Suddenly, I felt a rush of love and inspiration from her words and from her wish.
‘Then why don’t you and Damion renew your vows tomorrow after our wedding? After all, we have a Minister coming over from Tortola. What do you think? You’ll already be dressed up for the occasion?’
Gloria hesitated. ‘Really? Should we? Oh, no, Lori. Tomorrow is yours and Ethan’s day!’
‘Tomorrow belongs to all of us. Why don’t you speak to Damion? I think it would be wonderful. It would be our honour and privilege. Damion might even want Ethan to return the favour and to be his best man?’
Gloria looked quite ecstatic, but I said no more. The decision was between her and her husband. But I did hope they would want to renew their vows tomorrow and make the whole day even more special. But, between now and then of course, there was so much to do.
In keeping with the casual theme, Ethan and I weren’t having separate pre-wedding parties with ‘hens’ and ‘stags’. After lunch today, we were simply planning on having an afternoon of relaxation, followed by some fun and games in the lagoon and then a big get together tonight for everyone to enjoy sing songs around a bonfire on the beach and dance under the stars.
‘Okay, what can I do?’ My mum demanded to know as soon as she’d appeared from her unpacking. She wasn’t a woman who knew how to be idle, but I thought it was time she learned.
‘Nothing. I’ve already delegated everything.’ I told her. ‘Ethan’s in charge of everything to do with food. Our wedding meal will be a seafood extravaganza, cooked on the barbecue tomorrow evening by all the men, so there’ll be plenty of hands to help. Tomorrow, after lunch, tables will be taken down to the lagoon and all the ladies will help to decorate them with flowers. I have floating candles and sea glass lanterns and our ‘message in a bottle’ wedding favours (I’d handwritten personal thank you messages with a scoop of the fine white sand from our beach for all our guests as a keep-sake). Champagne has already been procured by the case load and is in the chiller. A three-tier wedding cake, decorated with edible pearls and faux corals and shells made in icing, by a very talented wedding cake specialist from Virgin Gorda arrives tomorrow morning. So mum, please, go, sit down, and relax!’
A short time later, I was ecstatic to see that my mum had actually done as she’d been told.
I spotted her sitting on the swing seat bench in the shade of the front porch, gazing out onto our tropical garden and to the white sand beach beyond it, just as I’d always hoped she would.
I also saw my sons having an introductory lesson in scuba diving with Ethan on the reef.
All of our closest friends and family are now on the island. So, after lunch and drinks and during the late-afternoon heat, while some are relaxing in the shade or taking a siesta, Ethan and I have decided to sneak away and be alone at a private spot at the top of the island.
Hand in hand, it was good to walk off our lunch and follow the central rainforest path to our special place, at the emerald pool beneath the waterfall. It’s our secret grotto. Heavenly and private. Here in our own natural spa, we can skinny dip in the cool silky waters and make love to the rhythm of the rainforest and then lay back in the cool water, to relax and gaze up at the emerald coloured walls and lush foliage and watch tiny green butterflies fluttering in the air through the misty spray. The place is so beautiful and such a draw, that we selfishly hadn’t included it in our guest’s tour of the island, so we could keep it all to ourselves.
‘It’s half a year tomorrow since you proposed to me,’ I told Ethan, as I sighed happily.
‘And since you tortured me while I awaited your answer,’ he reminded me.
‘I needed to be sure.’ I told him.
‘You haven’t changed your mind? You will still marry me tomorrow, won’t you?’
‘I haven’t changed my mind. I won’t change my mind. Besides, I had to help you get the island back and your brother too, or you wouldn’t have had a best man for your wedding!’
‘And for that I will be forever grateful to you, my darling.’
‘Well, family is everything.’ I reminded him, kissing him as we faced each other in the pool.
‘Talking of family. Am I to assume you’ll take my family name? Only we haven’t yet discussed it. You don’t want to do the double-barrelled name thing do you?’
‘No. Tomorrow I will be Lori Goldman.’ I told him proudly. ‘I want you to know, my darling, that I’m so happy right now. You and I are together and all the people that mean the most to me in the whole world are here on our island.’
‘It’s wonderful.’ Ethan agreed. ‘But when they’re gone, we can begin our honeymoon.’
‘Oh, Ethan. I didn’t expect to go on a honeymoon. Not when we have Waterfall Cay?
‘So, if I told you our honeymoon was right here, then you wouldn’t be disappointed?’
I threw my head back and laughed in relief. ‘No. I’m happy to stay right here!’
‘Well, that’s good because I ordered extra champagne just for the two of us.’
And as our lips met again, this time for a softer and even more delicious kiss and our warm bodies pressed together, skin to skin, heart to heart, in an embrace that would undoubtably lead to us lingering here for even longer in late afternoon passions, the shimmering refracting sunlight around us closed in and a sudden darkness was cast over us.
A shadow that caused us both to stop kissing not in alarm but in curiosity.
At first, I thought it might be a fruit bat. They often come down from their roosts in the tree canopy here, to scoop a drink from the pool. But this time, the fluttering shape was a butterfly.
Only, its wingspan was huge, more than six inches across.
Its colour was iridescent and reflecting both the green walls and the emerald pool.
I held out my hand aloft as it played just above us in the misty orbs that streamed in from the forest canopy above. I watched it hover over us with its dark glimmering underside and I held my breath as it settled lightly on my hand.
Its wings moved as if they were flying in slow motion. I gasped in wonder.
This was magical. This was a miracle. This—was a Green Morpho.
‘And finally, I see you here, where you belong.’
The End
And don’t miss more adventures with The Backpacking Housewife in Janice Horton’s exciting next book …
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Acknowledgements
Writing the second book in The Backpacking Housewife series really has been the next adventure for me as a writer, as well as for Lori, the heroine of my stories. Once again, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with my publisher HarperImpulse - the romance imprint of HarperCollins. I want to thank Charlotte Ledger and her team at HarperImpulse for their expertise and for their enthusiasm in supporting me as an author and in getting behind this series of backpacking romantic adventure novels.
You might have noticed that one of the main themes of this book is about the importance of family. Wherever we or they happen to be in the world, I want to thank my lovely family, to whom I’ve dedicated this book, for being so loving and supportive during the past six years that the backpacking husband and I have been nomadically travelling. We may be apart for long periods of time, but we are never out of touch or ever out of heart and mind, and we are so grateful for the strong and close family bond that we all share.
Over this past winter, while I’ve been working on The Next Adventure, my backpacking husband and I have been ‘housesitting’ for homeowners who want to travel. This arrangement allows us some downtime from our own travels and is also conducive to me meeting my writing deadlines. We’ve been living in the South of France, caring for an old ‘bastille’ farmhouse with a menagerie of animals: a horse, two donkeys, a herd of sheep, a flock of geese, a whole selection of poultry, four cats and a dog. It was a fantastic experience during which time I did get to write and finish The Next Adventure. So huge thanks go to our homeowners Philippa and Ashle
y.
In the Spring, we moved from the South of France to wine country in South West France, to stay in the same beautiful 500-year-old chateau where last year I wrote The Backpacking Housewife. Thank you so much to our lovely homeowner Frances, for inviting us back to care for her home and very fine cat, Mr Smudge, and for facilitating the writing of the third book in the Backpacking Housewife series over this coming summer.
Between writing The Backpacking Housewife in 2018 and The Next Adventure in 2019 I took some time out to travel. I’ve been fortunate to explore some amazing places in the world and to have had some fantastic travel experiences. Like Lori, I have circumnavigated the whole world - moving from France to the UK, then onto Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, China, South Korea, across the Pacific Ocean to the USA, and then onto the Caribbean – where I spent five months researching and writing as well as working on my website thebackpackinghousewife.com before returning to the UK and then back to France once more.
So, as you might imagine, many of Lori’s adventures are my adventures too, as I use my own travel experiences to provide insight and inspiration for my stories. I hope you find my books inspiring. If you do, and you’d like to get in touch, then I’d love to hear from you via my website or my social media channels. I promise to reply from wherever I am in the world as soon as I get an internet connection.
Lastly, a special thank you to everyone who entered the recent ‘Name A Character In My Next Book’ competition draw via my website at thebackpackinghousewife.com which was won by Jules Knight. Congratulations Jules - who chose the name ‘Taryn’ for one of Lori’s friends in The Next Adventure.
Happy reading and backpacking!
Love, Janice xx
About the Author
Janice Horton writes contemporary romantic fiction with a dash of humour and a sense of adventure. In 2014, after her children had left home, Janice and her husband set off to explore the Caribbean. In 2015, they returned to the UK only to sell their material possessions in favour of travelling around the world. They are currently housesitting in France after travelling around South East Asia.
@JaniceHorton
www.facebook.com/JaniceHortonAuthor/
@janicehortonwriter
About HarperImpulse
HarperImpulse is an innovative, award-winning digital imprint. In the five years since launch, we have continually hit digital bestseller lists, hosted the UK’s first online romance festival, published into over ten countries and grown an exciting stable of commercial women’s fiction authors.
Readers, come and say hi to the team and your next read …
www.facebook.com/HarperImpulse
@HarperImpulse
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www.harperimpulseromance.com
Writers, our vision is to publish the very best in digital-first commercial women’s fiction and we are simply looking for good stories! So, what are you waiting for? To submit, e-mail us at [email protected].
About the Publisher
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United Kingdom
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