by Jules Barker
Nate. He’d liked her even all those years ago? The new knowledge about the feelings behind his actions the night he pushed her away changed everything for her. She felt the pieces of the last ten years shake up inside her and settle down in a totally new pattern. Every time Nate had ruffled her hair, called her butterfly, he’d been telling himself to go slow. The retractable pencil was linked to his feelings for her. Suddenly even the careful work he did on her master suite and his attentiveness to her and Gran at the dance took on new meaning. She’d come today prepared to ask him to see her differently, but it was she who was suddenly seeing him so much more clearly.
She stopped walking, clasped her hands behind her back, and looked up at Nate flirtatiously.
“So… you’re telling me you like me. Have liked me, all this time,” she said.
Nate placed his hands on her shoulders. “Yes.”
He leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
“And you don’t just see me as the kid sister?” She quirked an eyebrow at him playfully.
Nate ran his hands down the length of her arms to where her hands were clasped behind her back and held them in his, stepping into her space.
“Definitely not as a sister.”
The slow grin on his face matched the melting of Laurel’s limbs.
He leaned in, a question in his eyes.
Laurel rose to her toes in answer and their lips met in their first, real kiss.
It was sweet and slow. Laurel savoured it even more for every moment she’d had to wait for it. She freed her hands to slide around his back and up to his shoulders as she leaned in to him, deepening their kisses.
Nate had always been there for her until life forced him away. Even in the midst of his own family falling apart, he’d wondered about and worried for her. He accepted her and her magic freely. He’d held himself back to respect her feelings.
Nate brought one hand up to her neck, to cradle her jaw.
Laurel would love every moment she would get to love this man.
Nate kissed her until her toes curled in her shoes and her heart unfurled like a butterfly breaking free of its cocoon.
And then, as the breeze shifted direction, Laurel’s scarf that she’d been toying with slipped free of her neck and blew down the beach.
Laurel laughed as they turned, still embracing, to watch it flutter away.
Epilogue: Men Can Keep Secrets
NATE
A few weeks later, Nate helped Laurel set out the desserts for Miss Amelia’s birthday party. The actual day wasn’t until the following Tuesday but Gran (as both she and Laurel insisted he call her) wanted to celebrate with a backyard party the weekend before. It just happened to have a full moon, which made Nate smile now that he was in the know.
Family would be flying in for the real day. Nate was excited to see Simon again, despite the ribbing he was sure to get. He would also be seeing Laurel’s Aunt Patty and cousin Vera again. They’d visited the island when he was younger, but meeting them now as an adult and Laurel’s boyfriend made his hands clammy. It was as close to “meeting the family” as he’d have. He was glad it would happen during a more private party rather than the neighborhood celebration Miss Amelia––scratch that, Gran––was having now.
He had spent the afternoon helping Laurel and Gran run cafe lights back and forth between the sycamore tree and the porch of the big house. He’d set up picnic tables beneath the lights, which Laurel had then fussed over with tablecloths and napkins she folded into fancy arrangements. He couldn’t exactly tell whether they were supposed to be animals or flowers, but he kept that to himself.
Two guests had arrived early, Betty Lou Frandsen and Mr. Norman, who were apparently a thing now. Gran had been boasting all week to Nate about her matchmaking skills. Laurel had privately told him she didn’t think it would work out, but the two septuagenarians looked pretty cozy standing by the punch bowl trying to fill cups for each other.
Nate wasn’t sure how many people were invited to the party, but if the number of pastries and sweets he was helping carry to the serving table were any indication, it had to be at least half of Moonrise Cove.
While Laurel continued stacking the mini-raspberry scones onto a tiered dessert stand, Nate jogged back to Lucy Crowthorne’s delivery van to grab another batch. He’d learned in the last few weeks that the “potions” part of Pastries and Potions was actually legitimate magic and not just a tourist gimmick. They were enhancers to amplify various positive moods in the customers, nothing nefarious.
Ever since he found out, he’d been dragging Laurel there each day to sample a new treat. He loved trying to guess the function behind each clever name as he and Laurel ate them while holding hands walking down Historic Main or Rainbow Beach. Okay, half of it was the fun of the potions, the other half was an excuse to see Laurel on their lunch breaks.
Laurel was fast becoming friends with Lucy, the owner. It was fun for Nate to see another side of Laurel with this new female friendship. And Nate would never admit it to her, but he was itching to hear the gossip about the new guy Lucy had brought with her to the party. Was he there just to help unload the pastries or was he staying as Lucy’s plus one?
Nate carried a tray of eclairs to the table and turned, nearly bumping into Lucy’s guy and almost sending the tray he carried flying.
“Whoa! Sorry, man,” Nate said.
“No problem.” The man smiled. “Around Lucy, that happens more often than you’d think. I have to be on my toes.”
Nate chuckled. “Devin, right?”
“Devin Dawson. You’re Nate?” Devin set down his tray of cookies, wiped powdered sugar off his hand, and held it out.
Nate shook it. He knew Devin was a food journalist and had been hanging around Lucy’s bakery, Pastries and Potions. Nate had seen him there frequently when he stopped in to buy a treat for himself or Laurel. He was about to pry and ask Devin how he knew Lucy when Laurel leaned between them.
“And they say that women are the ones who stop and chat,” she teased.
Nate and Devin gave the nod and Devin jogged over to where Lucy was still wrangling yet another pastry box out of the back of the van.
“They would make such a cute couple, wouldn’t they?” Laurel asked, wrapping her hands around Nate’s arm and leaning in.
“So they’re not then?”
“I don’t know. Lucy’s hinted at a rollercoaster summer and I can’t wait to get the details. It sounds like it was about as up-and-down as ours! I hope they end up together… they’re adorable!”
Nate turned and wrapped his arms around Laurel, pulling her close. “You know who I think is adorable?”
Laurel beamed up at him.
He was leaning down to kiss her when someone called her name from across the yard. She turned her head and Nate ended up with a chaste kiss on the cheek. Not what he’d been aiming for.
“Sorry,” she said, before dashing off to see what was needed.
Nate checked the van and saw that all the desserts had been unloaded. He was about to offer to help set them out on the serving table, but Lucy and Devin were so intent on their talking and arranging that they barely noticed him. He didn’t want to intrude.
Instead, Nate walked the party area, checking last minute details to see if he could help anywhere. Satisfied that he had done what he could and would only be in the way now, he wandered over to the wooden swing hanging from the sycamore.
Laurel’s swing.
He’d hung it early that crazy morning a few weeks ago, when he’d found Laurel shivering half to death by the beach. As he’d held the woman he cared for in the water while she burned with fever, he’d cursed himself for letting it get that far. He’d wanted to lament about why she didn’t call him for help, but he knew why. He’d let things get too muddled, hadn’t been clear enough about his intentions with her. His stupid handling of that upset dad at the dance had only made it worse.
He’d come back from Montana wi
th the idea that he needed a fresh start, to be up front about the way he felt and deal with whatever the fallout was. Then Laurel had been sick, and he’d left her inside but couldn’t leave altogether until he knew she was truly back on her feet. He’d hung the swing in those early morning hours, working by the truck’s headlights. It was a project he’d planned all summer, wanting to give her back a piece of her childhood joy. It had brought him joy back then, too, watching her smile as she kicked up to the sky, pigtails flying. It’s when he first thought of her as a butterfly.
He’d also hoped it would give him a few extra mercy points when he declared his feelings that morning, but then they’d had to help find the little runaway kid. He’d felt so useless to do anything other than support Laurel, but she’d been amazing, stepping in and using her gifts to help. He was still amazed by that. By her.
Two arms slid around him from behind and Nate grabbed the petite hands in his. Laurel leaned her face against his back.
“What are you doing all the way over here?” she asked.
“Thinking.”
“About what?”
“Nothing.” Nate shrugged.
Laurel laughed and smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t tell me this is like that “nothing box” men say they have where they can really be thinking about nothing. I know you were thinking about something. You had this little smile on your face.”
Nate pulled her around to the front of him and kissed her on the nose. “Hop on,” he said, nodding at the swing.
Laurel glanced over his shoulder at the party. “Fine. But only for a moment. The rest of the guests will be arriving soon and I need to help.”
She sat down with her back to him so she could face the hill and the town below, carefully tucking the skirt of her dress under her and crossing her ankles. Nate swallowed. Heaven help him, those girly vintage clothes she wore would be the end of him.
Nate pulled her back and let go, gently pushing her on the swing.
She was wearing the same pink scarf she’d had tied around her neck the day they first talked again, but this time it was tied in her low ponytail. It was his favorite of all her scarves. He’d been watching her that day on the deck of the ferry as she’d leaned into the wind and the scarf came loose. And while he was grateful it came his way and broke the ice for them, he’d wished it was her hands brushing against him instead of her scarf. Yeah, definitely not something he’d ever tell her.
“Oh!” she said, turning to him. “Simon called earlier. He said you’d better save him some of those raspberry scones for when he comes on Tuesday or he’ll tell me all about that time you tried to sneak through Mrs. Heathermore’s backyard.”
Nate growled. “He wouldn’t dare. Or else I’ll tell your Gran about him and Nikki Heathermore in high school.”
Laurel’s laughter rang out and reverberated through him like she was the clapper and he was the bell. He loved this woman. He pushed her higher and she squealed in delight.
“You and Simon are going to be loads of fun with all the secrets I’ll be able to bribe out of you,” she said.
Nate ducked his head when she looked back so she wouldn’t see his face. He had a few secrets he didn’t want to give away just yet.
The first was about his plans with his dad. Laurel knew he was trying to find work on the island so he could move here permanently, but he and his dad had finally worked out the details of him taking partnership in the independent contracting company. He was planning to tell her on Tuesday when Simon, Gwen and Emmie got into town for Gran’s real birthday. He thought it would be fun to share with them all at the same time. Plus it would be good to show he was serious the first time he saw Simon again after hooking up with his baby sister. Simon seemed mild, but one never knew when it came to protective siblings.
His other secret… he would keep to himself awhile. It was too soon. They needed time together to build and test their relationship and let it settle. But as far as Nate was concerned, his choice was made. It was Laurel for him––maybe it always had been and now it always would be. He was patient. If he needed to wait a month or a year, he was sure the pink sapphire ring he had hidden on his shelf at home would be there when Laurel was ready.
In the meantime, he made sure to pick up the ring every single day and think about how much he loved her. He knew she would be susceptible to the energy it had absorbed. When he slid it on her finger, he wanted it to be full of the love he felt for her and always bring her security in his feelings.
Laurel interrupted his thoughts. “Thinking of nothing again, were you?” she teased.
Nate only shrugged and smiled.
“I think Gran is about ready to make her big entrance,” Laurel said. “Head over with me?”
Nate slowed her down and she hopped off and shook out her skirts. He stepped around and grabbed the swing by both ropes, pinning her between him and the swing. She looked up and her eyes shone back at him, as large as the full moon in the sky. She smiled and tilted up her chin.
He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers, softly at first and then with more pressure as her lips parted. She curled her hands against his chest and he let go of the swing to hold her closer.
When they paused for breath, she kept her eyes closed and smiled dreamily.
“Have I kissed you thoroughly enough yet, Butterfly?”
“Almost,” she said, wrinkling her nose. She opened her eyes and they twinkled at him. “But it is a full moon tonight and you can always come swimming with me.”
“Yes. Always yes,” Nate said. He was pretty sure he’d be saying yes to this woman for the rest of his life.
Laurel winked, grabbed his hand, and led him back to the party.
Want to fall in love again?
Get a taste of Lucy’s delicious romance
in Magic in the Mix, next in the
Magic at Moonrise Cove series!
Thanks for reading!
BONUS CONTENT:
I’m so grateful for readers who love my books as much as I do! I’ve written Chapter 14: Makeout Point from Nate’s perspective to let you inside his head as he attempts to resist Laurel on the beach. Ooh la la!
Go to www.moonrisecovebooks.com/bonus to get your free chapter along with other exclusive bonus content.
If you liked the book, one of the very best things you can do to help it find other readers is to leave a review. I’d be forever grateful!
See what delicious romance pastry chef Lucy is cooking up in her kitchen this summer by hopping over to Amazon and snatching up Lucy’s story. While you’re there, check out the four other Moonrise Cove summer romances.
Fall in love six different ways on Moonrise Cove this summer. We hope you visit us again soon!
You can keep in touch with Jules Barker on her Facebook Author Page facebook.com/authorjulesbarker or at her website: www.julesbarker.com
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