From New York Times bestselling author Ann Aguirre comes the magical town of St. Claire, where anything is possible…
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Ann Aguirre’s The Only Purple House In Town, which is out July 11th. The Only Purple House In Town is available from Amazon, B&N, Indiebound, Bookshop, Books-a-Million, and Books2Read.
Iris Collins is the messy one in her family. The “chaos bunny.” Her sisters are all wildly successful, while she can’t balance her budget for a single month. It’s no wonder she’s in debt to her roommates. When she unexpectedly inherits a house from her great aunt, her plan to turn it into a B&B fails―as most of her plans do. She winds up renting rooms like a Victorian spinster, collecting other lost souls…and not all of them are “human.”
Eli Reese grew up as the nerdy outcast in school, but he got rich designing apps. Now he’s successful by any standards. But he’s never had the same luck in finding a real community or people who understand him. Over the years, he’s never forgotten his first crush, so when he spots her at a café, he takes it as a sign. Except then he gets sucked into the Iris-verse and somehow ends up renting one of her B&B rooms. As the days pass, Eli grows enchanted by the misfit boarders staying in the house…and even more so by Iris. Could Eli have finally found a person and a place to call “home”?
Eli Reese wasn’t an internet stalker.
Which, come to think of it, sounded like something an internet stalker would say.
I should stop this.
It had been fifteen years since he first saw Iris Collins; he had been ten, and she was twelve. He had been a tiny kid, diminutive compared to the rest of his class. He couldn’t say he had a particular bully, one person devoted to making his life a living hell. But a few jerks took turns giving him shitty nicknames or knocking him over, and some of them took his stuff when he had something they wanted that he wasn’t big enough to protect. Those who didn’t participate looked away, in case they pissed someone off by standing up for him.
This was before his ability to shift kicked in, or he’d have had another means of escape. It would’ve been nice if he could’ve flown away from all the pain. Then came Iris, the rainbow after a violent storm. Honestly, it was embarrassing how clear and sharp his memory was, even after all this time. Roddy Frierson had shoved Eli down and was rummaging in his bag for Pokémon cards when an older girl strode up. She was in sixth grade, the highest level at Ridgecrest Elementary, and she had sunny brown hair in two braids, gray eyes brightened by outrage. She’d kicked Roddy right in the ass, tipping him over so he hit the floor next to Eli.
She took the bag away and handed it back. “Are you okay?” she’d asked.
Mutely, Eli had nodded, accepting her hand when she helped him up. Her hands were sticky from an open bag of gummy worms, and she offered him one. He ate it without hesitation, though he secretly thought gummy worms were freaking creepy. Bears were the way to go because they didn’t look like actual bears.
She’d folded her arms and glared at Roddy. “I’m bigger, and I picked on you anyway. You probably feel bad, huh? That’s how you’re making him feel, so stop it. If I hear about anybody bothering…” She paused, glancing at Eli. “What’s your name?”
“Eli Reese,” he said in a small voice.
“Eli again, I’m telling everyone. I’ll tell your teacher, the principal, and your parents. I’ll call your grandmother. Do you want that?”
Roddy burst into tears. “Don’t tell Nonna!”
Since they’d gathered an interested audience, the girl glared at everyone. “You’re all on my list! Anyone could’ve helped him, but none of you did. So cut it out, you cowards!”
The girl stomped off like an avenging angel, swinging her arms wildly. A bracelet slipped off her wrist, and he hurried to pick it up. Eli hadn’t known her name then, but he found out by asking around quietly. Iris Collins. Unbelievably, people left him alone after that. Well, they still used the mean nicknames, but he could live with that.
He carried the bracelet around for weeks. He should’ve given it back, but he couldn’t work up the nerve to interrupt when she was with her friends. Each time he tried, it felt like his insides were on fire, and he wound up running away. The next year, Iris went to middle school, and he saw her in passing when he got there later. But they never talked.
Because I didn’t have the courage to speak to her.
Then his parents died, and he moved to St. Claire to live with Gamma. At the new school, he kept to himself and read a lot of books, played computer games, and made friends online while telling himself the real world would be better. That summer, he finally inherited his dad’s ability to shift and unlocked a whole different world, one that didn’t care how tall he was or how many friends he had.
Gamma had shown him the online communities where he could connect with people like himself, but he’d never had the inclination to socialize. Pack shifters probably felt otherwise. At school, nobody paid much attention to him, and by the time he got a growth spurt late in his senior year, it irritated him to suddenly qualify as attractive. Classmates saw him with new eyes, and they wanted to date him, but he had no use for those who had treated him like he was invisible before. He left for college without looking back.
But over the years, he never lost track of Iris.
Eli had developed this habit of checking out her social media. Once a month, no more. He’d skim posts and look at pictures, trying to imagine what her life must be like. It wasn’t as if he was nursing a deathless love or something. He was just…curious about her. Because she’d changed his life in one moment, by caring, just a little, about someone nobody else at that school gave a damn about.
Yesterday, he’d inspected the attic; thankfully there hadn’t been any raccoons. And today, he had errands to run. Instead, he was staring at his phone. Today was the day he usually skimmed Iris’s socials. Last month, she’d been excited about the launch of her online jewelry business. He was already planning to order Gamma some earrings; she’d love the blue enamel flower ones.
Really, Eli had no idea if this was normal behavior, checking up on someone he’d gone to school with. It wasn’t like they’d been friends, although he wished they had. Making friends required talking to people, however, and Eli was bad at that. He was better with code and numbers, better where the data could be analyzed meticulously and relied upon to provide consistent results.
He was good at flying too. Soaring beyond the reach of human hands. There was no conversation above the treetops, just the occasional shrill call of distant birds. He saw so much, though, and it didn’t matter that he was a silent observer.
The thought came again. I should stop.
Even though his interest wasn’t harming anyone, it probably wasn’t healthy. Instead of following what had become a sort of comfort ritual—because it made him happy knowing she was out there, alive and well—he showered and went downstairs without looking at any of her accounts. Gamma had breakfast waiting, an odd assortment of toast, sausage links, sliced fruit, and hot tea. His grandmother had gone to the UK once, and she hadn’t quite gotten a handle on English breakfast, but she tried.
“Looks good,” he said. “I’m heading to the hardware store later to get a few things to help with the…” What to call it? Packing up Gamma’s life and tidying it up so other people would want to live beneath this roof?
“Move?” she suggested.
“Yeah. That. Do you need anything while I’m out?”
“I’d love some cinnamon rolls. There’s a little bakery downtown. It’s one of the things I’ll miss when I move to New Mexico.”
“Anything else?” he asked.
Gamma thought for a moment. Even in the morning, she was fabulous—with fake eyelashes, purple-red lipstick, and slippers with feathers on the front. “The changing seasons, I suppose. But not the snow.”
“Not your grandson, either, it seems.” He pretended to sulk, knowing it amused her.
“You’re not a thing. Of course I’ll miss you. Once I’m settled, visit me, or I’ll look up ‘how to guilt my grandson’ on the interweb. Not my forte, but I learn fast.”
“I’d rather you didn’t acquire that skill. Cinnamon rolls then. I’ll get those and the stuff I need to wrap up here. When are you leaving?”
“Two weeks,” she said. “Are you sure it’s not too much, asking you to finish this?”
Eli smiled and got up to hug her. “Not at all. It’s the least I can do, what with you raising me as a single grandma and all.”
He had vague recollections that there had been big upheaval in Gamma’s life. She’d had a wife who couldn’t accept it when Gamma transitioned, so they divorced. And Gamma changed…basically everything, around the time that Eli’s parents died. She’d had so much on her plate, wrestling with her own identity, but she never hesitated to take Eli, and she’d loved him so much and taught him how important it was to accept everyone as they were.
He was…incredibly grateful to her. Gamma was the most precious person to him, and he sort of hated that she was going to New Mexico because they’d never lived this far apart before. Even when he’d relocated for college, he’d had the security of knowing they were only a short plane ride or a reasonable drive away.
But damned if he would clip Gamma’s wings. She deserved to spread them and fly and find a partner if she wanted. He knew she was lonely and that she’d make someone tremendously happy if they were lucky enough to be loved by her.
Like I was. Like I am. Damn, am I tearing up?
He blinked away the emotions and focused on his breakfast. Hopefully, he wouldn’t lose it over breaking the ritual of checking Iris’s socials. Habit. Habit sounded less compulsive.
A few hours later, as he stepped out of the hardware store, it seemed like the universe was screwing with him. He dropped the two bags he was carrying. Thank God he hadn’t bought the cinnamon rolls yet.
There she was, in the flesh. Iris Collins. He’d recognize her freaking anywhere.
Something else a stalker would say.
And she was headed into a law office across the street.
Maybe this was a sign. I ought to thank her. That’s why our paths crossed, why it feels like there’s unfinished business. I never told her how much that meant to me back in the day.
I need to acknowledge my appreciation and move on. Eli touched the charm bracelet in his pocket that he carried like a talisman. Right?
Right.
About Ann Aguirre
Ann Aguirre is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with a degree in English literature. Before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a savior of stray kittens, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in sunny Mexico with her family and various pets. She likes books, video games, and Korean dramas. Ann writes all kinds of genre fiction, more than fifty novels to date.
