Magic Kiss (Hope Falls Book 11) (6 page)

“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.” She 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.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Wow.”

At the thought that she would be face-to-face with “
wow
” in a few hours, Emma felt something she hadn’t experienced since she was a teenager: butterflies. Instead of telling herself that she was being ridiculous for having a schoolgirl response to the situation or that it was wrong to have them, she decided to do something more productive. So, closing her eyes, she tried to commit to memory everything she was feeling.

Fluttering low in her belly.

Breathlessness.

Lightheadedness.

Damp palms.

She’d been numb for so long that it was like her body was waking up from a slumber that could’ve easily been described as a coma. With all of the sensations flooding her, she started to panic and rethink her plan. After being shut down—numb!—for so long she wasn’t sure that she could handle this onslaught of hyper-awareness.

But what was her alternative? Ready or not, willing or not, her body was responding to the knowledge that she was going to see Logan Dorsey…whether she liked it or not. So, she made an executive decision right then and there that she wasn’t going to fight it. She was going to go with it—in the name of research. Of course.

‡

“T
hen we saw a bear. A bear! Justin’s little brother, Noah, said that he saw one yesterday, but I didn’t believe him,” Drew explained with enthusiasm. The kid had been talking nonstop since Logan had picked him up an hour ago.

Emma had been grounded in Dallas due to a thunderstorm. When she’d called this morning to let them know, Drew had filled her in on how he’d met Karina and Ryan and asked if he could participate in the Junior Ranger Program at Mountain Ridge. She’d asked to talk to Logan, wanting to get some more information on what she was agreeing to. After several questions and a Google search, she’d consented. Then there had been several e-mails sent between Logan, Emma, and Amanda, including one with an attachment of a permission slip and a copy of Drew’s medical insurance.

When it was all said and done, he realized she probably had to go through all of those hoops all the time. On a daily basis. By herself. It was obvious by what a great kid Drew was that she was doing a damn good job at it too.

“Justin asked if I was going to be able to come back tomorrow,” Drew said in rapid-fire, anticipation radiating off his body.

“Your mom should be here any time. I’m not sure what her plans are.”

Logan flipped the burgers on the grill. An idea had been rattling around in his head all day to ask Emma if Drew could stay in Hope Falls for a week or two, but he didn’t want to tell Drew. The last thing he would ever want to do was disappoint the kid. Drew was having fun there, and Logan had been falling short on his godfather duties the past five years. At least, of the face-to-face variety.

Every month, without fail, he sent a check. It was intended to help with expenses, but Emma never used it for their day-to-day life. When Logan had insisted on helping, she’d opened an account for Drew’s college fund. Every month, he sent a check, and every month, she sent back a copy of the bank statement showing the increased balance.

He’d promised Andrew that he’d take care of Emma and Drew, so when he’d gotten out of the Marines, Logan’s first stop had been Seattle. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it sure as hell wasn’t what had happened. From the first time he’d met Emma, he’d thought she was attractive, but that had been it. She was Andrew’s wife, the mother of his best friend’s child. Logan’s mind had never gone past that.

But then he’d gone to check on them and something had flipped in an instant—like a light switch going from the off position to on—when she’d opened the door that uncharacteristically sunny day in Seattle five years ago. She was wearing cut-off shorts and a white tank top. Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head, and her face was scrubbed clean.

At his earlier-than-scheduled arrival, she immediately began apologizing for her appearance, telling him that she’d been writing and the time had gotten away from her. Logan stood on her porch, completely speechless. All he could think was that she was an angel. That she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. His eyes locked on her full, pink lips as they moved rapidly while she talked, and he had to stop himself from pulling her into his arms and pressing his lips to hers.

During the years he’d known her before that day, he’d never given her appearance more than a passing thought. To Logan, all Emma had been was simply the woman who made his best friend happy. That day, though, everything changed. He didn’t see Andrew’s wife and his godson’s mother. He saw
Emma
, and once he had seen her, he couldn’t
un
see her.

That trip was supposed to last three days, but he cut it short and left because of a late-night incident in the kitchen after Drew had gone to bed on the second night.

“How old were you?” Drew’s voice popped the memory bubble Logan had been floating in.

He hadn’t heard a word Drew had said. “What?”

“When you had your first girlfriend? How old were you?” Drew repeated as if Logan were a few cards short of a full deck.

“Oh.” He wasn’t sure how to answer that. He’d had sex for the first time when he was fourteen, but that hadn’t been with a girlfriend. Just a girl who’d lived at the trailer park they’d grown up in. She was five years older than he was and had come back home from college over the summer. What had started as her stopping by to give her condolences for his mom had ended in his losing his virginity.