“I’m so ready,” she said.
He tucked his arm through hers. “You look stunning, my dear.”
She had to agree. A woman shouldn’t need to be modest on her wedding day. The dress she had created for herself, the one she had been dreaming about wearing since she was old enough to make doll dresses out of hair ties and discarded fabric, was the hardest dress she had ever made.
She had struggled with it for months and had almost postponed the wedding until she was able to get it just right.
She wanted to think it was a masterpiece. There were no ruffles, no lace, no long, flowing train. This dress was elegant, simple, understated. Not attention-grabbing but unmistakably beautiful. It was perfect for the woman she had become.
She wasn’t sure if she would offer this in the new catalog she was developing under her new fashion label or if she would keep this particular design all to herself, her own unique, one-of-a-kind dress for this unforgettable day when her dreams came true.
Her heart pounded as she walked down the aisle of the little church in Haven Point where she had attended every week with her mother.
She looked toward the pew where they had always sat together and felt a little pang that Linda wasn’t there today.
Over the past year, she had achieved some measure of understanding over the thorny relationship she’d had with her mother.
Her mother had been a difficult, critical woman, unhappy with her life and circumstances. She had taken out her own discontent on those closest to her, particularly her daughter.
Samantha couldn’t forgive her for some of those wounds that had been etched deep into her heart. But Linda was gone now and Sam had decided dwelling on the pain would only allow it to continue to fester.
Today she would remember the good times with her mother. Learning to sew at her first portable machine, laughing at a show they enjoyed together, talking about a book they had both read.
She might not have actual family here but the chapel was filled with those she loved. Her family in spirit. Katrina was there with Bowie and their children, including the new little one, a girl Kat had named Isabella.
Elsewhere in the chapel, everywhere she looked, she saw people who had supported her and embraced her on her journey toward becoming a woman of strength. Barbara Serrano. Charlene Bailey. Wynona, Julia Caine, Megan Hamilton Bailey. McKenzie, Devin, Lindy-Grace, Eppie and Hazel. And scores more.
She loved them all and was deeply grateful to have these people in her life.
Finally, her gaze went inexorably to the altar where Ian stood, looking every inch her handsome prince. His dark wavy hair was slightly messed in front but his collar for once was straight.
Thomas stood to one side and Amelia on the other, both of them beaming at her.
Her heart seemed too full to contain all the love inside it. She was the most fortunate of women and couldn’t wait to become their stepmother.
Yes, she had made sacrifices. After much personal angst, she had finally sold Fremont Fashions to her worthy assistant, Rachel Muñoz, who had promptly rebranded it. She had stopped in the day before and been thrilled at the changes.
After selling the store, she had moved to England with Betsey, taking a small flat in a row of cottages that had once housed textile workers employed by Ian’s ancestors.
When they married, she would move in with Ian and the children to the dower house on his father’s sprawling estate. The dower house alone was a gorgeous seventeenth century structure about three times the size of her house in Haven Point, with a beautiful view overlooking the river Amherst.
In a few months’ time, she would be opening the showroom for her bridal designs and she already had orders to fill the next year.
She was excited about all the changes in her life, but she was most ready for this one. To marry the man she loved. She looked at Ian waiting for her, his gaze locked with hers and filled with vast emotion, a deep love that had filled all the empty spots in her heart.
She gripped Lord Henry’s arm and glided down the aisle past all the people who had shaped her into the woman she had become, toward Ian and the future they would build together.
A Haven Point Beginning
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER ONE
THIS WAS A mistake of epic proportions.
Gemma Summerhill gripped the steering wheel of the hybrid SUV she had purchased six weeks ago, when she first came to the States. She was going only about five miles per hour but that still seemed entirely too fast as she steered through treacherous conditions with giant snowflakes slapping against the car with astonishing force.
She shouldn’t be here. She should be safe and dry in her charming rented cottage beside Lake Haven, sitting by the fire with a cup of tea at one elbow and a good novel on her lap.
Whose crazy idea was it to go into the mountains today, with a storm coming on?
Hers. She sighed. She should have checked the weather report more carefully and shouldn’t have relied on one app that had promised a beautiful fall day.
In her defense, the October day had been lovely when she set off that morning for an easy hike, all warm sunshine, clear skies, comfortable temperatures. Oh, how quickly conditions could change. Now the Idaho mountain road was slick, precarious, and the rain that had hit with ferocious strength about twenty minutes earlier had shifted just as quickly to snow.
Gemma peered through the windshield. With the sun quickly setting and those wildly churning snowflakes coming at her, she felt as if she were driving at warp speed through a galaxy far, far away.
A song came
