Madeline’s Park is Coming!
Fourteen days until you can fall for Everett Berry. In the meantime enjoy this excerpt:
When the scratching wasn’t enough, Everett brushed Sparky up against his cheek. The kitten realized how much fun stubble could be and rubbed his glittery purple muzzle all over Ev’s face. Before this moment was lost, Madeline fished out her phone and recorded a tiny black kitten smearing cereal dust all over a hot fireman.
After finishing his good scratching, Sparky paused, his still blue eyes staring deep into Everett’s. With a quick lean forward, Ev booped the kitten on the nose with his own.
And Madeline got it all on video.
“Are you…?” he asked.
“Sorry.” She gulped, her fingers turning to butter as she tried to pause the recording. “Sorry, I was…I just thought that a handsome man nuzzling an adorable kitten video would help with donations.”
Everett smiled so picture-perfect that Madeline regretted hiding her phone away. He should have photographers following him every second of the day. Everyone needed to see his beautiful sunshine face. “So…” He placed the kitten in the middle of the table and ran a single finger up and down Sparky’s spine. “You think I’m handsome?”
Every person who has ever met you thinks that, Madeline thought. Right? She did not say that aloud.
The blush climbing up his cheeks said otherwise. She raced to hide away her slip with nonchalance. “It’s hardly news. All of the girls in high school were…”
Hopelessly, endlessly in love with you.
He snorted, switching from the kitten to scratch the back of his neck. “High school was a long time ago.”
“Not long enough,” Madeline whispered to herself. She’d been ecstatic to get accepted out of state, to pack her things, say goodbye to her ‘sort-of’ friends and start a new life in New York. All except for Everett. Leaving him had been the one thorn in what was to be her rosy future.
But here he was without the boys’ football team hurling balloons of their own pee at anyone too slow to run away. Without the girls dissecting every female body part down to its mathematical acceptableness in the bathroom. And without her sister scoffing so hard she choked the time Madeline had mentioned her unending crush aloud. She wasn’t yet twelve at the time, but she’d known that someone like her didn’t belong with someone like Everett Berry.
Her heart’s looking for a forever home.
All her life, Madeline Prix’s loved Everett Berry, but she’d be a fool to think he’d ever notice her. She’s nothing more than a big Southern girl with frizzy red hair. No way would the sunshine and perfect Ev look twice at her. To her surprise, fifteen-years-later, he appears in her city while she’s in the middle of a kitten rescue. Madeline’s dreams are about to come true when Ev asks her on a date until his ex enters the no-longer-rosy picture.
Everett thought he could start his life anew after a messy divorce in a small Southern town. Maddy came into his world like a breath of fresh air, but he finds himself stumbling back into old patterns. Can he ever be good enough for someone as sweet as Madeline Prix?
Madeline must choose between the man she’s loved all her life who keeps breaking her heart and a man who’s only good on paper. Good thing she has her adorable cats and best friend to help her out, because her heart may not be able to survive.
Ellen Mint 