Escape to Brookwell Island and meet the women of The Beach Readers Silent Book Club. They come for the quiet reading and hunky heroes, but they stay for the sage advice on coping with life’s unexpected plot twists. Whether it’s a crush-worthy boss, an old flame, or a wealthy new resident, these secret chapters are filled with the kind of heart and happy endings you can enjoy in a single afternoon.
The Beach Readers Silent Book Club meets regularly on Brookwell Island…
About the Book
She never expected her secret would be exposed.
Then he walked into town.
Seven years ago, Scarlett Evans let her college professor walk away without telling him she was pregnant. Now the man she never expected to see again has shown up on Brookwell Island.
Worse? He’s noticed that her six-year-old daughter looks exactly like him.
Cooper Moss came back to South Carolina chasing fond memories, never expecting to find his old flame—or discover he’s a father. He’s all-in for family life and eager to make up for lost time. But Scarlett has built her own life in Brookwell and she won’t allow anyone—not even the one who got away—disrupt her daughter’s stability.
As Cooper strives to convince Scarlett he’s here for a tenure-track role as her romantic partner, she’ll have to choose between old fears and the future she’d written off.
If you like small-town romance packed with big secrets, age-gap chemistry, and a happy ever after to cheer for, you’ll love Scarlett’s Secret Chapter.
Sneak peek!
Chapter 1
The day, sunny and bright, held the first threat of summer humidity. The air had a weight to it this afternoon, a salt-tinged presence that clung to everything it touched. Scarlett Evans plucked at her damp t-shirt and ignored the feel of her hair going frizzy. This was home—and a good one.
Standing on the porch of her two-bedroom cottage clad in weathered cypress siding, she wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead with the back of her aching hand. She stretched her fingers as she gazed out over marsh grasses that swayed like a slow-motion sea.
Home.
And neither weather nor aches would dim her latest triumph: two mismatched light fixtures she’d salvaged from a cluttered flea market last weekend in Beaufort. She had spent the better part of the morning scrubbing away decades of grime and oxidation. One fixture was a heavy, wrought iron lantern that would look right at home on a carriage house. The other was slightly more delicate, a copper piece with seeded glass that caught the afternoon sun.
She was sure her neighbors would consider the pairing a mistake. They’d chalk it up to one more poor design choice.
Scarlett didn’t care. She loved the character of each fixture. The whimsy that created more of a story than the weak contractor grade fixtures currently flanking her front door. Scarlett had long since given up on a perfect, symmetrical life. She was more interested in making the disparate, haphazard pieces blend into a beautifully flawed finished product.
“Mommy! Look! I set the border for the fairy garden! It’s a fort now!”
Scarlett looked over, her heart doing a familiar, happy skip. Her six-year-old, Cora, was crouched in the dirt on the other side of the front steps. Intensely focused, her daughter had meticulously lined up colorful seashells from a craft-store bag around the base of a hibiscus bush that would bloom in vibrant pinks come summer. Next to the hibiscus, and now protected by the seashell fence, was Cora’s prized project.
Last season, mother and daughter had pored over inspiration pictures until finally Cora settled on a plan. She’d chosen a tiny house, built a walking path with sticks and sand, then added moss and small blooming plants to make it a fit place for fairies. Though Scarlett hadn’t been sure the fascination would hold, Cora proved her wrong. This season her daughter was adding a birdbath and building a swing set for her invisible garden friends.
“It’s a beautiful fort, Bug,” Scarlett said, leaning against the porch railing. “Excellent work.” The fierce, overprotective love she felt for Cora was often accompanied by a low murmur of anxiety—a reminder that the peace she’d built here in Brookwell Island was predicated on a very specific kind of silence.
“When you’re done, you’ll have to wash those hands a few times.”
Cora popped to her feet and grabbed Scarlett’s hand. “You too.”
“That’s right.” She smiled at her daughter. “We’ll both need to stop soon so we can get ready for book club.” The Beach Readers Silent Book Club was meeting an hour earlier than usual because Cora would be joining them. Her normal sitter was home with the flu.
“How soon?”
“Half an hour,” she decided.
“Okay,” Cora agreed reluctantly. She had Scarlett’s stubborn, slightly pointed chin and pert nose. Her baby-fine, golden blond hair that refused to stay in a ponytail had come from her father along with her unique eyes. They were a startling, piercing green—the color of sea glass held up to the light. Exactly like the man who existed only in the locked, rusted-shut drawers of Scarlett’s memory.
“I don’t want to stop either,” she admitted. “But a girl’s gotta read.” She tapped her daughter’s upturned nose, earning a bright giggle before returning to the lanterns. If Scarlett could finish up the cleaning today, she could install them tomorrow. Another step in making their cottage a wonderful home.
After cleaning up their projects and themselves, and making sure Cora had time to eat a peanut butter sandwich with apple slices, Scarlett parked her car in front of the Palmetto Perk. “Books up!” She twisted around to tap her book, another true crime selection, to Cora’s Magic Tree House chapter book.
“Let’s read!” Cora cried, unbuckling from her booster seat and scrambling out of the car. Racing ahead, she pulled open the door of the coffee shop, quickly forgetting her mother altogether.
Inside, the smell of roasted beans, cinnamon, and the faint, ever-present scent from the nearby ocean was usually a welcome calm. This evening something niggled at Scarlett even though her book club pals were the only customers. “Are we the last arrivals? Should I flip the lock?”
“You are,” Willow said at the counter. “But I’ve got it.” She lifted her phone and a few seconds later the deadbolt slid into place. “Levi’s newest security enhancement.”
Scarlett chuckled. Willow’s fiancé was a perpetual early-adapter of all things new and interesting. “How nice for you.”
“We saved the throne for Cora.”
Her daughter waved from a plush velvet armchair near the back window. “C’mon, mom!”
“I told her I had to hear you say it was okay for a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream.”
“Thanks, Willow.” She appreciated the good friends who supported her in all things. Even when her little girl had to crash book club. “Make it two, please.”
“You got it.”
Scarlett waited at the counter while Willow prepared the hot chocolate. Grace, Camille, Hazel, Trina, and Charity were already settled, listening with rapt attention as Cora filled in everyone about her fairy garden. Hazel and Charity had come prepared, not just with the right questions, but also some more photo inspiration.
Holly scooted out of her seat to join Scarlett and Willow. “Hey! The first Brookwell Music Festival promos are going out this week,” Holly said. “They’re expanding the local talent stage this year and I thought about a certain school administrator who plays a mean acoustic guitar and has a voice like honey. You’re signing up, right?”
Scarlett felt the comforting invisible walls slide into place. Not as colorful as the seashell fort in her garden bed, but the principle was the same. She adjusted her glasses, a nervous habit she’d never quite kicked. “Not this year. There’s too much going on.” She forced herself to slow down when she wanted to ramble on indefinitely with excuses. “Thanks for thinking of me. Between mid-year audits at the school and Cora’s spring soccer team, I’ll barely have time to tune my strings, let alone rehearse for a public performance.”
She helped Willow carry out a carafe of coffee to the table, unaware of the gentle ambush awaiting her. Once Cora was cozied up and involved with her book and the initial conversation had ebbed, Scarlett opened her latest read.
She’d barely turned a page before Grace leaned close. “You should do it.” Her gaze lifted from the historical romance to Scarlett’s face. “All of us can pitch in. With everything but the mid-year audits, anyway. You’re so talented. You should share that with more than the folks at the Pelican Pub.”
Scarlett felt the heat flaring in her cheeks. She did share her musical talent—with her students. The only reason she participated in open mic night at the Pelican was to be an example for those kids who looked up to her.
“She’s right,” Hazel piped up. “Take the spotlight for once. Unless you’re in witness protection or something.”
“What’s that mean?” Cora asked.
Scarlett caught her daughter’s curious gaze. “A witness is someone who sees something.”
“I see something all the time.”
“A specific action in the way Auntie Hazel used the word,” Scarlett continued with far more patience than she felt. “An action that helps the good guys take care of the bad guys. Keep reading now and we can talk about it more at home if you want.”
“Okay.” Cora shrugged her slender shoulders.
But the reprieve didn’t last long. As their silent reading time wound down, Holly slid one of the festival flyers into Scarlett’s book. “Y’all are incorrigible.”
“We know talent when we see it and hear it.” Camille staked her claim on what Scarlett considered the opposing team. “Maybe choose a student and do a set together?”
“We’ll see.” Scarlett forced a laugh. “It’s not about hiding.” Her friends should know that by now. “It’s just a matter of preference.”
“You prefer your porch to a formal stage?” Charity queried.
“Got it in one.” She caught Cora’s gaze. “Time for us to head home, sweetheart.” She waited for her daughter to say goodbye to the women she considered honorary aunts, grateful when they were finally alone in the car.
In the back seat, Cora dozed, leaving Scarlett with zero distractions to battle her racing thoughts. She enjoyed her music and didn’t mind keeping it mostly to herself. Her world had walls designed to protect everyone within. Brick by brick, day by day, she’d turned a summer of secret passion and unexpected consequences into a life she could be proud of. A stable life to raise her daughter into a strong woman.
Yes, she had secrets she preferred to keep. For now. Hopefully forever. Because if the truth of that summer seven years ago got out, it wouldn’t just upend her life and change how people looked at her, it would quite likely redefine Cora’s entire world.
***
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