“HEY THERE, STRANGER—”
I called out as I tossed the bird feed around me. The chickens clucked hungrily, but I only had eyes for Jake. He dazzled me with a lazy half smile. Slowly, he sauntered over.
“Hey, Addison,” he said with a drawl. “I was just thinking about you.”
Instantly I felt my face heat up, but managed to smile sweetly. “What a coincidence. I was just thinking about you, too.” I stepped toward the fence that enclosed the coop and leaned against it.
“Thinking anything in particular?” he asked.
“Oh, you know, nothing specific. Just general thoughts, really.” I gave him a smile.
He watched me in amusement and I could tell he wasn’t buying my indifferent act. “Nothing specific, huh?” he asked.
I stifled a giggle at the expression on his face, but continued on with the game, shrugging nonchalantly.
“That’s too bad,” he responded. “I was hoping you were thinking about last night, and how you feel about me today.”
I bit my lip hard, trying to hide my smile. “Well, you are pretty charming.”
“I knew it! These cowboy boots have never let me down.”
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strawberry wine
DARLY JAMISON
ZEBRA BOOKS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
“HEY THERE, STRANGER—”
BOOK YOUR PLACE ON OUR WEBSITE AND MAKE THE READING CONNECTION!
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Prologue
PART ONE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
PART TWO
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Epilogue
ZEBRA BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2017 by Darly Jamison
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Zebra and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-1-4201-4164-1
ISBN-10: 1-4201-4164-3
eISBN-13: 978-1-4201-4165-8
eISBN-10: 1-4201-4165-1
For my husband and children: Thank you for loving me and all of my crazy ideas
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’ve always heard writing is a solitary act, but somehow I never feel alone.
First things first, thank you to Wattpad: the staff, readers, and writers. Without you, this would still be some farfetched fantasy.
Thank you to my writing group, the Wattpadres, who’ve left a lasting impression on me: Debbie, Amber, Sarah, Lindsey, Jessica, Tim, Josh, Vic, Farah, Melanie, and Nicole. Long live our Tuesday Twitter chats! *takes a deep breath* Thank you to Tammy, Kristin, Gaby, Keri-Lee, Liz, Katie, Leah, Jill, and countless others (my deepest apologies if I didn’t include your name, there are just so many of you!). You are all blessings to me and I’m happy to have met each one of you.
Thank you to my family and non-writing friends. Even though you may not understand this new world I’ve immersed myself in, your encouragement and support mean everything. I couldn’t do this without you.
And finally, thank you Tara Gavin, Jane Nutter, and everyone at Kensington for trusting me to pull this off! I am forever grateful. XO
Prologue
There were two things I knew for certain. Frilly necklines and ball gown silhouettes would likely be the death of me, and I was in desperate need of coffee—stat. Technically, there was an acute awareness of a third and even more powerful sensation wreaking havoc on my sanity. I was in love—off the charts, can’t-wipe-the-silly-smile-from-my-face-in-love—but that fact went without saying.
I sat in the softly cushioned bistro chair and waited, rather impatiently, for my best friend and future matron-of-honor to bestow upon me a steaming hot cuppa joe. It had been a long day, and it wasn’t over yet. I would need to ingest copious amounts of caffeine if I was expected to push forward, clinging to the goal of crossing at least one more item off my super-sized list of things to do. My thoughts raced, just as they always did these days, overanalyzing everything I still needed to accomplish.
Staring out the quaint café window into the midday Georgia sun, my eyes followed the golden rays as they danced carelessly above the tree line, playing peek-a-boo with the leaves as if they didn’t have a worry in the world, while I had the weight of the Appalachian Mountains riding on top of my shoulders.
It was still so hard to believe I was actually getting married. Me, Addison Victoria Monroe, about to tie the knot! The very idea made me light-headed. Everything needed to be perfect, and thanks to my crippling OCD, I was devoted to seeing that intention through until every task was complete. However, shopping for wedding dresses on my day off was starting to feel like Chinese water torture.
“God, would you get a grip?” I scolded, covering my mouth with one hand so no one would notice my one-sided conversation. “You act as if you’re the first bride to walk the face of the earth!” Letting out a drawn-out sigh, I pushed my fingers through long, sun-kissed locks while the other hand focused on rubbing out the microscopic scratch that marred the mosai
c-covered table I sat at.
“Talking to yourself again?” Ruby asked, as she handed me my caramel brûlée latte. I hadn’t even heard her approach. “You know, they say that’s an early warning sign of schizophrenia.”
Ruby Sinclair-Matthews gracefully situated herself into the seat across from me and I cringed as she took a sip of her green kale smoothie. “I don’t need you to remind me I’m going crazy,” I politely informed her, taking in the softly scented steam. “I’m already well aware.” I watched with distaste as she delicately dabbed a napkin at the corners of her mouth, wiping away the nonexistent remnants of her latest obsession.
“What?” she demanded defensively. “Why are you staring at me like I just ate a puppy?”
“Seriously, I don’t understand how you can drink that stuff.”
Ruby tossed long, pale blond hair over one shoulder and threw me one of her infamous looks of superiority. “I told you, Addy—I’m turning over a new leaf. I am the official poster child for healthy living from here on out. My ass is already the size of the Titanic, and I’m not about to let it get any bigger. And my breasts,” she said, glancing down at the girls, “I’ve never had cleavage like this before!” Her honey-brown eyes widened and she nodded in my direction. “I don’t know how you can drink that.” Ruby stared accusingly—or was it longingly—at the large decorated mug positioned tightly between my trembling hands. “There’s enough sugar in that thing to send a baby whale into a diabetic coma.” The girl should know. It had been her drug of choice up until a few short months ago, when she decided to become Health Nut Extraordinaire.
I covered my laugh by taking a long swig of warm, caramel-flavored yumminess. Sugary treats always had been my weakness, I’m not gonna lie, but I couldn’t help it. The delicious sweetness enveloped me like a soothing embrace, and what I needed right now was a little Southern comfort. It was a miracle I didn’t weigh a ton and a half after all the self-comforting I’d been doing.
When Ruby had said planning my wedding would be fun, she’d obviously been lying through her teeth. Ripping out my nails one by one sounded more fun than the torture I’d been suffering through. All I wanted was the final outcome, being wife to the man of my dreams, so why was I expected to jump through all these hoops to get there?
“Now,” Ruby began, setting down her pulverized vegetables. “Are you excited?”
“To look at more wedding dresses?” I gave her a shrug and rolled my eyes. “To be perfectly honest, it’s ranking right up there with getting a Pap smear. I’m exhausted! We’ve been shopping all day and I haven’t found a thing. Tell me again why I can’t just elope?”
“Because this is the biggest day of your life, Addy! No eloping aloud. You need to have a proper wedding, with all the bells and whistles,” she insisted. “Your family and friends deserve that, don’t you think?”
“But I’m not really a bells-and-whistles kinda girl.”
“So you’ll make an exception,” Ruby deadpanned, glaring at me with a long-suffering look perfected from years of practice. “You have to be excited, Addy. You’re getting married! I’m telling you, we need to go to Kleinfeld in New York City. I heard Angelina Jolie was spotted there right before her top-secret wedding to Brad Pitt. You know, with her figure she totally should have gone with—” But I’d already tuned her out. I really had no interest in who went shopping where, or for what. I had too many other things to consider. Of course I was excited, how could I not be? But there were a million tiny details that needed to be addressed before my big day, and I felt as if I needed a personal assistant just to keep track of them all.
“Earth to Addy.” Ruby sighed with annoyance, bringing me back to the coffee shop. “Are you even listening to me?” She waved a manicured hand in front of my face, snapping me back to attention.
I studied the perfect pout on my best friend’s lips and silently cursed myself for having drifted away from the conversation. Ruby had been my closest confidant since preschool, and now that we were adults we didn’t get to see each other nearly as much as we would’ve liked. Even though we both lived in Atlanta, she was busy tending to her husband and successful party planning business, and I had my blossoming career at the hospital that kept me busier than I cared to admit. Being a physician assistant was a time-consuming responsibility, but luckily I worked with an amazing medical team who made all the hard work worthwhile.
“I’m sorry, Ruby. I’ve just got a lot on my mind today. With the wedding plans and long hours at work, not to mention volunteering at the medical clinic and packing my things to move to the new house, I’m ready to pull my hair out!”
“Now, don’t do that. Your veil can only hide so much.” Ruby flashed me a sympathetic smile and reached over to touch my hand. “I really don’t know how you do it,” she said, suddenly shaking her head. “You’ve got so much going on. You’re busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest!”
I let out a laugh, nearly choking on my coffee. Leave it to Ruby to drop the perfect one-liner; she’d always been a hard-core fan of tasteless jokes. “Well, I couldn’t ask for a more satisfying job, you know that. We’re just a little short-staffed at the moment. And I can’t wait to get married,” I admitted, smiling at the thought. “It’s just—it all seems so surreal, you know? There’s so much to do, so many things to work out . . .”
Ruby nodded as she absentmindedly twirled the giant rock on her own ring finger. “Believe me, I know how you feel. Planning a wedding can make you feel like you got the shit kicked out of you—in the best possible way, of course. Luckily, you have me to help, and as you know, I am an expert when it comes to party plans! Between choosing the right venue, picking out the flowers, and finding the perfect dress, it’s no wonder every bride isn’t committed before it’s all said and done! You know, not every girl has what it takes to put this kind of thing together. But, oh, Addy,” she breathed wistfully, clasping her hands together, “when you’re standing next to your new husband, everything else just seems so . . . unimportant. And all the stress you put yourself through to get there suddenly feels pointless. But it’s worth it—I promise you it’s worth it.”
The truth is, I didn’t need Ruby to tell me that, I already knew it. Getting married was not something I took lightly. It was the sacramental union of two souls that were meant to be together forever, officially joining as one. I was about to become half of that magical kind of fusion, eternally secured to the man who’d stolen my heart. Soon, my life would be so closely interweaved with someone else’s that people would have a difficult time making out where one person ended and the other began. God, that sounds so clichéd, but it’s true. When you get it right, and I finally did, it’s like a fairy tale. And I was hell-bent on getting to my happily-ever-after.
We took our time finishing our drinks and stood up to leave. The wedding boutique was just a couple doors down and it would be our second to last stop of the day, but my hopes of finding the perfect dress had been lost somewhere between shops six and seven, and I wasn’t sure I had it in me to sift through yet another store—even on a caffeine high.
“I remember when I married Tommy,” Ruby went on, as we made our way inside the whimsical boutique. “It was the most fantastic day of my life. You know, it’s already been five years, but it stills feels as if we’re on our honeymoon. You would never know we’ve been together since high school! Not that we haven’t had our share of ups and downs . . . But thank God the highs have far outweighed the lows.” Ruby’s cheeks flushed bright pink as she gushed on about the summer she fell in love with Tommy Matthews. It wasn’t the first time she’d been in love, but lucky for her it had been the last. They complemented each other perfectly. Ruby, so comical and fun; and Tommy, so devoted and supportive—not to mention secure enough in his manhood to deal with the likes of Ms. Ruby Sinclair.
I remember that summer very well. It’d been almost ten years earlier and was the first time I’d found myself in the throes of passion. It was also the summer I
’d had my heart broken, and a tiny piece of it had been whisked away to Texas. There’s something about first love that tends to stick with a person, even years afterward. People often say that time helps you let go of the pain of that inevitable heartache, but I disagree. Time might change you, make you a little wiser, but it can never erase the feelings of that first touch, that first kiss.
Of the first time . . .
I’d been thinking about that summer a lot lately, indulging in the delicious memories of those few special months. Maybe it was because of all the planning and decision making that would change the course of my entire life, or maybe it was the unavoidable loss of innocence that continued to reel me in. Sometimes, I just needed an escape from the chaos, and my thoughts quickly retreated to a time when life was simple and everything was new. There was something sublimely powerful about my first love. The way the hot Georgia sun caressed his face, the gentle way the breeze swept through his tousled, dark waves.
Jake . . . Always on my mind, it seems. For as long as I could remember, he’d been the star of my young adult fantasies, and the slightest reminder of him still caused my heart to skip a beat. How is that possible after all these years?
The chiseled features, those eyes, that body . . . And enough charm to bewitch even the most seasoned female. Jake was the complete package—and then some. It was no wonder he had gotten under my skin.
Once again, Ruby and I began the task of searching through dresses. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was looking for, but I trusted I would know the instant I found it.
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