Hold On to Me
Page 32
Luca grinned. ‘You’d better make that six. Grace will kill me if she’s not in the wedding.’
‘Of course. Six. And I think it’s about time I officially met your parents.’
Luca laughed, deep and warm, and it was the best thing she’d ever heard. ‘And here I was thinking I’d have to take it slow so I didn’t scare you away.’
Stella felt the truth of her words catch in her throat. ‘I’ve waited a long time for a family of my own, Luca. I’m ready.’
‘They’re going to love you.’
‘I hope so.’
‘But not as much as me.’ They looked into each other’s eyes for a long moment.
‘I want you, Luca, and I think I’m ready for everything. But it’ll be complicated, you know. You and me,’ Stella said. ‘All my baggage.’
‘We can work it out,’ he said.
‘And I’m complicated.’
Luca smiled down at her, his eyes shining. ‘All the best women are.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My Boys of Summer books were supposed to be a trilogy. And a trilogy, by definition, means three books, right? Nobody But Him, Someone Like You and Our Kind of Love. But, something happened. When Our Kind of Love was published in November 2014, readers started telling me how sad they were to see the series come to an end and that they’d fallen in love with my fictional beachside town of Middle Point and the wonderful characters who live there.
And you know what? I wasn’t ready to leave them either. That’s why I returned to one of my favourite parts of the world, South Australia’s south coast, and wrote Stella and Luca’s story.
There are so many people to thank: my husband Stephen and especially our three kids, who look on at my writing career with the kind of bemusement only ever seen on the faces of teenage boys.
This one is dedicated to our youngest son, C, who is our little miracle.
To my wonderful friends who surround me with their friendship and wine at exactly the right times.
To the amazing community I’ve found at Romance Writers of Australia. I feel so lucky to have found and to be a part of this tribe.
Once again, thanks to my editor Kate O’Donnell. So glad I made you cry.
To the brilliant Michelle Laforest, Cristina Lee, Sue Brockhoff, Annabel Blay, Laurie Ormond and the rest of the Harlequin Australia team. Thanks for your continued faith in me and my stories.
To all those readers who’ve sent me messages telling me how much they’ve loved my books and all the reviewers who’ve taken the time to write reviews: they mean so much. When you’ve been stuck in the author cave for months on end, those few little words can make your day.
Thanks once again for reading and I’ll finish with a small disclaimer: Port Elliot is a real town but Style by Stella is a figment of my imagination. Oh, how I wish it were real.
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ISBN: 9781760374167
Title: Hold On To Me
First Australian Publication 2016
Copyright © 2016 by Victoria Purman
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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