âAw, Lace, donât cry.â
âI told you, I must have gotten something in myââ The next thing she knew, she was toppling into Noahâs arms.
Noah didnât think about what he was doing, because what he was doing felt as natural as flying. Wrapping his arms around Lacey, he tilted his chin to make room for her head and widened his stance to make room for her feet between his. It wasnât the vibration of flight he sensed, but her trembling.
He kissed her. It was demanding and rousing, and once it started, it was too late to ask what she was doing back in Orchard Hill, too late to ask her anything, or to do anything but pull her even closer â¦
Dear Reader,
Three of my favorite occasions are weddings, a new babyâs arrival and Christmas. My latest book, A Bride Before Dawn, contains all three. Iâm a planner by nature, and yet one of the things I love most about these celebrations is their sheer unpredictability. Will it rain on an outdoor wedding? Will the baby arrive early or late? Will the kids notice if I buy rolls instead of make them from scratch? Maybe, yes and definitely.
In A Bride Before Dawn, Lacey Bell is a planner, too. At the top of her to-do list is: Resist Noah Sullivan. But when Noah and his brothers find a baby on their doorstep and ask for Laceyâs much-needed help, resisting this fly-by-night test pilot is even trickier when he has a three-month-old baby in his arms.
For me, one of the most meaningful aspects of special occasions is thinking of the perfect gift. My gift to you, dear reader, is Lacey and Noahâs story. Good things are going to happen. (They really are.)
Sincerely,
Sandra Steffen
SANDRA STEFFEN has always been a storyteller. She began nurturing this hidden talent by concocting adventures for her brothers and sisters, even though the boys were more interested in her ability to hit a baseball over the barnâan automatic home run. She didnât begin her pursuit of publication until she was a young wife and mother of four sons. Since her thrilling debut as a published author in 1992, more than thirty-five of her novels have graced bookshelves across the country.
This winner of a RITA>® Award, a Wish Award, and a National Readersâ Choice Award enjoys traveling with her husband. Usually their destinations are settings for her upcoming books. They are empty-nesters these days. Who knew it could be so much fun? Please visit her at www.sandrasteffen.com.
For my seven wonders of the world: Anora, Leah, Landen, Anna, Erin, Dalton & Brynn.
Noah Sullivan understood airplanes the way physicists understood atoms and bakers understood bread.
He pulled back on the yoke, pushed the throttle forward and sliced through the clouds. He dived, leveled off and climbed, listening intently to the engine all the while, the control held loosely in his hands. This old Piper Cherokee was soaring like a kite at eighteen hundred feet. She had a lot of years left in her.
The same couldnât be said for all the planes he flew. The first time heâd executed an emergency landing heâd used a closed freeway outside of Detroit. Last month heâd had to set a Cessna down on a godforsaken strip of dirt in the Texas hill country. Heâd never lost a plane, though, and was considered one of the best independent test pilots in his field.
He wasnât fearless. He was relentless. He couldnât take all the credit for that, though. He never forgot that.
When he was finished putting the Piper through her paces, he headed down, out of the clouds. He followed the Chestnut River west, then banked south above the tallest church spire in Orchard Hill. Halfway between the citylimit sign and the country airstrip was Sullyâs Orchard. It was where Noah grew up, and where he collected his mail every month or so when he flew through.
He buzzed the orchard on his way by, as he always did when he came home, and tipped his wing when his oldest brother, Marsh, came running out the back door of the old cider house, his ball cap waving. Their mother used to say Marsh and Noah had been born looking upâMarsh to their apple trees and Noah to the sky above them. The second oldest, Reed, stepped out of the office, shading his eyes with his right hand. Tall, blond and shamelessly confident, he waved, too.
Those two deserved the credit for Noahâs success, for theyâd given up their futures after their parents died in an icy pileup when Noah was fifteen and their baby sister, Madeline, was twelve. Noah hadnât made it easy for them, either. Truancy when he was fifteen, speeding and curfew violations when he was sixteen, drinking long before it was legal. They never gave up on him, and helped him make his dream of flying come true. Maybe someday he would find a way to repay them.
He still enjoyed getting a rise out of them from time to time, but today he didnât subject them to any grandstanding or showing off. He simply flashed his landing lights hello and started toward the airstrip a few miles away. Heâd barely gotten turned around when a movement on the ground caught his eye.