Be My Love (A Walker Island Romance Book 1) (16 page)

Finally, however, they had to pull apart for the speeches as Ava began to speak into the portable microphone that Emily handed her. “I know many of you would like to toast Hanna and Joel today, because they’re truly wonderful together and it means so much to all of us to have this wedding after all this time. I’d like to begin the toasts by saying thank you to both of them for giving me a truly wonderful gift. Not only a radiantly happy granddaughter and a new grandson-in-law that I couldn’t be prouder of, but they also gave me back a friend I thought I had lost, along with the truth.” Focusing her loving gaze on Hanna and Joel, she said, “We all love you and wish you every happiness.”

Everyone joined in the toast with cheers and clinking glasses of champagne. And for the next thirty minutes, with Joel’s arms tight around her waist, Hanna rested her head on his chest and together they listened to their family and friends’ beautiful toasts.

As soon as the toasts were over and Joel had taken Ava for a spin around the dance floor, Hanna’s new husband was quick to pull her into his arms and suggest, “I’m thinking that we should take a page from my great aunt’s book.”

“Running off to the big city to seek our fortunes?” Hanna asked.

“I’m thinking more along the lines of seeing if anyone notices if we slip away.”

“And miss the rest of the party?”

Joel kissed her, then said, “I think Poppy, William and Ava all understood that weddings are often for other people. But being married…that part’s for us.”

Hanna looked around. Joel had a point. The party had reached that stage where everyone was having a perfectly good time without them.

“I guess we
could
always catch the rest on the wedding videos.”

EPILOGUE

Morgan smiled as she watched her sister and Joel slip out of the party. Even though the wedding had been so sudden, she suspected that they were going to be perfect together.

She was glad that she’d been able to get back for the wedding, even if it had taken a last minute flight on a jet belonging to the star of the movie she was working on. And as soon as the ceremony had ended, Morgan had found herself at the center of a small group of young women who clearly wished that they were the ones who had her career.

“What was it like working on your last movie?” one asked. “Is it true what I heard about you and Bradley Lewis?”

“Bradley is a wonderful man,” Morgan said about the leading man on the last movie she’d worked on, “but you have to remember that you shouldn’t believe the things you read in magazines. He’s happily married, and the two of us are
definitely
not involved.”

“I wish he’d kiss
me,
though,” one of the girls said, before her friend asked, “Can I get your autograph?”

Morgan knew she ought to break up the little clique of…well, they weren’t exactly fans. They were just girls who found even the dimly reflected glory of moviemaking spectacular. Morgan knew how that went, and ordinarily, she did her best to be accommodating when people treated her like a minor celebrity. But this wasn’t the time and the place. She wanted to go catch up with her other sisters, and she wanted to play with Charlotte, who had grown so much since the last time she was back on the island.

But at the same time, she’d been so worried all day about seeing Brian Russell again that she’d done her best to stay on the fringes of things. He’d been her boyfriend in high school and in the seven years since their breakup, she hadn’t spoken to him or seen him again. Not even once.

Today, the crowd watching the wedding had been so big—and she’d been so focused on Hanna during the ceremony—that she hadn’t caught sight of him out on the beach. Later, during the reception, she swore she’d felt her skin tingle and grow warm the way it always had when he’d looked at her, but Brian was nowhere to be found, and she figured it was just her overactive imagination kicking in.

She supposed he was probably avoiding the Peterson-Walker celebration on her account, and she tried to convince herself that he was right to do just that. Because what would happen if she did suddenly see him again, face to face for the first time in seven years? Would sparks fly again the way they always had? Would she be unable to stop herself from going up to him to ask him to kiss her the way he once had, with so much passion that it had made her head spin?

And next month, when she temporarily returned to the island to work on her new organic makeup line, how were they going to keep their distance from each other for more than just one day? What was she going to do if it turned out that she was as drawn to Brian now as she’d been back in high school when they were sweethearts?

Morgan worked to shake the troublesome thoughts and questions out of her head. Today was one of the happiest days for her family in recent memory and she was going to do her best to forget about Brian and enjoy it to the fullest before she had to get back on a plane to New York City tomorrow morning.

~ THE END ~

For news on upcoming books, click here to sign up for
Lucy Kevin’s New Release Newsletter
.

The next Walker Island romance,
NO OTHER LOVE (Morgan Walker & Brian Russell’s love story)
, is available now!

Morgan Walker, makeup artist to the stars, never thought she'd leave New York City to come back to Walker Island. But when she is tapped to headline her own TV makeover show, she decides it's the perfect time to launch her organic makeup line made from flowers and plants grown on the Walker family plot of land. While she's really excited about getting to spend a few weeks with the sisters and grandmother she doesn't see nearly often enough, she's equally worried about the possibility of seeing Brian Russell again. Because even though they broke up seven years ago, she's never been able to forget him. Not for one single day...

When Brian gets the opportunity to work with Morgan on planting her new garden, he immediately jumps at it. Seven years ago, he thought he was doing the right thing by letting her go to pursue her dreams and see the world. But he's never stopped loving her, and now that she's finally back, he's determined to do whatever it takes to convince her that they belong together...forever this time.

Please enjoy an excerpt from NO OTHER LOVE, Book #2 in the Walker Island series!

“I'm really glad you're going to replant the old Walker plot,” Brian said. “It's been empty for too long.”

“It’s probably a bit of a mess by now, but it should be a good test bed to work on ingredients. I don’t know if I’ll really be able to find ingredients here that I couldn’t find somewhere else, but it still felt really important to me to come back to the island to at least try.”

He nodded. “It isn't just about what you're growing or how you're using it for the makeup line, is it? It's about your roots, too.”

Yet again, he understood so much, understood all of the things that she hadn't even known how to put into words herself.

She was still reeling from that realization when he said in a quiet but sure voice, “I never stopped thinking about you, Morgan. I know the timing wasn’t right when we were kids, that you could have never stayed and I could have never gone. Things were too complicated back then, regardless of what we felt or how much we loved each other. But we could try again now. We’re both in a much better place to make it work this time, because we aren’t kids anymore.”

They certainly weren’t, but did that actually make things any easier? If anything, it just meant that by now they both had their lives set up
exactly
the way they wanted, in the places they wanted. Places that were three thousand miles apart.

Of course, there was a part of her that wished life could be so simple that they could snap their fingers and have everything they wanted without ever having to make difficult choices. Especially when just being in the same room as Brian made her feel more alive than she had since she was eighteen years old and he'd kissed her for the very last time.

But she couldn't just turn her back on the life she'd created, could she? Not when it was finally turning into everything she'd ever dreamed of. Nor could she ask him to leave the island behind when it was obvious that he not only belonged here, but that he was
needed
here by his students, the football team and the community that depended on him to be a strong leader for their kids.

“Brian, it’s good seeing you. Amazing, actually,” she admitted. “But I’m not back on the island for good. I’m back here for only a few weeks to get the garden set up for my makeup line. Once it's planted and I find a balance of ingredients that works, I’ll be heading back to New York. I just can't be here longer than part of the summer. Not when the network is giving me my own makeover show and I'll need to be back in the city to shoot it in their studios. This whole trip to the island, the makeup line, everything…it’s really just tying in with that.”

Brian didn't try to argue with anything she said, but Morgan knew better than to think that he was giving in. What did it say that she still knew every nuance of Brian’s expressions, especially the determined one?

“I know that you’ve got the life you always dreamed of,” he finally said. “But I also know that last time I let you go without a fight, and I’ve regretted it ever since.”

A crazy part of her wanted to say,
I did, too.
But she made the rational part speak up instead. “You know why I left.”

“You felt like you had to leave everything here—your family, the island, me—to become who you wanted to be. I understood where you were coming from, Morgan. That it was never easy to live under a microscope on the island because you were a Walker, and that you chafed at the smallness, the quiet, even the sureness of knowing you would always be taken care of by the people who loved you. I didn’t want to be the one who was going to stand in the way of your success, didn't want you to resent me, so I didn’t fight. But I was wrong. So damned wrong. And now that you know who you are and what you're capable of—and I know those same things about myself—the fact is that I still want what I’ve always wanted.
You.
So this time, I’m not going to just stand back while you walk away. I thought love meant needing to let you go, but now I think it's just the opposite. Love means giving everything I am to fight for you to stay.”

“I think”—Morgan pushed away from the table and stood up—“we’d better head back to the cars.”

On the walk to the bar, things had felt surprisingly comfortable, and she'd almost been able to believe that they could “just be friends.” Now, however, she knew how wrong that was. Because when he'd made his impassioned speech, every cell in her body had wanted to say,
Yes, I'll stay
,
right then and there.

They were almost back to her car when Brian reached for her hand. She was so stunned by the sweet feel of his warm skin against hers that she didn't even think to pull away.

A moment later, he was pulling her into his arms. Strong arms that had always been her favorite place in the world. Another man might have tried to kiss her to prove his point that they were still meant to be together, but Brian’s hug was more powerful than any kiss would have been.

His hug was not only a reminder of old times and their unstoppable attraction…it was also, clearly, a promise. A promise that he wasn't going to make things easy on her this time.

Because he was going to fight for her to stay.

...Excerpt from NO OTHER LOVE by Lucy Kevin © 2014…

Buy
NO OTHER LOVE

Click here to sign up for Lucy’s Newsletter to find out about future books as soon as they’re released!

BOOKLIST

For titles at Amazon.com please use the following links:

(scroll down for Amazon UK and Amazon Canada)

Walker Island Romance Series

Be My Love

No Other Love

When It’s Love

All For Love

Forever In Love

Four Weddings and a Fiasco Series

The Wedding Gift

The Wedding Dance

The Wedding Song

The Wedding Dress

The Wedding Kiss

Stand-alone Books

Falling Fast

Seattle Girl

Sparks Fly

For titles at Amazon UK please use the following links:

Walker Island Romance Series

Be My Love
/
No Other Love
/ When It’s Love / All For Love / Forever In Love

Four Weddings and a Fiasco Series

The Wedding Gift
/
The Wedding Dance
/
The Wedding Song
/
The Wedding Dress
/
The Wedding Kiss

Stand-alone Books

Falling Fast
/
Seattle Girl
/
Sparks Fly

For titles at Amazon Canada please use the following links:

Walker Island Romance Series

Be My Love
/
No Other Love
/ When It’s Love / All For Love / Forever In Love

Four Weddings and a Fiasco Series

The Wedding Gift
/
The Wedding Dance
/
The Wedding Song
/
The Wedding Dress
/
The Wedding Kiss

Stand-alone Books

Falling Fast
/
Seattle Girl
/
Sparks Fly

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

When New York Times and USA Today bestseller Lucy Kevin released her first novel, SEATTLE GIRL, it became an instant bestseller. All of her subsequent sweet contemporary romances have been hits with readers as well, including WHEN IT’S LOVE (A Walker Island Romance, Book 3) which debuted at #1. Having been called “One of the top writers in America” by The Washington Post, she recently launched the very romantic Walker Island series. Lucy also writes contemporary romances as Bella Andre and her incredibly popular series about The Sullivans have been #1 bestsellers around the world, with more than 3.5 million books sold so far! If not behind her computer, you can find her swimming, hiking or laughing with her husband and two children. For a complete listing of books, as well as excerpts, contests, and to connect with Lucy: