by Holly Jacobs
“You’re sure, Mrs. Albright?”
Mrs. Albright looked back at Colm for a third time, and this time, she smiled. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“Then, since there is no protest pending, it is my pleasure to grant the variance for the Trudy Street property. Colm, Josh and Gilly, it seems that you have a home.”
Miriam adjourned the meeting, and soon Colm and his friends were surrounded by their new neighbors. Anna overheard Colm saying to Mrs. Albright, “Yeah, you’re old. I help old people with their groceries at the store. I can help with yours. And me and Gilly’ll help shovel snow and stuff, too. We’re awfully strong.”
Rather than take offense, Mrs. Albright laughed.
Anna cocked her head to one side and looked at Ceelie who read her mind. “You’re not going to do it here, are you?” Ceelie asked, trying to conceal her laughter.
“You know what they say?”
“I’m afraid to ask,” Ceelie said.
“Sometimes you gotta dance.” And very discreetly, Anna did the slightest of all Snoopy Dances. “I’ll be doing a better one as soon as we get back to the office,” she promised.
Ceelie laughed, then pointed behind Anna.
Feeling her face already starting to flame, she turned and saw Liam standing behind her, grinning from ear to ear. “What was that?”
Before Anna could reply, Ceelie said, “That, my friend, was Anna Chapel’s Snoopy Dance of Joy. Actually, it was a very watered-down version. You need to see it in full swing to get the total effect.”
“Maybe I can convince her to show me later.” Liam swept her into his arms and whispered in her ear, “Maybe I’ll do a Dance of Joy with you.”
Anna tried to picture the Liam Franklin who’d first walked into her office doing a Dance of Joy, and couldn’t quite manage it. But this Liam—this man who was hugging her—she could picture dancing with joy quite handily.
“Can I talk to you a minute?” he asked.
“You two take your minute, I’ll join Colm and the gang,” Ceelie told them.
Anna allowed Liam to lead her to the corner of the room. “What’s up?”
“A couple things. First, I don’t know if I’ve ever really thanked you enough for everything you’ve done for us. And I do mean us. You helped Colm learn to spread his wings, but Anna, you’ve helped me as much. You’ve—”
“Shh. I only did my job.”
“You did so much more, and you know it. But I do have one small problem.”
Her stomach sank. “You’re not rethinking Colm moving out, are you?”
“No, but there is a problem with it. You see, if he moves out, I’ll be stuck in that huge house all by myself. A huge house with a very nice front porch with two wicker chairs. You realize, that when Colm moves I’ll have one too many wicker chairs, right?”
“Well, having too many wicker chairs would be a problem,” she teased.
Serious now, he said, “I don’t really want to live alone, Anna.”
Before she could respond, he added, “When you were explaining your porch envy to me that first time, you said you could picture yourself coming home each night and after dinner going out to your porch and sitting in your white wicker chair. It would be nice if there was…”
“Someone sitting next to me,” she whispered.
“I want to be that someone, Anna.”
“Are you asking me to move in with you?”
“No. Not really. I’m asking you to marry me. I didn’t plan on this now, today, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I love you, Anna. I want to live the rest of my life with you. I want Sunday mornings with coffee and the paper on the porch, with you at my side. I want children—a family—with you. I know it’s quick, but I also know it’s right.”
Anna wasn’t sure what to say. So in the end, she simply threw herself in Liam’s arms and said, “Yes,” before she kissed him. Kissed the exceptional man, whom she loved more than words.
“Ew, look, they’re kissing again,” Colm said loudly. “They do that a lot.”
“Ew,” Gilly echoed.
Anna regretfully pulled back. “Should we tell them?”
“First, I have something that’s just for you.” Liam let her go completely and did the oddest, most endearing little butt-wiggle.
Anna burst out laughing. “What was that?”
“That, Anna, was my Liam Dance of Joy. I figure the day the woman I love agrees to marry me—” He paused. “You did agree, right?”
“Yes, I agreed.”
He mock-wiped his brow. “Well, an occasion like that deserves a little Dance of Joy.”
Liam pulled her close and turned to his brother and everyone else and said, “Anna’s agreed to marry me.”
The pandemonium continued, and Anna, standing next to Liam, realized how lucky she was that two such very special and different men had come into her life.
She thought of Sunrise’s motto about helping exceptional people lead exceptional lives.
It seemed she was surrounded by exceptional people who had given her the chance at an exceptional life. And she was going to grab it with both hands and hold on for all she was worth.
~~~
Dear Reader,
Thank you for picking up, A Special Kind of Different, the second book in my Hometown Hearts Romance series. I hope you enjoyed the story. If you did, please leave a review at your favorite online site. It’s the best way to help new readers discover my books. I hope you’ll watch for the third story, Homecoming. I’ve included the Prologue for you here! In a small town like Whedon, you’re bound to run into someone you know!
Holly
Hometown Hearts
1. Crib Notes
2. A Special Kind of Different
3. Homecoming
4. Suddenly a Father
A Hometown Hearts Wedding
5. Something Borrowed
6. Something Blue
7. Something Perfect
Homecoming—excerpt
copyright Holly Jacobs
PROLOGUE
LAURA WATSON WATCHED the monitor.
The staff had long since turned down the volume, but she could still see the numbers rise and fall on the screen over Jay’s head. Blood pressure. Heart rate. Those numbers should have been comforting. They meant Jay was still here with her.
But she knew those numbers were a lie. Despite the fact that Jay’s heart was beating, he was gone.
His mother and father stood on the other side of the bed, their faces as ashen as Laura suspected her own was. His mother clutched his unmoving hand.
“We need to honor…” Laura’s voice broke. She took a moment and tried again. “We need to honor Jay’s wishes.”
They were the hardest words that Laura had ever said. But she knew it was the right thing to do. It was what Jay would have wanted. It was what he made her promise.
Not that he’d planned this.
Jay was a cop and even in a small city like Erie, Pennsylvania, there was always a chance that he’d end up here in a hospital and this decision would be on her shoulders.
As they’d planned their future, planned their wedding, they’d discussed everything, including this possibility. Jay didn’t want to linger, held to this life by machines.
But, despite all their conversations about the future, they hadn’t envisioned this, because it wasn’t a bullet that put Jay here. It was bacterial meningitis. Jay wasn’t laid low in the line of duty, but by a tiny bacterium.
“He’s not coming back,” Laura said. “The doctors were clear.”
Even if his body could survive this illness, his mind was gone and he’d never be Jay again.
They’d never be married. Their June wedding, only two weeks away, would never happen. No minister would ever pronounce them husband and wife. Jay would never know this child.
Laura’s hands rested on her still-flat stomach. And this baby would never know its father.
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The thought was a physical pain that tore at her.
She remembered the night she told him about her suspicions. They were engaged and already planning a fall wedding, but she’d still felt nervous, afraid that he’d be unhappy about a baby coming so soon.
She remembered his whoop of joy as he’d hurried across the room, scooped her up and swung her around in his excitement.
She remembered his moment of concern as he realized he was swinging around a pregnant woman.
She remembered his tender kiss and his assurances that this baby was welcome, wanted and was already loved. He’d been the one who’d urged her to push the wedding forward. He’d held her and whispered that he loved her and their child so much, he couldn’t wait until fall.
The memory burned brightly. Tears streamed down her face. She’d fallen in love with Jay all over again. That’s how it was with Jay. Every time she thought she loved him as much as humanly possible, he’d do something that would make that love grow exponentially.
“I hope she’s beautiful like her mom, both inside and out. Blond hair and blue eyes,” he’d whispered. “Smart, creative, sweet…” He’d kissed her cheek after each descriptive word, as if punctuating it.
She touched her cheek, willing herself to feel the imprint of his lips there, but it had long since gone cold.
Now, weeks later, she looked at Jay’s parents, her unborn baby’s only grandparents. Since she and Jay weren’t married yet, his parents were the ones who would have to sign the papers that would allow the staff to remove the life support.
“He made it clear that it’s what he wanted,” she told them gently.
Jay’s mother’s face was suddenly animated with anger. “We won’t pull the plug, Laura. You can’t ask it of us.”
“Mrs. Martin, the doctors said he’s not going to recover, knowing what his job might entail, Jay was clear—”
Adele Martin was a tiny, elfin-looking woman who’d been so much more than her fiancé’s mother or Laura’s future mother-in-law. Laura loved her. But looking at her now, so upset, Laura admitted she didn’t really know her at all. Laura was taken aback by Mrs. Martin’s rage.
“You have no idea how hard a parent will fight for a child, for a miracle,” Jay’s mother said. “I’m not giving up on my son just because you have.”
“Mrs. Martin, I haven’t given up on anything.” Nothing except her heart and her dreams. “I—”
“Get out, Laura. Go. My husband and I will look after Jay. We don’t need you here.”
Laura stared at the woman—the woman who’d asked her to call her Mom. Laura recalled laughing and telling Adele, After the wedding, when it’s official. When she’d said those words, she’d planned on a life with Jay, and his parents becoming her parents. Finally, after years of being on her own, she’d belong to someone—to a family. She could still see the fragments of that imagined future. And the knowledge that it would never happen was crushing.
Her heart broke as she pushed back the chair and stood, facing the Martins. She knew there wasn’t anything left she could do for Jay except honor this one last request and she didn’t have the power to do it. “He didn’t want this.”
She leaned down and kissed his still-warm cheek. It would be so easy to deceive herself. To watch the machine and believe its lie—believe that Jay was there and that somehow they’d still have a life together.
Filled with sorrow, she said goodbye to the family she’d hoped to belong to, then turned and walked from the room.
Laura realized that the idea of the family she’d wanted was an illusion.
But this baby growing inside her—her child and Jay’s—was the reality. And the family she’d build with the baby would be real, too.
Check out Homecoming, by Holly Jacobs
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning author Holly Jacobs has over three million books in print worldwide. The first novel in her Everything But. . . series, Everything But a Groom, was named one of 2008's Best Romances by Booklist, and her books have been honored with many other accolades. She lives in Erie, Pennsylvania, with her husband and four children. You can visit her at www.HollyJacobs.com
