Beautiful Dreamer
Page 1
Who says you can’t go home again?
Philadelphia real estate broker Devyn Winters is at the peak of her career, closing multimillion-dollar deals and relishing it. She’s pretty much blocked out her formative years in Dreamer’s Bay, where the most exciting thing to happen was the twice a year bake sale. Unfortunately, a distress call hauls her back home and away from the life she’s constructed. Now the question is just how long until she can leave again? And when did boring Elizabeth Draper get so beautiful?
Elizabeth Draper loves people, free time, and a good cup of coffee in the warm sunlight. In the quaint town of Dreamer’s Bay, she’s the only employee of On the Spot, an odd jobs company. She remembers Devyn Winters as shallow in high school, but now everything about Devyn makes her lose focus. Though her brain knows Devyn is only home temporarily, her heart didn’t seem to get the memo.
Reviewers Love Melissa Brayden
“Melissa Brayden has become one of the most popular novelists of the genre, writing hit after hit of funny, relatable, and very sexy stories for women who love women.”—Afterellen.com
Love Like This
“All the best traits of Brayden’s books are present here: great dialogue, banter, humour, a well laid plot, multidimensional characters and, last but not least, a good old romance.”—Lez Review Books
“It’s sweet and sexy, with enough angst to keep things interesting, but not enough to hurt you. It’s a totally enjoyable romance that would be a perfect beach read.”—The Lesbian Review
Sparks Like Ours
“Brayden sets up a flirtatious tit-for-tat that’s honest, relatable, and passionate. The women’s fears are real, but the loving support from the supporting cast helps them find their way to a happy future. This enjoyable romance is sure to interest readers in the other stories from Seven Shores.”—Publishers Weekly
“Sparks Like Ours is made up of myriad bits of truth that make for a cozy, lovely summer read.”—Queerly Reads
Hearts Like Hers
“Hearts Like Hers has all the ingredients that readers can expect from Ms. Brayden: witty dialogue, heartfelt relationships, hot chemistry and passionate romance.”—Lez Review Books
“Once again Melissa Brayden stands at the top. She unequivocally is the queen of romance.”—Front Porch Romance
“Autumn Primm and Kate Carpenter are my favorite Brayden couple to date. This book had me laughing, crying and swooning like never before.”—Les Reveur
“Hearts Like Hers has a breezy style that makes it a perfect beach read. The romance is paced well, the sex is super hot, and the conflict made perfect sense and honored Autumn and Kate’s journeys.”—The Lesbian Review
Eyes Like Those
“Brayden’s writing is just getting better and better. The story is well done, full of well-honed wit and humour, and the characters are complex and interesting.”—Lesbian Reading Room
“Melissa Brayden knocks it out of the park once again with this fantastic and beautifully written novel.”—Les Reveur
“Pure Melissa Brayden at her best…Another great read that won’t disappoint Brayden’s fans. Can’t wait for the rest of the series.”—Lez Review Books
Strawberry Summer
“The characters were a joy to read and get to know. Maggie’s family is loving, supportive, and charming. They’re the family we all wish we had, through good times and bad.”—C-Spot Reviews
“The tragedy is real, the angst well done without being over the top, and the character development palpable in both the main characters and their friends.”—Lesbian Reading Room
“Strawberry Summer is a tribute to first love and soulmates and growing into the person you’re meant to be. I feel like I say this each time I read a new Melissa Brayden offering, but I loved this book so much that I cannot wait to see what she delivers next.”—Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
“Strawberry Summer will suck you in, rip out your heart, and put all the pieces back together by the end, maybe even a little better than they were before.”—The Lesbian Review
Praise for the Soho Loft Series
“The trilogy was enjoyable and definitely worth a read if you’re looking for solid romance or interconnected stories about a group of friends.”—The Lesbrary
Kiss the Girl
“There are romances and there are romances…Melissa Brayden can be relied on to write consistently very sweet, pure romances and delivers again with her newest book Kiss the Girl…There are scenes suffused with the sweetest love, some with great sadness or even anger—a whole gamut of emotions that take readers on a gentle roller coaster with a consistent upbeat tone. And at the heart of this book is a hymn to true friendship and human decency.”—C-Spot Reviews
“An adorable romance in which two flawed but well-written characters defy the odds and fall into the arms of the other.”—She Read
“Brayden does romance so very well. She provides us with engaging characters, a plausible setup with understandable and realistic conflict, and ridiculously fantastic dialogue.”—Frivolous Views
Just Three Words
“I can sum up my reading experience with Just Three Words in exactly that: I. LOVED. IT.”—Bookaholics-Not-So-Anonymous
“A beautiful and downright hilarious tale about two very relatable women looking for love.”—Sharing Is Caring Book Reviews
Ready or Not
“The third book was the best of the series. Melissa Brayden has some work cut out for her when writing a book after this one.”—Fantastic Book Reviews
Beautiful Dreamer
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Beautiful Dreamer
© 2019 By Melissa Brayden. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-63555-306-2
This Electronic Book is published by
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, New York 12185
First Edition: July 2019
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Credits
Editors: Lynda Sandoval and Stacia Seaman
Production Design: Stacia Seaman
Cover Design by Jeanine Henning
By the Author
Waiting in the Wings
Heart Block
How Sweet It Is
First Position
Strawberry Summer
Beautiful Dreamer
Soho Loft Romances:
Kiss the Girl
Just Three Words
Ready or Not
Seven Shores Romances:
Eyes Like Those
Hearts Like Hers
Sparks Like Ours
Love Like This
Acknowledgments
I’ve always wanted to live in a place like Dreamer’s Bay, a small town on the water where everybody knows everyone else. Perhaps that’s why I gravitated to telling this particular story, because I’d get to spend a little time there in the process. It’s my hope that you’ll enjoy your stay as well. Eat a donut. Play some cornhole. Watch the tide come in.
The writing of this book in the midst of so many life changes was truly something! I want to say thank you to every single rea
der who offered kind words, support, and well wishes on the new little addition to my life, and patted my proverbial head after many a sleepless night. I was blown away by the response, and truly touched.
Thank you to my fabulous editor, Lynda Sandoval, my amazing copy editor, Stacia Seaman, and the entire team at Bold Strokes who have so many important things to do to make this book arrive in the hands of a reader. Jeanine Henning has turned out another cover I love that resonates with the story I told, and I’m so grateful.
The friends I’ve made in the writing community continue to make my job fun, interesting, and never solitary. Thank you Georgia, Rachel, Nikki, Carsen, Barbara, Kris, and so many more for the laughs along the way.
My family is amazing and it’s even a little bigger now. Love abounds. Alan, you get me in a way no one else does. My rock. The adventure continues!
For All Those Still Searching
Prologue
Elizabeth Draper sat on the edge of the pier with her light brown hair up in a ponytail and her plaid shirt tied around her waist by its sleeves. With her jeans rolled up to mid-calf, she kicked at the water with her big toe as she scanned the memories of the past eighteen years like a wistful montage. So much had happened in just this small five-mile stretch.
Dreamer’s Bay was what you would call a blip of a town along the coastline of South Carolina that not a lot of people knew about. With Hilton Head to the north and Wilmington Island to the south, a lot of folks skipped right over the Bay should their foot rest too heavy on the gas pedal. Elizabeth liked that about her hometown. She preferred it small and elusive, like a hidden treasure you had to uncover, all their own. Once you found it, however, why would you ever want to leave? It was the kind of place where good things happened and people were there for their friends and neighbors. Beyond the beach itself, the lightning bugs in the summer were just one of the many beautiful spectacles you encountered in Dreamer’s Bay. The breathtaking Fourth of July fireworks display was another. She smiled imagining last year’s awe-inspiring design, not to mention the best damn funnel cake you could find for hundreds of miles.
Not only that, but Elizabeth had been blessed with a batch of fantastic memories all her own in this place. There were the Easter egg hunts in Bountiful Park. Nights spent playing flashlight tag with the neighborhood kids until her dad finally called her inside at her nine p.m. curfew. She shook her head and grinned when remembering her stint as Twin #2 in Peter Pan, which they’d performed in the school’s underequipped cafetorium when she was twelve. The entire population of the town had been in the audience. Only her mother had been missing. She didn’t think about that part too much. On purpose. Instead, she’d fondly reflected on the time she’d scored second place in the annual bake-off with her grandmother’s recipe for chocolate mint pie with homemade whipped cream. The win had come with a pretty significant trophy she’d displayed on the shelf in the living room.
In just a few hours, she would carve out another memory as she graduated from high school, leaving her youth firmly behind her. The next day she’d be on her way out of Dreamer’s Bay for the first time in her life, headed to the University of North Carolina, where she’d start summer classes right away. Her stomach hummed uncomfortably at the thought of leaving everything she loved. Elizabeth had never really known life anywhere else, and the idea that she was about to explore the wider world left her excited and terrified. There was nowhere like Dreamer’s Bay. What was she going to do these next few years without it?
That night, as she clutched the portfolio that contained her high school diploma, the emotion of the monumental event overcame Elizabeth. With a lump in her throat and tears welling in her eyes, she surveyed her classmates as they gathered outside the auditorium following the ceremony, wearing their matching blue and white gowns. Hugging, cheering, and well-wishing abounded, but also the understanding that they would part ways now, bound for different places in life, their futures uncertain, their hopes and dreams still to be realized. Some would stay. Some would go. But they would never be the same group again, who’d grown up together and experienced so many of the same things. She hugged her English teacher, Mr. Webb, then turned and hugged her best friend KC and kissed her buddy Dexter’s cheek. She turned around, looking for the next hug, and came face-to-face with Devyn Winters, another classmate. They’d not spent a lot of time together in high school, running with different crowds. Devyn was co-captain of the cheerleading squad and Elizabeth was, well, just Elizabeth. She’d heard Devyn was bound for Penn State, having always been the good student. Extra popular, too. Elizabeth wasn’t.
“Hey, congratulations,” Devyn said, with a polite smile. She was gorgeous, with blond hair and hazel eyes, and in that moment, she was haloed perfectly by the outdoor lights overhead.
Elizabeth beamed back. “Congratulations to you, too.” They stared at each other a moment, and for some reason it mattered more than it should have. They reached for each other and shared a tight embrace, only it didn’t feel obligatory. It was probably the gravity of the day, bonding two acquaintances who would then drift their separate ways again, back on their rightful trajectories that had never included the other. That’s what it was, right? Yet it felt like so much more.
When Devyn released her, Elizabeth placed a hand over her heart, wondering about the intensity of the pang that struck her chest.
“Elizabeth. Over here.”
She raised her gaze and there was her father, rushing toward her with his arms open and eyes misty. That was her rock, right there, the person who always had her back. The pride in his gaze meant everything tonight. “Congratulations, little girl, you did it.”
With her cap clutched in her hand, she fell into his arms, happy to share this moment with the one person she could always count on. “Thanks, Dad.” She laughed in wonder. “I can’t believe it. I’m a high school graduate.”
“I can. You worked hard and it paid off. I’ve never been prouder of you.”
In the midst of that crowd and the continued well-wishing, Elizabeth couldn’t help but glance around for Devyn and wonder about the moment that still tingled. She scanned the faces around her, but to no avail. Devyn Winters was gone.
Chapter One
Present Day
“Happy birthday, dear Donna. Happy birthday to you.” Devyn Winters stared at her happily singing coworkers as they held that final note of the song for several moments longer than necessary. She raised her eyebrows and smiled as she did her best to look as happily engaged in this whole feel-good moment as the rest of the office did. Did she have to read their lips to remember the birthday woman’s name? Why, yes, yes she did. She was awful when it came to remembering the admins because there were so many of them. She’d like to be better, but honestly, who had the time? She’d done her job, appeared for the requisite singing, snagged some vanilla cake with bright purple icing, and now worked on crowd-surfing her way out of the overrun break room while balancing her cake over her head.
“Devyn? Hey, Devyn?”
“Yep?” she tossed over her shoulder as she continued to dodge and weave like a pro. Time was money.
“Can I grab you to talk about the McMahon property at 803 Financial? If you have a spare sec, I mean.” She glanced back at Redheaded Ricky, who meant well, always smelled pleasantly of soap, but rarely ironed his work shirts. He was a decent enough broker at the firm but was known for being a softie and often late to the negotiating table, missing out on the really high-end listings because he’d decided to have a life on the side of his job. She didn’t blame him. Everyone’s priorities were different, but there wasn’t a lot she could do for a guy like him who wasn’t available when the big deals went down over drinks after hours.
“Sure. Can we walk and talk?” she asked reluctantly. With an afternoon stacked to the brim with listing appointments and two additional meetings with developers, she didn’t have a lot of downtime to talk shop. Plus, she’d just given away three minutes of it to Donna-somebody and her con
fetti-vanilla birthday cake, which she decided mid-bite was not bad at all. The three minutes might have proven beneficial in the end.
“Definitely,” he said, matching her stride. “Walkin’ and talkin’.”
She glanced over at him, waiting for him to speak. “So…803 Financial? The McMahon building?”
“Right.” He nodded. “Three units on the fourteenth floor are about to hit the market. I want that listing, and I was hoping you could offer me some insight. Advice, if you will, on how I might land it. Everyone knows you’re a pro when it comes to working with the top developers.”
She whistled low because that property was out of Ricky’s league. In fact, countless brokers had been vying for a meeting with the developer, Randy Thibedeux, for weeks. “Have you ever worked with a developer?”
“No.”
She high-fived her assistant Karen as they passed her desk. “Messages?”