Finding Me (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 3)

by Kris Jett

  Maybe, this time she was.

  Evan stood up, pulling Luci with him. “Okay?” he asked. He looked at her with such vulnerability in his eyes that it made Luci want to cry all over again. But happy tears.

  Luci smiled up at Evan. This was right. She knew it. She could feel it deep down inside, from her head to her toes. She wanted to be with Evan and she wasn’t going to let anything hold her back any longer.

  “Okay,” Luci replied in a breathy voice.

  Happiness flooded through her. She felt like she had been on a long journey and finally come to the end, finding exactly what it was she had been searching for.

  Evan put his hands on her hips and drew her close to him, until their bodies were touching. He kissed her softly and sweetly, leaving her feeling like warm honey was coursing through her veins.

  Luci could feel her body responding to his touch. She wrapped her arms around him, feeling the strong muscles in his back, and then let her hands wander downward, until they came to rest on his firm backside. Luci pulled her head back to look at Evan, a mischievous grin playing on her lips. “What time did you say Bets was coming back?”

  He moved in even closer to her and his breath tickled her ear. “Not for a few hours,” he said, his voice low and husky.

  Luci wanted him then more than she remembered every wanting anyone or anything else. She pushed him back into his chair and climbed onto his lap. Time for round two.

  She didn’t care that it was late morning or that a client could walk into Monroe Realty at any time. She put her hands on either side of Evan’s face and kissed him passionately, letting her tongue explore him, hungry to taste him.

  She felt Evan’s hands slip under her shirt and move up her bare back and she suddenly felt desperate for their clothes to be off and in a pile on the floor again, like the night before. She knew they’d have to move away from the front window though, if they were going to do that, but she didn’t want to stop kissing him to point that out.

  Evan cupped her butt in his hands and pulled her even closer to him, where she could feel his erection growing in his trousers. She rubbed slightly against him, again wishing the fabric between them would disappear.

  Luci kissed him softer now, moving along his jawline and headed for his ear. She paused and buried her face in Evan’s neck, stifling a small giggle. She didn’t want to ruin the moment but a thought flashed through her mind and she couldn’t tell him what she was thinking. That she was trying to mentally capture each and every delicious moment to put into a scene in her next book.

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  Did you like what you read? Leave me a review on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2tbVx3n.

  If you missed the prequel novella or the first two book in the Love at Starlight series, find them now on Amazon:

  Christmas at Starlight: http://amzn.to/2nxfc7s.

  Coming Home: http://amzn.to/2iEcKJP.

  Taking Chances: http://amzn.to/2no1OHJ.

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  About the Author:

  Kris Jett is a romance writer from Chicago who loves love! When she’s not working on her small-town contemporary romance series, she can be found at the theater with her main man, doing a mean Peacock Pose in her favorite yoga studio, or walking her adorable cavapoo, Sammy.

  ***NEWS***

  You asked and Kris listened! Letters have poured in wanting to know what happened with Cade Stone’s hot older brothers, Cooper and Cash so the Love at Starlight series will continue! Kris is hard at work on the next book, Cooper and Becca’s story. There isn’t a preview to share yet, but here is a sneak peek of the cover:

  ***

  Was Finding Me your first Love at Starlight book? See what you’re been missing with a preview of the first two books in the series, Coming Home and Taking Chances. Then find them on Amazon (free in Kindle Unlimited!).

  Coming Home (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 1)

  Chapter One

  “You are so going down you little f-ers,” Jessie Foster hissed under her breath. She pulled the snow shovel far back over her head and jumped this time as she swung forward, missing again. “Damn it!”

  Her mom had asked her to shoot out here and handle the monster icicles over the doorway to the Starlight Pub before they came down on any of their customers’ heads. She’d thought the job would be fast so she only wore her North Face fleece over her navy pub t-shirt and was now regretting the choice. She was freezing and her feet were getting wet from stomping around in the snow, waving a shovel around for the last ten minutes.

  She pulled her right hand back behind her ear, shovel tight in her grip, and launched it through the air like a javelin, taking down three of the giant sharp swords of ice.

  “Yes!” she yelled, shooting her arms up in a V for victory.

  “You winning there, Jessie?” a voice said.

  Jessie turned and forced a smile at the customers making their way up the porch toward her and the entrance. “I’m trying, Mrs. Anderson. How’re the trails today?”

  “Friggin awesome,” Kyle, one of the Anderson’s fifteen-year old twins replied.

  The family of four were suited in matching blue snowmobile suits and carrying their helmets in their arms. They had parked their snowmobiles at the end of the porch with the other patrons and they stomped their feet as they walked, shaking snow loose.

  “You need some help there, Sweetie?” Mr. Anderson said, slurring on “Sweetie.”

  Ugh, was he drinking already? He probably had a flask tucked into his coat. People weren’t supposed to drink while riding on the trails but some did anyway. They all ended up here drinking by the time dinner hit anyway, you’d think he could wait that long. His wife didn’t even shoot him a warning look. She was just as content as could be. Probably had a flask of wine tucked in her own pocket. Vacationers.

  “No thanks, I’m about done here. Go on in and get a table near the fire if you can. I’ll be inside in a moment to help you,” Jessie told them. She involuntarily shivered when she mentioned the fire, wishing she was sitting by it herself right about now. It had to be ten degrees out here and her fingers were completely numb.

  The sun was setting and the white twinkle lights that outlined the entire building and porch of the pub flipped on. The rest of the dinner crowd would be funneling in any moment and she had to get these icicles down. She watched the Andersons shuffle into the pub and the door close with a thud behind them.

  “All right,” Jessie muttered. “If you won’t come to me, I’m going to come to you.” She climbed up a mountain of snow on the left side of the door, created from weeks of shoveling the walkway. She dug her feet into each side of the peak of the snow hill, trying to steady herself. There. She should be able to whap these icicles once and for all now.

  She pulled the shovel back to the right and just as she is about to let loose at the icicles a familiar voice from the past said, “Be careful.”

  Before she could catch herself, she let go of the shovel and felt her hands windmilling as she crashed backward off the hill and onto the ground.

  “Damn,” she groaned. Jessie was seeing stars and it wasn’t dark enough for that yet so she closed her eyes. She mentally examined each body part, trying to decide if she was seriously injured anywhere. Nothing hurt too badly, except maybe her head. It was a little foggy. She could have sworn she’d heard a voice that didn’t belong in Snowy Ridge, North Wisconsin. At least not anymore. A voice she hadn’t heard in over six years. One that belonged on a man off saving a rainforest or protecting ocean wildlife in Green Peace. No, she was sure i
f she just kept her eyes closed then that voice that sounded so much like the one from her past would actually be just another customer, coming in for dinner, not…

  “Jessie, are you all right? Open your eyes. Where do you hurt?” the voice said, now about three inches away, his warm breath on her face.

  She breathed in. Jesus Christ. The guy was still wearing Old Spice after all of these years. Didn’t anyone ever tell him you can buy cologne outside of the Shop Rite now?

  Her eyes fluttered open, taking in his face, the same face she used to spend hours staring at yet completely different at the same time. Older, rougher, a few days of hair growth across a much stronger jaw line. He leaned back and took her into his outstretched muscular forearms, pulling her easily to her feet. A smile spread across his weathered face and his aqua blue eyes searched her face.

  Jason Kirkland, her first love and the reason she hadn’t spoken to her sister Luci in six years.

  Chapter Two

  “I’m all right. Really. You can let go of my arm now,” Jessie said, refusing to make any further eye contact with Jason. What was he doing back in Snowy Ridge? Once someone left they rarely came back. It took a certain kind of person to love living in a small town in Northern Wisconsin and that person wasn’t Jason. Never was. Jason was always all about adventure. Base jumping off tall buildings, mountain biking down a mountain, swimming with sharks. Not hanging out at the Starlight Pub in the cozy snowmobile town of 1000. Last she’d heard he was teaching English to children somewhere in Africa.

  “Here, let me help you over to a chair,” he said, trying to wrap an arm around her waist.

  She pushed his hand away, hard. “Seriously, I’m fine. Please stop.”

  Jason held his hands up in surrender. “Fine, I won’t help you. But tell me how you are. What’ve you been up to? It’s been so long since I’ve last seen you.”

  And it’s going to be even longer before I tell you anything about myself, Jessie thought. There was no way she was going to sit around talking about the good ole days with Jason Kirkland. No rehashing the past for her. He’d hurt her badly, no scratch that. He’d killed her. And she wasn’t about to be kind or talk to him now, no matter how long he stood there with that goofy smile on his face.

  “You’ll have to excuse me,” Jessie said. “My boyfriend is waiting for me.” She turned her head and scanned the room, looking for anyone Jason might buy as her other half. Bingo. “He’s that hot rich guy at the table in the corner over there, by the window.” She pointed to a broad-shouldered guy with wavy jet black hair, intensely staring at some paperwork laying open in front of him. His long jean clad legs crossed at the ankles under the table. “He’ll make sure I’m okay. Don’t you worry.”

  Jessie walked toward the man in the corner, conscious that Jason was likely staring at her backside and wishing she had worn her good ass-hugging jeans today. She slid into the seat opposite the good-looking stranger.

  He looked up, startled.

  Jessie talked fast. “Help me out, will you? See that guy behind me, near the fire place, probably looking over here now?”

  The man glanced over her shoulder and then returned his gaze to her face.

  “Well,” Jessie continued, “I dated him about a million years ago and thought he was the love of my life and that we’d eventually marry. Then the asshole slept with my sister.”

  The stranger cleared his voice and leaned in toward Jessie. “Who do I look like, Dr. Phil? Tell someone else your story.”

  Jessie gasped. Who was this rude guy? “Hey buddy,” she said, “I’m not asking for a kidney here, okay? Just let me sit with you for a minute and act like the sun rises and sets on my very existence, all right?”

  The man sighed, looking more annoyed the enamored with her. “Listen ma’am.”

  “You did not just call me ma’am,” Jessie interrupted.

  “I apologize,” he said. “Listen lady, I don’t know who you are but I’m busy. I’ve got a ton of work to do and just want to get back to it and eat my dinner in peace. So, take a walk, would you? Find some other guy to make your old boy jealous.”

  Jessie stood slowly, smoothing down her jeans. “Dude, you’re a dick,” she told him.

  Refusing to see if Jason caught the scene between her and Mr. Asshole, Jessie made her way to the cash register where her mom stood with a big grin on her face.

  “Who’s the ass-hat at table five?” she asked her mom.

  “One of the Stone boys,” her mom answered. “Three of them just moved to town and opened a snowmobile repair shop down a ways here on Main Street. All of them single, just saying.”

  “Color me shocked. Can’t imagine why with the sparkling personality that one has.”

  “Is that your old boyfriend Jason over there by the fireplace, staring at you?” her mom asked.

  Jessie scoffed. “Yeah. I don’t know what he wants but I’m hoping he leaves soon.”

  “Maybe I should go over and say hello,” her mom teased.

  “Don’t you dare!” she snapped.

  The bell from the kitchen signaling an order was up sounded and Jessie’s mom retrieved it. “Well, here,” she said pushing the plate into Jessie’s hands. “Bring Mr. Stone his dinner and beer, then.”

  “Can I make him wear it?” Jessie mumbled, eying the loaded plate full of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn, and biscuits.

  “Only if he requests it to be served that way,” her mom countered.

  Jessie pursed her lips and looked over at the newcomer, who’s head was still buried in his work. He did have some pretty amazing hair, the kind you want to run your hands through. And he had a nice strong jaw with a dimple in his chin. She’d always been a sucker for chin dimples. Too bad it belonged to such a class-A jerk.

  She momentarily set the plate of food down on the counter next to his foamy beer and stepped a few feet away to hang up her fleece jacket on a hook just off of the bar. She gave her hair a shake. It was damp from the tumble in the snow she took. She absentmindedly tugged at her tight-fitting Starlight Pub t-shirt as she picked up the order and made her way back over to the pissy patron.

  “My deepest heartfelt apologies for disturbing your work once again but your dinner’s here,” Jessie said. She slid the meal under his nose and plopped his Guinness on a cardboard coaster.

  “You work here?” he asked, staring directly at the words “Starlight Pub” splayed across her breasts.

  “Wow, you’re quick. What gave it away?”

  “Certainly not your customer service skills,” he returned.

  Jessie tossed a couple of napkins on the table. “Actually, I own the place tough guy. And I hear you just opened a shop down the street. Probably should play nice with the local commerce folk, eh? Do let me know if you need anything else,” she added. She turned on her heel and walked away before he could say anything else.

  ***

  I hope you’ve enjoyed this preview of Coming Home, the first book in the Love at Starlight series. If you want to keep reading, find the full novel on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2iEcKJP. Keep reading for a preview of Taking Chances.

  Taking Chances (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 2)

  Chapter One

  “Oof,” Wynn Foster let out in an exhale. Melody was straddling her chest and patting her cheeks, one tiny hand on each side of her face. Nothing like being woken up by a thirty-pound toddler launching herself at you, Wynn thought.

  “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,” Melody sung out. “Wake now.”

  Wynn peeked one eye open and slowly smiled at her eighteen-month old daughter. “I’m awake sweetie.”

  “Mickey?” Melody asked.

  Melody wanted her to go flip on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for her on the television in the living room. It’d become her morning ritual lately since they’d moved back to Wynn’s home town, Snowy Ridge, Wisconsin, and in with her mom. Cartoons and cereal in front of the TV while Wynn dragged herself around the kitchen making a cup of coffee. She never had been
a morning person.

  “Mickey?” the toddler prodded again.

  “Okay, okay, honey. I’m getting up.”

  Melody leaped off her mother, grabbed her stuffed Mickey Mouse doll from the bed, and raced out to the living room to wait.

  Wynn sighed and stared at her bedroom ceiling, trying to will herself to get up. She couldn’t believe she was really here, in her childhood bedroom. Twenty-eight years old, divorced, and a single parent. And living with her own mommy again. It was pathetic. She felt like a total loser. The one bright spot in her day everyday was Melody. She loved her daughter to pieces and she had to get her act together if not for herself, then for Melody.

  She crawled out of bed, shoved her feet into her old worn-out frog slippers, and tip-toed out of the bedroom, careful not to wake her mom. Her younger sister Luci had also recently moved back home from New York City and was in her old bedroom as well. Their baby sister Jessie was the only one of the family who had her act together. She lived in her own place and co-ran the family’s business with their mother. When their mom could work that was. She’d been going through chemotherapy and resting as much as possible so it was really a good thing that the girls were all at home right now. Even if it wasn’t the reason for them coming home in the first place.

  Wynn turned on the television and tuned the channel to Disney before patting Melody on the head. “Be right back with your cheerios,” she told her.

  Melody squeezed her Mickey tight and stared at the TV in delight. The kid was obsessed with the show.

  Melody padded into the kitchen and begun making breakfast as she thought about her day. She was going to drop Melody off at daycare and head to work at Starlight for her shift. She perked up when she remembered she had an errand to do before work. Today was the day she enrolled in the local community college.