Where did they go from here?
She felt full of all the things she hadn’t said to him, relieved, excited and still frightened. Her past was resolved and didn’t have to shape her future anymore. She lay, listening to the bustle of the ward around her, and considered her options.
They all included Kade.
He arrived after the nurse had helped her to the washroom and she’d managed to brush her teeth and comb her hair. Reyna was dragging her IV drip back toward the bed and holding her gown closed as best she could when she felt a prickle of awareness.
“Feeling better?” he asked, his voice familiar and more than welcome.
She turned to find him in uniform.
“Yes. Thank you.” There was a lump in her throat which didn’t help get those thousand unsaid things out. “Going to work?”
“There’s a review of my conduct this morning in Moose Lake.”
“You won’t lose your job?”
“I was off duty and out of my area of jurisdiction. I might be disciplined.”
“I can testify for you!”
Kade smiled. “You can get better. The surgeon’s on his way to talk to you about therapy and I’ve got to go.” He kissed her temple, a much less intimate kiss than she wanted, then escorted her back to her bed.
“Will you come back and tell me what happened?”
“If you want.” His gaze searched hers.
“Does this change your hopes for the future?” she asked and he shook his head.
“Not a bit.” He frowned a little. “I’m just not sure what I’m going to have to offer you.”
She touched his jaw. “You have yourself. That’s all I want. It’s everything I want.”
He smiled down at her. “Looks like we have something else in common,” he murmured.
Reyna smiled. “I want a kiss. Am I the only one?”
Kade grinned, then bent and captured her lips with his. It was a potent kiss even though it was short, one that filled Reyna with a new conviction that she was doing right. “Since you work in Portland, I could sell the studio and find a location for a shop. We could either sell the Honey Hill house or keep it for weekends.”
“You sure? That’s a big change.”
“I want to be with you,” Reyna said. “I want to give us the best chance possible, so I’m choosing all the variables I can to build success.”
Kade smiled, and she saw the relief in his eyes. “Just promise me you’ll never lose that conviction that you can change the world.”
“Never, not now that you’ve changed mine.”
He kissed her again then, a much slower kiss that left her impatient for his return even before he was gone. The surgeon cleared his throat from the doorway and she wished Kade luck, knowing he had to be uncertain about the review.
She watched him go, her chest tight but her heart thundering. This was the right choice. He was the right man for her. Her grandmother would have adored him.
She could hardly suppress her excitement. Despite the legacy of her bad choices and her past, Reyna had a new conviction that she and Kade were going to live happily ever after.
She couldn’t imagine anything better.
Chynna returned to the tattoo shop after taking a break for dinner on a beautiful May evening. She’d walked over to the street market on Fifth Avenue to try something new. She’d read the news while waiting for her dinner and recognized the name of the man who had been killed in Honey Hill, Maine.
Sean was dead and she couldn’t be sorry. But what had happened to Reyna? The news report was very sketchy and Chynna was worried.
Tristan was pecking at the silk bag that contained her favorite tarot deck.
“He’s been doing that for about twenty minutes,” one of her assistants said. “I wasn’t sure what to do.”
Tristan cawed at her, bobbed his head, then pecked at the drawstring on the bag again.
Chynna thought it was pretty obvious what he wanted, but she had forbidden the assistants to touch her cards. She crossed the shop, stroked the bird, then removed the cards from the bag as he watched with bright eyes. She spread them face down across the counter. “Pick a card?” she invited him.
He bobbed his head, then walked back and forth across the cards as if making a decision. The two assistants came closer to watch. He finally bent and tugged at the corner of one.
Chynna picked up that card and turned it over, one glimpse enough to dismiss all her fears. Tristan jumped to her shoulder while she looked at it. “The World?” she said, leaning back to look at him. “That’s an impressive choice.”
He bobbed his head and cawed agreement. She thought he could have been laughing with pleasure.
But then, Tristan had always liked Reyna.
Chynna smiled. “Is this for Reyna?”
The bird bobbed his head again, a knowing gleam in those dark eyes.
“Good,” Chynna said. “Good.”
“What does it mean?” one assistant asked.
“The World is about transformation or reincarnation. It’s about a rebirth or a fresh start.” Chynna smiled as she thought of the perfect analogy. “Kind of like a butterfly breaking free of its chrysalis and taking flight for the first time. It’s a very positive card.”
Tristan cawed and nodded. Chynna kissed the card, knowing exactly whose future it foretold and put the deck back in its silk bag. “You are so very clever,” she told the bird, then gave him one of his favorite treats.
Sooner or later, Reyna would call to share the details, but Chynna was so very glad to know that the girl who loved fairy tales had found her happy ending.
She hoped it included a handsome prince, too.
One Hot Summer Night
Secret Heart Ink #3
This is Lexi and Gabriel’s story and a second-chance-at-love romance. You must have guessed that these two had a past together. It just takes one hot night to bring the past to the present all over again.
One Hot Summer Night
Secret Heart Ink #3
Coming soon!
Thank you!
Thanks for reading Spring Fever.
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Next in the Secret Heart Ink series will be One Hot Summer Night, which is Lexi and Gabriel’s story. If you’re reading this series and Flatiron Five in chronological order, Some Guys Have All the Luck occurs after Spring Fever and before One Hot Summer Night.
Thanks for reading my books!
All my best—
Deborah
About the Author
Deborah Cooke sold her first book in 1992, a medieval romance called Romance of the Rose published under her pseudonym Claire Delacroix. Since then, she has published over fifty novels in a wide variety of sub-genres, including historical romance, contemporary romance, paranormal romance, fantasy romance, time-travel romance, women’s fiction, paranormal young adult and fantasy with romantic elements. She has published under the names Claire Delacroix, Claire Cross and Deborah Cooke. The Beauty, part of her successful Bride Quest series of historical romances, was her first title to land on the New York Times List of Bestselling Books. Her books routinely appear on other bestseller lists and have won numerous awards. In 2009, she was the writer-in-residence at the Toronto Public Library, the first time the library has hosted a residency focused on the romance genre. In 2012, she was honored to receive the Romance Writers of America’s Mentor of the Year Award.
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Currently, she writes contemporary romances and paranormal romances under the name Deborah Cooke. She also writes medieval romances as Claire Delacroix. De
borah lives in Canada with her husband and family, as well as far too many unfinished knitting projects.
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Visit Deborah’s Website and Blog
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Visit Claire’s Website and Blog
More Books by the Author
Books by Deborah Cooke
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Contemporary Romance:
The Coxwells
THIRD TIME LUCKY
DOUBLE TROUBLE
ONE MORE TIME
ALL OR NOTHING
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Flatiron Five
SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE
ADDICTED TO LOVE
IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
SOME GUYS HAVE ALL THE LUCK (2018)
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Secret Heart Ink
SNOWBOUND
SPRING FEVER
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Paranormal Romances:
The Dragonfire Series
KISS OF FIRE
KISS OF FURY
KISS OF FATE
WINTER KISS
Harmonia’s Kiss
WHISPER KISS
DARKFIRE KISS
FLASHFIRE
EMBER’S KISS
THE DRAGON LEGION COLLECTION
SERPENT’S KISS
FIRESTORM FOREVER
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The Dragons of Incendium
WYVERN’S MATE
Nero’s Dream
WYVERN’S PRINCE
Arista’s Legacy
WYVERN’S WARRIOR
Kraw’s Secret
WYVERN’S OUTLAW
Celo’s Quest
WYVERN’S ANGEL
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Urban Fantasy Romance
The Prometheus Project
FALLEN
GUARDIAN
REBEL
ABYSS
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Paranormal Young Adult:
The Dragon Diaries
FLYING BLIND
WINGING IT
BLAZING THE TRAIL
Learn about Claire Delacroix
historical romances on
Claire’s website.
Spring Fever Page 16
