Book Two
West Loon Bay Series
Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited
~*~
Prologue
The wedding reception of Annika Nilsen and Alexander Lange
Morganville, Enchanted Island of the United States
East Caribbean Sea
The warm August evening enveloped
Carly Strand with a delicate breeze as she sat at the head table at her best
friend’s wedding reception, listlessly picking at a slice of cake.
Annika’s small but intimate wedding
had unfolded like a scene in a fairytale. Walking down the aisle on her
father’s arm, she glowed with happiness and the promise of a wonderful life to
come. A diamond tiara gleamed on the crown of her shimmering blonde hair. Her
ivory silk dress, long and gently flared, swayed gracefully as she walked. Her
bouquet, a large cascade of white and mango calla lilies accented with white
jasmine and ribbons had been almost too large for her to hold.
As Annika’s maid of honor, Carly
should have been enchanted and inspired by such a magical evening. Why then did
she feel so drained? So empty?
Anxious to avoid attention, she
glanced around looking for an inconspicuous exit to disappear through once the
dance started. People would be having so much fun, it would be easy for her to
slip away unnoticed and retreat to her room.
She glanced around, looking for a
spot in the shadows to sit, making her getaway that much easier. Overhead,
purple bougainvillea vines grew along the balconies lining the interior walls
of the open-air courtyard of the historic Morganville Hotel. In one corner, flanked
by potted palms and ruby hibiscus, a carved stone fountain quietly bubbled. Soft
lighting ribboned with flowing white tulle under the balconies cast a romantic glow
across the small group of family and close friends. The sweet, exotic scent of
jasmine and the music of steel drums filled the balmy evening air with
enchantment.
She sighed. Just short of crawling
under the table, there was nowhere to go until the music started.
Seating for the wedding party at dinner
followed the male/female tradition. Alex, the groom sat at the center of the
head table. Annika sat at his left and the best man sat next to her. As the
maid of honor, Carly sat on the groom’s right which suited her just fine. The
farther she sat from his best man, the better!
From the corner of her eye, she
watched curiously as Alex whispered a few words to Annika and then promptly
left the table. Annika slid onto his empty chair and leaned toward Carly, curving
her arm around Carly’s shoulders.
“Hey, sweetie,” Annika said with
care in her voice, “is something wrong? You don’t seem like yourself tonight.”
“I’m just tired, that’s all. It’s
been a long day,” Carly responded. She put on a cheerful expression, but behind
her forced smile, tears threatened to fall. She loved Annika dearly and was delighted
that her best friend had finally found her “happily ever after” with the man of
her dreams. Sadly, nothing could fill the deep well of Carly’s loneliness. Nothing
short of a miracle, anyway.
“Where did Alex go?” Carly asked,
deliberately changing the subject.
Annika stared across the room to where
her new husband stood in a black tuxedo talking to the lead singer of the
Jamaican band. “He wants to change the song for our first dance, but he
wouldn’t tell me what he’s chosen. It’s a surprise.” She laughed. “Get your
dancing shoes on, girl. The entertainment is about to begin.”
Carly suspected what Annika had on
her mind. “About the wedding party…” She swallowed hard. “Paired together as
couples, I mean—”
“It’s just one dance, Carly.”
Annika grabbed a knife and cut a small piece off of the corner of Carly’s cake.
Picking it up with her fingers, she popped it into her mouth. “You and Erik can
put your feud aside for that long, can’t you? For me?”
“It’s not a feud,” Carly argued. “We
just don’t…have anything to say to each other.”
She glanced past Annika to Erik
Nilsen, Annika’s older brother, who also happened to be Alex’s best man. Sitting
at the opposite end of the table, Erik looked tired and bored as he checked his
watch for the umpteenth time. A gentle breeze blew his thick hair across his
forehead. The frown on his face suggested he would rather be lying on one of
Enchanted Island’s beautiful beaches in shorts and a T-shirt instead of sitting
here in a hot tuxedo. If so, she heartily agreed with him, but she had no intention
of telling him so. What was there to say to the guy who long ago had shattered
her heart into a million pieces?
“That’s not really what I intended
to talk to you about,” Annika said sincerely. “I’ve said this before, but I
want you to know how very sorry I am about canceling our girls’ trip out west
at the last minute. I mean it, Carly. I know it deeply hurt your feelings when
I backed out. I promised you with all my heart that I’d go and then I let you
down.”
“It’s okay, Annika,” Carly replied,
eager to show that she held no grudge. “If a guy like Alex had fallen in love
with me and asked me not to go, I’d have done the same thing.”
The puzzled look in Annika’s wide,
blue eyes indicated she found that statement puzzling. She leaned close. “What
about Erik,” she whispered as she angled her head in her brother’s direction. “He
keeps asking me about you, but I don’t know what to tell him. He doesn’t
understand why you’re avoiding him. You guys used to be sweethearts.”
Carly shook her head as her ire
rose. “That will never happen again.”
Alex suddenly appeared at the
table, wanting his chair back. Tall, dark-haired, and ruggedly handsome, Alexander
Lange’s past relationships included high-fashion models and Hollywood starlets,
but from the moment they met, he’d only had eyes for his best friend’s little
sister.
“Only because you don’t want
it to,” Annika muttered. Licking a glob of frosting off her finger, she smiled
at Alex and slid back to her own chair.
A drum roll garnered everyone’s
attention. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the moment you’ve all been waiting
for. Let’s welcome Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Lange to the dance floor!”
Alex took Annika by the hand to a
raucous round of applause and led her to the center of the stone floor. He took
her in his arms and gazed lovingly into her eyes as he pulled her close and
began to dance to the music of Unchained Melody.
Carly sat with her hands gripping the
edge of her chair, dreading the moment she and Erik would have to dance in
front of the entire group. The thought of his long, muscular arms around her,
holding her close made a cold sweat break out on the back of her neck.
Ever since Erik and Alex moved back
to their small town of West Loon Bay, Minnesota, Carly had managed to avoid
Erik. Now she was forced to reunite with him in the worst possible way. Dancing
cheek to cheek.
I can’t do this, she thought
desperately as a lump formed in her throat. I feel sick.
A sip of water helped calm her down
through the bride and groom’s dance but when the lead singer announced that the
wedding party would join the newlyweds and their parents, Carly’s heart began
to slam in her chest.
Strong, gentle fingers encircled
her arm, urging her to rise from the chair. She looked up and found Erik’s
tall, brawny form towering over her. Physically, he hadn’t changed much since they
dated in high school. An offensive lineman on their school football team, he’d
been quite the catch back in the day with thick reddish-brown hair and deep
blue eyes. He leaned forward, his eyes reflecting a mixture of curiosity and
uncertainty. “It’s okay, Carly,” he whispered. “I don’t bite. I just want to
dance with you.”
With his help, she stood, but her
knees shook so badly they threatened to buckle underneath her. He led her to
the dance floor and tentatively slid his arms around her, supporting her. Slowly,
they moved in unison to the music.
I can’t breathe… she thought
as she allowed him to guide her around the stone floor. He has no idea how
much damage he has done to me. To my life.
“You look beautiful tonight,” he commented
with a sincere smile as if trying to distract her from her unease. His remark
had been uttered as a compliment but even so, it made her feel self-conscious
in her strapless mango-colored gown.
“I’m sure you say that to all your
women,” she replied and sucked in a deep breath, acutely aware of his large
palm resting on the small of her back. The touch of his fingers on her skin
tingled, creating an earthquake of tiny shock waves shooting up her spine.
He pulled back, surprised. “What do
you mean by that?”
“Don’t play your games with me,”
she countered bluntly. “For the past decade, you and Alex have toured with your
rock band all over the world. You’ve been photographed and linked with more
beautiful women than Alex has—and that’s saying something.”
He mulled over that for a few
moments. “That’s over now. I left the celebrity life behind for a reason. Alex
and I both did once we came to our senses and realized that the most important
things in life aren’t money and fame. It’s family. The one you were born into
and the one you eventually create.”
Her nervous laugh cut through the
air. “So, are you saying that you’re going to find your soulmate in West Loon
Bay, population three hundred and ninety-seven?”
“That’s right,” he replied gazing
intently into her eyes. “If she’ll have me.”
She glared back at him, angry and
hurt at his nerve. She wasn’t good enough for him ten years ago when he
abandoned her, one month before her eighteenth birthday. In all that time, he
could have contacted her, but he was too busy enjoying the women lining up at
his concerts to “get lucky” with him to spare the time. Did he really think she
was stupid enough to think they could simply pick up where they’d left off? “Good luck with that,” she snapped.
He stopped dancing and gripped her
by the arms. “I don’t understand you, Carly. You’ve been avoiding me ever since
I came back. I ask you to dance and you act as though my mere presence offends
you. Why do you hate me so much?”
“I don’t hate you, Erik,” she said
slowly. “I just never want to be hurt by you ever again.”
She pulled away and walked off the dance floor before he could see her tears fall.
~*~
Chapter One
West Loon Bay, Minnesota
Late September
The golden afternoon sun beat down
upon the crystal blue water of Lake Tremolo as Erik lay on a full-length
lounger under the Bimini top covering his pontoon with a notebook in one hand and
a chilled bottle of beer in the other. He’d cut the engine a thousand feet from
shore and dropped the anchor, hoping the gentle, methodical rocking of the watercraft
on the waves would either inspire him to finish a new song or lull him to sleep.
To his dismay, it did neither.
Wearing a T-shirt and shorts, he stretched
out on the comfortable beige lounger and took a swig of his beer as he stared
across the water. Dense woods covered the craggy shoreline of the huge lake, brilliantly
displaying a patchwork of gold, scarlet and dark reds. His sister Annika, whom he
collaborated with, had given him a sheet of paper this morning containing a set
of lyrics for a new song. She called her work “poems,” but to Erik, they were
simply a collection of words that he turned into a ballad in the band’s unique style.
The finished product was handed off to Alex to compose the melody.
He’d been staring at the words on
the page for an hour, waiting for inspiration, but nothing had come to mind.
Instead, thoughts of Carly as a seventeen-year-old haunted him like a ghost from
the past.
He took out the senior class photo
of her that he kept in his wallet. The one he’d carried with him for the last
ten years. Wrinkled and dog-eared, it still captured the sparkle in her large
brown eyes. Her long, thick hair, the color of rich cocoa, glistened to her
elbows and accentuated her curvy shape. Her wide, genuine smile never ceased to
light up the lonely, dark corners of his heart.
Whenever his morale hit a low point
on the road, he’d stare at her picture. The possibility that someday they could
rebuild their friendship again would always lift his spirits. The way they’d
broken up had torn his heart in two but made it easier to leave town and never
look back. Through the years, he’d assumed she’d found happiness with someone
else, but was surprised to find out that she had never married.
She’s so bitter, he thought
regretfully. As though she’s been badly hurt. I’d give anything to turn her
pain into joy, but she won’t even talk to me.
He thought about the chilly spring night
Carly’s dad caught them together in the back of his van. She was seventeen—he
was nineteen. Dan Strand was so angry he banned Erik from seeing her ever again.
Erik never got the chance to tell her he was leaving town to take his band on a
quest for a better future.
I should have tried to keep in contact
with her after we went on the road, he thought, feeding his guilty
conscience. Time had always been on our side. Once the band became a
success, I could have brought her on tour with me. We would have seen the world
together.
Shoulda, coulda, woulda! It didn’t
do any good to brood over it now.
The notebook slipped from his lap
and landed on the floor as he closed his eyes, mulling over how much his life
had changed since he, Alex, and three of their lifelong friends decided to hit
the road with their band and never look back. Except lately, that’s all he’d
been doing…
He had gone on the road with Alex, Jonas,
Gunnar, and Gabe to play their music and make a name for themselves. Never in
their wildest imagination had they anticipated their hard rock band “Wolfmoon”
would experience the ultra-stardom they’d achieved with double-platinum success
on album after album.
For the first couple of years after
they became famous, their lives played out like a dream come true. Their success
and the money that came with it filled their bank accounts and plastered their
faces on the covers of magazines all over the world. Eventually, though, the
parties, women, and drugs began to lose their luster. The constant pressure of
producing new material and touring to promote it wore them down. Alex developed
migraines, Jonas had stomach problems, Gabe and Gunnar became depressed and he
lost his ability to create fresh material. They knew they needed a break but
the people surrounding them—the ones making the most money off them—kept
pushing them to keep going until one night Alex collapsed—and along with him, their
self-destructive lifestyle.
Last May, they’d returned to their roots,
a tiny Minnesota tourist town poised on the shores of a huge, beautiful lake to
reconnect with their families and take a much-needed hiatus before deciding
their next steps as a band. No one expected Alex to fall in love with Annika.
That sudden turn of events had changed everything again—including delaying the
decision of when to go back on the road.
That’s fine with me, Erik
thought with a sigh. The idea of going on another tour and operating at the frenetic
pace they once found exhilarating simply exhausted him now.
The shrill ring of his phone
startled him. He reached down to grab it off the floor, causing him to nearly
knock his beer out of its cupholder. The name “Jonas Strom” spread across the
screen.
Erik sat up, resting his elbows on
his knees. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“I’m at your house standing on the
dock. Your mom said you’d taken the pontoon out by yourself,” Jonas replied sounding
puzzled that he’d go alone. “You gonna be back soon?”
Erik grabbed his beer and drained
the bottle. “Maybe. Why?”
“I’m bored,” Jonas said. “I came by
to see your new pontoon. Talk about a few things.”
The edgy way in which Jonas’ deep
voice said “talk about a few things” caught Erik’s attention. Jonas had
something on his mind.
“Okay,” Erik said as he dropped his
empty bottle into a recycling container. “I’m on my way.”
After he pulled up the anchor, he slid
into the seat at the helm and started up the engine, heading back to shore.
Jonas stood at the end of the dock
wearing jeans and a gray T-shirt with Prince’s purple unisex symbol on it, talking
on his phone as Erik slowly pulled up and turned off the engine. Jonas slipped
his phone into his jean pocket and grinned. “So, this is your new toy, huh? I
figured you were a fancy speedboat kind of guy.”
“I am,” Erik replied with a chuckle.
“I bought this for my dad.” He made a sweeping motion with his arm to showcase
Knut’s new luxury watercraft. “Dad can fish and listen to the baseball game in
style. It makes for a nice little party barge, too.”
Nodding his approval, Jonas stepped
into the pontoon and sat down on one of the rear-facing loungers. “Nice. Take
me for a ride.”
Erik drove the pontoon slowly around
the lake for twenty minutes and then stopped in the vicinity of where he’d been
before Jonas called. “You want a beer?”
“Nah, too early,” Jonas replied as
Erik dropped the anchor. “Just give me a Coke. You got a cold one?”
“Sure thing.” Erik grabbed two
chilled cans from his cooler. “So,” he said as he handed one to Jonas and
pulled the tab on his can. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Like I told you on the phone, I’m
bored,” Jonas stated in a disillusioned tone. “There’s nothing to do in this
one-horse town and I’m getting antsy to get back on the road.”
“You were the one who pushed the
hardest for everyone to come back. Now you want to leave already?” Erik relaxed
on the other lounger, stretching out his legs. The pontoon gently rocked on the
water. “Where is this coming from?”
“Everything has changed so much,”
Jonas argued and took a swig of his Coke as he stared across the lake. “It’s
not the same place I left. Most of the guys I knew from school have moved away
and all the girls who stuck around are married with a bazillion kids. I don’t
feel like I fit in here anymore.”
Erik laughed softly. “Dude, we’ve
been gone for ten years. What did you expect?”
“I don’t know,” Jonas answered and ran
his hand through a riot of thick, dark curls, “but I didn’t expect to find
myself a stranger in my own hometown. I think it’s time to move on.”
“What?” Erik stared at him, totally
flummoxed. “Where are you going?”
“Back to Anaheim, maybe. Or
Chicago.” Jonas shrugged; his expression turned downcast as he stared across
the lake. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“You’re considering leaving the
band?” Erik bolted upright and swung his legs over the side of the lounger. “Are
you serious? Why would you do that?”
Jonas stared at Erik, his eyes
reflecting deep sadness. “Because if we don’t get something going now, I don’t
think we’re ever going to perform together again. That’s why.”
“Come on, Jonas, don’t say that,”
Erik cajoled. “We agreed to take a year off to get our mojo back. It’s only
been a couple of months. Give the guys some slack. They need some time off to
recharge. We all do.”
Jonas lay back with a deep sigh and
stared up at the beige canopy overhead. “I don’t know if I can last a year.
I’ll go stir-crazy. A guy can only watch so much TV or play pool.”
“Hey,” Erik said with a chuckle and
reached out, squeezing Jonas’s shoulder. “You need a girlfriend. Someone to keep
you busy.”
Jonas rolled his eyes at the
suggestion that a woman would solve all his long-term problems. “Thing is, I
need to get back to making music.” He stared hard at Erik. “Talk to Alex about recording
another album and setting up a world tour to promote it. He’ll listen to you.
If he’s in favor of it, I’ll hang on. If he trashes the idea, then I’m out of
here.”
Erik didn’t know what to say. He
and Jonas had been friends all their lives. All the guys in the band had known
each other since birth. Jonas was a year younger than the rest of the group,
but the other members had started kindergarten together and graduated together.
The thought of someone leaving the band was inconceivable to him. Losing Jonas
would be akin to losing a member of his family.
Sure, they’d had disagreements in
the past and in the heat of the moment had thrown around the idea of breaking
up, but it was just a way to blow off steam. No one had ever intended to go
through with it.
Until now.
Erik stared at his Coke feeling the
pressure of being caught in the middle. Alex had only been married a month. No
way would he even consider going back to work yet. When Alex said no to the
idea, Jonas would split. He had to figure out a way to keep everyone happy, but
how?
At this point, he didn’t have a
clue.
~*~
Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited
Get your copy now at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BF5TR5H5
~*~
~*~
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