Tuesday Wedding Tales–Magnolia Mistletoe by Lindsey P. Brackett

Tags

excerpt from Magnolia Mistletoe, Lindsey P. Brackett, Magnolia Mistletoe, Tuesday Wedding Tales, wedding romances

Welcome to Tuesday Wedding Tales blog series,

where wedding-themed stories are the fare.

 

Today’s guest is Lindsey P. Brackett. Lindsey will be telling us about her newest novella, Magnolia Mistletoe. She also has an excerpt from the book and a surprise for readers.

And, of course, there’s a wedding!

 

 

“Take it from the expert in this industry, Cor.

You’re destined for happily ever after.”

 

In my debut novel, Still Waters, Cora Anne Halloway has a history degree—and a plan for avoiding her own past. But after a little matchmaking from her beloved grandmother, and a little scheming from her wedding planner cousin, she learns to live with both the past and her future in mind.

Ever since Still Waters released in September 2017, readers have written and asked me if Tennessee and Cora Anne will get a wedding. Because I write women’s fiction, not romance primarily, I closed Still Waters at the end of Cora Anne’s emotional journey toward forgiveness.

But you readers are persistent with your wants.

Next summer, my stand-alone sequel, The Bridge Between releases. It’s a love story—of marriage and separation, of divide and reconciliation. I wanted to explore the small things we let wash away the bridges built between us and the ones we love.

Spoiler alert: there’s a wedding.

But before I could cross the bridge of that story, I had to explore another first. Cora Anne’s cousin, wedding industry expert and curator of happily ever after is Hannah Calhoun. She’s a southern wedding planner, a girl who knows her way around in high heels, and a woman who’s more than a little bit concerned with image.

Hannah knows what she wants, but before she can become a full-fledged partner in her mother’s business, she has to first prove she can handle her own shortcomings. Benjamin Townsend is an entrepreneur always looking out for the next big thing—and if hosting weddings on Edisto is it, he’s all in. Even if that does mean a lot of time with Hannah, whose world is full of way more happily ever after than his.

Magnolia Mistletoe is a bridge itself—a novella that spans the time between where Still Waters ends and the sequel begins. The best part is, if you sign up for my newsletter, Magnolia Mistletoe will arrive free in your inbox before Thanksgiving!

I had so much fun writing this little story and interviewing my sister, who plans weddings and events at the swanky Atlanta Athletic Club. She’s full of anecdotes about collapsing cakes, missing groomsmen, and why an outdoor ceremony in July is never a good idea.

But most Saturday nights she fills our group chat with pictures of fairy tales—of dreams come true and a happily ever after well on its way. Like Hannah, she always errs on the side of hope and the belief: love conquers all.

 

Excerpt from Magnolia Mistletoe:

 

She strode toward the gazebo housing the band. Cutting across the lawn, she wouldn’t have to sidestep guests along the path that, conveniently for them, would keep their shoes dry. But just as she reached her destination, the heel of her favorite black pumps sank into the soft mud and seemed determined to stay there.

Disaster. Of course.

“Need a hand?” A familiar voice, laughter underscoring its tone, came out of the garden shadows. Benjamin Townsend, roguishly handsome as ever in a sport coat and tie, emerged from an arbor.

Surely the day’s stress had caused her to hallucinate. She’d memorized the guest list, and he wasn’t on it.

He slipped a hand under her elbow. “How are you, Hannah?”

She smoothed her dress and forced a smile, still subtly wiggling her trapped heel. “I’m wonderful, Ben. How are you?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Are you so wonderful you want me to leave you stuck right here?”

She sighed. “If you’ll just—”

He lifted her by the waist and twirled her back onto the path. Balancing on one foot—and fighting her quivering stomach—Hannah waited for him to retrieve her shoe. When he did, he bent and slipped it onto her foot. “Now you can be wonderful again.”

“Thank you.” She ducked her head to adjust the heel—and hide her flushed cheeks.

“So this is one of your shindigs, huh?” He waved to indicate the festivities. Twinkling lights, magnolia garlands, and poinsettia centerpieces set the Christmas wedding ambiance.

She straightened her spine. “Shindig, no. A Carolina Calhoun wedding is a well-oiled machine.”

“Point taken.”

Between him and the rain and her mother’s tight smiles, Hannah wanted to explode. But she forced a smile, as if glad to see him. Which she didn’t want to be.

 

About the Author:

Lindsey P. Brackett writes southern fiction infused with her rural Georgia upbringing and Lowcountry roots. Her debut novel, Still Waters, inspired by family summers at Edisto Beach, released in 2017. Called “a brilliant debut” with “exquisite writing,” Still Waters received 4-stars from Romantic Times, shortlisted for the INSPY Award, and was named 2018 Selah Book of the Year. Connect with Lindsey and get her free newsletter at lindseypbrackett.com or on Instagram and Facebook: @lindseypbrackett.

 

 

 

Tuesday Wedding Tales–Mercy Me by Pamela Ferguson

Tags

book excerpt from Mercy Me, Catherine Castle's Tuesday Wedding Tales blog series, Inspirational romance, Mercy Me, Pamela Ferguson, Rafflecopter giveaway, Sweet romance, Trying Out for Love boxed set, Tuesday Wedding Tales

Welcome to Tuesday Wedding Tales blog series, where wedding themed stories are the fare.

 

It’s week three in the Trying Out for Love promo and giveaway. Each week readers can enter the Rafflecopter at the end of the post’s book excerpt for a chance to win one of six books in the Trying Out for Love boxed set or the complete boxed set of six books. Seven giveaways and seven winners! Be sure to read to the end of the post for an excerpt of Mercy Me and enter the Rafflecopter for your chance at a free ebook.

Today’s Tuesday Wedding Tales guest is Pamela Ferguson and her book in the Trying Out for Love boxed set is Mercy Me. Pamela is giving away an ecopy of her book, Mercy Me, so be sure to enter the Rafflecopter for your chance to win.

As I’ve mentioned before, this whole series started with a bridal auction for bridesmaid places in the wedding party–a bridezilla who demanded her bridesmaid bid for a spot in her wedding. To make matters worse, she and the groom, who is rich, plan to use the monies from the auction to fund their wedding and honeymoon. Bridezilla even expected her sister to bid on her place in the wedding party. She didn’t and that caused a gigantic stink. Honestly, we’re not making this up. The truth is stranger than fiction sometimes.

If you’ve been following along, you’ve seen two very different story ideas from the bridezilla bridesmaid auction news article. I think Pamela has come up with a great twist on a wedding and an auction combined into one book. I know she’s piqued my curiosity. Read on to discover Pamela’s take on our bridezilla story starter.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

by Pamela Ferguson

A wedding and an auction in one book? Now, there’s a combination that can create unintended consequences—exactly what an author needs to change a basic story into a page-turner! I toyed with the idea of writing about a celebrity who hosts a bridal vendor auction to raise money for a favorite charity. But then I thought, What if the bridal vendor auction becomes the catalyst for a bunch of unintended consequences? Specifically, what if a small town bridal gown designer who wants to participate in the auction suddenly learns the billionaire father of the bride—a man she’s never met—has sent his right-hand man to stop her?

That’s the premise of my novella, Mercy Me, and, believe me, that auction led to a bunch of unintended consequences in the small town of Lilac, where all my books are set. I love writing sweet romances set in small towns because I love exploring how character reveals itself in the day-to-day interactions that take place between people. There’s a saying that goes, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” Yet, I believe the way people handle the “small stuff” reveals much about who they are—what they value, how they treat others, why they want what they want. At the beginning of Mercy Me, Chloe Belmont and Luke Stratford are strangers pursuing different goals. Circumstances force them to work together, and, as the story unfolds, they discover they have more in common than they thought.

I hope you enjoy reading Mercy Me as much as I enjoyed writing it.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Mercy Me

By Pamela Ferguson

Bridal dress designer Chloe Belmont can’t believe her good luck. She’s been invited to participate in a charity bridal vendor auction for the daughter of a Wall Street billionaire. Maybe now the women of Lilac will finally appreciate her dress designs.

New York executive Luke Stratford can’t figure out why his billionaire boss has sent him to keep Chloe Belmont away from his daughter’s bridal vendor auction. What should’ve been a simple business negotiation turns personal when Luke realizes he has feelings for Chloe. As Luke discovers the real reasons for this assignment, will he be able to choose between doing his job and protecting the woman he loves?

Excerpt:

There had to be a mistake.

Luke Stratford squinted at his phone and double-checked the rhinestone-studded numbers on the mailbox. He studied the white farm house with its sprawling wrap-around porch. His gaze wandered to the distant Blue Ridge Mountains, mere foothills compared to the Cascade Range he’d left long ago. Still, the cool autumn air, clean and crisp as only mountain air could be, poked his senses, reminding him there was a world beyond the Manhattan skyscrapers he now called home.

The sausage and green pepper breakfast burrito he’d snagged at JFK for his 6 a.m. flight roiled his stomach. Why would his boss, Martin Dalwich, a man who could buy a town like Lilac twenty times over, send him here to prevent a bridal salon from working at his super-model daughter’s upcoming wedding?

As if anyone with an ounce of sense would need convincing to stay as far away as possible from that matrimonial three-ringed circus. Not that he didn’t like Azure Dalwich and her fiancé. They were great people. But a bridal vendor auction to benefit an endangered blue butterfly? No matter how noble the cause, an event like this was going to attract publicity hounds anxious to donate extravagant amounts of money in exchange for photo ops with the superrich.

I don’t care what you have to do, Martin Dalwich had shouted, red-faced, clutching the list of invited vendors. Keep Belmont Bridal away from this auction.

Luke shook his head. Sure, the boss had been under pressure lately, assuring employees the accusations of insider trading were lies fabricated by his enemies. Company gossip had it Dalwich now spent most days holed up in his office with his inner circle of close advisors. Luke had been surprised when he’d received the call, summoning him to Dalwich’s office. He’d gotten on upper management’s radar five years before when he’d spotted a ten-million-dollar accounting error that everyone else had missed. Dalwich had promoted him out of his account manager job and given him a private corner office with the words Special Projects on the door. Whenever an issue arose that needed additional scrutiny, it made its way through the management chain to Luke’s desk.

This assignment was nothing like the other financial problems he’d tracked down. Instead of discussing the insider trading rumors as he had hoped Dalwich might, his boss had stunned him by launching a rant about his daughter’s bridal vendor auction.

He shut off the engine and sat back against the seat. What had Belmont Bridal, with its frilly curtains, pink-shuttered windows, and mailbox shaped like a fairy princess carriage, done to tick off a hard-nosed billionaire like Martin Dalwich? Even if the auction invitation had been a mistake, why not allow Belmont Bridal to participate and lose? There was no way this small-town shop could compete with rich New York designers.

But asking how high when management said jump had proven to be a winning strategy, gaining Luke a Fifth Avenue condo, a closet of Italian suits, and name recognition with headwaiters at the top restaurants in New York. Sure, the days were long, and having to be on call 24/7 to investigate every obscure request meant zero personal life. But that was a fair trade for enjoying wealth and prestige beyond his wildest dreams, wasn’t it?

The sooner he convinced Belmont Bridal to stay away from the auction, the sooner he could return to New York, to the world where he belonged.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Want to read more? Enter the Rafflecopter for your chance to win the book. No purchase necessary. Or if you can’t wait, Mercy Me is available on Amazon. Winners will be announced February 20 at the end of the Trying Out for Love author guest posts. Remember, all six authors are giving away an ecopy of their book in the series. A boxed set of Trying Out for Love is also in the giveaway. Seven chances and seven winners! Click on the Rafflecopter link below for your chance to win.

 

 

About the Author:

Pamela Ferguson is the author of sweet romances set in small towns. Specializing in gossips, meddlers, matchmakers, and happily-ever-afters, Pamela loves dreaming up complications that wreak havoc in the lives of her characters. Her determined heroes and resourceful heroines are forever doing battle with narrow-minded mischief makers. Who knew there were so many bumps on the road to love? Wings of Love, the first novel in her small town romance series, won the 2017 RWA Golden Heart® Award for Romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements. True Hearts, the second novel in The Lilac Series, is available now on Amazon. Mercy Me, a Lilac novella and the third book in the series, is also available in the Trying Out for Love boxed set.

Social Media: Website    Facebook     Twitter: @pfwrites

 

 

 

Tuesday Wedding Tales—Bidding on the Bouquet by Catherine Castle

Tags

author Catherine Castle, Bidding on the Bouquet, Christian romance, ebook giveaway, Inspirational romance, multi-author ebook giveaway, Sweet romance, Trying Out for Love boxed set, Tuesday Wedding Tales, Wedding Themed Romances

Welcome to Tuesday Wedding Tales blog series, where wedding themed stories are the fare.

It’s week two in the Trying Out for Love promo and giveaway. Each week readers can enter the Rafflecopter at the end of the post’s book excerpt for a chance to win one of six books in the Trying Out for Love boxed set or the complete boxed set of six books. Seven chances and seven winners! Be sure to read to the end of the post for an excerpt of Bidding on the Bouquet and enter the Rafflecopter for your chance at a free ebook.

Today’s featured book in the boxed set is Bidding on the Bouquet, by Catherine Castle.

As I mentioned last week, this whole series began with a bridezilla news article. If you’ve ever watched any reality television and seen some of the bridezilla stories, you think of brides behaving badly—divas who think of no one but themselves, wedding dress disasters, wedding venue disasters and much more. But I’d never heard of this kind of bridezilla—a woman, marrying a rich man, who decided to make her bridesmaids bid for spots in her wedding party. The story struck a creative chord in several of the authors who read the article and who then took up the challenge to write a book using this story starter. And we all had some very interesting twists on the original story.

 

To Bid or Not to Bid—That is the Question

To bid or not to bid was a question a number of the real-life ladies, including the bride’s sister, must have asked themselves when they found out about bridezilla’s bridesmaid auction. By the way, the real bridezilla’s sister chose not to bid.

To bid or not to bid was also the question my heroine, down-on-her-luck grad student Marietta Wilson, briefly asked herself when she received an invitation, out of the blue, to “buy” a bridesmaid’s spot in a wedding for a girl she hardly knew.

Marietta thought that one-hundred dollars to reserve a spot to bid, and then spend who knows how much more money, was a waste of resources that could be put to better use.

But my bridezilla had a very special inducement for her bridesmaids. One of them would not only get a coveted spot in the wedding of the year, but a chance to catch the bridal bouquet containing a solid gold rose nestled among the flowers. Who could resist that? Obviously not my heroine, otherwise there’d be no story.

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

Bidding on the Bouquet

By Catherine Castle

 

Two people from different social classes.

Two different philosophies.

One bridal bouquet to unite them.

 

Excerpt

 

You are invited to participate in the season’s most prestigious event.

Date: June 17

Time: 1:00 p.m.

Place: The Vandermere Estate

Event: The auction of bridesmaids’ positions for Chrissy Vandermere’s wedding

Light refreshments will be served

℘

Chrissy is auctioning off a chance to be an attendant in her wedding.

Winners will be escorted down the aisle by New York’s finest bachelors,

and they will procure a bridesmaid-only spot at the tossing of the bride’s bouquet event.

Chrissy guarantees one of the bridesmaids will catch the bouquet,

containing a solid 14-carat rose-gold flower.

℘

Opening bids begin at $100 and are non-refundable. Cash only.

You may make an opening bid higher than $100 if you choose.

Please RSVP by April 30

 

Marietta dug into the envelope again and retrieved a smaller card and matching envelope.

 

I, ________________________, will be pleased to attend the auction.

My opening bid is $_______

Should I win a spot, I will be available on August 9

to be part of the wedding party

for Chrissy Vandermere

and

Jock Sterlingson

 

Stunned, Marietta reread the invitation. Chrissy Vandermere? The only Vandermere she knew was her wealthy classmate Chip Vandermere, and they weren’t on real talking terms. Nor did they run in the same circles. They only had a few of the same classes and a couple of case studies together in which he had commandeered the group. The guy thought himself a born, or rather a privileged, leader. His attitude had driven her nuts, and, although he was one hot guy who knew he had undeniable sex appeal, she’d stayed away from him as much as she could. She was at the MBA program to learn and conquer, not be someone’s conquest.

Is he related to this Chrissy?

If so, the whole auction idea was totally insane. Chip Vandermere had so much money he could afford to pay bridesmaids to be in a wedding. No need to auction off the spots. Besides, why should anyone spend money to be in her wedding—or any wedding for that matter? And why had the bride invited her to participate? Even though she’d spent the last six years at an elite private college, she didn’t hang around with the sort of people who had money to throw away on frivolous things such as bridesmaid auctions. She’d spent her undergrad and postgrad years nose-to-the-grindstone, studying and pinching her pennies.

Then she remembered. As a college senior, she had contact with a Chrissy, a rich, air-headed girl, who talked of nothing but herself. She’d never mentioned having siblings. The beautiful, but not-very-bright, student, had asked Marietta to help her pass an exam—and not in the study-hard-so-you-can-pass way. She’d refused, convincing Chrissy to join the study group instead. Chrissy got a D plus, but she’d at least done it honestly. Marietta wasn’t certain the rich debutante had appreciated being spared the indignity of cheating. But if the Chrissy she knew was this Chrissy Vandermere, and if she remembered who she was after two years and invited her to bid on her bouquet, maybe she’d learned a lesson.

Then again, maybe not. Maybe taunting her with the idea she might win something of great value—a 14-carat rose-gold flower—was some sort of joke.

The time the two of them spent together, however, hadn’t been rosy. When she wasn’t trying to cram knowledge into Chrissy’s bubble head, Marietta continually dodged the girl’s questions about her background. She had tried to keep all conversation focused on learning. Chrissy, however, kept pressing for information: how did Marietta get into the elite-of-elite private college where everyone knew everyone else, where did she come from, and why didn’t she ever go out with the rest of the group? The simple truth was, unlike her other classmates, Marietta came from such a dirt poor, dysfunctional, crooked family that if anyone knew her real background they would ostracize her even more. Ducking the questions hadn’t satisfied Chrissy, forcing Marietta to leave the group to keep from being outted as a pretender and fake. Someone who didn’t belong in the exclusive circles of the rich.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

Want to read more? Enter the Rafflecopter for your chance to win the book. No purchase necessary. Or if you can’t wait, Bidding on the Bouquet is available on Amazon. Winners will be announced February 20 at the end of the Trying Out for Love author guest posts. Remember, all six authors are giving away an ecopy of their book in the series. A boxed set of Trying Out for Love is also in the giveaway. Seven chances and seven winners! Click on the Rafflecopter link below for your chance to win.

 

Insert rafflecopter link

Enter Rafflecopter Giveaway by clicking box below:

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catherine Castle is a multi-award-winning author who loves writing, reading, traveling, singing, watching movies, and the theatre. In the winter she quilts and has a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) in her sewing case. In the summer her favorite place is in her garden. She’s a passionate gardener who won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club.

 

Her debut inspiration romantic suspense, The Nun and the Narc, from Soul Mate Publishing was an ACFW Genesis Finalist, a 2014 EPIC finalist, and the winner of the 2014 Beverly Hills Book Award and the 2014 RONE Award. A Groom for Mama, is a sweet romantic comedy from Soul Mate Publishing. Her latest release, Bidding on the Bouquet, from Forget Me Not Romances, is an inspirational contemporary romance. Her books are available on Amazon.

Connect with Catherine at her website  Twitter @AuthorCCastle or Facebook

 

Tuesday Wedding Tales–Alice K. Arenz The Wedding Barter

Tags

Alice K. Arenz, ebook giveaway, Inspirational romance, Sweet romance, The Wedding Barter, Trying Out for Love boxed set, Tuesday Wedding Tales, Wedding Themed Romances

Today is the first of the Tuesday Wedding Tales blog series posts where I’ll be highlighting wedding themed stories.

To start it off the new series, I’d like to welcome Alice K. Arenz, one of my fellow authors in the Trying Out for Love boxed set, which came about because of a bridezilla story shared on the ACFW loop where we both are members. Bonnie Engstrom shared the outrageous news article with the loop with an offhanded comment about how 10 authors could come up with 10 different stories. The article piqued several authors’ Muses and resulted in an interesting series loosely based on the idea. The bridezilla story, which I’ll be revealing bits about over the next few weeks, sparked six very different stories, which Forget Me Not Romances, a division of Winged Publications, put together as single books and a boxed set.

Be sure to read to the end of the post for an excerpt of her book The Wedding Barter and a chance to win one of the six books in the set or the complete boxed set. Seven giveaways and seven winners!

 

Now I’ll let Alice tell you about how she ended up in this group. Welcome, Alice!

HOW A MYSTERY/SUSPENSE WRITER CAME TO WRITE A ROMANCE

or

WRITE A ROMANCE? YOU’RE KIDDING, RIGHT?!

 

And yes, that was my reaction when I was asked to join the group writing novellas for the “wedding/bridezillas” (as it was first referred to) boxed set for my publisher, Forget Me Not Romances. Though romance to some degree has always been part of my books in the past, I hadn’t attempted one in…well, let’s just say YEARS when I tried to break into Harlequin America back in the 80s. That didn’t go very well. My books were filled with too much comedy, too much mystery, and not enough sensual content—which was already too much for me! So, I accepted their comments and moved on.

Back to the story of how The Wedding Barter came to be part of the TRYING OUT FOR LOVE boxed set. To be honest, the encouragement I received, along with the idea behind why we were brought together for the project, sealed the deal. I was convinced it was the correct decision when, after a lot of prayer, the title for my “short novel” as well as the names of the lead characters were given to me. From there, it was a question of how to fulfill my commitment. That was a little more difficult because of my health issues. But, I’m a firm believer that God wouldn’t have given me the idea and details if He didn’t have the solution already worked out.

After stewing over the dilemma for about a month, my husband suggested that I dictate to him as he typed on his laptop. Seriously? Which is exactly what I asked him. He was not only serious, he was dedicated to the project—even when absolutely nothing was happening! He tried to understand that “my process” had always involved me sitting at my desk, eyes closed, fingers on the keyboard as I prayed and waited for the “connection.” I can’t even begin to explain how much more difficult it was to find a way to verbally describe what I saw happening in my head! But, like my characters in Barter reminded themselves, all it takes is a mustard seed of faith. That’s what I sought, and what we got as a result is a 49,000 word short novel—a romance based in the same fictional town of Tarryton, Missouri where The Bouncing Grandma Mystery series is set. No murders, but a few twists and turns, and, I hope, some laughs as well.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

THE WEDDING BARTER

by Alice K. Arenz

Riley Carr has been best friends with Amy Lawton since they were toddlers.  While Amy awaits her discharge from the Army, Riley’s been left in charge of helping to arrange “a very small, intimate ceremony with no fanfare” for Amy and her fiancé. But, Riley has something else in mind.

With the aid of two other friends, Riley presents her “wedding barter” idea to groom, David Herron. He agrees, providing best man, Mike Todd, stays in the loop to keep things from getting out of hand.

It doesn’t help that the giant of a man is threatening, overbearing, and just doesn’t seem to like her or her ideas. But, when Todd gives Riley an ultimatum of producing results in three weeks or he’ll take over, she’s determined to prove him wrong. . .in more ways than one.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

EXCERPT:

“You know we haven’t time for games, Riley.” Nat said with a touch of impatience. She glanced at her watch, then gave me a full measure of her soft brown eyes.

“Sorry.” I took a deep breath, then decided a reminder of our past seemed the best way to start. “Remember how much the four of us loved playing Barbie’s? I’d bet they were the best dressed dolls in town.” They looked a bit confused, so I rushed on. “One of our favorite things to do was plan their weddings.”

“Mrs. Lawton made the most incredible wedding dresses. Ours were usually in the bridesmaids’ gowns but were just as exquisite.” Hannah sighed, a tear seeping from her right eye. “Such beautiful memories. Mrs. Lawton would’ve been planning this wedding, sewing Amy’s dress as well as our bridesmaids’ gowns…if she were still here.” She sniffed. “Is it any wonder Amy wants this low-key? Even thinking about it has to be difficult for her. When her parents died, her whole world turned upside down. Quitting college in our sophomore year, having to sell the home she’d grown up in—it’s no wonder she joined the Army after losing everything she’d ever known.”

“I imagine that’s among the many reasons Amy asked us to…” Nat’s voice trailed off. She jerked once, then gave me a hard stare. “You’re not suggesting we do some kind of wedding auction?” Nat was incredulous at the idea.

“No, of course not. I did think about doing a raffle—”

“You know raffles are illegal in Missouri—unless you’re a church or some other kind of non-profit sort of thing.” Hannah said around a bite of calzone. It was uncanny how she seemed to know facts the rest of us were clueless about.

“Okaaay, but I’m pretty sure that doing something on a barter system wouldn’t be illegal.”

“Quid pro quo.” Nat.

“Tit for tat.” Hannah.

I nodded. “I know Amy would never want us to exploit her or David’s service record.”

“Which is really a shame. I’d bet most of the businesses in Tarryton would be more than happy to contribute items for their wedding. She is, after all, a hometown hero. And, David’s record—”

“I know, Nat, but she’d never forgive us. We’ve got to do this on the down-low. Surely we can come up with ways to barter our services for the things we’d need to give Amy the wedding of her dreams—without her knowing what we’re up to.”

I could literally see the wheels turning in Nat’s and Hannah’s brains. Awesome how one slight twist on an idea could add more enthusiasm than I’d ever expected or hoped for.

“Hey, we could ask my in-laws if we could use the barn where Chuck and I got married.” Hannah clapped her hands together like a kid at Christmas. “We’d have to clean it up, of course. And, well, there might be some damage from the tornado we had this spring. But, I know they’d let us use it for free.”

“That sounds terrific. I don’t think Pastor Grant will have a problem going to the farm instead of using the chapel, but I’ll check with him to see what he thinks.” It had only been a couple minutes yet things were already set in motion.

“Look, guys,” Nat said, standing, “I’ve gotta run, but I’ll mention this to Aunt Kelly and see what she says about supplying some plants for decoration. And, maybe if I play my cards right, I can get her involved, to…um, it’s best not to get ahead of myself. But, there’s something you should do first, Riley, and you’re not gonna like it.” Nat slung the strap of her purse over her shoulder. “Since your main contact for all of this is the groom, you need to speak with David before we go any further.”

As we paid our checks and said goodbye, all I could think about was facing a man I hardly knew and trying to convince him that our best friend’s wedding actually needed a little fanfare.

Want to read more? The Wedding Barter is available on Amazon, or you can enter the Rafflecopter for your chance to win the book. Winners will be announced February 20 at the end of the Trying Out for Love author guest posts. No purchase is necessary to enter this giveaway.

Enter Rafflecopter Giveaway by clicking box below:

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Though Alice K. Arenz is known for her cozy mysteries and romantic mystery/suspense novels, the Carol Award winning author has branched out with her newest release, The Wedding Barter, a romance that is both serious and funny.

Arenz is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers. Her first three novels were honored by two finals and one win in ACFW’s Carol Awards: cozy mysteries The Case of the Bouncing Grandma (a 2009 finalist), The Case of the Mystified M.D., (2010 winner), and mystery/suspense Mirrored Image (a 2011 finalist). These novels have been followed by An American Gothic, Portrait of Jenny, and short story, Home Cookin’.

Visit her at her website http://www.akawriter.com/