Hope Falls: Hearts Afire (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Online Free

morning. Sometimes she brewed two so she could get through the night.
    By the time Shelby came back inside, Katie was sitting at the table with a cup of freshly brewed coffee and freshly printed pages. And yes, she had a red pen too.
    “How’s the writing coming along?” Shelby asked as she went straight for the cupboard to fish out her own mug.
    Katie stared at the thick stack of pages in front of her. The writing was coming along just fine. The words were flowing; the images were so vivid in her mind. She had a few changes to tend to though and then things would be just dandy.
    “It’s going well,” she answered her new friend.
    “Levi and I left the bar late last night, or should I say morning, and your lights were still on. You were burning the midnight oil. We could see you typing away at your desk.”
    Katie was surprised that they could see her all the way from the bar. It’s not like she was naked or anything, but it was a bit unnerving that she could be seen so easily.
    “Just a head’s up in case you have anyone over, close your blinds.” Shelby winked. “Let’s just say I used to have a lot of fun messing with Levi before we got together. I stayed in that very room and gave him quite the eyeful if you know what I mean.”
    “You’re bad,” Katie said with a chuckle. “I like you.”
    “Sometimes the men in your life need a little push. I was happy to give Levi a good shove.”
    “You guys seem really happy.”
    Shelby sat across from her and leaned back in her chair. “We are happy. More than I could have imagined. He was a friend when I needed one, someone who listened and cared. And he became my heart when I was ready. He’s unbelievably sexy, incredibly kind, and he’s all mine.”
    Envious, Katie was speechless. She wanted what Shelby had, but she knew better than to believe it could happen. The men in her life never listened or cared like Levi had with Shelby. They never stuck around. Even her own father hadn’t loved her enough to stay. The only one who had was Ryan, and that’s because he was a kid. He didn’t have anywhere to go. Though, she supposed that wasn’t entirely true. As soon as her brother was old enough and had started a career of his own, he did leave. He joined a hotshot crew and took off to Utah. Eventually, he came back, but it wasn’t for her. He came back to be closer to their mom and, now, because of Lizzy.
    “So did Surfer Boy feed your creative hunger?” Shelby asked with that wicked grin.
    Surfer boy? Katie looked at her with a confused expression.
    “Casey Palmer? I call him ‘surfer boy,’ not to his face though. He looks like he should be carrying a surf board, don’t you think?”
    Immediately, Katie leaned forward and covered her pages with her forearms. How did Shelby know? Was the place bugged? Did Shelby hijack her computer through the wireless connection and read her manuscript? She knew better than to use an unprotected connection, but she figured she’d be okay at the B&B. She was the only guest there. She didn’t think she’d have to worry about the Dorsey’s stealing her work.
    “The guys call him C-Dog. They all have nicknames. It’s a guy thing, I guess. I like my names better.”
    She wondered if her friend was trying to cover her tracks with this story. It seemed concocted.
    “TDH is Eli,” Shelby added. When Katie raised a brow, she shrugged. “Tall, dark, and handsome.”
    This made Katie laugh aloud. The story was real. She was serious about giving the guys secret nicknames. People didn’t just make that stuff up. “That could be said for all of them. That was my first impression, though I guess now that I really think about it, Casey might be tall and handsome, but that hair and those eyes…” She had to suck in a deep breath of air just thinking about it.
    “You came to the wrong place for swearing off men, my friend.” Shelby stood, walked over to the sink, and rinsed out her mug. “I gotta run. Maybe I’ll see you