The Merriest Magnolia (Magnolia Sisters #2) - Michelle Major Page 0,104
a little while to catch up.”
“You came back here because of Sam,” she reminded him, wanting to believe it could be more but afraid to let herself hope. Afraid that if she opened herself up again she might not recover.
“He’s part of it,” he agreed. “A big part of it. I didn’t think I was capable of giving him the life he deserved just like I didn’t believe I had it in me to love you the way you deserve to be loved. But Christmas in Magnolia...” He cupped her face in his hands and the look in his eyes melted her defenses like they were nothing more than candle wax. “These past few weeks with you have shown me that I have to move beyond my past. I want to become the man you and Sam need me to be. The man you both deserve.”
She blinked away the tears that filled her eyes. “You already are that man. I shouldn’t have made you the bad guy. You were never the villain for me. Always my hero.”
His sigh reverberated through her, and then he leaned in and brushed his lips across hers. A gentle touch filled with hope and promise and all the love she could imagine.
“Give me another chance,” he said against her mouth. “I want a future with you, Carrie. I want to build a home and decorate for Christmas and Halloween and string lights across the porch to celebrate every full moon if it will make you happy. I’ll go to every small-town parade and coach little league and volunteer at bingo and—”
She pressed her hand to his mouth to silence him as joy rushed through her like a tidal wave. “Bingo might be laying it on a little thick,” she said with a laugh. “But I’ll take everything else. All of it, Dylan. I love you and I’ll give you—us—as many chances as we need.”
He kissed her again and as Carrie wrapped her arms around him, her heart settled like it had finally found its place. In the arms of the man she’d love for the rest of her life.
* * *
The Road to Magnolia
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER ONE
“REMEMBER TO BREATHE,” Lily Wainright muttered to herself as she grabbed two plates from the pass-through window in front of the restaurant’s kitchen. It felt like a boa constrictor had wound its way around her lungs, squeezing tight. “Remember to breathe,” she repeated.
She turned and then narrowed her eyes at the man who watched her from his usual seat at the counter. “What?” she demanded.
“Breathing is an involuntary function.” Garrett Dawes shrugged, one big shoulder lifting and lowering as his dark gaze flicked from her to the bowl of oatmeal in front of him. “You don’t need to remind yourself.”
“So helpful, Garrett,” she said through clenched teeth and moved to deliver the order to a booth near the front of the restaurant.
She forced a smile as she scooted between crowded tables at MJ’s Cafe, the popular diner in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she’d worked for the past year. Quite possibly the only bright spot in the worst twelve months of her life.
And her breath caught in her throat. Involuntary, indeed. What did that gruff, unfriendly, unfeeling robot of a man know, anyway?
Her inability to pull off even automatic bodily functions was just one more thing to add to his unspoken but still obvious list of judgments against her.
At least her animosity toward the diner’s most consistent customer gave her a few seconds of relief from the anxiety pounding through her due to the most recent implosion of her life.
The relief lasted a few seconds, until the child at the table she was passing suddenly pushed back his chair, directly into her path. Her foot caught on one leg and she stumbled, the two plates sliding out of her hands and crashing to the tile floor. Eggs, bacon and toast splattered while the porcelain splintered, right along with Lily’s self-control.
As the diner went immediately silent, her eyes filled with tears, big sloppy ones that couldn’t be blinked away. They rolled down her cheeks, and she swiped at them as she drew a shuddery breath, then bent to pick up the mess.
“Was that ours?” one of the businessmen at the booth where she was headed asked. “I’m so hungry.”
“We’ll get another order right up and it’s on the house.” Lily heard Mary Jo Marsh, the diner’s owner, answer