Fall Into Temptation (Blue Moon Book #2)
Lucy Scorey
Epigraph
Wherever you stand
Be the soul of that place
— Rumi
Dedication
To Amber, the sister of my heart, if not my blood.
1
It was good to be home, Beckett Pierce decided. Even if home meant your across-the-street neighbor had put up his psychedelic Halloween homage to the sixties.
Beckett shook his head at the giant inflatable VW bus in the front yard and set an easy pace as he jogged down the sidewalk.
It was an early October evening, which in his opinion was the perfect opportunity for a run around town. Particularly since he’d been gone for ten days. A quick run after hours on a plane would let him stretch his legs and get reacquainted with his town. And since it was dark, he could do it without being stopped a dozen times by townspeople.
He loved his duties as mayor of Blue Moon Bend and the responsibilities of his law practice, but spending more than a week in the Caribbean sun at his law school friend’s wedding had been a nice break.
Even if he was sure Edward was making a mistake, hitching himself for life to Tiffani the celebrity stylist.
Now, it was time to catch up on everything that had happened around town while he was gone. And in Blue Moon, it was a lot. The town might be small, but it moved fast.
While Beckett was relaxing on the beach, his paralegal and right hand, Ellery, had found a tenant — a single mom of two — for his backyard guesthouse, the new owner of Half-Moon Yoga had set up shop and opened her doors, and his mother had announced she was moving in with her boyfriend Franklin Merrill.
Beckett had already decided to avoid the reality of that last change for as long as he could.
The evening was dark enough that he decided to chance his anonymity on Main Street. Most of the storefronts were closed by now, but he saw lights on at the yoga studio. Maris, the previous owner, had moved to Santa Fe to open her own crystal shop.
Beckett let his long legs carry him around the square to the large windows of the studio that occupied the first floor of a three-story brick building painted navy blue. It looked as though Maris’s predecessor was significantly younger. And more limber.
Surrounded by a scatter of paint cans and brushes, a lone woman with miles of fiery red curls executed a perfect headstand. The studio was a fresh shade of peacock blue and dotted with flickering candles, but Beckett only had eyes for the woman in the middle of it all.
Her legs, straight as lances, opened in an inverted split. She wobbled and then tumbled down into a graceful heap onto the mat beneath her. He could hear her laughter faintly through the glass. Fascinated, he watched as she tossed her hair over her shoulder and, undaunted, returned to her headstand. This time, her split was rock steady.
She brought her legs down into a tight tuck and then jack-knifed them toward the ceiling, lifting up into a handstand.
Power and grace, he thought stepping closer to the glass. She tucked her chin and rolled forward and down into a cross-legged position. And then gave herself a high-five.
Beckett’s phone rang in the pocket of his fleece. He pulled it out and winced at the screen. He wasn’t ready for this conversation yet.
“Hi, Mom.”
“I heard my favorite son was back in the country,” Phoebe Pierce chirped in his ear.
“I heard my mother is getting a roommate.”
“I will if we can find a decent place to buy,” she groaned. “It’s not exactly a hot real estate market in Blue Moon right now.”
Beckett remained silent.
His mother sighed. “I had a feeling the news might not be warmly received.”
Beckett scowled at the ground. “I don’t want to argue with you, Mom.”
“We’re going to have to talk about this sooner or later, you know. Franklin is a wonderful man. I really need you to give him a chance.”
“Mom.”
“Beckett. You’re important to me. You’re the only middle son I’ve got. And Franklin’s important to me, too. I need you to make room for him.”
Make room for a man who wasn’t his father?
John Pierce, in Beckett’s estimation, had been the greatest man to ever live. He’d taught Beckett what love and loyalty and community looked like when you lived those principles day in and day out. The idea that some restaurant owner with his loud Hawaiian shirts and his baked ziti could just step into those shoes was laughable.
Beckett chose to ignore the fact that before he found out that his mother was dating Franklin, he had actually liked the man. He was active in the Chamber of Commerce and always cheerfully giving back to the community. But none of that measured up to John Pierce’s contributions to life and family in Blue Moon.