by Anthology
She glanced around the van at her travel companions. How had they not noticed that she’d been vibrating with excitement all day? Maybe they thought it was the countdown to the start of filming. Her lips twisted in a secret smile. The job was awesome. But a baby was magical.
They’d all met at the Blue Heron Lane cottages, but as they drove out of the park and got on the highway heading south, her phone chimed. I’m home. Soup for dinner? She leaned forward and asked the driver if he could drop her off at home instead. No sense in backtracking. Rafe was off tomorrow, he could drive her to her car. Twenty minutes later, she hopped out of the van and bid everyone a distracted goodbye.
Inside, the smell of ginger and garlic swirled through the air. They’d made a giant batch of dinners on the weekend in anticipation of their first week of duelling schedules from hell, and had agreed whomever got home first would do the re-heating. She found her husband in the kitchen. He was slicing a baguette and a round of herbed soft cheese sat on a plate.
“You want some wine?” Rafe asked after she kissed him soundly.
She shook her head and smiled. “How was your day?”
He returned the smile, and his stretched all the way to his eyes. “Really good. For me. Not so much for the guy I arrested after a traffic stop turned into a seizure.”
“Drugs?” She scanned his face, looking for any sign that it had been difficult.
He nodded and leaned in to nuzzle her nose. “And it was fine. I did my job, all went well.”
“Any worry that it might not?”
He shrugged. “No more than I had in the past.”
“Well…yay!” She laughed. “Except for the guy who got arrested, I mean.”
“How about you?”
“Good. I’ve got pages of questions that I need to answer tomorrow, but we’ll be inside the whole day. And in cell range.”
“Yeah, I tried to call you at lunch time.” He mock-pouted and she kissed his lower lip. “Your phone’s going to blow up with sad, lonely text messages from me any minute now.”
“Awww, poor muffin.” She slid her hands under his shirt and let out a happy sigh at the warm flesh stretched over hard muscles. Rafe responded with a yelp. “What, are my hands cold?”
“Jesus, baby!” Muscles corded under her hands but he didn’t pull away. His warmth transferred to her as she snuggled close.
“So I wanted to talk to you about something…” She smiled against the soft cotton of his t-shirt.
“Can it wait until after we eat?”
She bit her lip to hold back a laugh as his stomach rumbled. “Yep. It’s not urgent.”
Rafe cracked a beer and they tucked into the soup and bread. She waved off the bottle each time he offered it until he finally stopped and looked at her carefully. “You feeling okay?”
“Yes.” Bliss filled her entire body as she grinned and repeated her answer.
He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Good.”
After they ate, Olivia quickly washed the dishes while Rafe stood at their DVD shelf and called out movie suggestions. She giggled to herself. They weren’t going to watch a movie. She was going to take her husband to bed in forty-five seconds. She lifted her voice so he would hear her. “So I was thinking about work. After the movie ends, Frank will be able to give me full-time hours to the end of the summer. After that…”
She felt him fill the doorway to the kitchen as she dried the second bowl and set it on the shelf. He didn’t say anything, just stood there. Big and strong and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he’d go anywhere she asked him to—but she’d found everything she’d ever need in Pine Harbour.
“After that,” she said, patting her tummy. “I thought I’d get to work on the nursery.” She made sure she’d turned fully as she said the second part, because there was no way she would miss the massive grin that spread across her husband’s face.
“Yeah?” He jumped up, slapping the top of the door frame as he let out a yell, then he picked her up and spun her in a circle. She shrieked and wrapped her arms tight around his neck. He slowly lowered her back to the floor, but he kept her close. “Thank you,” he whispered just before he covered her mouth with his.
THE END
Want more Pine Harbour?
Jake Foster fell in love with Dani Minelli when she was a colt-legged high school senior that he knew he was way too old to look at, let alone touch. Dani’s been trying to get his attention since returning to Pine Harbour a grown woman—and failing miserably at every turn. Their stormy single night together, and the fallout, sizzles up the pages of Love in a Snow Storm, available now.
If you liked Pine Harbour, you’ll love my Wardham series. The first two books in the series are currently available for free on all retailers.
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AN EXCERPT FROM LOVE IN A SNOW STORM
— PROLOGUE —
Five years earlier
NOTHING said unnecessary risk exposure like a man nearing his thirties wading into a teenage house party.
“You need to lighten up, man.”
Jake Foster gave his brother Matt a scathing glare. If one of them needed to do anything, it was Matt, and the thing was grow up. “Let’s just get Sean and drag him home before the Colonel gets wind of him getting blitzed again.”
“Dad needs to lighten up, too.”
“Maybe I should call Dean and get him to shut this party down.” Their older brother was an OPP officer. He wasn’t quite the stick-in-the-mud that Jake knew he’d become, but the two of them were the more responsible pair by far. Matt and Sean, four and eight years younger respectively, were unapologetic party animals.
They sat in the cab of Jake’s truck, staring at each other for a minute in a futile game of chicken—Jake wasn’t going to call the cops. Matt wasn’t going to push further. Neither of them was happy about having to pick up their drunk-ass brother on a Saturday night.
“Come on, let’s get this over with.” Jake hopped out of the truck and strode up the long country drive of the oversized farmhouse, heading toward the sights and sounds of a party falling apart. Intoxicated, belligerent young people spilled out on the veranda and across the lawn. None of them looked like high school students—mostly college-aged kids. And it sounded like the party had definitely gone awry. Bitter noises filled the air around him about stolen money and not enough beer. He scanned the faces, many of them familiar to him, and a sick feeling filled his gut. Halfway up the drive, he turned around and shoved Matt hard in the chest. “We’re not just picking up Sean, are we? Is Dani in there?”
Matt winced, caught in his half-truth. “She’s the one that called, not Sean. They’re hanging out back where it’s quieter.”
Jake swore under his breath and took off at a run, swerving around two former football players shoving each other. Idiots.
The din faded as they hit the backyard. A smaller group of people sat in a circle, passing a bottle around. One guy had his guitar out. Jake’s heart pounded as he scanned for her face.
“Over here.” Her voice lifted into the air behind him and he spun around. They sat on the porch, Sean leaning heavily against her shoulder. She had a hoodie draped awkwardly over half her body, but underneath that she was wearing a tiny tank top. He was sure that when she stood up there’d be a few inches of bare skin between her shirt and her snug-as-fuck blue jeans that she always wore, and then he’d be screwed.
At least it was dark. There was a passing chance no one would notice that he was turned on by his best friend’s little sister.
THE PINE HARBOUR SERIES
Love in a Small Town
Love in a Snow Storm
Love on a Spring Morning (expected Spring 2015)
Love on a Winter’s N
ight (expected Fall 2015)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zoe York lives in London, Ontario with her young family. She’s currently chugging Americanos, wiping sticky fingers, and dreaming of heroes in and out of uniform.
www.zoeyork.com
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BOOKS BY ZOE YORK
Pine Harbour
Love in a Small Town
Love in a Snow Storm
Wardham
Between Then and Now
What Once Was Perfect
Where Their Hearts Collide
When They Weren’t Looking
Beyond Love and Hate
Perfect No Matter What
No Time Like Forever
Beneath These Bright Stars
SEALs Undone
Fall Out
Fall Hard
Fall Away
Fall Deep*
* exclusively being shared with newsletter subscribers as I write it
COPYRIGHT
All books included with permission
A Bride for a Billionaire
Copyright © 2014 Lauren Hawkeye
Arouse
Copyright Nina Lane
Caught Up in Her
Copyright 2014 by Lauren Blakely
Come Monday
Copyright Mari Carr
Crashing Down
Copyright 2014 by Cathryn Fox
Getting Out of Hand
Copyright 2014 by Erin Nicholas
Grif
Copyright © 2013 Bianca D’Arc
LOVE IN A SMALL TOWN
Copyright 2014 Zoe York
LOVERS AT HEART
Copyright © 2013 Melissa Foster
My First: Jason & Katie
Copyright Melanie Shawn
One Hot Fall Term
Copyright © 2013 by Edith E. Bruce
ROCKED
© 2014 Taryn Elliott & Cari Quinn
Rumor Has It
Copyright 2013 by Elisabeth Grace
Summer of Change: The Springs, 1
Copyright © 2014 Elena Aitken
Tainted
Copyright © 2009, 2013 Julie Kenner
Originally published in mass market format by The Penguin Group
Tear
Copyright © 2012 RACHEL VAN DYKEN
Tempt Me, Cowboy
Copyright © 2014 Megan Crane
The Tule Publishing Group, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Through My Window
Copyright Jayne Ryon
Two Are Better Than One
Copyright © April 2012 by Suzanne Rock
Weekends With the Tycoon
Copyright Kaira Rouda
The Tule Publishing Group, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED