“You’re not losing any of us,” Boone said. “Sand Castle Bay is in my blood.”
“Mine, too,” Emily said. “These past few months have reminded me of that. We’ll be here so much, you’ll get sick of us.”
“It could never happen,” Cora Jane said.
“And I think we’ll have a wedding to plan here,” Emily added, smiling up at Boone. “I can’t imagine it being anywhere else. Can you?”
He grinned. “I was thinking we could gather together a few people, get married on the beach next week, maybe do a barbecue at Castle’s afterward. What do you think?”
Emily exchanged a skeptical look with her grandmother.
“Absolutely not,” Cora Jane said firmly. “We’re having a big whoop-de-do, and that’s final. After waiting this long, my girl deserves a proper wedding gown, flowers, the whole nine yards.”
Emily laughed. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
Since all Boone really cared about was claiming this woman for the rest of his life, he wasn’t about to argue about how that came to be. If she and Cora Jane wanted a whoop-de-do, then he’d see that they had it.
“Sooner, rather than later,” he requested.
“Later,” Cora Jane corrected firmly. “Big weddings take planning, and with you two in California, that’ll take time. You want it done right, don’t you?”
“I just want it done,” Boone countered, but he knew it was a losing stance. Their minds were obviously made up.
“Early summer,” Emily said. “That’s a reasonable compromise.”
Boone nodded, albeit reluctantly. “I suppose I can live with that.”
Cora Jane looked hesitant, then she, too, nodded. “But we’ll need to start right now.” She grabbed Emily’s hand and dragged her toward the house. “We should make some lists.”
“Tonight?” Boone asked, He’d had a few other ideas in mind for tonight.
Cora Jane turned and gave him a chiding look. “You’ll have a whole bunch of time to celebrate in private,” she scolded. “Do you want this wedding to happen this summer or not?”
He shook his head, laughing. “Go. Make your lists. You have a half hour. B.J. and I will get dinner on the table.”
But he was talking to their backs. He glanced at his son. “Looks like we’re on our own.”
B.J. shook his head. “No way, Dad. We’re getting married! How cool is that?”
Pretty darn cool in Boone’s opinion. And way too long in coming!
* * * * *
Be sure to look for Sherryl’s next
OCEAN BREEZE novel,
WIND CHIME POINT,
coming in May to your favorite retailer.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Where Azaleas Bloom by Sherryl Woods
1
Lynn Morrow was at her wit’s end. Her tiny desk tucked into a corner of the kitchen was piled high with bills and her checkbook balance was a stunningly low $24.35. Not since college had she seen such a scary balance.
The refrigerator held a half-empty carton of milk, five eggs and some rapidly wilting lettuce. There was a can of diced tomatoes in the cupboard, along with a box of spaghetti, a few spoonfuls of peanut butter left in a jar and maybe a bowlful of Cheerios in the bottom of the box. That, too, reminded her of college. But it was one thing to scrape by at nineteen, and quite another to try to do it in her forties with kids to care for.
“Mom, I’m starving,” Jeremy announced when he walked in the door from school. It was the standard cry of her ten-year-old. “What can I have for a snack?”
Lexie, who was right on his heels, took one look at her mother, apparently interpreted her dire expression for the near-panic Lynn was feeling, and turned on her brother. “You don’t need food. You need sensitivity training.”
Tears sprang to Lynn’s eyes as Jeremy bolted from the room. Lately, Alexis, who was only fourteen, had spent way too much time trying to protect her mother. Ever since the divorce proceedings had been initiated, Lynn had been struggling to make ends meet. She and Ed were still in court wrangling over everything from custody of the kids to support. The temporary order in place barely kept her and the kids above water and, by the end of the month, she was scraping bottom financially, even with the part-time job she’d managed to find at her neighbor Raylene’s boutique on Serenity’s Main Street.
One of these days she supposed she’d thank Ed for providing this unexpected life challenge, but she really, really wasn’t there yet. She was spitting mad, not because he’d left, but because of the upheaval he’d left in his wake.
She’d worked hard to keep her worries from spilling over onto the kids, but Lexie was a smart girl. She’d quickly figured out what was going on. Sometimes her overnight transformation from carefree teen into world-weary adult nearly broke Lynn’s heart. Lexie should be paying attention to her grades, maybe having her first crush on a boy, not trying to be her mother’s savior.
Now, with her brother gone in an indignant huff, Lexie came over to give Lynn a hug. She seemed to know instinctively just when Lynn was in desperate need of one.
“Dad’s late with the check again, isn’t he? How bad is it?” Lexie asked.
Lynn tried to reassure her. “We’re going to be fine, sweetie. I don’t want you to worry about this.”
“We’re not going to be fine,” Lexie retorted angrily. “How did Dad turn out to be such a huge jerk?”
Lynn wondered about the same thing, but somehow Ed had turned into a man she didn’t even recognize any longer. He’d taken his midlife crisis to new heights. He was self-absorbed, self-indulgent and thoughtless.
His family might not have enough money to put food on the table, but she’d overheard a conversation two days ago when it was mentioned that he was off on some expensive
