by Lia Farrell
Ben took something from the pocket of the tuxedo jacket hanging on the back of his chair and walked around to her side of the table. He got down on one knee in front of Mae.
“I know we’ve been together less than a year, but I’ve never been more certain of anything.” He opened his hand to show her a gold ring set with a glowing ruby. She held her breath. “Mae December, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
Everyone had stopped dancing and moved to stand in a half circle behind Ben. She looked from her mother’s tearful face to her best friend’s smile and her father’s encouraging nod. The song faded away, and even Jill and her band were hanging on Mae’s answer.
“Yes, I will,” her voice rang out in the sudden silence. Ben slipped the ring on her finger with a broad smile. “As long as we can have a longer engagement than Tammy and Patrick did. I need a little time to recover before I start planning another wedding.”
Ben got to his feet, holding out his hand. “Dance with me.” The music started again and he held her close. As they swayed in time, he whispered in her ear, “We could elope. I know a judge who would marry us next weekend, if you’d like.”
“I’m getting married in a church.” Mae pulled away slightly, looking up into Ben’s smiling face. He winked.
“Well, Mae December, I guess that means I am too.”
* * *
Lia Farrell is actually two people: the mother and daughter writing team of Lyn Farquhar and Lisa Fitzsimmons.
Lyn Farquhar taught herself to read when she was four years old and honed her storytelling abilities by reading to her little sister, Susan. Ultimately, her mother ended the reading sessions because Susan decided she preferred being read to rather than learning to read herself.
Lyn fell in love with library books when a Bookmobile came to her one-room rural school. The day the Bookmobile came, Lyn decided she would rather live in the bookmobile than at home and was only ousted following sustained efforts by her teacher and the bookmobile driver.
She graduated from Okemos High school and earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Michigan State University. She has a master’s degree in English literature and a PhD in Education, but has always maintained that she remained a student for such a long time only because it gave her an excuse to read.
Lyn is Professor of Medical Education at Michigan State University and has authored many journal articles, abstracts and research grants. Since her retirement from MSU to become a full-time writer, she has completed a young-adult fantasy trilogy called Tales of the Skygrass Kingdom. Volumes I and II (Journey to Maidenstone and Songs of Skygrass), available on amazon.com. Lyn has two daughters and six step children, nine granddaughters and three grandsons. She also has two extremely spoiled Welsh corgis. Her hobby is interior design and she claims she has the equivalent of a master’s degree in Interior Design from watching way too many decorating shows.
Lisa Fitzsimmons grew up in Michigan and was always encouraged to read, write, and express herself artistically. She was read to frequently. Throughout her childhood and teenage years, she was seldom seen without a book in hand. After becoming a mom at a young age, she attended Michigan State University in a tri-emphasis program with concentrations in Fine Art, Art History and Interior Design.
Lisa, with her husband and their two children, moved to North Carolina for three exciting years and then on to Tennessee, which she now calls home. She has enjoyed an eighteen-year career as a Muralist and Interior Designer in middle Tennessee, but has always been interested in writing. Almost five years ago, Lisa and her mom, Lyn, began working on a writing project inspired by local events. The Mae December Mystery series was born.
Lisa, her husband and their three dogs currently divide their time between beautiful Northern Michigan in the summertime and middle Tennessee the rest of the year. She and her husband feel blessed that their “empty nest” in Tennessee is just a short distance from their oldest, who has a beautiful family of her own. Their youngest child has settled in Northern Michigan, close to their cabin there. Life is good.
Three Dog Day is the third book in the May December Mystery Series, which began with One Dog Too Many and Two Dogs Lie Sleeping. Next up: Four Downward Facing Dogs.
You can find Lyn and Lisa online at www.liafarrell.net.