More Adventures of Sloane Treblot! (Part II of a Series) (eBook)

Susan Anthony-Tolbert (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
362 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-3315-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Story Four: Changes of the Heart After a break-up with Jared Thomas, her significant other, and with no employment opportunities near her parents' farm, Sloane accepts a temporary position as an adjunct in a university in NYC. She 'apartment-sits' for her best friend, MJ, who is on a sabbatical during the fall semester. The family that has the apartment next to hers becomes friends and the son, a well-known TV veterinarian (Dr. Lance Allen), becomes even more. However, her connection to Jared, the former love, is not finished. The couple who had adopted his son is now being harassed by the maternal grandparents in an attempt to void the adoption and to gain custody of Noah. Sloane becomes involved in the 'case' when they contact her for help. Things do not end well for that young couple. The romance between Sloane and the TV veterinarian dims. He wants to return to Hawaii from his temporary hiatus in NYC and begs her to accompany him. She simply cannot. In trying to protect Sloane when she becomes involved in helping Noah's adoptive parents, a young FBI agent is assigned to assist. He is very attracted to her but she is, for a long time, committed in her heart and soul to the veterinarian. A wonderful road-trip takes place with this young FBI agent, a famous poetess who lived next door and Sloane. In the coming months, a relationship between Sloane and the FBI agent (Brian Fortiani) begins to develop. Story Five: Repercussions Galore After returning from NYC, Sloane accepts a position with the local community college. She continues phone and text contact with Jared and with her soul-mate, Dr. Allen, the veterinarian. The semester proceeds quietly and uneventfully. In the fall, she accepts a position in the woodwind section of one of the orchestras that plays in Williamsburg. The friendship with Brian is developing. However, the practicing and performing commitments are staggering. For spring, she is lucky to get a teaching position in Fredericksburg

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Story Four: Changes of the Heart After a break-up with her significant other and with no employment opportunities near her parents' farm, Sloane accepts a temporary position as an adjunct in a university in NYC. She "e;apartment-sits"e; for her best friend, MJ, who is on a sabbatical with her significant-other during the fall semester. The family that has the apartment next to hers becomes friends and the son, a well-known TV veterinarian (Dr. Lance Allen), becomes even more. Sloane feels that he is her soul-mate. However, her connection to Jared, the former love, is not finished. The couple who had adopted his son is now being harassed by the maternal grandparents in an attempt to void the adoption and to gain custody of Noah. Sloane becomes involved when they contact her for help. When they are stalked by these maternal grandparents, Sloane gets to know this couple and to like them very much. She becomes an investigator in their "e;case."e; She is hired again as an insurance investigator and helps piece together exactly what happened to this couple on a dark road in upstate NY. Things do not end well for that young couple. Jared now becomes the custodian of his little boy. The romance between Sloane and the TV veterinarian dims. He wants to return to Hawaii from his temporary hiatus in NYC and begs her to accompany him. Sloane does not, and feels she cannot leave the East Coast with her friends and family and beloved pets. However, the two will remain friends and continue their contact throughout all the adventures that are to follow. In trying to protect Sloane when she becomes involved in helping Noah's adoptive parents, a young FBI agent is assigned to assist. He is very attracted to her but she is, for a long time, committed in her heart and soul to the veterinarian. During her time in NYC she meets a famous poetess who lives on the same floor of the high rise as MJ. They become friends. And the three, Sloane, the poetess and the FBI agent, take a slow and delightful trip back to Virginia for the Christmas holidays when Sloane leaves NYC. A relationship between Sloane and the FBI agent Brian Fortiani) begins to develop. Story Five: Repercussions Galore After returning from NYC, Sloane accepts a position with the local community college. She continues phone and text contact with Jared and with her soul-mate, Dr. Allen, the veterinarian. The semester proceeds quietly and uneventfully with part-time work at the college and at the local history society. However, there are no contracts for the summer or fall. Finally she is offered a position in the woodwind section of one of the orchestras that plays in Williamsburg. It doesn't give her much time to visit her family at Serenity Farm though she makes occasionally visits and receives visits from her Mom and from Brian. The practicing and performing commitments are staggering. Her apartment is very small but she is able to take her beloved cat, Hobson, with her. After the Christmas performance, she is once again out of work as the permanent bassoonist for the orchestra is returning. However, she is lucky to get a position in Fredericksburg where Brian has been assigned. By this time they are a couple, living together, though Sloane is not 100% committed. She senses changes in attitude in Brian and some very strong anger. She is somewhat panicked as their engagement party looms. In the middle of this concern, there is a possibility of a debilitating illness for Brian and a search for his Mother who disappeared years earlier. Sloane has to face some very harsh realities at this time I her life, though one of the highlights include an exciting position at a historical venue in Gettysburg and a national recognition of her historical collection. When her tenure at this Historical Society ends quite abruptly, she is extremely lucky to find a temporary position in D.C. as a bassoonist in a world-renowned orchestra. There are some frightening and worrisome events, however,

Textauszug

Chapter One: Beginning Again

During the early summer, a little more than nine months after the terrorist attack on Blue Plains had been thwarted, Sloane Treblot found herself teaching history at the local community college and working as a researcher at one of the historical societies in the area. She loved what she was doing. Since the break-up with Jared, she had moved into the apartment he had rented over her parents’ workshop. Life at Serenity Farm was exactly as the name implied: serene to the max. There were trail rides with her Mom. There was an occasional dressage lesson with Jennifer Mann, the young and beloved dressage instructor of her mother’s. Marijane (MJ), Terry and Mya visited. Things were good and yet … Sloane felt this eternal sadness come in waves. She often mentally reviewed the loss of Sula, more correctly the betrayal by her best friend.

That MJ, Terry and Mya had remained steadfast, loyal, loving friends was a gift. That Sula had turned on her and had been involved in what could have ended so badly for her Father haunted Sloane. That Aidan, a lover, a significant part of her life during the last two years of graduate school was gone, was not as painful. She couldn’t even use the ‘heading’ in her mind-file (as she called it) of friend-with-benefits as he was not a friend. When she thought about it, he was a ‘user-with-benefits.’ But then she asked herself, didn’t I use him to? It had been comfortable to have him bring take-out, to have good sex and to fit his arrivals into my needs for study and research to complete my doctorate. And then there had been the break-up with Jared: a surprise and an out-of-the-blue, almost ghosting immediately after the relationship ended.

This blueness/depression/sadness, as Serena Treblot would label it, worried her for her beloved daughter. One morning in mid-June, Serena looked her daughter squarely in the eyes. “Sloane, you need to talk with someone … a professional. You’ve had a lot on your plate in the last ten months and it’s becoming obvious that you need some assistance in dealing with things and maybe especially with the recent breakup with Jared. Please, Honey, talk to this woman.” She handed Sloane the name and number of a psychiatric social worker in Mechanicville. She added, “Ed Farrell suggested her and Ed has been spot-on with so many things. This professional is not the same one you saw after Blue Plains. Whether you work for the insurance companies or the FBI as a consultant for Ed in the future isn’t the issue. You owe this to yourself to have some assistance in finding a resolve … I don’t like the word closure but ok, a closure.”

“Oh, Mom, I’m sorry that I’ve been such a drag and a downer.”

“You’ve been fun as you always are, Sloane, but I see the sadness in your eyes and you have a right to be down and upset. I just want to give you some help in working it through. Basically you’ve handled everything like a trooper. But I really believe this is something that you need to sort out with a professional. You and I’ve talked about it and you’ve talked with MJ, Terry and Mya. Still, I think the break-up with Jared needs a professional to help you sort it even more. Friends and a Mother, no matter how loving, just won’t do!” Sloane hugged her Mother. “I will … I’ll call and see what she has to say.”

By late June, after summer school had ended, Sloane sat in the office of Brenda Baker, MSW. After she filled out some of the social worker’s very lengthy and detailed questionnaires, the two were ready to talk. At first it was just small talk. Then, there was a short coffee break while Brenda Baker read what Sloane had written. Within fifteen minutes of the first actual therapy session, they began

Sloane quickly relayed the details from her Father’s kidnapping now nearly 10 months ago; from the loss of and betrayal by her childhood friend, Sula, and from her romance with Jared. She explained the relationship between Jared and Jana and the accident that ultimately took Jana’s life. She recounted the birth of Jared’ and Jana’s son and the adoption. Sloane recited every detail.

“So, you and Jared were of the belief that the baby was happy and secure in his adoptive home?

“Completely, and of course he was convinced of this even though the test that the hospital ran indicated that Jared was not the Father. Since Jana’s parents put his name on the birth certificate for all legal reasons he was considered the father and had the right to make the decision for adoption.”

“Oh, my! We might need at some point to talk about Jana’s parents and how you feel about them”. Sloane didn’t see the point in all this. She responded very politely, “I don’t think Jana or her parents or the adoptive parents are my problem: not my problem at all …really. From what Jared had said the adoptive parents are wonderful and are giving Noah a great life. My only concern is that during the last few months we were together, he was contacting them and they were contacting him very frequently. It just seemed too frequently for me at the time. I felt very left out. On one level it wasn’t my business. Now that we’re no longer together, it’s really none of my business. But at the time I had a very uneasy feeling about it and felt strongly that I was being omitted from a big part of his life. And that was not the only part of his life that I was left out of, but that’s another issue.” The social worker nodded. Sloane continued: “The problem, and what has thrown me for a loop, is his sudden change of mind or heart. I didn’t see it coming. He talked of marrying me. There was to be an engagement at some point and soon. I made it clear that I wasn’t ready to have children for a while. I dunno if that was a problem with him but I didn’t feel I was ready for motherhood. I thought he wanted a partner, a life partner. We did insurance investigations together for several months and that was really super. I thought we were in tune. … I guess ‘thought’ is the important word here. I miss him. I loved, cared for him. I thought we had real possibility on one level and yet on another I felt a growing distance from him. But, I miss him now that he’s gone.”

“Before Jared there was Aiden,” the social worker added, as she scanned the questionnaire- answers that Sloane had provided. “The details of that relationship were summarized very politely.

“What were you committing to there?”

Sloane laughed. “Well, I’d be taking care of his Mother, who God help the poor woman has some type of dementia but I’d be his maid, her nurse, her companion, his sex on demand partner without any commitment on his part.”

“Sloane, don’t you see how strong you were to reject that offer? What would you have at the end of a year or two year or three with Aiden?”

“Ms. Baker, I know that you just met me but we’re talking at the periphery of my concern and pain. What I’m not dealing with, as I wrote on those forms I filled out just now, is this: Jared dumped me in the course of less than 24 hours. He went from a talk on suggesting we consider marriage or at least an engagement and to some initial plans for an engagement party, to ending us and moving from the apartment he rented from my parents at our farm. I couldn’t predict the change of heart or mind. I feel blown way that this happened and happened out of the blue. I need to understand what I missed in his behavior. I’m long over Aidan. I’m not over Sula, though. She was a long term friend and betrayed me. I saw some signs in her behavior. She was becoming so obsessed with her love for Michael. It wasn’t her religion. Sula was Muslim and that never affected our friendship in all those years. She was angry about perceived over-sights of her brother and of her significant other, Michael. And with Jared I did see little things but I let them pass. He was most comfortable with his friends from high school. And I was left out of this. They were a Group. They were INSIDERS. I was not, nor could I be part of that. He wasn’t willing to have them as his friends and for us to pursue our friends separately. I had to be part of that Inside-Group, but as a bystander, not as a participant … but part or it. I had to be there to listen and revel and that is the correct word in their stories. He never wanted to interact with my friends or to try to establish new friends for us as a couple. There is no way to put a good spin on all that. Yet, I’m not over Jared. It was only a seven month relationship but it was very intense. Well, maybe I only thought it was intense. And I don’t know what I did to mess up all these relationships.”

“Oh, I see and you’re assuming that somehow Aidan’s user mentality, Sula’s betrayal and Jared’s departure from the relationship were your fault.”

“Not necessarily assuming that but I don’t understand. Obviously I missed the big signs. I missed something. People who have loved you and been with you for years like Sula and myself … we grew up together … they don’t turn on you like a rabid raccoon. And Jared … I knew he was very comfortable with...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.11.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-3315-4 / 9798350933154