Smiling into his eyes, she answered, “You’ll get no argument from me. I love you too.”
“The kids are safe, Pippa’s safe, Clay’s safe and I’m stuck sitting on top of this scum,” Sam called out from the living room. “Would someone contact the police so I can get up off this asshole?”
30
The delicious aroma of roasting turkey and pumpkin pie had made Pippa’s mouth water for the past hour. Thanksgiving dinner was a festive affair every year. Her older brother, Noah, and his son Colby, who’d missed for the past three years, were able to come this year. The whole Kerrigan clan was together. Clay and Seeley rounded out the guest list and the last minute inclusion of Seeley’s hired man, Scott, and Jem’s employees from the café swelled the numbers, making it necessary to move the party to Pippa’s house. Fortunately, Jem had volunteered to cook.
This would be the last holiday the kids would celebrate in the house that had been the only home they’d known. The real estate agent was coming on Monday to put a sign in the yard. She and the kids were moving in with Clay and Seeley at the Sleepy T Tree Farm before Christmas. Right after the wedding…two short weeks from now. Neither she nor Clay had wanted to wait to become a family, and the kids had already started packing their toys.
Pippa’s heart swelled as she paused from arranging pre-dinner snacks on a platter, and scanned the room full of family. Clay, her father and all the other men watched football, lounging on the couch. Occasional cheers and collective groans punctuated their lively conversation. Mason and Colby dashed around the yard playing tag with a couple of the neighbor kids. Mia sat on a quilt on the floor next to Jem’s assistant chef Avery and his girlfriend Marissa, playing with their four-month-old daughter.
Five women had crowded into her kitchen, performing various domestic chores. Seeley sat across from her arranging cheese and crackers on tray, a cane propped against the table, humming a Christmas carol while she worked. The older woman looked up and smiled, her grin still a little crooked. She’d almost fully recovered. Speech remained difficult, but she’d improved daily. After Jack and Clay made changes to the bedroom off the kitchen and installed handrails between the house and the shop, she’d left Elder Pointe to move back home. She still used the cane because the lingering injury from the broken leg made walking difficult.
“We’ll have t-to have next holiday at the f-farm. T-that kitchen is a lot roomier.” Seeley reached across the table and laid her hand on Pippa’s, giving a little pat. “I’m l-l-looking f-forward t-to having children in the house on Christmas morning. I’ve been waiting f-f-far too long for grandchildren to share this holiday with.”
Pippa grinned and leaned forward, lowering her voice. “Clay wants to adopt Mason and Mia. I like the idea. We haven’t talked to them about it yet. There’s so much going on, with the wedding and the move. We didn’t want to overload them. But I think Mark would approve.”
“Oh, t-that makes m-me so happy. I’m g-getting a d-daughter and grandkids all at once.”
“We still need to talk it over with Mark’s mom. But as long as she can still see them, I think she’ll be happy about it.”
She sighed. With the trauma of being held hostage, Pip hadn’t been comfortable with making the kids get on a plane to fly to Florida, but Mark’s mom had promised to come for the wedding.
They’d all been going to counseling to get over the ordeal, but Mia still had nightmares. The therapist had explained that her bad dreams were remnants of guilt over opening the door for Dewey in the first place. The only person capable of consoling Mia when she awoke in terror during the night had been Clay. He’d cuddled her close each time, rocking her gently back to sleep, whispering that the bad man was in jail and would be there for a long, long time. He couldn’t harm her or Mason ever again. Pippa fell deeper in love with Clay each time she saw her daughter sleeping in his arms, trusting him to keep her safe.
“The twins are excited about living at a Christmas tree farm. They’ve agreed that those pines Clay planted are so magical that they have to be responsible. I found them in the back yard last week trying to figure out how to take them with us.”
Seeley barked out a delighted laugh. “Did they realize we have t-t-thousands of magical t-trees?”
“They do now. Clay told them it would only be fair to leave the magic here for the next children who move in this house. He’s so good with them.”
“You’re all good for him. I’ve never seen him smile as much as he has these last weeks. You’re the m-magical one…he’s even stopped c-cursing so much.”
As Pippa threw her head back in laughter, she caught Clay’s glance.
He set his beer aside and inclined his head toward the door, stood, stretching his long, strong arms toward the ceiling, and walked toward the front of the house.
Pippa pushed the celery she’d been stuffing toward her future in-law with a grin. “Can you finish this for me? I need to see about something.”
Seeley’s stroke hadn’t impaired her ability to snort, and she blushed at the unladylike sound before grinning. “Ah, young love. You go on, d-dear. J-just remember that d-dinner will b-b-be ready in an hour.”
Heat flamed in her cheeks at what this woman she’d come to love as much as her own mother, and Mark’s, had alluded to. But that didn’t stop her from heading toward the front of her house.
Clay sat on the steps leading upstairs waiting for her and she braced her hands on his knees as she leaned in for a kiss. Oh Lord, she’d never tire of his kisses. Ever.
His lips lingered against hers, lush and tender for an exquisitely long kiss, stealing the breath from her lungs, speeding her heart up achingly. Leaving her longing for more. Placing his hands on her shoulders, Clay encouraged her to sit between his knees and wrapped his arms around her, sprinkling kisses on the nape of her neck. Resting her head against his shoulder, she shivered when his hot lips caressed the exposed, sensitive skin below her jaw.
His sigh breezed past her ear, his warm breath tickling. “I can’t believe I ever considered leaving Granite Pointe. Do you realize that in a very short span of time, I’ve revoked every thought of living the bachelor life, abandoned the care-free houseboat lifestyle for a country farm, a wife and ready made family?”
Titling her head to the side, she glanced up at him and grinned. “What’s your point?”
Clay traced the dimple creasing the side of her mouth, ending with his fingertip caressing her lips. “My point? I guess I don’t have one. Except that this feels like exactly where I belong.”
Clay rested his cheek against the top of her head and she settled into the comfortable home his arms created and closed her eyes to listen to the soundtrack of her life. Mia’s delighted laughter over something the baby did, Mason’s giddy shouts from a back yard game of tag, the murmur of loved ones’ voices filling her house and her soul. The steady beat of Clay’s heart under her cheek. These were the sounds of love. It was the music of her life. Each noise, each sound and emotion contributed to the symphony of her future with Clay.
Gemma Brocato
Gemma's favorite desk accessories for many years were a circular wooden token, better known as a 'round tuit,' and a fortune from a fortune cookie that said she was a lover of words; some day she'd write a book. All it took was a transfer to the United Kingdom, the lovely English springtime, and a huge dose of homesickness to write her first novel. Once it was completed and sent off with a kiss even the rejections, addressed to 'Dear Author', were gratifying.
After returning to America, she spent a number of years as a copywriter, dedicating her skills to making insurance policies and the agents who sell them sound sexy. Eventually, her full-time job as a writer interfered with her desire to be a writer full-time and she left the world of financial products behind to pursue an avocation as a romance author.
Her gamble paid off when she was a 2012 Finalist in the prestigious Golden Pen contest for Romantic Suspense and she received contracts for her first and second book.
Connect with Gemma on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gemma.brocato, Twitter, @gemmabrocato or on the web at www.Gemmabrocato.com
Cooking Up Love
Five Senses, #1
Mix a chef and her contractor, stir in a mystery, and cook up a romance.
Jemima George leads a charmed life as a personal chef and assistant to reality television’s latest darling. But that changes in a New York minute when her Aunt Caro dies under odd circumstances, bequeathing her a small restaurant. Jem plans to sell the café and continue her life in NYC, until a dramatic phone call from her cheating boyfriend convinces her to experiment with the ingredients for happiness and accept her Aunt’s legacy. Throwing herself into remodeling the restaurant with the help of the town’s delicious contractor, Jem revamps the menu and renews her faith in herself.
Jack Kerrigan considered Caro a surrogate mother and hates the idea that the café could be sold. He doesn’t need the remodeling project, but if it means Caro’s beautiful, fascinating niece will stay to run the restaurant, he’s all in. He wouldn’t mind being savory to Jem’s sweet.
Jack’s brassy ex-wife is cooking up a scheme of her own, where Jack tosses Jem like a salad and comes back to her. Fold in a creepy attorney hiding secrets of environmental mayhem, add Jem’s claustrophobia, half-pint niece and nephew twins, one mysterious lockbox, and bring to a boil—a recipe for romance
Lyrical Press books are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp. 119 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2013 Gemma Brocato
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Lyrical Press and the L logo are trademarks of Kensington Publishing Corp.
First Electronic Edition: May 2014
ISBN-13: 9781616505523
Table of Contents
Also by Gemma Brocato
Hearts In Harmony
Dedication
Acknowledgments
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Meet the Author
Other books by Gemma Brocato
Copyright
Hearts in Harmony Page 25