Welcome to Magnolia Bay Book 3

Genre: Small Town Contemporary Romance

People and pets find their forever homes in this charming small-town romance from Babette de Jongh featuring:

*A single mom doing her best

*Her young son who needs a helping hand

*An animal trainer who might be the answer to their troubles

*A bustling animal rescue where everyone gets a second chance

*The magic of humans who know how to communicate with animals

Sara Prescott’s eight-year-old son Max wants a dog. But their apartment doesn’t allow pets, and the divorced single mom can’t afford the certified seizure-alert dog Max needs. Instead, she and Max volunteer at the Furever Love Animal Shelter. Max forms a special bond with Jett, a big black bully breed and three-time loser who keeps getting dumped.

Animal Trainer Justin Reed comes back home to Magnolia Bay and visits the shelter to find a dog actor for a TV series set in nearby New Orleans. Justin chooses Jett, but the shelter’s director rejects his application because Jett needs a finally-forever home, not a job with an end date. The shelter’s resident animal communicator proposes a win-win. Justin can use Jett as an animal actor if he also trains Jett as a service dog for Max.

Sara and Justin have no business indulging their mutual attraction. Sara is focused on her son, and Justin will be leaving soon. But Max and Jett have other ideas…

Excerpt

The hero (Justin) is being tutored in telepathy by the local animal communicator (Reva) to help Justin find his lost dog (Jett). Reva is driving them to the last place the dog was seen:

“Close your eyes,” Reva said in an I’m-about-to-hypnotize-you tone. “Allow the seat to support your body. Relax into it.”

Justin sighed, releasing a little of the tension he’d been holding on to. Maybe if the telepathy thing didn’t work, she’d let him take a nap.

“Put your focus on your breath, on the sound of your breathing, on the feeling of the air moving into your body and filling your lungs.”

The sound of the car’s tires receded, and he found that it wasn’t so hard after all to focus on his breathing.

“Now, imagine that your body is an empty straw, and that your breath is moving through you, coming up from the soles of your feet when you inhale…then moving back down through your body from the top of your head when you exhale.”

She paused while he took a few slow breaths. “How’re you doing?”

“Mmm.” He might fall asleep if she didn’t hurry up with the animal telepathy bit.

“Imagine what it would look like if you were sitting in a quiet room with Jett. Imagine it like it’s a movie scene you’re remembering. You’re sitting in a soft, comfortable chair, and you see Jett walk up and sit in front of you. Imagine him giving you his attention as if he’s waiting for your next command.” She waited a few beats. “Can you imagine it?”

“Yes.” But he couldn’t believe that imagining scenes in his mind had anything to do with animal communication.

“Good. Hold on to that scene in your mind. In a minute, you’re going to ask Jett a question. He might answer with words, or you might imagine a visual image like a snapshot or a short movie clip. Or he might send emotions or even the memory of a taste or a smell. Are you ready?”

“Yes.” But even as he said the word, anxiety skittered through him. What if he couldn’t do it?

Even more disturbing, what if he could?

“Ask Jett to let you know where he is.”

Justin’s anxiety intensified. The visual image of Jett and him sitting together in a room had fled his mind, leaving nothing but darkness. Strange swirls of color and light bloomed behind his closed eyelids. “I don’t see anything. Just color and light and swirls of energy.”

“You’re trying to see with your eyes. That’s not the way telepathic images come through. It’ll feel more like dreaming or like remembering something that happened a long time ago. Like remembering a place you’ve been or the way someone’s voice sounded.”

He quit focusing on the swirling energy behind his eyelids and tried to recapture the visual of him and Jett sitting together. A flash of something—like a word he was trying to remember but couldn’t—caught his attention but faded before he could catch it. He made a sound of frustration.

“That’s okay,” Reva said in a calm, quiet voice. “Just start over.”

Once again, he brought that image to mind, of Jett sitting in front of him, waiting for instruction on what to do next. The snapshot morphed into a movie clip… Justin imagined Jett coming closer and propping his chin on Justin’s knee. Justin manipulated the scenario by reaching out and stroking Jett’s head. He imagined himself leaning forward and asking the question again. “Where are you?”

Water. The word popped into Justin’s mind, immediate and clear. Then he remembered going to the river with his parents when he was very small. He remembered being afraid to step into the muddy waves. Afraid that he’d be swept away.

His father had been so angry, so dismissive of Justin’s fears. He’d picked Justin up by the arms and thrown him backward into the cold water. It had hit him like a smack on the backside, then shot up his nose and down his throat when he went under. Anxiety swamped him, and he sat up, shaking his head to dispel the vivid memory. “This isn’t working.”

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About the Author

Babette de Jongh is a telepathic animal communicator, energy healer, Reiki Master, and award-winning romance writer who has taught ballet, yoga, elementary school, and animal communication. Whether it involves a happy-ending romance, a way of self-nurturing, or help in understanding our companions, the cohesive thread that ties all these things together is a desire to save the world, one happy ending at a time.

Babette’s first romance novel, Angel Falls, won two Readers’ Choice awards. In Hear Them Speak, Babette helps humans better understand their animal companions. In Welcome to Magnolia Bay, a romance series from Sourcebooks Casablanca, a telepathic animal communicator conspires with the human characters’ animal companions to help everyone—humans and animals—find forever love.

All this is only the beginning for a late bloomer who is just getting started. To find out more about Babette, everything she does, and everything she’s up to these days, please visit her website at www.BabettedeJongh.com.

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