by Kaci Hart
“Yes Nick.”
He slid the ring onto her finger and stood up to hug her.
“I love you.”
“Nick.”
“Yes.”
“You forgot to say ‘and they lived happily ever after’.”
“Well, they do.”
Donna turned and embraced her parents. Her father beamed as he talked to her.
“Donna, we are so happy for you. This is wonderful.”
“Thanks. Now you guys must have put him up to this. There was no one else in town that even knew when I was leaving or where I was going. Which one of you guys put him up to this?”
Her mother spoke up quickly with a smile.
“I knew you would think it was me! This time it was your father that butted into your business. Although I agree.”
“Of course you would mom. And Daddy….”
“I didn’t do nothing but give you kids a nudge. God knows you both were being too stubborn to see what was right in front of your faces. I just told him how much you loved him. He was the one that was ready to come save you.”
“I was actually going to say thank you daddy. If you had not spoken to him, who knows how long it would have taken him to come and get me. I love you.”
“I love you too princess. I love you too.”
She turned back to her future husband.
“And thank you too for loving me.”
“You could never have stopped me.”
“Good. Now all I have to do is fly back to Texas, beg for my job back, take out a new lease on my apartment and get married.”
“Don’t worry. I’d like to change the order of some of those things. Why don’t you stay with your mom for a few weeks before we get married?”
“A few weeks? That quickly?”
“Why not. All my family is there and so is yours. I don’t want to waste any more time making you Mrs. Donna Dellinger.”
“Sounds like you’ve got it all planned out, huh?”
“Not at all, but I think we can figure it out together.”
She embraced him once again.
“Yes we can.”
As she walked through the airport with her mother, father and fiancée, Donna was happier than she had been ever. Her life was perfect right now. A romance movie ending, waiting to unfold into their forever. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Continue reading for an excerpt from the introductory book to the Stanton Falls Series ‘Just in Time for Love.’
Chapter 1
Emily released a deep sigh as she looked at the sign signaling that they had made it to their destination.
Welcome to Stanton Falls
Her father had come to the airport in Dallas to pick her up and bring her back home. It had been a long time since she had considered Stanton Falls home. As she looked around, she realized that not much had changed in the town since she had left so many years ago. There were no high rise buildings or occasional movie star sightings. No street corner artists or bistros selling with names that she could barely pronounce. She had gone to college on the west coast to become a nurse and honestly had never even considered moving back to her childhood home again. All of that changed during her junior year of school. Having a baby had its way of changing lives.
She thought back to when she had first found out that she was pregnant. She had hoped that she was wrong. Had hoped that the home test was somehow at fault and that the ninety nine percent accuracy allowed her to be the one percent of inaccuracy. Three tests later, she was sure that her life would be changing.
I can’t be pregnant. I’m not even done with school yet.
She knew it was true though. She was studying to be a nurse so she should know a thing or two about the signs of pregnancy. The missed cycle was one thing but the first morning she woke up throwing up, she knew there was a concern.
That was four years ago. She looked into the back seat at her now three year old daughter and smiled at how beautiful she was. She was unable to even fathom her life without her little child now. She thought back to meetings with the doctor and at the options that he wanted to make sure that she and the father knew were available to them. As if her time in nursing school hadn’t already taught her that. The father had actually wanted her to get an abortion simply because he wasn’t ready to be a father. Emily knew she had gone too far from God when she had considered it--even for the slight second.
No matter how far she had gone from her roots, she still considered the conglomerate of mixed DNA inside of her belly to be a live baby and never really entertained the thought of not having Ashleigh. She’d decided from that day to have the baby and raise her alone if that’s what it took. She hadn’t spoken to the baby’s father in two years. She reached into the back seat and placed her hand on Ashleigh’s tiny forehead rubbing softly as the she slept. She turned back around in her seat, watching the familiar scenery unfold before her and was lost in her reverie until her father spoke.
“Sweetie, don’t worry. Your mother and I are going to be here to help you out. It took you long enough but I’m glad you finally decided to let us be here for you and our grandbaby. You know a big city is nowhere to raise a child by yourself.”
Her father had looked at her while he was driving and had seen the concern on her face. He placed his hand on hers and continued.
“I know it wasn’t part of your plan to get pregnant at this point in your life. That definitely isn’t what we expected when you went off to school, but God knows what He is doing. You made some decisions and you have to live with them, but you aren’t going to do it alone.”
His words took the sting off of what she was feeling. Her dad was one of the kindest people she knew. She was convinced she had the best parents in the world, with him and her mother. They supported her from day one, with her mother making the two hour drive to spend weeks at a time with her and her little grandbaby. Even still, they were always telling her to come home and have family around to help raise the baby. She felt low at times. She’d made all the decisions that they had told her not to.
“Thanks daddy.”
She didn’t get how they managed to still see her as their little girl. The car pulled up to her parents’ house and she got out to her screaming sister calling out to her as she sprinted out the door to give her a proper greeting.
“Emily!”
Elizabeth was her younger sister by two years and at times her very best friend. Seeing her face again, she was glad that Elizabeth had convinced her to move back to Stanton Falls. She had considered at first moving in with her sister instead of her parents but ultimately decided it would be better to stay with her parents since her mother didn’t work and--in her own words--couldn’t have enough time in the world to pinch those precious cheeks. She embraced her sister for at least a few seconds. She had missed that part of life. Being a pediatric nurse and a single mother, she couldn’t even remember the last time she had hugged an actual grown up.
“Liz! I am so glad to see you sis.”
“Sure you are. Anyway, it’s nice to see you too, although you took your sweet time in coming back. Common sense finally showed you where you belong. Now on to bigger and better things. Where is my little niece at?”
“Wow sis. Not even a three second greeting and my return is yesterday’s old news already. Yes, you are definitely my sister. C’mon, she’s sleeping in the back. Help me grab her.”
They walked to the back seat of the car and stopped for a minute to watch the baby. Liz whispered softly to her about how she made a cute baby. Her attempt at stealth went in vain as Ashleigh’s little brown eyes blinked slowly a few times before she yawned and reached out for her mother, requesting release from her restraint in the car seat.
“Well, she’s awake now so get ready for a million questions. She’s at that age.”
“Wow. I still can’t
even believe that you have a kid. My big sister. So much has changed in the past few years.”
“Not everything I bet!” Emily tickled her little sister and fought back her own side splitting laughter as Liz jumped at least two feet away. “Still can’t fight a good tickle, can you?”
The girls laughed as they unbuckled a laughing Ashleigh from the car seat, leading her into her new home. Their playfulness had triggered a feeling Emily hadn’t felt in a long time and if her laughter was any indication, Ashleigh was going to have a great time figuring out what all the fun was really all about. The truth was that Emily couldn’t think of a better place in the world to raise her baby.
***
Aaron sat at his desk working on designs and support for the website changes he was planning on making. With so much data hacking going around in the news, he had been researching and found some great ideas on new checks and balances to protect information. When he got a knock on his door, he tore his gaze from the screen long enough to see Nick standing in the hallway. He swiftly returned his attention to his work, silently praying he would be able to send him away without too much time wasted.
“Hey Aaron, what’s goin on buddy.”
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