Magnolias and Moonshine
Hit and Run Love
a novella
Jennifer Peel
Copyright © 2017 by Jennifer Peel
All rights reserved.
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Book Introduction
Welcome to the Magnolias and Moonshine series, where you’ll fall in love with the South.
Twenty New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestselling authors joined together to bring you a taste of Southern charm in this brand-new Magnolias & Moonshine series.
There is something for everyone with these ten sweet and ten sizzle contemporary novellas. You’ll enjoy stories with cowboys, weddings, county fairs, lovers reunited, and much more.
Step into the world of the South and hear the cicadas, taste the mint juleps, see the stars, and smell the magnolias.
Authors in novella release order:
Ciara Knight (Sweet)
Hildie McQueen (Sizzle)
Beth Williamson (Sizzle)
Susan Hatler (Sweet)
Lindi Peterson (Sweet)
Kymber Morgan (Sizzle)
Amanda McIntyre (Sizzle)
Lucy McConnell (Sweet)
Sharon Hamilton (Sizzle)
Lisa Kessler (Sizzle)
Kirsten Osbourne (Sweet)
Susan Carlisle (Sizzle)
Tina DeSalvo (Sizzle)
Raine English (Sweet)
Amelia C. Adams (Sweet)
E. E. Burke (Sizzle)
Melinda Curtis (Sweet)
Merry Farmer (Sizzle)
Shanna Hatfield (Sweet)
Jennifer Peel (Sweet)
To Jeff, and all the men and women in blue,
thank you for giving it your all. I’m grateful for your service.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
Prologue
Uh, wow. We were supposed to be saying goodbye, but his kiss felt more like forever. And part of me wished. . . . I was having a hard time thinking. Harrison ran his hands through my blonde hair and kissed me deeper. Suddenly I didn’t care if my roommate or anyone in my apartment complex walked by to see our display of affection. I let the high heels I was holding drop so my hands were free to wrap around this man. The man who had flirted with me all semester, but hadn’t asked me out until two months ago. I had been hesitant to say yes, knowing graduation was looming and we were each going our own way. He was headed to Samford in the fall, and I was going to D.C. for a summer legal internship before I started at Tulane in August.
Two law students. Two different schools. Alabama and Louisiana weren’t that far apart, and we both had family in the Atlanta area where we lived now, so maybe this didn’t have to be goodbye. I let that thought settle in as he kissed my neck.
No, no. Clean breaks. But wait, he missed a spot near my ear. Ahhh, he got it. I pulled on his shirt and we fell against the door. He pressed his body against mine before his lips made their way back to my mouth. His lips were always soft and warm. Not like we had kissed a lot, and we had never kissed like this. We both had been cautious about starting a fire that would have to be extinguished. But now I was feeling the heat.
“Kallie.” He skimmed my lips.
“Yes?” I was finding it hard to catch my breath.
“I want to tell you something.”
“It’s only a five-hour drive between Birmingham and New Orleans.” Why did I say that? I was supposed to be sensible. Law school and relationships didn’t mix. I came from a whole string of lawyers who had warned me. But it was possible. Grandma and Grandpa had survived, though Grandma did say she wanted to kill him on a few occasions. But we were talking long distance. Long distance was never good.
He laughed low and kissed my lips one more time. “I was thinking along those same lines, except I was going to say Atlanta is only seven hours from you.”
I pulled away and gazed into his smiling blue eyes. “By the time I’m at Tulane, you’ll be starting school in Birmingham.”
He ran the back of his hand down my cheek, causing me to shiver in the warm spring air of Georgia. He smiled at my reaction. He was so handsome. He had become more so, the better I had gotten to know him the last few months. It didn’t hurt that he looked like Jensen Ackles’ twin brother.
He kept caressing my cheek. “Your skin is so soft.”
I reached up and took his hand. “What were you going to tell me?”
He grinned. “You make it hard to focus. I was going to tell you I decided against law school.”
“What? Why? You scored a 170 on the LSAT.” I was jealous. I only scored 164, which was completely respectable, but he could have gone to any law school he wanted.
He kissed my nose and chuckled. “Six points better than you.”
“Thanks for the reminder. But tell me, why the change?”
He took both of my hands in his, brought them up close and kissed them. No one but him had ever kissed my hands, and I liked it. I liked him. “I want to help my community.”
“Then become a public defender.”
“Hopefully I can help some of them before they ever need one.”
I tilted my head. “So what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to the police academy.”
No. Not that. Anything but police officer. I pulled away my hands. “It’s getting late. I need to finish packing.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t think it’s a good career?”
I stood up on my tiptoes, hoping he didn’t notice my misted eyes. I kissed his cheek. “It’s a noble choice. Be safe.”
I ran into my apartment then slid against the closed door until I was crying into my knees. I could hear Harrison say he would call me. I wouldn’t be answering.
The words “be safe” rang in my ears. I had said them to my dad every day before he left for work with his badge on, until the day after he didn’t come home. The day the call came. A routine traffic stop, a police officer dead. My police officer, my hero, the first man I ever loved. He was gone. I was thirteen. I vowed then to never again give my heart to a man who wore blue.
Chapter One
Five Years Later
I knew we needed the rain, but couldn’t it have waited until I got back to the office with the coffee order? Or a little nepotism would have been nice. I understood my grandfather’s reasoning behind the whole, “the least among us is the greatest and you can tell a lot about a person by how they behave at the bottom,” but this morning I would have liked it if he could have sent one of the administrative assistants or even a paralegal. But as the newest attorney for Porter, Porter, and Clemmons, I was going to do my best to make him proud. Grandfather and his brother, my great uncle Seth, were the Porters, and my brother Grady made up the Clemmons part. I was only an associate in the full-service law firm, with the promise of being a partner someday.
I took after my grandpa and specialized in family law. He had made headlines recently for representing Atlanta’s socialite Beverly Halliday in her two-hundred-million-dollar divorce. Beverly was synonymous with diva. I was pretty sure that by the end, her e
x-husband was happy just to be rid of her, so he’d agreed to whatever he had to. We were all ecstatic to never see her again, though I was sure it wouldn’t be her only divorce.
I didn’t handle anything high-profile. I mostly took our pro-bono cases. In New Orleans—at my grandfather’s insistence—I had worked for a non-profit organization for two years helping abused women with free legal counsel to get help in obtaining divorces. It was a sobering experience and I thanked my grandfather every day for his wisdom and for helping me see another side of life. It changed me. I wanted to continue that work here in Atlanta. That experience made me think twice and three times about anybody I dated. Not that I’d had much time for it. Maybe now that I was settled back in my hometown, I should open that door again.
My windshield wipers were getting a workout. It made me nervous to drive in such a downpour, but how can you have a meeting without your double fat-free latte? I was joking. I didn’t even drink coffee—it’s bad for your teeth and breath. Traffic was worse than normal due to the rain. At least people were slowing down. I pulled into the middle turn lane to make a left-hand turn into the closest Starbucks, but the traffic going the opposite direction kept blocking the intersection. Didn’t they know that was against the law? And they were making me late for my meeting.
The longer I sat there waiting to turn, the more nervous I became. I felt like a sitting duck.
Finally, a woman that knew the rule stopped before the entrance. She waved me on. I took my break and made my turn in the blinding rain.
Big, big mistake. Did I mention it was a two-lane road on that side, and that I couldn’t see very well? As I turned, I felt an impact and a jerk. Metal colliding against metal. My car landed in the Starbucks’ parking lot. I sat there, shaking in disbelief and hoping that hadn’t really happened. I had never been in a car accident, much less caused one.
My passenger side airbag had deployed and it smelled like jet fuel. My mind was in a fog. Call the police, I remembered, and check on the other driver. Oh, please let them be okay. I reached for my cell phone in my purse. That’s when I noticed the lights. Wow. The police were fast. No, the police were not fast. Oh. My. Gosh. I was in an accident with a police officer. Breathe, Kallie, breathe.
My perfect driving record and good day were obliterated. I was mortified.
I looked in my rearview mirror to see the mess I had caused. Traffic was backing up and there was a police officer walking my way in a rain coat and hat. He was moving, so I felt a tad better. I hoped he wasn’t hurt. I got a peek at his car before he knocked on my window. His car was one of those that I referred to as Transformer cars, the evil ones. It had a large grill thing on the front. I don’t speak car and driver, so I didn’t know the technical name. All I knew was my car probably didn’t fare well. My very first brand new car; I had paid for it all by myself and drove it off the car lot.
At least no one was hurt. I hoped.
Amidst the pouring rain, the officer tapped on my window. I pushed the button and lowered the window. The day was getting better and better. Not really.
“Are you okay, ma’am?”
The rain was coming in and my mouth momentarily quit working. I kept staring at that face while I got soaked. Even under his hat, in the rain, I recognized those baby blue eyes and his tight jawline. He hadn’t changed a bit.
“Ma’am?”
“Yes,” I stuttered. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you.” That was probably obvious.
He didn’t answer. Recognition lined his features. His eyes widened. “Kallie? Kallie Clemmons?”
I bit my lip. “Yeah. Funny running into you like this.” Was it too early for terrible jokes? I was going to say yes. I could see his jaw clench.
“I’m going to need to see your license, insurance, and registration.”
“Of course. Again, I’m so sorry.”
He said nothing as I reached in my glove compartment for all the items he requested. He kept silent when I handed them to him. He stared hard at me before taking them and walking back to his police cruiser.
I rolled up my window and turned around to watch him walk away. A thousand memories flooded my mind, including the ones where I never called him back. I don’t know how many messages he left me, but they each went unreturned. I had felt horrible. I still did, but we could never be what I had wanted us to be for those last beautiful minutes in his arms.
I had thought I would forget about him, but I never had. It’s not like I thought about him every day, but I did find that I compared him to the few guys I had dated. And they had fallen short. There was something about Harrison Monroe that didn’t let a woman go. Maybe it was his all-American boy look, or his gentlemanly manners, or perhaps the way he made you feel like you were the only person in a room. Or maybe it was his chocolate chip cookies. Best study food ever.
But none of those reasons mattered, because we could never be together. It’s not like we were in love, even though I had been falling for him. I tried not to. And I felt at the time I had no right to ask him to choose another career. My dad used to say being a man in blue was a destiny, that it called to you. Who was I to tell him to tune it out? So many times, I’d told myself it was for the best. I was sure he was happily married now. He was a catch. I knew he would get over me long before I got over him. He needed a woman to support him. Someone who could handle the uncertainty being married to a cop brings. I wasn’t the woman for the job.
I watched what it had done to my mother. Fifteen years later, and she was still grappling with the loss. Maybe someday she would find herself again and come home. Thank goodness for my grandparents. They had stepped into the parental role.
I shook my head to clear my mind. I didn’t have time to dwell on my family issues. I couldn’t believe I hit a cop car, or I guess I made him hit me. And of all the hundreds of police officers in the Atlanta area, it had to be Harrison Monroe.
I wondered if I should move my car. I was blocking the entrance and people needed their coffee.
More police officers arrived on the scene. I wished someone would hit me over the head and wake me up when it was all over. They began to take pictures and a new police officer tapped on my window. “Ma’am, I’m Officer Jackson. I need to ask you a few questions.”
I nodded, getting more wet as we went. I was starting to get a chill, even though it was late May.
“Did you see the car coming?”
What kind of question was that? If I had seen it, don’t you think I wouldn’t have gone? “No.”
“How fast were you going?”
“Maybe ten miles an hour?” I wasn’t exactly looking at the speedometer.
“Tell me what happened in your own words.”
Did I really need to relive this? I was an idiot and I ran out in front of a policeman, a.k.a. my ex-boyfriend, who I ghosted. I should probably leave that last part out. “Where is Officer Monroe?”
“Sorry, ma’am. Since he was involved in the accident, I need to ask the questions.”
That made sense from a legal standpoint. But I only wanted to know if he was still there. I guess I wanted to torture myself some more for the day. I wanted to know that he was happy like he deserved; that he married his all-American girl and they had an adorable baby. And that he didn’t hate me. And most importantly, that he was safe.
Officer Jackson finished questioning me amid the flurry of activity surrounding my vehicle, and left to speak with the other officers on the scene. It was downright embarrassing, especially since it was all my fault. I knew better than to go on someone else’s limited knowledge of a potentially dangerous situation. Hello? Hadn’t law school taught me to look at every angle and motive, study out the situation myself, never go on second-hand knowledge, and sometimes, when necessary, don’t trust the facts? I banged my already pounding head on the steering wheel.
The minutes ticked by slowly as I sat alone in my car. It finally dawned on me I should call my grandfather. I was going to need a ride an
d an ego boost; he could provide both. Grady would only rub my idiocy in my face. That’s what big brothers were for.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the reflection of my phone. It wasn’t pretty. At least not meet-your-ex-boyfriend pretty. I ran my fingers through my medium-length blonde hair. It was starting to curl due to the humidity. I bet my hazel eyes were looking more green since I was upset.
Before I could make the call, and in the middle of my preening, Officer Jackson returned. He wasn’t bearing good news. He handed me my ticket for “failure to yield.”
“Your court date is at the bottom, or you can plead guilty and pay your fine at the city hall station.”
I knew it was coming. I nodded in acknowledgment before taking the expensive piece of paper.
“Or you can take driving school, since this is your first offense, and we’ll forgive the ticket and the points.”
“How many points is this ticket?”
“Five.” He grimaced.
Oh. That was a lot. Driving school was sounding good. “Thank you. Again, sorry for the trouble.”
He looked back toward Harrison’s car and grinned. “Have a good day, ma’am.”
I think that was impossible at this point. Was I free to move? Harrison knocked on the window, making me jump. I pushed the window button again. “Hi.”
He pressed his lips together and thought for a moment before he spoke. “I thought I should catch you before you did another hit and run.”
I sat up straighter. “Hit and run? You aren’t charging me with that, are you? There are witnesses that can corroborate that I stopped and haven’t moved.”
He grinned in the rain. “I take it you got that law degree.”
I bit my lip and smiled.
“I was talking about when you left five years ago.”
“Oh.” I squirmed in my seat. “About that . . .”
Another officer joined us. “We’ve written our report, so you’re free to go.”
Hit and Run Love Page 1
