He was watching her. His gaze was so intense, she could almost feel it like a caress. It embraced her. She sensed it wrapping around her, exerting a strange pressure on her. His gaze and the song: Come on, baby, and rescue me.
I don’t need to be rescued, she thought—and then she thought some more. Maybe I do.
The song ended and the man turned away. Cali eased back into reality, becoming aware of the din of voices in the tavern, the clatter of glasses and dishes, the smell of liquor scenting the air. She no longer felt as if her spirit had turned into music, as if her body was a physics equation, as if there was no other world except the world of the song...and that man, who clearly had about as much interest in rescuing her as she had in being rescued. Which was no interest at all.
A third song began, slow and moody. A few couples took over the dance floor, arms wrapped tightly around each other, bodies pressed together so intimately that one of those loud-mouth jackasses who had minutes ago been arguing over how to divvy up the table’s pizza shouted, “Get a room!” The dancers ignored him.
Cali returned to the table where Emma waited for her, wine glass in hand and eyes glittering with amusement, Cali’s gaze snagged on the man at the bar. Even though he wasn’t looking at her, she felt something connecting them, an invisible thread pulled taut between them.
Yeah, right. What she felt was the healthy interest of a woman checking out a really hot guy. He might have watched her while she danced, but he was done with her now.
She slid onto the banquette across from Emma and reached for her glass. “God, you dance so beautifully,” Emma said. “I can’t believe you never took ballet.”
Cali shook her head and laughed. “Who needs ballet when you’ve been doing yoga since you cut your first tooth?”
“I should sign up for one of your classes,” Emma said. “Maybe when my life calms down.”
“Life never calms down,” Cali reminded her. “Except for when you’re doing yoga. Yoga makes it calm down.”
“See? You should be teaching this at the community center.” Emma leaned forward. “Just talk to Nick Fiore. I’m sure he’d love to give you space to teach a beginner’s class there. Look what he did for me.”
Emma was a painter. Nick Fiore, who coordinated programs at the Brogan’s Point Community Center, had hired her to teach an art class there. According to her—and to some of Cali’s students at the Body Shop—the class was wonderful.
Cali had no interest in enrolling in Emma’s class. She had no artistic talent. But when she’d decided she needed a whimsical mural to brighten up the children’s room at the Body Shop, she’d commissioned Emma for the job. Emma had created an amazing wall, featuring flowers exploding with color and animals grinning and cavorting. The kids who spent time in the children’s room while their parents worked out in the main studio seemed to love the mural.
Cali certainly loved it. She also loved making a new friend. By the time Emma had finished painting the wall, she and Cali had forged a sisterly bond.
When Emma had phoned her a few hours ago and suggested they go out for drinks, Cali hadn’t had to think for more than a few seconds. “Will Max be joining us?” she’d asked. Max was Emma’s fiancé. As a couple, they were living proof that opposites attracted: an abundantly talented painter and a hard-wired computer geek. They were a great couple, though. Cali sometimes wondered whether she ought to stop dating guys like herself and find an opposite to fall in love with.
The only problem was, she had no idea what her opposite might be.
That, and she’d rather not fall in love. Not when some secret admirer was so in love with her he was freaking her out.
“I’m telling you,” Emma said, “teaching at the community center gave my career such a boost. The connections I’ve made... Like you! You heard about me through the community center, and you hired me.”
“Yes, but you didn’t have an established business,” Cali pointed out. “You were new in town, giving private art lessons and taking any commissions you could find. I’ve got the Body Shop. It’s been open for three years. I teach classes there. I run programs. I don’t need to be teaching classes and running programs at the community center, too.”
“Not classes and programs. One class. The publicity would be priceless.”
“I advertise.” Cali shrugged. She was making a decent living with the Body Shop. She didn’t need more. “If I taught a class at the community center, I’d be cannibalizing my own business. People would say, ‘Why should I sign up for classes at the Body Shop when I can take classes at the community center?”
Emma shook her head. “Different audience. Different customers. The people who would take your class at the community center are people who’d never take any classes at the Body Shop—until they took that community center class and discovered they wanted to keep going, sign up for intermediate and advanced classes, maybe a taekwondo class or something. And you could charge the same amount for the community center class as you do for your Body Shop class, so you wouldn’t be losing any money.”
Her argument made sense. “I’ll think about it,” Cali promised. She would think about it—once she stopped thinking about the stupid messages from her obnoxious lover-boy.
Her gaze strayed from Emma to the bar. The man with the mussed dark hair and the bedroom eyes was still planted on his stool, chatting with an older man who held a coffee mug in his hand. The younger guy stroked his fingers over his stubbly jaw and glanced in Cali’s direction.
His gaze held her captive. Rescue me, she thought, although she couldn’t tell whether she was pleading for him to rescue her, or fearing that he was the one she needed rescuing from.
***
Rescue Me—available now!
Don’t miss the other books in the Magic Jukebox series:
Changes
Antiques dealer Diana Simms is engaged to her longtime boyfriend when she finds herself inside the Faulk Street Tavern. The song “Changes” emerges from the jukebox and casts its spell on her. It also captivates Nick Fiore, a local boy who’s arrived at adulthood the hard way, after a tour through the juvenile justice system. Now he’s dedicated his life to helping other troubled kids. He has no business even looking at a beautiful, well-bred woman wearing a diamond engagement ring. But once they’re bewitched by the jukebox, he and Diana must change their lives, their goals, their dreams and their hearts.
True Colors
When she finds herself homeless, artist Emma Glendon accepts the invitation of her best friend to share a rental house in Brogan’s Point. But their absentee landlord, Nick Tarloff, has come to town from his home in San Francisco to sell the house, which will mean evicting his tenants. Nick is a high-tech brainiac and a self-made millionnaire. Emma is a painter and a free spirit. They have nothing in common—except the jukebox, which plays “True Colors” and forces them to recognize their own true colors, colors that can match and blend magnificently, if the magic of the jukebox has its way.
Wild Thing
Monica Reinhart is a good girl. A hometown girl. After college, she returned to Brogan’s Point to help run the family business, an oceanfront inn. She’s never done a wild thing in her life. When Ty Cronin sails into town, his wildness intrigues her. When the jukebox plays “Wild Thing,” that wildness infects her, and soon she finds herself doing things she never would have imagined. But Ty could be big trouble. She hardly knows him. She mustn’t trust him. Yet once she’s taken a walk on the wild side with him, how can she go back to being a good hometown girl?
Heat Wave
Caleb Solomon’s office air conditioner is on the fritz. Although not his choice, he winds up meeting with a difficult but profitable client in the pleasant chill of the air-conditioned Faulk Street Tavern. It’s there that high school teacher Meredith Benoit finds him. Due to a silly prank, her job and her reputation are in jeopardy. She needs a lawyer, fast. But the Magic Jukebox starts playing “Heat Wave,” and a hot wave of passion crashes over Caleb and
Meredith, catching them in its undertow and carrying them off.
Moondance
Cory Malone and Talia Roszik married as teenagers after Talia became pregnant. Their marriage didn’t last, but their love for their daughter did. Fifteen years after their divorce, Wendy Malone is graduating from high school, and Cory has traveled to Brogan’s Point for the occasion. But Cory’s and Talia’s plans—and their emotions—are thrown into turmoil when they hear the Magic Jukebox play “Moondance.” Can a single song make them forget all the hurt and rediscover the love that once brought them together?
Take the Long Way Home
Maeve Nolan left Brogan’s Point ten years ago in anger and pain, planning never to return. She hadn’t known that Harry, her sweet, silver-haired friend, was a billionaire, but her unexpected inheritance from him lures her back to town. If she’s going to remain, she will have to mend her tattered relationship with her father, Police Detective Ed Nolan, and his girlfriend, Gus Naukonen—the owner of the Faulk Street Tavern. She’ll also have to deal with Quinn Connor, Brogan’s Point’s one-time golden boy, who’s changed his life but can’t escape the expectations the folks in town have of him. When the tavern’s Magic Jukebox plays “Take the Long Way Home,” it casts its spell on Maeve and Quinn. Can they find home in each other’s arms?
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