonging to a tight-knit family and finding a love of her own. When she meets enigmatic video game entrepreneur, Daniel Donahue, she can’t help but be swept away by the handsome loner. But Lorelei’s past trauma prevents her from accepting the love she’s found with Daniel and moving on with her life.

  Can Daniel help Lorelei face the past in order to move toward a glorious future?

  Copyright 2018 by Belle Calhoune

  All Rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher and author, except where permitted by law.

  Cover art by Elizabeth Mackey http://www.elizabethmackeygraphics.com/

  Dedication: To anyone who has ever felt different. We weren’t meant to be cookie cutters. Rejoice in being you.

  Dear Reader:

  Welcome back to Pelican Bay! It’s summer time and romance is in the air between Daniel Donahue and Lorelei James. While writing this book I found myself falling in extreme like with Daniel Donahue. He’s different than most of his outgoing siblings. He’s brilliant, but on the inside he struggles to connect with people outside of his family members. Lorelei is very different from Daniel. A model by trade, she is an extrovert who hides her wounds behind a radiant smile and an outgoing attitude. I love the yin and the yang. I think it makes romance richer when the people falling in love are different. Love is universal!

  I truly believe there’s someone for everyone. Sadly, not everyone is going to find their perfect match or even recognize that person when God places him or her in their orbit. Everyone comes to the table with baggage, whether it’s personal issues, a troubled past, body issues, insecurities and in some cases, a feeling of not being worthy of love.

  It’s all about the journey—how two people push past their issues and reservations in order to seize the brass ring. I truly hope you enjoy Lorelei and Daniel’s love story. It’s a pleasure to be back in Pelican Bay with the Donahue family and to write their happily ever afters. I love the title of this book because it makes me think about what devotion to another person means. Ideally it’s forever…and a day.

  Blessings,

  Belle

  Belle Calhoune Books:

  Seven Brides, Seven Brothers Series (Pelican Bay):

  Book One: Breathless

  Book Two: Adored

  Book Three: All This Love

  Book Four: Tenderly

  Seven Brides, Seven Brothers Series:

  Book One: The Way Home

  Book Two: Still the One

  Book Three: Until You Loved Me

  Book Four: Love Me Tender

  Book Five: If only in my dreams

  Book Six: Baby It’s You

  Book Seven: When A Man Loves A Woman

  PREQUEL: WHEN YOU BELIEVE

  Secrets of Savannah Series:

  Book One: Till the End of Time

  Book Two: A Moment in the Moonlight

  Book Three: The Last Kiss

  Book Four: For Love Alone (Morgan and Luke)

  Book Five: Falling in Love (Charlotte and Marc)

  Book Six: Heart of Mine (Hope and Grayson)

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  EPILOGUE

  Psalm 139: 14

  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:

  marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

  Prologue

  School was so boring! Daniel Donahue always found himself gazing out of the classroom window and daydreaming about faraway places and knights in shining armor storming castles and rescuing fair maidens in distress. He had just gone to the Pelican Bay Library over the weekend and he’d taken a book out about King Arthur and the knights of the round table. Daniel had read the book in a few hours. He’d stayed up past his bedtime and read it from cover to cover with a flashlight under his blanket.

  He shared a room with his older brother, Parker, who’d complained about the use of a flashlight. He’d threatened to punch him if he didn’t turn the flashlight off. Parker would never really punch him, but he always said he would to scare him. Daniel had waited until Parker had drifted off to sleep, then he had crept back under the covers and read until the book was finished. He had thought about the sword Excalibur, Lancelot, King Arthur and Guinevere. That night he’d dreamt of finding the Holy Grail. Daniel let out a sigh. He wanted his life to be interesting, like the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table. Instead he was stuck inside a classroom zoning out instead of listening to his teacher blab on about basic arithmetic.

  Blah blah blah. Who didn’t know how to add and subtract? Daniel could do it with his eyes closed. He wanted to learn about important things like the first astronauts who landed on the moon and how many miles it was from Earth to Mars. He yearned to know about Aristotle and Plato. He couldn’t wait to learn another language.

  Daniel looked over at Priscilla Brown. In his opinion she was the sweetest girl in class, as well as the cutest. She had two dark pigtails and a big gap between her two front teeth. He had a crush on her. It was the very first crush he’d ever had in his life. As soon as the bell rang, he had headed into the classroom and placed a pink rose on her desk. He’d made sure to get there early so no one would see him do it. Daniel had plucked it from his mother’s garden. Priscilla had picked it up and raised it to her nostrils and taken a deep whiff of it. Daniel had wanted to tell her he’d given her the flower, but he felt shy about it. If anyone knew it was him, they would tease him even worse than they usually did. He would never hear the end of it. And he had no idea if Priscilla liked him back or not. She didn’t pay him the slightest bit of attention, but Jason said that sometimes girls did that when they really did like you.

  Daniel was only nine but in his mind he was much, much older. Sometimes it seemed as if he didn’t have much in common with kids his own age.

  He didn’t have a whole lot of friends. It was
great having a lot of brothers and a sister. They were his best friends. And even though Parker could be bossy sometimes, Daniel wouldn’t trade him for anything in this world. And Jason, who had been adopted a few years ago, was awesome. He was the same age as Daniel and he knew everything about everything. Not school stuff, but life stuff. Jason knew how to fix a flat tire, how to build a fort, catch salamanders and find the best crabs at the beach. All the girls in his class loved Jason. They thought he was responsible for the stars shining at night. Sometimes it got annoying. Jason didn’t have a big head about it so Daniel could live with it. Jason was too busy being cool to notice girls.

  Daniel had three other siblings who’d been adopted—Heath, Nash and Caleb. And even though he knew they were all born from another mother, it didn’t feel like it. It felt as if they had all been in the Donahue household since the beginning. As his dad liked to say, they all loved each other unconditionally. With every fiber of their beings. Just as God intended.

  Sometimes it felt as if there was so much love in his household that it would burst wide open.

  He was lucky in the sibling department. They were all cool, even the little ones—Nash, Micah and his baby sister, Shayla. He didn’t know what he would do without them. He might just die of loneliness if it wasn’t for them.

  The bell rang, announcing the end of class. He watched as Priscilla walked over to Dean Kroger, one of the most annoying kids in the class. Dean was the type of kid who thought he ruled the universe. For some reason, all the girls loved him. Daniel figured they must be shallow since he was full of good looks and absolutely no charm whatsoever. Furthermore, he was a big old bully. He was positively hateful.

  “Thanks for the rose, Dean,” Priscilla said in a soft voice as she raised the rose to her nose and sniffed it. “I knew it was from you the moment I saw it.”

  Daniel’s heart plummeted to his belly. Ouch! Dean was getting credit for his rose!

  Dean’s eyes widened in surprise, then he began to smile at Priscilla. “I’m glad you like it, even though it’s not nearly as pretty as you. I know how much you love flowers. It matches your skirt.”

  Priscilla giggled and walked out of the classroom side by side with Dean. Daniel let out a groan. How typical. A jerk like Dean always came out smelling like a rose while he was left hanging in the wind. Life wasn’t fair! As he stared after Priscilla he began to realize perhaps she wasn’t as cute as he’d believed her to be. If she couldn’t see that Dean was a bad dude, she was pretty foolish. And Daniel didn’t like stupid.

  “Daniel.” Mrs. Pritchard called him and beckoned him over to her desk. “Your parents are in the guidance office for the meeting. Hurry along so you won’t be late.”

  Daniel had forgotten all about the meeting with his guidance counselor and his parents. Was he in trouble? Had he done something wrong? He had no idea what this meeting was about and he really didn’t want to go. With a sigh he made his way down the long corridor toward Mr. Lang’s office. As soon as he walked into the outer office he could see his parents through Mr. Lang’s open door.

  “Hey, champ,” his father said as Daniel walked in. He ruffled his hair and smiled at him.

  His mother patted the chair next to her as an invitation for him to sit down.

  His guidance counselor, Mr. Lang, rubbed his hands together and said, “Thank you all for coming today. I’ve called this meeting to talk about Daniel’s educational path.”

  Uh oh. This didn’t sound good, Daniel thought. A meeting like this couldn’t be good news, could it?

  His mother Penelope leaned forward in her seat. “We just want you to know that we’re committed to helping Daniel with his school work. We know he hasn’t been overly invested this year, but we’re going to look into getting a tutor and doing some after school programs to keep him on track.”

  Mr. Lang shook his head. “Mr. and Mrs. Donahue. You’ve misunderstood me. Daniel isn’t struggling at all. Quite the contrary. Your son is gifted.”

  Jude Donahue frowned. “Gifted? What do you mean by that?”

  Mr. Lang grinned at them. “Well in plain terms he’s off the charts brilliant. His test scores are equivalent to a high achieving college student.”

  His mother gasped. His father’s mouth hung wide open. Daniel frowned. It felt like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. He’d never heard the word gifted before.

  Daniel swung his gaze toward his parents. His folks were grinning from ear-to-ear. Daniel had a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t want to be gifted. He didn’t want to be special. Every night he prayed to God just to fit in.

  Once again, he was going to stick out like a sore thumb.

  He was going to be branded as different. Not like the rest of the kids. A freak. An outcast. And even though he knew enough to plaster a fake smile on his face so his parents wouldn’t worry, he was dying on the inside. He knew his life would only get harder from this moment on.

  “We all have flaws. Each and every one of us. God didn’t intend for any of us to be perfect. Lord knows I’m not.”

  Penelope Donahue

  Chapter One

  Daniel Donahue had always known something was wrong with him. Ever since he was a little kid it had been crystal clear. For many years his teachers had thought he was autistic or on the spectrum. But tests showed he wasn’t. He was just different. And highly intelligent. Brilliant even. His brain worked differently than other people. It was both a blessing and a curse.

  He had been double promoted at nine years old, which hadn’t helped much with his social skills but had allowed him to graduate from high school at the tender age of fifteen. A few months later he’d started college, which he’d whipped through in two and a half years.

  As a child, other kids hadn’t related to him very well, and aside from his siblings, Daniel didn’t have a whole lot of friends. It was a funny thing though. He had been blessed with seven of the most amazing siblings a person could ever have in this world. They had gotten him through what could have been a very lonely childhood. Instead, he had been lifted up and celebrated and accepted. Loved!

  The Donahue clan had protected him against the ever-present feelings that he didn’t quite fit in with the world he inhabited. But God had known exactly what family he should belong to.

  Even though he was a fully-grown man, there was a part of Daniel that still felt like a little kid on the inside. For instance, he loved going to the candy store—the old-fashioned type with hundreds of different candies and all the bells and whistles. It felt like he was Willy Wonka. And he loved his profession. He had a tight-knit staff that surrounded and supported him. For a man who’d never had a bunch of friends, he could honestly say that they had become like a second family to him over the past few years.

  Creating video games had been the perfect balance for him between being an adult and still feeling as if he could be spontaneous and whimsical. And he loved making people happy with his video game innovations. It was the reason he had gone into the business of video games. The pure joy of it. It didn’t hurt any that it was extremely lucrative.

  At the moment he was in the midst of plans to increase his company’s visibility and take it to the next level. It was already incredibly successful and had made Daniel a very rich man. Money had never motivated Daniel very much. He simply enjoyed the challenges and the satisfaction he received from creating video content that stimulated minds as well as his own creativity.

  Whenever he received a fan letter, especially from a child or a teenager, he felt as if he just might burst wide open with pride. He didn’t create the violent games because he couldn’t stand the idea of people simulating graphic violence or gore or gruesome deaths. As a Christian, he couldn’t justify it, although he knew others did. He always tried to push the envelope creatively, but he liked to think he had integrity with regards to content. That wasn’t to say he didn’t have sword fights or Kung Fu matches, but his video games didn’t promote gun violence or excessive b
lood and gore.

  From the beginning, Daniel had thought outside the box. And it had worked. His company had made him into a multi-millionaire. And it was still growing by leaps and bounds. By this time next year Daniel hoped his video games would be the hottest sellers in the United States and all around the world. More importantly than his revenue, Daniel was very content with his career. He loved waking up each morning and heading to DD Studios.

  This morning he was sitting in on an interview with a female model who would be considered for a huge role in an ongoing video game series. He had created the character of Rhiannon, a medieval warrior seeking justice. Customers were clamoring for the games to be released. His company—DD Studios—was planning to create a promotional campaign for the new game that would put the model in the spotlight and earn her a lucrative salary. It would be a win-win for DD Studios and the model who was chosen.

  Two of Daniel’s top level executives—Sharon Modell and Guy Walker—were also present at the meeting. Daniel didn’t insist on a dress code at work. For the most part his employees, as well as himself, dressed in casual clothes. Although he did request that employees wear business attire when they were conducting interviews. Today he was wearing a long-sleeved oxford shirt with a pair of khakis. That was about as dressy as he got at work.

  The moment the model walked in, Daniel wanted to let out a groan of frustration.

  Her wavy red hair, green eyes and creamy skin made her look like a princess. She was totally wrong for the gig. He was looking for a warrior. The character of Rhiannon was deadly and dangerous. She wielded swords and daggers. This woman looked as if she might not breathe the same air as mere mortals. Her beauty was ethereal, like a fairy princess. He wanted more medieval and less Disney princess come to life. An image of the mermaid Ariel popped into his mind.