Free Magic Kiss (Hope Falls Book 11) by Melanie Shawn Page A

spun towards his mom.
    Emma shook her head. “No. We couldn’t impose. That’s very generous, but there’s no way that we could—”
    “Please.” Logan started using the same tactics as the kid. “I have a lot of missed godfather time to make up for.”
    Was it low to use the kid? Yes. Would it work? He sure as hell hoped so.
    *
    What the…?
    Emma’s mind couldn’t comprehend what was happening. This situation had spun out of control faster than a top on an ice rink. She was about as far from a fly-by-the seat-of-her-pants gal as one could get. In first grade, the only thing she’d asked Santa for was a planner. A very expensive, very detailed planner. At least, when she was six, her responsibilities had been limited to remembering her packed lunch and her homework folder.
    Once she’d become a single mom responsible for not only her own future but her son’s as well, her organization had taken on a life of its own. Everything, down to the amount of time it took to fold laundry, was scheduled. It had almost short-circuited her brain when she’d agreed to let Drew attend a camp and booked herself a flight to New York with only two weeks’ notice.
    But this? This was like warp-speed adjustment and she was trying to hang on and not be airsick. Literally. She felt like she might throw up. Her upset stomach probably had a little to do with the fact that she’d only eaten junk food and hadn’t slept in almost two days, but whatever the reason, she wanted to hurl.
    Instead, she took a few deep breaths and mentally organized the unfolding events to play emotional catch-up.
    First, her six-month deadline had been cut down to two months. That one had thrown her for a roller coaster ride, but with a little help from Logan, she’d pulled back into sanity station with minimal bumps and bruises.
    Then Drew had landed the I-want-to-stay-in-Hope-Falls one-two punch on her and that had knocked her flat on her metaphorical ass. But she’d quickly regained her footing and said that she would look into it. She’d agreed to consider staying in Hope Falls because she hadn’t seen her son this excited about anything…ever. Her career was important, but if she said no to staying, she would extinguish that look in her son’s eyes, and she couldn’t live with that.
    So they were staying in Hope Falls. Fine. That had given her world temporary whiplash, but it was nothing she couldn’t recover from with a little dose of I’m-being-a-good-mom Tylenol and a you-only-live-once neck brace.
    She feared, however, that the latest bomb Logan just dropped might be the thing that pushed her off the I-can-handle-anything cliff, whose edge she was navigating precariously like a high tightrope walker.
    He wanted them to stay here . With him . In the same house. For six weeks. That couldn’t happen. Even if he weren’t just being kind and actually wanted them to stay—though she seriously doubted that!—she could never agree to it. How would she get any work done with him in the next room after she’d seen that picture of him shirtless? All she’d think about was the slope of his broad shoulders, the contours of his defined abs, the sexy lines of the V-dip beside his hips that led straight to his…
    “Please, Mom!”
    “Hey, Drew, can you go down to my truck and grab the soda? I forgot to bring it up,” Logan asked as if he’d just remembered it.
    Even in Emma’s near breakdown state, she saw the gesture for what it was, and it had nothing to do with a beverage run. Drew looked back and forth between the two of them—he knew his chore was not motivated by caffeine.
    “Yeah.” After popping off his chair, he ran out of the house.
    When the screen door shut with a loud thud, Emma took a deep breath. Her son would be back any second, but this small reprieve was exactly what she needed.
    “Thanks.”
    “No problem.” Logan smiled before taking a large bite out of his burger.
    Although her mind knew that this temporary timeout