Magic Kiss (Hope Falls Book 11)

by Melanie Shawn

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Drew, and please call me Sue Ann.” Instead of taking his hand, she pulled him in for a hug not unlike the kind Logan had received more than once. Sue Ann was definitely a hugger.

  Before he’d come to Hope Falls, most people—other than the ones trying to hook up with him—had kept their distance from Logan. It might’ve had something to do with the energy he put off, which he’d been told was less than friendly. He kept to himself. Always had. But the people in this town either were immune to his personal boundaries or didn’t even sense them in the first place. It was odd, but not horrible.

  “Will you be getting your usual, Logan?” Sue Ann asked after she’d released Drew and he’d sat back down.

  The third time he had come in, he’d ordered the pork chop plate with corn on the cob and mashed potatoes, and it had been the best thing he’d ever tasted. When Logan found a good thing, he stuck with it, so ever since that night, he’d ordered the pork chop plate with corn on the cob and mashed potatoes when having dinner at the café.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And what about you?” Sue Ann asked Drew.

  Drew’s eyes scanned the menu as he ordered. “Can I have chicken strips with fries, a hot dog, and a Coke and a large chocolate malt?”

  Sue Ann shot a quick look at Logan. He nodded. He’d said that the kid could order whatever he wanted, and he was a man of his word.

  “All right, but I think your eyes might be bigger than your stomach.” Sue Ann chuckled as she gathered the menus and headed behind the lunch counter at the far end of the café.

  Before Logan had a chance to ask Drew if he really thought he’d be able to eat all of that food, his phone alerted him that he had a text. When he looked at it, he saw that it was from Emma. She’d just finished up her last meeting and was heading to the airport. It was seven thirty in California, which meant that it was ten thirty in New York. She’d been going nonstop all day.

  When she’d contacted him earlier to tell him that her last meeting had been scheduled as drinks after dinner, he’d suggested that she just stay the night there and fly back tomorrow. But she hadn’t taken his advice.

  Logan messaged her back asking how her meetings had gone. As he was setting his phone down, it buzzed again, and he saw a thumbs-up emoticon on the screen. He grinned and did something he’d never done before—he search for an emoticon to respond. After finding the clapping hands emoticon, he texted back.

  Have a safe flight. See you soon.

  “Your mom’s done with her meetings. She’s on her way to the airport,” he informed Drew, whose grin faded as his shoulders slumped. “She should be here by the morning—”

  “Oh my God!” Drew’s eyes widened and he stuck his hand out, pointing over Logan’s shoulder. “Is that Karina Black and Ryan Perkins?”

  Logan didn’t have to turn around to know the answer was yes. Karina Black was a huge pop star who’d grown up in Hope Falls and moved back to her hometown a few years ago. Ryan was a musician as well, Karina’s fiancé, and also Sue Ann’s grandson. The story around town was that the two had met when he’d come out to help Sue Ann run the café.

  “Yep, they live here.”

  “They do?” Drew asked.

  “Yeah.” Logan nodded. He’d forgotten that they were even celebrities. They didn’t act like it at all.

  “They’re coming over here!” Drew whispered, excited but trying to act cool.

  “Hey, man. I’ve been hoping to run into you.” Ryan approached the table, Karina at his side.

  “Hey, guys. Karina, Ryan, this is my godson, Drew. Drew, this is Karina and Ryan.”

  “I know.” Drew’s eyes darted between the two singers in total disbelief. His expression read like he was seeing an alien or Bigfoot.

  Ryan smiled broadly. “Hey, man.”

  Karina, who Logan was sure was used to having that kind of effect on people, motioned to his chest. “Hi, Drew. Cool shirt. Sandlot. I love that movie.”

  Drew looked down at his shirt, which had Ham’s face with the phrase “You’re killin’ me, Smalls” written over his head. “Thanks.” Then he smiled at the compliment.

  “I used to have the biggest crush on Benny.” Karina swooned before grinning. “Hey, you kinda look like him.”

  Logan almost laughed when Drew’s cheeks turn red. Poor kid. He didn’t stand a chance against the charm that was Karina Black. Hell, grown men didn’t stand a chance against that kind of power.

  “Hey, I’m standing right here,” Ryan joked.

  “I love you, babe. But you’re no Benny,” Karina teased before lifting up onto her tiptoes and briefly kissing Ryan.

  “No respect, I tell ya.” Ryan shook his head and pulled his arm around Karina’s waist, holding her tight against him. “Hey, so I was wondering if you might want to come down and play ball on Tuesday nights? We always need alternates, and Levi said you used to play.”

  Logan had played basketball in high school. He’d even been offered a scholarship from two Pac-12 schools, but he’d turned it down. He hadn’t wanted to take the chance that he’d injure himself and lose the free ride. So he’d joined the Marines instead.

  “Yeah, maybe. What time do you guys play?”

  “Seven thirty.”

  “All right. I might stop by.” Logan hadn’t played in years, but he wanted to get out on the court again.

  Glancing down at Drew, Logan realized that the last time he’d played was with Andrew, just days before…

  Karina snapped her fingers as if she’d just thought of something. “Hey. How long are you in town, Drew?”

  “I’m not sure. My mom’s coming tomorrow.”

  “Well, if you are around the next few days, you should stop by Mountain Ridge. My friends, Amanda and Justin, are running a Junior Ranger program, and they can always use help with the horses and—”

  “Horses?” Drew sat up straighter, a wide grin spreading on his face.

  “Yep. They have horseback riding, zip-lining, river rafting, hiking—all kinds of things. Amanda was just saying today they could use a few more hands.”

  “Can I?” Drew’s large brown eyes implored up at Logan.

  “Let’s talk to your mom when she gets here, okay?”

  The thought of Drew and Emma sticking around for a few days was a lot more appealing than it probably should’ve been.

  Who was he kidding? Just the thought of seeing Emma again held a lot more appeal than it should have.

  *

  “Sorry about earlier,” the woman sitting next to Emma on the plane said in a whisper, not wanting the baby who was sound asleep on her shoulder to wake up.

  The little one had been crying from the time they’d boarded. It was now an hour into the flight and she’d finally drifted off to sleep.

  Emma looked up from her screen and smiled. “No problem.” She remembered those days all too well.

  “She’s not usually this fussy, but she has an ear infection,” the young mom explained. “Sorry if you were trying to work.”

  “It’s fine,” Emma assured her.

  “Were you trying to work?” the woman persisted.

  Knowing that this was a losing battle, she stopped typing and took her headphones out. She wasn’t actually listening to anything. She used them as the first line of defense against strangers who were prone to small talk—mainly other parents at practices and games.

  It wasn’t that Emma was anti-social. Well, that wasn’t the totality of it. As a single mom, her time was precious and she needed to grab opportunities to work where she could.

  But one look into the young mother’s eyes and she immediately recognized the yearning to have an adult conversation. When Drew had been young and Andrew had been deployed, Emma had longed to speak to someone who used complete sentences and whose interests extended past Barney and Blue’s Clues.

  Making sure she spoke softly, Emma answered, “I’m working on my next book.”

  The woman’s brown ey
es brightened. “You’re an author.”

  “Yeah.” It was still odd for Emma to think of herself as an “author.” She spent her days carpooling, doing laundry, cooking, and making sure homework got done. It was hard for her to think of herself as anything but Drew’s mom.

  “What do you write?”

  Oh boy.

  This was always a fun point in any conversation. Emma wrote under a pen name, and now, unless Drew was telling people what she did and who she was, she kept her secret identity to herself. People’s reactions to the genre she wrote were varied, with extremes being at both ends of the spectrum.

  Some people were intrigued and wanted to ask her a million questions about it. There was middle ground, where people got strange expressions on their faces and said variations of their personal observation that she didn’t look like she wrote those kinds of books. And then there were the people who spit on her (yes, spit on her) and told her that she was going to Hell. Needless to say, after the first year, she’d decided to keep her identity close to the vest.

  Against her better judgment, she found herself giving up the goods. “I write romance novels.”

  The woman’s doe eyes instantly widened. “You do? I love romance novels.”

  Whew. Looked like her aisle buddy was from the first category of people.

  “What’s your name? Maybe I’ve read you,” the woman asked.

  “I write under the pen name Chelsea Paige.”

  “Oh my gosh!” she cried out, causing her daughter to wake up in a start.

  Uh oh.

  “Shh, shh, shh,” the woman shushed her baby as she bounced her up and down and patted her bottom.

  Within a few minutes, the baby was lulled back into slumber and the woman turned her attention back to Emma.

  “I love When It’s Love! I’ve read it, like, twenty times! And When It’s Real… Oh my gosh. I sobbed when Savannah thought she had to let Ethan go so he’d never find out about the baby she gave up.” The woman’s eyes filled with tears, and her voice shook. “That was the sweetest, most heartbreaking scene ever! You are seriously one of my favorite authors! I’ve devoured the entire series!”

  “Thanks.” Emma smiled as her cheeks heated. As much as she enjoyed hearing what readers thought, it was a little embarrassing to have your work being gushed over. She would almost prefer the haters. Taking compliments had never been her strong suit.

  “I’m Gabby, by the way.” Gabby adjusted the baby in her arms and shook Emma’s hand.

  “I’m Emma. And who is this angel?” Emma motioned to the tiny, cherubic face snuggled against Gabby’s shoulder.

  “This is Adeline.” Gabby beamed down at her bundle of joy.

  “She’s beautiful,” Emma enthused. Luckily, Adeline really was all kinds of adorable. Even though she probably would’ve said the same thing even if she hadn’t been. “How old is she?”

  “Ten months.”

  “They grow up so fast,” Emma said out loud even though it was more to herself.

  “Do you have little ones?” Gabby began patting Adeline again as the baby stirred, probably disturbed by all the talking.

  “One. But he’s not a baby anymore. He just turned ten.”

  “Wow.” Gabby’s doe eyes grew as large as saucers. “You look so young.”

  “Thanks.” She got that a lot, which was odd because she felt so much older than her twenty-six years. Which she guessed was because she’d gotten married and had a baby when she was sixteen and then become a widow at twenty.

  Growing up fast had kind of been a necessity.

  As Adeline began fussing again, Gabby’s hand disappeared into the diaper bag and pulled a bottle out.

  Watching the two of them brought back so many memories for Emma. She still remembered how nervous she’d been to tell Andrew that she was pregnant. He’d just returned from his first tour, and she was about to go into her junior year of high school. He’d picked her up from her part-time job at a pizzeria, and the second he’d laid eyes on her, he’d known that something was wrong. He wasn’t exactly Sherlock—her eyes were swollen and red from crying. Instead of saying anything when he asked her what was wrong, she just handed him the pregnancy test she’d taken in the employee bathroom.

  While he stared down at it, time stood still. Her world stopped spinning. They’d been together for two years, and they’d talked about getting married, but Emma had always been realistic. She knew they were just kids, and she had tried to prepare herself for the outcome if he didn’t take the news well—hence the tears.

  As it turned out, they’d been shed over nothing. After what felt like an eternity but was probably a minute or two, Andrew lifted his head, pulled her into his arms, and promised her that he’d take care of her and the baby. He said that she was his and everything was going to be okay. The next week, he’d gotten her a ring and asked her to marry him. And two months later, they were married.

  Life hadn’t been easy, but Andrew had kept his word. He’d provided for them. Being a husband and dad was what he was born to do. He’d been the first one to change Drew’s diaper. When he was home, he was so hands-on. Everything really had been okay—until the knock on her door that had taken away Emma’s entire world.

  “Are you guys going to have more?”

  “I’m sorry?” Emma blinked at Gabby and returned to the present.

  “You and your husband.” Gabby tilted her head towards Emma’s left hand. “Are you going to have any more?”

  “Oh, I’m not…” She gazed at the ring she still wore on her left hand. She knew that it was time to take it off, but she just hadn’t been able to do it. It felt wrong. “My husband was killed in Afghanistan.” She’d repeated those words so many times that saying them was like second nature.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Gabby reached out and covered Emma’s hand, squeezing it.

  “It’s okay. It was years ago,” Emma assured her, suddenly feeling a little silly that she still wore her wedding ring.

  At first, she hadn’t taken it off because she hadn’t been emotionally ready to. Then, once a couple of years had passed, she’d thought about it again but never did it.

  “I’m so sorry.” Gabby shook her head, her eyes glistening with tears. “My brother just got back from Iraq. He lost quite a few friends over there.”

  Emma nodded, not really sure what to say.

  The women sat in silence for a few moments before Gabby looked down at the computer on Emma’s lap with a gasp.

  “Were you working on Tina’s book!?”

  A smile spread on Emma’s face. “Yes.” She didn’t tell her new friend that she’d been working on Tina’s book for the last two years.

  Gabby leaned forward, blurting out, “Are she and Kade finally going to get together?”

  Good question. In the series, Tina had been in love and hate with Kade for years, but she was his boss. He was also kind of a jerk and also totally oblivious to her feelings.

  When Emma didn’t immediately answer, Gabby gasped.

  “No! It’s Sean, isn’t it! He’s going to come home and sweep her off her feet! I knew he loved her—he just didn’t know it. Oh my gosh, they are perfect together. But Kade understands her. He sees her, you know, and even if he’s kind of an ass about it, he always calls her out when she’s being too…Tina. You know. But Sean is so sweet. I love Sean.”

  Sean and Tina had been inseparable since kindergarten, and Sean was Tina’s first love, but he’d never returned her feelings. Then he’d gone into the Army after high school.

  Usually having two options for a love interest was a good thing. Sadly, Emma had written Tina’s happily ever after both ways, one where she ended up with Kade and one where she ended up with Sean, and neither of them had felt right.

  “Well, actually—”

  “No! Don’t tell me!” Gabby shook her head vehemently. If she hadn’t been holding a baby in her arms, Emma was pretty sure she would’ve covered her ears.

  “Okay.” Sh
e didn’t want to burst Gabby’s bubble, but the truth was there was nothing to tell.

  “No, wait. I just have to know one thing and then I won’t ask you anything else about it,” Gabby implored.

  “What?” Emma hadn’t meant to sound hesitant, but she also didn’t want to disappoint someone she’d be sitting next to for several more hours.

  “Is Leslie pregnant?” Gabby held her breath as she waited for Emma’s answer.

  Thankfully, she could answer that. Leslie, Tina’s sister, was the heroine of the last book, When It’s Perfect, and the last line in the epilogue had hinted that she was expecting.

  “Yes. Leslie and Ryder are expecting.”

  Gabby’s mouth fell open in a silent scream of excitement, and she bounced her feet up and down, which jostled Miss Adeline awake and put Gabby’s attention back on the baby.

  Emma’s chest tightened with happiness. It was incredible to see that readers were so invested in her characters. The Spencer family, which the When It’s Love series was centered around, had become her family over the last six years. She still loved them. But that was because she spent every day with them. Since she hadn’t had a book out in over two years, she had started to think people wouldn’t care anymore about this fictitious group of people.

  Feeling a renewed sense of determination, she flipped her screen open, and before she pulled her doc back up, she decided to check her e-mail. One from Drew had the subject line: Best. Day. Ever. She clicked on it, and the attachments caused her mouth to water like a popped fire hydrant.

  The first two pictures were selfies of Drew. One looked like he was sitting in a tree he must’ve climbed, and the other was him with a thumbs-up in front of a television screen with a video game displayed. Then there was a third and it was the drool-inducing shot.

  It had the words “Night Swim” written on the top and featured a shirtless Logan looking like he was getting ready to jump off a rock. The moonlight was shimmering off the dark water below him, and holy-hotness-highlighting the dips and contours of his chiseled chest and abdomen…

  “Who’s that?” Gabby asked, her voice tinged with awe.

  “That’s my son, Drew.” Emma pointed to the first two pics even though she knew full well they weren’t the images Gabby was inquiring about. “And that’s his godfather, Logan.”