A Sky Full of Stars

  Also by Samantha Chase

  The Montgomery Brothers

  Wait for Me

  Trust in Me

  Stay with Me

  More of Me

  Return to You

  Meant for You

  I’ll Be There

  The Shaughnessy Brothers

  Made for Us

  Love Walks In

  Always My Girl

  This Is Our Song

  Holiday Romance

  The Christmas Cottage

  Ever After

  Mistletoe Between Friends

  The Snowflake Inn

  Life, Love and Babies

  The Baby Arrangement

  Baby, I’m Yours

  Baby, Be Mine

  Thank you for purchasing this eBook.

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  Copyright © 2017 by Samantha Chase

  Cover and internal design © 2017 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

  Cover art © elwynn/shutterstock.com

  Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.

  Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

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  Contents

  Front Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  A Sneak Peek of Holiday Spice

  About the Author

  Back Cover

  Prologue

  The sky was full of stars. Looking up at them had Owen Shaughnessy feeling peace for the first time in days.

  He had snuck out of the house and was currently standing on the small hill in the far corner of the yard, far away from the lights and noise. Part of the reasoning was so he could get a better glimpse of the night sky, but the rest was because he couldn’t bear to be around the crowd of people inside.

  Today had been his mother’s funeral.

  Even thinking of it made him want to cry again. And now he could do it without an audience.

  Taking in the darkened sky, Owen let out a shaky sigh. His heart hurt. Everyone said it was normal, but for once, that didn’t make him feel better.

  Owen knew he was different—no one ever called him or referred to him as being normal. He was smarter and far more serious than other kids, and that made him a target for bullies and those who were mean-spirited. His only saving grace was a twin brother who was popular and didn’t mind coming to Owen’s rescue on a daily basis.

  Yes, he was fortunate to have Riley, and now with their mother gone, Owen knew he was going to need his brother more than ever. If the steady flow of tears didn’t start to let up, Owen figured he would get picked on at school for being a crybaby on top of everything else.

  His three older brothers would look out for him too, but they were in different schools and had their own grief to deal with. Another shuddery sigh came out as he looked up and saw one star shining brighter than the others. Logically, Owen knew it to be Sirius, but his heart tried to tell him it was his mother looking down and smiling at him.

  Fresh tears threatened to fall.

  This was something they used to do together—stargazing. It had been his mother who bought him his first telescope, and it had been his mother who would sit out here with him on clear nights and let him talk all about the cosmos.

  “Tell me what we see tonight,” Lillian Shaughnessy said.

  At six years of age, Owen had already begun studying the solar system in earnest, and his mother let him teach her on their nightly explorations. “You see that star over there?” he asked, pointing at the sky.

  Beside him, his mother chuckled. “You’ll have to be more specific, Owen. It looks like there are a million stars out tonight.”

  It was true—the sky was particularly clear tonight. “The really bright one,” he replied seriously. “If you look to the side of the moon, you can see it.”

  “Ah,” she began. “Now I see it. It definitely seems bigger and brighter than the rest of them.”

  “It is. I’m going to ask Mrs. Peters if she can find me a book on the stars tomorrow at school.”

  Lillian smiled. “I thought you had one of those already.”

  He shook his head. “All of my books have been about the planets. I’m going to talk about Jupiter tomorrow for show-and-tell.”

  “Tell me something about Jupiter,” she prompted, her tone just as solemn as his. “What are you going to share with the class?”

  “You can see four of Jupiter’s moons with a pair of binoculars at night. Also, Jupiter spins fast. It only takes ten hours to go from night to day on Jupiter. And because of that, its middle has been stretched out. So instead of being round like the other planets, it’s short and fat, kind of like when someone spins pizza dough fast to stretch it out. This shape is called an oblate spheroid.”

  Lillian looked down at Owen and smiled. “Wow! Very impressive. And I like the way you used the analogy of the pizza dough. Very clever. You gave a good visual to understand.”

  He shrugged. “It won’t matter. They’ll still make fun of me for it.”

  She frowned. “Why do you say that?”

  Another shrug. “They all bring in stuff like frogs or their remote-control cars for show-and-tell. I’m the only one who talks about science.” He paused. “Maybe I should just bring in one of my toys or something.”

  “Maybe you can bring in your telescope,” she suggested.

  Owen’s eyes lit up. “Really? You’d let me do that?”

  Lillian nodded. “Absolutely.”

  “But…but what if something happens to it? What if someone touches it or breaks it?”

  “Hmm…that is a possibility,” she said thoughtfully. “What if I brought it up to the school and dropped it off right before show-and-tell and then took it home?”

  Owen studied her for a moment. “No one else’s mom brings their stuff. I’ll get picked on for that too.”

  Lillian crouched down beside him. “Owen Shaughnessy, you listen to me. There is nothing wrong with you. Do you understand me?” Her tone was gentle, but her e
yes were a little fierce. “You are an amazing young man with a brilliant mind. I don’t want you living your life in fear of what other people do or think. You can’t control that. You can only be the best person you can be, and if they don’t like it, then that’s their problem.”

  “But, Mom—”

  “I’ll tell you what,” she quickly interrupted. “I’ll bring your telescope to the office and have them call you to come and pick it up. And when you’re done, you can bring it back to the office and I’ll take it home. How does that sound?”

  He nodded solemnly. “Thanks, Mom.”

  She smiled. “One day, Owen, you’re going to realize how amazing you are. And people are going to flock to you because of it. You’re going to make a big difference in this world. Believe me.”

  Somehow he doubted it, but it was nice of her to say it. Rather than respond, he looked back up at the sky. “Did you know that Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system? Earth could fit inside Jupiter more than a thousand times.”

  Without a word, Lillian stood back up and put her arm around him and listened as he told her more about what he had learned about Jupiter.

  Who was going to stand out here and listen to him talk about astronomy now? It was something only the two of them did together—it was their special time.

  Walking over to the shed, Owen went inside, pulled out his telescope, and set it up. Maybe he’d be able to get a better look at Sirius tonight and convince his heart that it really was just a star he was seeing and not his mother looking down on him.

  Although, for the first time in his life, Owen Shaughnessy wanted to prove science wrong. As much as he hated to admit it, he secretly hoped that when he looked through the lens, it wasn’t a binary star system he would see but the smiling, understanding, and loving gaze of his mother.

  Chapter 1

  There was a girl in Owen Shaughnessy’s class.

  A. Girl.

  Okay, a woman. And she wasn’t a scientist and she wasn’t awkward. She was…pretty. Beautiful, actually. Though he had no idea if she was awkward or not. She had walked into the lecture hall minutes ago, and there were only five minutes left in his talk, so…why was she here? Maybe she was the girlfriend of one of his students?

  Looking around the room, he ruled that out. He seemed to be the only one taking note of her presence. He chanced another glance her way, and she smiled. He felt a nervous flutter in the region of his belly, and as he continued to look at her, her smile grew.

  And now Owen felt like he was going to throw up.

  He immediately forced his gaze away and looked at the notes in front of him. “Next time we’ll be discussing dust trails and dust tails, which represent large and small dust particles, respectively. Please refer to your syllabus for the required reading material.” Lifting his head, Owen scanned the large lecture hall and noted the almost universally bored expressions staring back at him.

  Except for her. She was still smiling.

  He cleared his throat before adding, “Class dismissed.”

  There was a collective sigh of relief in the room as everyone stood and began collecting their belongings. As the students began to file past him, Owen did his best to keep his eyes down and not react to the words he was hearing.

  Geek. Nerd. Weird. Awkward.

  Yeah, Owen not only heard the words being murmured but knew they were being used to describe him. It was even worse considering the students in the room were all interested in the same subject he was—astronomy. So even in a group of his peers, he was still the odd man out. He shrugged. He’d learned not to let the hurtful words land—to fester—but sometimes they stung a little.

  Okay, a lot.

  Packing up his satchel, he kept his head down as the class of two hundred students made their way out. Or escaped. Maybe that was the better word for it. He didn’t make eye contact with any of them—he simply went about his task of collecting his papers and belongings so the next instructor could come in and set up on time. He was nothing if not polite and conscientious.

  His phone beeped to indicate a new text, and he couldn’t help but smile when he pulled out his phone and saw it was from his twin brother, Riley.

  Skype. Tonight. 8 your time.

  Refusing to acknowledge how once again he and his brother were in sync with one another—Riley loved to say it was because they were twins—Owen was at the very least grateful for the timing. There were just times when he needed to talk to someone—or, more specifically, Riley—and there he was.

  And the more he commented on it, the more Riley would go on about twin telepathy.

  It was ridiculous.

  As a man of science, there was no way Owen could accept the phenomenon as fact. Coincidence? Yes. Fact? No. His phone beeped again with a second text from Riley.

  Whatever you’re stressing about, we’ll discuss.

  He read the text and chuckled. “Nope,” he murmured. “It was just a coincidence.”

  The last of the students exited the lecture hall as he slipped the phone back into his satchel, and Owen relished the silence. This was how he preferred things—quiet. Peaceful. He enjoyed his solitude, and if it were at all possible, he’d stick to speaking at strictly a few select conferences and then spend the rest of the day doing research and mapping the night sky.

  “Excuse me,” a soft, feminine voice said.

  His entire body froze, and he felt his mouth go dry. Looking up, Owen saw her. Up close, she was even more beautiful. Long blond hair, cornflower-blue eyes, and a smile that lit up her entire face. And that light was shining directly at him.

  She wore a long, gauzy skirt with a white tank top. There was a large portfolio case hanging over her shoulder, along with the sweater she’d obviously chosen to do without in the too-warm classroom, and multiple bangle bracelets on her arm.

  Gypsy.

  No. That wasn’t the right word. Gypsies were more of the dark-haired variety and wore a lot of makeup. This woman was too soft and delicate and feminine to meet that description.

  Nymph.

  Yes. That was definitely more fitting, and if he were the kind of man who believed there were such things, that’s what he would have categorized her as.

  He couldn’t form a single word.

  Her expression turned slightly curious. “Hi. Um…Dr. Shaughnessy?”

  She was looking for him? Seriously? Swallowing hard, Owen tried to speak—he really did—but all he could do was nod.

  The easy smile was back. Her hand fluttered up to her chest as she let out a sigh of relief. “I’m so sorry for showing up so close to the end of your class. It was inconsiderate of me. I meant to be here earlier. Well, I was supposed to be here for the entire lecture, but I lost track of time talking to Mr. Kennedy.” She looked at him as if expecting him to know who she was talking about. “He’s the head of the art department,” she clarified.

  Again, all he could do was nod. He cleared his throat too, but it didn’t help.

  “Anyway, I’m supposed to meet my uncle here—Howard Shields. He suggested I come and listen to you speak. He thinks very highly of you and thought I’d enjoy your lecture.”

  Seriously? Howard Shields thought someone would enjoy hearing him talk about meteor showers? That wasn’t the normal reaction Owen received from his talks. Informative? Educational? Yes. Enjoyable? Never.

  Not sure how he should respond, he offered her a small smile and felt a flush cover him from the tips of his toes to the roots of his hair. She was probably regretting listening to her uncle. As it was, she was looking at him expectantly.

  “Anyway,” she said, her voice still pleasant and friendly, “Uncle Howard talks about you all the time, and when he told me you were in Chicago guest lecturing, I knew I had to come and meet you. My uncle really respects your work.”

  Owen finally met her gaze head-on beca
use her words struck him. It was no secret that Owen looked up to Howard—he’d been a mentor to Owen for as long as he could remember—but to hear it wasn’t all one-sided? Well, it meant the world to him.

  Most people in his field looked at Owen a little oddly. It wasn’t because he didn’t know what he was talking about or that he wasn’t respected; it was because of his social skills. Or lack thereof. It seemed to overshadow all of his fieldwork, research, and teachings. He was more well-known for being painfully shy than anything else. He was filled with a sense of relief—and pride—to know that Howard had said something nice about him.

  And now he also knew he was going to have to speak.

  “Um…thank you,” he said softly, feeling like his mouth was full of marbles. When he saw her smile broaden, it made him want to smile too.

  So he did.

  But he had a feeling it wasn’t nearly as bright or as at ease as hers.

  “Ah, there you are!” They both turned and saw Howard walk into the room, his white lab coat flowing slightly behind him. “I was on my way here and was sidetracked talking with Dr. Lauria about the waiting list for the telescope.” He shook his head. “Students are up in arms over the lack of availability.”

  Owen nodded but remained silent.

  “I see you’ve met my niece, Brooke,” Howard said before leaning over and kissing her on the cheek.

  “We haven’t been formally introduced,” she said shyly, turning back to Owen.

  “Well, let’s rectify that,” Howard said, grinning. “Owen Shaughnessy, I’d like you to meet my niece, Brooke Matthews. Brooke, this is Dr. Owen Shaughnessy.”

  Her smile looked so genuine as she held out her hand to Owen. “Feel free to make fun,” she said.

  Owen looked at her oddly. “Fun?”

  Her head tilted slightly. “Yeah…you know. Because of my name.”

  Now he was confused. “I’m sorry,” he said nervously, “is there something funny about the name Brooke?”

  Howard laughed out loud and clapped Owen on the shoulder again as he shook his head. “Don’t mind him, Brookie. He doesn’t get pop culture references.”