It's Only Love(98)
The older kids were back home now, after a fun trip to the Caribbean to marry off their friend Dylan. He and Molly would’ve liked to have been there, too, but had declined Dylan’s invitation because of the baby’s pending arrival. They’d been where they needed to be to help Max through the first few uncertain days that came with new parenthood.
He was doing a fine job so far. If only the same could be said for Chloe, who had no interest—or so it seemed to them—in their son or their grandson. Max had some difficult days ahead of him. His youngest child had grown up awfully fast this last year, and Linc worried about what was ahead for Max and baby Caden.
“Hey, you’re back!”
Lincoln spun around to see his father-in-law crossing the lawn to him. “About a half hour ago.”
“How’re things in Burlington?” Elmer asked.
“Tense.”
“Ah, damn. How’s our Max holding up?”
“Admirably, all things considered.”
“What’s up with that girl? She’s got the best guy in the world and an adorable son.”
“Max thinks she’s depressed. He’s taking her to the doctor on Monday. In the meantime, he’s taking care of the baby pretty much on his own and doing a fine job of it.”
“You must’ve had to drag Molly out of there.”
“She didn’t want to leave him yet, but I needed to get back to work, and they’ve got to figure out what’s next. They can’t do that with us underfoot.”
“I guess not.” Elmer shaded his eyes for a closer look at the recently thinned thicket. “Gonna be nice to have a forestry specialist in the family. He does good work.”
“I was just thinking the same thing. Our friend Gavin has stepped up to the plate and hit one right out of the park.”
“I gotta be honest. I didn’t see that coming.”
“Neither did we, but we’re thrilled about it because we know it’s what she wants. He’s what she wants. We could hear the joy in her voice when they called us last night.”
“I could hear it, too. It was so good of them to call me. I must confess, however, I’m a little disappointed that our services weren’t needed in this instance.”
“Right? We’re going to have to call this one a draw.”
“Agreed,” Elmer said with a sigh. “We were no match for Ella after she set her sights on Gavin. Charley, on the other hand, is going to need all the help she can get.”
“How so?”
“Did you see her dancing at the Grange with Tyler Westcott?”
“Yeah, so?”
“That boy has his eye on her.”
“Really? He’s such a nice young man. What does he see in Charley?”
Elmer threw his head back and laughed. “It’s not very nice to say that about your own daughter.”
“Even if it’s true? She’d tell you herself she’s a piece of work. We tease her all the time about pitying the fool who takes her on. She eats it up.”
“If you ask me, Tyler’s the fool who’s going to take her on, and knowing what we do about the challenge he faces where she’s concerned, I think it’s the least we can do to help him along a little.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Let’s take a walk, and I’ll lay out my plan.”
Lincoln whistled to the dogs and followed Elmer into the woods.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you for reading It’s Only Love! I hope you enjoyed Gavin and Ella’s story. To chat about the book with other readers, please join the It’s Only Love Reader Group at facebook.com/groups/ItsOnlyLove5/. Spoilers are allowed and encouraged in the group. To keep up with the latest news about the Green Mountain Series (and Fred the Moose), join the Green Mountain Reader Group at facebook.com/groups
/GreenMountainSeries/. Make sure you join my newsletter mailing list at marieforce.com for regular updates about books, appearances and other news, and subscribe to my blog at blog.marieforce.com to keep in touch between newsletters.
Special thanks to Team HTJB for all you do to keep things running smoothly while I’m writing: Julie Cupp, CMP; Lisa Cafferty, CPA; Holly Sullivan; Isabel Sullivan; Nikki Colquhoun and Cheryl Serra. To my Berkley editor, Kate Seaver, as well as everyone at Berkley and Penguin Random House, and my agent, Kevan Lyon, thanks for your support of the Green Mountain Series.
As always, thank you to my husband, Dan, and our kids, Emily and Jake, who support my career every day. Love you guys!
My appreciation goes to Jon Wright at Taylor Farm in Londonderry, Vermont, for a great conversation about the logging industry in Vermont. Obviously, the business and the politics of forestry and logging are far more complex than presented here, but hopefully I was able to give you a glimpse of what Gavin’s professional life might be like. Holly and I also LOVED the sleigh ride!
Special thanks to my sister-in-law Kris Swank, fragrance counter expert, for consulting on the perfect scent for Gavin, and for making sure my son always smells so good.
And thank you most of all to the readers, who make this the best “job” anyone could ever hope to have. You all are the best, and I appreciate every one of you more than you’ll ever know.
xoxo
Marie