Placing my hand on Owen’s back, I give him a little pat. “Why don’t you run see if Holly got donuts on her way in.” He takes off with a little whoop of “Krispy Kreme,” and I turn to the mayor. “I apologize for saying that about Lars. It was insensitive.”

  She lifts her chin. “I accept your apology.”

  “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t put ideas in my son’s head.”

  “Your son is very bright, Aiden.”

  “Thank you.”

  “And children are very sensitive to spiritual things. Owen’s fascination with zebras is a clear indicator. They’re remnants of a time when the world was shadows and light.”

  “No.” My tone is firm.

  She waves her hands. “I’m not trying to start a fight. I simply wanted to let you know I’ve been monitoring this rise in crime lately, and I think we need to bring in some backup.”

  My brow furrows. “What does that mean?”

  She starts for her office, and I follow. Edna is almost seventy, with silver hair that hangs in a bob to her chin. She’s dressed in a white silk blouse and tan pencil skirt with matching pumps, and in this conservative disguise, you’d never know she’s a former magician and matriarch of the town’s resident band of carnies.

  She believes in premonitions and psychics and vibrations as much as cold hard facts when making civic decisions. It drove my dad nuts, and it doesn’t make me too happy either—particularly when she drags her “psychic” daughter Guinevere into the mix. Gwen is a real space cadet, and sneaky as fuck.

  You’d think Edna would be ready to retire by now, but this crazy town keeps voting her back in office every time she runs. If the town of Eureka were a zebra, she’d be the black to my white—and I’m sure she’d say the exact opposite.

  “Someone has been nailing messages on telephone poles for a month. Last week, Holly said three of her hens were stolen. Now Terra Belle’s prized pickle patch has been demolished. I think we need someone with special training in this type of work.”

  Heat rises under my collar, and a growl enters my tone. “You’re not to call in additional officers without consulting me.”

  “I’m consulting you now. Doug’s pushing sixty, but even if he was younger, you know he isn’t up to this type of work. You could use the help.”

  I’m annoyed she’s right. Still, the last thing I need is some new person coming in, getting in my way, asking a bunch of questions—or worse, another kooky mystic reading tea leaves and being totally loyal to Edna.

  “Who did you have in mind?”

  “That’s the best part.” She claps, rising to her feet and smiling like she’s about to pull a rabbit out of a hat. “My granddaughter Britt has been working in Greenville, training at the crime lab at Clemson. She’s got the best possible credentials.”

  My stomach tightens. “Britt said she wasn’t coming back to Eureka.”

  The last time I saw Edna’s granddaughter—at her going away party, which my youngest brother tricked me into attending—she’d said she wanted to define her life outside this town and her family’s reputation.

  “Oh, poo.” Edna waves her hand. “Guinevere will call her. She’ll want to be back in her hometown with her best friends and family.”

  I’m not so sure of that. I’m also not so sure about her working with me. Britt Bailey is too young and too pretty, and on the night of her farewell party, things got a little too blurry on the back porch of her friend’s home.

  We somehow wound up out there alone, and we started talking about her life in Eureka, my time in the Marines, her dreams, my son. It was the first time I’d seen her as the only sane member of her family.

  Our bodies had drifted closer until we were almost touching, and the conversation faded away. She blinked those pretty green eyes up at me, and the starlight shone on the tips of her blonde hair. She smelled like fresh flowers and the ocean, and her pink lips were so full and inviting. It had been so long since I’d lost myself in the depths of a beautiful woman…

  Obviously, I’d had too much whiskey.

  “I can tell by your pleased expression you like this idea.” Edna nods. “I’ll have Gwen call her today, and I’ll let you know how soon she can get started.”

  “That wasn’t what I was thinking.” My expression was not pleased. “Is she even old enough to work here?”

  “She’s twenty-eight, Aiden. Don’t be ageist.”

  Seven years younger than me.

  “But this would be her first actual job as a crime scene investigator?”

  “She’s an experienced forensic photographer. You can get her up to speed on the rest. She’s a fast learner.” Edna picks up her phone, excitedly tapping on the face. “Trust me, once you have my granddaughter at your side, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without her. The vibrations are shifting already.”

  I’m sure they are, and it’s exactly what’s putting me on guard.

  Read A LITTLE TASTE (link) today FREE in Kindle Unlimited, on audiobook (link), or in paperback.

  MAKE YOU MINE

  BY TIA LOUISE

  A promise written on a coaster.

  A lost night in a dark room.

  Grayson Cole was my brother’s best friend.

  He was all of my firsts.

  Then he went away…

  Drew Harris was just a kid, a senior in high school, my best friend’s little sister.

  They said she was too young to know her feelings.

  I was too old to have them, so I left to join the military.

  Four years passed.

  Loss, injury, angry words I can never take back.

  I’m home, but I’m not the same.

  Neither is she.

  Now she’s a woman with flashing blue eyes, long blonde hair, and gorgeous curves.

  She’s the same sweet smile, the same sassy mouth…

  I could never say No to her before.

  I should say No for her sake.

  She deserves better than what I’ve become, scarred and damaged.

  “They told me to stay away from you.

  I went away to try… God, I tried.

  Now everything has changed. I’m back, and

  I’ll do whatever it takes to make you mine…”

  (A brother’s best friend, stand-alone, second-chance romance about first love, redemption, and finding your way home. No cheating; No cliffhangers.)

  PROLOGUE

  GRAY

  I’ve heard people can change overnight.

  I never believed it until that summer.

  Gasoline, oil, dirty rags, grease, transmission fluid… the indelible scent of the garage. I don’t even notice it anymore. I don’t see the black under my fingernails that never completely washes clean. It’s my life, and I’d never questioned it until that day.

  “Hand me that socket wrench then get in the cab and spin it.” A cigarette dangles from my uncle’s lips, and the top of his overalls are tied around his waist.

  I toss him the tool and climb into the cab of the ancient Chevy we’re repairing. “Ready?”

  My hand is on the key in the ignition. He holds up a finger, bending farther under the hood before stepping away and circling it in the air. I give it a crank, and it turns over instantly, settling into a low humming noise.

  “There you go.” Mack returns the cigarette to his lips and watches a few moments as the truck continues to idle. “Kill it.”

  I turn the engine off and climb out. “I’ll write it up. Starter, alternator…”

  “Just charge for the alternator. I got that starter off an old Mustang. They don’t have to pay me for it.”

  Walking to the office, I call over my shoulder, “You’ll never make money giving shit away.”

  “I’m too old to start worrying about money.”

  I shake my head and go into the tiny room off the side of the garage. It’s all windows, so I have a clear view of the 1961 cherry red gunmetal Aston-hero Classic Jaguar rolling into the shop.

  Damn. The sight of it gives me a semi. “Holy shit.”

  The words are a sacred whisper from my lips. I know who it is. I’ve been admiring this piece of machinery since I was a little kid. I can’t believe it’s right here in Mack’s garage.

  “Grayson?” Mack’s voice snaps me out of my daze.

  I snatch up the clipboard holding the workorder for the Chevy and head out to where my uncle stands beside the sexiest of all sportscars.

  “What you need, Carl?” Mack steps back as the elegantly dressed man emerges from the low ride.

  He gives my uncle a cold nod. Asshole. “Just a tune-up. I’m planning to drive out to the lake this weekend, and I don’t want to end up on the side of the road.”

  Mack chuckles, but I stay back until I’m called.

  Carl Harris is a strange and hateful man. The old ladies say he spends his days drinking whiskey and staring at the photograph of his dead wife. I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been invited inside his house, even though he’s my best friend Danny’s dad.

  Speak of the devil.

  “Hey, grease monkey. Got any bananas for me?” Danny charges out of the passenger seat and runs around to grab me in a headlock. “Who won the Kentucky Derby?”

  I’m taller than him and stronger, but it still takes a minute for me to escape his grip.

  “Charley Horse!” he cries.

  I narrowly escape his elbow to my ribs. “Get off me, asshole.”

  Mr. Harris’s voice is loud and sharp. “Daniel!”

  My throat tightens. I didn’t think he’d hear me swear. Shit.

  “You’re such an animal, Danny.” That sweet voice gives me my second hard-on of the day.

  Andrea “Drew” Harris walks around the back of the Jaguar dressed in tight white pants that show off her cute little ass and a top that stops right under her breasts, those small, luscious handfuls that seemed to grow overnight.

  It also shows off the lines in her stomach, and I wonder what happened to the skinny little girl with stick-straight pigtails running around drinking Mountain Dew and bothering us.

  It’s like a sexy version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The aliens took little-kid Drew and replaced her with this grown-up bombshell, who now invades my dreams at night and leaves me with a tent in my sheets every morning.

  I stand like an idiot beside Danny with my tongue figuratively hanging out as she walks up to us smiling.

  “Shut up, Drew Poo,” Danny yells before breaking into laughter.

  Those four words flip the whole scene.

  “You are such an asshole!” Drew yells, losing her cool.

  I start to laugh. Even pissed, she’s adorable.

  “Andrea Rebecca Harris.” Her dad’s voice is another sharp command, but it doesn’t deter Drew.

  Her eyes are flaming fire. “I was three years old!”

  “Didn’t stop you from shitting on my carpet.”

  “I was potty training!”

  “Drew Poo,” he sing-songs.

  My sex-kitten teenage-dream turns wildcat. She snatches up the socket wrench and starts chasing her older brother around the plastic-covered cars.

  “Stop this NOW!” Mr. Harris’s face is beet red. He looks like he might have a heart attack. “Stop it!”

  Danny dashes behind me, and I do the only thing I can. I grab Drew around the upper arms, holding her against my body as she struggles to get free. Damn, she feels so good.

  She’s soft in all the right places, and she smells like the beach and flowers and everything good. She does not smell like gasoline and oil and dirty rags.

  I have to focus so my body doesn’t betray how much I’m into her.

  “Let me go, Grayson!”

  “You can’t swing tools around in the garage,” I groan, giving her a shake. “Now drop it.”

  She struggles a moment longer before giving up the fight. The oversized wrench hits the concrete floor with a clatter. She twists in my arms and looks up at me, and for a minute, I’m lost in her blue eyes. I remember when she was four and a snake scared her in the brush behind her house.

  She was crying, and I carried her in my arms to her mamma.

  Fast forward eight years, and I remember comforting her after that pretty lady died. My mother died when I was even younger than her. It’s what brought me to this town to live with my uncle in a garage.

  This town where people treat us like dirt.

  Holding her now, looking into her eyes, the way she’s looking back at me, I’m struck by how much between us has changed.

  “Boy!” Mr. Harris strides to where I stand with his daughter in my arms. “Let her go.”

  His tone breaks the spell. It banishes me all the way back to where I belong, outside his pristine world, hands off his princess daughter.

  My arms relax, and Drew steps away from me. She’s still looking at me that way, but I have to ignore it.

  “They were fighting…” My voice dies in the face of her father’s cold disdain.

  “How old are you?” His words drip with malice.

  “Seventeen. Going on eighteen.”

  “You’re leaving for college in the fall?”

  My uncle steps up beside me. “Grayson got accepted to state as well as the military college.” His voice is friendly, I’m sure he’s doing his best to ease the tension.

  It doesn’t work.

  Drew’s messed-up dad steps closer to me, so close his warm breath is on my cheek. “Don’t you ever touch my daughter again.”

  It’s low, a veiled threat.

  I’ve never been threatened before, but I know it when I hear it. This man has nothing to lose but his legacy, and he’s not going to let me put my oil-stained hands anywhere near it.

  “I don’t think Gray meant any harm.” My uncle puts his hand on my shoulder, ducking. It’s a submissive response, cowering in the presence of this old lion.

  An old lion with a useless crown.

  King of a forest that doesn’t exist anymore.

  “As if you’d teach him not to touch what he can’t have.” He’s talking to Mack, but he’s glaring at me.

  “Come on, Carl.” Mack’s voice is placating. “You know it wasn’t like that.”

  The man lifts a trembling hand, and a sheen of perspiration is on his forehead. I don’t know what they’re talking about, but he looks like he needs a drink. Whatever’s going on, I won’t cower to Carl Harris.

  He returns to his car, pointing for his children to get in the vehicle.

  “Didn’t you want that tune-up?” Mack calls after him.

  “I changed my mind. We’re not going anywhere.”

  He can say that again. I hold steady as he fumbles with the keys to start the engine. As if drawn by magnetism, my eyes move to the clear blue ones watching me from the back seat with a very different expression.

  Drew smiles, and heat fills my lower body. I smile back, watching as she drives away.

  “Finish up that work order.” My uncle starts for the T-bird waiting under the plastic cover. “And don’t chase after trouble.”

  I tear my eyes off the beautiful blonde in the sexy sports car. I know he’s right. I should stay away from Drew Harris. Nothing good can come of getting mixed up with her.

  It’s too bad I’m not very good at doing what I should.

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  BOOKS BY TIA LOUISE

  ROMANCE IN KINDLE UNLIMITED

  THE BE STILL SERIES

  A Little Taste, 2023*

  A Little Twist, 2023*

  A Little Luck, coming Dec. 14, 2023*

  (*Available on Audiobook.)

  THE HAMILTOWN HEAT SERIES

  Fearless, 2022*

  Filthy, 2022*

  For Your Eyes Only, 2022

  Forbidden, 2023*

  (*Available on Audiobook.)

  THE TAKING CHANCES SERIES

  This Much is True*

  Twist of Fate*

  Trouble*

  (*Available on Audiobook.)

  FIGHT FOR LOVE SERIES

  Wait for Me*

  Boss of Me*

  Here with Me*

  Reckless Kiss*

  (*Available on Audiobook.)

  BELIEVE IN LOVE SERIES

  Make You Mine

  Make Me Yours*

  Stay*

  (*Available on Audiobook.)

  SOUTHERN HEAT SERIES

  When We Touch

  When We Kiss

  THE ONE TO HOLD SERIES

  One to Hold (#1 - Derek & Melissa)*

  One to Keep (#2 - Patrick & Elaine)*

  One to Protect (#3 - Derek & Melissa)*

  One to Love (#4 - Kenny & Slayde)

  One to Leave (#5 - Stuart & Mariska)

  One to Save (#6 - Derek & Melissa)*

  One to Chase (#7 - Marcus & Amy)*

  One to Take (#8 - Stuart & Mariska)

  (*Available on Audiobook.)

  THE DIRTY PLAYERS SERIES

  PRINCE (#1)*

  PLAYER (#2)*

  DEALER (#3)

  THIEF (#4)

  (*Available on Audiobook.)

  THE BRIGHT LIGHTS SERIES

  Under the Lights (#1)

  Under the Stars (#2)

  Hit Girl (#3)

  COLLABORATIONS

  The Last Guy*

  The Right Stud

  Tangled Up

  Save Me

  (*Available on Audiobook.)

  PARANORMAL ROMANCES

  One Immortal (vampires)

  One Insatiable (shifters)