Before I Do Amazon

by Freethy, Barbara

  Three weeks later…

  Maggie Gordon stood in the gardens of the Stratton Hotel in Napa, taking one last look at the setup for her friend Liz's wedding. A floral-covered arch would serve as the backdrop for the vows. A long white path strewn with rose petals would provide the aisle, and the two sections of white folding chairs would hopefully take care of the fifty or so guests that were now waiting in the adjoining garden for the go-ahead to take their seats for the ceremony.

  She checked her watch. They were close to being on schedule, but she needed the bridesmaids together for one more wedding photo before the wedding got started.

  While she loved her friends, they were notoriously difficult when it came to being ready on time and at the same time. She was sometimes part of the problem, but since the event was being held at the hotel where she worked, she was quite invested in everything going right. She knew Kate would have her head if there were any glitches. Kate might be the sweetest romantic in the group but when it came to the weddings she planned, she was a drill sergeant.

  "It's beautiful," Isabella said, the first of the bridesmaids to make her way into the garden. "I love the setting. With all the tall trees surrounding us, it's like we're in a private oasis of romance and love."

  Maggie smiled at the compliment. "I think so, too. I don't think Liz has seen it all set up yet. I hope she loves it."

  "How could she not?"

  "You look beautiful, too, Isabella."

  Isabella's dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty was enhanced by the short, shimmering gold bridesmaid's dress. She didn't think the color did quite as much for her, but then she was a blue-eyed redhead with pale skin and freckles.

  "You look good as well, Maggie."

  "Thanks. Where's everyone else?"

  "Kate is rounding them up."

  "They need to hurry. The guests are in the sun right now, and it's getting warmer by the minute."

  "I agree, but I think they'll get here when they get here," Isabella said with a helpless shrug. "You know how everyone is at these things."

  "I'm starting to see a pattern," Maggie said dryly. "At least at Julie's wedding in a few months, I won't have the stress of making sure the location works. That will be all back in Kate's capable hands. I don't know how she does it. A wedding is so stressful. It's one day, and it has to go right."

  "It will go right. The most important thing is that Liz and Michael are getting married. That's what it's all about."

  "Another one bites the dust," Maggie said with a laugh. "So, is there going to be another engagement soon?" She'd heard a great deal about Isabella's new love, Nicholas Hunter, during the bridal shower and bachelorette party. She couldn't quite believe that another member of the group had fallen in love.

  "Nick hasn't proposed yet. We have a lot going on right now between my show opening in a few months and his new resort opening next year, but we'll get there. I have no doubt that I am going to spend the rest of my life with that man. Who would have thought that a tango lesson would bring me my future husband?"

  "Certainly not me. Soon, it's just going to be me, Jessica and Kate who are single."

  "Probably not for long."

  "I don't know about that. There's no one in the picture."

  "You never know when that picture will change, when someone will walk into your life and sweep you off your feet. You just have to be open to the possibilities."

  "I'm open, but no one has been knocking at the door."

  Isabella laughed. "I'll have to see if Nick has any single friends. He is in the hotel business. You might have some friends in common."

  "Nick runs hotels. I work at the front desk."

  Isabella dismissed her comment with a wave of her hand. "That doesn’t matter. It's not about what you do for a living; it's who you are."

  That had certainly come true for Isabella, Maggie thought. A dance teacher and a hotel millionaire—definitely not the kind of combination you saw every day.

  She straightened as she saw Isabella's new man walk into the garden. She could certainly see why Isabella had fallen in love. Nick Hunter was strikingly handsome.

  "Hello, ladies," he said. "Where's the rest of the party?"

  "Taking their sweet time," Maggie grumbled. "Thank goodness Isabella got ready on time."

  He raised an eyebrow. "Really, you're the first one ready?"

  She laughed and put her arm around his waist. "I'm getting better."

  An intimate look passed between them. Maggie's heart turned over at the love she saw in their eyes. She had to admit she felt both happy for Isabella and a tiny bit jealous. "I'm going to see if I can get the girls out here for a quick photo. Don't go anywhere. I don't want to have to chase you down once I get back with the rest of the group."

  "Don't worry, I'll stay here."

  * * *

  As Maggie left, Nick leaned in and stole a quick kiss from the beautiful woman by his side. "I thought she'd never leave," he teased.

  "You're bad," she said with a laugh.

  "No, I'm just addicted to you. I want you to know something, Isabella. I am going to marry you. I just don't want to rush you into anything. I want you to have time to enjoy your show and dance your heart out on the stage. But I don't want you to think that I'm afraid of commitment, because I'm not. I'm fully committed to you."

  "And I to you. I'm not in a hurry, Nick. I know that I don't have the time that I want to give you right now, but—"

  "But we have forever," he finished, cutting off her worried sentence. I intend to spend the rest of my life with you. We're going to have an amazing adventure together, Isabella. We're going to rule the world."

  She gave him a tender loving smile. "I love how you think."

  "I love everything about you." He snuck in another kiss as her friends came into the garden. "Do your thing. When you're done, I'll be here. I'll always be here."

  Her eyes filled with moisture. "You're going to make me cry before the wedding."

  "Happy tears, right?"

  "So happy," she said. "I love you, Nick."

  "I love you, too, Isabella."

  THE END

  Dear Reader,

  I hope you enjoyed Nick and Isabella's love story in BEFORE I DO. Also available in the Bachelors & Bridesmaids series are: KISS ME FOREVER, STEAL MY HEART and ALL YOUR LOVING. The fifth book in the series will be out in the fall of 2015.

  I'm also currently writing a family series: THE CALLAWAYS. These books are a bit longer with more of a suspense element mixed in with the romance. I hope you'll check them out. There are currently eight books available in the Callaway Series with more on the way.

  I'm also attaching an excerpt from the first book in my WISH SERIES: A SECRET WISH. Hope you enjoy it.

  For more information, visit my website at www.barbarafreethy.com. Also, if you'd like to be part of a private Facebook group of super fans, you can join here!

  Until next time – happy reading!

  Barbara

  Excerpt - A SECRET WISH

  © Copyright 2011 Barbara Freethy

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Also Available

  In The Wish Series

  Just A Wish Away

  When Wishes Collide

  A Secret Wish

  Three women, three birthdays and one unforgettable night that will change their lives forever.

  One night in San Francisco, three women make a birthday wish believing it can't possibly come true. Liz is turning thirty. A successful nurse, she has a good career, but no man to share her life. All her friends are married, and she's alone, still trying to outrun a tragedy from her past. Then she meets a handsome stranger.

  Angela, a member of a large, loving Italian family, is facing thirty-five with no baby in the nursery. Eight years of infertility treatments have put a strain on her marriage. Will she have to choose between her husband and having a child? When she is mugged by an unexpected assailant, her life takes a new turn.

  Carole, a corporate wi
fe, is staring down forty candles. Having grown up poor, she worked hard to get ahead, but when her kids bail on her birthday, and she discovers her husband with another woman, she realizes that she may have nothing at all. She goes back to where it all began, the mother she left behind, and the man whose heart she once broke.

  Three women, three birthdays and a night of events that connects them in unexpected ways ...

  Chapter One

  Liz Kelly stepped up to the waist-high ledge that ran around the tenth-floor roof of St. John’s Hospital. Although the roof was a popular retreat for doctors and nurses on break, it was quiet on this Friday night. Just past seven o’clock, anyone not on duty had already left the building, trying to get one last warm and sunny weekend in before fall turned into winter. She loved the view from the roof, especially as night settled over the city. From her vantage point, she could see the cable cars chugging up and down the steep hills of San Francisco, the colorful sails on the boats in the Marina, and the lights of the Golden Gate Bridge blazing through a bank of fog hovering over the ocean.

  The view always inspired her. Up here she felt like she could be anyone and do anything. Unfortunately, she couldn’t seem to turn the inspiration into action. As soon as she went back inside, she returned to her old ways, to her safe, risk-free existence that was getting her nowhere. She liked being a nurse, but the rest of her life was in shambles. She’d lived with a half dozen roommates in the last decade, changed apartments three times, and had just been dumped by her boyfriend of three years.

  What annoyed her most was that Kyle had broken up with her. She should have been the one to break up with him. He’d fallen far short of her expectations, but she’d never been able to pull the trigger on their relationship. She’d always been afraid of being thirty and alone. Well, that’s exactly what had happened. But tonight was the start of a new decade. She needed to get it together, take a risk, and stop being paralyzed by fear of making the wrong decision. She had to take charge of her life and stop letting her future be defined by her past. She needed to do something...

  What that something was, she wasn’t quite sure, but she intended to find out.

  Mental pep talk over, she opened a small bakery box from Faith’s Fancies and slid out a miniature gourmet cupcake dotted with pink icing and chocolate stars. Chocolate was her passion, especially rich, dark chocolate. Taking a pink candle out of her purse, she stuck it in the icing, and raised the cake to the starlit sky. “Happy birthday to me.”

  Her muttered words seemed to mock her newfound resolve, so she raised her voice and shouted, “Did you hear that, San Francisco? Today, Elizabeth Karen Kelly is thirty years old and ready to take on the world.”

  She smiled, feeling silly but also energized. She pulled out a pack of matches from her bag and lit the candle, holding her hand around the flame so the wind wouldn’t blow it out while she was thinking of a wish.

  As much as she wanted love, she was also scared of being vulnerable. She’d loved her father and he’d turned out to be a horrible person. She’d loved her mother and had been left behind. She’d picked Kyle because he was solid and stable and seemed like the anchor she needed in her life. But Kyle hadn’t just held her down; he’d held her back.

  If Prince Charming couldn’t find her, perhaps she needed to find him. Drawing in a deep breath, she made a secret wish. Someone for me to love.

  A gust of wind came up, blowing out the flame before she could do so. Probably a sign that her wish had not been heard. She felt an unexpected surge of disappointment.

  That was the problem with hope… it made the fall back to reality even worse. She should know better. She pulled out the candle and licked the icing from it.

  “Is that it?” a man asked.

  She jumped at the unexpected voice, the cupcake flying out of her hand and over the side of the building. She stared in bemusement at the man who’d appeared out of nowhere. He was tall, with sandy blond hair, and was dressed in jeans, a white T-shirt with Stanford emblazoned across the front, and a brown leather jacket.

  “You scared me,” she said, her heart beating way too fast.

  “Sorry.” He gave her a smile. “So was that the extent of your celebration?”

  “Uh.” She glanced over the ledge, realizing her cupcake was long gone. “I guess so, since you made me drop my cake. What are you doing out here? Didn’t you see the sign that said Employees Only?”

  “I don’t pay much attention to signs.”

  “So you're a rule breaker.”

  “When necessary. I needed some air. Sorry about the cupcake,” he added.

  “It was going to be really good, too,” she said with a wistful sigh.

  “How old are you today?”

  “I’m thirty – the big three-O. I don’t know why they call it that. It’s not as if O stands for orgasm.” Good grief. Had she said that out loud? For some reason, good-looking men made her jump into nervous conversation.

  He gave her an odd look, probably wondering who would want to give her three orgasms.

  She put up a hand. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t asking for volunteers.”

  “That wasn’t what I was thinking.”

  “Yeah, right. You looked like a deer caught in the headlights.”

  His smile widened. “Not true. So why are you out here by yourself on your birthday? You’re too pretty not to have friends.”

  Her cheeks warmed as his gaze swept across her face and figure. She couldn’t help wishing that she’d retouched her makeup, taken her brown hair out of its practical ponytail, and changed out of her loose, ill-fitting scrubs. Not that it mattered. She’d probably never see him again.

  “Good line,” she said. “You’re a charmer.”

  “You don’t like compliments.”

  “I don’t like men who psychoanalyze me in the first five minutes of meeting me,” she countered.

  His grin broadened. “Got it. But you still haven’t answered my question. Why the solo celebration?”

  She didn’t know why she felt the need to explain her pathetic party – maybe so it wouldn’t look so pathetic. “My best friend just had a baby. Another one is on her honeymoon, and a third is home sick with the flu. I do have friends. They’re just not available right now.” Actually, her friends were rarely available these days. They’d moved on with their lives – getting married, having children – while she’d been treading water or trying to make things happen with Kyle. “And birthdays are not that big a deal,” she added.

  “I like birthdays. They’re a good time to make a resolution.”

  “Isn’t that what New Year’s Eve is for?”

  “Who says you can only make a resolution once a year?”

  “No one, but I don’t have much luck with the resolutions I do make. They usually involve losing twenty pounds, and so far I haven’t managed to make that happen. I have a terrible chocolate addiction. If only they made a patch for that, I’d be set.” Great! Now she’d just pointed out that she needed to lose twenty pounds. No wonder she had trouble getting a man.

  “A resolution doesn’t have to be about a diet,” he said. “Last year I ran a marathon. The year before that I parachuted out of an airplane.”

  “Well, aren’t you quite the hero.” She wasn’t sure if he was spinning her a line, but he certainly looked fit enough to run a marathon and young enough to taunt death by jumping out of an airplane. “What are you going to do this year?”

  “Sail under the Golden Gate Bridge.”

  “That sounds like fun. When’s the big day?”

  “Tomorrow. But I’m much younger than you – I’m only turning twenty-nine.”

  “Ah, twenty-nine – I remember it well.”

  He laughed. “It was only what, twelve hours ago?”

  “About that. Do you know how to sail?”

  “No. Will that be a problem?”

  She couldn’t help but smile back at him. His candor was refreshing, and she started to relax. “It might be. But
something tells me you’re pretty good at getting what you want.”

  “I used to be,” he said, his tone turning somber. “I was the guy who had everything. Charmed.”

  “And charming.”

  He tipped his head. “I try.”

  “So what happened to that guy?”

  “Life.” A small sigh followed his words. Before she could ask what it meant, he added, “Are you a nurse here?”

  “No, I just love to wear these baggy blue shirts and pants.”

  “Right. Stupid question.” He paused. “How do you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Watch people die.”

  The change in subject surprised her. “Not everyone dies. Most people live.”

  “My father died here. It was long. Painful. Horrible. I’ll never forget it.”

  She met his gaze head on. “I’m sorry.”

  “I bet you say that a lot.”

  “I still mean it.” She knew what it was like to lose a parent. And it didn’t matter how old you were.

  “I was with my father when he passed. He fought for months to recover, but he couldn't beat the cancer. Even though I knew the end was coming, and I was relieved that there would be an end to his pain and suffering, it was still shocking when it happened. One minute he was there, then he was gone…” He cleared his throat. “Hell of a birthday conversation. I apologize again.”

  “That’s all right. Now I understand why you needed some air.”

  “The hospital smell sticks to my clothes. How do you take it?”

  “You get used to it.”

  “Are you off duty?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why don’t I buy you a drink to toast your birthday?”

  “Uh…” She didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t as if she had other plans, but he was a stranger.

  “I promise, no more depressing conversation. We’ll have a drink in honor of your new decade. I might even buy you another cake.”