Brand New Penny: Diamond Bay, #1

By Rose Bak

You never forget your first love, but what if, when you meet again, you're both totally different people?

After twenty years away, Penny moves back to the tiny coastal town of Diamond Bay to make a new life for her and her daughter. She's surprised to learn that Mitch, her high school boyfriend, is also back – and now he's the Sheriff. Mitch wants to rekindle their romance, but the easygoing boy Penny dated is now a Navy veteran with a bossy streak – just the kind of guy she promised herself to avoid at all costs.

With circumstances – and a matchmaker daughter – throwing them together, will Penny be able to give Mitch a second chance?

"Brand New Penny" is the first book in the Diamond Bay series. Each book in the series is standalone featuring a mature couple, steamy scenes, and a guaranteed HEA.

Warning: this book contains references to past abuse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rose Bak
• Release date: Jul 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201394363

Rose Bak

Rose Bak has been obsessed with books since she got her first library card at age five. She is a passionate reader with an e-reader bursting with thousands of beloved books.  Rose's contemporary romance books focus on strong female characters over age 35 and the alpha males who love them. Expect a lot of steam, a little bit of snark, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Book preview

To everyone who got out, and everyone trying to get out.  You are not alone.

About This Book

You never forget your first love, but what if, when you meet again, you’re both totally different people?

After twenty years away, Penny moves back to the tiny coastal town of Diamond Bay to make a new life for her and her daughter.  She’s surprised to learn that Mitch, her high school boyfriend, is also back – and now he’s the Sheriff.  Mitch wants to rekindle their romance, but the easygoing boy Penny dated is now a Navy veteran with a bossy streak – just the kind of guy she promised herself to avoid at all costs.

With circumstances – and a matchmaker daughter – throwing them together, will Penny be able to give Mitch a second chance? 

Brand New Penny is the first book in the Diamond Bay series.  Each book in the series is standalone featuring a mature couple, steamy scenes and a guaranteed HEA.

Warning: this book contains references to past abuse.

This book includes a special except from Until You Came Along,  book one of the Oliver Boys Band series, available now from all major retailers.

Be sure to join Rose’s mailing list and get a free book.  Click here to be the first to hear about all the latest releases and special sales.

Penny

I smelled it a moment before I saw it: the Pacific Ocean.  I slowed the car as the rocky shoreline came into view, inhaling deeply through my open car window.  In the distance I could see the strong waves crashing against the shoreline.

Almost there, I said brightly.  That’s Diamond Bay.

My 13-year-old daughter Callie looked up from her kindle and gasped.  Mom!  It’s so beautiful here!

Diamond Bay Oregon.  I hadn’t been back here since I left for college twenty years ago, yet as soon as I saw the Welcome to Diamond Bay sign I had a strong sense that I was coming home.  Finally.

Why have we never visited here? Callie asked as her head swiveled from side to side, taking everything in.

The fall I left for college your grandparents moved to Seattle, I told her.  I lost touch with my high school friends when I went away to college. With no family or friends here to visit, there didn’t ever seem to be a reason to come back. 

My mind flashed to the one reason I would have come back: Mitch Erickson.  My high school boyfriend. My first love. My first everything. Mitch was the sweetest guy I had ever dated, always calm and polite and willing to compromise.  He had been my best friend really. 

We had been inseparable during junior year but started to drift apart the last semester of senior year.  There was no dramatic break-up, more of a gradual growing apart. 

Mitch enlisted in the Navy the week after we graduated, and I headed to University of Oregon a few months later. We had been good friends once, but we hadn’t even bothered to keep in touch after going our separate ways. 

I wonder what ever happened to Mitch, I thought idly.  I should see if he’s on Facebook.  Funny, I hadn’t thought of Mitch in years.

I turned my dusty blue Subaru wagon onto the main street, locally called The Promenade, a long stretch of shops and restaurants that dead ended at the boardwalk where there was access to the pristine beach.  All beaches were public in Oregon, and people felt strongly about keeping them clean and accessible to all.

The sidewalks on the Promenade were thronged with tourists, out for a fun day at the coast.  Judging from the license plates, most of the visitors were from other parts of the state, most likely Portland.  When the beach was only an hour away, it was easy to take a break from the heat in the valley and head towards the cooler temperatures at the coast and still be back in time to sleep in your own bed.

I remembered walking up and down this strip endlessly when we were teens, checking out boys and grabbing snacks from the little stands that were set up along the corners during the summer months.

I shifted into tour guide mode, pointing out things I thought Callie would be interested in as headed towards where the street dead-ended at its intersection with the boardwalk.  I drove  along the frontage road  by the beach for a bit, then turned towards the residential part of our tiny town, separate from the tourist area. 

Diamond Bay was a mixture of vacation rentals and year-round residents, but strict local ordinances had made sure that the area wasn’t overrun with short-term rentals. In many of the towns along the coast the majority of the housing had been converted into all vacation rentals, leaving no housing for the people who worked in the area.  Diamond Bay was pretty progressive and protected their own, so the town council had stepped in to ensure that their workers and full-time residents also had a place to live.

Look, there’s Diamond Bay High, I told Callie, pointing at the large brick building that could be any high school anywhere.  Your new school.

I couldn’t believe my baby was going to be a freshman in high school this year. It seemed like only yesterday she was toddling around after the cat, figuring out how to stay upright. I wondered for the 10 millionth time if I was doing the right thing moving back to Diamond Bay.  It’s not like I knew anyone here anymore. 

I had divorced my useless ex-husband three years ago but had been obligated to stay in the Portland area so he could have visitation time with Callie.  But this spring he had finally ended up in prison, after nearly killing his girlfriend, and my lawyer had helped me terminate his parental rights. He’d always been an abusive asshole. I had never met the girlfriend but was grateful she had made it out alive.

It had taken me years to get the courage to leave him, but we had stayed connected because of his visitation rights with Callie.  She hated visiting him, and it was always a fight to get her to go, but the judge who handled our divorce had insisted it was important for her to keep a relationship with her father, whether she wanted to or not.  I worried constantly when she visited him that his temper would get out of control and he would hurt her. 

Now we were both finally free.  By the time Rick got out of prison Callie would be an adult and could make her own decisions about having a relationship with him.

There wasn’t anything keeping us in Portland. I had never made a lot of friends there, partly because I worked at home and partly because my ex had isolated me during our marriage.  Not that I had realized it while it was happening.

Our neighborhood high school wasn’t that good, and Callie hadn’t been selected in the lottery to go to one of the better schools