Welcome to my sixth Muse Monday post. It’s a chance for a character who inspires me to guest on the blog. Today, we have Bridge Matawapit, an Indigenous activist and the beautiful daughter of a church deacon from Redeemed, in book two of The Matawapit Family series. Check out what Bridget has to say about her first go-round with Adam Guimond, the hero of the novel.
I wasn’t looking to fall in love when I first met Adam Guimond, a rough-looking but handsome man with a steel jawline and a hardness in his dark brown eyes that told a story of a tough life. But I couldn’t resist him, or the child on his hip that he carried with gentle care, which didn’t match his “get the hell out of my way” swagger when he strode through the aisles at the career job fair.
Seeing him at the fair meant he was looking for better options for his life. And he was. He never lied to me about being an ex-gang banger on the streets of North Point Douglas in the streets of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Or that his parents were alcoholics and abusive. One thing about Adam: you’ll get the truth in his two-word way of speaking. He has nothing to hide. Or at least I thought so, since what I learned was how much pain he hid beneath his bulging muscles that served as a barrier to keep people at arm’s length. Even me.
Of course, I fell in love with Kyle, Adam’s two-year-old son.
We were a perfect threesome. Adam was sober, attending his twelve-step meetings. He was working. And being the director of an employment and training centre for the Indigenous People of Thunder Bay, I wanted to help him as much as I could.
But I guess my love wasn’t enough, because Adam chose to pick up the bottle again. I wasn’t about to let him care for Kyle if he was drinking. That is not an environment any child should be in. So I told Adam it was over, and I took Kyle with me. Adam never protested. Maybe guilt had gotten the better of him? I’m not sure. All I knew was he had gone back to Winnipeg, leaving me with Kyle in Thunder Bay.
I wasn’t surprised when a couple of months later, I got the dreaded phone call: Adam was in jail. For sure, he’d be going back to prison.
Now he’s out, determined to try again. This time, he’s ready to fight for Kyle and rebuild a new life for them. I don’t know what to do. All I know is I don’t trust Adam. Yet, he’s back in Thunder Bay, ready to turn my life upside down again.
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A single woman battles to keep her foster child from his newly-paroled father—a dangerous man she used to love.
Bridget Matawapit is an Indigenous activist, daughter of a Catholic deacon, and foster mother to Kyle, the son of an Ojibway father—the ex-fiancé she kicked to the curb after he chose alcohol over her love. With Adam out on parole and back in Thunder Bay, she is determined to stop him from obtaining custody of Kyle.
Adam Guimond is a recovering alcoholic and ex-gangbanger newly-paroled. Through counseling, reconnecting with his Ojibway culture and twelve-step meetings while in prison, Adam now understands he’s worthy of the love that frightened him enough to pick up the bottle he’d previously corked. He can’t escape the damage he caused so many others, but he longs to rise like a true warrior in the pursuit of forgiveness and a second chance. There’s nothing he isn’t willing to do to win back his son–and Bridget.
When an old cell mate’s daughter dies under mysterious circumstances in foster care, Adam begs Bridget to help him uncover the truth. Bound to the plight of the Indigenous children in care, Bridget agrees. But putting herself in contact with Adam threatens to resurrect her long-buried feelings for him, and even worse, she risks losing care of Kyle, by falling for a man who might destroy her faith in love completely this time.
Genre(s): Multicultural, Contemporary Romance, First Nations Romance, Adult, Inspirational.
Heat Rating: Level 3
Publication Date: April 19, 2019
Publisher: eXtasy Books
Maggie Blackbird 