Read Online One Last Weekend by Linda Lael Miller - Free Book Online Page B

mention varnishing—not unlike her novel, she thought—but the intent was there.
    â€œOh, Teague,” Joanna said, marveling. “It’s beautiful.”
    Teague caught her face in his hands—the palms felt work roughened and strong against her skin. “ You’re beautiful,” he said.
    She drew in the Teague scents of sawdust, sun-dried cotton sheets, toothpaste, and soap. “I love you so much,” she told him.
    He kissed her, long and deep. When he lifted his mouth from hers, he opened his eyes and said, “And I love you, Joanna. I have, always. Even when I didn’t know how to show it.”
    She swallowed hard and nodded. It felt dangerous to be so happy, but delicious, too. “I don’t suppose you’d like to take a look at my novel, after lunch and Sammy’s walk?”
    â€œI’ve been waiting for you to ask,” he said.
    An hour later, with lunch over and Sammy sleeping off a happy trot down the beach, Teague settled into one of the armchairs in the living room, the sixty-odd pages Joanna had written in his hand.
    His expression was solemn with concentration as he read.
    Joanna tried not to watch his face, but she couldn’t help it. Every nuance either plunged her into despair or sent her rocketing skyward.
    When he’d finished, he set the pages aside and stared thoughtfully through Joanna for a long time.
    â€œWell?” she finally demanded. “What do you think, Teague?”
    â€œI think you’re amazing,” he said.
    â€œThe book, Teague!”
    He stood, crossed to her, and took her shoulders in his gentle boat builder’s hands. “It’s so good it makes me scared,” he told her.
    â€œScared?”
    â€œScared it won’t be enough for you, living here on the island, in this cottage, with Sammy and the baby and me. Scared you won’t want this simple life anymore.”
    She touched his cheek. “Never gonna happen. I’m thriving here, Teague.” She laid her hands against her still-flat belly, and tears of joyous wonder sprang instantly to her eyes. “Are you? Are you happy here? Do you miss the mansion and the business and all those meetings?”
    He placed his hands over hers. “I’m happy, Joanna.” A grin lit his face; he looked inspired. “And I can prove it.”
    â€œHow?”
    Teague went to the coffee table, picked up that week’s issue of the Island Tattletale, Madge’s modest but interesting sheet, opened it, folded it, and brought it to Joanna.
    â€œThe classified ads?” she asked, confused.
    Teague tapped one of the little squares.
    Joanna beamed as she read the bold print.
    It said: For sale cheap, one sports car.

Read on for an excerpt from Linda Lael Miller’s novella The 24 Days of Christmas , coming from Lyrical Shine this November!
    Chapter One
    The snow, as much a Thanksgiving leftover as the cold turkey in the sandwich Frank Raynor had packed for lunch, lay in tattered, dirty patches on the frozen ground. Surveying the leaden sky through the window of the apartment over his garage, Frank sighed and wondered if he’d done the right thing, renting the place to Addie Hutton. She’d grown up in the big house, on the other side of the lawn. How would she feel about taking up residence in what, in her mind, probably amounted to the servants’ quarters?
    â€œDaddy?”
    He turned to see his seven-year-old daughter, Lissie, framed in the doorway. She was wearing a golden halo of her own design, constructed from a coat hanger and an old tinsel garland filched from the boxes of Christmas decorations downstairs.
    â€œDoes this make me look like an angel?”
    Frank felt a squeeze in his chest as he made a show of assessing the rest of the outfit—jeans, snow boots, and a pink T-shirt that said “Brat Princess” on the front. “Yeah, Lisser,” he said. “You’ve got it going