Brett by Melissa Foster (23)

SOPHIE STOOD IN the master bedroom of hers and Brett’s new vacation home in Oak Falls, which they’d built on the acreage her parents had subdivided from their own property and given them as an early wedding present. She could see her parents’ house from the window, and in the distance, the roof of her grandparents’ home. She put her hand on her burgeoning belly and sighed happily. The last six months had not flown by, and she was thankful for that. She wanted to savor every minute, moving her things into Brett’s—their—home, going together to her doctor appointments, disagreeing on baby names, enjoying Naked Saturdays, and hosting brunch on Sundays. Her gaze traveled to their young weeping willow by the creek. It was too small to carve their initials into just yet, but Lindsay’d had a metal plaque made with their initials inside a heart, which now hung from the lowest branch.

“You’re not supposed to see your groom yet,” Grace said as she closed the curtains. “It’s bad luck, and I’m not taking any chances with my best friend’s love life.” As the maid of honor, she had been there every step of the way, as had Lindsay, their mother, grandmother, Brett’s mother, and all of Brett’s sisters-in-law, as they’d planned the wedding.

Then I won’t tell you that he snuck in and we made out before everyone arrived. Or how I already peeked at him standing with his family by the creek, and how my knees went weak at the sight of his father with his arm around his shoulder.

Grace’s eyes widened. “Oh God. Sophie! Really?”

“What?” She should know better than to think about kissing Brett when she was trying to keep it a secret—especially from Grace.

“As if I can’t read that expression? You are wicked!” Her gaze shifted over Sophie’s shoulder as Nana approached.

“Wickedness seems to run in our family,” Nana said. She fiddled with the chiffon skirt of Sophie’s ivory wedding gown and then touched the slim, pink silk bow tied above her baby bump. “You look beautiful, honey.”

“Thanks, Nana.” Sophie and Grace had set aside several weekends solely for wedding dress shopping, but they’d found her beautiful gown in the first shop they’d gone into. The princess-cut and flowing material left plenty of room for her expanding belly. Only the halter neckline had to be altered to accommodate her bust, which Brett was thoroughly enjoying.

“I still don’t know why you two were in such a hurry to build a house when your parents have plenty of room.” Nana smoothed her dress over her hips.

“Because they’d like a little privacy,” Sophie’s mother said.

Nana set a hand on her hip and raised her brows. “As if I won’t just walk right in and drag you two out of bed when you need dragging.”

“I love you, Nana,” Sophie said, “but I’m going to lock my doors until at least eight o’clock in the morning.”

Nana patted Sophie’s hand. “I’m not worried. Once that baby’s woken you up at three a.m. enough times, you’ll be begging me to spend the night just to care for the sweet bundle.”

Lindsay breezed into the room, and Amanda, Tiffany, and Tawny followed her in. They all looked gorgeous in pink high-low bridesmaid gowns. Amanda and Tiffany had gotten pregnant on or around the night Brett had proposed to Sophie, and they were excited to be having babies so close together.

“Are we ready?” Lindsay asked. “Mr. Not so Pure and Very Immense is waiting.”

“Mr. what?” Sophie asked.

“I guess you never saw what he wrote in Nana and Poppi’s anniversary journal?” Lindsay asked. “You wrote that you hoped you’d get lucky enough to find love as pure and immense as Nana and Poppi’s, and Brett wrote ‘Happy anniversary’ and signed it ‘Mr. Not So Pure and Very Immense.’”

Sophie beamed with pride. “That’s my man.”

“By the looks of you guys, all of y’all have feisty men,” Nana said as she surveyed their baby bumps. “You all look like an advertisement for Planned Parenthood. When does Adeline get a sibling?” she asked Tawny.

“Where is Adeline?” Sophie asked.

“She’s out back with Grace’s sisters, whom she found fascinatingly colorful,” Tawny said. “They’re throwing rose petals on the aisle leading up to the gazebo.” Sophie’s father and Poppi had built a beautiful gazebo for the wedding, and Lindsay had decorated it with flowers and ivy.

“I bet she found them colorful,” Grace mumbled, sharing a knowing smile with Sophie.

“Adeline looks adorable in her frilly dress,” Sophie’s mother said. “Do you and Carson plan to have more children?”

Tawny put her hand on her nearly flat stomach and said, “You can only hear ‘Mommy, I want a baby, too’ so many times before you give in.”

There was a collective gasp.

“You’re pregnant?” Sophie asked.

“We didn’t want to tell anyone until after your big day, but…” Tawny’s green eyes lit up as she nodded. “Twelve weeks yesterday.”

Amanda squealed. “This is so great!”

“Another baby shower to plan!” Lindsay said.

There was a group hug around their burgeoning bellies. Sophie had been close to the girls before she and Brett had come together, but the way they’d accepted Grace and Lindsay into their close-knit circle made her love them even more.

Tawny touched her stomach again. “We’re excited. But we haven’t told Adeline yet, because we were afraid she’d spill the beans. We’ll tell her after the wedding.”

“Jackie will be over the moon!” Sophie’s mother said. She and Brett’s mother had become close while they were planning the wedding.

“She is,” Tawny said. “We told her already. She’s so happy that her family is finally coming together after all these years.”

“Family is everything. And what’s this I hear about you coming back home for a few weeks, Grace?” Nana asked.

“I see my mother’s been spreading the news,” Grace said. “My sister Amber asked me to teach a screenplay writing class at her bookstore, and I could use the break.”

“Fresh matchmaking blood!” Nana rubbed her palms together.

“Mom! You’ll scare her off before she even arrives.” Sophie’s mother shook her head. “Sorry, Grace. I’ll try to keep her on Lindsay’s trail.”

“No, thank you,” Lindsay snapped. “I do not want to get married. Grace, you and I will have to stick together.”

“It’s not like I’m moving back or will have oodles of time to try to find a man, Nana, so maybe you should focus on one of my sisters instead.”

“How about if we focus on getting this wedding off the ground,” Sophie’s father said from the doorway. He looked handsome in a dark suit and pink tie, matching all the men in the wedding party.

“Are they ready?” Sophie looked at Grace, who reached for her hand and mouthed, Breathe.

Her father said, “I think Brett’s about ready to come up here and carry you down over his shoulder. That man’s anxious to be your husband, sugarplum.”

“Okay, girls, let’s go.” Lindsay ushered them toward the door.

Sophie’s father offered her his arm. “You look gorgeous, sweetheart.”

“Thanks, Daddy. And thank you for the land and the beautiful wedding,” she said as they made their way downstairs.

Her father stopped on the third step down, and they both looked at the pictures hanging on the wall. There were already so many of them, a copy of the picture of Brett and Sophie at his brothers’ wedding, the picture Lindsay had taken of them beneath the willow tree, selfies they’d taken over time, and of course they were all intermixed with pictures of their families and friends.

“Your family is much bigger than mine was when I got married,” her father said. “You might need a bigger wall.”

Sophie pointed to the bare wall above eye level, which led all the way up to the two-story ceiling. “My brilliant husband-to-be already thought of that.”

BRETT FIDGETED NERVOUSLY as each of his brothers and sisters-in-law, and the rest of the wedding party, walked down the aisle. Their family was expanding in leaps and bounds, and he was elated that his and Sophie’s baby would have cousins who were close in age. He glanced at his parents, catching his father’s eye, and felt a well of gratitude instead of the anger and hurt that used to live inside him. They still had things to work out, hurdles to overcome, but the last six months had brought them together in a way he’d never imagined possible. He’d asked his mother about her friendship with his father, and she’d said that she’d learned long ago not to close the door on anyone she loved. Brett thought that was a good rule of thumb, though he hoped he’d never be given cause to put it to a test.

His gaze swept over Sophie’s family and friends smiling as they watched Mick and Amanda walk down the aisle. These were the people who had unknowingly helped change his views and his life. Sophie had opened a door, and everyone here had walked through it, reviving his faith in what could be. What he wanted for Sophie. He knew he should try to remember every detail of their wedding day, but as Adeline skipped down the aisle instead of walking, as they’d practiced, he knew none of it would stick in his head except his stunning bride, pregnant with their first child, standing at the other end of the rose-petal aisle with stars in her beautiful blue eyes. She was a vision in ivory with her long dark hair cascading over her shoulders, holding her father’s arm and carrying a bouquet beside her beautiful round belly.

When her smiling eyes landed on Brett, the rest of the world faded away. He didn’t think as he stepped forward, closing the distance between them. It wasn’t until he was standing before her and Sophie whispered, “You were supposed to wait up there,” that he realized what he’d done.

Chuckles came from their friends and family.

Brett gazed into Sophie’s eyes and said, “When have I ever done what I was supposed to do?” He glanced at Del, who wore an amused expression. “Sorry, Del.”

“Don’t ever be sorry for loving my daughter.”

Sophie turned and hugged her father. “Thank you, Daddy. I love you.”

“I love you too, sugarplum.” Del kissed her cheek and went to his wife’s side.

Brett took Sophie’s hand, unable to stop smiling as he gazed into her loving eyes, and said, “Are you ready, Sexy Sophie?”

Her eyes glittered in the sunlight as she squeezed his hand and said, “For anything.”

Join Sophie’s friend Grace in her search for her own happily ever after in EMBRACING HER HEART, the first book in the Montgomery series.

In EMBRACING HER HEART…

Leaving New York City and returning to her hometown to teach a 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 girlfriend 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 reopened. 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…

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The Billionaires After Dark series includes the WILD BOYS AFTER DARK (4 books) and the BAD BOYS AFTER DARK (4 books). All 8 books are NOW AVAILABLE! Each of Brett’s siblings has their own book, starting with (Mick and Amanda’s love story).

The Bad Billionaires After Dark are only one of many family series within Melissa Foster’s Love in Bloom big-family romance collection. There are more love stories featuring loyal, sexy heroes and smart, sassy heroines waiting for you. A full list of titles are available at the end of this book, or visit Melissa’s website for a list of titles, free ebooks, downloadable checklists, family trees, and more.

Each Love in Bloom book is written to be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel or as part of the larger series. There are no cliffhangers and no unresolved issues. Characters from each series make appearances in future books, so you never miss an engagement, wedding, or birth. Start at the very beginning of the Love in Bloom series absolutely FREE with or begin with another fun and deeply emotional series like the Bradens, the Remingtons, the Ryders, or Seaside Summers.

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