SOS Marry Me! by Melissa McClone

Author:Melissa McClone
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

On board a plane bound for Idaho, Belle stared out of the window. The sight of the landscape below, the acres of green fields giving way to tree-covered mountainsides, reminded her of Serena and Kane lost somewhere in the wilderness. Belle closed her eyes for a moment. She needed time to regroup, put her game face on as Callie, resident poker player expert, called it.

Callie, Regina, Natalie, Audra and Julie.

Belle hated leaving them alone, but they had each other. Serena needed someone to be there for her. Still, a few hours ago the tears had fallen like raindrops during a Georgia thunderstorm. The hugs and goodbyes had mingled with their hopes and fears. Belle knew she’d left the shop in strong, capable hands. The five women would keep The Wedding Belles running smoothly until she returned with Serena.

If she returned with Serena…

Belle blew out a puff of air.

“Hang in there.” Charlie sat in the aisle seat next to her. “We can’t give up hope.”

“I’m trying.” The compassion in his voice tugged on Belle’s heartstrings. “But not knowing anything is hard. Part of me is afraid of what we might find when we get there.”

“Sometimes not knowing is better,” Charlie admitted. “I remember…”

“What?” She leaned toward him. “Tell me, please.”

“Three years ago I got a phone call from Kane telling me his mother, my wife, had suffered a heart attack. He asked me to meet him at the hospital. What he didn’t tell me was that the massive coronary had killed her.”

“Oh, Charlie.” Memories of losing Matthew, tucked deep in her heart, floated to the surface. She remembered the emotions as if they were brand-new and raw, not nine years old. Disbelief, shock and loneliness had rooted themselves in her heart only to be pruned, somewhat, with the passage of time. Belle covered Charlie’s hand with her own. “That must have been horrible.”

“Not at first. I didn’t know,” he said. “As I drove to the hospital I worried she might need surgery. That scared me, but the idea of her dying? My mind wouldn’t let me go there or I would have fallen apart.”

Belle gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “When my husband, Matthew, got sick I knew it was serious. He was older than me, but I believed with all my heart he would recover. I don’t know how I could have given him the support, the care he’d needed if I’d thought he was leaving me.”

“I had worked everything out in my head by the time I arrived at the hospital. How she would recover, what needed to be done and then Kane told me and…”

“Your world fell apart.”

Charlie nodded.

“Mine, too,” she said. “At first you have so much to take care of, all the paperwork, the people around you. I felt as if I was living in a fog.”

“But the work ends, the people go away and the cloud of shock lifts. And you’re left…”

“With nothing.” Belle felt a connection, a new bond growing between her and Charlie.

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