SUMMER
ON FIREFLY LAKE
Author:
Jen Gilroy
Series:
Firefly Lake, #2
On
Sale: July 25, 2017
Publisher:
Forever
Mass
Market: $7.99 USD
eBook:
$6.99 USD
Audio:
$21.98 USD
Sometimes
love is better the second time around . . .
Mia
Gibbs spent her marriage putting her husband's needs before her own. And now,
after a painful divorce, she's building a new life for herself and her two
daughters back home at Firefly Lake. The last thing she needs is a man to
complicate things. But former bad boy turned friend Nick McGuire—and the one
kiss they've shared-has turned everything upside down . . .
Attorney
Nick McGuire wasn't meant to be a family man. His career has always been his
focus and after taking time out to help his mother, he's ready to get back to
the city . . . until Mia and her daughters arrive at Firefly Lake. Mia is
beautiful and intriguing, and it doesn't take long to realize being "just
friends" will never be enough. As the summer nights turn colder, Nick will
have to choose between the life he's always wanted . . . and the woman he can't
live without.
“Did you enjoy the play?” Nick leaned over to
speak into her ear.
She jumped and then blinked as the overhead
lights went on. “It was nice.”
“Nice?” He raised one dark eyebrow and
grinned. “It was a murder mystery where the villain killed his so-called friends
with poisoned martini olives. Nice isn’t the first word that comes to my
mind.”
“I meant it had a good plot. I didn’t guess
who did it until the end.” Probably because she hadn’t paid attention.
“I knew it was the town clerk all along.”
“The town clerk? I thought it was the
caterer.”
“When he isn’t on the boards, the actor who
played the caterer is the town clerk over in Kincaid.” Nick chuckled. “He’s
always cast as the villain in local theater productions. Cat says it’s because
he has evil eyes. He grew up in Firefly Lake, and every Halloween when we were
kids, he dressed as a monster and scared her half to death.”
“I’m a city girl, remember?” Easy banter,
keep it light and pretend everything was like it had always been between them.
“I’m still not used to the kind of community here and how everyone seems to be
connected to everyone else.”
“There’s a lot that goes along with that
community.” Nick got to his feet and shepherded Mia through the crowd to the
exit. His big frame sheltered her and made her feel safe and protected. “People
know your business and think they have a right to talk about you because their grandmother’s
second cousin was related to your great-aunt by marriage three times removed.
They post pictures of you on Facebook.”
Mia’s face heated. A copy of that Facebook
picture had appeared on Gabrielle’s kitchen table. She should have gotten rid
of it but instead, Mia had taken it upstairs and tucked it into the bottom of
her suitcase. Then ignored Gabrielle’s pointed looks.
“Do you want to get ice cream? Simard’s
Creamery has a stand across the street from where we had dinner.”
The intimate bistro with tables for two,
where the muted candlelight had softened the planes of Nick’s face, and they’d
bumped knees under the small table to send jolts of awareness through her.
“You like your tiger tail ice cream, don’t
you?” Although Nick’s voice held a teasing note, something hot and elemental
sparked in his eyes. Then his expression changed again, and he was the Nick
who’d helped her with her mom’s foundation on all those late-night phone calls
last winter. The friend she called when she wanted to talk about anything and
everything.
Mia stopped in the middle of the rutted track
in the field where they’d left the car. The long grass tickled her bare legs
below her sundress, and she shivered in the cool night air. They’d go for ice
cream and then Nick would take her home. They’d drive the familiar highway back
to Firefly Lake and talk about the play and how well Charlie and Lexie were
doing. Safe, easy topics.
He’d drop her off at Harbor House, and she’d
go upstairs and get into Georgia’s single bed beneath the tattered travel
posters. Alone. Like all those other nights she’d spent alone, denying what she
wanted and making excuses.
“I changed my mind. I don’t want ice cream.”
Her voice shook.
“Mia, I—” He made a choked sound.
“I thought about what you said.” If she
didn’t go for this, she’d always regret it and wonder about what might have
been. And maybe a fling with Nick was exactly what she needed to put the last
ghosts of her marriage behind her. “You’re right. We’re both single and neither
of us wants something the other one can’t give.”
“Are you sure?”
She tried to laugh. “We’d have to be
discreet.”
“Of course.” The raw desire on his face was
replaced by a glimpse of what might have been vulnerability.
“I like you, and I know you won’t hurt me.”
Because she’d locked the part of her that could be hurt deep inside. “We both
have needs.” She kicked the grass with her sandals and rubbed her bottom lip.
“I like you, too. What Jay did was wrong, and
I want to make sure you understand I’d never do anything like that.” A pulse
fluttered in Nick’s throat. “We might not have a relationship, but I wouldn’t
sleep with anybody else if I slept with you.”
Mia looked at the night sky, where stars
twinkled above the forested hills. When she was little, she’d wished on stars
and believed in a happy-ever-after. But she was an adult, and life had made her
wiser and destroyed her childish belief in magic and wishes. “Where do we go
from here?”
“I’ll take you back to Mom’s if you want me
to.” Nick’s arm brushed the curve of her shoulder through her light sweater,
and the tremble inside her kicked up. “If you’re not ready.”
She was ready all right and had been even before
he kissed her the first time. “I want this.” She lifted her face to his as a
cloud scudded across the moon. “I want you.”
THE COTTAGE AT
FIREFLY LAKE, #1
SUMMER ON FIREFLY
LAKE, #2
BACK HOME AT FIREFLY
LAKE, #3
Jen
Gilroy grew up under the big sky of western Canada. After many years in
England, she now lives in a small town in eastern Ontario where her Irish
ancestors settled in the nineteenth century. She's worked in higher education
and international marketing but, after spending too much time in airports and
away from her family, traded the 9-5 to write contemporary romance to bring
readers' hearts home.
A
small-town girl at heart, Jen likes ice cream, diners, vintage style and all
things country. Her husband, Tech Guy, is her real-life romance hero, and her
daughter, English Rose, teaches her to cherish the blessings in the everyday.
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