Coming Home to Magnolia Bay (Welcome to Magnolia Bay Book) Small Town Contemporary Romance by Babette De Jongh ➱ Book Tour with Rafflecopter

 

 

People and pets find their forever homes in this charming small-town romance  

Coming Home to Magnolia Bay

Welcome to Magnolia Bay Book 3

by Babette De Jongh

Genre: Small Town Contemporary Romance

People and pets find their forever homes in this charming small-town romance from Babette de Jongh featuring:

*A single mom doing her best

*Her young son who needs a helping hand

*An animal trainer who might be the answer to their troubles

*A bustling animal rescue where everyone gets a second chance

*The magic of humans who know how to communicate with animals

Sara Prescott’s eight-year-old son Max wants a dog. But their apartment doesn’t allow pets, and the divorced single mom can’t afford the certified seizure-alert dog Max needs. Instead, she and Max volunteer at the Furever Love Animal Shelter. Max forms a special bond with Jett, a big black bully breed and three-time loser who keeps getting dumped.

Animal Trainer Justin Reed comes back home to Magnolia Bay and visits the shelter to find a dog actor for a TV series set in nearby New Orleans. Justin chooses Jett, but the shelter’s director rejects his application because Jett needs a finally-forever home, not a job with an end date. The shelter’s resident animal communicator proposes a win-win. Justin can use Jett as an animal actor if he also trains Jett as a service dog for Max.

Sara and Justin have no business indulging their mutual attraction. Sara is focused on her son, and Justin will be leaving soon. But Max and Jett have other ideas…

**Only .99 cents! **

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Magnolia Bay Memories

Welcome to Magnolia Bay Book 2

Babette de Jongh brings you a bright and hopeful romance filled with:

*People and animals who get a second chance

*A community that makes everyone feel at home

*Friends-to-lovers romance that proves everyone deserves a forever home

Struggling widow Heather Gabriel takes a job at Magnolia Bay's Animal Shelter to provide for her family. She isn't ready to be anything more than colleagues with Adrian Crawford, the shelter's new business consultant. But the shelter's animal communication expert Reva Curtis knows there's more attraction between Heather and Adrian than they let on, and she's determined to bring them together. With the help of Heather's three children and all the animals at Bayside Barn, Heather and Adrian soon realize they can have a future together…if they can let go of the past.

Small town romance will never look the same once you've traveled to Magnolia Bay!

"Charming…a satisfying blend of romance and animal cameos."—DEBBIE BURNS, bestselling author of the Rescue Me series

"Babette de Jongh's books are crafted with heart and humor, roaring heat and cuddly love."—JOANN SKY, author of the Biggest Little Love Story series

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Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay

Welcome to Magnolia Bay Book 1

Welcome to Magnolia Bay where:

*The animals interfere in their owners' love lives

*Everyone (humans and animals alike) has an opinion about everything

*The neighbor is as infuriating as he is gorgeous

*And a sprinkle of hope is just the right thing to have you believing in love again

Abby Curtis lands on her Aunt Reva's doorstep at Bayside Barn with nowhere to go but up. Learning animal communication from her aunt while taking care of the motley assortment of rescue animals on the farm is an important part of Abby's healing process. She is eager to begin a new life on her own, but she isn't prepared for the magnetism between her and her handsome, stubborn and distracting new neighbor.

Quinn Lockhart snapped up the foreclosed estate next door determined to renovate and flip the beautiful bayou property. It's all part of a plan to make a financial comeback and reconnect with his estranged son. Definitely not part of the plan is the noisy petting zoo next door dragging down his property value. But getting rid of it becomes more difficult when he falls for the lovely and passionate Abby and bonds with an abandoned wolf dog who's mournfully waiting for his family to return. For humans and animals alike, it will take all the courage they can muster to learn to love again. But that's a journey worth taking—with a little help from their furry friends.

You'll fall in love right along with Abby as animals and humans alike find unexpected ways to connect, nurture each other, and thrive.

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**Celebrate National Black Dog Day on Oct 1 with Hear Them Speak!**

Hear Them Speak

A Twelve-Week Course in Telepathic Animal Communication

by Babette de Jongh

Genre: Nonfiction, Pets, Animal Communication

Would you like to know what your animal companion is really thinking? If you're holding this book, the ability is literally within your grasp. Hear Them Speak is an engaging and easy-to-follow twelve week course that guides you through the process of discovering your own superpowers of telepathic animal communication. With real-life examples to increase understanding and tasks to help you practice your emerging skills, animal communicator Babette de Jongh walks you through every step of the journey to claim your innate ability to hear them speak.

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665-word excerpt from Coming Home to Magnolia Bay from the Hero’s POV. The hero (Justin) is being tutored in telepathy by the local animal communicator (Reva) to help Justin find his lost dog (Jett). Reva is driving them to the last place the dog was seen:

“Close your eyes,” Reva said in an I’m-about-to-hypnotize-you tone. “Allow the seat to support your body. Relax into it.”

Justin sighed, releasing a little of the tension he’d been holding on to. Maybe if the telepathy thing didn’t work, she’d let him take a nap.

“Put your focus on your breath, on the sound of your breathing, on the feeling of the air moving into your body and filling your lungs.”

The sound of the car’s tires receded, and he found that it wasn’t so hard after all to focus on his breathing.

“Now, imagine that your body is an empty straw, and that your breath is moving through you, coming up from the soles of your feet when you inhale…then moving back down through your body from the top of your head when you exhale.”

She paused while he took a few slow breaths. “How’re you doing?”

“Mmm.” He might fall asleep if she didn’t hurry up with the animal telepathy bit.

“Imagine what it would look like if you were sitting in a quiet room with Jett. Imagine it like it’s a movie scene you’re remembering. You’re sitting in a soft, comfortable chair, and you see Jett walk up and sit in front of you. Imagine him giving you his attention as if he’s waiting for your next command.” She waited a few beats. “Can you imagine it?”

“Yes.” But he couldn’t believe that imagining scenes in his mind had anything to do with animal communication.

“Good. Hold on to that scene in your mind. In a minute, you’re going to ask Jett a question. He might answer with words, or you might imagine a visual image like a snapshot or a short movie clip. Or he might send emotions or even the memory of a taste or a smell. Are you ready?”

“Yes.” But even as he said the word, anxiety skittered through him. What if he couldn’t do it?

Even more disturbing, what if he could?

“Ask Jett to let you know where he is.”

Justin’s anxiety intensified. The visual image of Jett and him sitting together in a room had fled his mind, leaving nothing but darkness. Strange swirls of color and light bloomed behind his closed eyelids. “I don’t see anything. Just color and light and swirls of energy.”

“You’re trying to see with your eyes. That’s not the way telepathic images come through. It’ll feel more like dreaming or like remembering something that happened a long time ago. Like remembering a place you’ve been or the way someone’s voice sounded.”

He quit focusing on the swirling energy behind his eyelids and tried to recapture the visual of him and Jett sitting together. A flash of something—like a word he was trying to remember but couldn’t—caught his attention but faded before he could catch it. He made a sound of frustration.

“That’s okay,” Reva said in a calm, quiet voice. “Just start over.”

Once again, he brought that image to mind, of Jett sitting in front of him, waiting for instruction on what to do next. The snapshot morphed into a movie clip… Justin imagined Jett coming closer and propping his chin on Justin’s knee. Justin manipulated the scenario by reaching out and stroking Jett’s head. He imagined himself leaning forward and asking the question again. “Where are you?”

Water. The word popped into Justin’s mind, immediate and clear. Then he remembered going to the river with his parents when he was very small. He remembered being afraid to step into the muddy waves. Afraid that he’d be swept away.

His father had been so angry, so dismissive of Justin’s fears. He’d picked Justin up by the arms and thrown him backward into the cold water. It had hit him like a smack on the backside, then shot up his nose and down his throat when he went under. Anxiety swamped him, and he sat up, shaking his head to dispel the vivid memory. “This isn’t working.”

 

557-word excerpt from Coming Home to Magnolia Bay. The hero’s lost dog, Jett, learns that people can’t be trusted:

Jett reached for the savory-smelling meat, but all he got was a mouthful of air. The man dropped the meat and grabbed Jett’s collar, then whipped the hidden rope around his neck.

Jett tried to back out of the man’s grip, but he held firm, working to tie the rope to Jett’s collar. The big man was strong, but Jett was determined. He had almost backed out of his collar when some instinct told him that the collar was a link between him and his family. He stopped backing up and surged forward instead, knocking the man onto his butt. The light the man held flew through the air, and the rope slipped free.

Jett bolted into the darkness. He struggled through shallow, boggy fields of dark-smelling mud that his paws sank into. Tall plants hid all the landmarks and scent markers and pathways he’d thought he was following. Snakes slid through the marshy watery patches.

Alligators bellowed.

Coyotes howled.

Gunfire cracked.

The quick pop-pop-pop of gunshots happened once, then again. Jett cowered close to the ground until the crickets and frogs started singing again.

He slogged through soggy ground and tall weeds until he saw a light that didn’t come from the sun or the moon. The tall yellow sunburst in the dark sky wasn’t as far up as either of those. The yellow light hung off the side of a tall gray pole. An even bigger light—square and flat with a raised yellow blob and red squiggles in the center—hung between two thick black pillars at the top of the hill where a big white building sat like an upside-down box.

He crept closer, his muddy paws slipping on the steep grassy bank. The air smelled like cars and black roads and the powdery wings of bugs that flew around all the lights. Jett found a shadowed space behind the building where he could hide and rest and decide what to do next.

He closed his eyes and reached out to Max. A shining thread connected them.

But the thread didn’t lie neatly along the paths humans or animals might take to get from one place to another. And while Jett knew a lot about birds, he wasn’t one.

And the line that connected him to Max stretched over a wide, wild, uncrossable river.

Jett closed his eyes and tried to feel his way to Max. But instead, Jett felt Justin reaching out to him. Justin showed him a mixed-up wad of images and emotions and words. It all came at him like a rolled-up ball of twine. None of it made much sense because it was all clouded with fears and thoughts and emotions that Justin still carried from other times that had long since passed.

Humans hung on to those things.

Jett concentrated on unraveling the tangled messages Justin was sending. He came away with only one clear command to hang on to: If Jett would show himself to a trustworthy person and ask for help, they would be able to take him to Justin.

And then what? Jett wondered.

Justin promised that if Jett would come back to him, he would take Jett to see Max.

Jett sat up. He had to find a trustworthy person who was willing to help.

His only problem: There weren’t many of those around.

 

223-word excerpt from Coming Home to Magnolia Bay, from the animal communicator/ teacher’s POV:

Reva knew that Jett’s disappearance had forced Justin to recognize his animal communication abilities, so maybe everything was unfolding exactly as it should.

Reva hoped that right about now, Justin was realizing the correlation between his communication with Jett and the dog going to a human for help. Justin’s telepathic ability had helped the dog to get back home in less than an hour, and that was pretty amazing stuff. Maybe not enough to make Justin a believer yet, but at least a step in the right direction.

It was all tied together. Sara and Max and Justin and Jett all needed one another, and the problems they were facing were catalysts meant to bring them together. The threads were still too tangled for Reva to unravel, and she knew better than to pull at knots that weren’t ready to come loose.

Georgia groaned and stretched.

Drifting closer toward sleep, Reva yawned. As her mind relaxed and her body became weightless, she asked for clarity and solutions. She set the intention that the answers would come overnight. Then she visualized the problems as a handful of little birds waiting to be released. She let them go, sent them flying up past the ceiling and into the sky.

Tomorrow, they’d come back with all the answers.

Tomorrow, she would know exactly what to do.

 

Dog POV:

Jett’s leash was looped around a lamppost, preventing him from doing anything other than sitting, standing, lying down, and waiting.

Waiting, he knew, was the skill Justin wanted him to learn now. Jett already knew that he would have to be silent, patient, and watchful to go everywhere with Max and take care of him.

Reva had shown Jett mind pictures of what it would be like to sit beside Max all day at school, and Jett knew he could do that. He had already mastered the skill and was more than ready to learn the next thing, whatever that might be.

The only way he could communicate that to Justin was to demonstrate the ability.

Unfortunately, Jett really, really had to pee.

He’d been taught to only pee on grass or dirt, and neither of those surfaces existed as far as he could see. Concrete and cobblestone were the only two surfaces his feet had touched since Justin had clipped the leash to Jett’s collar and given a command Jett had never heard before: Voraus.

Jett didn’t know the sound, but he knew what Justin wanted, so he hopped out of the truck. Afterward, Justin took Jett on a short walk and gave a command Jett understood: Go Potty.

Justin gave the command several times, but he never took Jett to a patch of grass or dirt. The conflicting messages confused Jett. He didn’t want to make a mistake, so he decided it would be best to wait for Justin to take him to an appropriate surface for relieving himself.

But instead, Justin had taken him to meet many people—and some other creatures he had never seen before. Then Justin tied him to this lamppost to learn something he already knew how to do: Wait.

Was it part of Jett’s training to wait quietly while desperately needing to pee? Reva had shown Jett that he would have to sit quietly beside Max in school, but she hadn’t mentioned whether Max would take him to an appropriate potty surface beforehand.

Jett would have to ask Reva about that the next time she popped into his head.

After an eternity, Justin came back and unhooked Jett’s leash from the lamppost. “Good wait.” Justin gave Jett a quick head scratch. “You wanna go potty now?”

He most certainly did want to go potty. In fact, he needed to potty in the worst way. Not only to pee now but also to poop. Jett whined and gave a low tail wag.

“Okay, let’s go.” Justin followed that up with a different sound, “Foos.”

Whatever that meant.

But the slight tug on the leash meant that they were about to start walking, and Jett knew from his previous training that Justin expected Jett to walk beside him, leaving some slack in the leash and looking up often for cues of when to stop or change direction.

Justin walked a long way before he stopped at an anemic patch of short-clipped grass.

Jett squatted to release his full bladder. Normally, he would hike, but this situation had nothing to do with marking territory and everything to do with relieving himself. While he peed, he looked up at a cluster of tall, tree-like plants that bordered the grassy patch. The strange-looking plants had thick segmented trunks that clacked together in the warm breeze.

“Dude,” Justin said. “I’m sorry. I did ask if you needed to go before.”

Jett heard Justin making word-sounds, and he knew he should be paying attention in case any of them were commands, but as soon as he’d emptied his bladder, his next most pressing concern took over his mind, and he sniffed along the ground for a good place to poop.

It seemed clear from the many different scents that a multitude of different dogs had relieved themselves here in recent days. Some came back daily; others had only been here once or twice. Jett chose a spot that hadn’t been used multiple times by the same dog. He didn’t want to start any trouble.

Justin gathered Jett’s poops into a plastic bag and disposed of the bag in a nearby trash bin. The receptacle’s metal exterior smelled of many different urine markings made by canines, felines, and humans.

This, Jett decided, was a very strange place indeed.

They walked another long way past many interesting smells and sounds, and eventually wound up at a loud place where Justin met up with the people Jett had met earlier in the day. He recalled some of the names: Maria, the nice lady with the soft touch and hard voice, and Hank, the man whose big personality was encased in a thick protective energy field.

A big black dog was lying on the ground next to Hank.

“Otis,” Justin said, “meet Jett.” The dog stood and greeted Jett politely, his eyes soft, his tail wagging low and friendly. “Jett, this is Otis. You’ll be working together.”

“God, Mutt.” The small woman pounded Justin’s arm. “You’re such a hoot.”

The two dogs exchanged polite sniffs at both ends of their bodies, and then Otis allowed Jett to lick his muzzle in a show of subservience.

Though Jett was the slightly bigger dog, he paid homage to the older dog whose turf he had invaded. Jett knew that Otis had been here longer because Otis and the place carried many of the same scents while Jett still carried the scent of the animal shelter, even though he’d been given a bath.

Delicious scents were carried on the wind, swirling around the large, umbrella-covered tables where the people had gathered. Otis and Jett were told to lie down under the table and wait.

Otis was also good at waiting.

Without words, Otis showed Jett some of the things they would be doing over the coming days. He showed how the animals in this strange community performed commands while some of the people stood around and watched and other humans ran around in a state of quiet chaos.

None of it made much sense.

Otis agreed with Jett’s sentiment because there were no visible changes to the environment as a result of their actions. But the people were all very happy when the animals followed the commands given by Justin and Paula, who worked together to tell the animals what to do and when to do it.

Otis showed Jett that the work would be fun and interesting and that they would be rewarded in many ways. One of the rewards, according to Otis, was shrimp.

Jett didn’t know shrimp. He put his head on his paws and sent a sideways glance to Otis.

“Shrimp.” Otis sent the word-sound into Jett’s mind again. “It will be our turn soon.”

The people above them consumed food that smelled so good, Jett’s mouth filled with saliva and spilled over. He had never tasted anything but dry kibble in his life—unless he counted the one time he’d raided the trash can and been punished severely by his human, and then later by his intestines.

If the food being passed around on the table above them tasted as good as it smelled, he would do just about anything, even gladly suffer the pain afterward, to earn a morsel or two.

Jett and Otis continued to lie quietly until Justin pushed his chair back from the table and commanded both dogs to sit. He used a slightly different-sounding pronunciation: “Sitz.”

Justin held a pinkish curl of meat between his fingers. “Otis, this one’s for you.” He held the thing in front of Otis’s mouth. “Take it.” Then he gave a new command that sounded like “nimbi.”

When Otis took the morsel and bit down on it, the scent of the treat burst all around them.

Jett sat as still as he could, even though anticipation quivered through him. Justin reached for something on the table. Jett watched, hoping…hoping…hoping… Then Justin held the curled pink treat in front of Jett’s nose. “Jett, this one’s yours.”

It was his turn.

Jett wanted to leap and snap up the shiny shrimp. His front feet wanted to lift off the ground, but he kept them pinned in place. He couldn’t stop from shifting his weight first to one foot, then the other. One, then the other. One, then the other.

Then Justin said the magic words: “Take it.” And “Nimbi.”

Carefully, gently, Jett received the curled pink offering into his mouth, making sure that only his lips—not his teeth—touched Justin’s fingers.

And oooh, that taste, that succulent taste. That taste made sure that Jett would remember the two new commands take it and nimbi.

Justin held out another shrimp to Otis. This time, he only said “Nimbi.”

Jett watched and waited, his whole body quivering with the knowledge that he would soon be given another of those glistening pink morsels.

Jett knew that his current mission in life was to learn the things he had to know so he could take care of Max. He had expected it to be difficult. He had expected it to take a long time. He had expected it to take all of his focus, all of his discipline, all of his motivation to succeed.

He hadn’t expected to enjoy himself. He hadn’t expected to be immersed in such a rich world of sights, sounds, and smells. He hadn’t expected his first lesson to be about shrimp and take it and nimbi.

Justin dipped his fingers in a bowl that smelled like lemons, then wiped his hands on a big square of cloth. He stroked Jett’s head with lemon-scented hands and praised him for being such a good dog. “You think you might like being here with me after all, Jett?”

Jett put his head on Justin’s knee and gazed up at his new best friend, the Nimbi of Shrimp.

He didn’t just like being with Justin. He loved it.

 

More dog POV:

 

Jett paced the length of Paula’s small camper. Up and back again. Up and back again. Up and back again. Paula had taken Otis and the black cat with her hours ago, leaving him alone with the rats and the raccoons. Max needed Jett, but Sara and Justin had left him behind.

He had to get out of here.

He didn’t mind being cooped up with the rats and raccoons, but they weren’t his friends. They didn’t understand his frustration, and anyway, they couldn’t help. The rats were confined to their cage, so no help there.

The raccoons were willing, but their handy little hands and long, human-like fingers were too small and weak to turn knobs or unlatch latches. They had tried, but after a while, they climbed to the top of their wooden tower, curled up together, and took a nap.

Jett had never felt so alone.

He scratched at the door again, but it still wouldn’t open. The shiny round knob that people turned so easily with their long agile fingers only slipped in his mouth and hurt his teeth.

He scratched at the only windows he could reach. He tried the one above the bench seat first. He scratched at the slatted window coverings until they splintered and cracked and hung in shreds against the wall. But the window beneath the shredded slats wouldn’t open.

He had to stand on the humans’ eating table to get to the window above it. He knew that was a no-fooey, but it was the only way he could reach the window. He also had no choice but to knock down all the useless objects Paula had lined up on the ledge beneath the window.

A few of the bottles and clattery objects she’d left on the table fell too.

Some broke—he knew she’d be angry, but it couldn’t be helped. Some rolled onto the floor. Others spilled their contents onto the seating cushions. He tried to clean some of the mess, but the sweet-tasting goo Paula liked to put on her food had glass shards in it now, and they cut his tongue, so he had to stop.

But even after all that work, the window above the eating table wouldn’t open.

The harder he tried to escape, the more impossible it seemed.

He dug at the bed coverings, hoping to dig an escape hole in the dirt-soft surface. He remembered that Justin had given him the command to dig—graben—so he hoped it wasn’t a problem when his digging tore through the many layers of bedding people liked to lie on top of or wrap themselves into when they slept.

But once the fluffy top layers were dug through and pushed aside, the soft surface beneath would not yield to his claws. He bit and chewed at it, but his teeth only slid and slipped on the spongy surface that was coated with a curiously impermeable layer he couldn’t penetrate.

Maybe he should come in from the side.

The rolled edge of the bouncy, slick-slippery surface gave him something to sink his teeth into. He grabbed onto it, braced his front paws against the bed’s raised platform, and pulled. The thick, heavy wedge of spongy material made ripping noises but didn’t tear.

It did move.

He tugged again, and the wedge began to slide off the platform. It moved a little farther with each tug. As it moved, it made ripping noises too.

Eventually, the rolled edge tore. But by that time, Jett knew that the spongy wedge could be moved out of the way, so digging through it wasn’t necessary. He adjusted his grip to a place that wasn’t torn, then pulled and tugged some more.

Finally, the big sponge fell onto the floor with a whoomp. Jett climbed up it to the platform beneath. It was as solid and impenetrable as the camper’s floor, which had also proved to be impossible to dig past after he’d gone through the first few layers of soft, pliable material.

Jett sat in the middle of the bed platform and howled.

No way out.

No way to get to Max.

Jett had never felt so trapped, even when he’d been kept in cages in the animal shelter. At least then, he’d known that the people were trying to help.

Now, he didn’t know what to think.

He tried to calm his mind and figure out why this was happening and what he had to do to overcome the problem. He had been separated from Max, the person he was meant to protect. He had trusted Justin to teach him how to protect Max, but Justin had abandoned him. Sara had abandoned him too. Paula seemed like a nice person, and it had seemed at first that Justin and Sara trusted Paula.

But what if they were wrong?

What if Max needed Jett’s help? What if Sara and Justin needed Jett’s help? What if they all needed his help but Paula was keeping Jett from getting to them? Jett realized then that the only way he could escape was to wait by the door until Paula came back. She would have Otis with her, and Jett didn’t want to hurt his friend. But he would do whatever he had to do. No matter what it took, he had to get away. He had to help Max.

 

DOG POV:

Jett knew exactly where he was going. A couple of times people called out to him, and he could tell that they were nice people who only wanted to help. He paused to look and dipped his head to acknowledge their effort. Then he turned away and sent a message that he was on a mission and didn’t have time to stop.

The thread of connection between him and Max shimmered, drawing Jett closer to Max with every step. He zigzagged down sidewalks and around corners, going as fast as an animal without wings could go.

Sometimes he went out of his way to avoid traffic or crowds or places that held some dark energies he knew he should avoid. But he always found his way back to the shining thread that bound him to Max.

Then he reached a wide chasm filled with churning water that rushed in a direction he didn’t want to go. He stood at the rocky shore and lapped at the rippling brown waves that tasted fishy with a hint of motor oil. He drank until he wasn’t thirsty anymore, then sat and looked across the wide water.

Jett knew how to swim, but he would never be able to cross that dark water. He could tell by the way it ran that the second he stepped into it, the powerful current would take him farther away from Max.

He put his head down and trudged upriver. He knew that it wouldn’t get shallow or narrow anytime soon. But he’d ridden in enough cars to know that if he kept going, he would find a road that soared over the water. He knew that those roads were a treacherous path for animals.

All roads were treacherous because of cars.

But the roads that arched over water were even worse because there was nowhere for an animal to hide, nowhere for them to escape to if the cars decided to mow them down.

Jett knew about cars. Cars were big metal boxes that moved faster than any animal could move. Cars were safe if you were on the inside, but very dangerous if you got in their way.

Jett would try to stay out of the way of cars when he walked along the road that flew over the water. It wouldn’t be easy. He might die trying. But he had to try anyway.

 

Dog POV:

 

Jett hung his head out the window of Heather’s car and sniffed the air. He could smell the bay, with all its watery fishy muddy scents mingled with a faint whiff of donkey, pony, and sheep dung. Jett turned his nose to the wind, closed his eyes, and let the breeze flutter his ears and flap his jowls.

They were headed to Bayside Barn.

He’d had fun at Jasper’s sleepover, but he was glad to be going back to Bayside Barn, where everyone in his family could be together in the same place.

Jett wondered why Sara, Justin, and Max didn’t stay together the way Jasper’s people did. Why did his family only get to spend some days together at Bayside Barn, but then at night, Sara and Max went back to the mysterious place where Jett had never been invited? Why did Justin and Jett leave Sara and Max behind when they went to do work with Otis and the other animals?

Jett didn’t understand why people divided their families up so much instead of staying together all the time, the way any normal pack would.

Humans filled their days with activity. Mostly useless activity, in Jett’s opinion. Aside from insects and the rats of Jett’s acquaintance, people stayed busier than any other species. That busyness kept humans locked up inside their own minds, disconnected from themselves and others.

At Bayside Barn, the chatter that whirled around in most people’s heads became slower, quieter. Maybe Jett could tell Reva that he wanted to go with Sara and Max to their place tonight. Reva was one of those humans who animals could tell things to. But even she wasn’t paying attention most of the time. Even the few humans who knew how to communicate tended not to listen unless they initiated the conversation.

Every animal Jett knew was frustrated by their human’s lack of connection to the world around them.

Well, everyone but Reva’s dog Georgia. That dog was a master communicator who possessed the miraculous and mysterious power to compel humans to listen. Jett didn’t know how Georgia managed to break through the barrier of preoccupation that kept most humans too self-involved to notice anything outside their own minds.

But he hoped to learn, and Georgia had promised to teach him.

When Heather parked the car and Max opened the door, Jett leaped out of the car and ran to meet Georgia, who trundled toward him with a happy barooo!

Then Jett saw Max running toward Justin and Sara in the yard, and he hurried to catch up. He should have stayed beside Max. He had become lazy and lax in the hours he’d spent with Jasper.

Jett loved his friend Jasper, but he had to admit: Jasper was a bad influence.

 

Excerpt from the Heroine’s POV, when her son Max thanks Justin for agreeing to train Max’s favorite shelter dog to be his seizure-alert dog:

Max hopped up and ran down the porch steps, then skidded to a stop in front of Justin. Sara followed more slowly, wiping her sweaty palms on the hem of her shorts.

Max stuck out a hand. “Thank you, Mr. Reed, for training Jett to be my dog.”

Justin shook Max’s hand. “You’re very welcome. I hope you can be patient. It will take a few months.”

“Are you sure?” Max asked. “He’s already so good.” “He’ll have to learn some special skills beyond simple obedience,” Justin said. “And we’ll have to work with him until those skills become automatic.”

“I wish I could have him now.”

“Good things are worth the wait.” Justin’s eyes met Sara’s.

“Yes, they are.” She struggled not to fall into those dangerous depths. She could so easily fall for Justin’s arresting features, his thick black hair that begged for someone’s fingers to comb through it, his beautifully expressive mouth that didn’t want to smile but sometimes couldn’t help it.

But Justin had proven himself to be a liar, and even if he hadn’t, she had no time for dating or hooking up or indulging in any sort of romantic relationship. Max’s seizure disorder meant that he had to be closely monitored, day and night, and Sara couldn’t trust just anyone to babysit him. She lived close to her parents so they could help out in a pinch, and her friend Heather offered to help too, but the reality was that none of them knew what to do for Max as well as Sara did.

She held a hand out to Justin. “Thank you.”

He took her hand, enveloping her fingers in his. “You’re welcome.”

His warm fingers around hers felt like an embrace. His hot-chocolate eyes below his thick black lashes wouldn’t release her gaze.

She pumped his hand vigorously, turning the intimate-feeling palm-to-palm embrace into a businesslike handshake. “I appreciate your offer more than I can say. I can’t afford to pay you what it’s worth to Max and me, but please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.”

One of the shelter workers walked up with Jett. Justin released Sara’s hand to take Jett’s leash. Then he shifted his gaze to Max. “Jett and I have to get going, Max. I’ve got to work, and Jett’s going to get his first lesson in waiting patiently.”

Max dropped to his knees and hugged Jett fiercely.

“Sooner we get started, sooner we’ll be finished.” Justin’s voice was deep, soft, compassionate. It was so easy to imagine that Justin could be the kind of guy she could allow into her and Max’s life. But she knew from experience not to trust her imagination when it came to a man’s potential.

Justin knelt down and put a hand on Max’s back. “I’ll bring Jett back to see y’all this weekend, I promise.”

And yet how did they know he would do that?

Sara drew in a breath as an underhanded motive for Justin’s seeming generosity hit her. Had Justin seen that Sara and Reva didn’t trust him then made up this whole training-Jett-for-Max thing so he could take Jett despite not being officially approved to adopt him?

Was this all a big scam?

“You know what?” Sara took out her phone. “Let’s exchange numbers in case you have trouble getting back here this weekend. Because as I said before, if you can’t come here, we can go there.”

She wasn’t about to let Justin wiggle out of his promise now that he’d gotten her son’s hopes up.

 

From the heroine’s POV when the hero helps her through a panic attack.

Max careened into the room with Jett right behind him. “Mom...” He skidded to a stop and looked from Sara to Justin and back again. “Umm...”

Sara wanted to leap up and away from Justin, but she knew that would look even worse than staying right where she was. “Yeah?” She tried for a nonchalant tone. “What’s up?”

“Josh’s mom said I could spend the night at their house tonight.”

“What?” Heather knew Max didn’t do spend-the- nights. Heather knew Sara couldn’t allow him out of her sight overnight.

“She even said Jett can come too. I really want to go. Can I?”

At the thought of spending a whole night away from Max, a vision slammed into Sara’s brain. She saw herself in her solitary bed in her quiet apartment, falling so deeply asleep that the ringing phone didn’t rouse her. She saw herself sleeping through frantic phone calls from Heather, then her parents, then the hospital. She saw herself waking with a start when the police pounded at her door to let her know that Max had passed away, calling for her as she slept through the last minutes of her child’s life.

A wave of terror rolled toward Sara, and all she could do was watch it come. It hit her in the chest with the force of a wrecking ball, knocking her back. She sat up and gulped for air. It felt as if someone had dropped a concrete block on her chest.

“Max...” She tried to breathe in, but there was no air. “I’m...” No air. “I don’t...”

Justin stood abruptly and ushered Max out of the room. “That sounds like fun, Max. But let’s talk about it later, okay? How about you and Jett go back out and play in the pool for a while...”

Justin came back and knelt in front of Sara. He took both her hands in his. “You’re okay.” His voice was quiet and calm, but it barely penetrated the wall of fear that pressed down on her chest, keeping her from breathing.

“Sara...” His voice sounded like it was coming from a long way away. “You’re having a panic attack, but you’re okay. Breathe in with me.” He drew in an exaggerated breath. “Come on. Breathe with me. One...two...three... four...”

She held on to his hands, but her fingers felt numb, her body felt cold, and she realized she was shivering.

“Max is okay, Sara. He’s not going anywhere. He’s outside playing. Breathe in.”

She sucked in a breath, her eyes locked on his.

“Good. That’s good.” He gave an exaggerated exhale, then smiled. “Let’s do it again. Breathe in, one...two... three...four.”

He breathed with her, then when she was finally able to breathe normally, he released her hands and rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “Feeling better yet?”

“Feeling foolish, more like.” But she was still shaking, still unable to feel her fingertips.

“You’re not foolish. You just had a panic attack, that’s all.”

She rubbed her face, then shook her hands out to try to restore the feeling.

“Your hands numb?”
“Yes, a little.”
“It’ll go away in a minute.” He sat beside her on the couch and drew her back into his arms. “You’re gonna be okay. You’ve just been under a lot of stress.”

“I feel so foolish. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” He brushed her hair away from her face. “Just relax and give your body time to come back online.”

“That’s the same thing I say to Max when he has a seizure.” She tried to laugh, but it came out as a breathless wheeze. “He doesn’t believe me either.”

Justin didn’t say anything. He just held her until she began to feel like herself again.

 

From the heroine’s POV:

Sara heard Justin’s phone buzzing on the cabinet behind her, but she selfishly wanted more time to enjoy this quiet cuddle with his arms around her, her head on his shoulder, her face snuggled into his neck.

His skin was warm and firm and resilient and so close to her lips that she could kiss his neck almost without moving. His skin smelled like fabric softener—or maybe that was his black T-shirt—and his soft, shoulder-length hair smelled of cheap herbal shampoo.

It had been too long since she’d felt this close to someone. Too long since she’d allowed anyone to cuddle or comfort her. She’d had no choice but to be self-reliant.

Could she take a chance and allow Justin into her and Max’s lives?

Justin’s time here came with a definite end date unless the NOLA Blood series got picked up for another season. But maybe a few months with him would give her the strength to carry on by herself for another few years.

His phone buzzed again. “Someone’s after you,” she mumbled against his neck.

“Yeah, they are.” The vibration of his voice rumbled in his chest and throat. “But I’m ignoring them. I’m exactly where I want to be right now, doing exactly what I want to be doing.”

“Really?” Because she could think of something she’d rather be doing—within reason, of course, because her son was sleeping just a few feet away. But still, no reason they couldn’t indulge in a few quiet kisses. “Are you sure about that?”

“Very sure.” He caressed her arm lightly. “What could be better than this?”

“Maybe this?” She kissed his neck, then opened her lips to suck lightly—not enough to leave a mark. His hand stilled on her arm, and he made a low, almost inaudible sound of pleasure, a light hum that she could feel beneath her lips. She moved up to kiss his jaw, then shifted to kiss him fully on the lips. “Or what about that?”

He smiled, a full, unrestrained smile that transformed his often-brooding expression into one of joy. “I was obviously mistaken. I may have made my mind up too soon.” He kissed her, a sweet closed-mouth kiss that still made her shiver. “Are you sure we’ve fully considered all our options?”

She straddled his lap and slid her arms around his neck. He rested his hands on her hips, then took control of the kiss. And this time, he went far beyond a sweet, closed- mouth kiss.

The phone buzzed.

He slipped a hand beneath her shirt and spread his fingers across her back. She tilted her head to deepen the kiss.

The phone buzzed again.

He chuckled, a wry sound he made into her mouth. When the phone started up again after only a second of silence, he ended the kiss. “What are the odds?”

She sat back. “Maybe it’s something important.”

“I’m not important enough to rate that kind of attention. It’s probably a wrong number.”

She reached for the phone and handed it over. He looked at it, and his semi-amused expression died a quick and violent death. He pushed her off his lap and stood. “Jett’s missing.”

 

Beginning of a love scene from the hero’s POV:

Justin cupped the back of Sara’s head with one hand, tangling his fingers in her soft hair while they kissed. With his other hand, he pulled her closer, aligning her body with his. In his wildest dreams, Justin wouldn’t have believed that Sara would want him once she’d recognized him.

And he’d had some pretty wild dreams of Sara over the years. She’d been the subject of his dreams—and his fantasies—for over a decade. It had never occurred to him that any of those imaginings might one day become a reality.

He realized too late that the sweatpants he’d chosen for each of them to wear were too thick, too hot, but also too thin, too flimsy. The moist heat and friction of their bodies through the soft cotton jersey felt too much like the real thing. His cock was doing its best to rise up and slide into the snug valley between her legs.

And God help him, Sara was squirming against him, making the problem worse.

He was losing the battle to stay in his head and not let his body take over.

Turning away from her kiss, he put his hands on her hips and set her back a few inches, so she was straddling his legs instead of his lap. “Time out,” he gasped. “Let’s talk about this.”

She leaned forward and kissed his neck. “We already talked.” She ran her hands down his sides, then slid them over his belly. She grasped his cock through the fabric of his sweatpants, then moved her other hand down to cup his balls. “I think we’re done talking...at least for now.”

He drew in a breath and dropped his head back. His legs widened just enough to allow room for her groping fingers. His mind hadn’t given permission for that move, but his rational brain’s control over his body was breaking up. The connection had become as sketchy as cell phone reception out here in the boondocks.

Then she stuck her hand beneath the waistband of his sweats, and he gave up trying to think altogether. She released him long enough to grab his T-shirt by the hem and pull it up. With no more autonomy than a toddler, he held his arms up and let her strip it off.

“Ooh, Justin.” She skimmed her hands over his skin, from his belly to his chest and back down again. “Look at you.”

He reached up to cup her breasts through the thin fabric of the shirt she wore.

She whipped it off and tossed it aside, baring her beautiful breasts to him. But before he could fully appreciate the view, she placed his palms over her breasts. Screw his brain and anything it might think about this. He flipped her onto her back on the couch and stretched out on top of her. They tugged at each other’s sweatpants until there was nothing between them but skin.

Meet the animals that inspired characters in the Welcome to Magnolia Bay Series!

Book One: Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay:

 

These are pictures of my dog Georgia, who stars in Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay (and all the other books in the series, too).

 

Georgia runs the show wherever she goes. Mary Poppins in a fur coat, Georgia insists on having her way, but always (usually) in the sweetest way possible. She hypnotizes humans into doing exactly what she wants, and we all end up doing her bidding, all the while thinking that tossing the ball for an hour was our idea in the first place. Not only did she take over Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay, she insisted on having a starring role in all the other books in the series, too.

 

This is a picture of my cat Blue, the inspiration for the cat character Griffie in Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay.

 

Blue is the inspiration for Griffin aka Griffie. Actually, that’s not 100% true, because Blue is the reincarnation of the first Griffie, but that’s a long story for another day. Blue came to us as a feral kitten with short pure-white fur and huge blue eyes. I had told God that I didn’t want any more long-haired cats, because the first Griffie was so hard to keep groomed. So of course, he came back in disguise. But with good food, a huge vet bill, and lots of love, Blue grew into the 20-pound furball you see here. But while Griffie had to be sedated to brush his long fur, Blue will lie on his back and allow me to brush him for as long as it takes, purring all the while.

Babette de Jongh is a telepathic animal communicator, energy healer, Reiki Master, and award-winning romance writer who has taught ballet, yoga, elementary school, and animal communication. Whether it involves a happy-ending romance, a way of self-nurturing, or help in understanding our companions, the cohesive thread that ties all these things together is a desire to save the world, one happy ending at a time.

Babette’s first romance novel, Angel Falls, won two Readers’ Choice awards. In Hear Them Speak, Babette helps humans better understand their animal companions. In Welcome to Magnolia Bay, a romance series from Sourcebooks Casablanca, a telepathic animal communicator conspires with the human characters’ animal companions to help everyone—humans and animals—find forever love.

All this is only the beginning for a late bloomer who is just getting started. To find out more about Babette, everything she does, and everything she’s up to these days, please visit her website at www.BabettedeJongh.com.

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