“You want me to go and look?” Mia asked.
Chuckling, he walked over and rubbed her belly, which was roughly the size of a beach ball, and kissed her nose. “No. It will go faster if I do it.”
“Cheap shot.”
With a laugh, he jogged up the stairs and looked in all the rooms and closets and then ran up to the attic and gave it one last look as well. Everything was empty, which meant all their boxes were on the truck. As he walked down the stairs, he texted Ryder to let him know they were leaving with the truck in a few minutes.
He found Mia standing by the back doors staring out at the beach and decided to go and tell the movers they could leave and they’d meet them at the house in a little while. Garrett, Jake, Sam, and Mason were all over there already waiting to help unload everything. Part of him felt like they should be getting in the car, but there was one more thing he wanted to do before they left for the last time.
Walking across the room, he took Mia’s hand and led her out onto the deck.
“Don’t we have to go?”
“In a minute,” he said softly and led her down the steps to the sand. She kicked off her sneakers and sighed happily as soon as her toes were in the sand–just like she always did. They walked closer to the water, and when they stopped, he stood behind her and turned her back to face the house.
“Do you remember the day we met?”
She laughed. “You mean the day you almost beaned me with a flying sink?”
He laughed too. “You spilled red wine all over your shirt and I thought I definitely killed you.” Pausing, he placed a kiss on her cheek. “Then I carried you into the house and thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.” He paused again. “And you hated me and were planning my demise.”
“Yeah, but you won me over.” Looking over her shoulder, she winked.
“It was because you used to watch me with your binoculars from the house next door and loved seeing me shirtless.”
She laughed again. “It certainly helped.”
“Hey!” But he held her tight. “This has been home for us since the beginning. I mean…both these houses–side by side–were where it all began, and it seems weird that we won’t be living here anymore.”
“I know,” she said wistfully. “But we’re moving to a place of our own that you designed for us, and it’s going to be even better because it will be the house we bring our baby home to.”
“That is very true.” He kissed her again. “So what do you say we go and make it the best home ever.”
Mia turned in his arms and wrapped hers around him. “It will be,” she said firmly. “We’ll make it that way. And with it being you and I, how could it not be?”
That made him smile. “That’s my girl.” With one last kiss, he began to lead her back toward the steps. “Let’s go home.”
Thank you for reading
I hope you enjoyed catching up with Austin and Mia and the Coleman family in Magnolia Sound!
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Just a fun little backstory for you on how – or why – I brought a blizzard to my little coastal town…
As many of you know, I live in North Carolina. The winters are usually very mild here and we tend to get more ice than snow. It was a big change from the winters we had when I was growing up on Long Island! But back in January of 2000, after living here in NC for almost five years, I gave birth three weeks early to my son. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way and yet…there he was.
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We weren’t overly prepared and didn’t have everything we needed for him, but we were so excited to have him home and knew we could just get to the stores and get the essentials as we needed them.
Then the snow came.
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Two feet of it to be exact.
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It took almost two weeks to dig out from it and looking back, I still don’t know how we managed to get through with our newborn, and eight-year old, and little to no preparation for that kind of blizzard. But we did and we talk about it quite often. So naturally, I wanted to put that kind of a scenario in a book. I write a lot of snowed in together stories, but I thought this would be a fun twist on that.
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Anyway, so many times readers ask where inspiration for a story comes from, and for Wedding Wonderland, this was it.
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Thank you for your continued support and Happy Reading!!
Xoxo
About Samantha Chase
Samantha Chase is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller of contemporary romance that’s hotter than sweet, sweeter than hot. She released her debut novel in 2011 and currently has more than seventy titles under her belt – including THE CHRISTMAS COTTAGE which was a Hallmark Christmas movie in 2017!
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She’s a Disney enthusiast who still happily listens to 80’s rock. When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading romances, playing way too many games of Solitaire on Facebook, wearing a tiara while playing with her sassy pug Maylene…oh, and spending time with her husband of 30 years and their two sons in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
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Where to Find Me:
Website: www.chasing-romance.com
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Also by Samantha Chase
The Magnolia Sound Series
Sunkissed Days
Remind Me
A Girl Like You
In Case You Didn’t Know
All the Befores
And Then One Day
Can’t Help Falling in Love
Last Beautiful Girl
The Way the Story Goes
Since You’ve Been Gone
Nobody Does It Better
Wedding Wonderland
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The Meet Me at the Altar Series:
The Engagement Embargo
With this Cake
You May Kiss the Groomsman
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The Enchanted Bridal Series:
The Wedding Season
Friday Night Brides