Love on a Spring Morning (29 page)

Like wedding photos. He had a ring in his pocket that he’d picked up on Friday, on his way through Owen Sound—only in the country do you need to drive forty-five minutes to find a damn jewellery store.

Holly had avoided talk of actually getting married. She was more concerned about offending the Fenichs’ than he was. Only a hippie child from California would think living together in sin was less concerning than a widower re-marrying quickly.

But it didn’t feel quick. It felt like she’d been a part of his life forever. Part of that was how she treated Lynn’s memory. Part of it was how happy she made him and the kids.

He’d talked to all three of them about having a wedding to celebrate Holly being a permanent part of their family, so it was entirely possible the proposal wouldn’t be a surprise.

Who was he kidding—Holly knew him inside and out. She knew he wanted her to be his wife.

Just like he knew she’d say yes.

He wanted her wearing his ring the following week when they flew to Los Angeles for the Oscars. Holly was nominated—she kept telling him it was a long shot, but he’d seen
Unexpected
. If the Academy didn’t give her that gold statue, something would have to be broken in the system. She shone in that movie—even more than she did in all the other ones, which he’d watched more than once now. Even the ones with the love scenes. That’s what God made the fast forward button for.

He turned down the snowy lane, grinning as he caught sight of his family making a snowman on the front lawn.

“Daddy!” Maya ran toward him, her snow pants rustling as her little legs moved faster and faster.

“My baby girl!” He picked her up and twirled her around.

“I’m not a baby anymore,” she protested, wiggling her feet.

“You’ll always be my baby,” he growled, flipping her onto her back, cradling her in his arms.

“No,” she shrieked, laughing. “Holly will have a new baby soon.”

“Is that right?” He glanced up, looking for his love. She moved toward them, laughing and shaking her head.

“Don’t give your dad a heart attack,” Holly said, tickling Maya as she reached them.

“I don’t know,” he said, suddenly full of an unexpected heat. “I kind of like the idea.”

He set Maya down and she scampered off to re-join her brothers.

Holly just stared at him. “What?”

“I mean, it’s your body. Your call.”

“You want to have a baby?”

“I think Maya wants a baby. I was just adding my vote of support to the crazy plan.”

“It would be crazy, you mountain man.” But she leaned in, tipping her face to his for a kiss, and as soon as their lips parted, he knew she wanted to talk more about that when they were alone. Naked kind of talking.

“Madness,” he whispered as she flexed her hips against his. “We’d have to get married.”

“Because it would be the right thing to do?”

“Because it’s what I want, sweetheart.” He dug the ring box out of his pocket and dropped to one knee, right into the snow. “I want you. Forever.”

THE END

Thank you for reading Ryan and Holly’s book! If you enjoyed it, please leave an honest review where you bought it. Reviews help new authors be found by readers.

Want more Pine Harbour? Turn the page for a sneak peek at Zander’s book!

THE PINE HARBOUR SERIES

Love in a Small Town - Rafe & Olivia’s story

Love in a Snow Storm - Jake & Dani’s story

Love on a Spring Morning - Ryan & Holly’s story

Love on a Summer Night - Zander & Faith’s story

COMING SOON:

LOVE ON A

— SUMMER NIGHT —

PINE HARBOUR #4

Never say never. Especially not to a determined bad boy.

Zander Minelli has six months left in his Army career, and then he's coming home to Pine Harbour for good. But first he needs to figure out what he's going to do with the rest of his life--after he spends a good long while kicking back and enjoying his freedom.

Widowed single mother Faith Davidson is ready to start dating again. But only someone solid, with a job and a pension and absolutely no tattoos. Definitely not someone who's only in town for a week, whose extended life plans include riding his motorcycle across the country and sleeping until noon.

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THE PINE HARBOUR SERIES

Love in a Small Town

Love in a Snow Storm

Love on a Spring Morning

Love on a Summer Night (expected late summer 2015)

AN EXCERPT FROM

LOVE IN A

— SMALL TOWN —

PINE HARBOUR #1

H
E brought wine and a winning smile. She was in trouble.

“Nope. We’re not opening that.” She shook her head as he grinned and stepped inside. The temperature outside was dropping and he was wearing a leather jacket she hadn’t seen before over jeans and a white t-shirt. He looked good. They didn’t need to add alcohol to the mix for her to feel unsteady about what was going to come next.

And it wasn’t them, together, in an orgasm-fest for the ages. What happened Friday morning could not be repeated. Not when she’d made up her mind about moving forward with her life in a way that didn’t involve Rafe Minelli and his future conquests.

If he wore that jacket around town, there would be a lot of conquests in his near future. Hot damn.

“Then put it on your wine rack or something. I didn’t want to come empty handed.” He handed it over but didn’t let go right away. He pressed the bottle into her hands and stared at her intently as if he was trying to unlock her secrets.

She was only hiding two things. One she was just trying to work up the courage to share. The other—that he still melted her from the inside out with his chocolate brown eyes and stupid dimple—was locked in the vault.

This wasn’t the first time he’d come over since moving out, but it had been at least nine months. He’d taken the Christmas lights down and replaced the weather-stripping on the front door, and she’d given him a stiff thanks at the door. So he hadn’t seen—

“You painted.”

“Yeah.” Because the warm yellow had reminded her too much of him.
 

“By yourself?” He turned around slowly in her living room, formerly their living room, an inscrutable look on his face.
 

“It was pretty easy,” she muttered. He’d taken half the furniture, which left a lot of room to move stuff around and create bare walls.
 

“I like the beige.” He was totally lying. Taupe, oatmeal, canvas … didn’t matter what she called it, he’d never wanted any neutral colours in their space.
 

“Have you made any other changes?”

“Uhm, I tiled the backsplash in the kitchen.” She pointed the way, which was stupid. They’d bought the house together. He knew where the kitchen was. Had made her coffee in it almost every morning for three years, even if he was gone before she woke up. Had perched her naked on the counter and knelt in front of her, licking—

“Looks good.” He glanced back at her, his gaze lingering on her pink cheeks for a moment. “A lot of good memories in here, huh?”

He couldn’t know what she was thinking, not exactly, but her breath caught in her throat nonetheless when he patted the counter. “Come here.”

She shook her head in short, choppy movements.
Nuh-uh
. They needed space between them. Loads of it.

“I’m
 
not going to bite, Liv.” His voice was low and rough, like he was actually promising to bite her all over.

“I’m not so sure about that,” she teased as lightly as she could.

He gave her a long, hard look before smiling ruefully. “Yeah, I wouldn’t take that bet. So what’s for dinner?”

And just like that, the mood shifted. “Beef stroganoff and a salad.”

He kept his distance as she worked on the salad, flipping through a newsmagazine on the table. When she pulled a bottle of salad dressing out of the fridge, he moved to take it from her. She noticed the pile of opened mail at the same time he did and cursed under her breath.

“What’s this?” He fingered the red flagged letter from the hydro company and she winced.

“It’s nothing. I just forgot to pay that bill.” She watched as he flipped the letter over and frowned.

“Three months in a row?” The incredulous look on his face told her he didn’t buy her excuse. “It says here they’re cutting off the power tomorrow.”

“I paid it last Wednesday,” she mumbled. “It’s fine.”

“The whole balance?”

No, just the minimum, but he didn’t need to know that. “It’s fine,” she repeated, swiping the mail from the counter and dumping it in the nearest drawer.

He shook his head. “Obviously not. I’ll give you some—“

Tight, angry words shot up her throat and she swallowed them back, holding up her hand instead. “No.”

“Liv, this is still my house, too. If the costs are too high—“

“Then it’s time we sell it. That’s the only conversation we’re going to have about money, okay?”

He clamped his mouth shut and leaned back against the other counter, crossing his arms. “I don’t want to sell.”

Even though it was her plan, deep down she didn’t want to either. Hot, sweaty memories of the night they moved in flooded her mind unexpectedly and she turned to the sink so he wouldn’t see the pink of her cheeks or the bright tears in her eyes. 

“Where would you move?”

Pine Harbour didn’t have many rental options. Rafe lived in the only apartment building. There were two units above his mother’s cafe but that was obviously out of the question, and any house would be out of her price range.

He figured out her plan just as she opened her mouth to confess, and from the sound of his voice at her back, he was pissed. “You’re leaving.”

“It’s for the best,” she whispered. She couldn’t hang around to see him move on, and it didn’t matter that he’d almost kissed her.
Twice, both times acting like you were an oasis in the middle of a freakin’ desert
. Didn’t matter, she reminded herself, because they’d scorched enough earth in their divorce that really getting back together wasn’t going to happen. If they kissed, and oh god did she want that more than her next breath, they’d tumble into bed. And on the other side of a torrid love affair with her ex-husband stood her ex-mother-in-law, ready to brand her as a hussy and drive her out of town.

She wouldn’t be pushed. If she left, it would be with her head held high. Rafe needed to not kiss her, end of story, and the only way that was going to happen was if she put some significant geographical distance between them. She cleared her throat and raised her voice enough to claim bravery, however false it might be. “I moved here to be with you. We’re not together anymore. It was a mistake to stay after the divorce.”

“You have friends here,” he rasped, and she wanted to turn and look at him. Wanted to soak up the hungry, needy look she imagined was scrawled across his face and pretend it was enough to pull them back together.

Keep reading
Love in a Small Town
right now!

THE PINE HARBOUR SERIES

Love in a Small Town

Love in a Snow Storm

Love on a Spring Morning

Love on a Summer Night (expected September 2015)

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— ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS —

aka
The People Who Hold Me Up

A
year ago I decided to write full-time. The next novel I wrote was Love in a Small Town, Pine Harbour #1, but I wrote that book because of
this
one.

I first “met” Ryan Howard as I was finishing his brother Finn’s book, Beyond Love and Hate (Wardham #4), and I knew as soon as I did that I loved him. I also knew his life was about to get complicated and awful, and that made me so sad.

Tragedy is not the best way to start a romance series. So I dug around in his life, and met the Minellis and the Fosters—and there I found a lot of joy. I love big families, and this combined family—combined first through friendship, and then through the love between Jake and Dani, in Love in a Snow Storm (Pine Harbour #2)—is Ryan’s safe harbour. They love him unconditionally, and they stick by his side even when he’s an ass.

They’re the people who hold him up.

I dedicated this book to my girlfriends. They’re the people who hold
me
up. A year after I started writing full-time, they’re the ones who took me out to celebrate my millionth word written (that took a heck of a lot longer than a year, of course).

Pine Harbour might look like a book written about a band of brothers, but it’s based on my real-life experience of friendship and sisters from other misters.

And my actual sister, of course, gets a huge thank you. She got the first book in the series dedicated to her, and her unwavering support continues to amaze me.

My brother-in-law, who mowed my lawn, and my mother- and father-in-law, who take care of my kids and feed me dinner and are generally the most amazing grandparents a girl could ever want for her family.

Lori, for all your support, and getting why I disappear into my computer for weeks at a time.

My editor on this book, Kristi Yanta, for taking a chance to help a newer author. Dana Waganer, for finding all the mistakes.

My reader group on Facebook, the Wardham Ambassadors, for embracing a lot more than Wardham. Thank for all being so excited about Ryan and Holly’s story. Thank you for crying right along with me.

And I said this a year ago, but it’s still true: all the readers who have signed up for my mailing list, liked me on Facebook, followed me on Twitter. There are literally thousands of you now, and that just blows my mind. Thank you for believing in second chances, and picking up a book about love in small town Ontario.