The Trickster Makes A Match (NFU) Read online

  THE TRICKSTER MAKES A MATCH

  BRIA QUINLAN

  SUGAR SKULL BOOKS

  The Trickster Makes a Match

  A Nocturne Falls Universe Story

  Copyright © 2017 by the Bria Quinlan

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction and was made possible by a special agreement with Sugar Skull Books, but hasn’t been reviewed or edited by Kristen Painter. All characters, events, scenes, plots and associated elements appearing in the original Nocturne Falls series remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Kristen Painter, Sugar Skull Books and their affiliates or licensors.

  Any similarity to real person, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author or Sugar Skull Books.

  Published in the United States of America.

  CONTENTS

  The Brew Ha Ha Books

  Foreword

  The Trickster Makes a Match

  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

  Epilogue

  Also by Bria Quinlan

  About Bria

  THE BREW HA HA BOOKS

  The Last Single Girl

  Worth the Fall

  The Catching Kind

  The Proposing Kind — COMING SOON!

  FREE prequel short story: It’s In His Kiss

  Sign-up for the New Release Alerts HERE

  FOREWORD

  Dear Reader,

  Nocturne Falls has become a magical place for so many people, myself included. Over and over I’ve heard from you that it’s a town you’d love to visit and even live in! I can tell you that writing the books is just as much fun for me.

  With your enthusiasm for the series in mind – and your many requests for more books – the Nocturne Falls Universe was born. It’s a project near and dear to my heart, and one I am very excited about.

  I hope these new, guest-authored books will entertain and delight you. And best of all, I hope they allow you to discover some great new authors! (And if you like this book, be sure to check out the rest of the Nocturne Falls Universe offerings.)

  For more information about the Nocturne Falls Universe, visit http://kristenpainter.com/sugar-skull-books/

  In the meantime, happy reading!

  Kristen Painter

  THE TRICKSTER MAKES A MATCH

  Minx Marksman--daughter of a Supermodel and a famous Rocker--wants nothing more than a normal, crazy-free life. One more nannying gig will earn her enough to achieve her dream of small cottage on the coast. That last job brings her to Nocturne Falls where she’s surprised to find out it’s Halloween everyday.

  Not so much on the normal, but high on the adorable.

  Baby Gus and Uncle Hottie—aka Tim Johnson--seem to be a walk in the park at first. The flirty infant and the nerdy, glasses wearing cutie grab her heart from the start. She’s falling fast for both guys, but she can’t help but notice that some things aren’t quite what they seem...

  CHAPTER ONE

  MINX

  The average American eats the bottom of a candy corn first.

  The sign greeting me was unexpected, to say the least.

  I slowed the car to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, but no. I really was staring at a giant pumpkin that read: WELCOME TO NOCTURNE FALLS—WHERE EVERY DAY IS HALLOWEEN.

  Huh. Okay.

  My boss had said it was a tourist town, but I hadn’t thought about what kind. I guess I’d expected antiques or something not quite so…unique.

  I liked Halloween as much as the next girl. I could roll with that for a vacation, but this was definitely not what I signed up for, no matter how super cute that Dionysus Flair jewelry shop I just drove by was.

  Weaving through the small downtown area, I was flooded with holiday festiveness of the Halloween variety. I half expected to be dive bombed by bats wearing little capes and fake fangs declaring that they vant to drink my blood.

  A reality check was needed, so I pulled out my spec sheet on the new family I was going to be nannying for:

  Nocturne Falls, small tourist town

  Baby, specific age unknown

  Uncle in custody

  Live-in situation, term unknown

  Halloween, not mentioned.

  And I thought those unknown things would be the odd parts.

  Instead, black, orange, purple, and green came at me from every direction. Even this early in the day, people were wearing cat or devil ears. The stores all had festive decorations in their windows that were so clever I had to slow down. Even the streetlights got into the act with their metal cobwebs artistically woven onto them.

  And the street names! Who wouldn’t want to live on Trick’or Terrorace?

  The town itself was adorable and exactly what I’d pictured in small-town life—sans the Halloweeny stuff. I couldn’t help grinning as I came across cafés and bookstores, antique shops and hairdressers lining the downtown streets. Everything I’d been wanting in life—only with the unexpected and not super-welcome side dish of oddity.

  My caffeine-finding GPS told me to hang a right, and I drove down yet another tourist-focused street called Black Cat Boulevard.

  After more tourist-attracting storefronts, I pulled into a parking space just outside a coffee shop cleverly named The Hallowed Bean. Some extra pep wasn’t going to hurt my adjustment to small-Halloween-town living.

  Inside was just as cute as outside. I was beginning to wonder if people here ever suffered from Adorable Overload. The barista added to the café’s look with painted little flowers climbing up her neck that looked so real I wanted to lean over the counter and smell her.

  But, when she handed me my chocolate muffin with a candy corn sticking out of the top, it was the only thing I wanted to smell.

  Okay, so not quite the normal I had in mind. But, as I backed out of my spot, I couldn’t help but think that the adorable quotient might make up for the slightly off-centeredness.

  And, now that I’d gotten grounded in the local flavor, I could move on to the most normal part: the job.

  CHAPTER TWO

  MINX

  The average size of new houses built is now over 2,500 square feet.

  My phone rang, and I glanced down to make sure it wasn’t my boss with more details about the job. Hopefully not canceling, now that I was here.

  But no. It was worse.

  It was my mother.

  I hit accept and braced myself.

  “Darling! I’m so glad you answered!”

  “Hi, Mom. I’m driving, so I might have to go.”

  “Minx, really. Another nanny job?”

  Well, that didn’t take long. I was going to have to talk to Mom’s new personal assistant about what “for emergency contact only” meant.

  “Your father’s band is just wrapping up a tour, and he’s meeting me in Morocco for a cover shoot. You should join us! It’s going to be gorgeous there.”

  “I’m sure it will be, but I’m actually starting today, so…” I faded out as if I were full of regret.

  Of course, I failed miserably at every acting class she’d s
ent me to, so I doubt I was fooling her.

  “Minx, really. You just got out of that horrible situation where you could have died—”

  Improbable.

  “—and now you’re just rushing off to the next job.”

  “Mother, I took almost five months off since I finished the last job. I didn’t even have to be involved in the investigation. Everything is fine. I’m looking forward to this new job.”

  “Well, maybe your father and I will come see you. Where did you say you were?”

  “I hadn’t.” For reasons. “I’m in the foothills of Georgia.”

  “Oh dear. Why?”

  “Because that’s where the job is.” And for reasons that had everything to do with my parents’ lifestyles and my childhood. New York? Not for me. Lovely small towns in Georgia with no paparazzi and perfectly normal, everyday non-celebrity folks…also, no FBI-infiltrating cults? Sign me up!

  “Well, I doubt your father would be up for that.”

  READ: No way in the world are we going somewhere that doesn’t include haute couture runway stores and Starbucks.

  “I’m sure we can get together after this job, if you guys aren’t on the road again.” Maybe. My GPS told me to turn through a huge stone archway that read Asgard’s Gate and led into a small neighborhood of perfectly manicured lawns and oversize houses. “I have to go. I’m almost there. Love to Dad!”

  I hit disconnect before the arguments could begin.

  Two streets over, I pulled up to the house and couldn’t help but scowl.

  This was not what I’d expected. Maybe I should have known, seeing as it was a gated community, but I’d just assumed it would be a cute normal-size house. In my head, it was one of those Arts and Crafts bungalows I’d seen online that were so popular in this part of the state.

  This was not that.

  This was also not normal. I wasn’t even sure I could call it a house.

  It was definitely drifting into mansion territory.

  Even my last employer’s…ah, estate-cough-commune-cough had houses smaller than this.

  I parked my car in the drive and tried to figure out what door to knock on. Figuring on the front, I made my way up the flagstone walk and lifted an odd knotted snake-shaped knocker.

  The door flew open, all but bouncing off the inside wall, leaving a tall, frazzled man holding an infant in his arms. His glasses were askew and half in the baby’s mouth, along with his dark, floppy hair.

  “Thank goodness you’re here.” He shoved the baby toward me, leaving me standing on the stoop with a squirming child in my arms. “I’m lost. This is beyond me. I’m just an uncle. I underestimated the ability of a small human to annihilate everything in its reach—and beyond. Also, I completely overestimated my ability to care for it. Nannies. Nannies everywhere are superheroes. I believe that now. Marvel needs to make a movie about you guys.”

  “Oh, I’m not a nanny.” I looked down at the pudgy face smiling up at me as if it understood the rantings of the floppy-haired man and took joy in the chaos it was causing.

  “What?” I glanced up at the man again, taking in more than his panic this time.

  He was tall and on the lean side—not quite skinny. His dark hair was a little overlong, falling into his eyes and curling at his collar in a way that said I need a haircut, not I’m a rebel with long hair.

  But, it was the deep brown eyes behind slightly crooked glasses that made me smile. This guy was the exact opposite of every quasi-celebrity, sly power broker, or security guard I’d been dealing with for the last six years.

  “I’m kidding.” I bounced the gurgling package on my hip, letting him play with the ends of my hair, not surprised when he tried to stick them in his mouth. “I’m Minx. I’m here to help.”

  “Minx, as you are one, or that’s your name?”

  “You’re in luck,” I said with a wink, as I took a step toward him, forcing him back into the house. “Because the answer is, both.”

  “Oh, sorry.” He stepped back farther and waved a hand toward the foyer. “Come on in. I’m Tim. Johnson. Tim Johnson.”

  Tim. That was a nice, normal name.

  I liked it.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Tim. I’m sure we’re going to be fine once we figure this all out.” I glanced down at the bigger-than-a-baby-not-quite-toddler bundle in my arms and smiled at him. He looked back up at me, sparkly blue eyes shining. “Why don’t we go sit down, talk through what you think you need, and we’ll go from there?”

  Tim ran a hand through his hair again, ruffling it into an even messier mop.

  “That sounds great.” He motioned to follow him. “There’s a sitting room in the back of the house that my sister had been using as a family room. All of Gus’s play stuff is there.”

  I followed him down a long oak panel-lined hall to the back of the house. The sitting room was lovely with a window-lined wall at the far end that had French doors leading out to a large grass area walled off by tall shrubs. The room itself was comfortable with overstuffed couches and chairs, a fireplace along the inside wall, and an abundance of toys, a baby swing, and a playpen taking up about a fourth of the room.

  I sat in one of the chairs, bouncing my new charge on my knee as I watched Tim drop into the one across from me, then spring back up. With another scowl, he pulled a plastic octopus from the cushion that neither of us had noticed before.

  He set the toy aside, giving the little bundle in my arms a hard look as he lowered himself back down. It looked like he was going to accuse the smaller Johnson of something before he shook it off.

  “So, this is Gus,” I said, smiling down at the baby, excited to have only one little person under my thumb. And no cult robes involved at all!

  “Yes.” Tim leaned back, watching me with Gus. “Have you worked with children this young before?”

  No nonsense. That was…refreshing.

  “I have.” I ran through my credentials while I bounced Gus to keep his attention on not eating my hair or throwing a stranger-induced crying binge.

  “That all sounds great.” Tim smiled for the first time since I’d arrived, the heavy, overwhelmed lines between his eyes smoothing just a tad, making him look closer to the early thirties I assumed he was. “I’m sure the agency told you I’m Gus’s uncle. His mom—my sister—is…flighty is a good word. I love her. I mean, I really love her, adore her even. But this was a surprise even for me.”

  “Gus was a surprise?” It wasn’t unheard of for families not to be close, but to suddenly be the caretaker of a baby you didn’t know about had to be jarring. No wonder Tim was struggling to adjust.

  “Well, yes. But I’d meant her handing him off to me and taking off was the surprise.”

  That wasn’t winning Willow any sympathy, but still.

  “Is there anything about this situation that will help me help you with Gus?”

  “Wow, you’re better than a bartender.” He laughed, and I felt Gus shift toward the sound. “I don’t want you to think Willow was freeloading off me or anything. She never asked for anything.” He grinned, almost to himself. “She’s a hard worker when she has to work. She’d get a job, save enough to hit the road again, and be on her way.”

  “First question: Your sister’s name is Willow?” Because Tim and Willow just did not jive.

  He laughed and pushed his glasses up his nose again. “She’s actually my half sister. Our father was a little bit of a free spirit himself when it came to monogamy, if you know what I mean.”

  “Oh, okay.” I guess that made more sense. “Is that what happened? She needed to hit the road and left her baby with you?” I was trying to keep the judgment out of my question. It wasn’t my place, but knowing what was going on would help me make the time Gus was with Tim the best it could be.

  “No, actually.” Tim gave me another of those sweet smiles. “Although, I can see where you might get that idea. But, no. Willow was devoted to Gus when I got here. Confused, frustrated, lost, but she loved hi
m…like one might love a puppy. Let me back up. Willow has always been great at finding a good reason to do exactly what Willow wants to do. I’m afraid this is no different.”

  He stood and paced in front of the windows overlooking the back lawn.

  “Willow called me last week and said she needed to see me. I was surprised she was in Georgia. She typically avoided the state like it was a prison she’d made a break from. But I agreed to come for a night.” He chuckled. “You never knew if she was going to show up in her own car or a limo…or hitchhiking. We hadn’t seen each other in person for over a year.”

  “Thus, Gus being a surprise?” The idea of not knowing what was going on with my family was so foreign I couldn’t imagine.

  Of course, half the time I found out from TMZ, but still.

  “You can imagine my shock when I pulled in. I thought maybe she worked here, so I went to the side door and knocked. And knocked. And knocked. I finally went around front and rang the bell, and she answered the door with a baby in her arms. My first thought was, who gave her a baby?”

  I laughed. As a nanny, I had that thought fairly often.

  “But then I found out this was my nephew, and I just…” The look he gave Gus let me know that even with the scowl he’d had before, Tim was madly in love with this child. “We visited for a while; then Willow told me something was wrong with him. I was ready to drive her down to Atlanta that night.”

  I could feel him building up his patience for the rest.

  “So, Willow told me she needed his father ‘to fix this.’ I’m not even sure what’s wrong. I offered to hire someone to find the guy. That seemed like the smartest plan. If Gus had some kind of an illness, we should find this guy right away, I told her. She told me we could talk about it over breakfast. The next morning, I got up and she’d left me a note taped to the baby monitor in my bedroom that woke me up.”

  “She just left you guys here?”

  “Yup.” He shrugged, like this was to be expected. “It’s been five days, and I’m already at my wit’s end. I only had an overnight bag. I also need to get back to work but don’t feel like I can bring Gus with me to the office. Also, car seats seem to be miniature torture devices. Every time I put him in one, it’s a battle royale.”