Savour the Moment: Now the Big Day Has Finally Arrived, It's Time To...

Table of Contents

HOT ICE
SACRED SINS
BRAZENVIRTUE
SWEET REVENGE
PUBLIC SECRETS
GENUINE LIES
CARNAL INNOCENCE
DIVINE EVIL
HONEST ILLUSIONS
PRIVATE SCANDALS
HIDDEN RICHES
TRUE BETRAYALS
MONTANA SKY
SANCTUARY

HOMEPORT
THE REEF
RIVER’S END
CAROLINA MOON
THE VILLA
MIDNIGHT BAYOU
THREE FATES
BIRTHRIGHT
NORTHERN LIGHTS
BLUE SMOKE
ANGELS FALL
HIGH NOON
TRIBUTE
BLACK HILLS

BORN IN FIRE
BORN IN ICE
BORN IN SHAME

DARING TO DREAM
HOLDING THE DREAM
FINDING THE DREAM

SEA SWEPT
RISING TIDES
INNER HARBOR
CHESAPEAKE BLUE

JEWELS OF THE SUN
TEARS OFTHE MOON
HEART OF THE SEA

DANCE UPON THE AIR
HEAVEN AND EARTH
FACE THE FIRE

KEY OF LIGHT
KEY OF KNOWLEDGE
KEY OF VALOR

BLUE DAHLIA
BLACK ROSE
RED LILY

MORRIGAN’S CROSS
DANCE OF THE GODS
VALLEY OF SILENCE

BLOOD BROTHERS
THE HOLLOW
THE PAGAN STONE

VISION IN WHITE
BED OF ROSES
SAVOR THE MOMENT

REMEMBER WHEN

NAKED IN DEATH
GLORY IN DEATH
IMMORTAL IN DEATH
RAPTURE IN DEATH
CEREMONY IN DEATH
VENGEANCE IN DEATH
HOLIDAY IN DEATH
CONSPIRACY IN DEATH
LOYALTY IN DEATH
WITNESS IN DEATH
JUDGMENT IN DEATH
BETRAYAL IN DEATH
SEDUCTION IN DEATH
REUNION IN DEATH
PURITY IN DEATH
PORTRAIT IN DEATH
IMITATION IN DEATH
DIVIDED IN DEATH
VISIONS IN DEATH
SURVIVOR IN DEATH
ORIGIN IN DEATH
MEMORY IN DEATH
BORN IN DEATH
INNOCENT IN DEATH
CREATION IN DEATH
STRANGERS IN DEATH
SALVATION IN DEATH
PROMISES IN DEATH
KINDRED IN DEATH
FANTASY IN DEATH

FROM THE HEART
A LITTLE MAGIC
A LITTLE FATE
MOON SHADOWS

(with Jill Gregory,
Ruth Ryan
Langan,
and
Marianne
Willman)

ONCE UPON A CASTLE
ONCE UPON A STAR
ONCE UPON A DREAM
ONCE UPON A ROSE
ONCE UPON A KISS
ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT

SILENT NIGHT

(with Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes,
and
Claire Cross)

OUT OF THIS WORLD

BUMP IN THE NIGHT

DEAD OF NIGHT

THREE IN DEATH

SUITE 606

THE LOST

THE OFFICIAL NORA ROBERTS COMPANION

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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2010 by Nora Roberts.

Excerpt from
Happy Ever After
copyright © by Nora Roberts.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

PRINTING HISTORY

Berkley trade paperback edition / May 2010

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Roberts, Nora.

Savor the moment / Nora Roberts.

p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-18712-8

1. Female friendship—Fiction. 2. Bakers—Fiction. 3. Businesswomen—Fiction.

4. Connecticut—Fiction. [1 . Weddings—Fiction.] I. Title.

PS3568.O243S38 2010

813’.54—dc22

2009053564

I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers;
Of April, May, of June, and July flowers.
I sing of Maypoles, Hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes.

—ROBERT HERRICK

I wonder by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we lov’d?

—DONNE

As
THE CLOCK TICKED DOWN ON HER SENIOR YEAR IN HIGH school, Laurel McBane learned one indisputable fact.

Prom was hell.

For weeks all anyone wanted to talk about was who might ask whom, who did ask whom—and who asked some other whom, thereby inciting misery and hysteria.

Girls, to her mind, suffered an agony of suspense and an embarrassing passivity during prom season. The halls, classrooms, and quad throbbed with emotion running the gamut from giddy euphoria because some guy asked them to some overhyped dance, to bitter tears because some guy didn’t.

The entire cycle revolved around “some guy,” a condition she believed both stupid and demoralizing.

And after that, the hysteria continued, even escalated with the hunt for a dress, for shoes, the intense debate about up-dos versus down-dos. Limos, after-parties, hotel suites—the yes, no, maybe of sex.

She’d have skipped the whole thing if her friends, especially Parker Right-of-Passage Brown, hadn’t ganged up on her.

Now her savings account—all those hard-earned dollars and cents from countless hours waiting tables—reeled in shock at the withdrawals for a dress she’d probably never wear again, the shoes, the bag, and all the rest.

She could lay all that on her friends’ heads, too. She’d gotten caught up shopping with Parker, Emmaline, and Mackensie, and spent more than she should have.

The idea, gently broached by Emma, of asking her parents to spring for the dress wasn’t an option, not to Laurel’s mind. A point of pride, maybe, but money in the McBane household had become a very sore subject since her father’s dicey investments fiasco and the little matter of the IRS audit.