Come Home with Me

by Susan Fox

  That night, after one of Celia’s incredible feasts, he’d asked Miranda to model the bikini before bed. Thinking back on the inspired lovemaking that had ensued, she grinned with satisfaction. She was entirely happy to benefit from all the lessons Luke had learned from those sex manuals.

  “Looking forward to the party?” he asked as he lowered his muscular body to sprawl beside her.

  She claimed a kiss. “I can’t believe Eden’s family is throwing a party to celebrate the anniversary of me moving to Destiny,” she marveled. “When I arrived here a year ago, I was a total bitch. Pathetic, needy. Jealous of Eden.”

  “You had your reasons, and you’ve changed. Everyone sees that. When I watch you with them, it’s clear you’re part of that family. Just the same as when you’re with my parents and in-laws.”

  Over the past weeks, since they’d confessed their love for each other in early May, it had become a regular thing to hang out with either his relatives or hers. There’d been a few awkward moments—and blunt Annie had confessed that sometimes it hurt to see Miranda in Candace’s place—but everyone was getting to be comfortable together.

  So comfortable that Annie, Randall, Sonia, and Forbes were invited to the party that would get underway in another hour or so. Di and Seal had asked Forbes to bring his guitar, and Miranda knew that a lot of old folk songs would get sung tonight. Hopefully, there’d be no mention of Merlin. Annie’s intense focus was now on fine-tuning her commune video game, and she apparently gave no thought to the real-life stories that had inspired it.

  Down by the water’s edge, Caleb was showing Ariana how to pick flat stones for skipping. “He’s so patient with her,” Miranda commented. “It reminds me of how Aaron was with me.” In fact, all three kids got along quite well now, with Brandon fueling Ariana’s boisterous side and Caleb trying to teach her new skills.

  A couple of white-haired men, their aging bodies clad in shorts, strolled along the beach holding hands. Miranda exchanged smiles with them and the two men paused, glancing from her and Luke to the three kids. “You have a beautiful family,” one of the men said, and the two of them meandered on.

  That was nice, being taken for a family. As if they all truly did belong together, which was how it felt to Miranda. Hopefully, to Luke as well.

  “Hey,” he said quietly. “Here’s a thought.”

  She turned to him.

  “What that guy said, about us having a lovely family . . .” He reached for the short-sleeved shirt he’d brought down to the beach but hadn’t put on. “What would you say . . .” From the pocket he took a small wooden box.

  Her heart skipped, much more effectively than those stones her daughter was tossing.

  “To making it official?” Luke finished. “I love you, Miranda Gabriel. Will you and Ariana join your little family with my little family? Will you come home with me and never leave?” He opened the box and there on a pad of creamy velvet was a stunning ring, an abstract pattern of diamonds and blue gemstones.

  “You’re asking me to marry you?” she said. Was this really happening, or was it the best dream she’d ever had?

  “I sure am. Do you like the ring?” he asked, sounding nervous. “I got it made. I chose blue topaz because it’s the color of your eyes, though nowhere near as pretty.”

  “It’s fabulous.” She brushed her fingers across the top of the ring—yes, it was real; all of this was real—and then eased it from the velvet pad. “I came here a year ago, having hit rock bottom,” she said wonderingly. “And now I can’t imagine life getting any better.” She started to slip the ring on her finger.

  “Hey, wait a minute.” Luke caught her hand. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  Confused, she gazed at him and then it dawned on her. Didn’t he know her answer, or did he just want to hear her say it? “Yes, Luke. Yes! I’ll marry you and we’ll become one wonderful blended family.” She would have a real home for the first time in her life. “Yes, please.”

  He eased the ring onto her finger, lifted her hand, and kissed her finger beside the ring. “Thank you for making me the happiest man alive.”

  Then he kissed her lips, and as she threw her arms around him and sunk into the kiss, her heart felt full. For the first time ever, there was no hole, no ache inside it.

  She wasn’t perfect, and Luke knew that. But she had grown up a lot in the past year. Her heart, which had always craved love and acceptance, had finally made the right choice. It had led her to a remarkable man, a man who loved and respected her, a man who wanted to share his life with her.

  She was lucky and she was blessed—and yes, she did deserve this.

  Note to Readers

  Blue Moon Harbor and Destiny Island are fictional, but as is so often the case with the world an author creates, they exist in my heart. So do the heroines, heroes, and secondary characters who live there. I hope the same thing happens for you when you read the stories.

  When I introduced Miranda Gabriel in Fly Away With Me, she fascinated me. She’s tough but vulnerable, and fear can turn her into—to use her words—a pathetic bitch. She’d do absolutely anything for the two people she loves: her two-year-old daughter and her older brother, Aaron, the hero of Fly Away With Me. You couldn’t meet a more loyal, mixed-up, or flawed person than Miranda. How could I not write her story, and make her bust her butt to find her own happy ending?

  So, for the young woman who’s always fallen for bad boys and always had her heart broken, I sent her a true good guy. Widower Luke Chandler has known true love, with a wonderfully perfect woman, and believes he’ll never love again. So what’s he to do when he develops feelings for the thoroughly messed-up, mixed-up Miranda?

  Oh yes, I had fun writing this book, and I also shed a few tears along the way. I do hope you enjoy Miranda and Luke’s story.

  You can read seaplane pilot Aaron’s romance with Ottawa lawyer Eden in Fly Away With Me, and single mom Jillian’s reunion with Michael, her son’s father, in “A Blue Moon Harbor Christmas” in Winter Wishes. Coming up next is shy Iris’s love story—with sexy musician Julian in Sail Away With Me.

  Blue Moon Harbor may be a fictional community, but my writing community is very real. I’m deeply grateful to all the people who have helped me with Come Home With Me: my always supportive agent, Emily Sylvan Kim at Prospect Agency; my terrific editor at Kensington, Martin Biro; Martin’s excellent assistant, James Abbate; cheerful and helpful publicist Jane Nutter; Emily’s delightful assistant, Jes Lyons; and last but definitely not least, my critiquers Rosalind Villers and Alaura Ross.

  I’d also like to express my true appreciation to my readers. I love sharing my stories with you and I’m so honored that you read my books.

  I’m delighted to hear from you. You can email me at susan@susanlyons.ca or contact me through my website at www.susanfox.ca, where you’ll also find excerpts, behind-the-scenes notes, recipes, a monthly contest, the sign-up for my newsletter, and other goodies. You can also find me on Facebook at facebook.com/SusanLyonsFox.

  If you enjoyed Come Home With Me,

  be sure not to miss the first book in Susan Fox’s

  Blue Moon Harbor series,

  FLY AWAY WITH ME

  Known for its rugged beauty and eccentric residents, tiny Blue Moon Harbor is big on love . . .

  For busy lawyer Eden Blaine, a trip to a Pacific

  Northwest island she’s never even heard of is far from a

  vacation. Eden’s ailing mother has tasked her with

  finding her long-lost aunt, who once had ties to a

  commune on the island. Still reeling from a breakup

  with her long-time boyfriend, romance is the last thing

  Eden is looking for. But her gorgeous seaplane pilot

  has her wondering if a carefree rebound fling

  is exactly what she needs....

  Aaron Gabriel has no illusions about happily ever after.

  His troubled childhood made sure of that.

  B
ut he does appreciate a pretty woman’s company, and

  Eden is the exact combination of smart and sexy that

  turns him on. Still, as he helps her search for her missing

  aunt, the casual relationship he imagined quickly

  becomes something much more passionate—

  and much harder to give up.

  Can two people determined to ignore romance

  recognize that their heated connection

  is the kind of love destined to last?

  A Zebra mass-market paperback

  and eBook on sale now.

  Turn the page for a special look!

  When Eden Blaine tugged her wheeled carry-on bag off the sloped ramp from the seaplane terminal onto the wooden dock, she almost lost her balance. The surface beneath her feet looked flat, but it moved gently, disconcertingly.

  Thank heavens I left my lawyer suit and heels in Ottawa. Her jeans and loafers were much better suited to this venue, even though Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre nestled along the shore of a huge, cosmopolitan city.

  For a moment, she forgot all about being rushed and frazzled. The view compelled her to stop and stare. On this sunny, early June afternoon, the harbor spread out before her in a spectacular panorama. Boats bustling along, green swaths of parkland, a cruise ship terminal, the white sails of Canada Place, commercial docks, and a whole other city on the far shore, sheltering under dramatic mountains: There was too much to take in. She breathed deeply, expecting to fill her lungs with the fresh tang of ocean air, but a nose-wrinkling underlay of fuel odor reminded her why she was here, standing on this narrow, unstable dock in the middle of all this amazing scenery. The scent, the motion, and the anticipation of the upcoming flight combined to make her jittery with nerves.

  Eden hadn’t done much flying but had occasionally taken a smallish jet from Ottawa to Toronto or Montreal. Compared to what she’d thought of as smallish, the seaplanes tied up to the dock were minuscule. Add to that the fact that she’d never taken off from or landed on water . . .

  Her hand rose to her mouth and her teeth closed on a fingernail. Before she could gnaw on it, she forced her hand down and curled her fingers around the handle of the briefcase that hung over one shoulder along with her purse. Nana had broken her of the nail-biting habit when she was in fourth grade, saying that not only was it unattractive and unhygienic but it was a sure giveaway of anxiety, insecurity, and lack of control. None of which were qualities Eden wanted to reveal to the outside world.

  This was going to be an adventure, and adventure was definitely not her middle name. Still, she’d face any peril if she could restore her mom’s once-bright spirit. The seaplane flight would get her to Destiny Island a day earlier than the ferry would have, and with only a week off work to find her mother’s long-lost sister, every hour was important. Her mom, fragile after a double mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy and radiation, was counting on her. Eden’s parents were wonderful and she never, ever let them down.

  Eden refused to let herself think for one moment that her quest might end in learning that her aunt, Lucy, was dead.

  Squaring her shoulders, she tugged her wheelie along the dock toward the plane with the Blue Moon Air logo. She had to admit it looked perky with its blue-and-white paint shining in the sunlight, the wings mounted from the top of the cabin, and the pontoons holding it atop the deep, bluish-green ocean. The logo was appealing too: a blue moon with a white plane flying across it.

  Half a dozen people clustered beside the plane: three sixtyish men in outdoorsy clothes, two women a decade or two younger in jeans and hoodies, and a lean but broad-shouldered guy in jeans and a blue T-shirt. His back was to her as he hoisted luggage onto the plane. One of the women spotted Eden, raised a hand in a tentative wave, and said something to the others.

  The broad-shouldered guy turned, straightening, and she felt a physical sensation akin to the one she’d experienced when she first saw the horrendous taxi lineup at Vancouver International Airport. After her flight from Ottawa had been late arriving.

  Well, not exactly akin. At the airport, the legs-stopping-moving-of-their-own-accord, air-leaving-her-lungs-in-a-whoosh sensation had been nasty, whereas this one was quite pleasant.

  As she forced her legs onward, she took a visual inventory. Lean and nicely muscled; narrow hips and long legs to complement those broad shoulders. Hair so dark a brown it was almost black, longish and shaggy rather than styled. Medium brown skin. Aviator sunglasses hiding his eyes, making it difficult to assess his age, though she guessed it was close to her own twenty-nine. Ruggedly handsome features lit by a smile as he strode to meet her.

  That smile warmed her in a way that made her feel special. And that was silly, because of course he merely was relieved that she’d finally shown up and the flight could depart.

  “I’m Aaron Gabriel, Blue Moon Air pilot. And you’d be Eden Blaine.” He reached for the long handle of her wheelie.

  As he shoved the handle down and hefted the bag, she confirmed, “Yes, I would be. I’m so sorry for the delay.” She hated being late, hated inconveniencing people. When she’d phoned Blue Moon Air from the airport taxi lineup, she’d said she wouldn’t make the flight on time and asked if she could reschedule for the next morning. To her astonishment and delight, the man who’d answered had said they’d hold the flight for her.

  “Ah, well, airlines,” the pilot now said in a joking tone. “Never can rely on them being on time.”

  What could she possibly say to that? She firmly believed in adhering to schedules, yet the airline’s flexibility had worked to her benefit today. Rather than respond, she kept quiet as she followed him to the plane.

  As he loaded her carry-on into the cargo hold, she apologized to the other passengers, who all murmured variations of “No problem.”

  Aaron took her briefcase from her and stowed it, too, but let her keep her purse. “Climb aboard,” he told her.

  “But what about everyone else?” No one else had boarded.

  “We have a boarding order. Your seat’s first. Hop in.” He offered her his hand.

  Eyeing the dock, which heaved rhythmically up and down, the plane, which also bobbed up and down but to a different beat, and the insubstantial three-step metal ladder that connected the two, she gratefully put her hand into his.

  Warm, firm, secure. Touching him reminded her of just how wonderful male-female contact could be. She’d missed that since she and Ray had ended their four-year relationship. In fact, she didn’t remember Ray’s hands ever feeling this good. He had city hands, well-groomed but not super-masculine. Hands that were efficient in operating a computer, handling legal files, and bringing her to orgasm. Competent, yet not exactly virile.

  And what was she doing, thinking about sex? Embarrassed, she clambered up the ladder and then let go of Aaron’s hand. “Where do I sit?”

  “Up front, right-hand seat.”

  “But that’s the copilot’s seat.”

  “Don’t need a copilot on a plane this size. That’s a passenger seat.”

  No copilot? Aaron Gabriel looked entirely healthy, but anyone could have a stroke, a heart attack, or an aneurysm.

  He shoved his sunglasses atop his head and winked. “Don’t worry. I’m one hundred percent fit.” His gaze rested on her for a long moment, and there was a spark in his long-lashed, bluish-gray eyes that hinted at flirtation.

  That spark sent a corresponding tingle rippling through her blood, almost strong enough to combat her jittery nerves. She’d never been a highly sensual woman, so it was unsettling to feel this purely female awareness of a sexy man. She cleared her throat. “I’m glad to hear that.” Her voice came out in lawyer mode, too formal for the situation. Giving herself an internal headshake, she scrambled into the right front seat and fumbled for the seat belt as the other passengers piled in behind her.

  Eden liked order and predictability, situations she could control, and this one was anything but that. Taking deep breaths, she tho
ught ruefully that up until a year ago, her life had been happy and uncomplicated. She’d had her family, her terrific job, and Ray, her life mate. Then Nana died, Mom was diagnosed, and, two months ago, Eden and Ray broke up. Now her mom was finally finished with chemo and radiation but still feeling sick and depressed—at least until a week ago, when she’d found an out-of-the-blue clue to her sister Lucy’s disappearance, and nothing would do but for Eden to follow it. Immediately. And so here she was, about to put her life in the hands of the handsome pilot and his perky miniature plane.

  Aaron stowed the ladder and shut the boarding hatch from the outside, then stepped onto a float and entered through the door by the pilot’s seat. He gave the passengers a safety briefing that included seat belts, turning off electronic devices, emergency procedures, life preservers, exits, and so on. He advised them to read the safety card in the seat pocket, asked if there were any questions, and then said, “Let’s fly, folks.”

  Buckled in, with a headset on, he started the plane’s engine and talked to air traffic control.

  Eden concentrated on memorizing the safety card, trying not to imagine crash landings or pilot heart attacks.

  Aaron signalled a man on the dock, who untied the ropes. As they motored out into the harbor, the plane bounced over gentle waves. The motion was rather like driving over a heavily rutted road in her little Smart car. Except that the fragile plane was soon going to fling itself into the great blue yonder. She clasped her hands and squeezed them together, another defense against nail-biting.