by Lauren Dane
“Wow! You look amazing, Maggie. Absolutely gorgeous,” Marc said.
“I’m an idiot,” Shane grumbled and Polly nodded and patted his arm.
“You look beautiful, Liv,” Matt said and Maggie smiled at the chemistry that always brewed between those two.
“Let’s rock, people,” she said and they all went to the back doors and the music started as Polly and Shane walked out, followed by Liv and Matt, Dee and Marc.
Suddenly the music changed and she put her hands in the arms of her escorts and stepped outside and everyone stood. She looked out at the gathered crowd of friends and neighbors and then, up to the arbor where Kyle stood, smiling at her.
Kyle’s heart stopped when she stepped out onto the back porch. Her dress molded to her body, her hair pinned up in artfully reckless curls and filled with flowers. She looked fey and wholesome and yet earthy and sexy all at once. And she was all his. Her smile flashed at him and he began to breathe again.
Both Tom and Edward placed her hand in his and the rest of the ceremony went by in a haze. Kyle pushed the platinum band onto her finger until it slid home against the ring she already wore and spoke the words that bound their lives together under civil law. She spoke the same words back as she slid a matching band onto his finger.
The minister, who’d married Polly and Edward and presided at the baptisms of each of the Chase children, smiled at Maggie and Kyle and gently turned them to face the crowd of friends and family. “I’d like to introduce Kyle and Margaret Chase.”
Kyle’s arm encircled his wife’s shoulders and he steered her back into the house for a few brief moments of silence and solitude. “I love you, wife,” he said, kissing her lips.
“And I love you, husband,” she murmured back.
Epilogue
Six months later
It was a Friday night and Maggie, Liv and Dee were all at their usual table at The Pumphouse. Dee was drinking a Perrier because she was six months pregnant with the child she and Arthur conceived the night of Maggie and Kyle’s wedding.
Maggie watched Kyle as he bent over to take a shot, hooting as he made it and smacking Shane in the head with the tip of his pool cue. He turned around, feeling her gaze, and shot her a look of total unadulterated lust and longing. Her pulse quickened and she smiled wickedly, raising her glass to him in promise.
“Oh God, the two of you!” Liv muttered.
“What?” Maggie asked, laughing. “You expect me to have that in my bed and not have this look on my face?”
“Point taken. I should go, my sister is coming in from Crawford in an hour and I want to pick up my house a bit.”
Liv’s sister Bea was coming to stay with her for a while, licking her wounds from a bad breakup and a lost job. Maggie smiled when she saw Matt cock his head and give Liv a wave and Liv blush and wave back.
“Night then, Livvy. You know, Matt isn’t dating Nancy anymore.”
“That so? Huh. Perhaps you and Kyle should have a barbecue, you know, a Thanksgiving thing. Give Bea a chance to get back into the swing of things in Petal again.”
“And you a chance to hang out with Matt?”
“Something like that.”
“All right. I’ll call you with the details.”
Dee shoved herself out of the booth and Liv helped her stand up. “Arthur is here to pick me up, I’ll see you later.” She kissed them both and went to her husband who was waiting patiently at the door.
Maggie turned and walked through the crowd to where the pool tables were. She hopped up on a high stool, watching Kyle who tossed his cue to Matt and grabbed her. “Night, all. See you Sunday,” he called out and pulled Maggie out the front door and practically shoved her into the car.
“Now, I was thinking, Red, that there was a back road with our name on it. I just happen to have the sleeping bags in the back, along with a picnic basket full of food and some sparkling cider. What do you say, wanna neck under the stars?”
She leaned in and caught his lips with her own, pulling his bottom lip between her teeth. “Mm hm. I’ll follow you anywhere. I might even let you get to second base.”
He threw his head back and laughed and they drove off, heading for that country road.
* * * * *
Also available from Lauren Dane and Carina Press
Second Chances
Believe
Goddess with a Blade series
Goddess with a Blade
Blade to the Keep
Blade on the Hunt
At Blade’s Edge
Diablo Lake series
Diablo Lake: Moonstruck
Diablo Lake: Protected
Cascadia Wolves series
Reluctant Mate
Pack Enforcer
Wolves’ Triad
Wolf Unbound
Alpha’s Challenge
Bonded Pair
Twice Bitten
de La Vega Cats series
Trinity
Revelation
Beneath the Skin
Cherchez Wolf Pack series
Wolf’s Ascension
Sworn to the Wolf
Chase Brothers series
Giving Chase
Taking Chase
Chased
Making Chase
From Lauren Dane and HQN Books
The Best Kind of Trouble
Broken Open
Back to You
Whiskey Sharp: Unraveled
Whiskey Sharp: Jagged
Whiskey Sharp: Torn
Author Note
Hey there, all you lovely reader friends!
Way back in 2006 I got an idea that I knew I couldn’t sell to the publisher I had been with at the time so I took a chance on a new publisher and a new editor with my small-town contemporary romance.
Twelve years later, the Chase Brothers series has been reissued with Carina Press, but with the same beloved editor, Angela James, who continues to kick my butt and make me a better writer.
I’ve done very little to change these books. Some grammatical stuff here and there, but though I like to think my writing has come a long way in those intervening dozen years, I wanted to keep these the way they were. The heart of the stories is unchanged. The heart of this group of friends and family is unchanged.
The Chases remain a personal favorite of all the books I’ve written and it’s always a pleasure to see them reach new readers even now. If you’re a new reader to the series, welcome to Petal! I hope you enjoy your stay. If you’re returning, welcome back!
Either way, I’m glad you’re here.
Lauren
Introducing the Carina Press Romance Promise!
The Carina Press team all have one thing in common: we are romance readers with a longtime love of the genre. And we know what readers are looking for in a romance: a guarantee of a happily-ever-after (HEA) or happy-for-now (HFN). With that in mind, we’re initiating the Carina Press Romance Promise. When you see a book tagged with these words in our cover copy/book description, we’re making you, the reader, a very important promise:
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Look for the Carina Press Romance Promise and one-click with confidence that we understand what’s at the heart of the romance genre!
Look for this line in Carina Press book descriptions:
One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!
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Find out more at CarinaPress.com.
The Chase boys. Ridiculously hot and notoriously single.
Don’t miss the Chase Brothers series from New York Times bestselling
author Lauren Dane!
GIVING CHASE (Chase Brothers, book one)
TAKING CHASE (Chase Brothers, book two)
CHASED (Chase Brothers, book three)
MAKING CHASE (Chase Brothers, book four)
The Chase is on. One small town. Four hot brothers. And enough heat to burn up anyone who dares to get close.
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Craving sexy paranormal romances? Don’t miss these titles from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Dane!
The Diablo Lake series
In Diablo Lake, Tennessee, a town populated by werewolves, witches and more, magic woven deep into the earth protects the town’s secrets from outsiders.
DIABLO LAKE: MOONSTRUCK (Diablo Lake, book one)
DIABLO LAKE: PROTECTED (Diablo Lake,, book two)
The Cherchez Wolf Pack series
Follow the Cherchez werewolf pack in Washington’s North Cascades National Park as everything in their world changes.
WOLF’S ASCENSION (Cherchez Wolf Pack, book one)
SWORN TO THE WOLF (Cherchez Wolf Pack, book two)
“WOLF’S ASCENSION is paranormal perfection—with a sexy alpha werewolf who worships his queen, and a fast-paced story full of mystery and suspense.”
—Fresh Fiction
The Cascadia Wolves series
RELUCTANT MATE (Cascadia Wolves, book one)
PACK ENFORCER (Cascadia Wolves, book two)
WOLVES’ TRIAD (Cascadia Wolves, book three)
WOLF UNBOUND (Cascadia Wolves, book four)
ALPHA’S CHALLENGE (Cascadia Wolves, book five)
BONDED PAIR (Cascadia Wolves, book six)
TWICE BITTEN (Cascadia Wolves, book seven)
The de La Vega Cats series
TRINITY (de La Vega Cats, book one)
REVELATION (de La Vega Cats, book two)
BENEATH THE SKIN (de La Vega Cats, book three)
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ISBN-13: 9781488081231
Giving Chase
This is the revised text of the work first published by Samhain Publishing, 2006
This edition published by Carina Press, 2018
Copyright © 2018 by Lauren Dane
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
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