Picture Perfect
Wedding
Magnolia Brides,
#3
Author:
Lynnette Austin
Pub Date: November 1, 2016
ISBN:
9781492618034
Third in the heartfelt and charming Magnolia Brides series
from Lynnette Austin
One mistake can change
everything…forever
Beck Elliot and Tansy Calhoun
were inseparable—until Tansy left Misty Bottoms, Georgia, promising to come
back after she finished school. Beck stayed behind to save the family business,
dreaming of the day when Tansy would return. Instead, his trust and his heart
were broken when she inexplicably married another man and bore his child.
Five years later, Tansy comes
home, a sadder and wiser woman. Despite his anger, Beck finds it hard to avoid
her and her adorable little daughter—especially with all the busybodies of
Misty Bottoms going out of their way to throw him and Tansy together, hoping a
lingering spark will reignite their enduring flame…
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Excerpt:
Halfway through dinner, popping and snapping
exploded, sharp as a round of gunshots.
Tansy let out an involuntary little squeak.
A gruff male voice cut through the darkness.
“What the hell?”
More popping and snapping.
“It’s the bad man. He’s here.” Gracie
scampered from her chair and all but crawled up Tansy’s leg to get to her lap.
Her dark-brown eyes huge, she wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck.
More movement outside was followed by more
sharp pops.
“Tansy?”
Beck Elliot.
Making soothing noises and bouncing a scared
little girl on her hip, Tansy moved toward the door.
“Don’t go, Mommy! He’ll hurt us!” Gracie
buried her head in her mom’s neck.
“Where do you get these ideas, Gracie Bella?
Nobody’s going to hurt us.”
“I saw it on TV.”
“On TV?”
“With Daddy. The bad man had a knife.”
“Oh for—” One more black mark in Emerson’s
column.
“Tansy!” Beck banged on the back door.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes,” she called. “I’m comin’.”
She threw open the door, Gracie cowering
against her.
“Why in the hell do you have bubble wrap
taped all over the porch floor? ’Bout gave me a heart attack.” Then he noticed
Gracie curled into Tansy. “What’s wrong? Is she sick? Can I help?”
She shook her head. “No. Gracie put the
bubble wrap there. To protect us from the bad man.”
“The—” He frowned. “I’m not a bad man.”
“She doesn’t know that. After all, you did
breach the perimeter and—” She pointed at the green plastic. “You set off the
early warnin’ system.”
His chin drooped to his chest. “I scared
her.”
“Yeah.”
Gracie opened her eyes. “Beck?”
“Hey, sweet Gracie. I’m sorry I scared you.”
“That’s okay. Wanna color?”
“We’re eating, sweetheart,” Tansy reminded
her.
Beck held up a casserole dish. “My mom sent
this and insisted I bring it over. Tonight. She’s a meddler, Tansy. What can I
say?”
“Why don’t you set it on the counter?”
She held the door open wider for him and was
instantly sorry. The moment he stepped inside, the kitchen grew smaller, and
she found it hard to breathe. This man did things to her system. He always had
and, God help her, he probably always would.
He stepped closer.
“Beck?”
“Yeah?”
“How come you know my mama?”
Beck caught Tansy’s eyes. “Your mama and I
used to be good friends. We went to school together.”
Used to be.
“Did you fight with her?”
Tansy read the indecision in his eyes, saw a
flicker of—what? Pain?
“I gotta be real truthful with you here,
Gracie Bella, ’cause that’s what my mama taught me to do. Your mama can be
really stubborn, so, yeah, we got in a few arguments. She likes to have her
way.”
“She does!” Gracie nodded. “Like when I want
soda? She says, ‘Milk today. Maybe you can have soda tomorrow.’ But then
tomorrow?” The little girl shook her head sadly. “She says milk today—”
“Maybe you can have soda tomorrow?” Beck
added.
“Yeah. How’d you know that?”
“She used to tell me that a lot, too. Maybe
tomorrow.” His gaze locked on Tansy again, and she felt heat flood her face.
They were absolutely not talking about soda anymore.
Gracie pulled away from her mother and
scrambled to her feet. “You like soda, too?”
Beck laughed. “Yeah, I do.”
She released a long, pity-me sigh. “I have to
drink milk.”
“Milk is actually good for pretty little
girls.”
“It is?”
“Yep.”
“Want some mac and cheese? Mommy made lots.
We’ve got more chairs, too.” She slid one out and patted it.
Tansy felt like she’d hopped a runaway
freight train. How had this gone from Beck being the bad man to her daughter
inviting him to dinner?
Before he could answer, Gracie walked to the
counter and stood on tiptoe to look in the dish Beck brought. “What’s in here?”
“That’s the best banana puddin’ you’ll ever
taste.”
“My grandma’s banana puddin’ is the bestest.”
He rolled his eyes. “Then this is the second
best.”
“’Kay.” She turned to her mom. “Can we have
banana puddin’ for dessert, Mama?”
“Sure.” Tansy’s manners got the better of
her. “Would you like some mac and cheese, Beck?”
She knew that he knew she’d rather have
bitten off her tongue than ask. It had to be pretty clear, even to him, that
she didn’t want him there tonight.
Still—and maybe because of that—he said, “I’d
love some. I haven’t had dinner yet, and I have it on great authority that you
make a mean mac and cheese.”
He winked at Gracie, and she giggled.
“Does he have to drink milk, too, Mama?”
When she opened her mouth, more than a little
flustered, Beck piped up. “You know what? I’d love a glass of ice-cold milk.”
**************************************
LYNNETTE AUSTIN gave
up the classroom to write full time. An author of eight novels, she has been a
finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart Contest, PASIC’s Book of Your Heart Contest, and
Georgia Romance Writers’ Maggie Contest. She and her husband divide their time
between Southwest Florida’s beaches and Blairsville, GA.
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Giveaway:
1 print copy of Picture Perfect Wedding by Lynnette Austin! (US only)
Leave a comment with email address to enter!
Giveaway ends midnight November 8, 2016.
Count me in. This sounds like my kind of book
ReplyDeleteI would like to read this!
ReplyDeleteI had my son choose the winner and he picked #2!!!
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