Frenemy Fix-Up, page 22
“I happily accept,” Colin responds with a wide smile across his incredible mouth. “I don’t want to waste another minute without you in my life, Shay.”
Brushing my lips across his, I rush out to my class. My students are waiting, several of them with knowing looks, as if I’ve been up to something naughty in my office. If Colin and I had had more time, that might have been the case, but not today.
Maybe later.
We have time.
Because Colin confessed his love, and so did I.
This isn’t my happily ever after, it’s just the beginning.
* * *
Look for Lyric’s story, Going Toe to Toe
Coming August 2024!
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Devil in Blue Jeans by Stacey Kennedy.
The Devil in Blue Jeans
by Stacey Kennedy
Prologue
“Charly, if you take another step up this mountain, I will shove you over the edge.”
Halfway up the Absaroka Mountains, Charly Henwood glanced over her shoulder. Her best friend, Aubrey Hale’s blue eyes glared in warning as she panted heavily, sweat dampening her shiny blond hair.
“We’re not even at the top yet,” Charly pointed out. “Just take a few breaths and we’ll be done soon.”
“I hate you,” Aubrey groaned.
Charly fought her laughter as she glanced to the third member of their trio, Willow Quinn. She shifted the large backpack around her shoulders with her usual sweet smile in place and adjusted her messy side braid of strawberry blond hair, her twinkling green eyes gleamed subtly. “Oh, stop whining,” Willow said to Aubrey. “It’s not so bad.”
“Liar,” came the muttered reply from behind Charly.
Charly laughed as two backpackers walked by looking ready to call it quits.
Willow raised her arm in encouragement. “You’re almost there,” she shouted.
“That’s another lie,” Aubrey said, scoffing.
After the couple smiled and thanked Willow, she turned back to Aubrey and said, “That’s not lying. That’s cheering people on.”
Aubrey grumbled something incoherent beneath her breath, and Charly just shook her head, chuckling to herself as they continued. Here were her two closest friends since kindergarten—Willow was like sunshine while Aubrey was always its shadow. They’d experienced it all together while growing up with their families in Ann Arbor, Michigan—joyful moments, sad moments and everything in between.
Five minutes later, Aubrey barked out a curse. “That’s it. I’m done.” She dropped her backpack to the ground and sank onto it. “I wanted to explore Rome, soak up some culture and history, but instead we ended up here in Montana, on this stupid mountain.”
Charly took in the view, realizing they were close enough to where she needed to get them. She shrugged off her backpack, not really blaming Aubrey for her less-than-thrilled mood. Aubrey wasn’t a hiker. The trip had been a graduation present to themselves before they started their adult lives and moved away from each other in hopes of catching their big dreams.
Aubrey pulled out her water bottle, taking a big drink before speaking again. “So, we’ve hiked through forests, camped under the stars and seen erupting geysers and hot springs. Explain to me why this place beats Rome.”
Charly smiled as she sat down on her backpack next to Aubrey, then pointed down at the valley below them. More importantly, the small town. “We’re here for that.” Timber Falls was north of Yellowstone National Park, along the Yellowstone River, with a population of a little over seven thousand. Nineteenth-century brick buildings lined the two-lane street, which housed art galleries, bookstores and boutiques that displayed an Old Wild West ambience amid homestyle eateries, with a stunning view of the mountain range at the end of the road.
She glanced to her friends. “Do you remember the pact we made when we were thirteen?”
Willow scanned the town below before scrunching her nose. “What are you talking about?”
“This,” Charly said, pulling a piece of paper from her pocket. She unfolded it, revealing a drawing that was identical to the small town nestled in the valley they were overlooking. “When I was researching different wineries and breweries in search of the best booze on the market, I found this place.” Timber Falls was known as a filming spot for many movies and brought in artists and writers in droves. Now Charly understood why. There was something magical about this place. Something far past beautiful. A pulsating energy that was as warm and welcoming as it was peaceful. “When I saw it, I almost fell out of my chair.”
Aubrey accepted the paper, her gaze glued to the page. “The similarity is a bit eerie.”
“Right?” Charly agreed. None of them were particularly talented artists, but the picture created the unmistakable impression of a Main Street with an Old West vibe and mountains at the end of it. They used to fantasize about staying together forever in this small town they’d created, just the three of them, and falling in love with rugged cowboys.
“You kept this drawing all this time?” Willow asked as Aubrey returned the paper to Charly.
Charly nodded. “I found it when I was packing.” They all lived together in a small apartment in Berkeley while she and Willow attended the University of California together and Aubrey attended the Culinary Institute of America. But their lease was up, and their lives were about to change forever.
“Incredible,” Aubrey said.
Charly agreed with a nod. “After I found it, I got to thinking. When we leave here, we’re all going our separate ways.” She looked to Willow. “You’re off to Portland for your new fancy marketing job.” Her gaze fell to Aubrey. “You’re heading to Atlanta working beneath Chef Bisset. And I’m moving to Phoenix with Marcel to open the nightclub.” She’d met Marcel in her freshman year in a philanthropy course. He’d swept her right off her feet, and even though it took another two years for them to get serious, she knew he was her one and only. “The world is our oyster now, but I don’t want us to forget what we once dreamed of having together.”
Aubrey tilted her head, and the flush of her cheeks faded away gradually. “What exactly are you proposing?”
Charly flashed them a smile. “I’m suggesting that we come up with a contingency plan—just in case the plans we have don’t work out.”
Willow scrunched her nose in confusion. “I still don’t get it.”
Charly gestured to the paper. “When I found the drawing, and then discovered this town so randomly, I figured it had to be a sign. So, that’s why I brought us here.” After they’d hiked out of Yellowstone Park, they had lunch in town. Sitting outside on the patio of a hundred-and-twenty-year-old restaurant, she loved everything Timber Falls had to offer with all its rustic heritage. They had spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the two-laned Main Street, before setting out on their final hike up the mountains. “I wanted to see if this town was as magical as I was hoping it’d be—”
“And it was,” Willow interjected softly.
Charly nodded and glanced down at the town nestled at the base of the mountains. There was a hardware store and a movie theater that still had the old metal cinema marquee. The shops were eclectic and quaint, and the town had clearly been renovated to keep true to its old-town American roots. The people striding down Main Street weren’t rushing to get anywhere. They were taking in the sunny, warm day, enjoying life, not letting it fly by.
From the sense of tight-knit community and friendly townsfolk every which way you looked, the place had all the things they had once thought was so different than their city life. And most importantly, real-life cowboys—just the type of man their young hearts once dreamed of. That was, before life got in the way and reality hit them that none of them were ever leaving the big city for small-town living.
Charly looked between her friends. “Let’s make a pact—if by the time we turn twenty-eight, we aren’t satisfied with life in our new cities, then we return to what we always dreamed of. We come back here and mesh our worlds together. We open a place of our own. I handle the bar.” Glancing at Aubrey, she added, “You handle the restaurant.” She met Willow’s gaze. “You do the marketing.”
Willow studied Charly for a few seconds before asking, “Why settle on twenty-eight?”
“That gives us two years to fix whatever has gone wrong in our lives before we turn thirty,” Charly explained.
Aubrey laughed softly, shaking her head. “This is a silly deal. That’s six years away. We’ll be settled by then. Don’t you think talking about this will jinx our future plans?”
Charly shrugged. “Maybe, but I’m just saying if our plans don’t work out, let’s go back to our pact. We took this trip as a last celebration before becoming adults and it all led us here. What do we have to lose?” She waved out to the town below that held so much heart. “If at twenty-eight we feel less content than now, let’s move here and start over.” Charly held out her hand. “Who’s in?”
Willow smiled wide, placing her hand on top of Charly’s. “I’m in!”
Aubrey rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why either of you are so excited about this. You do realize making this pact is like wishing that our dreams fail?”
“No, Miss Uptight,” Charly corrected. “We’re making this pact so that we can protect our own happiness. We need to always look out for each other. And we deserve the happiness that our thirteen-year-old selves dreamed up.”
Aubrey’s eyes narrowed for a moment and then she smiled. “Okay, I’m in.” She placed her hand atop Willow’s. “Here’s to having a plan B.”
Charly grinned at Willow before they all lifted their hands, and Charly shouted, “To having a backup plan!”
Copyright © 2024 by Stacey Kennedy
Also by Yahrah St. John
Her Secret Billionaire
Her Best Friend’s Brother
Her One Night Consequence
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
ISBN-13: 9780369748942
Frenemy Fix-Up
Copyright © 2024 by Yahrah Yisrael
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Without limiting the author’s and publisher’s exclusive rights, any unauthorized use of this publication to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is expressly prohibited.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
For questions and comments about the quality of this book, please contact us at CustomerService@Harlequin.com.
TM and ® are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises ULC.
Harlequin Enterprises ULC
22 Adelaide St. West, 41st Floor
Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada
www.Harlequin.com
Yahrah St. John, Frenemy Fix-Up
