by Carol Ross
He was watching her in this odd way. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what it meant but it sent a nice mix of nerves and heat flooding through her.
“What is the matter with you, Alaska?”
Sheepishly, he offered a one-shouldered shrug. “Just happy you guys are here. Excited to show you all my favorite places and introduce you to my favorite people.”
Victoria felt that now-familiar outpouring of love for him. “Oh, Seth, I’m excited for all of that, too. You’ve seen plenty of Louisiana by now.” Seth had spent most of his off time with her and her family, and Victoria had enjoyed showing him around.
“Okay, so you should cast right up there and bring it fast behind that rock,” he explained, swinging the pole around and casting in the exact spot she was thinking. The reel clicked as he handed over the pole.
Gripping the rod, she began to reel but knew instantly something wasn’t right “Feels funny. Blade isn’t spinning right.”
“Pull up. Give it a little jerk.”
“Did that.” she said, tossing him a knowing look. “It’s juking and diving like the hook snagged in the swivel when you casted.”
“That’s probably it. It’s a homemade lure.”
Reeling in the rest of the way, she lowered the butt of the rod and placed it on the ground and then swung the line forward for closer inspection.
“What is this?” The shape wasn’t like anything she’d ever seen in a lure before, and it took her a few seconds to register what was happening. Her breath caught. Was that...a ring? Her pulse went fluttery. Reaching out, she grasped the lure and found a silver band attached to the body of the spinner. Definitely a ring, decorated with the same Celtic knot as her necklace. Her heart seemed to expand inside her chest, going full and light like it might whisk her off her feet.
“It’s a ring,” he confirmed, stepping close. “Kella made it.”
“I see that,” she whispered reverently before meeting his gaze. “Seth...” His name was just a breath because the love she saw there stole her words.
Seth came forward and unhooked the ring from the lure and slipped it on her finger. “I love you, Victoria. Will you marry me?”
“Of course.” She threw her arms around him. “Of course, I will. I really want to be married to you. Thank you. It’s gorgeous and perfect and I love it. And I love you.”
“Wow,” he said, and then exhaled a sigh of relief. “That is the best possible news. I couldn’t decide if I should wait until the end of the trip to ask so if you said no I wouldn’t be miserable for two weeks, or at the beginning so I could feel like this.”
“That second option is working for me, too, because I can’t imagine being any happier than this.” She pulled back enough to kiss him, to show him how much she meant the words.
“Plus, I really wanted to introduce you to everyone as my fiancée.”
That made her laugh. “I’d love to meet everyone that way. We need to tell Scarlett.”
“She already knows.”
“Seriously? She didn’t say a word.”
“Hey, I had to run it by her first. And Quinn. Make sure the lure proposal wasn’t too over-the-top.”
“Yeah,” she said dryly, “definitely you should rely on two middle school kids for romantic advice.”
“I see your point,” he said, and chuckled. “But in this case—”
“Psst, Seth!” Scarlett interrupted with a loud stage whisper from somewhere in the brush behind them. “What did she say?”
Victoria paused to laugh before shouting, “She said yes! Come on out, you two.”
Giggling and chattering, Scarlett and Quinn hurried to join them.
“Congratulations, Mama!” Scarlett hugged her. “I’m so happy. Seth said he was going to live in Louisiana with us but that we’ll visit here whenever we can.”
“Thank you, Scarlett. Me too. That sounds like a perfect plan.”
Standing next to Seth, Quinn congratulated them both. “Well done,” he added, clapping Seth on the shoulder.
“Thank you, Quinn. Luckily, it went pretty smoothly.”
Louder, to Victoria, Quinn announced, “And just think, Ms. T, how many people can say they went fishing in Alaska and caught themselves a Mr. Right?”
They all laughed.
* * *
For more great romances involving the James family, check out the Seasons of Alaska miniseries, available at www.Harlequin.com!
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Littlest Cowgirls by Melinda Curtis.
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PROLOGUE
SECRETS. GABBY KINCAID loved them. They made her feel like an adult.
Gabby was twelve, a talker, and practically a Monroe. Yes, one of those Monroes. Her dad was marrying one. As such, she knew the Monroe history and a few important Monroe secrets.
Gabby chewed on the rubber end of her pencil, reviewing the Monroes the way she carefully reviewed her homework for tests.
She scribbled a word in her notebook. Money.
The Monroes were wealthy. Or they used to be. Or maybe some of them still were. Laurel Monroe was pregnant and marrying Gabby’s dad this weekend, but she didn’t act stuck-up or bossy-up.
Gabby glanced over to Laurel, who was sitting with her twin sister, Ashley, and their mother on the couch in the Lodgepole Inn. They were talking about the latest trend in fancy shoes as if something big and top secret wasn’t about to happen at any moment.
But it was. Gabby gnawed on the pencil eraser again.
“Gabby, don’t do that,” Laurel said in a kind way, which pretty much summed up her approach to life. That was no secret.
“I need a distraction.” Gabby tapped her pencil on the check-in desk. Another word was added to the list in her notebook. History.
Harlan Monroe had been a total success story, kind of like King Midas. Oil, finance, moviemaking, yacht building, hotels. You name it. Harlan had made money doing it. Harlan had also been born in Second Chance, Idaho, where Gabby lived with her dad and ran the Lodgepole Inn. Though it was cozy, the inn hosted a lot of the Monroes when they came to town, and they complained it wasn’t “The Ritz,” which was when Gabby had learned they didn’t mean the cracker. That still stung a little.
But when it came to the Monroes, Gabby was willing to forgive, because of the next word in her notebook: Secrets.
A long time ago, Harlan had bought the town of Second Chance. But he negotiated with folks living and working here, offering them the measly lease price of one dollar a year. Why would he do that?
Harlan was dead now, so she couldn’t ask him. And he’d left Second Chance to his twelve adult grandchildren, also without a good reason. Didn’t he realize people would have questions? Gabby had questions. And people didn’t always answer them, which was why sometimes she had to just sit silently at the check-in desk, pretending to do homework while she listened.
And when she listened, she learned a lot of things, including other Monroe secrets. Because, yes, there were more.
Like the secret that Laurel’s twin, Ashley, who was a famous actress and often referred to as America’s Sweetheart, was going to make a western movie right here in Second Chance next year. Although...she’d recently told that to reporters. So, it was no longer a secret.
Bummer. Gabby picked at the end of her pencil, plucking apart the chewed eraser. That had been a good secret, too.
But an even better secret was that Ashley wanted Wyatt Halford, the hottest of hot action stars, in the western film with her. They were going
to tell the legend of Merciless Mike Moody, who’d robbed stagecoaches in these parts, stabbed Jeb Clark, the blacksmith, and had been killed by a rock slide during one of his escapes. Ever since Gabby was a kid, people would talk about Merciless Mike and wonder what had happened to all his stolen gold. Well, a couple of months back, the Monroes had unraveled the truth behind the legend and found the bandit’s gold! Which was way cool, and kind of a secret, too, since they hadn’t officially announced it to the world.
Gabby stopped destroying her pencil and stared out the window at the blue summer sky.
Secrets. She loved them.
But there was one Monroe secret that was bigger than them all. Wyatt Halford, dubbed this year’s sexiest man alive, was Laurel’s baby daddy. And he was coming here. To Second Chance. Today.
Wyatt didn’t know a thing about the babies that were on the way.
Dad should be pacing. He was marrying Laurel on Saturday, she was nearly thirty weeks pregnant and could deliver twins at any time, and Wyatt was coming to the wedding. But was he uneasy? No. He was in their apartment doing the books. And the Monroes on the lobby couch weren’t even fidgeting.
Shouldn’t their stomachs feel like they ate too much popcorn at the movies? Gabby’s did.
Wyatt Halford. Super Mega Crush!
Was it possible Wyatt knew he was a baby daddy? Due to circumstances beyond Gabby’s control—stupid laptop—it had kind of been posted on the internet—totally not her fault. That bit of information was down now, and Dad always said you shouldn’t believe what was on the World Wide Web, so Gabby had been trying not to worry. But still... It also meant she had a secret of her own.
Secrets were so hard to keep.
The low sound of a large vehicle parking in front of the Lodgepole Inn made Gabby’s heart beat really, really fast. She ran from behind the check-in desk to a front window to witness the arrival of Wyatt, the sexiest man alive, greeted by Ashley, America’s Sweetheart.
It was all heady, complicated stuff to lay on the shoulders of a twelve-year-old.
Especially one who had access to the internet and wasn’t good at keeping secrets.
Copyright © 2021 by Melinda Wooten
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ISBN-13: 9781488074431
Catching Mr. Right
Copyright © 2021 by Carol Ross
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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