Read She's the One (Lowcountry Lovers Series Book 2) Online
Authors: Kim Boykin
She's the One (Lowcountry Lovers Series Book 2)
he’s the One
a lowcountry lovers novella
Kim Boykin
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S
he’s the One
Copyright © 2014 Kim Boykin
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The Tule Publishing Group, LLC
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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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.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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ISBN: 978-1-940296-48-7
Dedication
T
his book is dedicated to Donna Ciriello and saucy librarians everywhere who love romance.
D
ear Reader
Dear Reader,
Welcome to my little piece of heaven, the Isle of Palms. She’s the One is my love letter to my favorite place on the planet. With Charleston as its crown jewel and so many wonderful sites and places in the Lowcountry, it’s no wonder the area has become world renown for its food, its history, and its romance.
So what’s this new series about? Think of the Isle of Palms as the Love Boat and Melissa Bliss as Julie, the cruise director and matchmaker. Not that Melissa needs any help bringing couples together. The island seems to have that effect on hot heroes and feisty heroines.
If you’re lucky enough to visit the island, you’ll find there really is a peaceful groove Melissa Bliss touts, and
island time
is a very real thing.
I hope you enjoy this romance and the ones to come. They are my love letters to the island I love so very much. It is the place I feel most at home and a place where I hope you feel at home too. So sit back and relax. You’re on island time!
Thanks for reading,
Kim Boykin
M
elissa Bliss peeked out the reception-area window at the two hotties in the strip-center parking lot and let out a delicious sigh. Of course, all her ogling was in the name of love, for someone other than herself. Shane Carver was supervising the installation of Melissa’s sign for Island Bliss, her vacation property management and real estate office on the Isle of Palms. He was chatting with Parker Holbrook, who owned a good chunk of the island, including the strip center.
One of those two men might very well be
the one
for her new client, Savannah Sinclair, Melissa was sure of it. Both guys were drop-dead gorgeous and kind. Driven, but each had a true appreciation of living life to the fullest. Either would be a great match for Savannah. Maybe not her soul mate—the rarest find for a matchmaker like Melissa. But not everyone was lucky enough to find the one person on the planet created just for them.
Still, helping someone find their perfect match, so they could make their own happily ever after, was definitely her favorite thing in the world. Closely followed by her second—helping clients find their perfect vacation spot on the Isle of Palms.
“I’ve just got two questions for you, Melissa Bliss, and then I’m not saying nothing. No sir.” Her assistant, Pearl, was big and beautiful with the most gorgeous amber eyes that literally glowed with curiosity. She had always been as nosy as the day was long and utterly fascinated with Melissa’s matchmaking abilities.
“That’ll be the day, Pearl.”
“Are you scoping out one of those two fine men for Savannah Sinclair?” She nodded toward said hotties.
“What makes you so sure I’m scoping anybody out?” Melissa teased. “Maybe I’m just watching Shane install my sign to make sure it’s done right.”
“Because I know that look. I can see those sparks flying all around your pretty, blonde head while you work that Gullah magic. And from the way that hunk of a man, Shane Carver, keeps looking over here, I’d say those sparks are directed at you instead of some fancy socialite. What does that woman want with our island anyway, when she can afford to buy her own?”
Maybe the sparks Pearl thought she saw weren’t from Shane, but from finally seeing the sign go up for Melissa’s company, Island Bliss Property Sales and Management. It sure stirred up feelings of relief from years of fighting to make it through the real estate crash, of pride from building a vacation rental management company from scratch and surviving in a little cubbyhole of an office across the connector in Mt. Pleasant. But, as of today, she lived
and
worked on her island, and she couldn’t be happier.
“Savannah’s coming to stay for a few weeks, see how she likes it before she buys.” Savannah Sinclair had also donated a ton of money to build the new children’s wing at the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital, and to say thank you, she was being honored with a big fancy gala, twenty-eight days from today. “Besides, I got the feeling the times I talked to her that she’s not your average heiress divorcee.”
“Ooh, divorced, looking for love,
and
real estate. You must have peed your pants when you got that call.”
“She didn’t say she was looking for love—”
“But your matchmaking Spidey sense says she is, doesn’t it. Come on now, you can tell me. Or is it that Gullah hoo-doo?”
“You are one crazy assistant who’s making herself more dispensable by the second.”
Pearl snorted at the very idea.
Most people took one look at Melissa’s jade green eyes, long, strawberry-blond curls, and slightly tanned complexion and thought she was of Irish descent. But she was proud of her Gullah heritage from her mulatto great grandmother and prouder still that she had inherited the woman’s gift for matchmaking.
While all of Melissa’s friends either knitted in their spare time, or read, or were foodies, Melissa used her gift to bring couples together. And there’d been plenty, forty-nine to be exact, and she was just itching to make it an even fifty. Of course, she never took a dime for what some might consider a service, and Melissa never used the charms and potions like Gramma and her great Auntie Jo did, unless it was absolutely necessary. There was too much of a chance of something going wrong, of the powerful bad spirits people carried around every day overshadowing the good magic.
To be honest, Melissa didn’t believe magic had much to do with her success. She chalked it up to her God given ability and a razor sharp sense of zeroing in on the right guy. For everyone except her.
You would think always being the bridesmaid would bother the hell out of Melissa, but she got so much joy out of bringing the right two people together, she’d never minded one little bit. The only drawback to inheriting the matchmaking gene? Not all, but most, of the brides-to be wanted to
thank
her by asking her to buy
a fabulous dress that could be worn again
. And shoes, dyed-to-match.
She really needed to get back to her day job if she was going to pay for all those dresses, but her body hummed with anticipation.
“I haven’t felt anything definitive about Savannah’s match, but I’m working on it. I’m sure I’ll know more when she gets to the island, but I’m thinking Shane would be perfect. Of course, Parker would be, too, except for that whole rich, Charleston playboy thing he has going on. He may have played a little too long and missed the boat.”
Melissa almost fell off of her very tall wedges when both men turned her way and waved like they’d heard her. Parker shook Shane’s hand and then got into his Mercedes convertible—that probably cost more than her house—and drove away.
“I said I had two questions, so don’t go all hoo doo on me before I get my answers.”
Shane started toward the entrance of Island Bliss. God, he was gorgeous. Early thirties, tall, suntanned, rock-hard body.
“Shoot.” Fast.
“Just look at that man, walking this way, looking at you like you’re already his. When are you gonna get some of that magic for yourself? Forget what your Aunt Jo told you. You know your Gramma would have wanted to see you hitched and happy.”
“Mind your own business, Pearl, and I mean it.” Melissa hissed, just as Shane opened the door. “Morning, Shane. The sign looks great.”
“Thanks, Melissa.”
Did Pearl actually sigh when he nodded her way and said hi? Or was that Melissa who sighed? Shane was serious eye-candy. Blond hair, piercing, brown eyes with little flecks of gold.
“Business must be good. New digs. New sign. And I heard from a couple of my clients, you’re giving Resort Rentals a run for their money.”
“I hope so.”
Pearl’s mischievous eyes glowed; she was all but pushing Shane and Melissa together.
Hey, lady. I’m the matchmaker here.
Melissa grabbed her purse, and motioned to Shane to step outside the office and away from the crazy amateur sitting at the front desk.
“Do you have an invoice for me?”
S
hane followed Melissa out the door, and if asked, he would’ve followed her anywhere. Jesus, what was wrong with him? He’d never been like this with any woman. But Melissa Bliss wasn’t just any woman.
All she had to do was flash her smile and those emerald-green eyes at him and he was ready to do her bidding. But it wasn’t just her looks that undid him, although they were cause enough, there was some sort of connection between them that he didn’t understand. Happened every time they got with twenty feet of each other. He felt it, and he was pretty sure Melissa did, too. Although, he’d worked as hard at ignoring it as she had, until recently.