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    Broody and the Beast: Belvoir County, #2
    Broody and the Beast: Belvoir County, #2
    Broody and the Beast: Belvoir County, #2
    Ebook145 pages2 hours

    Broody and the Beast: Belvoir County, #2

    By Lulu M. Sylvian

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    About this ebook

    Magic is the best kept open secret in Belvoir County. Everyone knows it exists, but no one talks about it, they'd much rather talk about their chickens.

     

    Love spells don't work.

    They fade and break and shatter. But Paisley had thought she beat the odds with her ex. That is, until the day he snapped, and he didn't love her anymore.

    Now, pregnant and hiding out in her grandmother's old home, Paisley is learning her lessons the hard way.

    When she meets Eric, she makes it very clear to him and the power behind her magic, she did not wish for him. But she wants him. And he seems to want her. Will he understand her powers? Could he, a fireman, be with her, a fire starter?

    It turns out she isn't the only one with a hidden, secret talent.

     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMoon Tan Press
    Release dateJul 19, 2024
    ISBN9798227277916
    Broody and the Beast: Belvoir County, #2

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      Book preview

      Broody and the Beast - Lulu M. Sylvian

      CHAPTER ONE

      Paisley

      The laptop lay in a crumpled heap. The side with the monitor was folded and twisted, mostly separated from the base. Letter keys scattered around, mixed in with fragments of broken plastic and shattered glass. The computer had sailed through the air in a graceful arch before it crashed with a glorious smack against the granite counter and fell to where it currently lay on the tile floor.

      The best friend a guy could ask for.

      Fuck! I shook with rage.

      The woman in the picture had a big toothy grin, a pointy little nose, and while she was mostly tan, her nose was pink and peeling from too much time in the sun. Her dark wet hair hung limp to her shoulders. She wore a surfer’s rash guard that exposed her lower abdomen, showing off a six-pack. The tiny string bikini barely covered her pubes. She had to shave her hoo-ha.

      She had a surfboard under one arm, and the other around…

      The best friend a guy could ask for.

      Why did I have to look on social media this morning? Another hour and that stupid picture would have been gone, buried in the constant input of new images. But no, I checked in right now, and there it was: Dylan and that woman. A huge smile slashed across his stupid face. His blond hair stood up in a shaggy mess. He had a dark tan and his arm around the surfer chick. The girlfriend, the not-me.

      I didn’t know he liked the beach so much. He complained constantly on one trip we had taken. Now that I thought back on it, he had been complaining about me. My bathing suit, my need for an umbrella, my constant reminding him to put on sunscreen. And having to beg him to get in the water with me.

      But what it all came down to, was me in a bathing suit. I should have recognized the signs.

      The best friend a guy could ask for.

      Stupid smiling couple, stupid little orange bikini bottoms, stupid surfer girl and her naked pubes.

      That should have been me in the picture with Dylan. I had been his best friend once. Hadn’t I? I only gave him a little nudge to see that I was the best thing to have ever happened to him. He said he loved me. Said it even after the effects of my little spell had faded away.

      He agreed it was time to have kids. Didn’t he realize he was agreeing to more than just all of a sudden there would be a baby in our lives, but that I was going to alter my body forever? Not every woman has the genetics that lets her body snap right back into pre-baby shape. And even if I could get back to my pre-baby weight, my hips had been wide even then.

      I should have seen this coming the second he complained about stretch marks while I was pregnant. Those will go away, won’t they?

      If Dylan wasn’t happy with the changes in my body, he should have gotten inside my head. Every ignorant comment he made had me doubting myself at every turn. I tried to explain that it took almost ten months for my body to change. I wasn’t going to walk out of the hospital in pre-baby shape.

      He had given me two years to get back into shape.

      Two years. God, he was an asshole.

      So now he’s off traveling internationally to surfing competitions with that woman, and I’m living in Gran’s old house with Terri-Ann and her family until I can get back on my feet.

      Why did he have to write that? If he needed a best friend, he could have gotten a dog.

      Aunt Paise, you all right? Twelve-year-old Vidalia slid into the kitchen in her stocking feet. She took a horrified look at the broken computer on the kitchen floor, and then at me. I was still on my ass at the table on the other side of the room. What happened?

      I shrugged. There was a spider.

      Vida did one of those cartoon runs. Her feet moved, but she didn’t go anywhere for a moment before her feet got traction. She crashed out of the kitchen as fast as she could.

      Mama! Aunt Paisley killed a spider with her computer! I think she’s crying. That child couldn’t be quiet if she tried.

      Terri-Ann burst into the kitchen and took one look at me.

      Oh Paisley, sweetie. What did that asshole do this time?

      I gestured at the laptop and tried to say something, but my words got trapped in a sob. I didn’t want to cry over Dylan.

      He wasn’t worth it.

      The baby thrashed and landed a round-house kick to a rib. I pressed against my distended abdomen, trying to relocate the offending foot.

      Dylan was off gallivanting around the globe with his girlfriend who had maybe five percent body fat, and wore the skimpiest bathing suits, and scraps of clothing as cover-ups, and here I was half a globe away, a walking FUPA, and hugely pregnant with his second, and clearly unwanted, child.

      Terri-Ann rubbed my back as my crying subsided into a fit of hiccups.

      You want a piece of cake? she asked.

      Please. I wanted to cram all the cake into my face. Something good had to have come out of the divorce. Right now, the only thing that seemed to come close to fitting that description was the trés leche cake we had to celebrate my new-found marital freedom.

      Terri-Ann busied herself around the kitchen pulling cake from the fridge and cutting me an obscenely large piece. My sister knew me, she knew I ate my feelings. And right now my feelings needed to be stuffed down with a cake chaser before Liv came back with her other cousin to see what was going on.

      I was practically numb as Terri-Ann slid the cake in front of me, and I dug in. The fork slid into the sponge and the slight compression had milky white droplets form on the exposed edge. I should have been moaning in delighted anticipation.

      Instead, I shoveled the piece into my mouth. I did pause in momentary admiration of the cake, so good, but my scarf-face needs were greater.

      You feel like talking about it? Terri-Ann asked as she started to pick up the remains of my flying laptop.

      Uh, uh, I grunted around the cake in my mouth. I swallowed and had a fork with more cake ready to replace it. He’s in Australia with her. He posted a picture. Her bikini was like the size of a Band-aid.

      Did he say something about the divorce being final?

      No, he called her his best friend. I was his best friend. It’s like he’s completely forgotten about all those years in college, and the year after graduation when I moved back, and he called me every day to tell me he missed having his best friend around. I sniffed, and began eating again.I had been his best friend. I said around a mouthful of cake.

      I had been his best friend, and desperately in love with him.

      When you finish that, why don’t you go wash your face and then take Liv to the park. You can get a little walk in. The fresh air will do you some good.

      I knew Terri-Ann was trying. She didn’t need me weighing her down. She had a family, kids, dogs, husband, chickens, and now she had me and Liv adding to everything. Sending us to the park got us out of her hair for a bit.

      I understood. I’d rather make a nest on the couch and watch TV, but a good waddle around the park would probably do more for me than the guilt I would feel after I finished this piece of cake.

      CHAPTER TWO

      Liv whined and fussed as I unbuckled her. She ran herself out at the park and struggled against sleep. I, too, felt like whining, but for vastly different reasons. I wasn’t so tired that I couldn’t stay awake. And that would last well into the wee hours.

      Insomnia thought it was my BFF, right alongside heartburn. The two of them kept me up. So yeah, I wanted to whine and be tired. I wanted someone to carry me in from the car. I wanted a nap. I wanted… me, me, me.

      Isn’t that why Dylan left? My demands on him and his time were too self-centered. I wasn’t taking his wants and needs into consideration. He didn’t want or need me, how dare I impinge.

      A knot formed in my gut. Guilt settled in like a rock, that or the kid was winding up for a roundhouse kick to the bladder.

      With a groan, I hefted Liv out of the car. She lay limp as a sodden noodle and heavy as a bag of wet cement across my shoulder.

      Paisley Owens, let me get that for you.

      I couldn’t exactly spin, but I twisted my head around until I could see Nan Weiss striding firmly, if not a little slowly, in my direction.

      Nan Weiss! I was pleased to see her still up and about. She had been Gran’s neighbor my entire life. How are you?

      I’m a sight better than you are, dear.

      I stepped back and gave Nan access to the back of the car. She leaned in and picked up my bag, the empty cup that still rattled with ice, and the crumpled up Sonic bag that smelled of old fries.

      Thank you so much, I cooed. I was going to have to make a second trip once I got Liv inside.

      Terri-Ann told me you were coming for a stay. She mentioned…

      I sighed. Of course, sis would say something to Nan. I bit my lip, I really hoped that didn’t mean the entirety of Duchamp and Belvoir County knew why I was home.

      Duchamp was barely more than a crossroads. The college was pretty much the only reason there was a solid dot on most maps, and not simply a name identifying an area. There wasn’t even a town square. Duchamp had a triangle. The college took up one side, with what was left of town on the other two.

      It took the definition of small town to heart. Everyone knew everyone else, and they were all up in each other’s business. When I was younger, Nan and Gran would sit out on the porch and drink sweet tea when they visited, and they talked about everyone. I guess it made sense that now Terri-Ann was the lady of the house that she would visit with Nan in a similar

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