Save the Date
Authors: Jenny B. Jones
Tags: #Fiction, #Christian, #Romance, #ebook, #book
Acclaim for Jenny B. Jones
“There are few things I love more than curling up with a Jenny B. Jones cast of characters.
Save the Date
was no exception . . . ”
—K
RISTIN
B
ILLERBECK, AUTHOR OF
A B
ILLION
R
EASONS
W
HY
“I
loved Save the Date
! Jenny B. Jones infuses the story with her trademark wit and sass, and has written a brilliant book with so many layers, I savored each one. This novel stayed with me long after I read it, the highest compliment I can pay an author.”
—K
ATHLEEN
F
ULLER, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF
A M
AN OF
H
IS
W
ORD AND
A H
AND TO
H
OLD
“At turns sweet and funny, poignant and gripping,
Save the Date
is a wonderful smile-inducing read lovingly stitched together with a message of God’s tender grace. Readers should definitely save the date for this latest offering from Jenny B. Jones.”
—T
AMARA
L
EIGH, BEST-SELLING, AWARD-WINNING
AUTHOR OF
S
PLITTING
H
ARRIET
“. . . If you love novels with real characters wrestling with life and faith while they find love, this is the book for you. Add in heaping doses of humor that will leave you laughing even after you’ve closed the book, and you have the perfect recipe for a Jenny B. Jones romance and a book you will think about long after the last page.”
—C
ARA
C. P
UTMAN, AUTHOR OF
S
TARS IN THE
N
IGHT
“NOOOOOO . . . the word I wanted to scream when I came to the end of
Save the Date
. . .
Save the Date
is lively, funny, kind, romantic, unbelievably charming with a few twists that delighted and surprised me . . . ”
—T
RACEY
B
ATEMAN, AUTHOR OF
T
HIRSTY AND
T
ANDEM
“For sassy, romantic banter, you need look no further than the novels of Jenny B. Jones . . . If you’re a fan of Jones’s young adult novels, you’re in for a treat—her novels for adults are even better.”
—T
RISH
P
ERRY, AUTHOR OF
T
HE
P
ERFECT
B
LEND
“I stayed up late and got up early to read this book.
Save the Date
has sass, spirit, laughter, tears—buy this book. You. Will. Love. It.”
—K
IMBERLY
S
TUART, AUTHOR OF
O
PERATION
B
ONNET
,
S
TRETCH
M
ARKS, AND
A
CT
T
WO
“Jenny B. Jones has done it again!
Save the Date
is a delightful story featuring quirky characters and just the right mix of humor and romance. You will laugh, cry, and think more deeply about what’s truly important in life. Readers who enjoyed
Just Between You and Me
will love this new story.”
—C
ARRIE
T
URANSKY, AUTHOR OF
S
EEKING
H
IS
L
OVE
AND
C
HRISTMAS
M
AIL
-O
RDER
B
RIDES
Save the
Date
Other Novels by Jenny B. Jones Include
Just Between You and Me
Young Adult Series
T
HE
C
HARMED
L
IFE
S
ERIES
So Not Happening
I’m So Sure
So Over My Head
T
HE
K
ATIE
P
ARKER
S
ERIES
In Between
On the Loose
The Big Picture
Save the
Date
JENNY B. JONES
© 2011 by Jenny B. Jones
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording,
scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered
trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business,
fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail
[email protected].
Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are
either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and
any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
Scripture references are taken from the
H
OLMAN
C
HRISTIAN
S
TANDARD
B
IBLE
.
Copyright © 1999,
2000, 2002, 2003 by Broadman and Holman Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Author photograph taken by Belinda Robbins.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jones, Jenny B., 1975–
Save the date / Jenny B. Jones.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-59554-539-8 (softcover)
1. Weddings—Planning—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3610.O6257S28 2011
813'.6—dc22 2010043888
Printed in the United States of America
11 12 13 14 15 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1
Saving Grace, a home for young women who have graduated from the foster care system, is a real place. With real girls.
With real hopes and dreams. This book is dedicated to them.
You are an inspiration. We are all so excited for your futures.
I admire the women you are, as well as the women God is shaping you to be. Never give up. Never lose hope. Never stop dreaming. And never stop reminding the world that our work has only begun. You are worthy, you are beautiful, you are . . . amazing.
. . . But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
—Philippians 3:13, 14
Contents
I
t was a good night to get engaged.
The moon was full. The candles lit. And Lucy Wiltshire wore a new black sheath that would have made Audrey Hepburn jealous. Her friends might say it was just another old find from the secondhand shop, but Lucy had known from the moment she’d spied the dress that it had been something more. Found on a tightly crammed rack between an avocado peacoat and an acid-washed denim skirt that had seen one too many Bon Jovi concerts, the dress had just called out to her.
Buy me. I’m yours. We belong together
.
And buy it she did. Despite the fact that the bodice was a bit tight, and she’d had to let out the waist a few inches, the dress just felt right. It made Lucy want to twirl in her tiny kitchen, letting her kitten heels slide across the gray tile floor.
It was the perfect outfit to wear when getting proposed to. She had dreamed of this day since she was six and had thrown a wedding for Barbie. And now her own Ken doll was four feet away, acting nervous as a man with marriage on his mind and a solitaire in his pocket.
Matthew tugged his navy tie loose and sat down at the kitchen table.
“Good day?” Lucy asked, as she put some garlic bread in the oven, humming to herself.
“It was fine.” His voice was distracted, his focus on the stack of mail she had yet to move. “What’s this?” He held up a gold embellished card.
She glanced his way then quickly turned back to the oven. “It’s nothing.”
“It looks like a class reunion invitation. I thought you didn’t graduate in Charleston.”
Her childhood in South Carolina was the last thing she wanted to discuss tonight. Or ever. “Obviously it’s a mistake on someone’s part.” Or a cruel joke. The daughter of a maid, Lucy had been on the very bottom of the social food chain at the elite Montrose Academy. Her mother had cleaned the homes of her classmates. And they had never let her forget Lucy wasn’t one of them. But now, back in Charleston, life couldn’t be sweeter.
“Or maybe they just want to see you.”
Lucy sat down and stared at the man who had asked her out one year ago today. Matt’s fingers drumming next to his plate seemed out of sync for someone who was normally as calm as a morning sunrise. She adored his predictability. His sandy-blond hair always parted to the left. His white shirts starched and perfectly creased in the sleeves.
The timer over the stove dinged, and Lucy jumped up to take out the bread. “I hope you’re hungry. I made your favorites.”
“I noticed.”
Lucy threw the bread in a basket and placed it on the table. Grabbing his plate, she loaded it with her homemade noodles, her own secret-recipe marinara sauce, and a salad—easy on the dressing, just like he liked. Lucy could envision them sitting together thirty years from now, sharing a meal and talking about their day.