Playing with Words, page 1
Playing with Words
Book 2 Boggy Creek Valley Copyright © 2021 by Kelly Elliott
Cover art by: Tarah Hamilton
Cover Design by: RBA Designs, www.rbadesigns.com
Interior Design & Formatting by: Elaine York, www.allusionpublishing.com
Developmental Editor: Kelli Collins www.kelliecollins.com
Content Editor: Rachel Carter, Yellow Bird Editing
Proofing Editor: Erin Quinn-Kong, Yellow Bird Editing
Proofing Editor: Elaine York, www.allusionpublishing.com
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For more information on Kelly and her books, please visit her website www.kellyelliottauthor.com.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Coming Soon
Other Books by Kelly Elliott
Greer
What do you do when a drop-dead gorgeous man walks into your bookstore and asks if you have a quiet corner for him to work in?
If you’re me, you stare at him for a good minute before you get your mouth to properly function.
After endless attempts at forming words, I finally got a sentence out. Okay, maybe not a full one, but words came out.
“Um…you need a quiet corner?”
A slow, easy smile spread over his face, and my eyes instantly locked onto his dimples. Lord, what was it about a man and dimples that got me every time?
A sharp elbow hit me in the side, and I cleared my throat. “Right. I have a small workroom, er, um, study room in the back that I created for the high school kids to study in when they need to. You’re more than welcome to use it, no one hardly does. There are also some sitting areas up on the second floor tucked away in some nooks. But we’re doing a bit of remodeling up there, so it can get noisy at times.”
His smile suddenly turned brilliant, and I felt my eyes start to blink rapidly. Jesus tap-dancing Christ. It should be illegal for a guy this handsome to smile like that. It could render a girl stupefied, which was clearly what was happening to me.
“What are you doing?” a voice whispered next to me.
“Great—is the room locked or can I walk right in?” Utterly Handsome Guy asked.
I shook the fog from my brain and forced myself to act like a normal human being. “It’s locked, but let me grab you the key.” Spinning around, I fumbled for the key that was hanging on a hook behind the checkout counter.
After a few deep breaths, I faced him again. I held out the key. “Here it is. The key. To the room. The study room. The quiet room. The, um…room you asked about. To work, I guess, or for whatever reason you need it. Not that it’s my business or anything like that.”
Candace, who was my best friend and also an employee at the bookstore, stepped closer to me and spoke so low I hardly heard her. “Abort! Stop talking, Greer!”
Having clearly heard what Candace said, the handsome stranger glanced away. Which gave me a moment to internally smack myself.
When it was clear I wasn’t recovering at a fast enough pace, Candace took the key from my hand. “I’ll show you to the room we’ve set aside.”
He nodded at her. “Thank you.”
Goodness, his voice was so sexy. Oh my God. What was wrong with me? Had it been that long since I was with a man? Or had it been that long since any man made my body tingle the way it was now?
Get a hold of yourself, Greer Larson!
“Of course,” Candace said, walking behind me. “Is this your first visit to Boggy Creek?”
He looked down at Candace and answered with a laugh. “No, my family used to visit this area when I was younger, and it’s always been one of my favorite places. I haven’t been here since…”
His voice trailed off as they made their way through the bookstore, speaking in hushed voices as if they were in a library.
With a sigh, I leaned my hip against the counter. From across the store, I heard Candace laugh, and I couldn’t help but smile. My best friend had a way with people; she always had. Never mind that she was insanely beautiful, with her curly dark hair, golden brown skin, and dark chocolate eyes that were warm and inviting. People seemed to instantly connect with Candace. Her personality was off the charts. Funny, friendly, smart, and caring. She would most likely emerge from the room with a new best friend or a date for tonight.
Or both.
That had me feeling a tad bit…angry? No, I wasn’t angry at Candace. Maybe a bit jealous that she hadn’t lost her shit in front of the handsome stranger like I had.
“Who was that?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin as I spun around and came face to face with Brighton Rogers. Her folks owned Willow Tree Bed and Breakfast here in Boggy Creek. She was a lawyer in Boston, but lately she had been spending more and more time back in Boggy Creek. Especially since she and Willamina O’Hara had reconnected. They were both a few years younger than me and had been best friends in high school. Brighton was Willa’s divorce attorney when she’d divorced her first husband, who was a jerk. But now Willa was married to Aiden O’Hara and the happiest I had ever seen her.
“Bree, you scared the living daylights out of me!” I said with a nervous chuckle.
Brighton raised one brow. “Was that because you were eye-fucking the hell out of the hot guy Candace took to your private room.” She waggled her brows and leaned in closer. “I always did think you had a naughty side behind the bookish nerd persona you put on.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “It’s not a private room, it’s a study room, and you can see right into it through the glass windows.”
Brighton stretched up on her toes as if attempting to look across the entire bookstore and into the room. “Well, that’s a disappointment. Who is he?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
Brighton brought her gaze back to mine and tilted her head as she looked at me. “He’s cute.”
“Do you know him? Or I mean, have you met him?” I pushed off the counter and tried to busy myself with moving things around.
A smile formed on her face. “I bumped into him outside when he was looking down at his phone.”
“Oh,” I casually said, trying hard not to ask any questions, like does his body feel as solid as it looks? Did he touch you with his hands to steady you?
“I have to say, Greer, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you tongue-tied before.”
I huffed. “I wasn’t tongue-tied.”
Candace walked up and laughed. “You were most certainly tongue-tied.”
Brighton pointed to Candace. “See, totally tongue-tied.”
“Did you need something, Bree?” I asked as I focused back on Brighton.
Brighton and I had never really been that close growing up. She was a few years younger than me and mostly hung out with Willa. I liked her a lot though. She spoke what was on her mind and didn’t play games. I honestly wanted to get to know her more one of these days.
She held up a book and grinned. “I picked up this historical romance, and I need book two. Like yesterday.”
And just like that, Brighton Rogers became my new BFF. “Oh, The Highwayman. Kerrigan Byrne is one of my favorite authors,” I said as I walked around the counter and through the bookstore to where the historical romance books were located.
“Why do you have all the good books in the back of the bookstore?” Brighton asked.
With a chuckle, I replied, “I have a pretty large collection of romance books, and I have a lot of little eyes in here. This is my adult corner.” I used air quotes around the word adult.
“I can see that,” she said, running her finger over the spines of the books as if she were getting ready to make love to them. I always knew I liked Brighton for a reason. “If you don’t have book two, I’m going to have to kill you.”
“No need,” I said, pulling The Hunter off the shelf and handing it to her.
A wide grin spread across her face. “How many books are in this series?”
“Six. I have them all in stock.”
Her eyes lit up and the corner of her mouth twitched ever so slightly. “Give me the rest of them. I already know I’m going to binge read them all.”
Candace walked up and leaned a
I spun around and glared at her. “Excuse me? You don’t say that in a bookstore! How many times do I have to remind you, Candace?”
With a half shrug, Candace winked at me. “If she loves the books enough, she’ll want the paperbacks anyway. Am I right?”
Brighton was in the process of pulling the rest of the series off the shelf and piling them up in her arms. “I can’t stand reading digital books. I like the feel of a real book. What else do you have for me?”
“Wow, are you planning on having some downtime?” I asked with a slight laugh.
Brighton shrugged. “My folks decided they needed to go on a cruise since Willa’s parents went on a trip to Italy. So they booked a two-week cruise around Europe. According to my father, they used up every single penny of their savings to go on this once-in-a-lifetime trip. It’s not true, of course, but that’s my dad for you. They’re leaving in a few days, and I agreed to play hostess at the bed and breakfast. I’m going to need a lot of good books, since I forgot my vibrator.”
I was positive my mouth dropped open just as widely as Candace’s did.
“Oh, I like you. Where have you been?” Candace mused.
Brighton winked at her. “Boston.”
Smiling, I folded my arms over my chest and sighed. “What must that be like, to spend two weeks traveling around Europe?”
Brighton returned my smile with one of her own. “I know. I’m happy they’re taking the time for themselves. I can’t remember the last time they took a vacation.”
We all stood there and nodded. Clearly we were all workaholics.
“Anyway, back to your question about more books. Are you new to this genre?” I asked.
Nodding, Brighton said, “Yes. Give me some good, sexy books.”
I nearly squealed with joy as I did a little hop. Historical romance was my favorite genre, so introducing Brighton to some of the books was going to be so much fun. “Oh, after you read this series, you need to read Tessa Dare!”
“And this is where I duck out,” Candace stated as she spun on her heels and headed back toward the front of the bookstore.
Brighton and I watched her walk away.
“She doesn’t like historical romance?” Brighton asked.
I frowned. “No. It’s the only negative thing I can find about her.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin when Candace snuck up on me and whispered, “You know, if you dust these bookcases anymore, the stain is going to come off.”
I shot her a dirty look. “Isn’t your shift over?”
An evil glint appeared in her eyes as she glanced past me toward the study room where Mr. McDreamy was still typing away on his laptop. “I was supposed to leave like an hour ago.”
Rolling my eyes, I pushed past her. “Then why are you still here?”
“The same reason you keep finding something to do in this particular area of the bookstore. I’m also staring at the handsome man in there who looks really frustrated.”
I chanced a look over my shoulder at him. Goodness, the man was handsome indeed. His light brown hair looked as if he had ran his fingers through it a number of times. He was built, but not overly built. The perfect amount of muscle. And the way he was chewing on his lip as he thought. Deep breath, Greer. Deep. Breath. I nodded. “He does, doesn’t he? I wonder why.”
Candace drew in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “I don’t know, but at one point about forty-five minutes ago, I thought he was going to throw his laptop out those windows.”
“I saw that too,” I whispered before I looked back at her. “We need to stop spying on him. What is the matter with us?”
I grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the front of the bookstore. The bell over the door rang, and Maggie Goodman walked in. Her mother, Tess, owned The Coffee Pot over on Main Street. Like Brighton, Maggie went to high school with me. We graduated the same year and her mother’s restaurant was a local favorite. It wasn’t the only restaurant in town, but it was by far the best. All the locals went there, and if anyone from out of town asked where the best place to eat was, we all sent them to Tess’s.
“Hey, Maggie, what brings you in today?” I asked with a bright smile.
Maggie walked over to us and held up a list. “I need some new books to read to the kids at the community center during reading hour. What do you have in that’s new?”
“He’s coming! He’s coming!” Candace whispered as she started to hit me on the arm with her flailing hands.
“Who’s coming?” Maggie asked.
“Shh!” Candace and I replied in unison.
Maggie’s eyes widened in shock as her mouth dropped open. She caught sight of Mr. McDreamboat—who was moving toward us through the aisles—and went into a state of utter shock.
See? It’s not just me after all.
“Who is that?” she whispered as the man of the hour approached us and stopped directly in front of me.
“Thank you for the use of the study room, Ms.—?” He lifted his brow as he waited for me to say something.
What was I supposed to say? You’re pretty. I like your smile. Your eyes look like the color of cognac, and I want to take a long drink of you. Do you have some sort of magical spell you put women under? What do your lips feel like? Are they as soft as they appear?
Candace elbowed me once again and pulled me out of my wandering…weird…thoughts. It wasn’t like me to daydream about a guy. I never daydreamed about men.
Okay, that was clearly a lie. I often daydreamed about the characters in the books I read. Sometimes. Not always, but a girl needs some fantasy in her life, after all.
Another elbow, this time in the ribs.
“Um, I’m sorry. What were you saying? Asking?” Ugh. I internally kicked myself.
“Do you have a name?”
His voice was so freaking sexy, how was anyone supposed to think clearly around this guy?
“Greer. Greer Larson. I own Turning Pages. The bookstore. That’s the name…of the bookstore. That we’re in. That you’re in. Well, we’re all in it. Ha!”
Oh my God. I am the biggest dork who ever walked the face of the planet. Could I get any more awkward?
He tilted his head and smiled at me. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Larson, owner of Turning Pages, the bookstore. My name is Hudson Higgins. I’ll be staying in Boggy Creek for a few weeks.”
“Greer. Please just call me Greer.”
Candace reached around me and extended her hand. “I’m Candace, Greer’s assistant.”
I snapped my head around as I looked at her. “Assistant? When did you get promoted?”
Candace rolled her eyes. “Please, if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t eat lunch everyday. Or go home when the bookstore closes.”
I narrowed my eyes at her but looked back at Mr. McHandsome when he laughed.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”
He turned to look at Maggie, who still had her mouth hung slightly open as she stared up at him. Mr. Hottie McHot was tall but not too tall. I’d say five-eleven, if I had to guess. I leaned in closer to Maggie…Jesus tap dancing Christ, was that drool on the corner of her mouth?
I shook my head and focused back on Mr. McHand…er…what had he said his name was? Mr. Higgins. “What brings you to Boggy Creek, Mr. Higgins?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm as my pulse raced out of control.
Another brilliant smile came my way. “Please, call me Hudson.”
“Okay, Hudson, what brings you to Boggy Creek?” I repeated.
“Peace. Quiet. Memories. The hope that I can finish a deadline with work.”
I raised one brow. “Really? Did I hear you mention you’ve been to our little town before?”
He nodded. “My folks used to bring my sister and me here every summer when we were younger. They loved the mountains. Dad works as a freelance photographer, but worked for National Geographic most of the time. We traveled a lot, but for some reason, Boggy Creek Valley always seemed to hold the best memories for me.”
Candace and Maggie both sighed. I shot them a sideways glance before I turned back to Hudson. “Well, I’m glad our little slice of heaven comes along with happy memories,” I said, finally able to make normal conversation.
He winked and replied, “Hopefully I can make some new happy memories.”
An eruption of flutters occurred in my stomach, and I had to force myself not to press my hand to it. When did a man winking suddenly become so freaking sexy? Kyle, my brother, winked at me all the time. But it was playful. This wink from Hudson seemed to promise something else.
