Epilogue
IT SEEMED LIKE the whole town of Oak Falls showed up for the opening of the new youth center. It was a beautiful spring morning, and people spilled over from the lawn to the sidewalks. Haylie had hired the rest of the staff, and they were gathered at the front of the crowd. Sin stood tall and protective beside the group. They’d put together a great team, and Gage was excited for what they could do for the community. Sable’s band played their own original upbeat country songs on a makeshift stage in the grass, where Brindle and two other girls danced with Justus, Trace, and another beefy guy. Gage’s eyes found his beautiful wife as she gathered Danica and Blake’s new bundle of joy, Harrison, in her arms. The adorable dark-haired baby was named for Blake’s father. Sally’s lily-white hair had gotten thicker with her pregnancy, falling loose and sexy over her shoulders. Her eyes caught the morning sunlight as she cradled the baby. Her pretty peach dress gathered just above her baby bump, swishing in the gentle breeze around her legs. Her breasts and cheeks had gotten fuller, and she looked radiant. Her gaze drifted to Gage, and a smile lifted her lips. His pulse amped up, the way it always did when she caught his attention.
She dropped one hand to her round belly and mouthed, I love you.
He blew her a kiss, unable to believe it had been less than two months since they’d returned from their two-week honeymoon in Anguilla, where they’d taken long romantic walks on the white sandy beaches and spent their evenings beneath the stars making plans for their future and falling deeper in love. So many wonderful things had happened lately. Blue and Lizzie’s wedding had been beautiful, and they had loved the mosaic tray Sally had made for them. Trish and Boone had won Oscars for the movie they’d starred in together, and now they were going to have a baby of their own. Gage woke up every morning half expecting to find out it was all a dream.
Marilynn Montgomery, Sable and Brindle’s mother, came to his side. “I need you to open a youth center every three months. Think you can handle that? I can’t believe you got all six of my seven children in one place at the same time. My oldest, Grace, is a playwright in New York City and couldn’t be here.” She pointed to two girls standing a few feet away. “At least Pepper made it back. That’s her over there with her sister Morgyn. Pepper’s a scientist, and you know how they are—all work all the time. I need to find a way to get Grace and Pepper back home for good. You don’t have a few single brothers hanging out, do you? I miss my girls something awful.”
“Sorry. I was the last single Ryder.” Although in his heart he hadn’t been single for several years. He’d been Sally’s from the very start of their friendship.
“Well, that’s good, I guess.” She motioned toward the handsome man heading toward them with a halo of women surrounding him. All the world knew about Axsel Montgomery, one of the hottest musicians around. “Axsel is our only boy.”
“The rock star.” Gage wondered if he knew Boone. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if he and Sally had a son, would he be into sports or would he find his own path?
“Yes. Why do these young women think they can turn a gay man straight?” She laughed softly. “Thank you for unknowingly bringing my family together. You’ve done great things for this community, and you’ve hired a strong staff. Sinny and Haylie are good people.”
Sinny. He’d have to give him a hard time about that one. “Thank you. We can’t wait to see how things turn out.”
His attention returned to his wife. It never strayed far. She handed Danica the baby and headed his way with a thoughtful expression. It took all of his willpower not to step away from the lovely Mrs. Montgomery and go to his wife. But after she’d come out early with Sable and Brindle and had helped them set up, he didn’t want to be rude.
“Is this your first child?” she asked.
Gage’s chest swelled with pride. “It’s our first, but we have a twenty-year-old boy, my stepson, who cannot wait to meet his baby brother or sister.” He and Sally had also talked about trying to have more children relatively quickly. He was thrilled that Rusty seemed to be okay with that, too.
“There’s nothing like siblings to bring a family closer together. Speaking of family…”
A pretty brunette walking a golden retriever waved Marilynn over.
“That’s my daughter Amber. I’d better go see what trouble they’re cooking up for tonight. Best of luck with your baby.” Marilynn crossed the grassy lawn, stopping to chat with Sally. She embraced her, touched her belly, then went to join her children.
Sally headed his way with a seductive glimmer in her eyes. Her queasiness had dissipated and was replaced with sexual hunger. Pregnancy hormones, she’d told him. Another reason to have more kids.
He reached for her, gathering her close. “How’s my beautiful bird?”
“Ready to go back to the hotel.”
“Tired?”
She pressed a kiss to his lips and whispered, “Not even a little.”
Continue reading for a sneak peek of the first book in The Montgomerys series, as well as a preview of Danica and Blake’s story, SISTERS IN LOVE (currently FREE).
Meet the Montgomerys!
Welcome to Oak Falls, Virginia, home to horse farms, midnight rodeos, bookstores, coffee shops, and quaint restaurants where you’re greeted like family and treated like treasured guests. Buckle up for a wild ride. Like any Southern girls worth their salt, the sweet-talking, sharp-tongued Montgomery sisters can take men to their knees with one seductive glance or a single sugarcoated sentence.
Please enjoy this sneak peek of the first book in The Montgomerys series,
In EMBRACING HER HEART…
Leaving New York City and returning to her hometown to teach a three-week screenplay writing class seems like just the break Grace Montgomery needs. Until her sisters wake her at four thirty in the morning to watch the hottest guys in town train wild horses and she realizes that escaping her sisters’ drama-filled lives was a lot easier from hundreds of miles away. To make matters worse, she spots the one man she never wanted to see again—ruggedly handsome Reed Cross.
Reed was one of Michigan’s leading historical preservation experts, but on the heels of catching his fiancée in bed with his business partner, his uncle suffers a heart attack. Reed cuts all ties and returns home to Oak Falls to run his uncle’s business. A chance encounter with Grace, his first love, brings back memories he’s spent years trying to escape.
Grace is bound and determined not to fall under Reed’s spell again—and Reed wants more than another taste of the woman he’s never forgotten. When a midnight party brings them together, passion ignites and old wounds are opened. Grace sets down the ground rules for the next three weeks. No touching, no kissing, and if she has it her way, no breathing, because every breath he takes steals her ability to think. But Reed has other ideas…
Chapter One
“Ouch!”
Brindle? Grace blinked awake at the sound of whispers in the dark room. It took her a moment to remember she was in her childhood bedroom at her parents’ home in Virginia, and not in her Manhattan loft. She narrowed her eyes, trying to decipher which of her five sisters were intent on waking her up at…She shifted her eyes to the clock. Four thirty in the morning?
“Shh. You’re such a klutz.”
Sable. Of course. Who else would think it was okay to wake her up at this hour besides Brindle, her youngest and most rebellious sister, and Sable, the night owl?
“I tripped over a suitcase,” Brindle whispered. Something thunked. “Oh shit!” She tumbled onto the bed in a fit of laughter, bringing Sable down with her—right on top of Grace, who let out an “Oomph!” as her cat, Clayton, leapt off the bed and tore out of the room.
“Shh! You’ll wake Mom and Dad,” Sable whispered.
“What are you doing?” Grace tried to keep a straight face, but her sisters’ laughter was contagious. She covered her mouth as laughter bubbled out. The last thing she needed was to be awake at this hour after a grueling twelve-hour workday and a painfully long drive, but her sisters were excited about Grace coming home, and if Grace were honest with herself, despite the mounds of scripts she had to get through during her visit, she was excited to see them, too. She hadn’t been home since Christmas, and it was already May.
“Get up.” Brindle tugged her up from the bed and felt around on the floor. “We’re going out, just like old times.” She threw the slacks and blouse Grace had worn home the night before in Grace’s face. “Get dressed.”
“I’m not going—”
“Shut up and take this off.” Sable pulled Grace’s silk nighty over her head despite Grace’s struggles to stop her. She knew it was a futile effort. What Sable wanted, Sable got. Even though she was a year younger than Grace, she’d always been the pushiest of them all.
Grace reluctantly stepped into her slacks. “Where are we going?” She reached for her hairbrush as Brindle grabbed her hand and tugged her out the bedroom door. “Wait! My shoes!”’
“We’ll grab Mom’s boots from by the door,” Sable said, flanking her other side as they hurried down the stairwell tripping over each other.
“I’m not wearing cowgirl boots.” Grace had worked hard to shake the country-bumpkin habits that were as deeply ingrained as her love for her sisters. Habits like hair twirling, saying y’all, and wearing cutoffs and cowgirl boots, the hallmarks of her youth. She stood on the sprawling front porch with her hands on her hips, staring down at her sisters, who were waiting for her to put on her mother’s boots.
“Step into them or I swear I’ll make you climb that hill barefoot, and you know that’s not fun,” Sable said.
“God! You two are royal pains in the ass.” Grace shoved her feet in the boots. They’re only boots. They don’t erase all of my hard work. Oak Falls might be where her roots had sprouted, but they’d since spread far and wide, and she was never—ever—going to be that small-town girl again. Boots or not.
The moon illuminated the path before them as they crossed the grass toward the familiar hill. Grace groaned. They were taking her to Hottie Hill. Great. She wondered why she hadn’t tossed them out of her bedroom and locked the door instead of going along with their crazy like-old-times plan. Three weeks at home would be both a blessing and a curse. Grace loved her sisters, but she imagined three weeks of Sable playing her guitar until all hours of the night and her other younger sisters popping in and out with their dogs and drama, all while their mother carefully threw out queries about their dating lives and their father tried not to growl at their responses.
Brindle strutted up the steep hill in her cowgirl boots and barely there sundress, expertly avoiding the dips and ruts in the grass, while Grace hurried behind her, trying to keep up.
Sable reached the peak of the hill first and turned on her cowgirl-booted heels, placed her hands on her hips, and grinning like a fool, she whispered, “Hurry up! You’ll miss it!”
It was one thing to deal with family drama from afar, when all it took was a quick excuse to get off the phone, but three weeks? Grace couldn’t even blame her decision on being drunk at the time she’d made the plans, since she had been stone-cold sober when her sister Amber had asked her to help bolster her bookstore’s presence by hosting a week-long playwriting course. You made it, Gracie! You’re such an inspiration to everyone here, Amber had pleaded. Besides, Brindle is leaving soon for Paris, and it’s the last time we’ll all be together for months. It’ll be like old times. How could she say no to Amber, the sweetest of them all?
Grace slipped on the hill and caught herself seconds before she face-planted in the grass. “Damn it! This is the last thing I want to be doing right now.” She should be sleeping. She had a pile of scripts to read through tomorrow for her next production.
“Shh,” Brindle chided as she reached for Grace’s hand.
Sable ran down the hill annoyingly fast, holding her black cowgirl hat in place atop her long dark hair with one hand and reached for Grace with the other. “Get up, you big baby.”
“I can’t believe you dragged my ass out of bed for this. What are we? Twelve?” Grace asked in her own harsh whisper.
“Twelve-year-olds don’t sneak out to watch the hottest men in Oak Falls break in horses,” Brindle said as they reached the top of the hill.
“Liar. We’ve been doing it since you were twelve,” Sable reminded her.
“I can’t believe they’re still doing this at this ungodly hour.” They were the Jericho brothers, and they’d been breaking in horses before dawn since they were teens. They claimed it was the only time they had before the heat of the day hit, but Grace thought it had more to do with it feeling more exciting doing it before the break of day.
The Jericho brothers were the hottest guys around Oak Falls. Well, at least since Reed Cross left town after high school graduation. Grace tried to tamp down thoughts of the guy who had taken her virginity and turned her heart inside out. The man she’d turned away in pursuit of her production career—and the person she’d compared every single man to ever since. She refused to let herself go down memory lane. She was living her dream, producing plays in New York City, just as she’d always dreamed, and she wasn’t going to let anything dampen that joy.
“I’m exhausted,” Grace complained as they reached the peak of the hill overlooking the Jerichos’ corral.
“It’s not like I haven’t seen these guys a million times,” she pleaded. “Besides, Brindle, you’ve slept with Trace more times than you can probably count. Why are we even—”
“Shh!” Brindle and Sable said in unison as they pulled Grace down to her knees.
She followed their gazes to the illuminated corral below where the four Jericho brothers, Trace, Justus, Shane, and Jeb, and a handful of other shirtless, jeans-clad guys were milling about. They were always shirtless, because what men weren’t when they were proving they were the manliest of the group?
“Trace and I are over,” Brindle whispered. “For real this time.” Brindle and Trace had had an on-again-off-again relationship forever. They were a hopeless case of rebellious guy and rebellious girl, up for anything risky. Two people who didn’t have a chance in hell of ever settling down but seemed to fill a need in each other’s lives—or at least in their beds.
Grace and her sisters had spent many hours as teenagers lying on this same hill when they should have been sleeping, watching the Jericho brothers and other local guys break wild horses or rope cattle. Their sister Amber had come with them only twice, because they’d forced her to. As the most reserved of the sisters, Amber had been more embarrassed than turned on by the shirtless cock-and-bull show, and the girls had stopped dragging her along. Grace wished Sable and Brindle had let her sleep this morning. Maybe she should start acting shy.
She laughed to herself. Shy? Right. She’d blazed a path in a man’s world, in New York City. There was no room for shy in her repertoire. And there was no room for this nonsense anymore, either. She pushed up onto her knees. “Brindle, maybe at twenty-four this is still fun, but I’m twenty-nine. I’m so far past this it’s not even funny.”
“God, Grace! You’ve turned into a workaholic ice queen,” Sable whispered as she yanked Grace back down to her stomach. “And I, your very loving sister, who feels the need to keep you young, aim to fix that. Starting now.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Ice queen? Just because I’ve grown up and don’t find this type of thing fun anymore?” As she said the words the men below walked out of the corral.
“Ice queen because you think you’re too good for—” Sable swallowed her words as Trace and Justus pushed open the enormous wooden barn doors and a wild horse blasted into the corral with a shirtless man on its back.
Their eyes snapped to the show below. They’d seen the Jericho brothers break horses for years, but it wasn’t a Jericho on the back of this horse for its first ride.
“Damn,” Brindle said in a husky voice.
“Holy shit, that’s hot. See, Gracie? Totally worth it.”
Grace squinted into the night, feeling a tug of familiarity in the arch of the rider’s shoulders as the horse bucked him forward and back, his thick arms holding tightly to the reins. His longish, thick dark hair and the square set of his chin sent a shudder of recognition through her.
Sable sucked in a breath. “Ouch! You’re digging your nails into me.” She pried Grace’s fingers off her forearm.
“Is that…?” Grace choked on the anger and arousal warring inside her. She’d recognize him anywhere, even after all these years of seeing him only in her dreams. She wanted to run down the hill and fall into Reed’s arms. To feel his hard chest, smell his masculine scent, and hear his gruff voice telling her he wanted her again—and she wanted to pummel him in equal measure. She’d tried to forget him, and she really, truly thought she had. She hated herself for the instant attraction she couldn’t deny.
She pushed to her feet, unable to make sense of seeing Reed Cross in Oak Falls, with the guys who once hated the sight of him. The forbidden lover she’d risked everything to have—and then cast aside. What the hell was he doing here? The last she’d heard, he’d moved to somewhere in the Midwest after high school. Not that she’d asked after him over the years.
“Reed…” His name rolled off her tongue too easily, making her even angrier at herself. She stumbled backward as her sisters rose beside her, reaching for her. Grace took off running the way they’d come, chased by memories she wanted to escape.
“Gracie, wait!” Sable shouted after her.
With the familiar scents of the hills and livestock, and her sisters’ hushed whispers filling her senses, she couldn’t stop memories of Reed from flooding her mind and heating her blood.
“You didn’t think to warn me?” Grace spun on her heels, tears of anger and hurt burning her eyes.
“I knew you wouldn’t come,” Sable said.
“Damn right I wouldn’t.” She started down the hill again.
“Wait, Grace.” Brindle grabbed her hand and tried to slow her down, but Grace kept going, dragging her sister with her. “What is going on? Why are you so mad?”
Grace slowed, realizing in that moment that Sable had kept her secret for all those years. That was something she hadn’t expected. Then again, she hadn’t expected to have a visceral, titillating reaction to seeing Reed again, either. Hell, she hadn’t expected to ever see him again. Period.
They’d been careful never to be seen together, and of course she’d never seen him anywhere near the Jericho brothers unless it was on the football field. Small-town rivalries weren’t taken lightly back then, but she’d snuck over to Meadowside with Sable late one evening when Reed had told her he’d be roping cattle with a group of friends. The men’s deep voices carried in the night air, bringing with them memories of Reed’s young, muscular body and the fierce determination in his dark eyes as he’d swung the lasso over his head and expertly roped cattle while his buddies had whooped and hollered.
“I thought you were over him,” Sable accused.
“I am,” Grace huffed. She reached up and touched her lips, remembering the taste of their stolen sensual kisses—spearmint and teenage lust mixed into one delicious kiss after another. Kisses that had never failed to leave her lips tingling and her body thrumming with desire.
Now she couldn’t stop thinking of him. This was bad. Very, very bad. She never should have allowed her sisters to drag her out here and unearth memories she’d rather forget.
“Over who?” Brindle demanded. Her eyes darted between Sable and Grace.
“Then what’s the problem?” Sable snapped, ignoring Brindle, which was good, because Grace didn’t need to explain her decade-old secret to her youngest sister—or to think about it again, damn it.
Sable grabbed Grace’s arm, stopping her in her tracks.
Grace’s heart slammed against her chest as they stared each other down. She’d thought she was over Reed Cross. She was over him. Sable knew how hard it had been for her to break up with Reed all those years ago. The last thing she needed was to have him waved in front of her face again. She’d put him out of her mind.
Mostly.
Sure, it was Reed’s face she conjured up on lonely nights. It was his lopsided grin and easy laugh she recalled to pull her through the toughest of productions. But that was her secret. Grace hadn’t ever needed anything from anyone in life. And she’d never needed anything from Reed. And he’d hated that. Fought her on it even. When he’d wanted to come clean, to tell the world about them, all she’d wanted was to follow her dreams and produce plays in New York City. She didn’t want to fight with her friends about dating a guy from a rival town when she’d be leaving for college soon. But even after all these years his words haunted her. I’m not going to be your dirty little secret.
She should have stuck to weekend visits home, as she had for the past several years. Weekend visits were safe. Fast. Brindle never would have dragged her out if she’d be facing a long drive home in twenty-four hours. Tomorrow she’d tell her parents she had to go home after the weekend. She couldn’t do this. Especially now that she knew Reed Cross was back in town. She still felt the sting of his betrayal after they’d broken up, when he’d left town—and her—behind.
Brindle threw her arms up toward the sky. “Will someone please tell me what the problem is? Why are you storming off? And why are you mad at Sable? It was me who wanted to come out and see Trace tonight. Not her! I thought it would be fun, like old times. We’d laugh and joke and talk about how sexy he was.”
“Grace.” Sable’s tone softened, her eyes imploring her for forgiveness Grace couldn’t give.
“There’s no problem, Brin,” Grace managed, holding Sable’s gaze. “I just…” I’m confused and angry by my stupid body’s reaction to a man I don’t need in my life. “I need to sleep. I have a lot on my mind and I’m exhausted.”
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Fall in love with Blake and Danica
Please enjoy this introduction to Blake and Danica’s love story, , the very first book in the Love in Bloom big-family romance collection—and the story that started the Love in Bloom sensation, which has been enjoyed by more than 3 million readers.
Chapter One
THE LINE IN the café went all the way to the door. Danica Snow wished she hadn’t taken her sister Kaylie’s phone call before getting her morning coffee. Living in an overcrowded tourist town could be a major inconvenience, but Danica loved that she could walk from her condo to her office, see a movie, have dinner, or even stop at a bookstore without ever sitting in a car. Every minute counted when you lived in Allure, Colorado, host to an odd mix of hippie and yuppie tourists in equal numbers. The ski slopes brought them in the winter, while art shows drew them in the summer. There was never a break. Every suit and Rasta child in town was standing right in front of her, waiting for their coffee or latte, and the guy ahead of her had shoulders so wide she couldn’t easily see around him. Danica tapped the toe of her efficient and comfortable Nine West heels, growing more impatient by the second.
What on earth was taking so long? In seven minutes they’d served only one person. The tables were pushed so close to the people standing in line that she couldn’t step to the side to see. She was gridlocked. Danica leaned to the right and peered around the massive shoulder ahead of her just as the owner of that shoulder turned to look out the door. Whack! He elbowed her right in the nose, knocking Danica’s head back.
Her hand flew to her bloody nose. “Ow! Geez!” She ducked in pain, covering her face and talking through her hands. “I think you broke my nose.” Each word sent pain across her nose and below her eyes.
“I’m so sorry. Let me get you a napkin,” a deep, worried voice said.
Two patrons rushed over and shoved napkins in her direction.
“Are you okay?” an older woman asked.
Tears sprang from the corners of Danica’s closed eyes. Damn it. Her entire day would now run late and she probably looked like a red-nosed, crying idiot. “This hurts so bad. Weren’t you looking where—” Danica flipped her unruly, brown hair from her face and opened her eyes. Her venom-filled glare locked on the man who had elbowed her—the most beautiful specimen of a human being she had ever seen. Oh shit. “I’m…What…?” Come on, girl. Get it together. He’s probably an egomaniac.
“I’m so sorry.” His voice was rich and smooth, laden with concern.
A thin blonde grabbed his arm and shoved a napkin into his hand. “Give this to her,” she said, blinking her eyelashes in a come-hither way.
The man held the woman’s hand a beat too long. “Thanks,” he said. His eyes trailed down the blonde’s blouse.
Really? I’m bleeding over here.
He turned toward Danica and handed her the napkin. His eyes were green and yellow, like field grass. His eyebrows drew together in a serious gaze, and Danica thought that maybe she’d been too quick to judge—until he stole a glance at the blonde as she walked out of the café.
Asshole. She felt the heat of anger spread up her chest and neck, along her cheeks, to the ridge of her high cheekbones. She snagged the napkin from his hand and wiped her throbbing nose. “It’s okay. I’m fine,” she lied. She could smell the minty freshness of his breath, and she wondered what it might taste like. Danica was not one to swoon—that was Kaylie’s job. Get a grip.
“Can I at least buy you a coffee?” He ran his hand through his thick, dark hair.
Yes! “No, thank you. It’s okay.” She had been a therapist long enough to know what kind of guy eyes another girl while she was tending to a bloody nose that he had caused. Danica fumbled for her purse, which she’d dropped when she was hit. She lowered her eyes to avoid looking into his. “I’m fine, really. Just look behind you next time.” Not for the first time, Danica wished she had Kaylie’s flirting skills and her ability to look past his wandering eyes. She would have had him buying her coffee, a Danish, and breakfast the next morning.
Danica was so confused, she wasn’t even sure what she wanted. She chanced another glance up at him. He was looking at her features so intently that she felt as though he were drinking her in, memorizing her. His eyes trailed slowly from hers, lowered to her nose, to her lips, and then settled on the beauty mark that she’d been self-conscious of her entire life. She felt like a Cindy Crawford wannabe. Danica pursed her lips. “Are you done?” she asked.
He blinked with the innocence of a young boy, clueless to her annoyance, which was in stark contrast to his confident, manly presence. He stood almost a foot taller than Danica’s impressive five foot seven stature. His chest muscles bulged beneath his way-too-small shirt, dark curls poking through the neckline. He probably bought it that way on purpose. She glanced down and tried not to notice his muscular thighs straining against his stonewashed denim jeans. Danica swallowed hard. All the air suddenly left her lungs. He was touching her shoulder, squinting, evaluating her face.
“I’m sorry. I was just making sure it didn’t look broken, which it doesn’t. I’m sure it’s painful.”
She couldn’t think past the heat of his hand, the breadth of it engulfing her shoulder. “It’s okay,” she managed, hating herself for being lost in his touch when he was clearly someone who ate women for breakfast. She checked her watch. She had three minutes to get her coffee and get back to her office before her next client showed up. Belinda. She’d love this guy.
The line progressed, and Adonis waved as he left the café. Danica reached into her purse to pay for her French vanilla coffee and found herself taking a last glance at him as he passed the front window.
The young barista pushed Danica’s money away. “No need, hon. Blake paid for yours.” She smiled, lifting her eyebrows.
“He did?” Blake.
“Yeah, he’s really sweet.” The barista leaned over the cash register. “Even if he is a player.”
Aha! I knew it. Danica thrust her shoulders back, feeling smart for resisting temptation.
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