Second Chance

By Audra North

A tricky ghost treats a lonely librarian to another chance at love…
Wilford town librarian Marnie Thomas has had too much loss to risk her heart ever again. She buries her hurt in books and finds her friends in stories, even though she longs for love and a family of her own.

Real estate developer Collin Morgan is back in town on Halloween to help his sister, but the last person he expected to see at his niece’s story hour is Marnie Thomas. The shy, awkward girl he remembered from high school has turned into a beautiful—but still shy—woman, and Collin can’t help the desire that rises up when he sees her.

But this year, the magic of Halloween conjures a wisecracking, cigar-smoking ghost named Bill in the library archives, frightening Marnie out from behind her books. Bill does everything in his power to bring Marnie and Collin together…but he can’t make them fall in love. Before the clock strikes midnight on Halloween, will Marnie finally open up to a second chance at happiness, or will she be forever haunted by the past?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Audra North
• Release date: Aug 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781501432316

Book preview

Second Chance

Audra North

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Audra North. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Author.

Edited by Gwen Hayes www.fresheyescritique.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition August 2014

For A.B.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Marnie wiped her palms on her skirt and picked up the book from the display table next to her, trying not to look at the group of parents clustered toward the back of the room. She could get through this. She just had to ignore them.

Ignore him.

He hadn’t changed much in the past fifteen years. He had the same sharp chin and heavy brow, the same way of standing like he was about to barrel right through someone in attack. Or possibly run out the door, like he had when she was twelve.

Ignore him.

She scanned the eager little faces of the costumed first-graders sitting on the floor in front of her. One little girl with an elfin face and blonde curls gathered in pigtails, dressed in a blue Power Rangers suit, smiled at her and bounced excitedly.

Marnie relaxed a bit and smiled back. There, see? Just like any other story hour. Not even an hour, in fact. Fifteen minutes. All she had to do was focus on the children and everything would be fine.

Deep breath.

Thank you all for joining me this afternoon. You look so cool in your costumes! She put a smile into her voice, and the children all nodded vigorously with unfiltered pride.

I’m the Farmer in the Dell! One little boy, who was wearing overalls and what looked like a beat up old sombrero, shouted before adding in a stage whisper, But my real name is DeShawn.

DeShawn was one of her favorites. He was always full of life. She put on her most serious face and looked at him as though appraising his costume, then said with a nod, You look exactly like a farmer.

The little boy beamed, and a few more shouts rang out, each child trying to announce what he or she was dressed up as. Marnie listened for another minute, then held up a hand to ask for quiet. I think you will all have the best costumes in the entire town during trick-or-treat. But first… She held up the book so that everyone could see picture on the cover—a cartoon ghost giggling as a villain dressed in a mask and holding a bag with a dollar sign on it slipped on a banana peel. "Since today is Halloween, we’re going to read a special story about our very own ghost called The Legend of the Wilford Ghost."

A few ooos erupted from the little group, and she had to hold back her laughter at the melodramatic response. On impulse, she glanced toward the back of the room, looking to one man in particular. The one she was supposed to be ignoring.

He was frowning.

Of course he was. He’d frowned through her entire childhood. What had she expected, now that he’d returned to town with his new wife and their six-year-old son? Hugs and a blissful reunion? She’d seen him around town already, but he hadn’t so much as acknowledged her when they passed one another on the sidewalk.

If she hadn’t known before that he’d moved on, she certainly knew now.

She flicked her eyes away in disappointment, only to land on another face that she hadn’t seen in years.

Oh, my God.

Her breath caught.

Collin Morgan.

What were the odds that the only two men she’d ever felt so much for would turn up in the children’s room of the library on the same day? And not just any day. Halloween.

A weird shiver went down her spine, and she wrapped her sweater more tightly around her body.

You’re being silly. Of course they’d show up today. Parents are welcome at this month’s story hour and they’re—

Oh. Of course. Collin must be the father of one of these children. In fact, he was smiling at the little girl with the blonde curly pigtails, his expression one of pride. She had to be his daughter.

A sharp pang of longing struck Marnie in the chest, and she had to gasp for breath. She’d wanted a family of her own for years, but it simply hadn’t happened. Seeing the man she had fantasized about constantly back in high school and never forgotten made the loss feel even more profound.

It was no surprise that he would have a daughter like that, sunny and precious and excited to hear a story before the group went traipsing around Wilford Town Center for the annual Halloween Open House. Collin, the most popular boy in high school, who had moved to Wilford from Ireland a month before high school started and had a sexy, lilting accent. Who was kind to everyone and a straight-A student and excelled at every sport. And on whom she’d had an embarrassingly desperate crush for years but never said anything to him because there was no way a god like him would have returned the affection of a bespectacled little bookworm with acne and a twig-like body.

That might be different now—her skin had cleared and her body had filled out, at least—but it hadn’t mattered. He’d left town for college and hadn’t come back.

Until today, it seemed.

One of the children shouted, and Marnie shook herself, coming out of her daydream. She turned her attention back to the children, opening the book to the title page and