Chick Magnet

PRAISE FOR CHICK MAGNET “Emma Barry has been one of my favorite authors in the world for many years now, and Chick Magnet only deepens my already fervent love of her writing. Her books are always crafted with exquisite care and thoughtfulness, abounding with graceful prose, extremely likable characters, rueful humor, and a thorough grounding in how good people think, work, and love. Plus, her writing is simply fun, not to mention sexy. With the release of this book, I expect new hordes of fans to join the Emma Barry Stan Club, but rest assured: I will always be the club’s president and most enthusiastic member.” —Olivia Dade, national bestselling author of Spoiler Alert and All the Feels “One of the chief pleasures of being a romance reader is getting to watch Emma Barry’s complex, honorable characters forging themselves into stronger, happier versions of themselves. Chick Magnet is Emma Barry at the peak of her powers: hilarious and humane, it will restore your faith in the power of love.” —Jenny Holiday, USA Today bestselling author “I could tell you all the reasons Chick Magnet is spectacular—the nuance of the emotional arcs, the witty dialogue, the delightful characters, the endearing small town—but really, all you need to know is that Emma Barry is about to become your new favorite contemporary romance author.” —Therese Beharrie, author of A Ghost in Shining Armor “Intoxicating and deeply romantic, Chick Magnet delivers a riveting opposites attract, slow-burn-with-the-hot-guy-next-door small-town romance. I fell in love with Will Lund from the first grumpy meeting.” —Zoe York, USA Today and New York Times bestselling author This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Otherwise, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Text copyright © 2023 by Emma Barry All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Montlake, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. ISBN-13: 9781662505010 (paperback) ISBN-13: 9781662505003 (digital) Cover design by Elizabeth Turner Stokes Cover photography by Michelle Lancaster Cover images: ©Foxys Graphic, ©Miro Novak / Shutterstock CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18 CHAPTER 19 CHAPTER 20 CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER 22 CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 25 CHAPTER 26 CHAPTER 27 CHAPTER 28 CHAPTER 29 CHAPTER 30 CHAPTER 31 EPILOGUE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PREVIEW: FUNNY GUY CHAPTER 1 ABOUT THE AUTHOR CHAPTER 1 The tiny dinosaurs surveyed Nicole Jones hungrily. One scratched the ground. Another squawked. Nic rolled her eyes. “Come on, ladies. We’ve been through this a bazillion times. I can’t get into the coop if you crowd the doorway.” Her words fell on feathered ears. Feathered gallinaceous ears, those belonging to her backyard chickens. They moved with none of the coordination or grace of a school of fish. Heads bobbing to individual rhythms, they kept bumping into one another, seemingly unable to get out of each other’s way. One managed to shake the group. She celebrated by snipping at the fabric of Nic’s skirt, which she found inedible . . . and then tried to eat a second time. “Oh, you clever girl.” Nic tsk-tsk-tsked her way between the birds and hung the feeder on a hook. “There you go. Plenty to eat now.” She dropped back a few steps and watched the flock peck greedily at the pellets of grain and meal. Nic still had to paint the coop and plant its rooftop garden bed with herbs and flowers, a process that she would document in extreme detail for her loyal fans, who’d give her clicks and subscribe to her Patreon and otherwise keep Nic’s career simmering—especially after the disaster of six weeks ago. As she’d been dumped by her boyfriend and rejected by her best friend and then had driven across the country in a car jam-packed with chickens, the only thing Nic had been able to think was “Granny would’ve seen this coming.” She would’ve sized Brian up with a glance, something Nic hadn’t managed to do in years of close observation, and she never would’ve let Nic forget that she hadn’t fallen for his act. That one’s a dud, darlin’. She would have known it instantly. Nic had flaws, of course. She scribbled in her books and left her socks on the floor, and she cared entirely too much about what people thought of her. But she’d never suspected she was a poor judge of character. There was no escaping what you’d hatched. But speaking of chickens: “Where’s Mitzi?” Nic asked. The flock just kept eating, of course. The absent one was probably laying, grateful to finally have an egg box and some privacy again. That Nic completely understood. She was looking forward to alone time herself. Rain splattered across Nic’s face. The black clouds that had been hanging heavy in the sky all afternoon while the movers finished their work were finally spilling over. At least it had held off that long. “I’ll check on you in a bit,” Nic said to her birds. Then she hiked up the skirt of her maxi sundress and dashed across the yard to her back porch. Several raindrops ran down her back before she got through the screen door and into the house. The atmosphere inside was heavy and still. It had been too long since Nic had been in the South, and she’d forgotten how the air was different here than on the West Coast. More present, never letting you forget about it. Air that demanded things from you. Nic dodged through the piles of boxes and the maze of the