Some Kind of Wonderful

  Praise for

  Sarah Morgan

  ‘The perfect book to curl up with’

  —Heat

  ‘Full of romance and sparkle’

  —Lovereading

  ‘I’ve found an author I adore—must hunt down everything she’s published.’

  —Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

  ‘Morgan is a magician with words.’

  —RT Book Reviews

  ‘Dear Ms Morgan, I’m always on the lookout for a new book by you …’

  —Dear Author blog

  SARAH MORGAN is the bestselling author of Sleigh Bells in the Snow. As a child Sarah dreamed of being a writer and, although she took a few interesting detours on the way, she is now living that dream. With her writing career she has successfully combined business with pleasure and she firmly believes that reading romance is one of the most satisfying and fat-free escapist pleasures available. Her stories are unashamedly optimistic and she is always pleased when she receives letters from readers saying that her books have helped them through hard times.

  Sarah lives near London with her husband and two children, who innocently provide an endless supply of authentic dialogue. When she isn’t writing or reading, Sarah enjoys music, movies and any activity that takes her outdoors.

  Readers can find out more about Sarah and her books from her website: www.sarahmorgan.com. She can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

  www.millsandboon.co.uk

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for choosing Some Kind of Wonderful! I hope these characters find a place in your heart and the book a place on your keeper shelf.

  This is a story about second chances. Most of us have had a relationship that didn’t work out. We move on, maybe a little bruised and battered, but determined to put it behind us. But this approach isn’t for everyone and the alternative is something I’ve often pondered. If you weren’t right for each other the first time, why would you be right a second time? What has changed?

  The answer of course is that people change and love isn’t so easily controlled. Brittany, heroine of Some Kind of Wonderful, fell in love with Zachary Flynn when she was a teenager. When he left her after ten days of marriage, she was crushed. She hasn’t seen or heard from him in ten years, so returning to the island home she loves and finding him there is a bitter blow. But ten years is a long time. Their relationship takes a direction neither has anticipated, but, before they can consider a future, they first have to confront their past.

  Some Kind of Wonderful is a romance, but it also celebrates friendship. Brittany is the sort of friend we’d all be lucky to have in our lives. She is fiercely loyal and caring to those she loves. Her bond with Emily and Skylar is as strong as ever and no matter what hurdles these three women encounter in life, you know they will be side by side supporting each other.

  I hope you enjoy this story! I love hearing from readers, so if you’re on Facebook (find me at www.facebook.com/AuthorSarahMorgan) or Twitter (@SarahMorgan_ —don’t forget the underscore) I hope you’ll join me there for chats and giveaways and sign up to my newsletter to be sure of hearing about my next release.

  Thank you for being the best readers ever!

  Love,

  Sarah

  xxx

  To Dianne Moggy, for making my dreams a reality and for allowing her adorable dog Maple to play a starring role in my O’Neil Brothers series. Thank you. x

  Friendship is a sheltering tree

  —Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Praise for Sarah Morgan

  About the Author

  Title Page

  Dear Reader

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Extract

  Endpages

  Copyright

  CHAPTER ONE

  ZACHARY FLYNN SHOULD never have been born.

  His conception, as his mother was fond of telling him, had been the result of an excess of alcohol and a burst condom. She’d spent the first eight years of his life blaming him for everything from poverty to bed bugs. Who she’d blamed after that he had no idea because at the age of eight someone had asked questions about the recurring bruises and broken bones and he’d been sent to live with a foster family. As churchgoing, God-fearing Christians, they’d deserved better than a messed-up reject from a rough neighborhood of Boston who’d been raised to believe the only way to stop someone from screwing you was to screw them first. He’d had the distinction of being the first foster kid to snap the patience of these good, kind folk. After that he’d been handed from family to family like a baton in a relay race, everyone eager to pass him on.

  He’d been on the fast track to a life on the wrong side of the law when he’d discovered flying.

  Twenty years later he still had a clear memory of the exact moment everything had changed.

  It had been an unbearably hot day at Camp Puffin, the air in the forest thick with the scents of summer and the hum of insects. Zach had committed mass murder as he’d chased mosquitoes the size of small birds around the airless cabin he’d shared with seven other kids. Seven kids whose families cared enough to send them to camp with enough food and gear to smooth the rough edges of parting.

  Zach had been given his place as part of a scholarship program and they’d made sure it was something he didn’t forget. He’d taken revenge for their endless taunting by dumping their stuff in a tide pool. Most of it had been washed away and furious parents had demanded the culprit be duly punished.

  Zach couldn’t imagine having a parent who gave a damn, least of all about stolen candy and a few sweatshirts with fancy logos.

  His punishment had been a date with Philip Law, the director of Camp Puffin.

  Zach, who viewed all authority with suspicion and was never going to be comfortable around a man whose name was “Law,” had expected to be sent on his way. He’d pretended not to care, but in truth he would have endured being bitten by a thousand mosquitoes if it had meant living on an island where the forest met the sea. Anything was better than having to spend his days looking over his shoulder in the sweltering city and although he wouldn’t have admitted it, Puffin Island was a cool place. There was something about the clean air and the way the ocean melted into the horizon that made him feel less like killing his neighbor.

  He’d stood, braced, ready for another door to slam shut in his face, practicing his “I don’t give a fuck” look, but instead of telling him to pack up his things, Philip had driven him to the small airfield on the far side of the island.

  Twelve-year-old Zach had slumped, sulky and rebellious, in the front of the Cessna, waiting for the ax to fall, wondering what was so bad that he had to be flown out of here and not take the crowded ferry like everyone else. Maybe Philip Law was planning to take him up high and then push him into the ocean.

  Yeah, do it. Why not?

  Who the hell would care?

  He knew no one would miss him.

  He wasn’t even sure he’d miss himself.

  As Philip had put his hands on the controls and taxied along the short runway, Zach had
wondered whether he’d die when he hit the water or drown slowly. And then the small plane had lifted into the air and Zach, who had lived with fear all his life, had known a moment of breath-stealing terror closely followed by soaring excitement as the sparkling sea and the emerald green of the island shrank beneath him.

  His stomach had swooped and his eyes had almost popped out of his head.

  “Holy shit.” He’d watched hungrily, dazzled by the complexity of the instrument panel, absorbing every move of Philip’s hands, envious of the knowledge that gave them flight. He’d wanted that knowledge and skill more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life. In a blinding flash he realized there was a world outside the one he inhabited.

  Years later Philip had told him that was the moment he’d known he’d made the right decision in offering what some might have viewed as a reward for bad behavior. He could have delivered a lecture, sanctions, even expulsion, but all that would have done was harden a boy who was already solid steel. At twelve years old, Zachary Flynn had seen more than most people saw in a lifetime. Authority slid off him, instructions and orders bounced back like a ball from concrete. Nothing penetrated.

  Until they reached six thousand feet.

  There, up in the clouds, the mask of indifference had slipped away, revealing an excitement too raw and real to be contained.

  For Philip it had been a way of giving a jaded, disillusioned boy a glimpse of another life.

  For Zach, it had been love at first flight.

  They’d flown over the island of Vinalhaven and towards Bar Harbor, over forest, lakes and the glittering expanse of Penobscot Bay, where yachts peppered the ocean. Absorbed by a different view of a world that had so far delivered nothing but bitter blows, Zach had fought to stop himself from whooping like a little kid.

  Look up, look up, he’d yelled inside his head as he saw cars the size of matchboxes winding along the noodle-thin coast road. Look up and see who’s bigger now.

  By the time they’d landed, his whole body had been shaking.

  He’d felt like the king of the world.

  “Oh, man—can we do it again? I want you to take me up again. I’ll do anything.” He’d all but begged and hadn’t cared. Not even when he’d seen the look of satisfaction on Philip’s face.

  “You want to learn one day?”

  Zach had dragged his palm over his sweaty brow, feeling like an addict shown a whole new way of getting a fix. “To fly? Yeah.” What sort of a stupid question was that? Who the hell wouldn’t want to? It was the coolest thing ever.

  “Then stop dicking around.” Philip had pinned him with his gaze. “Stop wasting your brain, stop living down to everyone’s expectations and do something with your life.”

  Zach almost swallowed his tongue. He didn’t know which had shocked him most. The fact that someone had noticed he had a brain, or that the camp director had used the word dick.

  Confused, he’d responded in the only way he’d known. By attacking.

  “I didn’t ask for my life to suck. It’s not like I walked into a place and ordered a supersized misery burger served with a side of crap.”

  “Just because someone serves you something, doesn’t mean you have to eat it. People can dish it up and hand it to you, but you don’t have to swallow it. Folks can tell you you’re useless and nothing, and you can believe them or you can prove them wrong. What happened in the past wasn’t your fault. What happens in the future is your decision. You can make good ones, or you can watch it all slip away and spend the rest of your life blaming everyone else for the things that happened to you.”

  He’d made it sound so easy, as if all Zach had to do was pull an Abercrombie sweatshirt over the scars and the cigarette burns to become one of the cool crowd.

  Zach knew it didn’t work that way. He could have dressed in Armani and it wouldn’t have changed the facts. He came from nowhere and he was going nowhere.

  Except now he wanted to get there by plane.

  He’d stared ahead, mutinous, conflicted, the urge to kick and defend himself deeply ingrained. Against his will, his gaze had slid to the instrument panel of the Cessna and he’d almost purred with longing. He’d wanted to reach out, stroke and touch. He’d wanted to take her soaring high above the water and bank into the clouds. It was more than want. It was need.

  And because he knew people, and loved flying, Philip had seen that need and understood it.

  “I have an instructor qualification. I can teach you.”

  It was like holding out a freshly baked loaf to a starving man.

  Zach had all but drooled, but years of mistrust had held him back. “What’s the catch?”

  Philip’s gaze hadn’t wavered. “Does there have to be a catch?”

  “There’s always a catch.” The cynicism was entrenched, cold hard layers of fuck you protecting him from do-gooders who eventually gave up on him when “doing good” proved unrewarding. Zach didn’t see why he should help anyone feel good about themselves when most of them went out of their way to make sure he knew he was worthless.

  “The catch is that you have to clean up your act. No more skipping classes. It’s a shame to waste a brain like yours. You come back here every summer and when the time is right, I’ll teach you. And you can pay me.”

  There, right there, was the catch.

  “I don’t have money.” But he’d get it. He was figuring out the best way of stealing what he needed without getting caught when Philip shook his head.

  “I don’t want your money. I want your commitment.”

  Zach had looked at him blankly. He had no idea what the word meant. “Sure. Whatever.”

  “I want you to help out at camp. Every summer for the whole summer. Start taking some responsibility.”

  Help out at camp?

  It had taken a moment for the words to sink in and Zach reflected that it was just as well they were inside a plane or a million insects would have flown into his open mouth while he’d been gawping. He tried to imagine how Mr. and Mrs. More-Money-Than-Sense would react to the news that Zach would be helping.

  “You’re kidding me.”

  “I’m not kidding. And just in case you don’t recognize it, I’m giving you something life hasn’t given you before—a chance. Up to you whether you take it.”

  “So it’s not going to cost me?” Life had taught Zach that good things didn’t happen for free. In his experience, good things didn’t happen at all. Had he been wrong about Philip? Maybe the smiling wife was a front. Maybe he liked young boys and was planning to fly Zach somewhere they wouldn’t be caught.

  Panic drenched him as various hideous scenarios played through his head, none of them worth the thrill of a plane ride.

  One of the many disadvantages of being worthless was that when you disappeared, no one cared or asked questions.

  Philip had looked at him steadily. “It’s going to cost you. You’re going to scrub out toilets and clean up boats until you’re old enough to take on more responsibility. After that you’re going to train to be a camp counselor. You like the forest, so I’d suggest wilderness training. You’ll learn survival skills. Not the sort you’ve learned so far, but how to live alongside nature. There’s no catch, Zach. No one is trying to screw you over. I’m offering to teach you to fly, that’s all. At your age my dad took me up. I wanted to do the same for you.”

  “Why?” The suspicion refused to die.

  “Because everyone needs a break now and then, and no one needs it more than you.”

  The one thing he’d never been given in life was a break. Black eyes, swollen lips, broken bones—he’d been given all those things several times over, but this—this was something else.

  For a horrible moment he’d thought he was going to break down right there and howl like a baby. It was years of practice at burying his feelings that saved him from humiliation.

  “Right.” His throat had felt swollen and thick, as if he’d been caught in the neck by an insect with a big fat sti
nger. “Whatever makes you feel good.”

  “There are rules.”

  Rules had never stopped him doing anything. Mostly he stepped over them. Sometimes he kicked them in the teeth, but they never got in his way. Noticing Philip’s serious expression, he’d decided the least he could do was look as if he cared. “I’m listening.”

  “No more taking things that don’t belong to you, no more being a badass. Flying a plane is serious business.”

  Flying. The word made his mouth dry and his heart pound.

  The guy was serious. He really was offering to teach him to fly. He probably thought it would change his life or something, which meant here was another do-good jerk he was going to disappoint, but who cared?

  Zach figured that wasn’t his problem. To fly he would have promised anything.

  How hard would it be to clean up his act?

  So he had to stop stealing. Most of the kids here didn’t have shit worth taking anyway. Zach stole to ward off boredom and because it was his way of hitting back at them, not because he wanted what they had. He wouldn’t have been seen dead in a fancy sweatshirt.

  “Sure.” He’d kept his tone casual. “I guess I can do that.”

  And he had.

  From that moment on, his life had a purpose and that purpose was flying.

  Everything he did, he did for that one reason.

  Math and physics had seemed pointless and boring taught in a classroom to thirty kids with glazed expressions, but math and physics applied to the science of flying gripped him. Hungry for knowledge, he’d studied it all and his brain had come alive.

  But what he loved most of all was the plane.

  Philip had taken him up every summer until he was finally old enough to learn. The first time he’d been allowed to take the controls his hands had shaken so much he’d been sure he was going to ditch the thing in the ocean.

  When Philip had told him he was a natural he swelled with something he’d never felt before.

  Pride.

  The praise had fed him, nurtured him and ultimately freed him.