Guys and Godmothers Read online

  Even Fairy Godmothers can make the wrong call, and have to ask for backup.

  Under His Nose

  Fairy Godmother Christy is due for retirement, but agrees to take one last case, even if she must use as little magic as possible.

  Roark’s perfect match is his best friend Stephanie. Bringing these two together would have been simple if Cupid hadn’t shot an arrow into Roark, forcing the mortal to fall in love.

  Now Christy must use every skill at her command to thwart Cupid’s meddling and get Roark and Stephanie together without changing their free will, or she’ll never get her own Happily Ever After.

  Before His Eyes

  When Fairy Godmother Lilly gets her latest assignment, the rules lend her pause. She must bring two people together—using as little magic as possible.

  Bruce Matthews has finally found someone who really gets him. There’s just one thing—he’s never actually seen her. Much as Greta Vandecall yearns to meet her online prince charming, secrets force her to hide.

  A steampunk convention seems to be the perfect way for the lovers to meet face-to-mask. But if Lilly fails, she’ll lose her fairy godmother status. For good.

  Warning: Magic, fairy godmothers, stupid decisions, a rambunctious god, and stubborn people who need a kick in the butt to see what’s obviously meant to be.

  Under His Nose

  Dedication

  For Ginny—I wouldn’t have been able to make Roark so awesome without your help. You are amazing, thanks for being a great friend.

  For Ann and your “chapped-ass fairies.” I would have never come up with this idea without you, thank you, my soul sister. PS: The boy thinks he needs to come see Aunt Ann soon. :)

  Prologue

  Christy A. Molar stretched as she relaxed in her chair, then waved her magic wand. Glittery cerulean sparkles burst from the tip, and a little ottoman appeared under her tired feet. She softly opened and closed her translucent blue wings as she adjusted her legs, making herself comfortable. Then, with a flicker of her wand, a table appeared next to her, complete with a tall margarita.

  She scooped up the glass and licked a bit of salt off the rim before sipping on the lime concoction.

  She took a deep breath. Her friends were late. Almost. One would be appearing…

  Lilly Bloom burst into the room, a wave of yellow sparkles all around her, her strawberry-blonde curls sticking out in all directions, like she’d been caught in a wind tunnel on her way.

  “Am I late?” she asked, panting as she waved her wand—yellow dust flitting everywhere—and her own chair, a chaise lounge with no back, appeared. She dropped on it, an exasperated sigh coming out as she materialized her own cocktail—a strawberry daiquiri—and took a sip.

  If she were wearing a stola, she would have looked like she belonged at a formal gathering on Mount Olympus. Minus the wings, of course.

  “Not yet,” Christy replied with a grin, pleased some things never change. “You are only late if Ava beats you.” They were an odd set—Christy was always early, Lilly managed to appear exactly on time, and Ava had always been fashionably late. But after as many years as they had known one another, they had learned to live with each other’s quirks.

  One had to, when immortal.

  Lilly smiled. “I was hung up by the Council.” She brushed a curl out of her eyes. “I couldn’t get Andres to let me go.” She fluttered her yellow wings, sending more yellow dust into the air.

  “What is it this time?” Christy asked. Andres was a Council member, and technically their boss. For the most part, Christy found him a fair guy, but he always seemed to drive Lilly nuts.

  “Cupid,” Lilly said with a sigh. “He’s gone and released his minions on Hollywood again.”

  Christy groaned. “I cannot believe even Zeus himself—”

  “Shh, don’t call him that! You know how upset Jupiter gets when we call him his Greek name,” Lilly said.

  Christy rolled her eyes. “So particular. Anyway, I cannot believe even Jupiter will not discipline that—that—”

  “Asshole,” Ava added just as she appeared in the room.

  “Ava,” Christy chided.

  Ava shrugged. “I call it like I see it.” She ran her hands through her auburn hair, making rose dust fall everywhere. She fluttered her delicate, half-rose, half-pink wings, and Christy, after all this time, still found the contrast startling. Nothing about Ava was sweet and pretty. If it wasn’t for her wings, Ava would look like she’d stepped off the back of some biker’s motorcycle. Even a hundred years ago, when all the women wore dresses, Ava wore pants and boots. Her rosy red wings clashed with her black leather suit.

  Lilly giggled, her cheeks blushing. “Cupid certainly is a pain. There have been four new celebrity engagements already, and one quicky marriage.”

  “Not Katy Perry again,” Christy asked.

  “No,” Lilly replied. “But the repair assignments are already in the system.”

  Ava waved her rose wand, creating a wingback chair—open for her wings to slip through—and a table holding a glass of amber liquid.

  “What is that?” Lilly asked, staring at Ava’s drink.

  “Good Kentucky bourbon,” Ava replied and took a sip.

  Christy rolled her eyes at Ava’s choice of beverage, and savored her own. “This was supposed to be a girly drink night.”

  Ava smirked. “Fine.” She waved her wand and the amber liquid turned darker. “There, bourbon and coke.”

  Lilly giggled. “Now, you just need an umbrella.” She pointed at Ava’s glass and a little pink umbrella appeared.

  Ava shook her head. “Now I’m girly.” She took the umbrella out and tossed it on the table. “So what did you want to talk about?” She rocked her drink back and forth, making the ice tinkle in the glass.

  Christy adjusted her skirt over her legs, crossing her ankles on the ottoman. “As you both know, I am fast approaching Fairy Godmother retirement.”

  “Three months to the big 3-5-0 of service,” Lilly said, grinning.

  Christy nodded.

  “And you don’t look a day over three-eighty-five,” Ava added with a grin.

  None of them have aged past thirty-five, when they took their Fairy Godmother positions, and with the modern marvels of skin care, all three could easily pass for thirty in the mortal world. Lilly could possibly pass for even younger, the freckles on her nose making her look almost childlike—though Lilly was over three hundred herself.

  Ava spoke the truth—Christy was three hundred and eighty-five. Or would be in three months.

  “I have been doing this a long time. My husband is ready to retire,” Christy said, her wings flapping softly behind the chair. The little blue sparkles floated around the room toward the other two.

  “And?” Ava prompted.

  Christy smiled. “And I want one last challenge.”

  “Another case?” Lilly asked, her wings fluttering.

  “More than that.” Christy had been thinking about this for a while. “I want to truly push our talents. We all have strengths as Fairy Godmothers.”

  Ava leaned toward Lilly. “She’s got another trio to take.”

  Lilly nodded in agreement.

  “Yes, I have another trio.” Periodically, they would take on a trio of charges who were connected to one another. It made the ripples of happiness bigger when three found their HEA at once, instead of just a single person. And ripples always affected more.

  “And what makes this challenge special?” Lilly asked.

  “To see who can get the best Happily Ever After with the
least amount of magic.” Christy leaned back and waited for the resistance to explode. Because it always did, at first.

  “No magic? How can we do anything without magic?” Ava asked, hands on her hips.

  “I can’t get a fairy to go out with me with magic,” Lilly said. “How can I get a mortal to her HEA without it?” Lilly’s wings were beginning to take on a fan-like quality.

  “Least amount of magic. Not none,” Christy said. “We can still use magic, just not as much.”

  “Why not?” Ava asked.

  “Because this trio is not the usual case.”

  Ava rubbed her head. “Oh goddess, are they Cupid Cases?”

  “No,” Christy replied. “Not exactly.” Cupid Cases were people who’d been hit by one of his horrible arrows and were trying to recover their life after the collapse of the disastrous relationship.

  There were a lot of Cupid Cases.

  Christy waved her wand and created a swirl of blue fog that slowly turned white before revealing a scene. Everyone clustered around the images spreading out before them.

  A dark, rustic sports bar, with men sitting around a table.

  “Well, the reason you’re still single, Roark my boy, is because you spend all day making perfumes.” William said, proudly displaying his white T-shirt, with Last Free Night on it. He sipped on his beer, grinning.

  Lucky bastard, Roark thought. He was getting married tomorrow. Roark had always looked forward to the institution of marriage—he came from parents who actually loved each other, and were still married after thirty-eight years. And they were as much in love now as they were then.

  Sadly, even Roark’s parents were starting to wonder which side he was playing for. Roark didn’t know why he just couldn’t get a date.

  William might be on to something…

  Bruce and Jason laughed at the barb. They had been friends as long as William—they all went to the same high school, wrestled on the same team, and had known each other for eternity.

  “Every girl you meet thinks you’re gay,” Jason added, grinning over his bourbon.

  Roark smirked. “But then they want to change me back.” He waggled his eyebrows. While it was true—he did have his sexuality questioned at least once a month—he didn’t let it bother him. Because he wasn’t lying. He had women come around who really did want to see if he’d “flip” sides.

  The guys had always made fun of his sensitive nose, but his acute sense made him a good deal of money. Figuring out what things worked with what—there was more science to it than they knew. And he put in a lot of hours making those smelly things.

  What else did he have to do? It was his family’s legacy. They’d been making perfumes for almost a century. And Roark was born with “the nose” for it.

  Bruce patted him on the shoulder. “If you start wearing an ascot and carrying a pipe, we will have an intervention.”

  Roark laughed and glanced at William, feeling—not for the first time since his friend announced his wedding—a pang of jealousy. “So how did you wind up with the last amazing woman in town?”

  “Got her on eBay,” William said with a grin. Roark and the others smirked. “Seriously, though, it was just luck.”

  “Annie is amazing,” Jason added. “She puts up with your crap.”

  “A good gal,” Bruce said. They all raised their beers—well, everyone who was drinking beer, anyway. Jason had a bourbon in his hand. They toasted.

  “To Annie.”

  “May she never know what an asshat you are,” Jason added.

  Everyone laughed and clattered their glasses together again. “Here here!”

  Roark sipped on his beer, watching William. The man had an air about him—and it wasn’t the new cologne he had on that Annie had bought from him, either. It was a…a swagger.

  “I want that,” Roark muttered.

  “What?” Bruce leaned closer, trying to see what Roark was seeing. “The bartender?”

  “No, asshole.” Roark hit Bruce and gestured to William. “That.”

  William raised his eyebrow. “You need to tell me something, Roark?”

  Roark rolled his eyes. “The happiness. The swagger. I want that.”

  “Don’t think he’s going to share Annie, douche,” Jason added.

  “Naw, man, the happy. I want that for myself,” Roark said.

  “Oh that,” Bruce said. “We all want that, right Jason?”

  “Yeah.” Jason sipped on his bourbon. “Yeah. We all do.”

  “You want us to take on men?” Ava asked, her rose-red wings fluttering.

  Christy grinned. “Yes. And I just heard them ask for their HEA, didn’t you?”

  “Sort of,” Lilly answered, ruffling her blonde curls, making more yellow magic dust flutter around her.

  Christy shrugged. “They’re men. It counts.” She waved her blue wand again and all three men started to shift, their auras becoming more visible. “And there are our assignments.”

  “Cool,” Ava said, gesturing to the one—Jason—who had lit up red like her. “I liked him.”

  “Why?” Lilly asked, making the image bigger, staring at Bruce. She didn’t take her eyes off the man, checking him out from all angles, seriously studying her new charge.

  “I like a man who brings bourbon to a beer party.”

  Christy giggled at her friend and stared at her new charge.

  Roark.

  A man who made perfumes. How interesting.

  Chapter One

  Saturday

  Roark Turner glanced around the wedding venue. The outdoor affair had turned out rather well. William and Annie had a lovely ceremony, and now the reception was moving along nicely. No major hiccups Roark had noticed, and after going to as many of these as he had in the last few years, he learned quickly how to spot them.

  His quasi-date, Stephanie, had outdone herself again. Of course she had. Stephanie was one of the best wedding planners in town.

  Roark took a deep breath, realizing the smells of the barbecue—catered by his buddy, Jason Gregorian—had overtaken the aromas of the bouquets on the reception tables.

  He shook his head, then sipped on his coffee. There were wonderful benefits to having a sensitive nose. But there were also severe drawbacks. Like losing the smell of flowers to the smell of barbecue, that…

  Did he put beer in the sauce? Bourbon? Both?

  Roark shook his head. Jason did weird things to his barbecue. But everyone seemed to love it—the line at the food tables wove around the side of the seating, the guests ready for a bite.

  “So, how do you think it’s going?” Stephanie asked, plopping down into the chair next to him. Her blonde hair, bundled into a twist, had pieces falling around her face. She let out a puff of air, blowing a few strands out of her eyes.

  Roark reached into his pocket and pulled out the energy shot he’d been holding for her. “Good. I think I would have parked the barbecue pit a little further away…”

  Stephanie rolled her eyes. “Only you would complain about not being able to smell the flowers.” She downed the energy shot in a couple of gulps. “You sure you’re not gay?” She elbowed him.

  He picked up his cup, raising his pinky finger. “Not at all, dahling.”

  Her grin, broad and wide, showed off her beautiful teeth, and he couldn’t help taking in every detail of her face—from the sparkle in her eye makeup highlighting her moss-green eyes to a similar sparkle from the gloss on her rose-colored lips.

  And in a flash, a hardcore buzz hit him—the one he felt whenever he was attracted to someone—though this was more intense than he’d ever experienced before.

  Roark gritted his teeth, forcing down the thoughts. This was Stephanie, after all. His best friend since before time. They met in the sandbox in kindergarten when she stole his shovel and he dumped sand
on her feet. They’d been friends ever since.

  “Thanks for coming today,” she said, setting the energy shot on the table and resting her hand on his. The simple contact shot straight to his groin, and he pulled away.

  What was the matter with him? Stephanie never created such a reaction in him. He wondered what was in his coffee, because he didn’t respond like that to her… She was…

  She was beautiful, no doubt about it. She was sweet when she wanted to be, and as close to him as Jason and Bruce were. Why would he suddenly feel so intensely for her?

  A buzz came from Stephanie, and she pressed her finger against her ear. That was when he noticed her Bluetooth headset. “Yes, I’m on my way.” She stood, and if she realized he’d pulled his hand away, she didn’t say anything. “Gotta run. One of the bridesmaids got barbecue on her dress and is about to go ballistic.”

  “Go, have fun,” Roark said with a laugh, trying to hide any strange thoughts.

  “Always. Save me a dance later?”

  “You mean you get to have fun while you’re working?”

  “Occasionally.” Stephanie darted away, disappearing into the crowd to solve this dilemma. Then onto the next one. And the next. Until the reception was over and the cleanup had all been done.

  He wouldn’t get a dance with her, even if he wanted to.

  And today, he wanted to.

  What was up with that?

  “I am going to strangle Cupid,” Christy said, floating around the wedding, zapping the little cherubs who worked for the ornery Roman god. And they were everywhere, too. How would this throw off the contest? Cupid’s minion zapping her charge before she could cast her first spell.

  And she had a good one, too. Knock over Roark’s coffee cup so he’d need assistance cleaning up. Allow Stephanie some alone time with Roark. Let the sparks fly. Christy didn’t have to look at Roark’s file to know that Stephanie was the woman for him. The woman obviously cared for him a great deal, and he for her. Christy had been relieved as soon as she saw the sparks between the two of them—it should be nothing to fan those sparks into flames of love and HEA.