One Fine Day: an Oyster Bay novel (Bayside Brides Book 2)

by Olivia Miles

  He stared at the woman, wondering how she knew, but he didn’t ask. He had all the information he needed. And all the encouragement, too.

  And he wasn’t wasting another minute.

  ***

  Sarah rarely took lunch breaks, other than to dash over to Angie’s for a quick sandwich, and maybe today wasn’t the day to take one. Maybe today she should be back in the shop, earning her worth, proving that she belonged there, even though she knew that she did. They’d welcomed her back, and she should be happy, she should be joyous, she should feel like she’d accomplished what she’d wanted in the past week.

  Instead, she felt heavier in the heart than she had before this entire mess even started.

  The waves were coming in strong today, and she slipped off her shoes to venture to the waterfront. She headed north up the shoreline, thinking of Crestview in the distance, wondering if she would ever venture in that direction again, or if she could ever think back on it without a feeling of sadness.

  But then, that would make her no different than Chris, wouldn’t it?

  She squinted into the sunshine, shielding her eyes from the glare, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped and turned, expecting to see Melanie, or maybe one of the Harper sisters—the inn wasn’t too far from here and Abby was probably off work by now.

  But it wasn’t one of her friends.

  Or maybe, she thought, as her heart began to pound in her chest, it was a friend after all.

  “Chris.” She stared at him, trying to make sense of this. She’d thought he was leaving, first thing, that he couldn’t wait to get out of this town, after all.

  “I’m glad I found you,” he said.

  She shook her head. “We’ve said everything we needed to say. I know you’re going back today.” And she knew Crestview would be sold. That Hannah wouldn’t be able to have her wedding there. That she’d spent the better part of a week holding up her end of the bargain to Chris.

  And to Melanie, she thought. Because despite her protests, and despite her intention, her heart had once again won out.

  But today, it was being tucked firmly back into place.

  “I am going back today,” he said. “But we haven’t said everything there is to say. At least, I haven’t.”

  “Chris.” She closed her eyes, wanting him to go away, to leave her be, to move on, to forget about him. Because that’s what people did when things hurt, wasn’t it? They pushed it away, or tried to, somewhere it couldn’t hurt them anymore.

  She opened her eyes, looking into Chris’s dark eyes, feeling her heart soften, but just a little. “I wasn’t fair to you,” she said.

  “No, I wasn’t fair to you.”

  “You got an offer on the house,” she said with a sigh. “Really, I couldn’t expect you to turn it away, not when another buyer might not come along for years.”

  “I wasn’t talking about the house,” he said, forcing her to look at him sharply. “I’m talking about you, me, and the last few days. They were the happiest I’ve had in years. I didn’t go looking for that. I’d turned myself off the possibility of it, actually. I told myself I’d be happier that way. Alone. I told myself that love wasn’t in the cards for me. And then I met you.”

  Tears prickled the back of her eyes and she stared at him, wanting to keep up the walls she’d built as much as she wanted to tear them down.

  “I don’t want to be stuck in the past anymore. I don’t want to banish it, either. I didn’t know how to find a balance, or how to move on. And then somehow…it just happened.” He reached down and took her hand. It was warm, firm, and she knew that this time, he didn’t intend to let go.

  “I can’t change my past. But I can change the future. And I want you in that future, Sarah. If you believe in happy endings and all that stuff.” He grinned at her, and she narrowed her eyes ruefully, but she couldn’t stay mad, much as she wanted.

  “And Boston?”

  “I have to go back, to settle things, but it’s like you said…I can work anywhere. Why not Oyster Bay?”

  Her stomach flipped with hope. “Does that mean you’re keeping the house?”

  He shook his head, all at once shutting down that flutter. And for some reason, the thought of that house being sold off to strangers who had no connection to it, no emotional investment in it, filled her with dread.

  “A house like that is really too big for one person, and I meant it when I said that I didn’t want to end up like Marty,” Chris said. He gave her hand a squeeze. “Besides, you made me think about a few things.”

  She looked at him suspiciously. “Go on.”

  “My uncle shut a lot of people out of that house. I saw how much you loved that house. I saw how much your friend loved it. It’s a part of this town. It’s a part of my past, but it’s also a part of my history. And it’s a house to be shared. So…” He waggled his eyebrows and gave her a long, deep look that went on for far too long. What was he getting at? What was he saying? What could he even suggest when it came to that house? “I talked with Jim. I’ve decided to donate Crestview to the town. Oyster Bay doesn’t have a museum, after all, or at least, they didn’t before.”

  She gasped, and this time the tears really did start to flow. “So, it won’t be sold?”

  “It won’t be sold. It will change. But then everything does, eventually, doesn’t it?” He grinned as he reached out to brush a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Of course, there will be a board of directors.”

  Her hand shot up in the air and she started to laugh.

  “I had a feeling you’d be first in line. So that’s a yes?”

  “Yes,” she said, nodding her head. “Yes.”

  “To the museum? Or…to us?”

  “To the future,” she said, dropping his hand to wrap her arms around his waist. He leaned in, kissed her, slowly, sweetly, like she had never been kissed before, like a man who was determined to prove to her that happy endings did exist after all.

  Even for the nonbelievers.

  Epilogue

  Crestview had never looked more beautiful, and this time, Sarah knew that she was partly responsible for that, along with Chloe, of course. Together they’d worked all week long to make sure that the venue was perfect for their dear friend and client, and, with Chris’s blessing, they’d even decided to hold part of the reception in the conservatory, which, along with every other inch of the estate that guests would see, had been sprinkled with Chloe’s magic touch.

  The gravel drive was now edged with paper lanterns, and the trees that lined the terrace had been draped with fairy lights. Flowers seemed to spill from every direction, from the garden to the centerpieces on the round tables that filled the stone patio to the rose-covered archway, under which Hannah and Dan would say their vows.

  Abby had been setting up in the kitchen since yesterday and deemed the kitchen to be even more outdated than the one at Harper House, but just as functional.

  Sarah poked her head through the swing door to check on her, just in case, her eyes widening when she saw the beautiful, three-tiered cake that was covered in colorful petals.

  “Not edible,” Abby pointed out. “But just what Hannah wanted.”

  “Then it’s as it should be,” Sarah said. “Every bride deserves one perfect day.”

  Abby had asked Leah to help out for the afternoon so that she could fulfill her familial duty as a bridesmaid, and she untied her apron strings now. “I suppose I’d better run and change now. The guests will be coming any minute.”

  A thrill of anticipation shot through Sarah, just as it did every time in the minutes leading up to the ceremony. She couldn’t help it. The rush got her every time. An entire lifetime had led up until this one, beautiful moment.

  She followed Abby into the hallway, where Chloe was standing with her clipboard. “I’ve got everything covered,” she said, when she spotted Sarah. “You go and enjoy yourself. You’ve earned it.”

  Sarah smiled and edged back to
ward the conservatory, hoping to find her date there.

  “Oh, and Sarah?”

  She turned, eager to see if Chloe needed anything, but her boss just gestured to her. “That jewelry looks beautiful on you.”

  She set a hand to her neck, where the necklace that Chris had given her rested at her collarbone. “Thank you,” she said, and went hurrying toward the back of the house.

  Abby was right. The wedding was going to start soon. The bride was upstairs in one of the guest rooms, getting ready, and once Chloe gave her the all clear, she would come down the stairs, and then Chloe would queue the music.

  It was time to take her seat. But first, it was time to find Chris.

  She found him outside on the patio, looking out onto the garden, where the chairs had been arranged to create an aisle. She hovered for a moment, wondering if he was thinking of his past, not wanting to interrupt or intrude, but he felt her stare, and caught her eye. And he smiled. A smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes and made her heart fill with warmth.

  “It’s a beautiful place to have a wedding,” he said as she came to stand beside him.

  She reached down and held his hand. “I understand if you change your mind about staying.”

  “I don’t want to turn my back on the memories anymore,” he said. “Besides, we deserve a party for all the work we’ve put into this place.”

  “The music is starting,” Sarah said. Guests would be filtering in soon, and then the procession would begin. “We should take our seats.”

  “Or we could have a dance first?”

  She frowned at him. “A dance?”

  “There’s no one around,” he said, and she had to agree with him. Yet.

  “I’m a little wobbly in these heels,” she said, looking down at her feet. She hadn’t exactly pegged Chris for the dancing type. But then, he continued to surprise her.

  He pulled her in close. “Just hold onto me.”

  She smiled as she leaned her head against his shoulder. That was just what she intended to do.

  Also by Olivia Miles

  The Oyster Bay Series

  Feels Like Home

  Along Came You

  Maybe This Time

  This Thing Called Love

  Those Summer Nights

  Christmas at the Cottage

  Still the One (Bayside Brides)

  The Misty Point Series

  One Week to the Wedding

  The Winter Wedding Plan

  The Sweeter in the City Series

  Sweeter in the Summer

  Sweeter Than Sunshine

  No Sweeter Love

  One Sweet Christmas

  The Briar Creek Series

  Mistletoe on Main Street

  A Match Made on Main Street

  Hope Springs on Main Street

  Love Blooms on Main Street

  Christmas Comes to Main Street

  Harlequin Special Edition

  ‘Twas the Week Before Christmas

  Recipe for Romance

  About the Author

  USA TODAY bestselling author Olivia Miles writes feel-good women’s fiction with a romantic twist. She lives just outside Chicago with her husband, young daughter, and two ridiculously pampered pups.

  Copyright © 2019 by Megan Leavell

  Published by Rosewood press

  All rights reserved.

  All rights reserved. This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, locations, events and incidents (in either a contemporary and/or historical setting) are products of the author’s imagination and are being used in an imaginative manner as a part of this work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, settings or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.