This holiday novella will be out on Wednesday, but it’s also available for pre-order — links are at the bottom of the excerpt. I wanted to write something fun and lighthearted, but which also serves as a bridge between Miranda and Rafe’s story, which was covered in the first three books of the series, and Rafe’s sister Cat’s book, which will be coming out in early January.
At the end of the evening, Eduardo and Cat both said goodbye and headed out together, and I shut the door and looked over at Rafe.
“He took it well,” I said.
“I was pretty sure he would.” A slight shrug, and he came over and pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me. “My dad knows how to roll with the punches as they come. And it could be worse — at least Cat hasn’t fallen in love with someone down in Las Cruces or something and is moving four hours away.”
“True.”
We went into the dining room and began to clear away the plates. Once that task was done, I got the pan with the leftover lasagna — not that there was much left; we’d all done a pretty good job of demolishing it — and put some foil over the top before I set the pan in the refrigerator. In the meantime, Rafe got to work rinsing off the knives and forks and dishes so he could place them in the dishwasher.
“I like this,” I said, and he lifted an eyebrow at me.
“Doing dishes?”
“No,” I replied. “Just…this. Being domestic together. Having a quiet evening with family. It’s almost like — ”
“Almost like none of that stuff with Simon happened?” Rafe finished for me.
“Something like that. I mean, obviously it did, or I wouldn’t be prima of the Castillo clan now, but it’s just good to have the feeling that things are settling down.”
“I hope so,” he said as he shut the dishwasher door. “I think I’ve had enough excitement to last me a lifetime.”
Now it was my turn to lift an eyebrow at him. “You sure about that? Because I was thinking that I had a few ideas about how we might end this evening.”
He went and wiped his damp hands on the towel that hung from the magnet on the side of the refrigerator, then came over to me and took me in his arms. After a hearty kiss that tasted of chianti and garlic bread, he murmured in my ear, “Oh, I’ll never get tired of that kind of excitement.”
Then he scooped me up in his arms. I gave an excited laugh, and clung to him as he took me up the stairs. As he laid me down on the bed and gave me another very thorough kiss, I thought I could get used to married life. It was worth everything we’d been through to end up where we were now.
I only hoped things would always stay this way….
You can get A Canyon Road Christmas at these stores:
AMAZON • BARNES AND NOBLE • APPLE BOOKS • KOBO • GOOGLE PLAY
