Astonishing August: Calendar Girls' Ranch, #8

By Caroline Lee

August "Sparky" Calendar is a simple sort of gal. Blue jeans, sneakers, and her colorful headwraps are all she needs in life…outside of her epic gaming laptop, her lucky voltmeter, and all of her ghost-hunting equipment. Sparky is determined to become Cauldron Valley's resident supernatural investigator, and is doing her best to sound professional, which is a little difficult when she keeps tripping over her own two feet.

 

Jax Weston is at his wits' end. He might be a high-powered CEO, but he can't function without sleep. And thanks to the strange noises and creepy voices haunting the house he just moved into, he hasn't been able to rest at all. When he hires a local ghost-hunter, he doesn't see any reason that "August" shouldn't move in with him for a week to investigate this strange phenomenon.

 

But the investigator isn't a man, as Jax has assumed. Instead, she's the adorable little bundle of energy he almost kissed at his brother wedding reception…and the attraction hasn't lessened. Sleep might be the last thing on Jax's mind, now that Sparky is living with him! Does she think of this relationship as just business, or will they be able to solve the mystery in time for Jax to convince her they make an astonishing team?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Caroline Lee
• Release date: Mar 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393048046

Book preview

Chapter 1

Who in their right mind planned party games at a wedding reception?

Well, to be fair, this wasn’t exactly Junie and Poll’s wedding reception; they were technically married a few months ago, but since it was hurried—which was becoming a theme in this family—a lot of Poll’s family hadn’t been present. So, they were throwing a big party now to make up for it and introduce the two families.

Of course, Mom and Dad had offered to host.

Sparky rolled her eyes and propped her shoulder against the mantel, cradling a silly little paper cup of punch in her hand. Punch. In a paper cup. Like this was a toddler’s birthday party.

Hey, at least it’s good punch.

True. She sipped. It was very good punch. Mrs. Weston—Poll’s mother—had a better recipe than Aunt Brunhilda at least.

Okay, everyone. Can I have your attention? Mom was waving her hands, a piece of paper flapping in one of them. Everyone! Bert, do the whistle thing.

Sparky’s father scowled. I’m not whistling as though our guests are herd animals..

Yes, Bertholomew.

"My name’s Robert."

Oh, stop being silly and help me up on that ottoman.

Smirking, Sparky watched her father lift his wife up onto the ottoman while muttering about stupid nicknames. He kept his hand on Mom’s waist, but Sparky couldn’t tell if he just liked holding her, or if he was afraid she’d face-plant otherwise.

Can I have everyone’s attention? Thank you so much! Mom was beaming and waving the paper around. "We’ve already thanked everyone for coming to help us celebrate the union of our Junie and Poll, so let’s get down to the fun stuff! We’re ready for the party games, and for once, Junie let me be in charge of planning!"

There was general laughter and teasing from the Calendars in attendance, who knew just how controlling Junie could be. She’d really mellowed since marrying Poll, but Sparky remembered how angry her sister had been on her wedding day—probably because one little thing hadn’t gone as planned.

Okay, once we move out of the den, you’ll see seven stations set up in the formal living room, the dining room, and the kitchen. Thank you to the volunteers who will be manning those stations along with us—the Westons, Brunie and Melvin, and April’s husband, Cole, who we all know is a general stick in the mud and has informed me he doesn’t do games.

Sparky wasn’t the only one who turned to the handsome man standing beside April with his arms crossed.

I don’t do games, he intoned, and his wife—who was the most cheerful person in the Calendar family—laughed as if he’d made a joke.

Maybe he had.

Now these games are for pairs, but we’re not going to allow couples to pair off unless they’re extremely lucky. Junie has twenty-eight people in her family now since Brent joined us, and we’re so glad he and Julia found one another and brought me grandsons! And Poll has seventeen—

Eighteen! came a call from somewhere on the other side of the room.

One lady, who looked remarkably like Poll, patted her huge belly. Twenty if we count the twins.

If we start counting unborn babies, we’ll be here even longer! came from someone who sounded a lot like Sparky’s brother-in-law, Tom, and it raised a few chuckles.

Mom waved her hands for order. "Anyhow, you’re going to be paired up randomly. Find your partner and make your way to one of the seven stations set up. I expect it’ll be chaos, but you have an hour to complete all seven games, and we’ll add up the times. The three pairs with the lowest combined time will win gift cards to Junie and Poll’s favorite restaurant!"

With so many people crammed into the room, the responses were overwhelming. Sparky heard laughter and jokes and plenty of groaning about having to do these silly games. She noticed most of those complaints were said under their breaths though, and thought it was kinda cute no one wanted to hurt Junie and Poll by admitting they thought this was silly.

Well, it is a good way to get to know each other I suppose.

The first lucky pair is… With a flourish, Mom pulled two slips of paper from the hat Dad was holding in his free hand. Don Weston and Bob Calendar! Amid the cheers, she pulled two more. Artemis Cauldron and…Berry Calendar! Berry, dear, Artie is Poll’s twin sister over there. Next is…Dawn and April! Well, that seems rather perfect. April, Dawn’s by the kitchen door.

Mom continued to pull names and assign pairs, but Sparky was only half listening. She sipped her punch and smirked as she watched her sisters—and their husbands—pair off with randomly assigned partners. Some knew each other—Val was lucky enough to be paired with her husband Cord—and some were complete strangers.

She wondered what Mom had planned in terms of games. Surely nothing too weird since half the partners didn’t even know each other.

Jax Weston and Sparky! Sparky, where are you? Oh, you’re hiding by the mantel. Well, dear, come meet Jax. Next we have October and little Aubrey.

Frowning, Sparky straightened away from the mantel, which wasn’t that hard, because she wasn’t any taller when she stood up straight. Who had mom said she was paired with? One of the Westons, but she hadn’t been paying attention to which one exactly. Didn’t they all have A-names? She pushed herself up on her tiptoes, trying to get her mother’s attention to have her repeat her partner’s name.

Excuse me?

The deep voice, coming as it did over her shoulder, startled Sparky, and she jerked forward. Catching herself before she could really stumble, she managed to only spill a small splash of punch on herself as she whirled around.

And swallowed her tongue.

The man standing in front of her was tall, which wasn’t a surprise—everyone was tall compared to Sparky—but he was also handsome. Though not just handsome, but like, drop-dead, holy motherboard, going-to-need-some-liquid-cooling-for-my-processor handsome. He had the same blond hair and pale blue eyes as Poll, but unlike Sparky’s new brother-in-law, this guy’s eyes were hot, not icy.

Is it possible for a pair of eyes to look hot as opposed to cold?

Uh…hi, she managed.

He grinned.

And oh my dimples dimples dimples dimples!

Holy motherboard, this wasn’t…?

Wait, who was he?

I’m Jax, the vision in front of her said. Are you Sparky? My brother pointed me in this direction.

Wordlessly, still a little dazed from that smile, Sparky held out her hand. When he took it, his grip was firm and warm and…damp?

She glanced down, then swore under her breath and pulled her hand frantically from his to wipe down her shirt. Sorry. Sorry, I spilled the punch, and— Sorry. Do you want a napkin?

Still smiling, although it seemed to Sparky as if his grin had turned to more of one of bemusement now, Jax shook his head as he pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped the punch from his hands. Guys still carried hankies these days?

To be fair, he was dressed a little nicer than the other guys here, with his blue button-up shirt tucked into jeans—

Were those creases? Did he iron his jeans?

Sparky couldn’t decide if that was weird or adorable.

Dimples!

Probably adorable.

So…Sparky?

She blinked. Yeah?

"Then you are Sparky?"

This was getting off to a fabulous start, wasn’t it?

If I say yes, will it stop this from turning into a Laurel and Hardy sketch?

You watch Laurel and Hardy? His brows went up. A woman of refinement.

I can’t tell if that was sarcasm or not, mister.

His lips twitched again as he held up his hands, palms out, one still holding the handkerchief. Definitely not. But at this point, I’m really hoping you’re Sparky.

Why? Because you’ve wasted so much time trying to get me to make coherent conversation? she challenged, half-exasperated with herself.

Why, when faced with a good-looking dude, could she not just flirt? Honestly.

No, ma’am. This time his grin flashed quickly. Because I’m enjoying watching you flounder your way through this.

She rolled her eyes and reached up to place her cup of punch on the mantel. Look, can you go out and come back in again? I’ll try to be suave this time.

She’d been joking, but to her surprise, he shrugged and turned around. Sparky had just enough time to wipe her hands again on her t-shirt and pat her headscarf