Looking for Love: Harmony Village Series, Vol.1

A Christian Romance

by Anna Dynowski

Runaway bride Maggie Egan leaves town for the big city with only a knapsack on her back and a secret in her heart. Now, older, wiser, and broke, she returns, with all her worldly possessions stacked in the backseat of a beat-up old car and her twelve-year-old secret, a daughter, seated in the front. Managing the cafe is just what she needs to rebuild her life. What she does not need is the owner of the cafe snooping around. He’s handsome, charming, and...her daughter’s father.

Stefan Chapeski is surprised he still feels hurt, resentment, and...attraction toward Maggie. Stay away, he vows as old feelings resurface and his heart does a tailspin in his chest, except...he can’t quite put his finger on it, but there is something oddly familiar about the girl and he does employ her mother. And, oh well, Stefan is in need of a coffee, one brewed by Maggie.

But, when the plan to rekindle the romance is kidnapped and held at gunpoint, the services of the town’s indomitable matchmaker are required. Reporting for duty...Cupid Cat. He’s not above baring his fangs to make sure his clients are Looking For Love in the right place.

ISBN 978-1-59431-842-9 Romance / Christian / Contemporary





Chapter 1

Stefan Chapeski decided he had a wax build-up in both his ears. A thick, syrupy twelve-year build-up, to be exact. How else could he explain misunderstanding his best friend's words, he wondered, concentrating his sight on the white speed boat chugging past them along the canal on its way to the open waters of Harmony Lake. He lifted a hand in acknowledgment to the driver sounding the horn, the slow, casual movement at odds with the clamorous beating of his heart.

The man sitting on the bench beside him, legs apart, elbows resting on his thighs, hands clasped together, couldn't possibly have said what Stefan thought he did. Could he?

She wouldn't dare show her face here, not after all this time. Not after dealing him such a cruel and cutting humiliation. A very public humiliation. He felt his hands curl into fists. She wouldn't have the guts to return and face the music. His music.

Shaking his head, he relaxed his fingers, and gave a soft, derisory laugh before sliding his gaze on his friend. "For a minute, I actually thought you said she was coming back." He searched the other man's eyes, looking, desperately, for a negation, finding a wary compassion instead, and his heart stopped beating altogether. "Kane?"

Best friends since the first grade, he and Kane Crogan had been through a lot together. Measles and mumps. Heated arguments and hard punches. Testosterone flare-ups and temptation put-downs. Studying for exams and sneaking off to ball games. Tempers and triumphs. And throughout the almost three decades their friendship spanned, it never waned or weakened. It weathered life, in all its ups and downs, start-ups and sudden stops, proud successes and cruel jokes.

Cruel jokes.

Dark fire burned in his veins with the same intensity now as the stunned shock iced his mind and heart then.

When at the lowest ebb of his life, staggering under the crushing weight of the cruelest of jokes--his intended bride failed to show up at church or leave a note of explanation--Kane Crogan stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him, offering Stefan his compassion and loyalty, and shielding him, as best he could, from the whispers and gasps of the assembled wedding guests.

Twelve years after that mortifying incident--an incident that never quite receded into oblivion--he once again found Kane beside him, shoulder-to-shoulder. And, once again, it was because of her.

How dare you reach back into my life.

He had to swallow on the hard knot in his chest to regain his composure, but realized when he spoke, he'd failed to bring the churning emotions under control. "You're kidding, right?"

Kane straightened, held his gaze for a few humming seconds, then gave his head a quick, curt shake. "'Fraid not."

"She's coming back?" he rasped. "Here? To Harmony?"

Kane answered with a brief nod of his head.

Unable to stay seated any longer or look at the quiet concern reflected in his friend's eyes, Stefan rose, shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked to the edge of the sidewalk. He stared down into the canal in total silence, his back to his friend. "Are you sure?" he asked at last, in a pained voice.

"Yes."

A powerful anger stirring, he whirled around. "How?" The one word burst from him. Anger filled him. Anger at Maggie for ripping open his deep wounds again. Anger at himself, that after all this time, in spite of the pain, the loneliness, the disillusionment she had caused him, he still found himself bound to her. Heart and soul.

In spite of knowing the depth of his suffering, he still felt the old familiar attraction stirring within, an awakening of old feelings he thought were dead and buried. He was surprised at the gentle lift of his heart at the mere mention of her name, at the thought of seeing her again. Fool that he was.

Anger swept over him again and he was surprised at its intensity this time. He was surprised he had any emotion to spare her. But anger worked very well.

How dare you, Maggie. How dare you reach back into my life and resurrect all the pain. All the consuming need.

"How do you know for sure?" he asked with barely suppressed fury.

Kane stood, came to stand beside him, but kept his gaze focused on the canal. In a quiet voice, he said, "Alannah Denton mentioned it to my brother this morning when she went to see him for an emergency tooth extraction."

Stefan drew in a breath of resignation. "When?" How were they going to coexist in this little town? If she could turn him into a mass of quivering nerves now, what would she do to him when she actually got here?

His friend turned to face him. "Not till the middle of next month."

He took a long, slow breath, determined to gather all his bitterness, anger, infuriated bewilderment into one neat little box and bury it, somewhere, anywhere, so long as he could be set free from its shackles. "Why?" he asked, more harshly than he intended.

He whipped his gaze away from his friend's probing stare, to the canal, beyond to the other side, and watched Kasia Jakubek, owner of the Eagle and the Harp Restaurant, lead her patrons to an outdoor table. "Why is she coming back? Now?"

"Dunno." Kane stooped to pick up a rock, and with a flick of the wrist, sent it skidding over the glassy surface of the water. "Blaine never said."

Stefan flashed a glance at him, and cocking an eyebrow, he lifted his lips in a sardonic smile.

"Honest." Kane shrugged. "If Alannah told him, he never mentioned it."

"And you never thought to ask your brother?" he mocked, keeping his wry expression in place while all the time his senses burned.

"At first, I was too flabbergasted. Then..." Concern shadowed his troubled face.

"Then you worried about my reaction." Stefan hooked his thumbs in his back pockets. "I'm surprised Maggie could tear herself away from Toronto," he said, his tone dry, "and turn her back on the excitement of big city living."

It only took her twelve years to do that, he thought bitterly, less than two months to turn her back on him.

"Maybe city life isn't all it's cracked up to be. Maybe Maggie realized home is where the heart is and hers has always been right here. In Harmony. With you."

The innuendo in his tone was clear. Stefan should dispel Kane's crazy idea that just because Maggie was returning, they'd pick up where they'd left off. No way. Impossible. They could never go back. He'd changed. She'd changed. They were both different people now. He'd experienced the reality of life and no longer saw it through rose-tinted glasses. He closed his eyes at the sudden surge of pain and sorrow and regret. It could never be just like old times. Together again. It was never going to happen and he didn't want to think about. He didn't want to begin to yearn...

Feeling his friend's penetrating eyes pierce him through to the bone marrow, Stefan turned, hands on hips, head back as he stared up at the cobalt-blue sky.

No bearers of bad news, no messages of doom, no ill-omens escorted the breaking of dawn. In fact, the morning had started off well, he reflected, following the wide sweep of white cloud race across the sky.

Why, Lord? Why did You have to let her come back?

A heavy weight, replacing all the earlier anger and bitterness, settled on his shoulders, tightened the muscles in his neck, and gripped his chest.

Don't I wear enough scars?

He closed his eyes.

He'd never loved any other woman, before or since, like he did Maggie. With all this consuming need. They'd connected on so many different levels. Were inseparable.

She was the only one he'd wanted to marry. Oh, not just because of that one time, one time, they came together in an unguarded moment of passion, but because she was, is, the only one who holds his heart in her hands.

Maybe, if they'd married that day, it'd have been sooner than either had expected, anticipated, planned, but they would have married, eventually, even if that night in the storm hadn't happened. They'd been soul mates, destined to love each other forever.

Or so he'd believed. Until his rude awakening.

"Stefan?"

His voice hardened. "Do you know how long it's been?" The hard mockery of his tone was chillingly new to him, but then again, he'd never spoken to anyone about her, not even to Kane. So maybe, all these discordant feelings had been locked up too long. "Twelve years, one month, five days, eleven hours." His laugh was soft, humorless. "She's like some merciless obsession. You'd think by now, I'd be able to close the book on her and get on with my life." He snorted in disgust. "It's too bad Father McNally retired. We could have had ourselves a good old-fashioned exorcism."

"Stefan, don't."

Hearing the unease in Kane's voice, he pulled himself back to the dilemma at hand. Somehow, he'd get through this. It was a matter of grit. And saving face. Raising a weary hand to rub at the kinks in his neck, he blew out a noisy breath, then trained his vision on his friend. At the fleeting look of regret hovering in the other man's eyes, Stefan patted a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Kane," he said in a thick voice of surrender. "I'll handle it when the time comes."

It was a declaration of intent he was to remember. All too soon.