Love at the Candy Heart Cafe (Chapter One--Lenora Worth)

Love at the Candy Heart Café (Our 2018 Valentine Serial)

Chapter One

Lenora Worth

“Candy, where’s my coffee?”

“On the way, Mr. Lovestock,” Candy Reese said with a smile. Her feet hurt and her back was numb, but this job paid the rent on her one-bedroom duplex down the beach from the Candy Heart Café.

The café had belonged to her grandmother and Candy, named after this quaint little place located on the beach, had inherited it six months ago.

A bitter irony if there ever was one. She’d fallen in love right here sitting in the bright red corner booth, over hot chocolate and a Valentine-shaped sugar cookie. Fallen in love and then lost her heart when she’d watched the boy she loved walk right out the lacy-wrought-iron encased front door.

“You make the best coffee,” Mr. Lovestock said with a sweet smile. “My Tootsie made good coffee, too.”

“I know you miss her,” Candy replied. “She was a good woman.”

“The best,” he said before digging into his pecan pie. “How about you? Big plans for Valentine’s Day?”

Candy scoffed and pulled at her strawberry red pony tail. Two weeks away and nothing on the horizon. “Yeah. I’ll be right here serving all the people who belong in the Lonely Hearts Club.”

Mr. Lovestock shook his head. “Well, you never know. You might get booted from that club when your true love walks through that door.”

Candy didn’t think that was possible. She was dead-broke and afraid she’d have to sell the Candy Heart. This little beach community depended on this place for fellowship and good home-cooking. The sweet treats the café provided gave people a reason to meet and mingle. But it needed serious updates and repairs and she didn’t have the funding. She couldn’t let her grandmother down. She’d find a way.

The front door rattled, the tinkling bells always bringing back memories of working here after school.

Not bothering to glance up from the chocolate shake she was about to pour from the blender, she called out, “Just sit wherever you want. We’ll be with you in a minute.”

“I’ll take the corner booth on the left,” a deep voice said from behind her. “And I’ll have a hot chocolate and a sugar cookie.”

Candy almost spilled the shake in her hurry to turn around. It couldn’t be. But it was. The boy who’d left her sitting in that corner booth ten years ago.

Chad Hershey. In the flesh and looking better than a double-chocolate cream cheese brownie with his silky dark curls and rich brown eyes.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, wishing she hadn’t chewed off all of her lip gloss.

“I came to see you,” he said, looking into her eyes. “I have a proposition for you, Candy.”

“Yeah, and what would that be, Chad?”

“I want to buy this place.”

Mr. Lovestock snorted. Candy huffed a breath. Her customer waited for his milkshake.

“Over my dead body,” she said before stomping off, her ponytail bouncing with determination.

She had no intention of selling out to the now rich and powerful real estate mogul and she certainly had no intention of giving her heart to him again either.

    

What will Candy do? Come back tomorrow for Chapter Two!

Hello, my darlings. Elnora's in a good mood because I made my deadline this week. I'm going to take a few days off and rest up until I start all over again. But I thought it would be fun to show you the fruits of my labor over the past three years, starting in the fall of 2013 when I first started this contract. I love to write. I love sitting in my little room with view telling love stories. So other than the times I've beat my head against the wall or thrown a few shoes or ate too much chocolate or had me a royal hissy fit and stomped my feet and left the house to go shopping or maybe had a little tizzy tantrum and headed off to the beach a few times, I've been perfectly content writing all of these stories. I also have an ulterior motive for doing this. I want you to read. If you don't read my books, read someone's book and send me a picture of you reading on the beach, or on a bench, or in your car or even in a bar. I'll post them on social media, with your permission. Send them to LNwrite2@aol.com and put Reading a Book in the subject line! God gave women books so they wouldn't go AWOL, after all. I want you to have a great summer. We'll call it the Summer of Love!

So here goes. Let's stroll through my marathon book collection. This is all of the books I've written since mid-2013 (and four more on the way but I don't have covers for them yet!) Send me those pictures!

                                                                                 

Beach Party--Come spend the day with me--Lenora Worth

It's the end of summer and soon we'll be carving pumpkins and grabbing our fleece hoodie and warm boots. Let's have one last beach party! I'll provide the atmosphere and the sunshine if you bring whatever you'd like to eat and drink and your fun attitude. These last days of summer are shorter but still wonderful. Although I have to admit, I'm kind of ready for those crisp fall temperatures. But for today, come with me and let's enough the crash of the surf against the shore.

 

 

A nice walk in the wood near a swamp is always fun. Unless you hate bugs and spiders and snakes and gators, of course. :)

 

Nothing like the sky over water. It's always so soothing.

 

And who doesn't love a  little romance on the beach. From Here to Eternity, anyone?

 

Or maybe just a hero who loves children :)

 

 

Gotta throw in some sand and sea oats and the sound of the surf.

 

And we can't forget palm trees. Hear the rustle of the fronds in that wonderful breeze from the water.

 

What about a nice stroll down an old street, the scent of jasmine wafting through the air.

 

A good summer read is mandatory for these last lazy days.

 

A great meal with a wonderful view. Can you smell those shrimp beginning to boil?

 

Tropical plants and cool drinks out on the deck.

 

And finally, the sun setting over the water. What a great day. Sleep peacefully and let your soul find rest.

 

This blog has been brought to you by God. His world is truly amazing and he doesn't mind sharing it with us at all. Hope you had fun. I sure did :)

 

 

 



Almost summer!

Ah! It's almost summer. And it definitely felt like summer when I took a short vacation from Michigan to sunny Ft. Lauderdale this past weekend.

After my first and very long Michigan winter.....

this Southern girl needed the hot sun of Florida!

I'm one of those crazy people who loves waking up early on vacation to go outside and enjoy the weather. I had my laptop and kindle with me and used the time outside to write (under a big umbrella). It was very inspiring.

As summer quickly approaches, where will you spend your vacation? 
And what books are you looking forwarding to reading?

I just received the cover for my next Love Inspired Suspense, EXPERT WITNESS, due out in September. Here it is!

Ask Elnora--About Peace On Earth--Lenora Worth

Hello, my thanksgiving friends. This has been a long and strange week, but this blog will be short and sweet. Elnora is on the road again. I'm beginning to feel like Willie Nelson. While I'm traveling, let's discuss how to find peace on earth when it sometimes seem as if chaos is the rule of the day. I posted a picture on facebook because I found some peace when Big Daddy and I went for a sunset walk along the Gulf. Even though people are hurting, confused, cold, hungry and frightened, God is still with us. We do not live with a spirit of fear. God always sends us hope--to help those in need, to understand those who are different from us, to embrace grace and rebuke intolerance, to show love by putting out a hand in friendship instead of spouting out words of hate. Let's discuss finding peace on earth and if you don't want to discuss, then just listen and let God's light shine through you, no matter what. I'd rather shine a light in darkness than stumble along a road full of hate. What do you think?

Save the Octopus

Kim Watters here. We’re on vacation at the beach a few weeks ago, in Rocky Point, Mexico. That in itself is another story, and not for the feint of heart. So, my daughter and I are out early in the morning hunting for seashells, minding our own business when we hear a scream.

Being curious souls and realizing there is no one else on the beach except us and two other ladies, my young daughter and I go to investigate what the ladies are pointing at on the sand. At first we didn’t see the two gelatinous globs of brown speckled things with eight arms until we were almost on top of them. I immediately conjured up images of fried calamari and had a hard time reconciling the two. Not that I for a minute thought about the possibilities of dinner that night.

Anyway, these poor creatures got washed up with the rough tide the night before and were at least twenty yards from sea. Hmmm. We can’t just leave them there, so one the other ladies took her hat off and was trying to douse them with water. Each time she did, their heads would enlarge and the blow hole would go off. Really creepy.

So now there are four of us standing around pointing at these octopuses trying to figure out how to get them back into water. I certainly wasn’t going to touch the squishy, filmy, slimy things. The hat wasn’t really working at holding much water so I *gasp* sacrificed my coffee so we’d have a cup and a much better way to keep them hydrated while we put our heads together. Finally I realized I was holding a bucket full of shells.

Tada. I dumped my shells into my daughter’s bucket and scooped up the poor fellow and ran with him to the sea. I waded into the surf, put the bucket in the water and turned it over.

I’m sure by now you’re shaking your heads. That’s right. Everything but the octopus spilled out of the bucket. Our hapless friend has suctioned himself to the bottom. Great. I already broke a glass the night before, now I’m going to have to e-mail the condo owner that his bright, red bucket has been sacrificed to Poseidon to save the sea life. (Of course we still have the other one to deal with, too.)

Fast forward to the security guard at the resort. I’m sure the last thing he wanted to do before he got off his shift was get his shoes wet prying an octopus loose, but Luis was a real “hero” about it. He finally managed to convince our friend that he was safer in the tide pool than with a big stick poking him in the head.

Number two went without a much suction at all.

So what does this have to do with writing? Aside from a story scene? Desperate conservationist and hungry, hunky security guard? Double hmmm.

How many of you have felt like our poor octopuses, trapped in unfamiliar territory and in limbo? You can see the ocean or the publishing contract, you just can’t figure out how to get there. How many of you have felt paralyzed with fear about submitting or finishing the book, or even decided to start writing, and suctioned yourself to the bottom of a bucket? You’re safe for now, but outside it’s a big people eat octopus world.

Relax, there are always people willing to help you along the way, be it us beach combers or God, or your writing friends, critique partners, family, agents or editors. We’re all in this sea of life together. We’re all God’s children, whether we have two legs or eight. So what are you waiting for? Get out of the bucket and live. What’s the worse that could happen?

Strapping in the Babies

My granddaughter is the subject of many conversations that I have these days. My husband and I just finished watching her for nearly two weeks while her mom and dad went on a vacation. What a fun time!

But things are different today than they were when my kids were babies and toddlers. Everything has multiple straps that must be buckled and tightened. Every one of them is different, and sometimes, I feel as though I ought to have an instruction manual in order to figure out how they work.

The high chair we have is easy. There are just two side straps that buckle into the one the goes between the legs. It is much easier than the one she has at home, since it also has arm straps. Then we had the stroller. Once Grandpa and I figured out how to unfold it, we had arm straps, that hooked together with the one in the center. It was like putting together a puzzle to get all the parts in the right places. Thirdly, we had to figure out how to buckle all of the parts of the car seat. The little silver things that went into the center piece were hiding from us, but I knew they all had to connect. Finally, the topper came on Sunday morning when we couldn't figure out how to get the car seat out of my car and transfer it to a larger car for our trip to church. We wound up taking two cars because we were going to be very late for church if we wasted any more time trying to figure it out. Next time, I will watch while they install the seat, so I'll know how to take it out.

At least when I took her to the beach, the only thing that required a strap was her hat.





Do you have any interesting stories about keeping kids strapped into various chairs, car seats or strollers?

Vacation Time!

Janet mentioned vacation earlier this week. Which made me realize just how close that time is getting! This is the last week of school for our county, so soon the kids will be home and my schedule will go haywire. :)

I've learned the best plan is to get up early in the morning while the kids sleep in. That's my peaceful concentration time. The older my son and daughter get, the later that wake-up time is! So maybe my schedule won't be too off track while I'm revising the book I'm currently working on--A Family for Faith (coming out in April 2011).

We plan to go to the beach later this summer. We love to go to Orange Beach, Alabama (near Gulf Shores). It's gorgeous! I believe I shared this photo last year after our trip. Of course, we'll be praying that the oil spill is contained as soon as possible. It breaks my heart to think of the damage it's caused and could keep causing.

What about you? I'd love to hear what y'all do for fun or to get away.

Lyn Cote's Fun Mom

My mother "imprinted" herself on me. If you had met us together, it would have been obvious that I was her daughter. My voice, my word choices, my inflection, my mannerisms matched my mom's. My mother's last days were heartbreaking. Dementia changed my mother into a hostile stranger. When she passed away, I had a feeling of relief, not only for myself but for my mother. She would not have liked herself as she was. She passed away in August of 2007. I have mourned her in fits and starts.

Trying to change my sorrow to joy, I began remembering all the remarkable things about her. And especially what a fun mom she was when my late brother Bobby and I were kids. I grew up in Waukegan, IL, which is on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. Waukegan had the most wonderful beaches! These were the days before pollution took its toll on water quality. Waukegan's North Beach had beautiful white sand, a WPA built bath house, a lovely shady picnic area and miles and miles of shoreline.

The highlight of summer were the days when the usual westerly wind would shift to an east wind. An east wind drove the warmer waters back to the shore in HUGE waves that gave us hours of fun. My mother was running the family business (May's Floors), kept a spotless house, cooked fantastic meals and still took time for afternoons at the beach. And she didn't even like to wade! So it was just for me and Bobby. Whenever I hear the call of a seagull, it takes me back to those wonderful times, dancing in the waves, shouting and laughing and splashing and making friends with every other child lucky enough to be at the beach. This is how I choose to remember my mother.

Did you have a fun mom too? What is your best childhood memory that your mom made possible?