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He smiled at the sauciness in her voice, but then he got serious. Because while finding her in his bed made him happier than hell, he realized that if she didn’t love him back, then this was never going to work between them. “Sarah—”
“No, it’s my turn to talk,” she said, wetting her lips like she was nervous. “I don’t want you to be here waiting for me, Luke. I don’t want either of us to have to wait for each other. I’m buying The Bistro. Well, that is, Lucy and I are buying it together. I want to live here permanently. With you.”
“Because?”
“Because I love you,” she said simply.
He took a deep breath. “I see. So, what’s in it for me?”
She made a face. “Are you serious?”
He nodded.
“A woman who loves you with all her heart. A real home that you can come back to at the end of the day. And…all the macaroni and cheese you want.”
He threw his head back and laughed. This woman who’d somehow managed to sneak into his house and into his heart was everything he never knew he wanted, and now knew he could never live without. Marriage and kids, they were definitely on the horizon for Luke Powers.
He and Sarah had a good life ahead of them. Correction: They had a great life ahead, one that he could have never dreamed possible before her.
THE END
Want to find out what happens to Jenna Pantini? She might not have won Luke’s heart, but that’s okay with her because Jenna has a little secret. As an added bonus I’ve included Chapter One of CAN’T STOP THE FEELING, available now!
Can’t Stop the Feeling
Jenna Pantini knew she had a bad temper. She’d inherited it, along with her red hair from her Nana. But over the years she’d learned to master it. She could be calm, cool and collected under the most grueling of circumstances. It was one of the reasons that at the tender age of thirty-one she’d earned the much-coveted city manager position in Whispering Bay, a well-established beach community in Florida’s growing panhandle region.
She stopped writing mid-sentence and laid down her pen. Her fingers felt oddly numb. This newest development in the Earl Handy estate had to be a coincidence. Because fate couldn’t be this cruel.
“Did you say the attorney representing Earl’s daughter is named Ben Harrison?” It couldn’t be her Ben Harrison. Although, technically, he’d never been hers.
“Why? Do you know him?” asked Pilar Diaz-Rothman, Whispering Bay’s attorney. As the new city manager, Jenna had worked with Pilar for almost a month now. The Cuban-American lawyer was petite with chin-length dark hair and fierce brown eyes. Before Jenna could answer, Pilar said, “Of course you know him. Everyone in Florida has heard of Ben Harrison.”
The mayor, who up to now had been silent, leaned back in her chair. “I’ve never heard of him.” With the palm of her hand, Mimi Grant began to rub soothing little circles over her beach ball of a belly. Being seven months pregnant with twins in the late September Florida heat had to suck.
Jenna reached across the table and poured her a glass of water. “Y
ou need to stay well hydrated. At this point in your pregnancy, your body has fifty percent more blood to circulate.”
Lifelong friends, Mimi and Pilar exchanged a look. “How on earth do you know that?” Pilar asked Jenna.
“Yeah,” Mimi said. “This is my third pregnancy, and I couldn’t have quoted that as easily as you just did.”
“I must have picked that up somewhere.”
Where she’d read (or heard) that little pregnancy tidbit, Jenna couldn’t say. She only knew that she knew it. As a child, she was always blurting things out without thinking. Growing up, she’d learned to curtail her instinct, but every once in a while, her inner-know-it-all escaped to create some damage before she could lock her back up.
Mimi repositioned herself in the chair, then let out a long sigh.
“Why are you making that face?” Pilar eyed Mimi like a protective mama cat would her kitten. “You’re not having contractions, are you? Because it’s way too soon for that.”
“Nope. No contractions. It’s just that ever since the twins have declared themselves, it’s like they’re trying to one-up each other. I can’t tell who’s on top and who’s on the bottom.”
In what had been the most talked about event in Whispering Bay history (at least in the past month), Mimi and her husband, police chief Zeke Grant, had hosted a gender reveal party only to discover that they were having not one, but two babies. A girl and a boy, bringing their brood up to four children.
Jenna inwardly cringed. It wasn’t that she didn’t like children. She had two nieces that she adored more than life itself. Children were perfectly wonderful. As long as they behaved and belonged to someone else. Maybe one day she would have a child of her own. If the circumstances were right. But she wasn’t one of those women who believed her life would be incomplete without a husband and kids. Nope. Her personal happiness would never depend on someone else.
“It’s a good thing you’re not having contractions because we need to keep those babies in the oven for a couple more months,” Pilar said.
