Adam’s mouth covered hers in a kiss that tasted like the beginning of forever, and she felt herself fall, felt the rush take over. Only this time she knew she wasn’t falling alone. Just like she knew that wherever they ended up, they’d be there to catch each other.
Eight Months Later . . .
How about this? Is this any better?”
Harper opened her eyes as wide as they could go and gave her brightest smile.
Adam took his time to study her thoroughly, his gaze taking in every inch of her dress, her bare legs—and everything in between. “Perfect.”
“I was talking about my eyes.” She batted them. “Do they look misty?”
Adam grinned. “Like you’re about to burst into tears. Maybe we should just tell everyone the truth today.”
“What? No. Today is about Frankie and Nate.” It was a day to celebrate their growing family with friends and loved ones. Which was why Harper and Adam had made the long trek from Colorado Springs a week early. “Do you know how hard it is to carry around twins? The woman deserves a baby shower twice this size.”
Harper glanced across the vineyard, through the acres of grapevines, sagging with spring blossoms, to the gathering of friends and family at the far side, and she felt her heart pick up. Round tables adorned with yellow roses and violets lined the patio, while cream-and-blue bootie decorations hung from every oak tree and fence post on the Baudouin winery. It was like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting, only no one was playing a part. This was real life.
Harper’s real life.
“It’s not too late to go back to the house and hide out.” He pressed his mouth to her ear, and Harper closed her eyes. “Maybe in bed.”
“We just left bed.” Moments before they’d arrived, in fact. And when she was with Adam there was no such thing as hiding. He loved and cherished every part of her equally. “I still have bed-rumpled hair and your handprints on my dress.”
“That’s what newlyweds do.” His hands gripped her hips, and he walked her backward under an oak tree. “We might as well take advantage of it.”
“Nobody knows we’re married.” Harper’s eyes fluttered closed as his mouth worked magic. “Plus, we’re already late.”
“You don’t look like you care all that much that we’re late.”
“I look like this all the time,” she whispered. “It’s the look I get when I remember that this is real.” When she remembered that two weeks ago Adam had officially finished his IC command and was coming back to St. Helena with a lieutenant promotion under his belt, and that she’d opened a branding and marketing company that had already signed five huge accounts—including Lulu Allure.
Best of all, it was the look she gave when she remembered that they’d officially started their lives together.
“It’s real, sunshine. This was real from the moment I kissed you.” Her breath caught at the look of fierce adoration and love in his eyes as her husband of three days leaned down and kissed her in a way that had her heart melting and her toes curling. “And it gets more real every second I’m with you. Every second you’re mine.” Adam wiggled a brow. “Plus, I read in that magazine of yours that there is no better place to practice having a baby than at a baby shower.”
With a final kiss that held so much promise, Adam took Harper’s hand and led her through the vineyard and toward their families—and the best kind of extraordinary that Harper could have dreamed.
acknowledgments
Thanks to my agent, Jill Marsal, for your advice, dedication, and unwavering friendship. And to my editors, Maria Gomez and Lindsay Guzzardo, for taking the time to push me to grow as a writer and dig deeper with each story I tell. To the rest of the Author Team at Montlake, thank you for making every book special, and for welcoming me into the amazing Montlake family.
As always, a special thanks to my husband, who is not only a real-life hero, but my real-life hero. I love you.
Read on for a sneak peek of Marina Adair’s next heartwarming romance from her Sequoia Lake series
it started with a kiss
Available early 2017 on Amazon.com
Editor’s Note:
This is an uncorrected excerpt and may not reflect the final book.
chapter one
If life was an adventure, then Avery Morgan needed to fire her travel agent and demand a refund.
She wasn’t a demanding person by nature, but that’s what happened when the universe issued an early expiration date on living, it gave you cojones. So Avery issued herself a new passport on life, and was ready to put some stamps in each and every column.