Page 1 of One Kind Soul

Chapter One

Why did lip balm always get lost in her purse? Nicole Travers dug in the dark depths, her fingers closing around everything but lip balm. A nail file that had been used so much it barely had any grit left on it? Check. A black marker that wrote better than any marker she’d ever owned? Check. A grape-flavored lollipop she’d swiped from the bowl at the bank? Check. She ripped off the clear plastic wrapper and shoved the lollipop into her mouth, needing a little fuel for her mega lip balm search.

Crunching that lollipop to bits, Nicole pushed aside a sea shell, a spool of green thread, a broken hair clip, and a half-eaten bag of pretzels before her fingers grazed the bottom of her purse.

“C’mon. Where the hell are you?” If she didn’t get some lip balm slicked on her lips right this minute, she might scream. She’d spent nearly twelve hours in airports and aboard planes, traveling from Kauai, Hawaii to Manchester, New Hampshire and her lips were dry as desert sand.

Actually she hadn’t made it to Manchester, had she? Squinting up at the Welcome to Logan Airport sign across from where she was sitting, she grumbled over the fact that her flight had been diverted to Boston, Massachusetts. Nearly four hours from her intended destination of Maplehaven, Vermont.

“Damn thunderstorms.” She kept rummaging around in her purse, past a collection of receipts, a small bottle of bubbles, and a pocket screwdriver that probably should have set off alarms when she’d been screened as a traveler.

Still . . . no lip balm.

When the pilot had announced his plan to land in Boston instead of Manchester due to severe thunderstorms with intense winds, Nicole had known the last leg of her journey was . . . well, it was fucked. The car she’d rented to drive to Maplehaven waited for her in Manchester, but here she was in Boston instead. Of course everyone who had been on her flight was also in a bind and they’d rushed to the car rental area like an angry mob. She hadn’t wanted to deal with that scene, so she’d gone to the bathroom, grabbed an iced coffee, and browsed at a little gift shop until things settled down.

Unfortunately that lollygagging had cost her. By the time she’d returned to the car rental area, no cars were left to rent. Apparently the bulk of the travelers on her flight had been single riders needing single cars and the rental companies were not prepared for the crazy demand.

She was, in essence, stranded. And without lip balm.

“Son of a bitch.” Upending her purse on the chair beside her sent its contents spilling out. Nicole combed through the collection of shit she schlepped around with her on a daily basis. Like a miner panning for gold, she sifted and shifted, but no goddamn lip balm rose to the surface.

After a little housekeeping, she threw a few unnecessary items out—along with her lollipop stick—and loaded everything else back into the purse. Her lips were going to crack and fall off, but that was her fate because the lip balm had vanished.

Fishing her phone out of her jacket pocket, Nicole hit the contact she needed. A few rings sounded then her best friend’s voice filled her ear, making her current situation better.

“Hey, gorgeous! Are you almost here? I can’t wait to see you!” Positive energy reached tendrils out to Nicole. If only those tendrils could pluck her from Boston and drop her in Maplehaven.

“Hi, Tessa. I can’t tell you how good it is to hear your voice.”

“Aww, why do you sound defeated?”

That was the thing about Tessa Collins. From the first time Nicole had met her when Tessa had started working as a dancer at The Nalu Resort on Kauai where Nicole was part of the waitstaff, the two of them had been in tune with each other. So in tune they’d become roommates at a beach cottage down the street from the resort. Roommates had turned to best friends which then had turned to basically sisters. Nicole had a real sister, but that relationship had always been toxic. Tessa, on the other hand, had been a treasure.

Until she’d moved to Vermont after falling in love with her sexy, mountain man detective, Donovan Henley.

Of course Nicole was happy for Tessa—especially because Tessa was marrying her sexy, mountain man detective next week. But she missed her terribly and working at The Nalu Resort without her had become unbearable.

Living alone at the beach cottage wasn’t any fun either. Nicole had gotten new roommates, but the two she’d taken on hadn’t worked out. She’d caught one snooping around in her bedroom and the second one had painted the living room blood red. Nicole hadn’t tried for a third, but renting the cottage alone wasn’t affordable.

“I sound defeated because I am.” She sighed. “The universe wins this round.”

“What happened?” Tessa asked.

“Thunderstorms have left me marooned in Boston and there are no rental cars available because all my co-passengers hoarded them. The taxi or ride-share options are out because they will cost a fortune for such a long trip.” Nicole ran a finger over her dry lips, dying for lip balm. Dying. That was the other thing she missed about not having Tessa around. If she couldn’t find something of her own, she’d normally borrow her bestie’s.

“No rental cars at all?” Tessa asked, sounding defeated now too.

“Not one. Guess I’ll try again tomorrow. I’ll have to find a place to stay tonight.” Which would be an expense she hadn’t budgeted for on this trip to New England. It was a necessary trip though, as she was Tessa’s maid of honor—a role Nicole wouldn’t forfeit under any conditions. She couldn’t wait to see Tessa marry her true love.

“Well, this sucks royally,” Tessa said. “I wanted you here like yesterday.”

“I know, I know. I should have left yesterday, apparently, to avoid thunderstorms.” Nicole blew out a breath. “I couldn’t get out of my shift last night though. Absolutely no one would cover for me.”

“Bitches.”

“Straight up.” Sitting in that airport—the wrong airport—had aggravated Nicole, but now that she had this connection to Tessa, her mood had improved tenfold. “I wanted to be eating chocolate and bingeing our favorite rom-coms by this time today.”

“Me too . . .” Tessa’s voice trailed off, but muffled conversation filled Nicole’s ear.