Both sweet little pets ran to greet Nadine as she bent and picked them up. Cinder pawed and licked while Greyheart purred in Nadine’s arms.
“You like it?” Connor put his arms around her from behind, resting his face against her head. “It’s the best I could do with what we could scrounge.”
“It’s the best. Our first home.” Nadine released the pets and turned into his arms, hugging him tightly. “I love it and you.”
“Wait ’til you see the garage and studio. It vents to a rooftop patio where the previous tenants had a container garden.” He was still in realtor mode, and Nadine could feel his nervous excitement. Her wonderful husband wanted everything to be perfect for her.
He led her by the hand and opened a heavy metal door. It was painted bright red and sported a sign saying “Danger, Flammable.”
She pointed at the sign and stuck her tongue out at him, and he chuckled. This would be their private joke, ha, ha.
The garage had room for at least two vehicles with plenty of storage shelves. A set of stairs led up to the loft, and Nadine hoped that it would be her studio.
She climbed the stairs and lost her breath at the top. The three canvases she wanted to take to Reno: the Eye in the Oak, the Blue Cat over the Moonlit Lake, and the Cut Field of Fire, were propped up on easels waiting for her.
“Connor!” She jumped up and down and made circles around the loft. “How’d you get these out of the fire?”
“I didn’t.” His lips curved into a naughty smirk. “After you told me to pull the aside, I took them to the fire station and put them in my office for safe keeping.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“I forgot?” He shrugged one shoulder.
“Oh, Mr. Connor Hart. I love you. Love you. Love you.” She threw her arms around him and kissed him over and over again.
Connor broke for air before they got too hot and heavy. “I love you, too, Mrs. Hart, but we’re not done. What do you think about your loft?”
Nadine whirled around, bouncing on her toes as excited as Cinder. The loft sported a wooden floor and corrugated metal walls with plenty of wires strung like clothesline from the ceiling, perfect for hanging artwork. Large plastic paneled windows on two sides let in filtered light and a cross-breeze.
Connor had set up an easy chair, bookshelves, several stools and a piano bench. Her childhood bed lay along one corrugated metal wall, and his guitar case was at the foot of the bed.
“Wow. Unbelievable.” She stepped into her studio and turned full circle, hugging him. “The lighting, the air flow. I can hear the ocean from up here.”
“We’re very close, right across the Great Highway, although it means you have to listen to the traffic, too.”
“Oh, but I can smell the sea and when the fog rolls in, it’ll be like my very own seaside painting cave.”
“Yes, and see that easy chair?” He turned her toward the corner across from the bed. “I’ll spend as much time up here with you as you can tolerate. I’d like nothing better than to play my guitar while you create your works of art.”
Wow. Could this man paint a cozier picture? Strumming up tunes with his dog at his feet and a cat curled in his lap while she stirred up emotions with her brush.
“Your music will make me extra creative. I love how you set up a bed for resting.” She bounced on it, and Cinder promptly joined her, while Greyheart explored the window area, peering out.
“Will he fall out?” Nadine got up and walked toward the window.
“It opens to the rooftop patio, not to worry. Here, I’ll show you.” Connor pulled back a curtain of vertical blinds and opened the sliding glass door.
“This place gets better and better.” Nadine pranced out to the rooftop patio. A worn wooden picnic table and benches sat next to a ledge where containers were built in for planting. They were full of weeds at the moment, but Nadine could picture beds of colorful flowers.
She grabbed Connor’s hands and pulled him around, dancing with glee.
“I take it you’re happy.”
“I’m ecstatic! How many times do I have to tell you?” She pressed her lips to his and held it there, loving him and cherishing him. “You’re perfect, Connor Hart. And your ending to my poem is happening right now. Look.”
She gestured to the west where the sun was setting. Even though they didn’t have a clear view of the ocean, being blocked by a taller building, the sky was glowing pink.
“I’ve forgotten the ending.” Connor grinned cockily. “Could you refresh my memory?”
“You’re testing me.” Nadine pinched his dimpled cheek. “Pink sky. Grinning diamond. Home.”
“You changed something,” Connor protested. “But it fits. We’re home.”
“Where the Hart is.”
“Where the Harts are.”
“Meow,” Greyheart agreed, wrapping his tail between them.
If you enjoyed Connor and Nadine’s story, please look for more Have a Hart Romances. They’re sweet, family-oriented, and adventurous.
Brian and Cait’s story is next, and we’ll finally figure out what secrets lie dormant between them.
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The Hart family will delight you with clean and wholesome love stories, filled with family, friends [both people and animals].
Look for more Have a Hart Sweet Romances.
Don’t forget to sign up for my Newsletter for updates and events. http://bit.ly/RachAyala as well as to pick up your free book. Thanks!
Many Thanks
Spring Fling Kitty came from that magical place many call a “muse.” The story discovered itself and pulled me into an artist’s soul where words and images crowded my mind and spilled out onto the page. I honestly cannot tell you I planned to write Nadine the way I did. She grew and developed organically as the story unwound like multi-colored yarn from a tangled skein. Writing her was like living in the skin of another person. She affected Connor too, as I had never seen that side of him. He was the take charge, somewhat pugnacious elder brother in Christmas Lovebirds, and then the stubborn no-no-man in Valentine Hound Dog. I suspected he had a hidden side that tapped into deeper feelings, but his relationship with Dr. Elaine Woo stunted the emotional side of him—so much that he thought all of life was lived on the surface with plans, spreadsheets, and schedules.
Perhaps Nadine is a side of me I didn’t know before. Or she might be the free spirit I would have been if I hadn’t had too much “common sense” and “logic” knocked into me from youth. She was freer than the rest of us because her mother wasn’t living the “prescribed” life of success, and hence she never nagged Nadine about sticking to the straight and narrow—the way her siblings Elaine and Michael were pressured into from youth.
Anyway, Nadine opened my eyes to paying attention to the in-betweens where life is lived, and not focusing solely on big milestone events. Love is found in the spaces between the heartbeats, and while grand gestures are nice and exciting, it’s the moment by moment that cements two souls together until time is drawn out to the end and love becomes timeless.
Beta reader Corissa Palfrey says it best about Nadine. A free spirit is a gift in my eyes. It’s what makes her beautiful. It’s what makes Connor love her. It’s what brings life to this story.
Once again, I want to thank my awesome team of beta readers. They really took this story to heart and gave me timely and useful feedback. Special mention to Sherelle Ellis who spotted several inconsistencies, and Corissa Palfrey who beta read and commented despite being in the hospital. Most of all, my early readers cheer me up and give me the emotional strength to keep telling the best story I can, no matter how long it takes and how many times I have to revise.
Many thanks to: Amber McCallister, Chrissy Whelan, Angelica Berglund, Pauline Frost, Chantel Rhondeau, Jessica Cassidy, Kris Woltzen, Sherelle Ellis, Terri Merkel, Yomari Rivera, Corissa Palfrey.
Thanks also to Kimberly Dawn for her accurate proofreading.
Much gr
atitude to you, the reader, because it is only when you read my story that it jumps off the page or screen and lives on in your spirit.
Finally, I can’t leave without giving Greyheart a head rub. He’s the little guardian matchmaker who brought to lovely Harts together. May all lovers have a little Greyheart to get things started.
Reading List
Romantic Suspense
Chance for Love Series
Broken Build, Build engineer Jen Jones falls in love with the man whose life she ruined.
Hidden Under Her Heart, A young nurse, Maryanne Torres, struggles with a difficult decision over an unwanted pregnancy.
Knowing Vera, Playgirl Vera Custodio belatedly discovers that her father might have killed her boyfriend's mother many years ago. [2015 Angie Ovation Award Winner]
Contemporary Romances
Sánchez Sisters Series
Taming Romeo, Medical student Evie Sánchez is recovering from heartbreak when she runs into the boy she left behind.
Claiming Carlos, Restaurant manager Choco Sanchez finds herself caught between two hot men, an epic food fight, and a war to save the restaurant.
Jewells in Love Series
Whole Latte Love, Carina Chen, a career-oriented young woman, has no time for distractions—especially the sexy, guitar-playing barista she rooms with.
Jingle Belles Christmas Series
Christmas Flirt, Bad girl Lacy Reed gets more than she bargained for when her naked selfies turn up on her boss’s phone.
Santa’s Pet, A brilliant girl genius plays elf to a substitute Santa and turns both their lives upside down when he is charged with a sex crime and she loses her company to hackers.
Bad Boys for Hire Series
Bad Boys for Hire: Ryker, Terri Martin gets caught in the middle of a motorcycle club vendetta when she tries to hire a biker for her birthday date.
Bad Boys for Hire: Ken, After Jolie Becker is left at the altar, her friends secretly hire a handsome beach bum to cheer her up.
The Remington World
The Remingtons: Leap, Laugh, Love, A pro surfer on holiday after being attacked by a shark gets tangled up with an Army Ranger on leave with a mission.
The Remingtons: Blush of Love, A hot New Year's Eve date with bad boy Gunner Gibson leaves Safire wondering if it's love at first blush or something more sinister.
Sweet Romances
Christmas Stray, A couple grieving for their son is snowed in with a stray puppy and a little boy. Is there room in their hearts for a Christmas miracle?
Deck the Hearts: A Christmas Creek Romance, Can Holly’s jolly Christmas spirit help Grinchy Gordon Gills save the town of Christmas Creek?
Her Christmas Chance: A Christmas Creek Romance, When a persistent cat keeps breaking into Chance Martin’s workshop, he isn’t prepared to meet its reclusive owner—a woman with more than a face to hide.
A Veteran’s Christmas Series
A Father for Christmas, Sweet romance between a homeless veteran and a single mother whose daughter asks Santa for an unusual gift. [Gold Award Winner, 2015 Readers’ Favorite]
A Pet for Christmas, A veteran suffering from PTSD fights to return from Afghanistan and give his family their Christmas wishes.
Have A Hart Romance Series
Christmas Lovebirds, Can two little lovebirds and Christmas cheer open Melisa’s heart to giving Rob another chance?
Valentine Hound Dog, A fashion designer and her basset hound puppy convince a burned ex-firefighter that beauty is never skin deep and neither is love.
Spring Fling Kitty, A stray cat shows a fire chief and his fiancée’s sister that doing the wrong thing is sometimes right when it comes to love.
Blue Chow Christmas, Brian and Cait are in love, but they both have secrets that could blow them apart. Can two lost chow-chow sisters open them up for true love and commitment?
Sports Romances
Played by Love, A soccer star dons nerd glasses to score a anime fangirl who won't date jocks.
Roaring Hot! A playboy motorcycle racer hires an aspiring actress when he is challenged by his grandmother to bring a real girlfriend to her birthday party.
Intercepted by Love (Boxed Set), A quarterback hiding from his Super Bowl losing interception meets a small town librarian with an active fantasy life. (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4, Book 5, Book 6)
Rattler’s Baseball Series
Playing the Rookie, A rookie pitcher and a sports intern on the rebound connect to get over their exes.
Playing Without Rules, A ballplayer's girlfriend hides his daughter from him because she fears he's like his abusive father.
Playing Catch, Catcher Kirk Kennedy has never met a puzzle he can't solve. Until he meets bartender Jeanine Jewell. What he finds knocks his balls out of the park and could very well end his days behind the plate.
Laguna Beach World
Lucky in Laguna, Scriptwriter Lucky Lenigan regrets writing dog walker Tally Tallahan into a reality show as another man’s love interest.
Historical Romance
Michal’s Window, The young Princess Michal loves her father's enemy, the upstart David who becomes king.
Meet Rachelle
Rachelle Ayala is a bestselling author of dramatic romantic suspense and humorous contemporary romances. Her heroines are feisty and her heroes big-hearted. She writes sweet and funny stories, and believes in the power of love and hope. She is the winner of multiple awards, including the 2015 Angie Ovation Award for best Multicultural Romance with Knowing Vera and the 2015 Readers’ Favorite Gold Award for best Christian Romance with A Father for Christmas.
For updates and a surprise free book, sign up for Rachelle’s newsletter at http://bit.ly/RachAyala
Check out her Reader’s Guide at http://rachelleayala.me/reading-guide/
To chat and read new works in progress, join her Reader’s Club at http://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubRachelleAyala/
Spring Fling Kitty: The Hart Family (Have A Hart Book 3) Page 26