by Julie Blair
“Is Jac part of the band now?” Regan sounded hopeful.
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m glad you’re with her.” Regan grinned and pulled Vicky closer. “Love changes everything.”
“We want to stay with you after the fall tour,” Sammy said. “We like the new style.”
“Good.” She reached up to hug him. “I want us all to have the future we choose.”
Cassie approached as they left. “Damn, that gorgeous trumpet player of yours can dance. I should have tried harder.” She bumped Liz’s shoulder. “Just kidding. Happy?”
“Indescribably.”
“You deserve all of this, girlfriend—the band, the woman, the fame you’re gonna get. I’m proud of you.”
“Thank you doesn’t seem to cover all you’ve done for me this year, Cass.”
“You can add one more thing. I’ll play your fall tour.”
Liz cupped Cassie’s cheeks and kissed them several times. Not having to find another drummer right away took a big worry off her mind.
“On one condition. You get yourself a trumpet player full-time. It’s a good sound.”
“Already done.” Liz returned to the table, to the woman she loved. “I want to kiss you in the worst way.”
“Yeah?” An easy smile spread over Jac’s cheeks.
“Yeah.” And she did.
“Not again,” Hannah teased them as she squeezed their shoulders.
“I’m happy for you, sis,” Kevin said. He bent to kiss Liz’s cheek. “Congratulations, Jac.” He extended his hand.
Jac stood and hugged him and then Hannah, who laughed at something Jac said to her.
“Kev’s going back with me. You get to tell Dad,” Hannah said. That was going to be an interesting drive. Knowing Hannah, she’d get Kevin and Karen back together.
“You’re pretty amazing,” Liz said, hugging Hannah for a long time. Now that Hannah was back in her life, she’d never lose her again.
“So are you. Be happy, Lizzie.”
Her dad was one of the last to leave, and she walked him to his car. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You bet, sunshine.” He unlocked his car and then turned back to her. “I was wrong to tell the reviewer about Jac. I didn’t want you to lose out again. I’m sorry.”
Liz hugged him. “Thanks, Dad.”
“It’s a great album. Momentum!” He pumped his fist in the air.
Liz waved to him as he drove away. It had been a year of loss and challenges and shifting roles for everyone in her family. As she walked across the gravel driveway, she thought back to the day she’d met Jac and Peggy. Now they were family. Her steps felt light and sure. She’d found her way to new music and new love. A future she was committed to. She wanted the same for Hannah, for her dad and Rebecca, for Kevin and Karen.
Jac was waiting for her on the bench along the walkway to her cottage. “Can Max and I interest you in a stroll on the beach?”
“Sounds like the perfect ending to the day.”
The beach was deserted, the moon barely a crescent in the star-filled sky. They walked barefoot in the soft sand above the water line, the rhythmic cascade of waves a comforting accompaniment, the breeze just cool enough. Liz threw Max’s tennis ball into the surf. “I’m going to move to Carmel.”
“That’s a long commute.”
“I don’t want to be away from you for a minute.”
“What if I rent a place in San Jose? We can stay there part of the week while you teach. I’d like to live in my cottage when we’re here. I can add on a room for your grandmother’s piano.” They walked for a while, taking turns throwing the ball for Max, and then Jac said, “I was wrong.”
“About?”
“Teri applying to the festival was an act of unimaginable love. I didn’t understand. I couldn’t understand until I fell in love with you. I want to love you as well as she did.”
“You do.” She took Jac’s hand. “I learned how to love with Teri, and I’m learning it all over again with you.”
“I don’t expect you to avoid talking about her. You must be feeling a lot of different things about tonight and about the one-year anniversary of her death coming up Monday.”
“I am, and I promise I’ll talk about it. Right now, I want to bask in our love and the connection that makes me sure we belong to each other. I wouldn’t have wished loss and grief on either of us. It’s like we were tossed in the ocean and carried away by currents that stranded us far from where we thought our lives were headed. We made our way back. Together. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but here with you. I’m crazy about you, Ms. Richards.” Liz draped her arms over Jac’s shoulders and kissed her. “Dance with me?”
Jac took her in her arms, and everything faded except where their bodies touched and their tongues explored each other’s mouths. Heat built quickly with Jac’s thigh between her legs.
Liz didn’t realize she was humming until Jac said, “Thank you for describing it. I feel stars dancing on my skin, a sliver of moon fighting the darkness, white feathers of waves rolling onto the sand. And inside it all, I feel the heartbeat of your love.”
“Our love. Fused.”
“Can I interest you in a little sex on the beach?” Jac’s voice was deep and raw and so sexy Liz shivered.
“Getting kind of risqué, aren’t you?”
“Improvising and collaborating, love. Isn’t that what you’re teaching me?” They were at the rock wall at the end of the beach. Jac sat against the rocks and motioned Liz to settle between her bent legs. Max sprawled beside them. She tunneled her hands inside Liz’s blouse.
Liz rested her head against Jac’s shoulder, sheltered in her arms, soft sand beneath her, waves playing a rhythmic serenade. A perfect night.
“What’s that you’re humming?” Jac nuzzled her cheek.
“Our future, honey.” She lifted her head and kissed Jac, humming the new melody that would become their greatest hit—“Making a Comeback.”
About the Author
Julie Blair has always believed that fiction is one of life’s great pleasures. From the time she was old enough to hold a book, escaping into worlds where anything is possible and endings are usually happy has been a favorite pastime. Growing up a tomboy before it was fashionable, Julie attached herself to sports, especially softball, which culminated in her pitching in the Women’s College World Series. Finally forced to grow up and get a real job, she landed in restaurant management for a decade before entering the rigors of chiropractic school. She has been a chiropractor for over two decades.
Julie has sat atop the ruins of Machu Picchu and stood five feet from mountain gorillas in Uganda, but her favorite place is curled up on her couch with her Labradors, Magic and Mandy, reading or writing. Living in the quiet of California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, she enjoys gardening, hiking, red wine, strong coffee, smooth jazz, and warm fall afternoons.
Books Available from Bold Strokes Books
Making a Comeback by Julie Blair. Music and love take center stage when jazz pianist Liz Randall tries to make a comeback with the help of her reclusive, blind neighbor, Jac Winters. (978-1-62639-357-8)
Soul Unique by Gun Brooke. Self-proclaimed cynic Greer Landon falls for Hayden Rowe’s paintings and the young woman shortly after, but will Hayden, who lives with Asperger syndrome, trust her and reciprocate her feelings? (978-1-62639-358-5)
The Price of Honor by Radclyffe. Honor and duty are not always black and white—and when self-styled patriots take up arms against the government, the price of honor may be a life. (978-1-62639-359-2)
Mounting Evidence by Karis Walsh. Lieutenant Abigail Hargrove and her mounted police unit need to solve a murder and protect wetland biologist Kira Lovell during the Washington State Fair. (978-1-62639-343-1)
Threads of the Heart by Jeannie Levig. Maggie and Addison Rae-McInnis share a love and a life, but are the threads that bind them together strong enough to withstand Addison’s restlessness and the seductive Victoria
Fontaine? (978-1-62639-410-0)
Sheltered Love by MJ Williamz. Boone Fairway and Grey Dawson—two women touched by abuse—overcome their pasts to find happiness in each other. (978-1-62639-362-2)
Asher’s Out by Elizabeth Wheeler. Asher Price’s candid photographs capture the truth, but when his success requires exposing an enemy, Asher discovers his only shot at happiness involves revealing secrets of his own. (978-1-62639-411-7)
The Ground Beneath by Missouri Vaun. An improbable barter deal involving a hope chest and dinners for a month places lovely Jessica Walker distractingly in the way of Sam Casey’s bachelor lifestyle. (978-1-62639-606-7)
Hardwired by C.P. Rowlands. Award-winning teacher Clary Stone, and Leefe Ellis, manager of the homeless shelter for small children, stand together in a part of Clary’s hometown that she never knew existed. (978-1-62639-351-6)
No Good Reason by Cari Hunter. A violent kidnapping in a Peak District village pushes Detective Sanne Jensen and lifelong friend Dr. Meg Fielding closer, just as it threatens to tear everything apart. (978-1-62639-352-3)
Romance by the Book by Jo Victor. If Cam didn’t keep disrupting her life, maybe Alex could uncover the secret of a century-old love story, and solve the greatest mystery of all—her own heart. (978-1-62639-353-0)
Death’s Doorway by Crin Claxton. Helping the dead can be deadly: Tony may be listening to the dead, but she needs to learn to listen to the living. (978-1-62639-354-7)
Searching for Celia by Elizabeth Ridley. As American spy novelist Dayle Salvesen investigates the mysterious disappearance of her ex-lover, Celia, in London, she begins questioning how well she knew Celia—and how well she knows herself. (978-1-62639-356-1)
The 45th Parallel by Lisa Girolami. Burying her mother isn’t the worst thing that can happen to Val Montague when she returns to the woodsy but peculiar town of Hemlock, Oregon. (978-1-62639-342-4)
A Royal Romance by Jenny Frame. In a country where class still divides, can love topple the last social taboo and allow Queen Georgina and Beatrice Elliot, a working class girl, their happy ever after? (978-1-62639-360-8)
Bouncing by Jaime Maddox. Basketball Coach Alex Dalton has been bouncing from woman to woman, because no one ever held her interest, until she meets her new assistant, Britain Dodge. (978-1-62639-344-8)
Same Time Next Week by Emily Smith. A chance encounter between Alex Harris and the beautiful Michelle Masters leads to a whirlwind friendship, and causes Alex to question everything she’s ever known—including her own marriage. (978-1-62639-345-5)
All Things Rise by Missouri Vaun. Cole rescues a striking pilot who crash-lands near her family’s farm, setting in motion a chain of events that will forever alter the course of her life. (978-1-62639-346-2)
Riding Passion by D. Jackson Leigh. Mount up for the ride through a sizzling anthology of chance encounters, buried desires, romantic surprises, and blazing passion. (978-1-62639-349-3)
Love’s Bounty by Yolanda Wallace. Lobster boat captain Jake Myers stopped living the day she cheated death, but meeting greenhorn Shy Silva stirs her back to life. (978-1-62639-334-9)
Just Three Words by Melissa Brayden. Sometimes the one you want is the one you least suspect. Accountant Samantha Ennis has her ordered life disrupted when heartbreaker Hunter Blair moves into her trendy Soho loft. (978-1-62639-335-6)
Lay Down the Law by Carsen Taite. Attorney Peyton Davis returns to her Texas roots to take on big oil and the Mexican Mafia, but will her investigation thwart her chance at true love? (978-1-62639-336-3)
Playing in Shadow by Lesley Davis. Survivor’s guilt threatens to keep Bryce trapped in her nightmare world unless Scarlet’s love can pull her out of the darkness back into the light. (978-1-62639-337-0)
Soul Selecta by Gill McKnight. Soul mates are hell to work with. (978-1-62639-338-7)
The Revelation of Beatrice Darby by Jean Copeland. Adolescence is complicated, but Beatrice Darby is about to discover how impossible it can seem to a lesbian coming of age in conservative 1950s New England. (978-1-62639-339-4)
Twice Lucky by Mardi Alexander. For firefighter Mackenzie James and Dr. Sarah Macarthur, there’s suddenly a whole lot more in life to understand, to consider, to risk…someone will need to fight for her life. (978-1-62639-325-7)
Shadow Hunt by L.L. Raand. With young to raise and her Pack under attack, Sylvan, Alpha of the wolf Weres, takes on her greatest challenge when she determines to uncover the faceless enemies known as the Shadow Lords. A Midnight Hunters novel. (978-1-62639-326-4)
Heart of the Game by Rachel Spangler. A baseball writer falls for a single mom, but can she ever love anything as much as she loves the game? (978-1-62639-327-1)
Getting Lost by Michelle Grubb. Twenty-eight days, thirteen European countries, a tour manager fighting attraction, and an accused murderer: Stella and Phoebe’s journey of a lifetime begins here. (978-1-62639-328-8)
Prayer of the Handmaiden by Merry Shannon. Celibate priestess Kadrian must defend the kingdom of Ithyria from a dangerous enemy and ultimately choose between her duty to the Goddess and the love of her childhood sweetheart, Erinda. (978-1-62639-329-5)
The Witch of Stalingrad by Justine Saracen. A Soviet “night witch” pilot and American journalist meet on the Eastern Front in WW II and struggle through carnage, conflicting politics, and the deadly Russian winter. (978-1-62639-330-1)
Pedal to the Metal by Jesse J. Thoma. When unreformed thief Dubs Williams is released from prison to help Max Winters bust a car theft ring, Max learns that to catch a thief, get in bed with one. (978-1-62639-239-7)
Dragon Horse War by D. Jackson Leigh. A priestess of peace and a fiery warrior must defeat a vicious uprising that entwines their destinies and ultimately their hearts. (978-1-62639-240-3)
For the Love of Cake by Erin Dutton. When everything is on the line, and one taste can break a heart, will pastry chefs Maya and Shannon take a chance on reality? (978-1-62639-241-0)
Betting on Love by Alyssa Linn Palmer. A quiet country-girl-at-heart and a live-life-to-the-fullest biker take a risk at offering each other their hearts. (978-1-62639-242-7)
The Deadening by Yvonne Heidt. The lines between good and evil, right and wrong, have always been blurry for Shade. When Raven’s actions force her to choose, which side will she come out on? (978-1-62639-243-4)
Ordinary Mayhem by Victoria A. Brownworth. Faye Blakemore has been taking photographs since she was ten, but those same photographs threaten to destroy everything she knows and everything she loves. (978-1-62639-315-8)
One Last Thing by Kim Baldwin & Xenia Alexiou. Blood is thicker than pride. The final book in the Elite Operative Series brings together foes, family, and friends to start a new order. (978-1-62639-230-4)
Songs Unfinished by Holly Stratimore. Two aspiring rock stars learn that falling in love while pursuing their dreams can be harmonious—if they can only keep their pasts from throwing them out of tune. (978-1-62639-231-1)
Beyond the Ridge by L.T. Marie. Will a contractor and a horse rancher overcome their family differences and find common ground to build a life together? (978-1-62639-232-8)
Swordfish by Andrea Bramhall. Four women battle the demons from their pasts. Will they learn to let go, or will happiness be forever beyond their grasp? (978-1-62639-233-5)
The Fiend Queen by Barbara Ann Wright. Princess Katya and her consort Starbride must turn evil against evil in order to banish Fiendish power from their kingdom, and only love will pull them back from the brink. (978-1-62639-234-2)
Up the Ante by PJ Trebelhorn. When Jordan Stryker and Ashley Noble meet again fifteen years after a short-lived affair, are either of them prepared to gamble on a chance at love? (978-1-62639-237-3)
Speakeasy by MJ Williamz. When mob leader Helen Byrne sets her sights on the girlfriend of Al Capone’s right-hand man, passion and tempers flare on the streets of Chicago. (978-1-62639-238-0)
Venus in Love by Tina Michele. Morgan Blake can’t afford any distractions and Ainsley Dencourt can’t affo
rd to lose control—but the beauty of life and art usually lies in the unpredictable strokes of the artist’s brush. (978-1-62639-220-5)
Rules of Revenge by AJ Quinn. When a lethal operative on a collision course with her past agrees to help a CIA analyst on a critical assignment, the encounter proves explosive in ways neither woman anticipated. (978-1-62639-221-2)
The Romance Vote by Ali Vali. Chili Alexander is a sought-after campaign consultant who isn’t prepared when her boss’s daughter, Samantha Pellegrin, comes to work at the firm and shakes up Chili’s life from the first day. (978-1-62639-222-9)
Advance: Exodus Book One by Gun Brooke. Admiral Dael Caydoc’s mission to find a new homeworld for the Oconodian people is hazardous, but working with the infuriating Commander Aniwyn “Spinner” Seclan endangers her heart and soul. (978-1-62639-224-3)
UnCatholic Conduct by Stevie Mikayne. Jil Kidd goes undercover to investigate fraud at St. Marguerite’s Catholic School, but life gets complicated when her student is killed—and she begins to fall for her prime target. (978-1-62639-304-2)
Season’s Meetings by Amy Dunne. Catherine Birch reluctantly ventures on the festive road trip from hell with beautiful stranger Holly Daniels only to discover the road to true love has its own obstacles to maneuver. (978-1-62639-227-4)