Sneak Peek Sunday – a REALLY early sneak peek!

Sneak Peek Sunday – a REALLY early sneak peek!

Welcome to my stop on the Sneak Peek Sunday blog hop.  A whole bunch of great authors share a few paragraphs from a recent or upcoming work.

Well, I’ve got something special this morning – a peek at book #10 of the Dream Series, DREAM WEDDING, which I only began working on this past week.  The book jumps ahead several years from the end of FEVER DREAM (due out May 22!), and in this excerpt, Sara is home waiting for a delivery when she gets a surprise visitor: her daughter’s boyfriend…

Seth Taylor is a senior at Crewe University, and he lives in the same dorm she does, two floors above her.  He’s also been her on-and-off  boyfriend for most of her three and a half years at college, and to hear Lizzie tell it it’s been a lot more on than off since their senior year began in September.  If he weren’t smiling – although the smile is becoming more nervous with each passing second – I’d wonder if he was here to deliver bad news about my daughter.

“No, Dr. Alderson.  She doesn’t know I’m here.  It’s – it’s a surprise.”  Yes, it is.  Especially because Lizzie isn’t flying home until Wednesday, two days from now.

I let that pass.  I also let it pass that it’s a little bit presumptuous to show up unannounced on our doorstep and expect me to find a spare bed for him for two nights.  Not that I have any problem with him visiting, or sleeping in Ben’s room for a couple of nights.  He’s done it enough times the last four years he’s known Lizzie, after all.   Still, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect some advance notice.

I put all that aside.  “It’s Sara.  Please.  How many times do I have to tell you that?”  I gesture for him to sit, and he does, but he can’t quite meet my eyes.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call ahead, Doctor.”  I’ve never known him to be this nervous.  Granted, I don’t know him that well, but he’s always struck me as a very confident young man.  “I didn’t want – I mean, it’s not the kind of thing you do over the phone.  And I didn’t want her sister to find out and tell her.  I want it to be a surprise.”

I have no idea what he’s…

Yes, I do.  What was I just saying to myself?  More on than off?  I think he’s about to tell me that it’s about as “on” as you can get.

“Oh!  You’re – Jacob, you knew perfectly well that Lizzie won’t be here until Wednesday, don’t you?  He nods.  “You expected to catch me alone.  You probably went to the hospital first, didn’t you?”  Another nod.  “You came here to ask me…”  I can’t say the words out loud, but he nods just the same.

How is this possible?  She’s not even twenty-one yet!  She doesn’t graduate for another six months, and then she’ll be going on to medical school.  How can he possibly think that I would approve…

 

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