by Sandra Hill
Ethan and Wendy were married that morning in Our Lady by the Sea Catholic Church, but the bells of both churches rang when the couple emerged afterward. Those SEALs and WEALS who attended in white dress uniforms formed an arch of swords for the recessional. Very impressive! The reception followed at Gabe Conti’s mansion, which had been decorated in a red, white, and blue extravaganza.
Wendy wore her grandmother’s wedding gown, discovered days before the wedding beneath a pile of vintage clothing in some crazy hoarders’ attic in the Patterson house, which, incidentally, was still notoriously filled with dancing seniors. The veil was donated by Eliza Rutledge, who kept telling everyone that Ethan was just like her Samuel. Although they didn’t quite match the outfit, Wendy wore strappy silver high heels, to which Ethan had some fond attachment.
Despite Ethan’s protests that white tuxedoes were “tacky,” he and his groomsmen wore just that, at the insistence of the townsfolk who claimed the color was more suited to a beach setting. (Did I mention that the town considered it their wedding?)
Laura was Wendy’s maid of honor with Cassie, Diane, and Delphine as bridesmaids, all in pink, at Cassie’s insistence. The girl still had a preference for that color, although she occasionally relented with a little blue. Matt Holter was Ethan’s best man, with Gabe, Tony, and Geek as groomsmen. K-4 was off on some secret SEAL mission no one could talk about. JAM helped to officiate during the rituals. Claudette Deveraux played the wedding march on the church organ.
Mildred Patterson gave her niece away, although many in Bell Cove claimed that was only symbolic. Wendy was theirs to give in matrimony.
Ethan and Cassie would not be moving to California, after all. Wendy decided to opt out of the teams when her contract ended in June. What she would be doing in Bell Cove, she hadn’t decided yet. “I just want to enjoy being a wife, and a mother to Cassie, for a while,” she told Ethan, who had no objections, of course. Ethan predicted that she would probably become a treasure hunter . . . or the town’s sheriff, if Bill Henderson ever resigned, as he often threatened to do after the parking ticket fiasco at Christmas. Ethan didn’t care, as long as she was here with him.
And, yes, the Bell Forge Salvage Company, under Merrill “Geek” Good’s primary ownership, was soon to be a go, occupying half of the old Bell Forge building. Bells would still be made there, but the two companies would share the renovated harbor and some of the facilities. The first project wouldn’t start until the fall. Everyone in Bell Cove considered it their treasure-hunting company and were enthusiastic (a.k.a. annoying) in their suggestions/meddling.
The Conti mansion was the perfect setting for the wedding reception, especially on this warm summer day with the doors open onto the bluff overlooking the ocean. In the distance could be seen the lighthouse, which seemed to have a particular significance to the newlyweds.
Gabe was being generous in offering the mansion for this event. He’d refused many other requests, despite the urging of Laura Atler, his ex-girlfriend. Gabe had moved to Bell Cove and set up his architectural office in the wing of the mansion that once housed the taxidermist’s hell (or heaven, depending on one’s perspective). The Smithsonian had taken most of the stuffed animals, although he’d kept the gorilla as a reminder of good ol’ Great-Great-Great Uncle Tomas. Too tall to be a coat rack, Gabe regarded “King Kong” as a combined conversation piece/burglar deterrent. The pipe collection had set eBay on fire for all of two days, to the disgruntlement of Mayor Doreen Ferguson, who’d wanted Gabe to not only donate the collection but build a museum in Bell Cove to house them. As if! He refused to go down in history as a connoisseur of tobacco-related products.
The band Nostalgia provided the music for the Rutledge wedding. The bridal dance was, of course, Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” but midway through the song, the band broke into “Carolina Girls,” to which the bride and groom did the best shag the crowd had ever seen. Everyone said so. Since this was a dancing crowd, including the seniors from the Patterson house, the band played all kinds of music, and the dancing went on to the wee hours, long after the bride and groom had left for a honeymoon to parts unknown. Some said the Bahamas, some said Hawaii. In fact, they were on a fishing boat off the coast of the Outer Banks. Why look for paradise when it’s in your own backyard? Not that they planned to do much fishing.
That night after making sweet love, and then a rocking good love (the waves were choppy), Ethan told Wendy that his wedding gift to her was . . . a tree! A new tree they would plant together to mark their wedding and perhaps it would be a Christmas tree for their tenth anniversary year. They planned to use the current one this year, if Wendy could bear to let Ethan chop it down.
Ironically, Wendy’s gift to Ethan was a little stick with two definitive lines. There would be another Carolina girl (or boy) born seven months hence.
Author’s Note
Dear Readers:
I hope you enjoyed this first book in my Bell Sound series. Second chance at love stories are the best, in my opinion.
Those of you who have read my other books will recognize some characters, such as Wendy, JAM, Geek, K-4, Slick, and F.U., from my Viking Navy SEAL series that began with Wet & Wild and Hot & Heavy and continued through five other novels. That doesn’t mean there won’t be other Viking Navy SEAL books someday; they aren’t all leaving “town.”
For those of you who live or vacation on the Outer Banks, be gentle with me. Bell Cove is a fictional town, and some of what I portray might seem unrecognizable or even impossible to you. Artistic license, I say!
For those of you not familiar with the shag mentioned throughout this book, google “shag dance,” then turn the volume up high. You will smile!
In these negative, often scary, times we live in, I am constantly reminded of the power of books to help us through difficulties. That’s especially true of stories with a dash of humor in them. Don’t you agree?
I love hearing from fans and can be reached at sandrahill.net or my Facebook page at SandraHillAuthor, or just by emailing: [email protected].
As always, wishing you smiles in your reading.
Sandra Hill
About the Author
SANDRA HILL is a graduate of Penn State and worked for more than ten years as a features writer and education editor for publications in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Writing about serious issues taught her the merits of seeking the lighter side of even the darkest stories. For more information on additional books in Sandra’s Cajun and other series, please visit her website: www.sandrahill.net.
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Also by Sandra Hill
Cajun Series
Cajun Persuasion
Cajun Crazy
The Cajun Doctor
The Love Potion
Deadly Angels Series
Good Vampires Go to Heaven
The Angel Wore Fangs
Even Vampires Get the Blues
Vampire in Paradise
Christmas in Transylvania
Kiss of Wrath
Kiss of Temptation
Kiss of Surrender
Kiss of Pride
Viking Series I
The Pirate Bride
The Norse King’s Daughter
The Viking Takes a Knight
Viking in Love
A Tale of Two Vikings
The Viking’s Captive (formerly My Fair Viking)
The Blue Viking
The Bewitched Viking
The Tarnished Lady
The Outlaw Viking
The Reluctant Viking
Viking Series II
Hot & Heavy
Wet & Wild
The Very Virile Viking
Truly, Madly Viking
The Last Viking
Creole-Time Travel Series
Sweeter Savage Love
Frankly, My Dear…
; Others
Love Me Tender
Desperado
Copyright
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.
the forever christmas tree. Copyright © 2018 by Sandra Hill. 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-285408-7
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-285407-0
Cover design by Nadine Badalaty
Cover illustration by Aleta Rafton
Cover photographs © Janis Smits / 123RF (water’s edge); © Judy Kennamer | Dreamstime.com (sky); © Jan Havlicek | Dreamstime.com (sky); © 1carson2/ iStock/GettyImages (Christmas tree); © DenisTangneyJr/ iStock / Getty Images (beach foreground); © Doug Lemke / Denise LeBlanc / Guas / kurhan / Luba V Nel / Traveller70 / Jmclellon / Roberto Castillo / Shutterstock (eight images)
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