by Lisa Hughey
Penny smiled softly. “What are your dreams?”
“You.” He squeezed her fingers, his palms unusually sweaty as he waited for her reaction.
He could hear the female sighs in the room. But the only one he wanted to sigh was Penny.
“That’s really…sweet.”
Sweet? That did not sound promising. He bent his head to hers, wanting a bit of privacy. “How about sexy?” he growled in her ear.
“Sexy too,” she whispered back.
Diego wrapped his arms around her waist and bent in for a kiss to seal the deal.
“Stop!” Zin shoved something in between their bodies.
“What the hell, Zinnia?”
Zin waved the card in his face. “You’ve got to fill out your bingo card.”
“I don’t give a shit about bingo right now, Zin.”
But Penny giggled. Her laugh still sounded like the trill of the birds, and he wanted to spend an eternity listening to her.
“You like to win.” Zinnia stabbed her finger at the Free square in the center. Except it didn’t say Free any more.
It said Free Kiss. All the other squares were filled in.
Diego looked at Penny. “You forgive me?”
“Yes.”
“You willing to give us a try?”
“Yes.”
He shoved the card back at Zin. “I already won.”
Epilogue
The helicopter rotor whomp-whomp-whomped overhead.
Penny pressed her hands to her lower back and arched. She and Brad had spent the day in the fields along with her other workers harvesting the produce for tomorrow’s farmers’ market. Before, she would have been in the bath, and then heading to bed alone.
Now, she sipped her wine, waiting impatiently.
When she heard the rumble of an engine zooming up the driveway to her farmhouse, she opened the door with a huge smile. She leaned against the doorframe, wineglass in hand, one foot on top of the other. Diego strode toward her in khakis and a blue button-down. He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up. The light was fading but his eyes were bright and happy in the soft porch light.
His smile still had the power to bring her to her knees. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held on, snuggling into the curve of his neck. His body was solid and real and constant against hers. “How was your day?” She pressed kisses up the side of his throat.
“You’re looking at the new proprietor of Ramos Repair and Restoration.” The empty garage at the edge of town was now his.
“You excited?”
“Yes. I handed over the day-to-day control to Raul this morning.” Diego laughed, the sound a rumble against her mouth, before he kissed her silly.
He finally accepted that he hadn’t been happy for a while. While he’d still be on the board of his company, he wanted to work with his hands again. And it turned out his cousin loved running the company.
Jeffrey London ended up not challenging the merger contract breakdown. Right now, he was embroiled in a pretty ugly divorce, and three of his former assistants had filed a sexual harassment suit against him.
After the fallout with London Automotive, Diego had discussed other ways to take Ramos CAR to the next level with the Breakfast Club and come up with another solution.
“With the release of the end-user app that Peter designed, we should hit billion-dollar valuation this month.” The beauty of the app was they didn’t need to add a significant number of employees and Peter had done the work for a percentage of the profits.
“Congratulations.”
“We’ll have to celebrate later.” His suggestive tone caused her belly to flutter.
She reached in the fridge and grabbed a bottle of local craft beer. “How’s your stomach?”
“It’s fine.” He smiled and brushed a lock of hair from her face.
The ulcer he had developed while working on the merger was mostly under control now, but Penny still couldn’t stifle the need to take care of him.
Penny handed him the beer. “Guess what?”
He grabbed her around the waist and hugged her closer. “What?”
“Next week when you head to Boston, I need to hitch a ride.” A deep satisfaction filled her. “I’ve got two new clients, a presentation to a major hospital group, and Duke and I are going to sit down and flesh out a bigger marketing plan.”
He put down his beer, and took her wineglass from her, setting it carefully on the scarred farmhouse table.
“Nice.”
She could hear the jealousy in his voice. “Don’t worry about Duke.”
Diego scooped her up into his arms and carried her toward the bedroom. “Why’s that?”
“I don’t want anyone but you.” Penny kissed him softly. “I love you.”
He tossed her onto the bed. She bounced and then he landed on top of her. “I love you too.”
There were so many points where their relationship could have gone downhill. Combining households had been interesting. Diego moving part-time to the country was a huge adjustment for a city boy. And for Penny, becoming Diego’s plus-one meant dressing up and going back into the society she’d shunned when she moved to western Mass and become a farmer.
But having someone to share her day with and wake up to in the morning had made all the difference in the world.
“You know what this means?”
“Hmm?” She didn’t really care. As long as he loved her, life was perfect.
“My life is no longer semi-charmed.”
Wait, what?
“It’s all the way charmed.”
Oh, she melted. “Mine, too.”
Because love was the best fortune of all.
Thank you so much for reading Penny and Diego’s story! I had so much fun playing in the Camp Firefly Falls world. If you did enjoy this novel, below are a few ways you can help a writer out!!
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p.p.s. Did you enjoy reading about the Billionaire Breakfast Club? More stories are coming Fall 2017. Look for Everything He Wants, featuring D’Andre and his reporter, this coming September. He’s got a secret and she’s the dead last woman he should hook up with….
Acknowledgments
I had so much fun writing this story!!
First off, thank you so much to Gwen Hayes and Zoe York for starting the Camp Firefly Falls series last summer and allowing me to participate in season two. I was honored to be chosen.
Thanks to Lori Carter Hoffer for designing this cover. I seriously love it!
Again my usual suspects, Adrienne Bell and LGC Smith for reading and general encouragement and coffee clutches and support.
Deb Nemeth, my wonderful editor who put up with multiple delays on our last two projects. I’m getting my sh*t together. I swear!
And to my family for just being awesome.
I’ve been finalizing this story in the middle of getting ready to move and dealing with the myriad of details that go along with selling a house and moving three thousand miles away. But in more fun news, I will be super clo
se to our fictional camp by Fall 2017. The Berkshires are lovely if you ever have a chance to visit. Thank you for reading!!
Want More Camp Stories?
Camp Firefly Falls
Season One
Winning Back His Wife (CFF #1) by Gwen Hayes
His Counterfeit Campfire Bride (CFF #2) by Gwen Hayes
Crushing on Cooper (CFF #3) by Violet Vaughn
Skinning Dipping Dare (CFF #4) by Zoe York
The Time of His Life (CFF #5) by Jamie Wesley
Mr. Right Next Door (CFF #6) by Farrah Rochon
One Last Fling (CFF #7) by Lily Danes
Season Two
His Runaway Campfire Princess (CFF #8) by Gwen Hayes
Second Chance Summer (CFF #9) by Kait Nolan
Falling For the Best Man (CFF #10) by Ally Decker
His Semi-Charmed Life (CFF #11) by Lisa Hughey
Take A Chance on Me (CFF #12) by Zoe York
Flirting with Finn (CFF #13) by Violet Vaughn
Whatever It Takes (CFF #14) by Kate Willoughby
The Mystery of Love (CFF #15) by Cate Dean
Excerpt from Falling For The Best Man by Ally Decker
Excerpt from Ally Decker’s Falling For The Best Man (Out now!)
Opposites attract… but are they really all that different?
Charlie Amis is having the time of his life. He’s at Camp Firefly Falls for his best friend’s wedding, but there’s also a week of easy, unfiltered fun beforehand. Improv after breakfast, Broadway trivia after lunch, show tunes at the campfire… What more could he want? Apparently, the answer is: Tall, Dark, and Handsome who makes a fish-out-of-water impression look sexy as hell.
Kevin Randall shouldn’t be surprised the camp turns into a theater geek heaven, not with so many actors around and the bride’s Broadway obsession. He’s definitely out of his depth, so he’s planning to hide in the cabin—or wherever the wi-fi connection actually works—but Charlie’s dimpled smile is enough to drag Kevin away from his laptop again and again.
Among the crazy wedding preparations and to the tune of Broadway’s greatest hits, the two men fall head-first into a kind of summer romance they could only dream of as kids. But as they become each other’s plus one for the wedding, can they also become something more?
This m/m romance can be read as a stand-alone and features no cliffhangers.
Private planes were not a part of Kevin Randall's everyday life.
Sure, he had been working for Foster, Young, and Urban for over five years now, but coming from the tech support in the Army to spending his days restoring the reputations of New York's not-so-finest had been an interesting adjustment. And for the most part, he’d steered clear from the glamour and blitz of it all. He was just the guy behind the monitor.
That was at work, though. No one expected anything fancy of him or tried to push something onto him there. But this, now, was something he couldn't—wouldn't—say no to. His good friend was getting married, and if Kevin had to get there by the private plane, then that was just how it was.
Even if it was completely bizarre, as far as he was concerned.
He'd known, obviously, that Greg, Sylvia's fiancé, was a world famous actor, and Kevin had heard enough stories to know the life of these two was nowhere near normal, but he was also usually completely removed from that.
Until now.
"It's just a plane," Nate told him when Kevin pointed it out as they were driving to the airport. Nate Urban was one of his bosses, a good friend, and Sylvia's brother. He was also the guy more used to the glamour life of rich and famous.
"It's a private plane your sister's future husband is paying for, to take about twenty people to a remote location for a week-long wedding party," Claire, Nate's fiancée, said dryly. "It's not 'just' anything."
Kevin nodded and patted the passenger seat where she was sitting. "Yes, exactly, thank you."
"It's better than having the place crawl with paparazzi." Nate shrugged. "I'm all for private planes if I don't have to worry about that."
"Leave your fixer pants at home," Claire told him. "You're there as the older brother, not a fixer."
"He'd be worse about the paparazzi as the older brother," Kevin pointed out right as they passed the sign to the private landing area.
Claire glanced at him in the rearview mirror and nodded. "There's that."
"Hey!" Nate protested, but it was a moot point. His over-protectiveness was only dulled these days because Sylvia spent most of the year away from New York City. It most certainly wasn't gone for good.
"May I remind you that you suggested scouting the area when you learned it's a remote place?" Kevin asked, but whatever else he was going to say was lost once he noticed the plane behind one of the hangars.
It was smaller than the commercial civilian planes, though still bigger than he had expected. Definitely bigger than the planes he remembered from the Army days.
"Private planes have to factor in the space for egos, huh?" Claire muttered, and Kevin smirked. That would explain it.
They got out of the car, went through the private check point, and then they were pointed to the empty waiting area at the back end of the hangar.
Kevin checked the time and grimaced. "How the hell are we the first ones here?" Half an hour before the take off was cutting it really close, even for a private flight.
"I guess our plane just got delayed." Claire sat on one of the small seats, stretching her legs in front of her.
Nate sat down as well, draping his arm over the back of her seat, but before he could say anything, loud honking made them all turn to the entrance. Through the large, open door they could see a bus parking right at front. A second later, people started pouring out of it, led by Sylvia and Greg. They were a loud bunch, laughing and hip-checking each other, and some of them looked like they had already had a drink or two.
"Seems like the party has started." Kevin turned to Nate and Claire. "We should've hitched a ride on that bus."
Claire snorted and shook her head while Nate ignored him completely, eyes focused on Sylvia. When Kevin followed his gaze, he saw the future bride waving at them with a big grin on her face, showing the family resemblance that was usually hard to spot.
Kevin gave her a small wave before moving on to scan the rest of the crowd. He'd known they were going to fly out with Greg's old Broadway crew, as well as a couple of friends both Greg and Sylvia had made in the theatre world in the last couple of years. As Kevin looked around, he recognized quite a few faces. Some of them he’d seen on the posters around the city, and some he remembered from when he'd been dragged by Sylvia to see Illuminations, Greg’s Broadway debut.
One person especially caught Kevin's attention. The man's hair was longer now and he looked softer without stage makeup on, but Kevin remembered those eyes—dark, almost black, and all-seeing. Soft, once the curtain had fallen down and he'd stopped performing.
Charlie Amis.
Kevin hadn't been to any Broadway show since Illuminations, but the name had stuck in his head.
And now Charlie was here, less than a hundred feet away, while Kevin continued to stare.
He made himself turn to Nate and Claire again, noting in relief that they were too busy watching the newly arrived group to notice what he'd been doing. Good. He wouldn't be able to get them off his back if they got a whiff of his interest, if it could even be called that. Yes, he noticed the guy, but it wasn't like he was going to do anything about it.
He didn't realize he glanced in that direction again until he caught the warm gaze from across the space between them. Charlie tilted his head a bit to the side and stared at Kevin for what seemed like a really long time, until the redhead by his side threw her arm around his shoulders, drawing his attention away.
Kevin curled his fingers around the straps of his backpack as he turned the other way. For better or worse, the wedding trip just got a hell lot more interesting.
Find the rest on Amazon here: http://smarturl
.it/CampFF
The book is also available in Kindle Unlimited program.
Excerpt from Zoe York’s Take A Chance On Me (Out July 7, 2017)
Excerpt from Take A Chance On Me by Zoe York
August
Lake Wawaatesi
Grady knew there was a solid chance she’d slam the door in his face.
He was not wrong.
Prina took one look at him and let go of the wood frame with a healthy amount of hell-no enthusiasm.
Unfortunately for her, it was just a screen door and he could still see her.
“You cut your hair,” he said gruffly.
She crossed her arms and glowered at him.
“It looks great. You look great.” He meant it. It had been nearly a year since he’d seen her in person. He watched her on TV every chance he got, though.
And they’d had that phone call.
He regularly enjoyed a mental replay of that.
“I bet you’re wondering what I’m doing here,” he said, giving her a winning smile.
“Not in the least,” she said frostily, pulling the door open again. But instead of letting him enter her—their—cabin, she came out to stand on the porch. “You’re camp alumni. I bet you’ll come back every year to relive your glory days.”
That wasn’t the reason at all, and she knew it. “I’m here for you.”
She laughed. “Nice try, Grady.”
And she walked away.
Oh, hell no.
But Grady’s internal protest didn’t stop him from checking her out as she stormed off.
She really did look great.
Prina’s heart pounded in her chest as she marched down the path toward the main lodge.
No, seriously, what was he doing here? She’d double-checked with Tegan that…
