Fall in Love

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Fall in Love Page 393

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.

  I have a mailing list that I use to give readers a heads-up about new releases and big sales. If you sign up, you’ll also be given an opportunity to read new releases before they hit stores!

  SIGN UP FOR ZOE’S MAILING LIST HERE: http://eepurl.com/yIdq1

  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)

  Sign up for Zoe’s mailing list today!

  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

  I’d love to have you join my Facebook reader group! Click on the link, or search “Wardham Ambassadors” on Facebook.

  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

 

 

 


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