A Fairy-Tail Ending, page 1
“Aren’t you such a cute little girl? You look just like your daddy.”
Startled, Cash almost looked around, half expecting to see Isobel’s ex, but then he realized the gentleman thought the three of them were a family. Cash stepped farther down the cafeteria line. He liked kids well enough, but had never given much thought to having his own.
“Yep, I do,” Lottie responded, clearly not understanding that the older gentleman had assumed Cash was the father. “Daddy got me this necklace with my name on it for my birthday.”
She held up the silver chain with her name spelled out in pink crystals.
The man nodded approvingly. “That’s a very pretty piece of jewelry. Nice job, Dad.”
Isobel sent a grimacing smile Cash’s way, her cheeks red with embarrassment. “I’m sor—”
“It’s okay,” Cash said as he slung an arm around Isobel’s shoulders and turned to the man. “I think she looks more like her beautiful mama.”
Dear Reader,
Welcome to A Fairy-Tail Ending, the launch of a trilogy spin-off of my Top Dog Dude Ranch series!
As a child, I adored fairy tales. (I still do!) But I also could never decide on a favorite. Each of the heroines appealed to me at different seasons of my life. During my more bookworm moments, I imagined myself as Belle. In times of isolation, I identified with Rapunzel. My love of animals reminded me of Snow White in the woods.
In plotting my next three books, I knew I wanted to explore deeper the mystical nature of Moonlight Ridge, Tennessee, home of the Top Dog Dude Ranch. What better way than through fairy tales? Thus, this trilogy was born in my mind as I imagined if Belle, Rapunzel and Snow White were modern-day sisters on a mission. Meet the three Dalton sisters, Isobel (Belle), Zelda (Rapunzel) and Neve (translates to Snow) as they begin their quest in Moonlight, Tennessee, for their grandmother’s long-lost child! Their journey starts with Isobel’s story in A Fairy-Tail Ending.
I enjoy hearing from readers and can be found frequently on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Links are on my website: CatherineMann.com. Also on my website, check out my latest contest and sign up for my newsletter for the latest scoop!
Happy reading,
Cathy
A Fairy-Tail Ending
Catherine Mann
USA TODAY bestselling author Catherine Mann has won numerous awards for her novels, including both a prestigious RITA® Award and an RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award. After years of moving around the country bringing up four children, Catherine has settled in her home state of South Carolina, where she’s active in animal rescue. For more information, visit her website, catherinemann.com.
Books by Catherine Mann
Harlequin Special Edition
Top Dog Dude Ranch
A Fairy-Tail Ending
Last-Chance Marriage Rescue
The Cowboy’s Christmas Retreat
Last Chance on Moonlight Ridge
The Little Matchmaker
The Cowgirl and the Country M.D.
The Lawman’s Surprise
Harlequin Desire
Alaskan Oil Barons
The Baby Claim
The Double Deal
The Love Child
Texas Cattleman’s Club: Houston
Hot Holiday Rancher
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
To my precious sisters, Julie and Beth.
I love you both!
Contents
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
Epilogue
Excerpt from Their Unexpected Forever by Laurel Greer
Prologue
Cocoa the Caring Canine
Did you know that dogs can sense magic? Well, it’s true.
Enchantment releases a distinctive sugary smell in the air that only our canine olfactory nerves can detect. That aroma is even more enticing than the barbecue in progress next door.
If I’m having an off day with my Labrador nose, luckily real-life fairy tales also release a hum into the air. And I’m guessing you know all about our enhanced hearing since we can detect that doorbell ring even in a deep slumber...
On the second floor...
Burrowed underneath three layers of covers.
Compared to alerting about a ringing doorbell or smoking grill, sensing the musicality and perfume of magic is easy-peasy.
For those of you who are tuning in to my blog for the first time, my name is Cocoa, and I’m all about watching for magic everywhere I go. Somebody has to make sure that not even one note or a single whiff slips by unnoticed.
Unutilized.
Making the most of every magical opportunity is especially important to me because I’m a service dog. A chocolate Labrador retriever, mobility assistance dog to be exact. My whole life is dedicated to the job. Now, don’t worry for even a minute about my day being devoted to tasks, because I love to work. I mean really, really love it.
The best day of my entire existence came when the facility where I trained for two years—yes, two whole years—matched me with a forever person to help. Lottie. She’s only six, and she uses a wheelchair because she was born with something humans call spina bifida. I can’t explain it like a doctor. I just know there’s a place in her spine that didn’t close up right when she was inside her mom.
So I help Lottie. I go to school with her and pick things up, like her pencils, when she drops them. I push elevator buttons with my paws—I like putting extra oomph into that cue. I lay over her lap and press if she’s having nerve pain—or if she’s sad. Don’t we all need a hug every now and then? I can even pull the covers up for her with my mouth.
How cool is that?
When Lottie’s asleep, sometimes I help her mama—Isobel—when she is sad. Usually when she curls up in her reading chair, those tears start leaking. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s tired or worried about Lottie or sad that Lottie’s dad doesn’t live with them. The reason doesn’t matter to me. I’m all about the solution that I offer best. More of those special hugs that are designed to press just right.
But lately, I’m worried I may not have enough cues up my sleeve to give this family. The last time I went with Lottie to the doctor, things got a lot more complicated. She needs all the magic I can sniff out. The doctor says she needs a new kidney.
My sniffer also tells me she needs it sooner than they think.
Chapter One
Who wouldn’t be charmed by a man who dressed up as a swashbuckler for a child’s sixth birthday party? And as a single mom, Isobel Dalton certainly wasn’t immune.
Besides, she figured she was due a bit of covert drooling over the firefighter wearing an eye patch and red head scarf while folding himself into a tiny chair for a tea party. Her friend had gone above and beyond today.
Cash Warner, aka charming pirate guy, lifted his little pink cup in a toast. “Ahoy, matey!”
“Yo-ho-ho!” her daughter Lottie echoed, dark pigtails sticking out from under her paper pirate hat.
The rest of the children at the other tables followed with a jumbled chorus of “Surrender the booty” and “Shiver me timbers!”
Isobel pressed a hand to her mouth to hold back a laugh, thankful for the happy distraction from the upcoming reading of her grandmother’s will. Gran. Her rock. Gone for one month.
But Gran would have been the first to insist this birthday be celebrated. Lottie had requested a pirate tea party, and somehow the plan had come together. The logistics had been a challenge, because this celebration wasn’t hosted at a park or in a family backyard. This kiddie get-together was being held in the activity room of a physical therapy rehabilitation clinic where her daughter received both physical and occupational therapy for the effects of spina bifida.
Lottie had invited children she’d bonded with over the years at the center. Like her best friend Jasper, who carried a different superhero lunchbox each week. A premature delivery had left him with cerebral palsy. And newcomer Isla, who’d lost a leg in a car accident, but given how quickly she was adapting to the prosthetic, she was spending less time inside these four walls.
Isobel adjusted the pirate scarf around her head, easing her ponytail back over her shoulder. She and Lottie had spent endless hours a week here since her daughter was born with the condition that affected her spinal cord. Some of them were painful hours. Others more uplifting and liberating. She would never gain full use of her legs, but thanks to her service dog Cocoa and the staff here, Lottie increased her independence daily.
Medical equipment beeped and shooshed lowly in the background. Undisturbed, the chocolate lab rested beside the wheelchair with her head on her paws, immobile but ever ready for a task. Staff were positioned throughout the commons area, albeit wearing party hats to match the children’s. Chicken nugg
And no matter how much Isobel looked around the room, her gaze continued to land on the muscular firefighter giving Captain Jack Sparrow a run for his money.
“What did the ocean say to the pirate?” he asked, a parrot puppet on his hand.
Lottie’s arm shot up. “Nothing. It just waved.”
“That’s absolutely right, matey.” He passed a mesh bag of candy doubloons into her eager hands.
Cash had come to the rehab center about six months ago after being injured on the job battling a housefire. He’d rescued five of the six family members before a falling beam had shattered a leg and an arm. His journey to recovery had been difficult. And not only from the broken bones and the painful skin grafts over his burns. She could tell the memories still haunted him, even if he refused to speak about that time in more than cursory statements.
Although no one would guess at the moment. “How much does it cost for a pirate to get his ears pierced? A buck an ear.”
Silence met that joke. The pun seemed to have flown right over their heads.
“Get it?” he explained, tugging each ear that sported a clip-on gold hoop. “A buck...an...ear. ‘Buccaneer’ is another name for ‘pirate.’”
Realization spread over each little face until giggles erupted, mixed with exaggerated boos from Jasper at the corny joke.
Lottie waggled her fingers again, looking too cute for words in her costume—a vest and sash with loose black-and-white striped pants. “I got one. Wanna hear?”
Cash tipped a salute in her direction. “Go for it.”
“Where does a pirate put his trash?” She only paused for a minute as if rushing to make sure no one else got to say the punchline she’d been practicing all morning. “In a garrrrrbage bag.”
At the laughs from the rest of the children at the clinic, Lottie beamed, rocking from side to side in her chair until her napkin slithered to the floor.
Cocoa promptly plucked it up, the paper trailing like a checkered flag from her mouth, and dropped it back onto Lottie’s lap. Lottie plucked a dog treat from the pouch clipped to her waist.
With an all-in drive for her job, Cocoa thrived on picking up everything from a dropped pencil to a favorite doll. Cocoa could even tug on socks. Sure, Isobel could help with these tasks. She was Lottie’s mom, after all. But her daughter battled for every bit of independence, so much already having been taken from her. Cocoa’s aid gave Lottie that freedom.
A priceless gift.
On her best days, her daughter could maneuver with the assistance of a walker and leg braces. Others? Lottie needed her wheelchair. And always by her side, good and bad days, her service dog Cocoa.
Who also happened to be the “voice” of Isobel’s newest blog. Her freelance writing allowed her flexibility to be present for all the appointments, a benefit she did not take for granted. Especially since her ex-husband spent so much time on the road as a truck driver. And they desperately needed his insurance.
Since her divorce and reclaiming her maiden name, her life in Montana has been filled with work and her daughter Lottie—until a surprise friendship developed between her and Cash over lunch in the cafeteria. He’d sat next to her one afternoon when the place had been packed, then the next day even though there had been empty seats available. A pattern began.
A pattern she would miss deeply now that his recovery was drawing to a close. She was glad for him. Truly.
He certainly looked fit and ready to return to work.
Her shoulder was jostled by Jasper’s mom as she angled nearer to whisper, “Cash is yummy, don’t you agree?”
Isobel glanced over quickly. Could the woman be interested? Isobel’s stomach flipped, then settled as she remembered that the young mother was happily married to an art teacher who’d given Lottie an assortment of the drawing supplies, along with the promise of lessons.
“Of course I agree,” Isobel said. There was no denying the obvious.
“Then what’s stopping you from making a move?” Anna elbowed her. “You’re single. He’s single... I think?”
From the other side, another mom, Evelyn, an executive who always brought a full briefcase, added, “He most certainly is. I did a deep dive on his social media, and he’s single.” She winked. “I was only checking for my niece, of course.”
The full-time father across from her laughed. “Make sure you get his number before these ladies scoop him up for their single relatives.”
Heat crawled over Isobel’s cheeks, but she knew insisting she had no room for a relationship would make no difference to determined, well-meaning matchmakers. So she settled for a more benign answer. “Thanks, but we’re just friends.”
Good friends.
Friends who spent weekends hanging out together.
Evelyn snorted. “What kind of magic do you wield that makes a friend dress up for a kids’ birthday party? Because I would pay good money to get my husband in that getup. And not for a kiddie party, if you know what I mean.”
Isobel shrugged. How could she explain the simple truth? “He’s a great guy, no question.”
Cash’s friendship had been a godsend to her over the past six months. She looked forward to their dinners together after rehab sessions. Movie outings. Having a plus-one for a big rodeo fundraiser for the clinic. And now he was restored to health. He would be moving on with his life, and she wanted that for him even as nerves made her ill with impending dread of the first time she would pull up in the parking lot knowing that he wasn’t inside.
She knew their relationship would never be more than friendship. Her bruised heart couldn’t handle more. But she was lonely. Her marriage had been lonely. Life after her divorce wasn’t any different.
Her ex-husband loved Lottie and tried his best to spend time with her. Except he traveled for work so very much, and his job as a truck driver brought in decent money. And with Lottie’s medical bills they definitely needed every extra penny. Her career as a blogger was taking off, particularly her “Cocoa the Caring Canine” writings, keeping her all the busier. Which didn’t leave much time for a social life.
Cash’s friendship these past months had been a sanity saver.
A friendship she could no longer afford to even fantasize about taking further, as Cash would soon be moving to another fire station far from her. Today, she needed to focus on her child and getting through the Zoom call with the attorney about her grandmother’s will. An impending conversation that made her eyes sting already.
But she would face that as she faced every day now. Strong and alone.
* * *
For the past six months, Cash Warner had counted down the days until he could say goodbye to this rehab clinic, put the pain behind him and reclaim his old life.
Except, now that the time approached, his gut knotted with something he couldn’t name. Something that insisted he wasn’t ready to put this place in his rearview mirror and reenter the work world. But there wasn’t a choice. He was finished here and would return to his job in three weeks, relocating to a new department on the other side of the state.
He would say goodbye not only to this place but to Isobel and Lottie...and of course Cocoa. The knot in his gut twisted tighter.
In the clinic courtyard, Cash shoved aside the unease. He’d offered to keep Lottie and Cocoa occupied while Isobel cleaned away the party mayhem.
He scooped up the tennis ball and tossed it for the chocolate Labrador retriever. Cocoa sprinted ahead, past a fountain, leapt and snagged the ball out of the air on its first bounce. The leggy canine trotted over to Lottie in her wheelchair under the concrete water fountain.
Giggling, the little girl plucked the toy from her lab. “Good, Cocoa. Now go get it.”
Lottie tossed the ball into a bush, and the dog sprang into action again, pouncing and foraging. They could keep this up all day serving the dual purpose of exercising her service dog and increasing Lottie’s arm strength. Cash had learned that every task here at the clinic had a purpose, pushing toward independence.
