Know Me Well

by Kait Nolan

  “I have a list.” Liam pulled a folded paper from a pocket.

  Riley waved a hand. “Of course, you do.”

  “Boy Scout. Always prepared.” He began to read down the list. “Bikini.”

  Autumn nodded. “Check.”

  “Shorts.”

  “For both beach and hiking, check.”

  Riley felt like she was watching a tennis match as her gaze bounced from one to the other during the exchange.

  “Shirts.”

  “Check.”

  “Couple of dresses.”

  “Check.”

  “Underwear for a week.”

  Riley immediately sent Autumn a warning glare. She could just imagine what her friend had deemed the thing to pack on a tropical vacation with Liam. She wouldn’t put it past her to see that Riley went commando the whole week. Or wore nothing but skimpy lingerie. With Autumn it could go either way.

  Autumn didn’t bother to hide her grin. “Check.”

  “Toiletries.”

  “Double check. I probably had a better list than you did for that.”

  “True thing. Passport.”

  “Check.”

  “You actually found my passport? I didn’t even remember where I put it.”

  “Took a while. I thought for sure you’d cop to the fact that your drawers had been rifled.”

  “Somebody made sure I didn’t notice.” It hadn’t occurred to Riley that Liam had been trying to distract her on purpose.

  He just winked at her, unrepentant, before turning back to the list.

  “Shoes?”

  “Tennies, two pair of sandals, and some really excellent heels. Check.”

  “Chargers for various devices.”

  “Check.”

  “Engagement ring.”

  Riley’s head snapped toward Liam—

  “No, that was for you to pack.”

  —then back to Autumn—

  “Oh right.”

  —and back to Liam.

  He reached into his pocket. Pulled out a box. “Check.”

  Riley couldn’t breathe.

  Liam started to slip the box back into his pocket, then shook his head. “On second thought, you should probably hang on to this, for a year or sixty. Gotta give the Tollesons a run for their money.” He flipped it open, took out the diamond solitaire inside.

  “Liam,” she croaked.

  “Not done yet. You’re one of the strongest, most independent, most stubborn women I’ve ever had the privilege to know. I know you’re not looking for somebody to come rescue you or expecting the fairy tale ending, and somewhere in there you stopped believing in those things. But I want to give them to you, on whatever terms you want. And if that means you want your own sword and horse, by damn, we’ll make it happen. You told me months ago that I should build my own place, and you were absolutely right. But you can’t build something without a good, solid foundation. You’re mine. So—” He sank down to one knee “— how ’bout it, Riley Marie. Are you up for an adventure?”

  Any minute now, her knees were going to buckle and she was just going to keel over in shock.

  Autumn elbowed her. “Breathe.”

  Riley sucked in a breath. Her head was spinning like a top and her heart was about to pound right out of her chest. She reached out to frame his face. “The answer’s been yes since I was fifteen.”

  Liam grinned. “And here I thought I was moving fast.” He slid the ring on her finger and pulled her in for a long, slow kiss, while the room erupted in cheers and applause.

  The band launched into a snappy rendition of “Here Comes The Bride” and the party really got started as Riley and Liam were pulled away for a long string of hugs, kisses, and congratulations from everyone present. It made her delirious and dizzy, until her fiancé —her fiancé!—pried her away from Babette Wofford, who already had ideas about the dress. “Okay, now seriously, we have a plane to catch.”

  “Just let me get my purse.”

  “Autumn will bring it.”

  “I can carry my own purse.”

  “This last part works better if you don’t.”

  “What last part?” She burst into delighted laughter as he lifted her into his arms. “An Officer and a Gentleman?”

  “You did make a request.”

  Riley plucked the hat off his head and perched it on her own. “Think you can kiss me and walk out the door without running into it?”

  “I’m a Marine. I can do anything.”

  And he proved it as he carried her across the threshold to start their own happily ever after.

  Finis.

  What’s Next In Wishful?

  I hope by now you’ve fallen as much in love with my little town as I have. I’ve got many many stories planned.

  By now, I hope you are just as eager as I am to find out what happens with Autumn and Judd. These two captured my heart a long long time ago, and they’re finally getting their shot at happiness. But their story isn’t quite the sunshine and light you’ve come to expect from the Wishful series, so I made the decision to start a separate spin-off series, Wishing For A Hero. This series is still the small town southern romance you’ve come to expect—just with a hefty dose of suspense. Autumn and Judd’s book, If I Didn’t Care, is the start, and you can see a preview of their book at the end of this one. If I Didn’t Care releases October 27th, 2016.

  Next up in the core Wishful Series is Just for This Moment, the conclusion of the romance between newspaperman Myles Stewart and the quirky and delightful Piper Parish, whom we originally met in Be Careful, It’s My Heart and got a closer look at in Once Upon A Setup (available for FREE). Their story is a madcap, modern marriage of convenience tale and it’s one of my very favorites!

  If you want to keep up with all the action in Wishful (and get to see snips of works in progress) and hang out with like-minded readers, come join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wishfulseries/

  You can also like my page on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/kaitnolanwriter

  Anyway, thanks for reading! And if you loved the book, please consider leaving a review or telling a friend. These days, it's harder than ever to get a new book noticed. Many of the promotional opportunities out there require a minimum number of reviews—10 at the low end, 50+ at the high. If you enjoyed this book, taking just a minute of your time to click the star rating and write a few words would help me tremendously, and allow me to continue to bring you the stories you enjoy.

  Other Books By Kait Nolan

  Contemporary Romance

  Wishful Series

  Once Upon A Coffee (Avery and Dillon): Available for FREE!

  To Get Me To You (Cam and Norah): Available for FREE!

  Be Careful, It’s My Heart (Brody and Tyler)

  Know Me Well (Liam and Riley)

  Once Upon A Setup (A Meet Cute Romance with Piper and Myles!): Available for FREE!

  Just For This Moment (Myles and Piper)

  Wish I Might (Reed and Cecily)

  Turn My World Around (Tucker and Corinne)

  Wishing For A Hero (A Wishful Spinoff Series)

  If I Didn’t Care (Judd and Autumn) TURN THE PAGE FOR A PREVIEW

  Meet Cute Romance

  Once Upon A Snow Day

  Once Upon A New Year’s Eve

  Once Upon An Heirloom

  Once Upon A Coffee: Available for FREE!

  Once Upon A Setup: Available for FREE!

  Meet Cute Romance: Volume 1 (Meet Cutes 1-5)

  Paranormal Romance

  Mirus Series:

  Genesis (an omnibus including, Forsaken By Shadow (Mirus 1.1), Devil’s Eye (Mirus 1.2), and Blindsight )

  Riven

  Whisper of Shadow(Also available in the Magical Mayhem anthology)

  YA:

  Red

  Whisper of Shadow

  He has one mission

  Since they were children, career cop Judd Hamilton has built his life around taking care of his
best friend, Autumn Buchanan. While he might once have dreamed of a different future for them, everything changed the day her father tried to kill them both. Determined to keep her safe, Judd put his feelings aside and turned his focus to protecting her, always.

  She leads a double life

  Nobody in their small town would ever dream that Autumn, Wishful's friendly librarian, is really successful erotic romantic suspense author, Rumor Fairchild. No one knows that the swoon-worthy hero of her series is based on her best friend, Judd. He's been fulfilling her rescue fantasies for years, and now she's ready to catapult them out of the friend zone to make her real life romance come true.

  Will Judd be able to protect her when her real life nightmare returns?

  Excerpt If I Didn’t Care

  Per tradition, stop number one was the fountain in the middle of the town green. Constructed just after the Civil War, the fountain had earned some local notoriety over the past century and a half. It was, after all, why the town was named Wishful. Usually Autumn tossed in her coin and made a less selfish wish—there were plenty of other people who could use a little bit of magic. But if she was really going through with this, she needed all the help she could get. She’d even saved a silver dollar specially for the occasion. The coin lay sweaty against her palm. She stared down at the smooth surface of the water, trying to slow her heart and think of the right way to phrase the wish.

  “You okay, Firefly?”

  The childhood nickname pulled her back to the past, to the first time they’d stood here and the wish she’d made then. The casual stroke down her back kept her in the now.

  “You know, when we were twelve and you brought me here that first time, I didn’t believe in wishes. Didn’t see the point. But you gave me a quarter and told me to make a wish anyway. For anything I wanted. Do you know what I wished for?”

  “What?”

  She lifted her gaze to his face. “I wished for a new family. And you gave me yours. I can never repay you for that.”

  “We’re not keeping a balance sheet, Autumn. It’s not something you owe us for.”

  No. That’d been a gift without price. And if she did this. If she changed things, his friendship wasn’t the only thing she risked.

  Be brave. Be the strong heroine you write about.

  Eyes on his, she fisted the silver dollar and made her wish. I wish for the courage and strength of heart to do what needs to be done, say what needs to be said.

  She didn’t look as she tossed the coin. Didn’t even glance over at the solid thunk in the water. She could only watch him. For twenty-five years, he’d been her strength, her shield, her confidant. And she was about to see if he’d be more.

  “Judd, there’s something I need to—”

  “Autumn!”

  The sound of her name had the words clogging like a logjam in her throat as she turned to see who had such craptastic timing.

  “Mark?”

  A history professor at Wachoxee County Community College, Mark Caulfield had been stopping in at the library once or twice a week for a couple of years. He was charming, erudite, and a little shy. Lanky, with a penchant for tweed—a less attractive Jude Law type. Livia had been making bets for months about when Mark would get up the nerve to ask Autumn out. He always seemed to stop just short of crossing the line from flirtation to action. Which was perfectly fine with Autumn. She enjoyed their flirtation, enjoyed the lack of pressure to actually commit to anything else. And here he was with flowers in his hand when she was about to confess her love to Judd.

  Crap on a cracker.

  “Good morning, lovely lady.” With a sheepish smile, he held a bouquet of bright yellow tulips out.

  Autumn reached to take the flowers automatically, though a part of her instinctively recoiled. She couldn’t stop the flinch as her hand curled around the stems. “What’s this?”

  “I saw these and they made me think of you. A little spot of sunshine. I went by the library to deliver them. Livia told me you were out shopping, so I took a chance that I could catch you.”

  Autumn made a mental note to murder her friend. She forced a smile and focused on the gesture rather than the flowers themselves. There was no possible way Mark could’ve known she loathed yellow tulips. They’d been her mother’s favorite flower. “They’re lovely.”

  She waited, watching splotches of color rise to Mark’s cheeks as he shifted from foot to foot. Please don’t let today be the day he finally asks.

  Mark finally seemed to register Judd’s presence, which said a lot about the man’s focus on her, as Judd had been looming behind her like a guard dog since the moment Mark had shown up.

  “Hi. Mark Caulfield.” He offered his hand.

  Judd stepped forward to take it. “Judd Hamilton.”

  “And you’re—”

  “The best friend,” Judd supplied. His gaze swept Mark from head to toe and clearly found him lacking. Not that anyone who wasn’t well-versed in the microexpressions of Judd would notice.

  “Ah,” Mark said.

  The silence spun out. One beat, then two.

  Ordinarily, Autumn would’ve jumped into the breach, tried to put Mark more at ease with the scripted niceties used by all women in the South. But she wanted—needed—him to go away. So she said nothing, employing the same tactics she knew Judd used in interrogation, hoping Mark would be so acutely uncomfortable, he’d lose his nerve.

  “Well, I—you’re in the middle of something. I just wanted to give you the flowers. I’ll let you get back to your shopping now.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I guess I’ll see you when those interlibrary loans come in.”

  “I’ll be sure to let you know,” she promised.

  Mark gave a little wave and shrugged his messenger bag higher on his shoulder, heading back across the green.

  Autumn turned back toward Judd. She felt the weight of his gaze—those eyes that always saw too much and not enough.

  “Do you want me to take them?” He knew. Of course, he knew what these would mean to her. It was just one of the many reasons she loved him.

  “No. They’re just…flowers. I can deal. Just…just tell me when he’s gone so I can find somewhere to dispose of them.”

  Mark’s interruption had seriously thrown Autumn off her game. Because the moment to speak had passed, she didn’t resist when Judd took her arm. “C’mon. Let’s walk.”

  “Let’s swing by Brides and Belles. I’ll give them to Babette. Someone might as well enjoy them.”

  “Sure. I’ve got something to pick up in that area anyway.”

  Dimly, Autumn wondered where, but was too rattled to ask. She’d find out soon enough.

  She felt better once the flowers were out of her hands. Steadier. She joined Judd back out on the sidewalk. “Okay, List Master, where is our first stop? You said you had something to pick up over here.”

  “This way.” He headed down the block. As she fell into step beside him, he said, “Hey what was it you were going to say earlier? Before we were interrupted. You seemed pretty serious.”

  “I was. I…” Autumn trailed off, staring blankly at the display window he’d stopped in front of. “What are we doing here?”

  “Oh, I’ve just got to run in and pick up something for Mary Alice.”

  “Here?” she said dumbly. Because they were standing outside Sanderson’s Jewelers.

  “Yeah, I’ve got something on order. Want to come in and see?”

  Autumn’s mind ground to a screeching halt, as everything she’d been about to say simply blanked. Judd Hamilton did not buy jewelry. At no point in their twenty-five years of friendship had he ever given something sparkly to one of his girlfriends. He’d never even gotten any cheesetastic jewelry for his mom on Mother’s Day. And he had something on order for Mary Alice.

  There was only one thing it could possibly be.

  Something burst inside her, a white hot nova of shock sweeping through her body. Autumn felt the reverberation in h
er chest and for long seconds she waited for the physical pain to take her to her knees. But there was no pain. She wasn’t dying this time, even though she was losing him now as surely as she’d nearly lost him years ago to a bullet meant for her. And for a moment she regretted that the surgeons had repaired her heart. Because that meant she had to live through this, watching him build a life with someone else, knowing she’d never even been in the running.

  She drew on every shred of control she had to smile at him. Because she loved him and she wanted him to be happy.

  “No. That’s what I wanted to tell you. I’m going to have to bail on our tradition. I’m supposed to meet Mitzi to help finish up a grant for the library. With all the budget cuts, I really can’t afford to tell her no, even though it’s technically my day off. There’s a deadline.” The lie rolled off her tongue with surprising ease.

  “Well shit. Why didn’t you say something earlier?”

  “She just emailed me this morning, and I thought we could at least do breakfast. But I need to get on. You go ahead and finish your shopping. I’ll see you later, okay?”

  Worry was written all over his face as he studied her.

  Please. Please let me go right now.

  “Yeah, okay.”

  Because she felt the weight of his gaze on her, she didn’t run, though every instinct urged her to flee. She kept her strides even and unhurried, though she was starting to shake. She kept her head held high, though she wanted to scream. She’d survived more than her fair share over the years. She’d find a way to survive this.

  But as she passed the cursed fountain, she wondered how she’d survive it without him.

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