When the Fog Clears

By Kari Kilgore

A Second Chance at Love

 

Managing a bookstore in a small town suits Will just fine. A break from big city stress and too much heartache.

 

Chris returns for the first time in decades. Searching for the next step in his interrupted life.

 

The love and friendship of their youth rekindles at first glance.

 

Can Will and Chris take their chance to be together the second time around?

 

Also available in Escape into Romance.

 

An excerpt from When the Fog Clears:

Memory Come Back to Life

Chris fought the urge to either turn around to see who was standing behind him or dash back outside. An absolutely gorgeous guy stood at the other end of the store.

Staring right at him.

A guy all red-and-silver beard and flannel shirt and oh-my-god-don't-I-know him?

A flash of heat twisted through Chris's belly and groin, along with a crystal-clear memory of kissing the sweetest little smiley face constellation of freckles he'd ever seen on a guy's chest. Or a woman's back.

Or anywhere in the world besides his best high school friend and all-time hottest hookup.

Will Powell.

The biggest what-if in Chris's life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spiral Publishing, Ltd
• Release date: Jan 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393521853

Kari Kilgore

Kari Kilgore started her first published novel Until Death in Transylvania, Romania, and finished it in Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where Stephen King got the idea for The Shining. That’s just one example of how real world inspiration drives her fiction. Kari’s first published novel Until Death was included on the Preliminary Ballot for the Bram Stoker Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First Novel in 2016. It was also a finalist for the Golden Stake Award at the Vampire Arts Festival in 2018. Recent professional short story sales include three to Fiction River anthology magazine, with the first due out in the September issue. Kari also has two stories in a holiday-themed anthology project with Kristine Kathryn Rusch due out over the holidays in 2019. Kari writes fantasy, science fiction, horror, and contemporary fiction, and she’s happiest when she surprises herself. She lives at the end of a long dirt road in the middle of the woods with her husband Jason Adams, various house critters, and wildlife they’re better off not knowing more about. Kari’s novels, novellas, and short stories are available at www.spiralpublishing.net, which also publishes books by Frank Kilgore and Jason Adams. For more information about Kari, upcoming publications, her travels and adventures, and random cool things that catch her attention, visit www.karikilgore.com.

Book preview

When the Fog Clears

For Jason

---

Who understands the lure of a good bookstore

and the best scary movies.

WHEN THE FOG CLEARS

KARI KILGORE

SPIRAL PUBLISHING, LTD.

CHAPTER 1

Will Powell stood in the open doorway of Clinch River Books and Tourist Information Center, gigantic mug of hot coffee in hand, not quite sure how his life had changed so quickly.

From here he could see the fog rising down along the Clinch, hiding away the quiet state park and hiking trail that had brought so much new life and excitement to Estonoa, Virginia. The town snuggled into the surrounding mountains, so he was several hundred feet higher than the water. Still, the five AM fog twisted and danced along the newly repaved streets and between the red brick buildings all around him.

When he could catch a glimpse of the trees through the shifting mist, they showed off vivid October orange, red, and yellow. A few pines and cedars ignored the color-changing antics, but they only enhanced the gorgeous effect.

He could barely hear a few cars and trucks rolling by out on the four-lane, with the big trucks hitting the chugging engine brake a bit too loud for so early in the morning. The occasional keer-keer cry of a broadwing hawk overhead spoke of skilled hunters up and at it before even the most dedicated humans.

Once this fog cleared—and the hour got late enough for reasonable people to be awake—Will expected a busy, crowded Friday ahead. He’d already started the shop’s coffee maker, though he’d be the only