Page 1 of A Whisper of Summer Magic

Prologue

May

Meghan Maye slouchedin an Adirondack chair. She propped her bare feet up on the surround of the outdoor fire pit and looked around the new outdoor patio of Grandma Millie’s generational family farm. She was still trying to digest the news that their grandmother had put the farm and surrounding acreage in a trust for all four granddaughters.

Sharing a property. What did it mean for her sisters?

For her?

Do I want it to mean something?

The malaise that had snuck up on her over the past year now didn’t necessarily have to be ignored.

Maybe.

But who would she be without her high-powered career and Platinum Pro status at American Airlines?

Impatient with her wavering thoughts, she focused on her older sister, Sarah, a pediatrician, who had always kept her cool, rain or shine.

“Good party,” Meghan murmured.

“It was so sweet,” Sarah said softly staring into the flames. “A perfect engagement party. Chloe glowed. And Rustin couldn’t keep his eyes off her.”

Meghan clocked with a pang that Chloe’s engagement might dredge up painful memories of Sarah’s engagement, though it had been well over a decade ago.

But no, though Sarah had been quiet and contemplative while they’d been cleaning up, she was now smiling, relaxed. “It was wonderful to see Chloe celebrated by so many friends and her vocal and choir students. And Rustin. He stood by her the whole night. Smiled. Laughed. Not a natural state for him I would have said.”

Meghan agreed. Rustin had grown up rough. Tough. To see him so gentle, obviously deeply in love, did something weirdly painful to her heart. She’d always suspected she was chillier than her sisters, too focused on ambition.

And where’s that getting you?

“It’s a little scary. So much happiness that it almost hurts.” Sarah’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Like it can’t last.”

It can’t.

But she kept that opinion, unlike most she had, to herself. Meghan was practical. Cynical. And a corporate attorney in a large firm that often sent her around the world. She excelled at problem solving and smoothing a path, especially when discretion was key. When negotiations started to unravel, Meghan Maye was the fixer.

But can I fix myself?

If she knew what was wrong. Maybe this past year was just one long midlife—at thirty-three—crisis. Perhaps she should buy an impractical car.

She wiggled her toes. Pale pink. The pedicure and color had been Chloe’s idea. She’d wanted a sister salon day before the party to thank the three of them for all their hard work. Meghan regularly received pedicures, but more for the foot massage, wraps, and maintenance rather than brightly colored girly toenails. Baby-girl-blanket pink, as Meghan had dubbed it, much to her sisters’ amusement, was definitely not her style.

But maybe it should be. Her sisters had enjoyed the facials and joint mani-pedis. Chloe had found her confidence and love. Her perfectionist fellow gunner sister, Jessica had been unjustly fired from her accounting job at a huge downtown Charlotte firm to move back to the small family farm to open a niche nursery and restore their grandmother’s once celebrated, but now long-neglected, gardens. Jessica was chasing her own dream now, not their father’s.

But the changes had all happened so fast.

And unexpectedly.

All since Chloe had found that old handbound, handwritten collection of recipes in G. Millie’s outdoor home library.Southern Love Spells.

Meghan was probably the least spiritual of all her sisters, but even she was a little spooked by the book’s arrival and the changes that had ensued.

No. Not spooked. Suspicious.

Jessica had been spooked. Meghan had had no idea her sister was so superstitious, but now she had not only found her passion and started a business, Jessica seemed to have turned a corner with Storm Stevens, who she’d reluctantly hired to help with the nursery design and garden rehab. She’d initially been against Storm’s help and vision, but tonight at the party, Meghan had noted they had seemed more like a couple than colleagues—warm looks, casual touches.

The book again? Jessica, for all her beauty and sweet southern charm, was as stubborn as a bulldog and as controlling as a… Meghan searched for a suitable analogy.

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