by Meg Tilly
Seventy-four
ZELIA STARED AT the blue plus sign that had appeared in the window of the white plastic stick. Yes. Still there. Proof positive. She gently laid it on a bed of tissue paper resting on the bathroom counter, unwilling to drop it in the wastebasket just yet. She washed her hands, her heart pounding, face flushed, then returned to the bedroom and eased her way back under the warm duvet.
“Morning,” Gabe said, smiling sleepily at her.
She snuggled in close, jubilantly happy and yet a little bit shy.
He wrapped his arms around her. “Goose bumps in May?” he said. “That’s what comes with having thin West Coast blood and a vintage cottage with unheated floors. What would a real man do under these dire circumstances? Can’t have my woman catching a cold.” He grinned happily. “Hm . . . I guess that means I’d better warm you.” He nudged her onto her back.
She returned his smile. “Far be it from me to keep you from your manly duty,” she replied, spreading her thighs.
It was remarkable how Gabe could go from zero to fully revved in a flash. Once he was embedded deep inside her, making slow, sweet, sweaty love, his warm breath fanning across her face . . . the time felt right.
“Honey,” she said, humbled by the love she could see shining in the depths of his eyes. She slid her hand between them. Could feel her abdomen moving as he thrust inside her. Slid her hand lower, to encircle the slick girth of him moving in and out.
“Yeah . . . ?” His voice was a low, sleepy growl.
She slid her hand back to her abdomen, where she could feel him moving and also where invisible changes were taking place. “We’re gonna have a baby,” she said.
Gabe froze mid-thrust. “We are?” The look in his eyes, wide-open wonder.
She tried to speak, but it was impossible. An oceans-deep happiness was gobbling up her words. All she could do was smile, nod, and dash the happy tears that kept forming on her eyelashes. Not wanting to miss a moment of the slow-dawning rainbow of joy that was illuminating his face.
“Oh, Zee,” he murmured, gathering her in his arms as if she were the most precious thing in the world. Holding her close he rolled the two of them to their sides, still deep inside her, kissing her face, her mouth, her throat, her shoulders, her face again. “A baby? You and me?”
She nodded again, words still too thick in her throat to speak them.
“What a blessing. What an undeserved blessing.” Now there were tears in his eyes, too, as he gently laid his hand beside hers on her belly. “But I shall seize this good fortune like a thief in the night and do everything in my power to be worthy of this honor, of our child and you.”
“Gabe, my love.” She shook her head, couldn’t help the soft chuckle that emerged. “You have no idea, do you?” She raised her hands to cup his dear, beloved face gently between her palms, wanting, needing him to see the truth shining out of her eyes. “I could have searched the whole world over and would never have found anyone more lovable, more loved, more worthy than you.”
And then she kissed him, because she could. Arms and legs lashed around him tight. So close that she could feel the beating of his heart through the cage of his chest, through his flesh and bone and through hers. Still, she had the need to press even closer, until it felt as if the two of them had merged into one being. And in a way, we have, she thought, with this beautiful, precious life that is growing in my belly.
Meg’s Tasty Blueberry Lemon-Glaze Muffins
My sisters are in town as I write this. I got up early and worked on my edits while the house was quiet and everybody was sleeping. Then, as I heard sounds of life, I decided to take a stretch break, trotted downstairs, and whipped up some of my blueberry muffins with a lemon-glaze icing. I am munching on them now—piping hot, with a pat of delicious butter—as I type. And as I popped a tasty morsel into my mouth, I thought, I bet my readers would like to have this recipe! So here you are:
Ingredients:
FOR MUFFINS:
1½ cups unbleached flour
⅜ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
¼ cup salted butter, softened
⅓ cup white sugar
1 egg
⅔ cup whole milk
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 to 1½ cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
FOR GLAZE:
½ cup powdered sugar
Juice squeezed from ½ to 1 fresh lemon
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease or place paper muffin liners in your muffin tin.
In a small mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir the mixture with a fork to ensure it is well blended, then put it aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Then add the egg, milk, and lemon zest. Once it is blended, add in the flour mixture. Important: do not over-stir! Stir only until all of the flour mixture is moist. Then sprinkle in the blueberries. (You can add more or fewer blueberries, depending on your preference.) Remember: minimal stirring. Just enough to get the berries spread relatively evenly throughout.
Spoon the mixture into the muffin tin and pop it into the oven. Bake for about 20–30 minutes. The cooking time will depend on your oven (as each oven is slightly different) and whether you used frozen blueberries or fresh ones. Frozen will add a couple minutes to your cooking time. To know your muffins are done, insert a toothpick in the center of them. The toothpick should come out clean, with nothing clinging to it. Also, the muffin should spring back if you gently pat it with your fingers.
While the muffins are in the oven, mix together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze in a small bowl until smooth. (The amount of lemon juice is the cook’s call. If you like your glaze tart, add more lemon. For just a hint, use only half a lemon.)
Once the muffins are cooked, remove them from the oven and dip the tops into the lemon glaze, swirl so the whole top is covered, and then set them upright on a plate to serve.
I like my muffins piping hot and sliced with a pat of butter melting inside. My husband likes them hot or cold, sans butter. One thing you can be certain of, these muffins won’t sit on your kitchen counter long!
Acknowledgments
My thanks to my awesome editors, Kerry Donovan and Cindy Hwang. Collaborating with you is such a joy. I am also grateful for the skilled proofreading and copyediting provided that make me seem like a more refined writer than I actually am.
I feel blessed to be one of the authors who benefit from the talents of the design team at Berkley, who create such beautiful covers and interior designs. I am also lucky to reap the benefits of the marketing and publicity expertise of Erin Galloway, Jin Yu, Jessica Brock, and Fareeda Bullert.
I also want to give a shout-out to Nancy Berland at NBPR; Whitney Tancred at 42West; Cissy Hartley, Susan Simpson, and the Writerspace gang; as well as Kim Witherspoon and Jessica Mileo at InkWell Management for all that you do on my behalf.
Thank you, Linda Korn and Leeza Watstein, for your care and creativity with the audio versions of my books, and for the casting and sensitive directing of the talented audio actors Kendall Harper and Stephen Dexter, who brought my Solace Island series to life for the PRH Audio listener.
My thanks to my family and friends for your love and support, and to the romance community who have taken me under their wing. I’ve met so many wonderful people. I also wanted to let my fellow romance readers know that I have been floored by the kindness and generosity that have been shown to me by other romance authors, women whose books I have read and adored. They have reached out to me, shored me up, and offered advice. At the head of the pack is a woman whose books I have read and reread for decades, Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle! But she has not been the only one. Eloisa James, Lorraine Heath, Mariah Stewart, Lori Foster, Jill Shalvis, Elizabeth Boyle, and Kat Martin are a
few of my favorite romance authors who have been so supportive, and I am so very, very grateful.
And last but certainly not least, I’d like to thank you, my readers, and the booksellers and librarians. Thank you for taking a chance on me, for passing my books on to other people who might enjoy them. Thank you to those of you who have taken the time to review, for letting me know that you enjoy what I write. That is the thing that keeps me returning to my keyboard day after day. To try, in my small way, to give back to the wonderful world of romance that has shored me up in challenging times by letting me disappear into one of my favorite author’s books and come away feeling more hopeful once again.
Thank you!
Much love,
Meg xo
Read on for an excerpt from the gripping contemporary romance
Cliff’s Edge
A SOLACE ISLAND NOVEL
by Meg Tilly
Available now from Jove!
Prologue
HE CAUGHT SIGHT of her as the wedding party swooped past him and entered the church. Her arm was linked with the bride’s, both of them laughing in the late-afternoon sun. Her head was thrown back, causing her long ebony hair to tumble down her back in glorious abandon.
Mine, the man thought with a fierceness that shocked him to the core.
He quickly parked, grabbed his phone, snapped a hasty photo through the windshield, then exited his vehicle. The path of his life had just veered to the left, and he had no choice but to follow where it led him.
He crossed the road and melded into the edges of a large group entering the church. Nervous sweat was starting to congregate in his armpits. He could feel it sticking his shirt to his back as he slipped past the ushers standing guard at the vestibule’s arched doors leading into the nave.
He sat in the rear of the church and waited for her to reappear. And when she did, he bathed in her beauty, the gracefulness of her form.
The ceremony was finished, the bride was kissed, and everyone stood hurling flower petals as the newly married couple headed down the aisle. Only a few more minutes before they would pass the back pews and the crowd would disperse.
He tapped the lacy arm of the matron beside him. “Who is she?” he asked. He thought he had put his socially acceptable expression of bored interest on. But apparently a flare of the passion coursing through him had slipped past the mask, for the woman’s eyes widened as she took a slight step back.
“The bride?” she asked, her dimpled hands fluttering up to her neck.
“No, her,” he said, smoothing his face into benign kindness and tipping it toward the mystery goddess. “The maid of honor.”
The woman’s skittishness subsided, and an affectionate smile took its place. “That’s the bride’s sister, Eve Harris. Quite the beauty, isn’t she?”
“I hadn’t noticed,” he lied. “She looked familiar, and I was wondering how I knew her.”
“She and her sister are co-owners of the Intrepid Café. It’s a pretty recent addition to our town, but it’s been quite the smash hit, let me tell you! My friends and I meet every Wednesday for our afternoon social and, oh my, do we enjoy their baked goods.” She glanced over her shoulder and noticed that her friends had moved on. “Excuse me,” she said, hurrying after them.
Dazed, he followed in her wake, out of the church, down the steps into the courtyard, blinking in the harsh July sunlight. A mole emerging from its hole. His mind spun a million miles an hour.
She belonged to him. Of that he was certain.
However, this would require careful planning, preparation. He wasn’t sure exactly how he was going to pull it off, but he did know one thing.
He was her destiny.
One
Three months later
“SO, WHICH ONE will it be?” Eve asked, peering at Ethelwyn through the glass case.
The woman’s hands were shoved in the front pockets of her saggy faded jeans, her worn plaid work shirt loose and untucked. She was staring intently at the various pies. Her lips made little smacking sounds, as if she were actually tasting the various options. “I don’t know,” she moaned. “The cherry looks good, but I really love Maggie’s strawberry-rhubarb. It has just the right amount of tart and sweet.”
Behind Ethelwyn, someone cleared his throat. Eve glanced at the fiftysomething man sporting an expensive haircut and wearing a fawn-colored cashmere sweater over a button-down white shirt. His sleeves were rolled back. There was a gold Cartier watch on his wrist and a burnished gold wedding ring on his finger.
He seemed a trifle irritated by Ethelwyn’s indecision.
Eve smothered a grin. Too bad, she thought. This is the Solace Island way. Doesn’t matter what your bank balance is. Everyone’s equal.
Besides, Ethelwyn was one of the Intrepid Café’s most loyal customers. She and her life partner, Lavina, purchased copious amounts of baked goods. Whereas Mr. Fancy-Pants had only started coming by recently and usually ordered a coffee. Black. How could anyone see the tempting treats and smell the wonderful fragrances caused by her sister’s delicious creations and then just order a black coffee?
“Take your time, Ethelwyn,” Eve said cheerily. “It’s an important decision. I’ll start boxing up the rest of your order.” She slid the glass door of the display cabinet shut with her hip as she rose. Then she turned to the back counter, where her sister, Maggie, was transferring pecan-puff jam-dot cookies from the cooling racks to a display platter.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Maggie murmured, a conspiratorial grin lighting up her face.
“What?” Eve said, placing a dozen chocolate cookies with caramel centers and a sprinkling of flaked sea salt on the top into a white bakery box.
“He likes you,” Maggie whispered. She wiggled her eyebrows, which meant the guy she was talking about was super hot.
Eve peeked over her shoulder, took a quick glance around the café to see who had arrived. No one had. She looked at Maggie. Who? Where is he? she mouthed, shifting casually closer to her sister, because clearly Maggie had a better hunk-viewing vantage point.
Behind Ethelwyn, Maggie mouthed. You should see the way he’s looking at you. All hungry-like.
The tendrils of hope and excitement deflated with a thump. “Eww,” Eve said. “First of all, he’s married.”
“He is?” Maggie looked disappointed.
“Yup. Ring on the finger. And second, even if he weren’t”—Eve wrapped the red-and-white string around the bakery box and secured it—“he’s not my type.”
Maggie started to open her mouth.
“At all,” Eve said firmly.
Maggie sighed. She looked so wistful.
“I know.” Eve reached over and wiped a smear of flour off her sister’s cheek. “You’re so happy and in love with Luke, and you want that for me.”
“Yeah,” Maggie said with a rueful smile. “That about sums it up. Speaking of . . . Falling Ashes has a gig in Seattle next week. If you’d like to check the show out, it’s on one of your days off—”
“Not going to happen,” Eve said, cutting her off at the pass.
“But you and Levi were such a cute couple. That guy was so into you. What happened? Why’d you break up? We all loved him, Mom and Dad included.”
“They were okay with him. Mom thought he was wild, and Dad wanted to keep an eye on him. ‘The devil you know’ and all that. It’s the only reason they hired him.”
“Once they got to know him, they liked him.”
“Dad thought he was a slacker.”
“You’re being harsh. Sure, it would take Levi a while to get focused, but once he did, he pulled his weight on the construction site. The guy was crazy about you—still is, I bet. He’s single.”
Eve gave her sister a look.
“What? It’s not like I’ve been keeping tabs on him. He sent me a friend request last week on Faceb
ook. I was curious, so I glanced through his profile—”
“I’m going to be adventurous and take the cherry!” Eve heard Ethelwyn’s raspy voice declare from behind her.
“Sounds like a plan, Ethelwyn,” Eve said, turning around with a smile. “I’ll box it up.” She removed the homemade cherry pie with the latticework crust and fluted edges from the case.
“He still looks smokin’ hot,” she heard Maggie say from behind her. “Had a tour schedule posted, so he is managing to book gigs. Maybe the timing for the two of you wasn’t right before.”
“It wasn’t timing that broke us up,” Eve said, aware of a slight acerbic edge creeping into her voice. She sighed. It wasn’t fair to be grouchy at Maggie. Her sister didn’t have all the information. Why would she? Her family had been so fond of Levi, and he’d loved them. Even though the breakup had been brutal and he’d behaved very badly, that person wasn’t who he truly was. Drugs and alcohol had sunk their claws into him. It had broken her heart to see the man she loved disappear into a shell of his former self. She’d stayed in the relationship longer than she should have, trying to save him. One day, after he’d surfaced from a three-day bender, she’d realized the only person she could save was herself.
He’d been gutted when she’d left. No need to wound Levi further by tarnishing her family’s view of him, crushing the memories of happier times.
“You guys were both so young. Maybe things would be different now. Seriously, Eve, what would it hurt to go say hello? If you left right after work, you could hop on the ferry and totally make it to the concert with time to spare. You’d have to stay overnight, of course . . .”
“Maggie, honey,” Eve said, squeezing past her sister to snag a pastry box. “He’s a great guy and all, but—”
“But you aren’t attracted to him anymore.” Maggie huffed out a disappointed sigh. “I get it,” she said, gathering up the cooling racks.