Title:
Bigger Than the Sky (Serenity Point #1)
Author: Harper Bentley
Release Date: Sept 30, 2014
Find on
Five years ago, I
left my fiancé, hotter than hot Navy SEAL Kade Kelly, at the
altar.
No, I’m
not an idiot.
Yes, I had my
reasons.
Now I’ve
made a new life for myself working at a large firm in Richmond and
I’ve left the past behind. Or so I
thought.
Upon returning to
my hometown of Serenity Point, Virginia, to take care of some business, I find
that Kade’s now home for good and he’s none too happy about
my being here.
Two months. That’s
all I’m staying then I’m out of here. Unless I believe the
town’s pink-haired psychic’s prediction. Or embrace the
sense of belonging I feel at being back home. Or give in to the emotions
stirring inside when Kade's attention is suddenly on
me.
He scares the crap
out of me.
He thrills
me.
He used to tell me
our love was bigger than the
sky.
I always knew ours
was a once-in-a-lifetime love. So how can he be so sure it can happen
again?
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I’m
hearing that submarine warning horn in my ears. You know the one. It goes
A-ooooo-ga! And that shit’s going off in my head
over and over. I think it means the sub’s diving, as in,
it’s going down. And that’s my warning right now because
likely, I’m going
down.
I clutch the sides
of my dress and think, I can’t do
this!
But
that’s not how today’s supposed to go, is
it?
What I’m
supposed to do is go inside that church, take my bouquet
(which is fabulous, by the way) from Cassie, my maid of honor, and walk down
the aisle to my handsome fiancé who’s waiting for me in
front of the altar.
But
now I stand at the bottom of the church steps and suddenly can’t
catch my breath. Papaw takes my hand and I smile at him weakly as he helps me
up the first step and the horn suddenly stops.
Well.
That’s weird. Maybe I can do this.
Second
step. Hm. Better. Feeling Papaw’s hand in mine is
comforting. All right. I think I’ve got this now. Piece of
cake.
Third
step. Oh, no. I start sweating. I can’t be sweating right
now, damn it! It’s so unladylike! And I’ll get those
crusty, yellowy stains on my dress from my armpits!
Gross!
Fourth
step. Shit! I can’t breathe. The panic has a grip on me
and no matter what I do to try to calm myself and get it to let me
go—closing my eyes, focusing on my breathing, picturing myself
getting a full-body massage from some cute guy named Sven—it seems to
dig its claws in tighter. Mayday!
On Deck.
A-ooooo-ga! A-ooooo-ga! Ack! I’m going down! I gulp for
air trying to fill my lungs but nothing helps. I look at Papaw but I guess my
lack of air is making me hallucinate because it’s not him holding my
hand and smiling at me but Viper from the movie Top Gun.
What the hell?
Soooo I’m
hoping you’ve noticed the Navy theme here? That’s because a
Navy SEAL is waiting inside to marry me but all this stuff going on right now
is messing with my head.
Let me give you the
low down on the situation. Or is it the down low? Ugh. I’m so not
hip. Wait. Do people still say hip anymore? God. See what
living with grandparents does to a girl? I’m twenty-five and I talk
like I’m twice my age. Jeez. But back to what I was trying to tell
you.
My guy and I have
been together since I was a sophomore and he was a senior in high school. But he’s
now been enlisted in the Navy for nine years, most of it spent training to be
then going on missions as a SEAL, and in all that time I’ve seen him
maybe a total, a total, of a little over a year.
In nine years! I’m not kidding. Since
I’m a CPA I’ll figure that out for you. Out of nine years,
he’s been gone almost ninety percent of the time. Can you see the
face I’m making at that right now?
Anyway,
now’s such a fantastic time to be figuring that out,
huh?
I’m
not a needy or clingy person. I mean, obviously, right? If I were, I would
never have even considered marrying him, but now the alarms are going off in my
head because suddenly I don’t know if I can do this. How can you make
a life with someone when you only get to see them for just over one month out
of the year? Like I said, I don’t have to have a man around all the
time, but those statistics are just crazy.
I know
you’re wondering why I even let it get this far without doing the
math and here’s the answer: I don’t
know! Thought you were gonna get a better answer, didn’t
you? Well, if I don’t know it, I damned sure
can’t tell it to
you!
But
maybe the answer is that I love him. I really do. Honestly. So now
I’m thinking that maybe the idea of being
married was what pushed me forward. Or maybe I just got caught up in planning
it all—picking out the dress, the bouquet, all that fun
stuff—and it kept me distracted for a while. But now that
I’m here and about to walk through these doors and down the aisle to
become his wife, with the numbers stacked so hugely against me, I don’t
think I can.
I look up at Papaw
and shake my head. He frowns in confusion but when he sees the tears in my
eyes, he knows. He nods and lets my hand go. “Go to him, honey. Tell
him.”
But I
can’t. I can’t face him after all
this.
And the only thing
I know to do is run.
So that’s
what I do.
Harper Bentley has
taught high school English for 22 years. Although she’s managed to
maintain her sanity regardless of her career choice, jumping into the world of
publishing her own books goes to show that she might be closer to the ledge
than was previously thought.
After traveling the
nation in her younger years as a military brat, having lived in Alaska,
Washington State and California, she now resides in Oklahoma with her teenage
daughter, two dogs and one cat, happily writing stories that she hopes her
readers will enjoy.
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