by Holly Jacobs
“You can’t love someone? That’s crap, Lily. And kind of cowardly, too. You love. You love so many people. It’s why you’re such a great nurse. Medical people speak about needing to distance themselves from patients, from difficult situations, but you couldn’t manage it. That’s one of the reasons you’re here in Valley Ridge. You have patients you can care for long-term. You’re the woman who will stay late and hold a baby so a new mom can sleep. You take meals to an injured single dad and his kids—”
“Stop! I’m the girl who never saved her mom. I sat out on a swing and let her be abused.”
“You’re the daughter who never gave up on her mother,” he said softly. “You waited for her to realize she was brave enough to leave. You loved her enough to keep trying. You are so strong. Maybe that’s the most important lesson I learned from you. How to be strong. How to take what life deals you and go on in spite of it.” His voice dropped to a low whisper. “You can tell me not to love you, Lily, or that you don’t love me. But I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to wait for you to realize that you love me, too. Be brave, Lily. Do it for you. You deserve to be happy. I make you happy, Lily, even if you can’t see it yet.”
He didn’t reach for her, but merely leaned down and kissed her, then on he went into the house.
Now that he was no longer there, she slipped into the glider and stared at the door. “I told you not to fall in love with me.”
Sebastian was wrong.
She wasn’t strong. If she was, she’d chase after him and tell him...
She couldn’t voice the words even to herself. Neither could she force herself to get up and go to him.
Instead, she sat on the swing. Alone.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE DAY OF Sophie and Colton’s wedding was notable for its blue sky and mild temperature. It was everything anyone could have wished for. Colton’s fields were dotted with new corn shoots and lush grapevines, and the grass and trees were that vivid green that marked the beginning of their annual cycle of growth.
In the past two weeks, Lily had striven to put her relationship back on track with Sebastian. She moved into her apartment again and gave her mother the small bedroom while she took the couch. She still went to Hank’s each morning for breakfast, and the four of them passed around the paper, sipped their coffee as they ate, while she pretended that Sebastian was a friend. Just some man she once had a brief fling with.
And she pretended it was working, even though she knew it wasn’t.
That struck her as odd.
When she broke up with Justin, she’d felt regret. Not that she’d called off the engagement, but that she’d hurt him. He’d been a nice man who didn’t deserve that.
She felt regret that she’d hurt Sebastian—but truth was, he didn’t seem overly hurt. As a matter of fact, he gave her his piercing looks, and rather than pain, or even anger, she detected a hint of amusement mixed in with a bit of...smugness.
Today was about Colton and Sophie. For the first time since Hank’s disappearance, she wasn’t going to fret about Sebastian; she was simply going to concentrate on her friends.
“It’s absolutely perfect,” Lily reminded herself as she looked out Colton’s bedroom window at his fields. She knew that soon, she, Sophie and Mattie would be walking over that ridge, where Colton was waiting with Finn and Sebastian at his side. She watched as guests parked along the long drive and took the now quite evident path to the wedding ceremony.
“Nothing’s perfect, Lily,” Sophie scolded. Though her giant grin belied her words.
“This is darned near close, though,” Mattie said.
“Are people arriving?” Sophie asked.
“Most of Valley Ridge has come along your drive. Pretty soon they’ll have to park on the road.”
Lily turned away from the window and looked at Sophie. “You are beautiful.”
“You’re a good friend, so you’re biased.” Sophie checked her appearance in the mirror. “But I will confess I clean up pretty good.”
Lily adjusted a few flowers in Sophie’s hair. They both watched as Mattie tugged at her dress.
The three of them stood in front of the mirror.
“Soon we’ll be helping Mattie put on her wedding dress,” Sophie said in a mock whisper to Lily.
“Finn and I...” Mattie huffed a bit. “We’re hardly dating, so we’re not nearly ready to talk about something like that.”
There in the mirror’s reflection, Lily saw the truth of it. Mattie was totally in love with Finn. As much as Sophie was with Colton.
“Waltzing Mathilda has finished her wandering,” Lily said, happy for both her friends. They both loved such wonderful men.
Sebastian was wonderful, too, a small voice in her head insisted.
Mattie and Sophie moved away from the mirror, but Lily continued to stand there, looking at herself. She tried to ignore what she saw. Just as she ignored the weird skip her heart gave every time Sebastian walked into a room. Just as she ignored the urge to tell him about...everything and anything. She hadn’t realized how dependent she’d become on sharing with him. And hearing about his everything and anything in return.
She missed being in his bed, but more than that, she missed him. Period.
But every time she thought about telling him she missed him, she remembered the sense of panic she’d felt when she admitted she couldn’t marry Justin. She could recall the exact moment vividly. And the further realization that she never wanted to marry anyone else, either.
But as she studied herself now, she didn’t see panic or a woman who looked as if she wanted to hide. She saw in her own face what she’d seen in Mattie’s and Sophie’s. She saw a woman in love.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” she said and bolted from the room.
She ran outside, and from the porch, she scanned the crowd. Odds were Sebastian was already at the arbor with Finn and Colton. Then she spotted him by the barn.
As if he could read her mind, he looked toward the house and saw her. She waved to him, beckoning him. And he didn’t need any more of an invitation than that. He started to make his way toward her.
She didn’t want to talk to him here, so she walked around the side of the house to Colton’s old swing.
Only, it wasn’t an old swing anymore. She didn’t need to ask to know who’d fixed it.
* * *
SEBASTIAN SAW LILY wave at him from the farmhouse porch, then disappear from sight. He knew where she was going.
He left Hank with Lily’s mom and followed Lily.
She stood next to the swing, smiling warmly. He thought he knew all her expressions, but he wasn’t sure what this one was. “Are you okay?”
“Are you talking to me again?” she asked, still smiling.
“I never stopped talking to you,” he said. “What’s going on?”
“Sebastian, I...” She hesitated. “I want to be as brave as you. I need to be.”
He scoffed, “I’m not brave.”
She took his scarred hand in her own. “You are. You had your whole life planned out. You knew the awful risks, yet you went anyway. Joined the marines. Put yourself on the line to do what you thought was right. But that’s not how things played out, and so you’re here, building yourself a new life. You’re helping your grandfather, the entire community. You faced something hard and here you are...doing so much good. Falling in love with me.”
“Lily, I—”
“Let me finish,” she said. “I need to take all these feelings and put them into words for my own sake as well as yours. I’m humbled by all of you—mom, Hank, you, Sebastian. When I realized I couldn’t marry Justin, I assumed I couldn’t marry because there was too much fear left from my childhood. But what I’ve now figured out is that with Justin it wasn’t fear. What it was, or rather what it wasn’t, was love. I didn’t love him. Not like I should have. I loved the idea of him. I loved the idea of his family. But that’s not the same thing.
“It’s not that I haven�
��t been afraid. It’s that I haven’t let my fear drive my life, not even in love—though I didn’t know that before you.”
He knew something of fear. It was what he felt whenever he thought of a life without Lily. But suddenly, he felt hope, not fear. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I’m saying I lied when I asked you not to fall in love with me. Do. Fall in love with me because...” She took a deep breath. “Because I love you. I’m not sure how it’ll be, all of us together, and in Valley Ridge, but it’ll be good, Sebastian. We can be good together.”
That was all he needed. Sebastian took Lily into his arms and held her tight as he asked, “When did you figure it out? I thought I’d have to wait a lot longer.”
“I was standing with Mattie and Sophie upstairs, in the house. I saw their expressions in the mirror...what it looked like to be in love. And when I looked at myself, I saw it there, too. Love. All my jumbled thoughts and emotions fell into place and I knew. But that’s not the moment that I fell in love with you. I think it was when you told me what happened, about your injury. When I understood that you trusted me. And even though I wasn’t ready to admit that I loved you, I obviously did, because I told you about my past. I told you things I’ve never told anyone. Because I do love you.”
He kissed her then. It wasn’t the first time they’d kissed. There had been kisses of greeting, of passion. There had been kisses for comfort.
But this one... This one was all about love.
“Fall in love with me,” she repeated.
“It’s too late for that,” he assured her. “I’ve been in love with you for a long time.”
They stood next to the swing, him in his dress blues, Lily in her blue bridesmaid’s dress. They held each other and they didn’t say anything because everything that needed to be said had been said. They loved each other.
Sebastian had truly found who he was now, and where he belonged. It wasn’t in Valley Ridge, like he’d thought, but rather it was here in Lily’s arms.
“Fall in love with me, okay?” she asked. “Just fall in love with me every day.”
“That’s exactly what I’ll do,” he promised.
EPILOGUE
SOPHIE ASKED, “Are you okay?” Lily had just returned to Colton’s bedroom.
“What happened?” Mattie chimed in.
Lily wanted to tell them about her conversation with Sebastian—she wanted to tell the whole world that she was in love with the man, but this was Sophie’s day, so all she said was, “It’s a wedding and everything’s beautifully decorated and ready. I’m so happy I—”
She was interrupted by a knock on the door.
Mattie’s mother came into the room and said, “The minister’s arrived, so it’s time.” She paused to look at each of them. “You girls are so gorgeous.”
“They’re gorgeous. I’m cleaned up a bit,” Mattie teased.
“Gorgeous,” her mother declared again as she kissed Mattie’s cheek.
Mattie’s mom went ahead of them to ask Randy, the guitarist, to begin the processional.
Lily and Mattie flanked Sophie as they walked up the path together.
“Are you nervous?” Mattie asked.
“No.” Sophie practically glowed with happiness. “I’ve got my something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. How could anything go wrong?” She gave them each a smile as they crested the rise.
Lily wanted to take in every detail. She wanted to remember everything about how the sun reflected on Colton’s fields and the woods beyond. She’d worked so hard to help Sophie organize this perfect day.
Mismatched folding chairs holding half of Valley Ridge’s population were disguised with Sophie’s shades-of-white lace and ribbons. The light breeze sent the ends of the ribbons waving, as if even the chairs were applauding this marriage.
Farther down the aisle, she saw Colton’s surprise for Sophie—the pristine arbor that had flowering vines along the sides and above the arch at the top. There were more white roses woven among them.
Lily glanced to her right and saw the guitarist playing. The guests were standing and turning to look back at them.
She spotted her mother and Hank and gave them a small wave.
In the blink of an eye, Lily forgot to take in the rest of the details. She barely registered the people who’d come to share Sophie and Colton’s day. All she could do was gaze at Sebastian, waiting by the arbor.
Step.
Pause.
Step.
Pause.
Sebastian in his dress blues.
Sebastian smiling at her.
Sebastian, the man she loved.
She wanted nothing more than to run to his side, but she kept her steady pace.
Step.
Pause.
Step.
Pause.
At the arbor, to Sebastian, she mouthed the words I love you.
Lily watched as Mattie joined her and couldn’t help but notice that her friend only had eyes for Finn.
Finally, it was Sophie’s turn. Sophie’s steps were faster than they should have been.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Split-second pause.
Step.
Step.
Step.
As Sophie reached Colton, he reached over and drew out a new, dressier-looking cowboy hat and plopped it on his head, which made Sophie laugh.
They joined hands and faced the minister. Hank’s wind chimes sounded in the mild breeze. The blue June sky was brilliant. The faint scent of flowers perfumed the air.
The minister took a deep breath, ready to begin the service in earnest. “Dearly beloved...” A voice from among the beribboned chairs called out, “I object.”
There was total silence, then the noise of everyone turning to stare at a young, blue-haired girl at the back of the bride’s side of the aisle. “You can’t get married yet! Not when I’ve worked so hard to find you. No. It’s not fair.”
* * * * *
Don’t miss the exciting conclusion to A VALLEY RIDGE WEDDING with Sophie and Colton’s own story coming next month from Harlequin Superromance! A Walk Down the Aisle will be available June 2013 wherever Harlequin books are sold.
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Other Side of Us by Sarah Mayberry!
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CHAPTER ONE
IT WAS WET and dark and cold. At first she didn’t know where she was, then she realized she was in the car, the wipers working overtime, the road a shiny black ribbon stretching in front of her. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, but it felt rubbery and insubstantial beneath her hands. Panic welled inside her. She knew what was coming next. What always came next.
Then she saw it, the dark mass of rocks blocking the middle of the curving mountain road. Her scream was swallowed by the explosive crash of glass breaking and metal crushing as the car hit, then there was nothing but pain and the realization that she was going to die out here on this godforsaken stretch of road....
Mackenzie Williams bolted upright, heart racing, sweat cold and clammy on her body. The bedclothes were a heavy tangle around her legs and for a few disoriented seconds she fought to free herself before reality reasserted itself.
She was alive. She was at the beach h
ouse in Flinders. And she ached. God, how she ached. Her hips, her shoulder, her back...
She scrubbed her face with both hands, then let out her breath on an exhausted sigh. It had been almost two months since she’d had a nightmare and she’d hoped they were a thing of the past. No such luck, apparently.
She threw off the covers then swung her legs to the floor. Her joints and muscles protested the action, as they always did first thing in the morning or when she’d been sitting in the same position for too long. She gritted her teeth and pushed herself to her feet anyway. If she waited till the pain stopped, she’d never get anything done.
It was still dark outside and the floor was cool beneath her feet. She shuffled forward a few steps until she found her slippers, then reached for her dressing gown.
She could hear the skitter of Mr. Smith’s claws in the hall outside her bedroom and she smiled as she opened the door.
“Hello, Smitty. How you doin’?” she asked as he began his morning happy dance, walking back and forth in front of her with his tail wagging madly, his body wiggling from side to side.
“I’m going to take that as a ‘very well, thank you very much.’ Shall we go outside?”
Mackenzie made her way to the living room. The bitter morning chill was like a slap in the face when she opened the French doors, but it didn’t stop Mr. Smith from slipping past her and out into the gray dawn light. Mackenzie followed him, stopping at the top of the deck steps, arms wrapped around her torso as she looked out over the jungle that was her yard.
The air was so frigid it hurt her nose. She inhaled great lungfuls of the stuff and let the last remnants of the nightmare fall away.
It was just a dream, after all. She wasn’t dying. She was alive. She’d survived, against all odds. Better yet, she was on the track to a full recovery and resumption of her former life.
Which reminded her...
She left the door open for Mr. Smith before collecting her iPad from where it was charging on the kitchen counter. One click told her that Gordon hadn’t responded to her email. Again.