She smiled. “I am. Come here.”
I brought Claudia over to Ellie and sat on the side of the bed. “I’m totally obsessed with her, Ell. Is this normal?”
Ellie laughed. “I am too. And yes, I think it is.”
“The dad books don’t tell you about this, you know?”
“About what?”
“Just . . . this.” My eyes got watery, and I cleared my throat. “How much love it’s possible to feel. How protective you’ll feel. How you can’t imagine there was ever a time in your life you didn’t want this.”
“Gianni Lupo, are you crying?”
“No,” I said, although I was totally crying.
She laughed again and tipped her head onto my shoulder, brushing her thumb over Claudia’s cheek. “It’s okay. I feel it too. And she is the most beautiful baby in the world.”
We sat there together for a few minutes in silence, looking down at our sleeping child. “It’s kind of incredible, isn’t it?” she asked quietly.
“What is?”
“This whole thing. A year ago, I would never have believed this was possible.”
I shook my head. “Me neither.”
“It was just a blizzard bang,” she said, laughing gently. “And now look at us. We’re a family.”
“We’re a family,” I said. I kissed the baby’s head and then Ellie’s. “Forever.”
THE END
DIDN’T GET ENOUGH?
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Then get ready for more in the next generation Cloverleigh Farms Series… Felicity and Hutton’s book, TEASE, is up next! Keep reading to find out more!
TEASE
I didn’t mean to say I was engaged to a hot billionaire–it just slipped out.
In my defense, I’d had a really bad haircut, a really strong drink, and I was trying to save face in front of the Mean Girl at my high school reunion.
Lucky for me, I happen to know a hot billionaire. Hutton French and I have been friends forever, and even though big social gatherings are not his thing, I called him from the coat closet and begged him for a favor–show up and play my fake fiancé for the night.
Except that word of our engagement spreads like wildfire. Our families are ecstatic. We’re front page news. My little food blog is launched into the stratosphere.
Of course, I offer to set the record straight right away, but Hutton wants to give it a little time–the phony engagement is keeping his matrimony-mad mother and every matchmaking granny in town off his back.
He even suggests I move in with him to make the ruse more real.
And we don’t stop there.
We practice kissing. Undressing each other. Saying things–and doing things–we’d never dare if we weren’t pretending. Because it’s all for show, right? We’re just role-playing. Hutton doesn’t want a real relationship, and I don’t want to get hurt. But the more time we spend faking it, the more I start to wonder.
Could Hutton French and I actually be right for each other, or is it all just one big tease?
TEASE will release June 6th, 2022! Preorder now!
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As always, my appreciation and gratitude go to the following people for their talent, support, wisdom, friendship, and encouragement…
Melissa Gaston, Brandi Zelenka, Jenn Watson, Hang Le, Kayti McGee, Laurelin Paige, Corinne Michaels, the entire Social Butterfly team, Anthony Colletti, Rebecca Friedman, Flavia Viotti & Meire Dias at Bookcase Literary, Nancy Smay at Evident Ink, Julia Griffis at The Romance Bibliophile, Stacey Blake at Champagne Book Design, Erin Spencer at One Night Stand Studios, narrators Ava Erickson and James Cavenaugh, the Shop Talkers, the Sisterhood, the Harlots and the Harlot ARC Team, bloggers and event organizers, my readers all over the world…