Free The Reunion: Claire's Rebuilding Contract (Starting Over Series) by Angelina Rose

Chapter 1
     
    Claire Miller looked fine on the outside. To all of her work friends at Hamilton Pediatrics in Dilham, North Carolina, she was a shining example of beauty with her rich, dark hair and copper-colored eyes. Claire often wondered if her facade would ever be uncovered and chipped away, so that people could really see the tormented and the sad woman she had become.
     
    Her early years were not good ones. Her mother was a drug abuser from as far back as Claire could remember. They lived in a small rural trailer park, and Claire was the only daughter. Her older brother, Bruce, died in a car accident when she was only ten years old, so, she basically lived as an only child.
     
    Claire had never known her own father, but she was told he was a raging alcoholic who gambled away what little money her family had. Her mother finally fled from him, but all she could afford was the rickety little trailer that had became Claire’s home for most of her younger years.
     
    Looking back, Claire knew the reason she idolized Hollywood was because it was a world so far from her own. It was untouchable in reality but totally real in her mind. She found herself daydreaming about becoming a superstar one day. She danced and sang in her bedroom holding her favorite blue hairbrush, pretending she was any number of famous female singers. One day, she wanted to walk that red carpet and be important to legions of fans.
     
    One fantasy Claire had was to marry someone famous. She wanted to be the arm candy of a major Hollywood movie star or performer. She wanted the beautiful clothes, fancy cars and stable life she thought every famous person had. Watching them on TV, she believed they had no problems. They didn’t have to endure watching their mother abuse drugs and sleep all day. They didn’t have to wonder where their father was. They didn’t have to fight off the trailer park drunk who was always trying to touch them.
     
    As she walked to her car after her reunion with her nursing school buddies, Ashley, Emma and Shelby, Claire thought about what she had just agreed to. At the urging of her friends, she had agreed to use the next two years to find Mr. Right. What was she thinking? As the oldest of the bunch, she wondered what the odds were of her finding some hunk to love her in the next twenty-four months.
     
    Claire was only forty-three years old, but she had done a lot of living in the last fifteen years since she had seen her friends. Married for eleven years to actor Cameron Callahan, Claire had endured a lot. Her love affair with Hollywood had finally come back and bitten her right on the butt.
     
    She’d met Cameron on one of her many trips to Hollywood. She would often go there with friends from North Carolina when they had an off weekend. This particular time, she got tickets to an after Oscar party and Cameron was there. He was stunningly handsome with his sandy blond hair and green eyes. Women flocked to him, and for some reason he was focused on Claire.
     
    At first, she figured he wanted a little one-night stand, but it became more than that once they started talking. In fact, they didn’t have sex for two months after they met, when he traveled to North Carolina one weekend to surprise her.
     
    They kept their relationship a secret for as long as possible because she didn’t want to be thrown into the tabloids. As much as she wanted to be famous, she didn’t want negative publicity to mess up her new job as a nurse. Things progressed quickly, and the two were married after dating for three years. Of course, she had to move to Hollywood and give up her love of nursing, but that was okay with her at the time.
     
    Their daughter, Aven, was the best thing that came out of their eleven-year marriage. At nine years old, she was wise beyond her years. Claire often thought about how mature she was compared to herself at that age. Thankfully, her daughter did not have to live in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere.