The Lemon Sisters

by Jill Shalvis

  With a rough sound of male pleasure, Garrett held her tight, lowered his head, and kissed her like it was the only thing keeping him alive.

  “Hey, Brooke, Tommy’s going to take us to—” Mindy again. She broke off at the sight of them kissing, standing in the doorway where she’d poked her head back in.

  Slowly Garrett let Brooke go and she put her feet back on the ground.

  “No! Go back to kissing!” Mindy said quickly. “Ignore me!”

  Brooke turned back to Garrett. They both started to talk at the same time, then stopped, laughed a little, and stared at each other again.

  Garrett took her hand. “I’d like to be the gentleman here and let you go first, but I need you to know a few things.”

  Moved by the simple fact that he was even there, by just the sound of his voice, she couldn’t really find words anyway, so she nodded.

  “I let you leave Wildstone without saying some things that needed to be said.” His voice was thick, husky, as if he was as moved by the sight of her as she was by him. “Since the helicopter crash, I’ve made a career of steering clear of real relationships. I’ve always needed to be the one to leave, before anyone else could leave me.”

  An involuntary sound of pain and regret escaped her, because after a life of being abandoned by those who loved him—including herself—of course he would have solved the problem in the only way he could. “Garrett, I’m so sorry—”

  “Not why I told you that.” He cupped her face. “Something changed for me the day you set foot back in Wildstone. Brooke, I want to be the guy who sticks through thick and thin. And I want that with you. I know you think I want a big family, but I want a quality family. I can go either way on kids. What I can’t go either way on is having you in my life.”

  There was a sound in the doorway behind them, and Brooke turned to find Mindy still standing there, a hand to her heart, eyes shiny. “That’s so beautiful,” her sister whispered.

  Linc appeared behind Mindy, mouthed sorry to Garrett and Brooke, and tugged her out of sight.

  Garrett hadn’t taken his gaze off Brooke. “I’m all in,” he said. “Whatever you can give. You’re it for me, Bee. You always have been. And I should’ve told you that before you left. My dad says being a dumbass runs in the family.”

  “You got him back.”

  “I did, and this time he’s sticking.”

  She stared up at him, her throat tight. “I want to stick, too. I was coming back to you.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  A slow, warm smile curved his mouth. “So we were both prepared to fight for this.”

  “Very much,” she said, needing him to know that. “Did you think you needed the whole town with you to convince me?”

  “My dad and Snoop got into my truck and refused to let me leave without them. Then your nosy-ass sister—”

  “Hey!” Mindy called out, making it clear she hadn’t gone far.

  “Want me to kill her?” Brooke asked.

  Garrett just shook his head. “Not her fault. I should never have let you get away in the first place.”

  “Well, I was pretty determined to sabotage everything,” Brooke told him with a smile.

  He entangled their fingers and lifted her hand, pressing it briefly to his chest over his heart before brushing his lips to her palm. “I want to be with you, Bee. I know you believe your life doesn’t really lend itself to relationships, but we’ve been in one since the day we met. I want to be with you wherever you are, here in LA or somewhere on the other side of the planet.”

  “But your entire life’s in Wildstone.”

  “My life’s with you.”

  She looked into his eyes and saw the truth. He’d seen the very worst of her—her demons, her fears—and he was still there. And she realized he’d done the same, let down his walls with her as well. He was her person, but even more amazing, he wanted her to be his person. “I want to go back to Wildstone,” she said. “With you.”

  A collective gasp sounded but the doorway was empty. Brooke moved there and craned her neck around the corner. Everyone was stuffed together, unabashedly eavesdropping—and she did mean everyone: Garrett’s dad, her sister and her entire family, all the occupants of the building, it seemed. “You need to get a life!” she said, and then laughed at herself. Apparently, they did have a life and she was a part of it, a big part, which made her feel . . . wow. Pretty damn lucky. Shaking her head at herself, she moved back to Garrett and slipped her arms around his neck. “I know it’s only been a day, but I miss being outdoors. I miss my family. I miss you,” she said softly, going on tiptoe to pepper his jaw with kisses. “I love you, Garrett.”

  “I know.” He smiled. “But it’s nice to hear you say it.” He sank his fingers into her hair and met her gaze. “I love you, too, Brooke.”

  She grinned. “I know.”

  A laugh escaped his chest as everyone crowded back into the room. Snoop reached them first and jumped up to join the embrace.

  Mason hit them next and began climbing up Snoop to get to Garrett. Garrett scooped the kid up and bent again for Maddox. Brooke got Millie.

  “Are you going to have kids?” Millie demanded to know.

  Garrett smiled into Brooke’s face. “Maybe we’ll just share you and your brothers.”

  “You can have one of them!” Millie said. “Take both!”

  “Millie,” Mindy said.

  Millie shrugged, like, I tried, right?

  Then Mindy and Linc joined the group hug, and Garrett’s dad, and Tommy. Cole had made himself scarce, and Brooke understood. “Thanks for being here,” she told them all, her tribe, having to swallow past the threat of tears. “Thanks for coming for me.”

  “Always,” Garrett said, his warm eyes and the way he held her, along with the huskiness in his voice, telling her how very much she meant to him.

  “Always!” Mindy murmured as well, and Linc nodded.

  “Always!” Millie mimicked.

  “Always!” Mason yelled.

  Maddox tipped his head back and howled.

  “So it’s unanimous,” Garrett said. “To always, for forever and ever.”

  Brooke’s breath caught. “For forever and ever.”

  Epilogue

  Two years later

  “I’m going to smother you with a pillow.”

  Summer had hit early and hard, leaving the patrons of Wildstone hot, sweaty, and grumpy as hell. It amused Brooke, because she could remember her years traipsing across the planet to places that had been hotter than hell with no air-conditioning, much less electricity. So she ignored all the bitching and told everyone to suck it up.

  Except for Mindy. Whenever Mindy got uncomfortable, Brooke moved heaven and earth to help her. In fact, she stepped out the back door with a tray for her sister, carrying slices of her sweet lemon bread and a fresh pitcher of lemonade, the ice clinking gently against the glass.

  “You’re an angel.” Mindy sighed from where she was stretched out on a lounge chair. “But I’ve got to pee.”

  “Again?” Brooke asked in disbelief. “It’s been five minutes.”

  Mindy grimaced and waved a hand for help up, which Brooke gave because her sister was about a million years pregnant.

  With Brooke and Garrett’s baby.

  When Mindy had first offered to be a surrogate for them a year after their wedding, Brooke had been stunned. But the idea was appealing because she had viable eggs—she just couldn’t carry a baby.

  But Mindy could. And she claimed that Brooke had helped her find her happy and she just wanted to give something back, something Brooke was missing.

  It took a minute for Brooke to hoist Mindy out of the chair, and it was no easy feat. She didn’t dare grunt with the effort, but Mindy managed a breathless laugh anyway. “I know, I’m the size of a house. Pass the sweet lemon bread. I’m starving.”

  Brooke eyed her sister’s hugely swollen belly with no little amount of alarm. “Where are you g
oing to put it?”

  “Funny. Maybe I’m growing two babies in there, you ever think of that?”

  Even knowing it wasn’t true, Brooke felt herself pale. “That’s just mean.”

  Mindy smirked and then stilled. “Uh-oh.”

  “Uh-oh, what?”

  Water suddenly cascaded down the inside of Mindy’s legs. Brooke looked down at it and then at Mindy. “What’s that?”

  “My water breaking.” Mindy sighed dramatically. “Dammit! Hey, hand me that sweet lemon bread before the guys find out I’m in labor and tell the doctor, because she won’t let me eat until I push your baby out my vagina.”

  Brooke stared at her sister in horror. “You’re in labor?”

  “Yes.” She smiled. “And you’re in shock, otherwise you would have yelled at me for saying ‘vagina.’”

  “Stop talking and concentrate on my baby!” Brooke searched her pockets for her phone. “Don’t panic, we’ve got a plan.” Suddenly she was the one breathing like she was in labor. One, two, three, four . . . One, two, three, four . . . “Garrett’s going to drive us. Linc will wait for Brittney to come watch the kids and then meet up with us at the hospital.”

  “Take your time, this baby’s certainly going to,” Mindy said, her mouth sounding full.

  Brooke whipped back around and found her sister shoving sweet lemon bread into her mouth with alarming speed. She snatched the plate away. “The second my baby is out of you, I’m going to smother you with a pillow.”

  Mindy sighed. “You’re not a lot of fun when you’re having a baby.” But then she gasped, grabbed Brooke in a death grasp, and doubled over. “Oh, shit. I always forget how much it hurts.”

  “Oh my God. Okay, you’ve got two choices. Stuff your face, or get to the hospital and get drugs.”

  “Hospital, please,” Mindy said through clenched teeth. “Shit. Definitely yes to the drugs.”

  Brooke tipped her head back and yelled, “Garretttttttt!”

  A few seconds later, her husband—she was never going to get tired of thinking that—rounded the corner of the house with a ready smile. “What’s up?”

  “Mindy’s in labor!”

  He turned to Mindy, slid his hands in her hair, and pressed his forehead to hers. “You okay?”

  “I’d be better with some more sweet lemon bread,” Mindy managed.

  Garrett grinned and brushed a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll make sure you get whatever you need.” He turned to Brooke and tugged her into him so hard she had to throw her arms around his neck to stay upright. His smile was huge, his body humming with an energy she’d never felt from him before. “We’ve made it through our past,” he said softly. “And now our future’s here. You ready, babe?”

  Her heart caught and swelled hard against her ribs.

  “Always.”

  P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*

  About the Author

  * * *

  Meet Jill Shalvis

  About the Book

  * * *

  Author’s Note

  Reading Group Guide

  Read On

  * * *

  Coming Soon . . . An Excerpt from Wrapped Up in You

  About the Author

  Meet Jill Shalvis

  New York Times bestselling author JILL SHALVIS lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is . . . mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold, and visit her website for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  About the Book

  Author’s Note

  For a long time, I’ve had floating around in my head the story of two sisters, each deeply unsatisfied with where her life had taken her, so much so that they wanted to exchange lives with each other. That’s not quite where I took The Lemon Sisters, but that was by accident, not design. Because when I started writing that story, I realized something.

  Both Brooke and Mindy needed a wake-up call, needed to make some changes, but deep, deep down, they didn’t covet what the other had. They coveted what they had.

  But oh my goodness, it took a while to get there. I started the book with Mindy showing up at her sister’s door a hot mess, which she basically dumped on Brooke. In real life, I don’t have a sister, but if I did, I hope we would have the sort of relationship where I could do exactly that. But I did do that to a boyfriend once. And yes, I was as messed up as Mindy was.

  When I was in my early twenties, I was in a car wreck, and my car got totaled. This was way before the days of Uber, and I lived in LA, so having no car was a big problem. My job was a going-nowhere position at barely minimum wage, and I was going to college at night. I was exhausted all the time and poor. I was eating a lot of ramen and peanut butter and apples. I lived in a two-hundred-square-foot studio apartment in Hollywood, and my rent got raised the same week my car was totaled.

  I was a hot mess.

  But with no sister to go dump my life on, I did the only thing I had available. I showed up at my relatively new boyfriend’s apartment and completely lost it, sobbing and trying to talk at the same time. You know what I mean, right? When no one can understand a word you’re saying, but you just keep going until you’re doing that sort of hiccup-sobbing because you can no longer breathe? No? Just me?

  My boyfriend put me on his couch and handed me a strawberry pie. I’ll never forget that strawberry pie. I ate a third of it like I was a goldfish. I took a nap. I woke up and ate some real food (handed to me by the boyfriend) and watched TV and then napped some more.

  When I got myself together, the boyfriend and his cousin had found me a cheap but decent car to buy. I upgraded my job. Found a better, safer apartment. All with some encouragement and help.

  And a year from the day I’d shown up on that poor guy’s doorstep, my life had turned itself around. So that old adage that things will get better? True. At least in my case, thankfully.

  So it was fun going back to that time in my memories and having my characters sink as low as they could go in order to watch them work their way out of it. Brooke and Mindy took their own routes, of course, and there were a few steps forward and a few steps back, but they had each other to count on—even when they didn’t know it.

  I hope you enjoy their journey. I sure did. Oh, and what happened to that poor guy from my past? I married him. ☺

  Best wishes,

  Jill Shalvis

  Reading Group Guide

  Would you ever swap lives with anyone in your family? Why or why not?

  Would you rather be Brooke or Mindy?

  Do you think Garrett should have forgiven Brooke for leaving him without telling him why?

  What are some of the things in your past for which you’d like a do-over?

  What are some of the ways that our childhoods affect our present/future?

  Do you think Millie will have an easier time coping with her OCD traits with Brooke in her life?

  Should Garrett’s aunt have contacted him about his father’s health, or should it have been Gary’s choice?

  Do you think the years apart have made make the sisters’ relationship stronger?

  Did Mindy overreact to Linc’s purchase of the shop?

  If the helicopter crash hadn’t happened, do you think Brooke and Garrett would have stayed together, or would Brooke’s wanderlust have eventually driven them apart? Or did they need the time apart after the crash to grow and appreciate each other?

  Read On

  Coming Soon . . . An Excerpt from Wrapped Up in You

  And now for a sneak peek at Wrapped Up in You, the latest book in Jill Shalvis’s New York Times bestselling Heartbreaker Bay series. On sale everywhere September 2019.

  CHAPTER 1

  DIG DEEP

  “Stay down.”

  No, she would not s
tay down. Mostly because Ivy Snow didn’t know the meaning of the words. Not once in her hard-knock, scrappy life had she ever “stayed down.” So she popped back up, using a spin and a roundhouse kick to level her opponent.

  Her kickboxing partner and friend grinned from flat on her back. “That’s gotta be worth at least a doughnut,” Sadie said. “And you’re buying.”

  “Can’t,” Ivy said, eyeing the time. “I’ve gotta get to work.”

  Sadie sat up and yawned. “I’ve got an hour, which means I’m going back to bed. And if I’m lucky, Caleb’ll still be in it.”

  Caleb was Sadie’s fiancé. Ignoring the little spurt of envy at the thought of having someone waiting in bed for her, Ivy hit the locker room to shower and change. Fifteen minutes later, she left the gym at her very least favorite time of the day, that being six a.m., suitably beaten up by her four-times-a-week kickboxing class.

  She shivered. It was February in San Francisco, which meant it could be any weather at all. Today it was forty-five degrees, and she’d forgotten her jacket. She was on a budget, a tight one. But it wasn’t worth freezing to death for a couple of bucks, so she decided to forgo walking and hopped on a bus rather than turn into a human popsicle.

  A guy in a suit and sneakers and holding a huge energy drink took the seat next to her, giving her a not-so-discreet once-over. “Morning,” he said.

  Yes, she’d just felt a little wistful about not having anyone waiting for her in her bed, but that was fantasy, and Ivy was nothing if not grounded in reality. Especially since she had a habit of going for Mr. Wrong, thanks to a pattern of being attracted to all things bad for her. For someone who prided herself on her sharply honed survival skills, she’d definitely failed herself in the man department. This was in good part thanks to a wanderlust lifestyle and a weakness for sexy grins that promised—and usually delivered—trouble.