“You have a life, Ozzy. What are you doing in mine?”
“I’m here because it’s where I want to be,” he said finally. He lifted a hand to her face, stroked her cheek. “You’re amazing, Jo. You’re stunning, and fun, and challenging.”
He could see the doubt swimming in her eyes.
“We’re just so impractical a match. I mean, I’m older than you. And not by a little.”
“What does that even matter?”
“It just does.”
“Not to me. And I don’t care what other people might think.”
“Of course you do,” she countered and hit a nerve. “The changes you’ve made in your life, the man you’ve become, it’s partially because you want people to see beneath the shell. I’m just another shell to hide behind.” She pushed away from him. “I’m further along in life than you are. I know who I am. I know what I want and where I’m going. And where I’m going is away from here.”
Dear Reader,
It’s hard to believe this is my tenth Butterfly Harbor romance. I think, in a lot of ways, this is the story I’ve been waiting to tell.
Ozzy Lakeman was in the very first book of the series, and since then, he’s popped up in just about every story, moving along with his life as it seemed like everyone else in town found their HEA. He’s been a sentry, standing guard until his time came, and now it has. He’s a changed man from who he was then, both physically and mentally, inspired by unexpected events and people. Whoever was going to steal his heart would have to be very special.
The idea of Jo Bertoletti came in a bit of an explosion. She was just there. Bam! And she didn’t arrive alone. Writing a pregnant heroine, a heroine whose independence is as much a part of her as the air she breathes, was a change of pace for me and I loved the challenge.
But like I said, Ozzy is special, and from the second he sets his eyes on Jo, he knows this is a woman who will have an impact on his life, baby and all.
I hope you enjoy Ozzy’s story and getting to visit with old friends.
Anna
Building a Surprise Family
Anna J. Stewart
Bestselling author Anna J. Stewart can barely remember a time she didn’t want to write romances. A bookaholic for as long as she can remember, stories of action and adventure have always topped her list, especially if said books also include a spunky, independent heroine and a well-earned happily-ever-after. With Wonder Woman and Princess Leia as her earliest influences, she now writes for Harlequin’s Heartwarming and Romantic Suspense lines and, when she’s not cooking or baking, attempts to wrangle her two cats, Rosie and Sherlock, into some semblance of proper behavior (yeah, that’s not happening).
Books by Anna J. Stewart
Harlequin Heartwarming
Return of the Blackwell Brothers
The Rancher’s Homecoming
Butterfly Harbor Stories
A Dad for Charlie
Always the Hero
Holiday Kisses
Safe in His Arms
The Firefighter’s Thanksgiving Wish
A Match Made Perfect
Bride on the Run
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
For Stacy Crum.
Friend, fan and cheerleader.
Readers like you are why I love this job.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EPILOGUE
EXCERPT FROM THE SECRET SANTA PROJECT BY CAROL ROSS
CHAPTER ONE
“AND SWIPE RIGHT.” Ozzy Lakeman waited for a ping of excitement, a ping of...something as the app responded and added another name to his list of potential romantic matches. Even as he set his phone down to finish his breakfast, that something never materialized. Instead, amidst the aroma of frying bacon and brewing coffee of the Butterfly Diner, the anticipation he hoped for was replaced with an odd feeling of, well, dread.
It was official. His dating pool had dried up.
“Who’s today’s lucky lady?” Brooke Evans set the coffeepot on the black speckled Formica counter and leaned her chin on her hand, the gold band of her wedding ring glinting against the florescent lights. “Oh, come on. Let me see.” She mock-frowned and sighed at Ozzy paying meticulous attention to the last of his egg-white veggie omelet and fresh fruit. “You have to know you’re considered a hot commodity in town, Oz. Sheriff’s deputy turned firefighter, eligible bachelor. Homeowner.” Her grin had him chuckling. “Trust me, that last one is a definite plus. And you’re a nice guy to boot. That’s a pretty rare combination these days, my friend.”
“Be careful, Brooke. Taken or not, you might end up on my wish list.” Fat chance. If there was one thing Butterfly Harbor, California, boasted about, it was their happily-ever-afters. And Brooke was newly married and very, very happy.
Six months ago, six long months ago, after spending years bearing witness to most of his friends getting married and starting families, Ozzy had, after attending yet another town wedding solo, decided to take the full-on plunge into the dating scene. He’d been paddling ever since.
From internet dating sites that required sign-up fees and hours spent filling out his profile, to cell phone apps with fifty character description limits, he’d gone all in. The results had eroded his bank account and left him wondering if he should accept the final challenge of letting his now-married friends start setting him up.
Nope. He wasn’t that desperate. At least, not yet.
“You only love me for my coffee,” Brooke teased. “You’ve worked hard to improve yourself, Oz. I’m just saying you should maybe enjoy the dating game a little more. It should be fun. Not a chore or obligation.”
Ozzy swallowed the sour thought. “Improving himself” was town code for his having lost seventy pounds over the past two years, which allowed him to move into a career—and life—that not so long ago he’d have thought impossible. The only thing missing was having someone to share that life with. His friends all had someone to go home to at night and were adding children to their happily-ever-after equation. Was it so wrong for Ozzy to want the same thing? “Who says I’m not enjoying it?”
“That expression on your face, for one.” Brook circled a finger in front of his nose. “Potential romance should bring out a smile. Hope. Excitement.”
“My excitement is internal.” Not to mention buried under twenty-seven years of insecurities and reality. Even at his heaviest, he’d dated occasionally, but he’d never experienced much of a spark. There had been crushes, of course, aptly named as that’s what had inevitably happened. Nothing crushed a heart faster than being put in the friend zone.
That said, the friend zone was a very safe place to reside. Easy. Comfortable, actually.
Friends meant romance wasn’t involved and the chance of getting romantically hurt was zero. But now? He glanced again at Brooke’s engagement and wedding rings and sighed. He was really tired of playing it safe. “I like to save it up,” he added with a forced smile.
Brooke glanced around the smattering of sunrise customers. The main breakfast crowd would start trickling in around seven-thirty, but for now
, the orange upholstered booths and stools were occupied by early risers, postexercisers and, in Ozzy’s case, a firefighter just off a twenty-four-hour shift. “You know,” Brooke continued, “I heard a rumor there’s more than one single lady in town hoping for an invite from you to Monty’s wedding next month.”
“You don’t say?” Appetite extinguished, he dug through his wallet for cash. It was like the universe was reading his mind. He really hoped Brooke wasn’t about to offer to play matchmaker.
“I do say. I bet you heard the same rumor, didn’t you, Urs?” Brooke stood up straight and called back to Ursula, the diner’s longtime cook, who slapped her metal spatula on the bell with her trademark scowl. “Something about a bet or a pool or something?”
“Might’ve heard something like that.” Ursula’s suspicious eyes were barely visible behind the counter as she slid a bacon breakfast special onto the pass-through window. “Order up. Table four.”
“On it.” Brooke offered Ozzy an encouraging smile. “I mean it, Ozzy. Try to enjoy yourself a bit more with this. The right woman’s out there. Probably where you least expect to find her.”
Brooke moved off, her blond ponytail swinging behind her. Ozzy swallowed his standard response. Despite a rather drastic change in appearance, he was still the same Oswald Lakeman he’d always been: the same Ozzy who had been born in Butterfly Harbor and had grown up here. He knew everyone and everyone knew him. On the one hand, there was no hiding anything given he’d lived in one place his entire life. On the other? It was more than unnerving to suddenly not be quite so...invisible.
His cell phone buzzed. After tossing money onto the counter, he picked it up, saw that his latest swipe had counter-added him to her “check me out” page. Ozzy’s shoulders sagged.
The howdy bell over the door chimed as a new early breakfast devotee strode in.
“Hey, Oz.” Fletcher Bradley, co-deputy at the sheriff’s office, offered a warm, if not tired, smile. “You just off shift or heading on?”
“Off, actually.” Ozzy’s last shift had been relatively uneventful. Other than rescuing Mrs. Hastings’s new cat, Blinky, who had taken refuge in the tree in the front yard because of her neighbor’s half-blind retriever, his shift at the Butterfly Harbor Fire Department had proceeded without much fanfare or drama.
“Yeah, me, too.” Fletcher smothered a yawn. “I’ve been getting in some overtime before Paige has the baby. Hoping to grab a jolt of caffeine before I head home to take Charlie to school.”
Ozzy frowned, thinking of Fletcher’s active and independent ten-year-old stepdaughter. “It’s not raining, is it?” He glanced out the window just as the sun began glinting off the ocean that lay beyond the stone retaining wall across the street. “I thought Charlie always rode her bike to school.”
Fletcher grimaced and wiped a hand down the side of his face. “Usually. She had a bit of a wipeout the other day.”
“She okay?”
“Skinned her chin pretty badly. Thank goodness she was wearing her helmet. But the bike’s totaled. Poor kid’s heartbroken. It was the first thing Paige bought her when they moved to Butterfly Harbor.”
Ozzy remembered. Charlie had been an instant bit of spark for their little Pacific coast town. No one could be cranky or have a bad day with the little spitfire around, but for Ozzy personally? Ozzy’s heart tilted. Ozzy would always have a special place in his heart for Charlie. If it hadn’t been for her impulsive actions a few years ago, he might not have changed his life—and his health—for the better. “Bikes can’t be that expensive to replace, can they?”
“Charlie does not want just any bike,” Fletcher declared in a formal tone as if a new law had been passed. “She wants her bike. Never mind she pretty much outgrew it last year and that I’ve spent the last two days scouring online marketplaces to find one identical to it. Looks like for now, or until I find one she approves of, I’ll be driving her to school.”
Ozzy finished his coffee, slapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You’re a good dad, Fletch. I can’t wait to see how you’re going to juggle two kiddos.”
“Well, our good Sheriff Saxon will be my role model in that area. If he can manage his three...” Fletcher trailed off as he looked outside. “Hey, that’s something you don’t see every day.”
Ozzy followed his friend’s gaze toward Monarch Lane where a substantial blue pickup was towing what looked like a house down the street.
“What the...” He moved past Fletcher and pushed open the front door. Sure enough, a plank-sided structure with a slightly slanted roofline rolled its way through town behind a large pickup truck.
Ozzy blinked. It wouldn’t take more than a few minutes for its arrival to be the main topic of conversation not only in the diner, but all around town.
“It’s like one of those home improvement channels is coming to visit,” Ozzy said as other morning diners peered out the plate glass windows as the truck and cargo made their way slowly out of sight. “I’ve never seen one of those in real life. Any idea who that might be?” Fletcher shook his head. “Brooke?” Ozzy asked as Brooke joined them at the door.
“Afraid not. I’ve been off the last few days. Ursula?” Brooke called. “Have you heard anything?”
“Might’ve.” Ursula rose up on her tiptoes. “I bet it’s the new construction supervisor here to do damage control with the butterfly sanctuary site. Word is the town council overrode the mayor’s choice and hired someone Leah Ellis recommended. Joe something.”
“Really?” Brooke’s eyes were still wide when she looked back at Ozzy and Fletcher. “I bet that was an ego blow for Gil.”
“More like a wake-up call.” Ozzy couldn’t muster much sympathy for their mayor. But Brooke was right about one thing. If the town council had gone with the suggestion made by Gil’s only rival in the upcoming election, there was probably trouble brewing in more ways than one.
“I guess I should head up to the construction site and see if they need help.” Fletcher glanced at his watch. “I don’t have to be home for a bit yet.”
“I’ll go.” Ozzy grabbed the coat he’d hung up on one of the hooks by the door. “Get some coffee, relax. Anything comes up or I need help, I’ll call you.”
“You sure?” Relief shone in Fletcher’s tired eyes. “That’d be great. I’ll owe you, man.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll add it to your tab.” All Ozzy was going to do was sleep, anyway. Fletcher had people waiting at home for him.
Ozzy bid a quick farewell to Brooke and the diner’s patrons and headed out to his new SUV, which, after more than ten years driving around a clunker, he was still getting used to.
The construction site, located on a plot of land just north of the nearby organic farm and eucalyptus grove, had been closed in late March due to an unfortunate accident that sent four of the crew, including the foreman, to the hospital with minor to severe injuries. The ensuing investigation had kept the project shutdown for over a month and revealed the initial materials purchased for the project had been substandard. With lawsuits pending and accusations flying, speculation was running as rampant as water through newly installed pipes. Whether there was enough money in the town’s treasury to absorb the cost of delays was a big topic of debate, a debate Mayor Gil Hamilton seemed determined to avoid having. The person ultimately responsible? Chances were the voters would make that decision come November.
Personally, Ozzy didn’t think they could afford not to complete the project. So much of Butterfly Harbor’s future depended on this new tourist destination, from various businesses to real estate prices. Their small coastal town had finally emerged from its long economic slump and was thriving again. New shops and services were popping up, and a lot of those places had planned their grand openings for the weeks surrounding the sanctuary and education center’s completion. Whatever debt the town needed to take on to get the project finished s
hould be accepted so they could move forward, as far as Ozzy was concerned.
He took the long way around to the site and pulled into the gravel parking area on the other side of what looked like crime-scene tape stretched between and around thick-trunked trees. He heard the rumble of the serious truck heading up the hill as he climbed out of his car. Headlights flashed into view and he held up a hand to signal the driver.
He couldn’t stop grinning. That home on wheels was something to behold—practical with an elegant, streamlined luxury-cabin design. He could imagine how it would look nestled among the eucalyptus trees that outlined most of the area. A supervisor who brought his own house with him was someone who meant business.
The truck’s engine suddenly went silent. Ozzy walked over to greet the driver. “That is a thing of beauty,” he said as the door opened and the driver dropped to the ground in front of him.
Every thought he had disappeared straight out of his head.
Tall, curvy and with sun-streaked blond hair knotted into a messy pile on top of her head, Butterfly Harbor’s latest arrival faced Ozzy with a wide, welcoming smile on her round face. Beneath the barely-there sunlight of the May morning, her skin seemed to glisten in the chilly air. She had light brown eyes, almost amber with flecks of gold that sparkled when she smiled. She wore snug jeans that accentuated everything a man like him enjoyed, sneakers that looked as if they’d been worn into the ground and a snug short-sleeved turquoise T-shirt that displayed a surprisingly round stomach.
The new foreman was a woman?
A pregnant forewoman?
“Didn’t realize there’d be a welcoming committee.” The woman closed the truck door and stepped up to him. “I know I wasn’t expected until next week, but I wanted to get a jump on settling in. I’m Jo Bertoletti. You are not Mayor Hamilton.” She gestured to Ozzy’s T-shirt with the BHFD logo on the front peeking out of his jacket.
“Ah, no, ma’am.” Ozzy shook her offered hand. Her skin felt rough and calloused, proving she was someone who was used to getting her hands dirty. Beneath that observation, a dull buzz shifted through his system. “I’m Ozzy Lakeman. I was in the diner when you drove down Monarch Lane. Just thought I’d come up and be the first to see what was happening here.” His own smile widened as something oddly definitive dinged. “I guess that makes me the welcoming committee.”
Building a Surprise Family Page 1