April's Glow Read online

  April’s Glow

  Juliet Madison

  www.escapepublishing.com.au

  April’s Glow

  Juliet Madison

  The heartwarming new Tarrin’s Bay novel from bestselling author Juliet Madison is all about moving on—in unexpected ways.

  Distracting herself from a string of bad luck and a disastrous love life, bubbly April Vedora throws herself into her new business—April’s Glow, a candle store in seaside Tarrin’s Bay. The enchanting scents and colourful atmosphere provide a safe haven, but outside business hours she’s clueless about her personal life.

  When a mysterious loner moves in next door, she can’t help but become intrigued, and ex-soldier Zac Masterson is equally fascinated by April. But both have sworn off relationships, and while April avoids her emotions by keeping busy and sociable, Zac hides away from the world—and his past.

  As the pair chip away at each other’s facades and secrets are revealed, April fears that the man she is unwillingly falling for could represent everything she’s worked so hard to avoid. Or could they be just what the other needs?

  They’ve shared their secrets over the back fence, but resolving the past is going to mean opening the doors to their hearts—and letting each other in.

  About the Author

  Juliet Madison is an Australian bestselling and award-nominated author of romantic comedy, women’s fiction, and young adult supernatural mystery. She is also an inspirational colouring book artist. After a successful career as a naturopath and a background in dance, internet marketing, and perfume sales (yes, she was one of those annoying people in department stores who spray you with perfume), Juliet now prefers to indulge her propensity for multiple careers by living vicariously through her characters. She enjoys taking these characters on fun, emotional, romantic, and sometimes magical journeys of self-discovery, and especially enjoys putting them into hilariously embarrassing situations. She also likes to weave an overall positive message into her stories to leave readers with a sense of appreciation about life. Juliet lives near the beach on the beautiful south coast of New South Wales, where she spends as much time as possible writing and as little time as possible doing housework. She can be contacted via her website www.julietmadison.com where readers can download some free short stories, and also via Twitter @Juliet_Madison and Facebook JulietMadisonAuthor.

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks once again to Kate Cuthbert, Escape Publishing, and Harlequin Australia for supporting my Tarrin’s Bay series, and my editor Belinda Holmes for helping me polish up these books before publication.

  To fellow author, Lea Darragh, thanks for reading this manuscript so quickly and giving helpful feedback and encouragement! You are a gem. Thanks also to my amazing friend, Ruth Donald, for reading this manuscript too and helping me with the army related details and characterisation for Zac, not to mention your moral support, encouragement, and friendship.

  Thanks to my mum for helping me with flower and plant information for Zac’s garden, because I have no idea about that stuff! And thanks also for reading the draft and giving me a boost in confidence by saying it was good!

  A special mention and thanks to Dr Arthur Aron and the team involved in the research paper The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness, for permission to mention within my book your thirty-six questions that involve self-disclosure between participants to build a closer relationship and connection, and to utilise some of these questions in a scene for my characters. For anyone interested in learning more about these questions and their purpose, as well as seeing the full list of questions, please see the links on my website at www.julietmadison.com.

  I’d also like to acknowledge the song All of Me by John Legend, which inspired part of my story and is mentioned by the characters in the book, as well as two books that the characters read and that have inspired me: The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, and Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks (The Teachings of Abraham). And thanks to the Australian candle store, Dusk, for inspiring my character April’s candle store and for keeping my home well stocked with delicious-smelling candles!

  To my favourite café, Coffee Guru Kiama, thanks Cassie and James and the team for letting me set up office and hog the corner table to write my books!

  And to my awesome friend, Julia, thanks for meeting me at the corner table for much-needed breaks and chats and hot beverages. Thanks also to my writing buddies and friends, Alli and Diane, who I couldn’t imagine this writing journey without, and to my readers who keep reading my books and the reviewers who help support them.

  To my cat, Pepper, who passed away the day after I finished writing this book. The story just so happens to have two cats as characters.

  R.I.P. and thanks for being part of the family.

  Contents

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  Bestselling Titles by Escape Publishing…

  Chapter 1

  If there was anything worse for April Vedora than being stood up, it was being stood up on April Fools’ Day. A week before her birthday at that. And two days after having really bad sushi and spending half the night getting intimate with the toilet bowl. The only thing that could make life worse was if it rained while she sat on the picnic table by the wishing fountain in Miracle Park, waiting for her first ever internet date to turn up, which by the way, had taken at least eight months to pluck up the courage to agree to. So much for courage. Courage could go and get flushed, like the bad sushi.

  ‘Stupid creep,’ she huffed, as she stood and smoothed down her long, paisley skirt, having given the guy exactly one hour and ten minutes to turn up. She’d sent a text twenty minutes prior, which had met with no reply.

  April gazed into the distance at the blue-skied horizon between the trees framing the park, blurring her peripheral vision and the evidence of perfect lives, lovers, and happy families that littered the park like colourful confetti. Her zone-out was broken by a soccer ball hitting her left leg, which had it not been for a sudden loss of balance due to the impact, she wouldn’t have noticed. She leant on the picnic table to steady herself. The moment was like life, really. A bump here and there, sometimes you’d fall, sometimes you wouldn’t, and even though sometimes you got sick of the repeated bumps and falls and didn’t care whether you got back up this time, the human instinct was to put that hand out and regain balance. The innate desire to keep going, get back up again, and move forward. Lately, it seemed like all April was focused on was moving forward, but when would she have a chance to get somewhere, be somewhere: not always in a state of needing to aspire to something greater? The ever-rolling wheel of life. Did it ever stop?

  ‘Sorry, lady,’ said a blond-haired boy as he came to retrieve his ball.

  ‘No worries, kid,’ she replied.

  No worries? Little did he know.

  She didn’t know if she wanted kids. Maybe a few years ago, when her life had been completely different, but not now
. Things had changed big time, and priorities had shifted. Besides, having set up a new business, she’d need at least three to five years of building it up to make enough of a profit, and a family lifestyle would make it difficult. Anyway, even if she did want children, it would take two, and she was missing that vital component. And after the no-show of today, her love-life was looking like a no-go.

  The breeze ruffled her wavy chocolate-coloured hair as she walked across the main street. She distracted herself with inane thoughts as though she was simply out for a Sunday afternoon stroll and hadn’t just been humiliated …

  I really must book my next appointment with the hairdresser. Need more garnet highlights before the last ones grow out too much.

  And when was the last time I went to the dentist? Should do that too.

  But maybe I’ll book a massage first. Yes, massage first, then dentist. Or maybe the other way around.

  Okay: hair, then dentist, then massage. Done.

  She nodded discreetly to affirm her mundane decision, then eyed the appealing window display in Mrs May’s Bookstore. An explosion of colourful children’s books mixed with an array of Easter eggs sat on the display shelf. April was sure there had been more Easter eggs last week when she’d walked past. Some little darlings had probably nicked a few when their parents weren’t looking. Then again, she wouldn’t be surprised if they’d been eaten by someone else …

  ‘Been eating the display items again, Olivia?’ April asked as she walked through the open door into the store.

  Olivia, granddaughter of Mrs May herself, glanced up from her computer at the counter. ‘Me? Never.’ She winked. ‘Want one?’

  April shook her head, then eyed the display. ‘Actually, yeah, I could do with one.’

  Olivia moved from behind the counter and grabbed a couple of eggs. ‘Bad day? Oh! I almost forgot, your date! What happened?’

  ‘Absolutely nothing. Looks like Mr Maybe-He’s-Perfect-For-Me is more like Mr I-Like-Standing-Women-Up-Just-For-Fun.’ April sighed.

  ‘Oh no!’ Olivia popped the small chocolate egg into her mouth, then mumbled, ‘Idiot.’

  April savoured the temporary sensation of smooth chocolate melting in her mouth. Temporary. Like everything good in life.

  ‘Here,’ Olivia handed April a book. ‘Might make you feel better.’

  She chuckled at the cover showing a rugged Australian landscape decorated by a bare-chested man in jeans, boots, and an Akubra hat. ‘Really?’

  ‘I’ve read it. It’s a heartwarming and … stimulating read, in more ways than one.’ Olivia tilted her head and cast a suggestive glance out the corner of her eye. ‘And it has a happy ending.’

  ‘Happy schmappy. Why can’t our lives be like books?’ She got her purse out to pay for the book and Olivia pushed it away.

  ‘On the house, my gift to you, hun.’

  ‘Aw, you’re too kind. Let me buy you coffee sometime.’

  ‘Just give me the biggest slice of your birthday cake next weekend and we’ll call it even.’

  ‘Deal.’ She smiled at her new friend. They’d only known each other since April opened her candle store six months ago and had introduced herself to some of the local business owners. Olivia and April had clicked and bonded over chocolate.

  ‘Hey, forget about that guy. Block him and try someone else.’

  April waved her hand. ‘Nah, I think that’s it for online dating.’

  ‘What, one bad experience and you’re calling it quits?’

  ‘You can talk, Miss I-Don’t-Need-A-Man.’

  ‘I’m perfectly happy being a single mum, thank you.’ She tucked her tousled hair behind her ears.

  ‘Then I will be too. The single part, that is, not the mum bit.’ She smiled.

  ‘So no more men for now? Oh, I was looking forward to living vicariously through you.’ She pouted.

  ‘For now, I’ll live vicariously through this book.’ April held up the paperback. ‘With Mr I’m-Too-Hot-To-Wear-A-Shirt Cowboy.’ She held it to her cheek, put her hand on the man’s abs, and moaned.

  ‘Careful, you might scare the customers.’

  ‘Or they might think it’s a really good book and buy a copy.’

  ‘True.’ Olivia’s expression turned all motherly; a tilt of the head, concerned creases around the eyes. ‘Seriously though, don’t give up. You deserve someone great after all you’ve been through. You never know, this time next year you might get your own happy ending.’ Olivia patted April’s cheeks and went off to help a customer.

  Happy ending? Right now she’d settle for a happy beginning.

  Chapter 2

  ‘Enjoy the rest of your day, sweetheart.’ Clarissa Vedora kissed her daughter’s forehead and handed her the bag of presents. ‘Don’t eat them all at once.’ She winked.

  April peered into the gift bag containing a variety of body products, a scarf, and chocolates.

  ‘As nice as the body lotions and shower gels smell, I’ll try to resist eating them.’ April patted her mother’s arm and she laughed. ‘Thanks for lunch, Mum. And thanks for coming too, Susie.’ She leaned over and kissed her aunt’s cheek, then glanced briefly at the empty chair where her father should have been.

  ‘My pleasure. You have a good time tonight,’ Susie said.

  ‘Tonight?’ April’s mind went blank for a moment. ‘Oh yeah, my dinner party. After the wild shenanigans with you lot I almost forgot.’

  ‘You might need a rest when you get home before your friends arrive,’ Susie advised. Her cure for everything—a cold, a bad day, a good day, a negative horoscope—was a rest. Take a nap, she’d say, grab forty winks, have some shut-eye!

  April faked a yawn. ‘Good idea.’ Though she’d probably stop by her store to see how her employee, Belinda, was doing, then she’d make sure the house was relatively tidy, then she’d scroll through her Facebook birthday messages.

  They walked out of Café Lagoon and Jonah waved them goodbye from behind the counter. If he was a little older she would have been happy to go on a date with him, he was such a cutie. But he sometimes talked about this girl he knew who moved away and travelled a lot for her career, and by the look in his eyes whenever he spoke about her, he still had a thing for her. Poor guy. Stuck in a small town looking after his parents’ business when he probably wanted to see the world. Or maybe he was happy here and wanted the small-town life. He had a permanent smile plastered on his face.

  April turned to the left and her mother and aunt turned in the other direction, then her mum turned back and leaned in close. ‘Don’t worry about your father, he would have made it if he could have.’

  She waved her hand in dismissal, despite the deep-seated hurt that twinged in her chest. ‘Doesn’t matter. More fun with you two anyway.’

  April checked her phone. No message or call from her dad to wish her happy birthday either.

  ‘You’re probably right.’ Clarissa gave April’s hand a squeeze. ‘He cares, you know that, but …’

  ‘He also cares about the booze.’ She exchanged a knowing glance with her mother. ‘Anyway, better go. Thanks again, chicky babes.’ April blew a kiss to them.

  ‘Oh, April, you make me feel like your friend, not your mother.’ She smiled.

  ‘That’s coz you are.’ She winked, waved, then turned. She didn’t know what she would have done without her mother after the most traumatic day of her life two and a half years ago, when her life took a one hundred and eighty degree turn.

  April approached the pedestrian crossing, then as always, checked the road carefully before crossing to make sure there were no hoons ignoring road rules. Sundays in Tarrin’s Bay were always busy, tourists visiting the Tarrin rock formation, the beaches, boutiques, and hopefully—her store. Lucky it wasn’t market day or she may not have been able to take her birthday off work, as market days always brought in more customers since her store was so close to the park and harbour.

  She turned the corner and walked past the first few historic terrace shop
s, their intricate framework, decorative signs, and old-fashioned charm comforting her. She’d been lucky to score one of them to lease, and if it hadn’t been for the high competition urging her to make a quick decision, she may have missed out. But life was short, she knew that, and opportunities needed to be seized.

  A customer walked out of April’s Glow as she arrived. April tried to peer discreetly into her shopping bag to see if she could tell which candles she’d bought, but Belinda had wrapped them all neatly in the store’s trademark rose-pink tissue paper. However, the unmistakable scent of her bestselling vanilla frosting candle wafted around the air. It was the closest thing to eating a fluffy vanilla cake with mouth-watering frosting without actually eating it. She really should tout it as a weight loss aid. Calorie free, simply smell and enjoy.

  She walked into the store, and a symphony of sweet, spicy, and refreshing aromas enveloped her. The dark wood panelling on the walls framed shelves piled high with colour-coordinated candles of varying sizes, along with candle holders, lanterns, oil burners, and the odd decorative item. ‘Ahh, home sweet home.’

  ‘I think you’ve walked into the wrong building, boss.’ Belinda stepped out from behind the counter and rearranged the vanilla frosting candles where the customer had been on a candle-buying rampage.

  ‘Okay, second home sweet home.’

  ‘I’d be happy to live here, better than sharing with my noisy housemates.’ Belinda tucked a strand of black hair behind her multiple-pierced ear, her purple nail polish glossy in the light of a nearby lantern on the shelf. ‘Anyway, what are you doing here on your birthday?’ She waved her hand at April. ‘Shoo! Get lost, enjoy your day.’

  April smiled. ‘You know, I could fire you for being all rude and stuff.’

  ‘But you won’t, you need me.’ Belinda grasped April’s arms and squeezed them with excessive enthusiasm, her eyes bulging.

  This was why she came by the store, not only to check how the day’s sales had gone so far, but because she needed a touch of fun from her quirky, eccentric, young employee, and a hint of the aromas and colours that covered her heart in a warm, soft, fluffy blanket and took away disappointment. She really shouldn’t be disappointed, she knew her dad may not show up and had learned to brush his absences under the carpet. And her mother and aunt had given her a beautiful birthday lunch. At thirty-three, she had a lot to be thankful for in life.