Newport Dreams: A Breakwater Bay Novella (11 page)

BOOK: Newport Dreams: A Breakwater Bay Novella

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“How are the three Musketeers? Are Gabe and Penny all set for the baby?”

“Oh yeah, for months now.” Dan sighed and Meri knew he was thinking about her mother, who had died only four years before. She would never see any of her grandchildren.

“Let’s see. Matt just got a raise and Will is having way too much fun at Georgetown.”

“Oh yeah, I got e-cards from both of them yesterday. And Penny sent a lovely card and signed both Gabe and her names.”

The paper came off and Meri opened the box. It contained a hand-knitted pullover sweater in Meri’s favorite colors of blue, lavender and burgundy. “It’s gorgeous. Did May McAllister knit this?”

“Yes, she did. And she said if it didn’t fit just right to bring it by the store and she’d fix it.”

“Everything she’s ever made has fit perfectly,” Meri said. “Thank you so much.”

Gran smiled.

Dan stood and pulled a jeweler’s box out of his pants pocket. He walked over to Meri and handed it to her, then stood beside her as she opened it. It was a locket of brushed gold. The inside held two tiny pictures, one of her mother and one of Dan.

Sudden tears sprang to Meri’s eyes. “Thank you. It’s beautiful.”

He hugged her. “You’re the most precious thing in the world to me and to your mother, too.”

Meri smiled up at him as he clasped the necklace around her neck. She was so lucky that this man had come into their lives and taken them both into his heart. He’d been more than a stepdad; her real father couldn’t have loved her more.

Meri had noticed a cardboard box, a little larger than a shoe box, sitting on the antique kitchen hutch. Just an ordinary cardboard box that might be sent through the mail, though this one was dented and smashed from years of storage.

Now Gran went to the hutch, but instead of retrieving the box, she took an envelope from the top and brought it to the table, where she placed it in front of Meri.

“Another present?” Meri asked.

Her father’s lips tightened. “Not exactly a present,” he said.

“More like a confession,” Gran said and Meri swore there were tears in her eyes.

About the Author

SHELLEY NOBLE is a former professional dancer and choreographer. She most recently worked on the films
Mona Lisa Smile
and
The Game Plan
. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America.

WWW.SHELLEYNOBLE
.COM

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Books by Shelley Noble

Whisper Beach

A Newport Christmas Wedding

Holidays at Crescent Cove

Beach Colors

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Excerpt from
Breakwater Bay
copyright © 2014 by Shelley Freydont.

NEWPORT DREAMS
. Copyright © 2014 by Shelley Freydont. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition JUNE 2014 ISBN: 9780062362926

Print Edition ISBN: 9780062362957

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