Sometimes I like to flash forward in my characters’
lives even after the completion of their book and their happy-ever-after. As we
all know, the journey doesn’t simply end with a proposal of marriage or the “I
do’s.” This is why I’ve found so much enjoyment in writing my contemporary
hometown romance series for Harlequin Superromance. I love the characters of
these books. Bringing a hero and heroine like Briar Browning and Cole Savitt
(from A PLACE WITH BRIAR) back as secondary characters for the second book in
the series, my October 2014 release, MARRIED ONE NIGHT, was great fun! I
enjoyed giving readers a peek into their married life. Not only that, I liked
that although Briar and Cole are married, their relationship never stops evolving. Whenever I read a series of books that brings back characters from previous titles, these people feel so much more real to me if I can see their lives unfold a bit more, even if it's just in small ways, and I see them grow as individuals and together as a couple.
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| Book One (Briar & Cole's story) |
The following scene takes place somewhere between my
first Superromance novel, A PLACE WITH BRIAR, and the second, MARRIED ONE NIGHT.
It takes place at Hanna’s Inn, the setting for A PLACE WITH BRIAR, on none
other than Briar and Cole’s wedding day! I hope you enjoy this after-HEA
snippet….
“Oh, dear
God. You’re not getting cold feet, are you?” Olivia Lewis, dressed in her canary
yellow bridesmaid dress, asked. She set aside the second glass of champagne she’d
been ready to down and peered closely at Briar’s face. “I can get you out of
here. But it’s not going to be easy with all the guests milling around the
place.”
Briar
rubbed her lips together. The warm light of humor made her want to smile at her
first cousin and maid of honor. Still, she folded her hands together in front
of her and kept a straight face. “I’m not getting cold feet,” she explained. “I
promise. My toes are plenty warm, as a matter of fact. I just need you to do me
this one favor.”
“If
it’s his feet you’re
worried about, I can sneak some hard liquor into his drink,” Olivia offered. “Just
say the word and it’s done.”
Briar
did smile now but only a little before her lips fell back into a straight line.
“Liv,” she said, lowering her head and eyeing her cousin. “Please.”
Olivia
combed Briar’s face once more before giving in. “All right. But it’ll have to
be quick. If Roxie gets wind of this, we’re all up a creek.”
“It’ll
be quick,” Briar promised. She carefully stopped her hand from squeezing the
other. Her wedding planner, Roxie Honeycutt, had worked so hard to schedule a
mani/pedi session for her earlier in the week. It hadn’t been easy with Briar’s
duties as innkeeper at her second-generation bed-and-breakfast, Hanna’s Inn,
and all the last minute wedding details that had to be seen to. She smoothed
her palms down the front of the empire-waisted wedding gown Roxie had designed
for her. There was no veil to contend with. Her hair had been carefully braided
down her back and strewn with white blossoms. Still, she had been instructed not
to sit in order to avoid wrinkling the gown’s linen train.
As
Olivia left her alone in the grand dining room of the inn, Briar walked
carefully to the window, keeping herself hidden behind the drape. Her heart
rapped nervously when she saw how many guests were indeed milling around the
garden where the ceremony would take place. She took a deep breath to tamp down
the flutterings under her skin when she thought how soon she would be walking
down the makeshift aisle to the jasmine arbor where her groom and their
officiant would be waiting.
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| Book Two - Olivia & Gerald's story |
Briar
closed her eyes for a moment and pictured the view from the front of the inn –
the one she couldn’t see from this vantage but knew was there beyond the
picturesque garden sanctuary she kept well-tended.
It
would be sunset when the vows were spoken. Roxie had timed it down to the wire
so that the kiss would take place just as the sun was sinking toward the
horizon. Sunset was Briar’s favorite time of day. At sunset just weeks after he
had come to Hanna’s Inn, Cole Savitt had kissed Briar on the dock overlooking the
tepid waters of Mobile Bay. Briar remembered exactly how golden sunlight had
slanted perfectly across the water’s surface in a blinding sheen of gilded
pinpricks. It had made her feel like they were floating amongst the stars….
Her
mother had had a name for the spectacle. Fairies dancing. Briar remembered, too, how as a girl she
had stood with her mother on that very same dock, admiring the breathtaking
sunset vista. She’d easily been able to imagine that those shiny pinpricks were
fairies dancing over the waves.
Her
mother wouldn’t be with her today. Hanna Browning had passed away several years
ago after battling cancer. But Briar had wanted to take a moment shortly before
the ceremony to gather the warmth of her mother’s presence around her. Hanna’s
serene countenance was something Briar had always desperately wanted to emulate
for herself, especially on days like today. She wanted to keep the feeling of
Hanna close so that in some way she could be a part of the nuptials. If not physically
then perhaps spiritually….
Footsteps
broke her out of her reverie. Briar sucked in a breath and turned to find the
man standing in the archway across the room. The dark suit and tie made Cole’s
shoulders appear even wider, his waist lean and trim. It suited his dark
hair and she knew when she looked into his eyes, they would appear darker,
denser.
Her
heart rapped again, but not with the nerves she had felt before. All semblance of
bridal jitters disappeared as the love she felt for him beamed to life inside
her. It spread from her fingers to her toes. It danced against her breastbone
as her lips spread into a wide grin at the sight of him. She chuckled quietly
when she saw the blindfold over his eyes. “Oh, Liv,” she muttered.
“She
made me wear it,” Cole said, his lips curling up at the corners in amusement as
his head tilted in the direction of her voice. A moment’s silence passed over
them before he added, “Hi.”
“Hi,”
she said, beaming still. She tried to tamp down on some of the joy cresting
inside her and couldn’t quite manage it. Here was her groom. The man of her
dreams. On the verge of marrying her. She indulged in a blissful sigh. “Oh, Cole,
you look wonderful.”
“You
do, too,” he replied quickly. “I’m sure you do. If I could see you, I’m sure you’d
knock me flat.” The smile slowly faded. “Is everything okay? Liv said you had
something to tell me.”
Briar’s
smile froze on her face as she thought over what she wanted to say to him. She
cleared her throat. “It’s fine. I’m fine. We are getting married today, Cole,” she hurried
to assure him.
“I
know,” he said, his faith in her – in them and what they had already built together thus far – radiating through
the simple words. “I know we are, and I couldn’t be happier.”
She
sighed again, unable to help herself. “I couldn’t be happier either.” She
crossed to him slowly, her heels clacking across the hardwood floor. “But
before we do get married, there’s something…” She lost her breath, nerves
beating their way back to the forefront. She cleared her throat and tried
again. “There’s something I wanted to…” When she faltered again, she searched
his face. She scoffed. “I can’t do this. Not like this. Please take off the
blindfold.”
His
lips parted. “Are you sure? Roxie will tan my hide if she finds out I saw the
bride before the wedding.”
“Please,”
Briar insisted, the plea wavering as emotions she didn’t know how to tuck
behind composure spread clean through her. “I need to see you, all of you. And
you’re probably going to need to see me, too—after I tell you.”
He
let out a careful exhale. “All right.” He reached up, loosening the knot on the
back of his head. The blindfold lowered.
She
blinked as his dark eyes latched onto hers. In them she saw all the love and
faith she felt as well as trust and a few nerves of his own he was
trying to wrangle. His gaze arrested on her face and widened before it ranged
over her hair and the flowers in it. He took a step back, stunned, as he glanced over the dress, taking in her full appearance. “Wow,” he said, his voice lost. “I
was right. You look…incredible.”
She
gave him a small smile. “You're still on your feet.”
"Only just."
Swallowing against the tide of emotions, she reached out with both hands.
He
instantly took them, wrapping his warm around them and giving them a squeeze. His
eyes had gone soft by the time they locked on hers again. “Now,” he said, his
voice lowered to match hers, “what was it you wanted to tell me?”
She
took a gulp of air, needing it to clear her head. “Before we speak our vows,
there’s something I wanted you to know.”
“Oh?”
he said. Concern broke across his face. “You’re all right? I thought you might
have looked pale yesterday morning. And you’ve been tired.” When she began to
protest, he shook his head. “I know you have. I just assumed it was the wedding
on top of everything with the inn.”
Briar
lowered her eyes to the lapels of his suit jacket—finely pressed with the boutonniere
affixed on the left. She licked her lips and forced herself to keep going. “I…I
have been tired,” she forced herself to admit. She hated admitting weaknesses,
those of the physical variety in particular. “But it’s not the wedding.”
When
she paused, she heard him swallow and saw his Adam’s apple dip as he did so. He
tensed, his hands unknowingly squeezing hers again. “Briar,” he said when again
she hesitated. “I’m, uh…I’m getting a little worried here. Tell me what’s going
on. Are you…” He stopped and had to start again, just as she had before. “Are
you sick?” he asked, wrenching the last word out.
Her
gaze rose to his. His concern had mounted into fear. She closed the small bit
of space between them, lifting her hands to his face. They framed his jaw as
she raised her mouth to his for a brushing kiss, desperate to comfort him. “No,”
she said and found herself laughing a little as the tense line of his body went
slack against her with relief. “I told you I was fine and I am. Perfectly
healthy.”
“Thank
God,” he said, eyes closed tight as his hands closed over her waist, bringing
her closer. He breathed a sigh of relief. “For a moment, I thought—”
He’d
thought she was really sick, as her mother had been. She shook her head. “No, nothing
like that. I promise. I’m sorry I made you think for even a moment that there
was something that troubling going on.”
“It’s
not,” he said as much to reiterate the fact for himself as for her. He gave a
tight nod and opened his eyes to search her face again, steadier. “What is it
then?”
"Since we’ve been planning the wedding, I’ve let
the fact that I’ve been more tired than usual go unnoticed. Earlier this week,
I dozed off while I was folding sheets. They were fresh and warm from the dryer and I
couldn’t seem to help laying down in them and closing my eyes, just for a few
moments. When I woke up a half hour later, I realized that I needed to talk to someone
about this. I went to Liv and…she said that maybe I should take a test.”
“A
test?” he asked, brows coming together.
She
beamed when it didn’t click for him automatically. “A pregnancy test, Cole.”
Again,
his jaw slackened and his lips parted in surprise. “A pregnancy test,” he
repeated. The hands gripping her waist tightened by a fraction when she paused once
more. “And?” he asked, features taut with anticipation as he waited for her answer.
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| Book Three - Coming Soon! |
She
broke into a full-fledged grin. “Yes,” she said. “I’m pregnant. We’re pregnant,
I mean. Nine weeks already. I should’ve realized sooner, but we were so busy—”
“Briar,”
Cole said, his eyes still searching hers desperately though beacons of hope
were beginning to bubble up for her to see. “This is real? This isn’t
some wedding day prank Liv’s trying to pull on me before I officially become a
part of the family, is it? I wouldn’t put it past her. She tried spiking my drink earlier....”
She
laughed, unable to contain another moment’s happiness or mirth. “That
does sound like something she would do, but no. This is real. We’re going to have a
baby. We’re going to be a family!”
He
made an unintelligible but no less gratifying noise in the back of his throat
and wrapped her in his arms as he buried his face against the column of her
neck. He held her, breathing her in as she wrapped her arms around him in
return. “Briar, ten months ago when I came to Hanna’s as your guest, I thought
I’d lost hold of what family I had. But you changed that. If I’ve learned
anything since last summer, it’s that you are my family and nothing is ever
going to change that. And now we’re having a baby together….” He trailed off in
disbelief as he lifted his head to touch his brow to hers. “I don’t have the
words to tell you how lucky and happy I feel right now.”
"You're doing just fine." She
sniffled, trying her best to blink away tears. If she cried, she would ruin her makeup. And then they’d really be up a creek,
as Liv had suggested. "I’m sorry I didn’t
wait until the honeymoon. But it felt right to tell you now.”
“I’m
glad you did,” he said, grinning. His lips lowered to hers once. Then again.
They lingered the second time as he inhaled her, his chest inflating, seeming to grow in size as he swelled with love and pride. “I’m really glad you did. This way when I see you coming down that aisle,
I’ll know more than ever I’m looking at my family.”
“Okay,
you have to stop now,” she told him, raising a hand to her cheek when a tear
slipped past her guard. “Roxie’s going to kill me.”
“Not
a chance.” He chased the tear with the pad of his thumb. The faint sound of a
string quartet and “Canon in D” wafted through the walls from the garden
outside. “Speaking of Roxie…I’ve got to sneak back upstairs. I’m surprised Liv
hasn’t come after me already with her bat.”
“Go,”
she said, reluctantly letting him back away. She pressed a hand to her heart
when he didn’t turn away, just stood looking at her, drinking her in. In turn,
she gazed at him. He wasn’t just the man of her dreams, she realized. He was
every dream she’d ever had come to life. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Soon,”
he nodded and gave her one last, promising smile. “I love you.”
“Love
you, too,” she said softly.
The
sound of Roxie’s chirpy voice made them both snap to attention. Cole dodged
through the swinging door into the kitchen and disappeared. Briar covered her
mouth to keep from laughing out loud when she heard Olivia shrieking at him as
the door swung closed silently behind him and Cole fumbled through an
explanation. Moments later, Roxie entered the dining room through the archway,
looking brisk and only slightly harried. “Are you ready?” she asked, handing Briar
her hand-tied bouquet of sunflowers. “The procession’s about to start.”
“I’m
ready,” Briar said, clutching the blooms. Her hands were steady. Her heart was
full. “You have no idea how much.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed this bonus “slice of life” from
Briar and Cole’s wedding day! Down the road, I’ll be adding more for each of
the couples from my hometown series. (I can’t wait to write Olivia and Gerald’s.
They’re a riot!) Stay tuned for upcoming details on HIS REBEL HEART’s launch in
July. You can add the book to your TBR list on Goodreads. Until then, check out the Inspiration Boards for the first two books on Pinterest!
Happy Valentine’s Day to my fellow Roses and our readers! If you're looking for some love-themed reads, the books from my hometown series are on sale this month for Kindle readers for $3.79. If you're in the mood for a little historical romance, FOREVER AMORE is on sale this month for $2.99 as well as the first two books in my western romance trilogy.
Happy reading!
Happy reading!
