CHAPTER 13
“I’m so glad that you guys could make it,” Brynn greeted Sara and Charlotte, giving them each a quick hug.
“Me too.” Sara smiled and took a seat beside her new friend on the small bleachers overlooking the massive track. As soon as her butt hit the metal bench Charlotte climbed up on her lap.
Sara knew that her lap-sitting days were numbered. She’d done her best, no matter how crazy things got in her life to enjoy each and every stage that her children were in, even the terrible twos. Once that time was gone, she knew she could never get it back.
Charlotte got settled against her mom and Sara started Frozen on her phone. Trevor was down on the tracks with the guys, putting his gear on.
“So did you and the kids have fun at the festival today? Did you get to go to the castle? That was all Trevor talked about yesterday.”
Sara didn’t doubt it. Her son had been born with the gift of gab and no filter. If he was thinking about something, he was talking about it.
“We did have fun, but we haven’t made it to the castle, yet.” Sara checked to make sure her daughter’s attention was fully focused on the movie playing before she mouthed to her friend, “I’m saving it for leverage.”
“I like your style. That’s a good move.” Brynn chuckled.
“Hey, girls, hey!” Jess called out as she and Ali climbed to the fourth row of bleachers and sat down directly behind Brynn, Charlotte, and Sara.
As the women all greeted one another, the sound of an engine roaring to life caught Sara’s attention. She turned her head and saw Austin leaning down talking to Trevor. She couldn’t hear what he was saying, but from the look on his face, it was safety related.
Sara took the opportunity to study his gorgeous face. Her gaze roamed over his strong jaw, full lips, and—the cherry on top of the sexy sundae—his deep green eyes. They stole her breath, her heart, and her soul in a single glance.
All day, she’d been trying to avoid making direct eye contact because she didn’t want to be reduced to a puddle of drool in front of her kids. It hadn’t been easy. He had such a strong presence, and she was drawn to it like her name was Miss Moth and his was Mr. Flame. And it wasn’t just his stare that drew her. She’d spent a large portion of the day actively stopping herself from touching him, kissing him, and rubbing up against him like a cat in heat. The rest of the time, she’d been pinching herself that he was actually there, with them.
Sara had woken up that morning fairly certain she’d imagined, or even dreamed, the conversation in the kitchen the night before. She’d convinced herself the entire thing had been a fantasy. But then she saw the evidence that it had, indeed, happened in the form of the B&B paperwork on her nightstand and brownie crumbs on her pillow.
As if Austin could get any more perfect, he’d made brownies. And not just any brownies, his brownies were rich, moist, and fudgy without being overly dense, gooey, or oily. And they had a top layer of shiny, flaky, crackly goodness. She was glad that Austin hadn’t witnessed her consumption of the tasty treats. She feared she’d looked like a lion eating his prey in the wild. She’d devoured two while she was working, and had brought a third to bed with her. Truth be told, she could’ve easily eaten the entire plate, so she was happy that she’d been able to show some restraint.
Even with the indisputable evidence that the night before had not been a fever dream, when she and the kids had arrived in the dining room for breakfast and Austin had been waiting at the table with two cups of coffee and a smile, she’d been genuinely surprised. Not because she’d truly believed that the night before had been in her imagination, but because she still couldn’t quite wrap her mind around Austin wanting to hang out with them.
During breakfast, Austin was great with the kids. He was so natural with them, like he’d known them forever. He helped Charlotte cut up her pancakes, at her daughter’s insistence. When her baby girl dropped her pudding on the floor, he had it wiped up before a single tear fell from her face. He talked sports and video games with Trevor. He even FaceTimed his cousin, who happened to be Trev’s all-time favorite baseball player, JJ Briggs, so that her son could talk to him. JJ had retired from baseball the previous summer and it had broken Trev’s heart. All was forgiven when JJ invited Trevor to come to the training facility he’d opened in his hometown of Wishing Well, Texas.
As if Austin’s pedestal needed to be any higher in her son’s eyes.
The whole day had been so surreal, it was still hard for Sara to wrap her mind around it. Everything from breakfast, to walking around the festival, to lunch, to now, seemed more like a fantasy than real life. Sara was still having a hard time trusting that Austin really wanted to be here with them. He was a former Marine sniper who was single and sexier than sin. She was sure he had better offers.
Were she and the kids some kind of charity case?
Did he feel sorry for her?
Did he feel some kind of misplaced responsibility?
Sara’s mind was sure to fill with a slew of other questions, but its progress was halted when Austin’s gaze met hers. Just like that, her mind went blank and she couldn’t breathe. One look in his eyes was all it took for all of the air around her to be gone. And when a slow, sexy grin spread on his face, poof, so was the rest of the world. Disappeared. Vanished. Her ability to inhale and her senses only returned when Kade slapped Austin on his shoulder and he broke the connection of their stare as he turned toward his friend.
“Wow.” Jess leaned down and whispered. “So I think I know the answer, but how are things going with that?”
Sara’s head was still spinning from the loss of oxygen. “With what?”
When Jess didn’t respond, Sara glanced over her shoulder to see her friend’s brow raised and a give-me-a-break expression on her face.
“Oh, that.” Sara hadn’t been playing coy. It just wasn’t until that moment that she’d realized what that was. She wished she had a better answer for herself and her friend. Since she didn’t, she gave her the only one she had. “Confusing.”
“At least you’re not denying it. That’s a lot better than most folks around here.” Jess leaned back, seeming satisfied with Sara’s response.
“Most folks?” Sara was starting to think maybe she’d been wrong about the that.
“Oh, yeah. You’re not the first, nor will you be the last, to fall under the Whisper Lake spell. Some fight it. Some deny it. But my advice is, once the wave hits you, it’s better to just go with the flow rather than try to swim against the current.”
“The Whisper Lake spell,” Sara repeated, unsure what exactly they were talking about.
“It’s part of the whole Stone Castle myth, that people come to Whisper Lake and they fall in love. Whether they want to or not, it’s like they’re under some magic spell,” Ali explained.
Magic. That had been the word that her grandma had used to describe Whisper Lake.
Wait…did Ali and Jess think…“Oh, I’m not…we’re not…I didn’t say that…” Sara didn’t want her friends getting the wrong idea and then telling Kade, or Ethan, or Axel who’d tell Austin that she’d said they were in love.
That was crazy.
Jess patted Sara’s arm as she scrunched her nose. “Sure you’re not.”
Sara wanted to say more, to defend herself, but before she had a chance, a woman appeared. She walked up the bleachers, waving to them.
“Oh, hey, I didn’t know you were stopping by.” Jess stood and embraced the attractive middle-aged woman.
“I had some wedding plans to go over with you.” The woman beamed.
Jess and her fiancé Ethan were planning a Christmas wedding. Sara had never been a big fan of weddings. When she and Jack had gone to the courthouse, it was fine with her. She considered them a lot of hassle and from a financial standpoint, she didn’t see the point in spending a ton of money on one day. Her mind had started to change when her sister and brother had got married. Watching them vow to spend their lives, with the loves of their lives had been moments that were priceless.
She was actually a little bummed that she wouldn’t be able to witness Jess and Ethan’s nuptials. She’d felt connected to their story even before she’d met them since she’d posted their proposal.
“Oh, okay but first I want you to meet someone.” Jess motioned beside her in a ta-da gesture. “This is Sara, from Arizona. Sara is the one that shared the proposal video on her blog.”
The woman’s face lit up. “Sara from the What the F blog?”
It felt so odd to Sara that anyone read her blog, much less strangers that lived thousands of miles away from her.
“Yep.” Jess motioned down to Charlotte who was still engrossed in her movie. “She’s here with her daughter, Charlotte, and her son, Trevor, who’s down on the track with Austin. Sara, this is my mom, Bonnie.”
“It’s so nice to meet you.” Sara reached out to shake the woman’s hand.
When Bonne sat down next to Jess, Jess said, “We were just telling Sara about the Whisper Lake spell.”
Bonnie shook her head. “Well, I don’t really believe in spells or magic.”
“That’s because you met the love of your life when you were ten,” Jess reasoned.
“Ten?” Sara heard herself repeating.
“Well, I didn’t know that he was the love of my life then,” Bonnie explained.
“Dad did,” Jess’s tone was matter-of-fact.
“You met your husband when you were ten?”
“Yep. At church.” Bonnie nodded.
“My dad said that he was sitting in a pew with his family and he turned and saw her walk in, and he was a goner. He knew that she was it for him.”
“At ten? He knew?” Sara thought about Trevor. He was seven.
“When you meet my dad, you’ll understand,” Jess assured her.
“Bonnie and John are Whisper Lake’s relationship goals,” Ali noted.
“Everyone in town aspires to have a relationship like theirs,” Brynn added.
“Only because even after being married for forty years, my dad can’t keep his hands off of her. But who can blame him? Look at her.” Jess waved her hand up and down. “She’s hot.”
It was clear that Jess was teasing her mom, good-naturedly, but she wasn’t wrong. Bonnie was gorgeous.
“Stop.” Bonnie was smiling but Sara would recognize the I’m-serious mom tone anywhere.
It made Sara happy imagining herself having a relationship like Bonnie and Jess had with Charlotte when she was an adult. Sara had never had that kind of relationship with her own mother. And her grandma had passed away when Sara was a teen. She’d never known what that looked like, now that she saw it in front of her, it made her even more grateful for her munchkins.
That wasn’t the only relationship that was inspiring to Sara. John and Bonnie’s love was the kind of thing Sara had only read about in books, and seen on television and in movies. Sara’s sister Shelby and brother both had healthy, happy marriages but they were newlyweds. Forty years together was such a huge accomplishment. Especially if the spark, the magic was still alive. And that was just how long they’d been married. Jess had said that John met Bonnie when they were ten.
“I can’t believe you’ve been together since you were ten.” Sara knew she kept harping on the age, but it just seemed so young.
“Oh no.” Bonnie shook her head. “We didn’t get together until we were sixteen.”
She said that as if it was so much different. That was still incredible to Sara.
“Mom had to wait until dad grew taller than her.” Jess smiled widely.
“You did?” Sara chuckled. She’d been envisioning this epic, love story and hearing that Bonnie hadn’t wanted to date John until he was taller than her struck her funny bone.
“Yeah,” Bonnie said, clearly still standing by her decision.
“Does he know that?” Sara asked.
“Of course.”
“He thinks it’s cute.” Jess explained. “He thinks everything my mom does is cute.”
Bonnie shook her head. She was clearly as uncomfortable with the conversation turning to how cute she was, as she was with it being about how hot she was. So like any seasoned mom, since the warning didn’t work, she steered it in a new direction. “So, how are you liking Whisper Lake, Sara? I heard you’re staying over at the Princess and the Pea.”
Wow. News travels fast in small towns.
“Yep. My grandmother stayed there when she was sixteen. She believed that the town was magic and told me all about the magical summer she spent here, and that she always hoped one day I would experience that. So here we are.” Sara didn’t know if this place really was magic but there was definitely something in Whisper Lake that caused her to open up with people in ways she never would in Phoenix.
“Wow. And Austin’s staying there, right?” Bonnie smiled. “Are you two getting to know each other?”
Why did Sara get the distinct feeling that this was a set up…?
“I love Austin,” Charlotte suddenly tuned into the conversation she’d been oblivious to, all it took was hearing Austin’s name.
Bonnie’s smile grew even larger as she looked down at Charlotte. “You do?”
“Yes,” Charlotte replied earnestly as she lifted her ringlet-framed face up from staring at Sara’s phone. “He has a tattoo, like my daddy. He knows how to tie shoes. He’s makes funny faces. He doesn’t get mad if you spill pudding on his floor. And I love how he looks at Mommy.” She exhaled a dreamy sigh.
Oh no.
The show Kids Say the Darndest Things was popular for a reason; no one ever knew what was going to come out of a kid’s mouth.
“How does he look at your mommy?” Jess’s tone dripped with amusement.
“Yeah, how does he look at her?” Ali followed up as Brynn leaned in.
It appeared everyone was as interested to hear what her daughter was about to say as she was. Sara had no idea what it would be, but if Charlotte had a mute button, she would’ve pushed it without hesitation.
Charlotte twisted in Sara’s lap so that she was facing her mom. She lifted her little arms and cupped her mom’s cheeks. Then, leaning in close, she loudly whispered, “Like she’s a princess.”
“Awww,” All four women chorused.
Tears filled Sara’s bottom lids as she grinned and attempted to redirect Charlotte’s attention. “Watch your movie, baby girl.”
There was no way she’d be able to pull the Frozen move out of her go-to mom bag of tricks very much longer, but when Charlotte settled back down on her lap and picked up the phone, Sara sighed with happiness that she was able to get a little more mileage out of it.
Her relief didn’t stem from being worried about what else her three-year-old might say. It came from not wanting her little girl to notice how much of an effect the statement had had on her. In Charlotte’s world, being a princess was the be all, end all. It was the pinnacle of compliments. It was everything.
Sara had never believed in fairytales. She wasn’t the girl that dreamed of her knight in shining armor coming to save her. She’d always been perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
So why did the fact her daughter thought Austin looked at her like that cause her to get emotional?
The sound of motors filled the open air space, causing Sara to sit up straighter as she went into autopilot mom-mode and scanned the area for Trevor. When she locked eyes on her target, she saw her son was getting his helmet adjusted by Austin. The precious sight sent her already unstable emotions into red-zone vulnerability. That was not a place Sara liked to be.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sara noticed Jess lean toward her mom and whisper, “Still don’t believe in the magic?”
As she watched Trevor and Austin start their first lap around the track, Sara felt a gentle, familiar pat on top of her hand that was resting on Charlotte’s leg. She looked down expecting to see either her daughter’s or one of the women’s hands over hers. But Charlotte was holding the phone with both hands and none of the women were trying to get her attention.
For a moment she wondered what it was she’d felt, but then it hit her. That was exactly what Grandma Betty used to do. She hadn’t felt it in so long, she’d almost forgotten the loving gesture. She’d always reach out and pat Sara’s hand and tell her that she loved her a bushel and a peck.
Just like Bonnie didn’t believe in a magic love spell, Sara didn’t believe in ghosts or spirits. But as she sniffed back emotion clogging her throat at the thought of her grandma reaching out to her now, her spirit knowing that she’d gone to Whisper Lake, seeing that she’d met Austin, she was wondering if they might both be wrong.
Maybe her grandma did know, and maybe this town truly was magic.