by Teri Wilson
Murray frowned. “I see.”
Sam shifted in his seat. “It’s for a fire marshal position, much like what I’m doing here.”
“Well, this is a surprise,” Murray said. “I’m sure the pay is a lot more than what we can offer here in our small beach town, and I know the softball season hasn’t gone quite as well as we’d hoped…”
Sam fought back an eyeroll. His boss thought this conversation was about softball. Wasn’t everything in Turtle Beach?
“We can still pull out a win tomorrow, son. It’s the championship game, and you’re our big champ.” Murray nodded, and the crinkles in the corners of his eyes seemed to grow deeper until a rare smile came to his face. “But win or lose, we’d hate to see you go. You’re a good fire marshal, Nash, and you’re an even better man. You’ve been an asset to the department. I hope you’ll consider staying on here at the TBFD.”
The unexpected kindness caught Sam off guard. If he’d been on the fence, it might have even persuaded him to stay. But Sam had already made up his mind. He knew what he wanted. “Actually, I was hoping you’d be willing to transfer me to the regular department.”
Murray blinked. “You want to fight fires?”
“Yes, sir. I do,” Sam said. “I’ll be happy to continue to do inspections and presentations as needed, but I’m ready to get back to what I do best.”
He’d been hiding in an office, thinking four flimsy walls could separate him from the rest of his new firefighting family. How stupid could he have been? Above all else, a fire department was a brotherhood. The word was right there on the TBFD crest that Sam wore on his shirt, directly over his heart, every single day.
Fire. Service. Brotherhood.
You couldn’t have one without all three. Sam hadn’t just fallen in love with Violet. He’d fallen in love with his new home, and he was ready to start a new life here. He still hoped to do so with Violet by his side—somehow, someway—but if that never came to pass, Sam knew he wasn’t alone. He had Cinder. He had Griff, Murray, and the rest of the guys at the station. He had those nutty octogenarians at the senior center. And he knew if the time ever came to put his life on the line for any of them, he’d do it in a heartbeat. No questions asked.
Murray stood and offered Sam his hand. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time. Of course we’d love to have you as a firefighter.”
“We have a deal, then?” Sam asked.
Murray nodded, pumping Sam’s hand up and down as his grin spread from ear to ear. “Welcome to the family.”
***
“Thank goodness this is the last game of the season,” Violet said as she piped more spots onto her final batch of Dalmatian cupcakes. The cupcake truck was crammed full. She couldn’t fit another baked good inside Sweetness on Wheels if she tried. “I don’t even care who wins. I’m just ready for the tournament to be over, for once and for all.”
“Yes, you mentioned that already.” Opal peered at her through the order window.
Beside her, Ethel nodded. “Several times.”
“Well, that’s because it’s true.” Violet put the pastry bag down and wiped her hands on the front of her ruffled apron.
“If you say so,” Opal muttered.
“Oh, please.” Mavis inched her walker as close to the cupcake truck as she could get it and stared daggers at Violet through the open window. “How long are you going to go on like this?”
“Like what?” Violet said blandly.
Bland was her default mood now. Sometimes it took some effort to rein in her actual personality and do her best to pretend she was an even-keeled, responsible person who thought before she spoke and didn’t stand out in a crowd. The good news was that she was getting used to it. The bad news…
Well, the bad news was that the reason she’d grown accustomed to being as beige as she could possibly be was because she mostly felt beige inside now. The piercing heartbreak she’d felt when she’d forced herself to walk away from Sam had settled so deep into her bones that she’d been forced to train herself to feel absolutely nothing instead. No joy meant no pain. No happiness meant no sadness. No love meant no loss.
That’s what she wanted to believe, anyway. Every time she’d just about convinced herself it was true, Sprinkles would bolt away from her at the dog beach and romp through the waves as if she had springs in her feet. The wonder and sheer delight on her Dalmatian’s sweet spotted face as she played in the surf never failed to hit Violet right in the feels. She still had a heart. And no matter how hard she fought, that heart still beat for Sam Nash.
“Like this.” Mavis gestured in Violet’s general vicinity. “You’re like a ghost of your former self. This is no way for you to live, Violet. It’s like you’re disappearing before our very eyes.”
“We know you feel like giving up on love, dear. But it’s like you’ve given up on life,” Opal said.
Ethel dabbed at her eyes with the corner of one of her goofy foam fingers. “It’s hard to watch, sweetheart. You know this isn’t what your father wants for you, either. Or your brothers. They love you just the way you are.”
“Were,” Mavis corrected. “They love you just the way you were. No one knows this new person you’re trying to become.”
“Even the other residents of the senior center are confused. Yesterday in yoga class, you called murder victim pose something entirely different,” Ethel said.
Violet crossed her arms. “I called it Shavasana. That’s the proper word for it.”
Mavis rolled her eyes. “Well, not one person knew what in the world you were talking about.”
“Violet, dear, we don’t go to yoga because it’s proper exercise. We go because you make it fun.” Opal shrugged.
Damn these women. They always knew just what to say to crack Violet’s increasingly fragile composure.
She nodded. “Fine. Murder victim pose it is. Duly noted.”
“Good. Now what are you going to do about Sam?” Mavis backed her walker up a bit, out of cupcake-tossing range.
Violet didn’t like to talk about Sam. Ever. And she definitely didn’t want to do it here, in front of the entire town. “Mavis, please don’t. I can’t talk about Sam right now. You know that.”
“Very well. We need to get to our seats anyway, and you have cupcakes to sell.” Mavis leaned closer and lowered her voice to a mock whisper. “But just so you know, Hoyt Hooper Sr. heard from Hoyt Hooper Jr., who heard from Griff Martin that Sam has been offered a job back in Chicago. He had a big closed-door meeting with Chief Murray about it yesterday.”
All the blood seemed to rush out of Violet’s head in a sudden whoosh. She swayed on her feet. “Sam’s leaving Turtle Beach? When?”
Mavis shrugged. “That’s all I know, dear. You know I never pay attention to town gossip.”
Violet would have laughed out loud if she hadn’t felt like crying. Mavis lived for Turtle Beach gossip.
Violet’s throat grew thick. Sam was leaving? He couldn’t. The island wouldn’t be the same without him and Cinder. Turtle Beach was a two-Dalmatian town now. Everyone knew that. What was he thinking?
It’s not your business, remember?
She closed her eyes and tried her best to think beige thoughts, but bursts of color kept breaking through the numbness. Luckily, she had a crush of customers to deal with to distract her from her most inconvenient reawakening.
Violet just needed to get through the next few hours, and then everything would be fine. So what if Sam left? Violet’s life pre-Sam had been perfectly acceptable. Happy, even. She didn’t need a stern-faced fire marshal with a robotic Dalmatian to make her life complete.
Except Cinder had really come out of her shell when the Dalmatians had been switched. Likewise, Sprinkles had learned a thing or two. And Sam hadn’t scowled at her in weeks. In fact, she rather liked the way he looked at her—like she was a
perfectly frosted cupcake and he’d eaten nothing but bread and water for his entire life.
“Oh, my gosh,” Violet said out loud.
Sprinkles sat up in her pink crate and cocked her head.
“Sam and I have switched places, just like you and Cinder.” Violet pressed a hand to her stomach. She felt sick all of a sudden. “But I don’t have the honor and heroics to go with his comforting predictability. I’m just…”
How had Mavis put it?
A ghost of your former self…you’re disappearing before our very eyes.
Good grief, Mavis was right.
Panic swirled through Violet as she sold one cupcake after another. She had to do something, but what? The game had already started. The bleachers were packed, and the police department was already up by three runs. Her father and brothers were probably beside themselves. If Violet hadn’t called off the bet with Sam, she would have been ecstatic herself.
The game droned on, and with every change of the innings, the sense of doom hanging over Violet’s cupcake truck grew thicker. Heavier. What if Sam had stuck around in town just to finish the tournament? It sounded like the honorable sort of thing he would do. For all Violet knew, he was leaving right after the victory party at Island Pizza. If the firefighters lost, he might even scoot out earlier.
There was only one thing Violet could come up with that might convince him to stay—one surefire way to get his attention long enough to tell him how she really felt before it was too late.
She marched over to Sprinkles’s pink crate. The Dalmatian sprang to her feet and pawed at the door, as if to say Put me in, Coach.
Violet unlatched the crate and then flung the door to the cupcake truck open wide. Sprinkles took off like a shot, sprinted to the middle of the softball diamond, and started running around the bases, barking louder than Violet had ever heard her before.
Everyone in the stands stood and cheered, while the players stopped what they were doing. The umpire blew hard on his whistle.
Coach Murray screamed, “Interference! Interference! They forfeit!”
But no sooner had the words left his mouth than Cinder bolted from the dugout and proceeded to chase Sprinkles around the bases.
“There are two Dalmatians on the field,” the umpire yelled. “I repeat—two Dalmatians on the field!”
Chaos reigned, but in the midst of the insanity, Violet spotted Sam walking toward her. They met in the middle, in the emerald- green grass of centerfield.
“Don’t go,” she blurted.
Sam’s brow furrowed. “I’m not going anywhere, love.”
Love… Violet’s heart swelled. She’d never felt less beige in all her life. “Mavis told me you were moving back to Chicago.”
Sam’s lips curved into the lopsided smile she knew and loved so much. “I thought we learned a long time ago not to believe anything that Mavis, Opal, and Ethel say.”
Violet laughed. “Maybe she had the right idea, just this once.”
“Just this once?” Sam shook his head. “I’ve come to realize those crazy friends of yours were right about a lot of things.”
He slid his arms around her and pulled her close, and even though Violet had lived on the same small island for her entire life, she felt like she’d finally come home. “Oh, yeah? Like what?”
“Like the fact that I love you.” He pressed a tender, reverent kiss to her lips, and whispered against her mouth, “You saved my life, Violet March.”
“Not really. I set you on fire first, remember?”
“I’m not talking about the culinary torch. I mean in general. I was a shell of a man when I got here, and you saved me. You’re everything I want to be, Violet. You brought me back to life.”
A sob escaped Violet’s lips, and she pressed her fingertips to her mouth to keep from breaking down. “You mean you don’t think I’m too much? Too…”
“Silly woman, I think you’re perfect just the way you are.” And then he kissed her again, right there in front of everyone, and Violet couldn’t have cared less.
When they finally broke apart, Sam dropped to one knee and took her hand in his. “Violet March, will you attend the Fireman’s Ball with me tonight as my date?”
“Yes!” She laughed. “Yes, of course.”
“Hold up, wait a minute. What’s going on over here?” an astonished Coach Murray said as he approached.
Violet’s dad marched toward them from the other direction. “Good grief. It’s like history repeating itself.”
Sam stood back up. “Violet and I are going to the Fireman’s Ball together tonight.”
“We’re in love.” Violet pointed back and forth between her dad and the fire chief. “You two are just going to have to deal with it. This has nothing to do with your ridiculous feud.”
“Pshhhhh.” Her dad scowled at Coach Murray. “The feud was his idea, not mine.”
“I beg your pardon. It was not. You started it after…” Murray glanced at Violet and went quiet.
Violet searched her dad’s gaze. “Dad? What’s he talking about? And don’t try and wiggle your way out of the conversation this time. Tell me what happened all those years ago.”
“Come on, Ed,” Murray said. “Maybe it’s time.”
Her father sighed. “It all started when Murray here gave your mother that rowdy Dalmatian.”
“Polkadot?” Violet gasped. “That’s where my mom’s Dalmatian came from?”
“I gave her the dog, yes.” Murray nodded. “And she loved that pup with her whole heart, but it still wasn’t enough to convince her that she was better off with me. She loved your dad even more than she loved that crazy dog.”
“That dog never liked me much.” Her dad shook his head. “I’m pretty sure Polkadot thought Adeline should have married Murray.”
Violet stared at the two men. “You mean to tell me that this insane softball feud started because of an argument the two of you have been having about a Dalmatian for over thirty years?”
Coach Murray shrugged. “Yes.”
“No.” Violet’s dad shook his head.
Sam laughed. “They still can’t agree.”
“That’s not true, son.” Murray shot Violet’s father a questioning glance. “I think we can both say that you two crazy kids belong together. Pretty much everyone in Turtle Beach saw it coming when Sam here rolled into town with a Dalmatian in tow. What do you say, Ed?”
“If Violet’s happy, I’m happy.” Ed March gave Violet a tender smile. “Maybe it’s time to let bygones be bygones.”
“Finally.” Violet took Sam’s hand, and he squeezed it tight.
“I guess this means no more softball next year?” Sam said.
Murray and Ed both turned toward him in astonished horror.
“Bite your tongue, son,” Murray said.
“Guns and Hoses will never end in Turtle Beach.” Ed shook his head. “Never.”
“At last, something they agree on,” Violet said.
And then Sam picked her up and spun her round and round, with Cinder and Sprinkles prancing at their feet until she couldn’t tell which Dalmatian was which.
Just the way she liked it.
Acknowledgments
This book has been a long time coming! It started with the idea to write a rom-com based on one of my favorite Disney films, and I knew I’d found the right publishing home for it when I met Sourcebooks Casablanca’s Editorial Director Deb Werksman on a romance writer cruise in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Deb’s enthusiasm for A Spot of Trouble meant the world to me, and I’m thrilled to have found my way to Casablanca.
It’s probably no surprise that I’m a big dog lover. I’ve never had a Dalmatian, but some of my fondest memories of my son Cameron’s childhood involve seeing the live-action version of 101 Dalmatians multiple times during the Christmas holidays when he was i
n kindergarten. McDonald’s had 101 different Dalmatian toys in their Happy Meals that December, and I can attest that we ate A LOT of chicken nuggets that month. I love taking classic stories and giving them new, whimsical spins, and writing this story has been a complete joy from start to finish.
Thank you to Deb and the entire team at Sourcebooks Casablanca. And as always, thank you to my wonderful agent Elizabeth Winick Rubinstein and everyone at McIntosh & Otis. I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to my step-dad Lanny Cunningham for giving me the idea for Cinder the fire dog, name and all. Lanny is a retired firefighter for LA County and our family’s real-life hero.
This one is for my readers, for anyone who has ever loved a dog, and for every single person who has ever felt like they were too much or too different. You’re perfect, just the way you are.
xoxo Teri
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author Teri Wilson writes heartwarming contemporary romance with a touch of whimsy. Three of Teri’s books have been adapted into Hallmark Channel Original Movies by Crown Media, including Unleashing Mr. Darcy (plus its sequel Marrying Mr. Darcy), The Art of Us, and Northern Lights of Christmas, based on her book Sleigh Bell Sweethearts. She is also a recipient of the prestigious RITA Award for excellence in romantic fiction for her novel The Bachelor’s Baby Surprise.
Teri has a major weakness for cute animals, pretty dresses, and Audrey Hepburn films, and she loves following the British royal family.
Feel free to visit and connect with her on social media! You can also add and share her books on BookBub and Goodreads.
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