Hopeful Leigh (Literal Leigh Romance Diaries Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Praise for Melanie James

  Hot Reads by Melanie James

  Edition License Note

  Copyright Information

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  About the Author

  Éveiller Teaser

  A Summer Love Teaser

  Praise for Melanie James

  A Valentine’s Surprise - “It was one of the cutest and hottest novellas I've ever read. It's rare to have such a great mix of cute and hot, but this author does it perfectly!” ~ Willow Star Serenity Reviews

  A Valentine’s Surprise - “This is one of the best short stories I have read in a long time!” ~ HeadTripping Books

  A Valentine’s Surprise - “This little love story is capable of getting your juices going and turning a dull afternoon into a page turning glorious day.” ~ Aubree Lane, Author of Sierra Mist & Early One Morning”

  Conjuring Darkness - “I was already a huge fan of author Melanie James so I expected her to write another amazing book. Even I didn't expect how incredible Conjuring Darkness would be. I couldn't put it down!” ~ Kelly Cozzone, Author of Tropical Dreams

  A Valentine’s Surprise - “Kuddos to Melanie James for throwing a good romance our way. I want more!” ~ Jennifer Theriot, Author, Out Of the Box Series

  Conjuring Darkness – “Conjuring Darkness captivates your attention right from the start and never let's go. The adventure packed into this supernatural thriller only keeps you on the edge and turning the page. It definitely was one of those books that was hard to put down.” ~ Angela Ford, Author of Closure

  Conjuring Darkness – “This book is captivating from the first page, I could not put the book down. I was so surprised by all the twists, turns, the unexpected. I could not wait until I was through each chapter.” ~ Angie at I Heart Books

  Hot reads by Melanie James

  Literal Leigh Romance Diaries

  Accidental Leigh

  Serious Leigh

  Hopeful Leigh

  Haunting Leigh – coming Halloween 2014

  Éveiller

  Ava & Will

  Kara & Dave

  Laura & Alan

  Jamie & Brad – coming soon

  Ashley & Jeff – coming soon

  Valerie & Greg – coming soon

  Stand Alone

  Beautiful Betrayals – TBD

  Darkness Series

  Conjuring Darkness

  Hour of Darkness – TBD

  Seasons of Love Series

  A Valentine’s Surprise

  A Summer Love

  Fall in Love – Coming fall 2014

  The Paranormal Plantation

  TBD

  Edition License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you wish to share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should delete it from your device and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is coincidental.

  Copyright

  Hopeful Leigh

  By Melanie James

  Copyright © by Melanie James

  Editing: Black Paw Publishing

  Proofreading: White Wolf Proofing Services

  Cover Artist: Dreams to Media

  ISBN-13: 978-1500613877

  ISBN-10: 1500613878

  All rights reserved

  Published in the United States of America

  Acknowledgements

  For all of my readers, you are the best!

  Stephanie Mae – Thank you for your unconditional support.

  Monkeys – You are the best and I love you all!

  Claudy Conn – You gave me the courage and the strength that I needed when it counted. For that, I am forever grateful.

  Cynthia St. Aubin – Thank you for allowing me the use of Dr. Matilda Schmidt. PS – I need more of her! Can you please hurry it up a bit?

  Ron – You are amazing and I love you more than life!

  Dedication

  To my amazing readers, this book is for you. Thank you for your continual support. Knowing that Leigh brightens your day makes it all worth it!

  Prologue

  I never imagined that I would actually look forward to boredom. I’m not talking about that slightly bored, Sunday afternoon, magical feeling of nothing better to do kind. No, I’m talking a good week’s worth of pure lethargic, sluggish bliss that would make a two-toed sloth look like a highly motivated Tony Robbins devotee. I wanted an endless cycle of read, eat, nap, write, and repeat. All things considered, I justifiably hoped for it. I needed a break. My sanity needed some time to recover. Up to this point, this summer had been a string of no-holds-barred supernatural chaos. I had come to grips with the fact that I was, in fact, a witch. I even had some new witch-friends to add to my tragic circle of unfortunates. Otherwise known as my best friends.

  Speaking of best friends—when it comes to best friends, I don’t think that we really choose each other. I’ve come to the conclusion that, perhaps, we are so close because we have somehow been drawn together. Yes, drawn together. In a way that shipwreck survivors might find themselves. “Oh, another single girl. Are you trying to maintain your independence, self-determination, and identity but yet, still hoping for that swept-off-your-feet romance? Here, take a life ring and join us on our desperate bid for survival.”

  In any case, the rest of my summer break certainly held no promise for much needed mental recovery time. Which is exactly what usually happens to me, I never quite end up with what I expect. Things would be anything but boring. A series of seemingly unrelated and random events kicked off a chain reaction that had cataclysmic consequences. Looking back, from the time I had first gotten my magical writing desk until now, I should have realized that, in fact, everything has been related in some way. And it was like a volcano growing an ominous dome that got larger by the day. Ready to explode with a shower of magical chaos that would envelop my friends and my love for Hunter.

  I don’t believe in destiny. I would prefer to think that we all write our own future. But, what if someone, or something, decides to interfere? Would we even know? Maybe, I am right and we are in charge of our own destiny. Now, here’s the wildcard—that doesn’t mean that we all don’t play a role in shaping each other’s future. As they say, no one person is an island. I’m perfectly fine with that, as long as everyone is playing nice, and we help write each other’s Happily Ev
er After.

  So the big question comes down to this—what if that someone, or something, that pokes around in your destiny, is anything but nice? And they write your future to fulfill their dark plans? Can you take back control of your own destiny? I was about to find that out firsthand. On an adventure that would carry me and my friends to the other side of the world, to battle an evil witch and her dark minions. No shit.

  Chapter One

  Two Books in Progress

  After I returned from New Orleans, I spent a good deal of time talking with Hunter on the phone. He was excited about the new police academy program he was in, even though it felt to me like he had been shipped off to some far away country. I’d have to wait until the first week of August to enjoy the feeling of being wrapped in his arms once again. I needed to fill my time with something constructive—creative.

  I came across an online advertisement from one of the smaller subsidiaries of a big publishing house. Their imprint was strictly for the mass market romance books, the kind you see in supermarkets and variety stores. The ad was a solicitation for submissions in a few of the more popular romance subjects—paranormal shifters, billionaires, erotic, and cowboys. I couldn’t think of a more fun way to pass my time than to write. I figured I could kick out two short books and then submit them. My urge to write was renewed. With the exciting possibility of getting one or both picked up for publication, it gave me a little incentive to complete a manuscript and submit it. My dream of becoming a summertime slug was in peril from my own hand, and my secret aspiration to become a best-selling author.

  I sat down and talked it over with Luna. “So, which of these themes should I pick to write a story about? I’ve read some of the billionaire books, and they rank as some of my favorites.” It’s true. Let’s face it. It’s easy to get caught up in the fantasy of a hot romance story that involves a man with unlimited resources. The kind of man that can wield the kind of power that transcends the limits of us mere mortal, working class people. And not only did they ooze money and power, they were incredibly handsome men with impeccable taste. The key thing to getting yourself into those books is to first imagine that you’ve gone through a magical metamorphosis so you actually look the part. You know what I mean. It really kills the fantasy when you suddenly get an image of yourself disembarking from a multi-million dollar yacht in Monaco—yet you see yourself dressed as you are, in your faded comfy yoga pants—that have never met a yoga mat—and that old friend, the t-shirt so perfectly worn-out that you could eat a pygmy hippo and it would still feel relaxed. If you’re like me, you may even have a couple of fresh drops of ice cream on your chin. I eat it right from the container when I’m reading. Yes, generating that kind of visual completely breaks all the rules of fantasy. It kills the mood, dead on arrival.

  While I loved a number of the billionaire series, I didn’t want to get caught in the trap of having a story that would be too close to something written by my favorite go-to romance authors. I asked Luna. “Hmm…I like to write erotic, but I need a good premise. Erotic, yet something with paranormal. Another shifter story, maybe? But it has to tie into the billionaire theme.”

  “Meow. Meow.”

  “Billionaires. Werewolves. Were-naires?”

  “Meee-oww.” It was a very disagreeing meow.

  “I know, that sounds like a name for some weird body hair removal product. Ugh.”

  “Meow.”

  “I got it! Billion-weres!”

  “Meow, meow.”

  And that’s how I came up with my newest work, Bangin’ the Billion-were, an erotic tale about an extremely wealthy werewolf.

  The other story had been something I thought about for a couple of months. It started one night when I was thinking about bats. They scare the hell out of me. I hate walking in my neighborhood at night because I would always see those furry, winged, rodent bastards flapping around the streetlights. So, I was trying to remember. What time of the year do the bats start to leave for the caves for their winter hibernation? The whole biology of hibernation has always fascinated me. I thought about Gertie and how she had been frozen. If she could be frozen for so long and then be just fine, there must be some method inside of all humans to be able to hibernate, just like those bats in their caves. Who knows? Maybe it’s something that at one time, humans developed to get through the ice age. Later on, humans would have lost the ability because they just didn’t need it anymore.

  But, what if some humans had the ability to hibernate for as many years as they needed to? And what if these were the ones that survived the ice age, not by migrating south, but by staying in the ice. Imagine that this race of humans only came out of hibernation to go on a feeding frenzy and then they went back to sleep. Now, there wouldn’t be much to eat, so they would have to travel during this feeding. Perhaps they would attack other humans for their blood, since they had become completely anemic from hibernating in ice caves. Their bodies would have developed accordingly. They would be spooky white with little to no hair on their heads. Pale, thin and gaunt creatures that had a mouth full of sharp teeth, maybe they even formed fangs. I made myself shudder at the image I had envisioned. Probably, they’d have white eyes. Maybe red ones, just like an albino rabbit. My imagination terrifies me sometimes.

  I thought about what I had imagined and I realized something. These would be vampires, or at least, pretty damn close. One night, I had a dream about these creatures that had been hibernating since the ice age, but now that the earth was warming up, they were waking up. I was completely terrified and I swore I wouldn’t think about it, but I broke that promise quickly. In fact, I thought about it all the time because I knew it would be an excellent idea to have in a book. I figured that it might fit best in a dystopian setting that was the result of a cataclysmic climate shift. The kind that would pretty much wipe out known civilization. The vampires were awakened and they fed off of the humans that tried to survive. Maybe the humans even picked some of their own to hand over to the hungry vampires, in an attempt to appease them and avoid being attacked. The big decision was whether to write it as a young adult horror story, or as a steamy romance. In the end, young adult won out over vampire smut.

  I knew that I would be able come up with a very marketable plot by rehashing some themes of the most popular young adult, dystopian fiction. The title that came to mind was, Regurgitant. I know, I sometimes disappoint people with my titles, but this one sounded perfect. It had a ring to it, for some reason. I wasn’t sure if it was even a word. I looked it up and it meant a backward blood flow, in a heart valve. Then I knew, I had to use that title. It seemed to hint at the recycled dystopian theme. Better yet, it had to do with blood flow. Perfect! Regurgitant it was.

  I could already envision myself getting a contract. Who knows? Perhaps there would someday be an entire Regurgitant trilogy. I spent the next few days concentrating on my stories, splitting my time between the two. Above all, I was particularly mindful not to use the names of anyone that I could remember. Lest they become caught up in a real life story.

  Only a week had passed since the coup d'état at the Witches Union. Luna and I were enjoying a quiet moment at the little table in my kitchen. I had a cup of tea and a stack of unread copies of the Chicago Tribune that had piled up. Luna was on the table, preening herself. Now, all cat lovers understand that it is a perfectly proper thing to have the cat on the table. And as long as you don’t have any company, it is perfectly fine for the cat’s tail to accidentally swipe the sugar bowl. I lazily flipped through the pages of newsprint with a sip of tea here and a bite of a bagel there. Luna pawed my phone closer to me, gave me a knowing stare, and then my phone began to ring. I nearly spit my tea across the table at her uncanny prediction.

  And so it began with an early morning phone call from Kelly. I was immediately urged to get back into some spell crafting. My phone chimed again. It became a three-way call. Of course. Lindsey was in on this conversation now as well. Luna turned her attention to the stack o
f papers.

  “Leigh! Lindsey and I would like you to do a tune-up on Derek and Luke.”

  “A tune-up?” I asked, and then Luna interrupted me.

  “Meow, meow. Meow.” Luna was pushing a copy of the Tribune towards me. I glanced down and actually winced at the picture of a gorilla proudly urinating from atop the Buckingham Fountain. The headline read Galloping Gorillas in Grant Park. “Meow.”

  “I know Luna. I know. Also, that headline is a little cheesy for the Tribune, wouldn’t you say? Personally, I’d have gone with Marauding Monkeys-Mayhem on Michigan.”

  “Meow.”

  “Are you talking to your cat again?”

  “No. Yes. I mean, don’t you think those poor guys have been through enough? Besides, you make them sound like a couple of cars that are overdue on their maintenance plan. Talk about objectifying the opposite sex!” I had to laugh about how Kelly could sound so matter-of-fact and desperate, both at the same time.

  Lindsey jumped in. “Enough? No. Not even close. They can handle it. And I would like to remind you that you met Hunter in a hunk line-up on my roof. If I recall correctly, you looked him over like he was nothing more than a horse in a livestock auction. About the only thing you didn’t check over were his teeth. Or did you?” Lindsey and Kelly were laughing at the memory of that day. I was laughing too, but I was also picturing Hunter’s tanned and toned body. I shook my head and tried not to think about him for the moment. I missed him already.

  “You know what we need?” Kelly asked.

  “Straitjackets?” I quipped.

  “And tranquilizer injections.” Lindsey interjected.

  “Lunch and some shopping, smartasses. Well, lunch for sure. Shopping may not involve actually buying anything, if my credit card company has any say in it. But it would be good to get out and about and act like normal girls for a change. And then the obligatory slumber party. So, meet me at my place about eleven? No broom travel today.” I was quick to add the caveat about my broom. No need to be in a hurry to fire up that little pocket sized, catastrophe-causing, witchcraft powered technology.