“Oh,” she breathed. Her hazel eyes, gray out here against the white snow, filled with unshed tears. “I can’t believe…” she whispered, and wiped at her eyes. “This is wonderful.” Her voice was rough with emotions. “I never expected…”

  “I didn’t either.” He pulled her against his chest, rubbing his hands up and down her back briskly. “I never expected anything like this.”

  Anything like you.

  Did Carla know how wonderful she was? Did Carla understand how happy she made him?

  Well, he had the rest of his life to show her this truth again and again.

  Epilogue

  Carla

  Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today.

  ~The Impressive Clergyman in The Princess Bride

  June, 2021

  This was it.

  How was it that this day had finally come? It’d somehow taken forever to arrive…and no time at all.

  Six months of planning a wedding, and designing a house, and surviving another Valentine’s Day (only just barely), and giving birth to a baby (even worse than V-Day, which she didn’t think was possible), and moving into Christian’s shitty single-wide (that had at least been cleaned up with new carpet and paint by Stetson and Jennifer before she moved in) to live in until the house was done…

  Their wedding was some far-off dream that’d happen “someday.” She’d dreamed about it between diaper changes and breastfeedings and hundreds of boutonnières for prom night and flowers for other people’s weddings. She’d started out with some nutty idea that this would be the Wedding of the Century in Long Valley, and it’d be more romantic and more gorgeous and more insane than any other wedding in the history of ever.

  Reality had quickly come knocking on her front door, though, and bluntly informed her that she had better shit to focus on. She couldn’t believe she actually admitted this, but…

  Reality was right. She did have more important things to focus on than whether or not she arrived at the church in a limousine.

  One thing she didn’t compromise on, though – her dress. She looked in the full-length mirror and sighed happily.

  “Ding, ding, ding…” she whispered softly to her image as she swished the voluminous skirt back and forth. It was one of her favorite scenes from one of her favorite movies not named The Princess Bride – Runaway Bride.

  “Admiring yourself?” Michelle asked, coming up behind her and giving her a light squeeze on the shoulders. “You look gorgeous, by the way. Christian’s gonna have to scrape his jaw off the ground after he takes one look at you.”

  Carla smiled at her friend in the mirror. “Thanks,” she said, trying not to tear up and ruin her makeup that she’d worked so hard on for so long. She fussed with the comb holding her veil in place, making sure it was secure, and then carefully pulled locks of her hair forward to cascade down and around her face and breasts. The high empire waist of the white satin gown emphasized Christian’s avowed favorite feature: Her overly generous boobs. Between the cut of the gown and some heavy-duty undergarments that’d taken three of them to wrestle her into, Carla actually managed to look like she had a waist to speak of, even if drawing in a deep breath wasn’t possible.

  The way she figured it, breathing was overrated anyway.

  “How is Rosie doing?” she asked anxiously, straightening a curl to lay just so. “She isn’t fussing, is she?”

  “Your mother-in-law has her coddled to within an inch of her life,” Michelle said dryly. “Rose Petal is just fine.”

  Carla pursed her lips together, trying to hide her giggle from Michelle. Yes, it was true that her daughter’s name was Rose Petal Palacios, but of course, no one was actually supposed to call her that. She was to be known as Rosie to everyone…

  Except Michelle, who never missed a chance to call her by her given name. Michelle, who thought that the name was completely bonkers. The only thing that Carla could get Michelle to – grudgingly – agree to was that Rose Petal was better than Buttercup, which’d been Carla’s first choice. Sadly, Christian had vetoed it.

  Which was fair enough. After all, she’d used her veto power to abolish Cassandra – a beautiful name that she might’ve agreed to, except Christian had made the mistake of revealing his plan to shorten it to “Case.”

  Yes, Case, not Cass. When she’d asked him archly if he wouldn’t just like to call their daughter “Tractor” instead, he’d protested hotly that he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

  “I’m glad Rose Petal is doing well,” Carla said, pretending as if she was oblivious to Michelle’s sarcasm. “Thank heavens you thought to have me feed her before we wrestled me into this dress. This doesn’t exactly have an easy access panel for breastfeeding.”

  “A failing of the wedding dress industry, to be sure.”

  Carla was trying to decide if Michelle was being sarcastic or not – never a sure thing with her – when Keila opened the door. “Christian’s up at the front,” she whispered excitedly. Her friend had told her that she’d never been a bridesmaid before, and had taken to the role like fish to water. “You ready?”

  Carla nodded, the butterflies going berserk in her belly. Despite the fact that there shouldn’t be enough room inside of her support garments for an ant to do the conga, butterflies were somehow doing a hell of a lot more than that.

  “Is Dad out there?”

  “Sure am, dear,” he said from the hallway. “Are you decent?”

  “I am,” she said with a light laugh. She was supposed to be walking down the aisle in just minutes. If she wasn’t dressed by this point, she would’ve been in deep trouble. “You can come in.”

  Her dad peered cautiously around the door frame as if he somehow thought she might be lying about her state of undress, and then sucked in a quick breath. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered, and dabbed at the corners of his eyes with the sleeve of his suit as he came over and gave her a delicate hug, clearly afraid he was going to mess something up. “Well, my dear, are you ready?”

  She nodded and slipped her hand inside the crook of his arm. Michelle, Autumn, and Keila got matched up with their escorts, and the processional music started. She watched her friends disappear through the open door and into the chapel with trembling lips. She’d always been one to cry at weddings, but she was beginning to realize that she was a hundred times worse at her own wedding.

  She scooped up her bouquet from the side table – a giant draping concoction of every one of her favorite flowers – and together, they moved to the doorway into the chapel.

  At the sight of her, the organist quit playing, the guests stood, and the haunting bars of Storybook Love began to play through the PA system.

  Come, my love, I’ll tell you a tale

  Of a boy and girl and their love story

  Willy DeVille’s voice, singing the iconic theme song from The Princess Bride, rang through the chapel as Carla slowly moved up the aisle. Her dad was snuffling loudly now, as were most of the guests. Carla saw Iris, her brilliant red hair unmistakable, snuggled against Declan, her basketball of a stomach sticking out in front of her. She was due in a month, but looked ready to pop at any moment. She was rubbing her hands across her protruding stomach idly as she watched Carla. She looked up and caught Carla’s eye, and for a moment, Carla was sure her friend was going to break down into tears of joy. Iris blew her a quick kiss and Carla gave her a tremulous smile, her lips quivering.

  It was happening.

  A movement to her right caught her eye and Carla looked over to see her mother-in-law, María, waving Rosie’s chubby hand in the air. Carla’s arms ached to hold her baby again – she didn’t think she’d been away from her daughter for this long since her birth eight weeks ago – but she knew she was safe in the arms of María. True to her word, María had kicked her brother-in-law to the curb, and hadn’t wavered in her pronouncement that he’d never step foot inside of their house again. Enraged, Nicolás had moved out of state, wanting to make his older brother pay by refusing to spend time in his company any longer.

  Not a single fistfight had broken out at a Palacios dinner since then. Funny how that worked.

  She said, “Don’t you know that storybook loves

  Always have a happy ending?”

  And then she looked at the head of the aisle where Christian stood in his tux, his hair slicked back, looking more formal than he ever had before, and probably ever would again. Gone was her cowboy who could wrestle a calf into the dirt, give it a booster shot, and send it on its way quicker than Carla could decide which earrings to wear that day.

  In his stead was a quiet, somber, beautiful man. His face was alight with a beaming smile that made Carla’s heart take wing. How was it that this gorgeous being, inside and out, wanted to marry her?

  She didn’t know, but she’d stopped asking a long time ago, lest he start to question that fact also.

  My love is like a storybook story

  But it’s as real as the feelings I feel

  The last strains of the haunting music died away, and the Catholic priest cleared his throat. For just a moment, Carla thought he was going to say, “Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today,” but he didn’t. She’d asked him months ago if he would, of course, but he’d refused.

  Turned out, Catholic priests didn’t think that a lifelong obsession with a movie was a reason for them to impersonate John Malkovich.

  Life couldn’t be perfect, she supposed.

  After her father gave her away to Christian and Keila took her bouquet to hold during the ceremony, she moved to kneel next to Christian, hands clasped together as they listened to the priest read with total solemnity from the Old Testament.

  She felt Christian give her hand a gentle squeeze, and she peeked at him out of the corner of her eye.

  “Mawage,” Christian mouthed. “Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today.”

  With a suppressed giggle, Carla looked forward again.

  Maybe, life could be perfect after all.

  Author’s Note

  Wiping away a sniffly tear…

  Bloom of Love took longer for me to write than any other book of mine, by a looonnngggg shot. Exactly 18 months passed between my last book (Strummin’ Up Love) and the release of this one. It was never my intent to take this blasted long to write Carla and Christian’s love story, but in my defense, 2020 was 12 of those 18 months, so… *shrug* Need I say more?

  I begged, borrowed, and stole ideas from a plethora of people in my life to bring Carla and Christian’s love story to life, so please bear with me for just a moment as I give my little Oscar speech.

  Thank you to Iris and Matt for showing me what true love was. Only that could entice a guy to get allergy shots so he could move in with his girlfriend…and all of her cats. 😉

  Thank you to Cary Elwes for writing As You Wish, the fantastic true story and behind-the-scenes view of The Princess Bride. I’ve always loved and adored this movie (I rather think it’s illegal not to!) and listening to him read it as an audiobook was a special treat for me.

  Thank you to my own Great Pyrenees, Marshmallow, who is the sweetest, kindest, most loyal dog on the planet (and no, I’m not biased!) I’ve had people freak out a little when they met him because of his size, but he’s always won them over with his sweet personality. (And yes, my Marshmallow is also an outside dog! He takes a special pride in patrolling the farm and protecting us – and the chickens! – from a pack of coyotes that roams nearby). Although he can’t be my writing buddy like Jasmine the Writing Cat is – I write inside, so this does put a damper on that idea – he was certainly an inspiration in this book.

  Speaking of, thank you to Jasmine the Writing Cat for all of your snuggles and plot ideas. Just for you, my writing partner in crime, there were two cats in this book and only one dog. #youarewelcome

  Thank you to the many florists who shared their stories with me, and especially the florist who shared the story of how he got into the business. Carla’s confession of being a flower thief on May Day – of stripping the neighbor of flowers in order to give paper baskets of flowers away to everyone on the street? Yeah, I stole that one wholesale. Delivering baskets to neighbors on May Day has sadly become a forgotten relic of the past, and so I especially enjoyed using this bit of nostalgia here.

  Carla has always held a special place in my heart, with her turquoise van and her rose-colored glasses. She loves everyone, but somehow, hadn’t found someone to love her. I’m glad I finally found just the right guy. Speaking of…

  I’d mentioned Christian in my very first book – Accounting for Love. You’d be forgiven if you don’t remember him – Stetson only mentions him in passing when he has truly deep, contemplative thoughts like, “Christian will make sure that the men were doing what they needed to.” Which, Christian being Christian, was totally true, but still, this does mean that Christian’s introduction in the Long Valley world was both early on and completely forgettable.

  It was actually Christian’s younger sister, Yesenia, who gets more “screen time” in Accounting for Love – do you remember Yesenia coming to feed Nudges the calf, and Stetson talking to her when she arrives? She’s only 16 at that point – young, and beautiful, and already showing that she’s smart as a whip.

  It took four years, but I finally worked my way back around to the Palacios family. Don’t say I’m not dogged!

  And yes, Yesenia will get her own book down the line. #duh She still has some growing up to do (and some college to attend!) but she’ll get there.

  Speaking of upcoming books, I have to tell y’all about my book coming out this fall – Thankful for Love. The truth is, part of the reason (certainly not all!) that Bloom took so long to write is because I was also plotting out Thankful at the same time, setting the groundwork for it here. This takes a mean feat (writing an entire novel!) and turns the difficulty level up to 11.

  But, at the same time as being super difficult, it also happens to be super fun, which is probably why I keep doing it. And anyway, I prefer that explanation over “I’m a masochist” which is really the only other possible reason for making life much more arduous than it really needs to be.

  Some backstory:

  I met Keila Wilson, Carla’s new friend from Boston, at the end of June, 2020. Except unlike most author flights of fancy, Keila really does exist, that really is her name (only her last name was changed), and I really did “meet” her (at least online) back in June.

  A fan, she emailed me about how much she loved my books, and we started to chat. I was intrigued by her story and asked her if I could use it when introducing the newest resident of Long Valley. She agreed happily.

  That combined with my obsession with A&E’s TV show, Hoarders (no way will I ever admit to how many episodes of that show that I’ve watched) is the genesis of Thankful for Love, the start of my new series, Servicemen of Long Valley Romance.

  As you might’ve guessed from the name, it’s going to be focused on the men and women who’ve served the US military and then come back home, usually to find that they (or the world) had changed while they were gone. With my father serving in the Marine Corps for 20 years, my brother serving in the Navy for 5, and my cousin serving in both the Navy and the Army, I feel like it’s a topic I can tackle, even if it’ll take a lot of research to get right.

  Keila isn’t the one who served in the military, though – that honor rests with Gunner Nash. If you’re a sharp-eyed reader, you’ll recognize that last name; it’s also the last name of Stetson’s best friend, Luke Nash. If you remember waayyy back to Book 2 of Long Valley Romance (Blizzard of Love), Luke is the cynical country boy who falls in love with Bonnie, very much a city girl. Do you remember Luke telling the story of his mom leaving on Christmas Eve to get a gallon of milk, and never coming back? And how he basically had to raise his twin younger brother and sister when his dad checked out and quit caring?

  You guessed it – Gunner is Luke’s younger brother; Georgette is Gunner’s twin sister. You’ll see her popping in and out a bit in Thankful for Love but her story is reserved for Book 2 in the Musicians of Long Valley Romance, Melody of Love.

  Anywho, Gunner Nash is back in town after a stint in the Navy, and is struggling to figure out who he is and what he wants out of life. Keila has just rolled into town, hell-bent on buying a hoarder mansion and turning it into a bed-and-breakfast.

  They both get what they need, but certainly not what they expect.

  Available as a preorder on all storefronts, Thankful for Love will go live the fall of 2021. Be sure to turn the page and join Keila as she drives into town for the first time…

  Thankful for Love

  Gunner Nash left town the night of high school graduation, and hasn’t looked back since. He and his twin sister, Georgette, were happy living anywhere but Sawyer.

  But Gunner’s finished his stint in the Navy, and is now drifting, looking for a purpose in life, or at least a roof over his head. His older brother, Luke, offers him a place to stay until he can get back on his feet.

  He never expects to find love in the process…

  Thankful for Love Preview

  Keila Wilson let out a jaw-cracking yawn and rubbed at her eyes wearily. She was so damn close. It’d be ridiculous to pull over now and take a nap.

 

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