Take a Deep Breath (Lake of the Pines) (17 page)

Cam glanced over at Liv. She nodded her head okay.

“Yippee! Can we go shopping for a dress for the wedding
afterwards? I do get to be the flower girl don’t I? I want to wear a blue
gown.”

“Of course you’re going to be the flower girl,” Liv and Cam
answered in unison.

“But,” Cam continued. “Your mom and I haven’t talked about a
wedding date yet. So it might be a little soon to buy your dress now.”

“That’s true Sweetie. If we bought your dress now and you
grew a lot before the wedding, the dress might not still fit.”

“Ohhh…” Sara moaned disappointed. “Wait, I have an idea! Why
don’t you get married next weekend! Then, I wouldn’t have a chance to grow!”

Cam chuckled at the girl’s ingenuity. “As much as I would
love to marry your mother next weekend, that’s a little fast to plan a
wedding.”

“Plus, I was kind of hoping we could have a small, simple
wedding at Lake of the Pines next summer,” Liv put in.

Cam smiled. “That’s perfect Livvy.”

“I’d love to have the ceremony at the lookout at the top of
the Big Loop trail, but it’d be kind of hard to get all the guests up there,”
Liv reasoned.

“What about in Grandma’s backyard?” Sara asked.

“That’s sounds nice,” Cam agreed.

“Yeah, it’s just that I’m not sure if Gram would be up to
all that work. I know she’d be out there planting flowers and doing things she
shouldn’t…”

“Whatever you girls want, you just tell me what you need me
to do, where to be and when!”

Liv laughed. “Well we don’t have to decide today. I’m sure
once both our families find out we’re engaged, we’ll get more advice on the
wedding than we can handle or want!”

“True enough…” Cam knew his mother would have more than one
idea on the whole affair. He’d heard wedding planning horror stories from
colleagues and college buddies and hoped they could avert that scene.

“So what about my dress?” Sara circled back to her original
question.

“Well, in the nine months or so between now and the wedding
you could grow, but it probably couldn’t hurt to look…”

“Really? Awesome!”

Cam looked at Liv and cocked an eyebrow at her. “Shopping?
Well, we better get some food first. I know I can’t handle a shopping
expedition with my two best girls on an empty stomach!”

Sara went to find her shoes and put Brit out in the back
yard.

Cam slipped his hands around Liv’s waist and pulled her
close to him. Her breath quickened as he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed
her.

“What was that for?”

“For agreeing to be my wife, for giving me a wonderful
daughter, and for making me the happiest man in the world. I can’t wait to
spend my life with you and grow our family together.”

“You want to have a baby?”

“Or two. Don’t you?”

“More than anything.”

“When can we get started on that?”

“I’d say right now, but Sara’s in the other room. And we
should probably wait until after the wedding …”

Cam thought a moment before replying. “Are you sure you want
to wait until summer to get married?”

Liv laughed. “Yes. I’m sure. In the meantime, though, we can
practice...”

“I like your thinking – I imagine we’ll need a lot of
practice to get it right.”

“Are you going to have a baby?” Sara bounded into the room,
ready to go.

“Were you eavesdropping on us?” Liv accused.

“No, I just heard someone say the word, ‘baby.’”

Liv should have known better than to talk about anything important
with Sara in hearing distance. The child could hear through a brick wall.
“Don’t worry, we’re not having a baby right now, Sweetie.” She didn’t want to
throw too much change at her daughter in one day. Liv knew that getting married
to Cam would be a big adjustment by itself.

“Ahhhh. Too bad. I was really hoping I’d get a new baby
sister or brother. I would make the best big sister ever, you know! I could
babysit and teach her how to do stuff like ride a bike or swim!”

Cam and Liv looked at each other and smiled as Sara
continued to make a case for them to have a baby.

“Okay, you sold us!” Cam said. “Your mom and I know you’d
make a great big sister. And we do want to have a baby someday, but first we
want to spend time together as a family – just the three of us –  before we
do.”

Liv couldn’t stop smiling. Cam always knew the right thing
to say. He held the door open and Sara skipped ahead of them down the sidewalk
toward the car. Liv stepped out into the warm sunshine, took a deep breath and
slowly exhaled. Cam locked the front door and draped his arm over Liv’s
shoulders. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

“I love you, Livvy.”

“I love you too, Cam.”

“Are you guys coming or what?” Sara called from the car.

“Coming!” Cam and Liv answered together. They laughed as
they climbed into the car and drove off to start the first of many adventures
together.

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed Liv and Cam’s story in
Take a Deep
Breath
. If so, I would appreciate it if you would help others enjoy this
book too.

Review it.
Tell other readers why you liked
this book by reviewing it on Amazon, Apple iBook store, Barnes & Noble,
Kobo, Smashwords, Good Reads, Library Thing or whichever website from which you
purchased it.

Recommend it.
Help other readers find this
book by recommending it to your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, readers'
groups and discussions boards.

Lend it.
This eBook is lending enabled, so
please, share it with a friend!

The next book in the series,
Take Your Time
, is Maddy
and Mason’s story and is due out in February 2013. In the meantime, I hope you
enjoy the following excerpt from it.

P.S. I love to hear from my readers. Connect with me online!

Email:
[email protected]

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www.twitter.com/@shardimick

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My Blog:
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Shar Dimick

© Copyright 2013.

All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 1

Maddy blew at the hair hanging in her eyes as she rode her
Schwinn cruiser toward the boardwalk and Jenkins Old Fashioned Ice Cream Shoppe.
She’d pulled her dark-brown hair into a small pony at the base of her neck, but
her bangs weren’t quite long enough to catch and kept falling out – no matter
how many bobby pins she used. The awkward, growing-out stage was taking much
longer than she’d hoped. Maddy’s lean, tan legs pedaled hard against the wind.
Her breathing was labored and a trickle of sweat ran down one side of her face
.
What was I thinking?
She asked herself more than once on the four
mile trek from her sister’s summer cottage to the boardwalk.

“Come on Aunt Maddy! You can make it! We’re almost there,”
her young nephew called from up ahead of her.

Where does he get his energy?
She wondered as the
ten-year old disappeared momentarily in a small dip in the road. Seconds later
she spotted his red helmet bouncing along as he sped toward their destination.

“Slow down James!” Maddy called.
“Your sister and I can’t keep up with you.”

Maddy glanced behind her to make
sure her little niece was keeping pace. Lena smiled a toothy grin and rang the
“Tinker Bell” bell affixed to the handlebar of her shiny green bike. At six
this was the first time she’d gotten to go on a real bike ride.

“How’re you doing back there,
kiddo?” Maddy asked.

“Great, Aunt Maddy!” Lena
responded.

“OK! Make sure you let me know if
we need to slow down or rest.” Maddy silently willed the young girl to request
a rest.

“I don’t need to rest Aunt Maddy.
Can we do this again tomorrow?”

“We’ll see,” Maddy yelled back,
adding to herself
,
if I can still walk in the morning.
Up a head James had pulled off to the side of the road and
stood under the shade of a big oak tree, waiting for them to catch up. Maddy
coasted to a stop. She reached into the side pocket of her backpack and pulled
out a bottle of water. She took a long swig of the cool water and then passed
it off to James.

“I want some too!” Lena cried.

“Wait your turn,” James snapped.

“Aunt Maddy, James is going to
drink it all gone,” Lena complained.

“I am not,” James shot back.

“OK, OK, you two. That’s enough of
that. James share with your sister. We’re almost to the ice cream place
anyway,” Maddy mediated. James took one last swallow of the water and handed
the bottle off to Lena with less than an inch left.

“I told you! It’s not fair!” Lena
pouted.

“Come on! Let’s get going. I’ll
buy you another drink when we get there,” Maddy appeased her niece and stuffed
the empty bottle into her back pack. James was already on the move again. Maddy
eased in behind him and Lena followed her.

Ten minutes later they rode up the
boardwalk and parked their bicycles in the bike rack in front of the ice cream
parlor. After peeling off her helmet and hanging it on her handlebars, Maddy
did her best to fix her hair, but knew it was a lost cause. It was
mid-afternoon on a Tuesday in early June. The tourist season not yet in full
swing, the beach was mostly deserted. Maddy scanned the area and didn’t see
anyone she recognized. An older couple walked along the edge of the water in
bare feet, their pants rolled up to their knees. Occasionally the woman brushed
a stray strand of her silver hair away from her face and tucked it behind her
ear with her free hand. Her other hand was entwined in the man’s. He smiled
down on the woman and drew their joined hands to his lips. Maddy reached behind
her into her backpack, groping for her camera. She flicked it on and focused on
the couple below. She rapidly pressed the shutter capturing their images as the
continued their walk along the beach.

“Aunt Maddy!” James called,
breaking her trance. Maddy turned toward her nephew and frowned. The couple
walked past and Maddy lowered her camera. She knew she was there to treat her
nephew and niece to ice cream, not take photographs. She couldn’t help herself
though. She lived to capture those simple moments in life. She always had her
camera with her as she never knew when that fleeting moment would pass.

“Sorry James,” Maddy answered as
she let her camera hang around her neck. “Sometimes I just get lost in a
moment.”

James shrugged and rolled his eyes
at her “You do that a lot Aunt Maddy!”

Maddy nodded. She liked to be
behind the camera, an observer, a recorder…that’s where she belonged. That’s
what she did best. She could hide in the shadows, obscure and unnoticed. That’s
when she got the best shots; caught the candid moments that captured the true
emotions of her subjects. Lena grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the ice
cream parlor.

“I’m thirsty, Aunt Maddy,” she
whined.

“OK, OK! Let’s go inside.”

The bell above the door jingled as
she opened and held the door open for her nephew and niece. A blast of cold air
and the smell of baking waffle cones greeted her as she followed the children
into the ice cream parlor. The air-conditioned breeze from the twirling ceiling
fans felt good against her warm skin. It took a few moments for her eyes to
adjust to the dim light. The shop hadn’t changed one bit over the years. The
scarred wood floor still creaked under her feet. The framed black and white
photos of various shops and restaurants along the boardwalk taken a century ago
still hung hauntingly along the white-washed walls. As a child, Maddy
remembered asking her grandpa who the people in the photos were. They looked so
sad and serious standing in front of the ice cream shop and the general store.
Their mouths all formed straight lines across their faces. No one smiled. She’d
asked him why no one looked happy. He’d thought about it a moment and told her
they probably just got tired of waiting for the photographer to snap the
picture. Studying them now, it made Maddy feel a little nostalgic. She wondered
about the stories each person had to tell. They were all long gone by now;
their stories along with them.

“Aunt Maddy!” Lena called. “Can I
get two scoops?”

Maddy shook her head no and held
up one finger. She knew her niece’s eyes were way bigger than her stomach. She
would never be able to finish it before it melted down her arm. Maddy peered
into the curved window of the long freezer that ran across the front of the
store, displaying the various flavors -- chocolate, vanilla, rocky road,
chocolate mint, chocolate chip cookie dough, bubble gum, strawberry…They all
looked good.

James pointed to the blue colored
ice cream at the back. “That’s the one I want,” he indicated.

“Hey, that’s the kind I wanted,”
Lena complained.

“You both can get the blue one,”
Maddy said.

“She’s always copying me!” James
narrowed his eyes at his little sister.

“Am not. I wanted that flavor
first,” she retorted.

“OK, you two. That’s enough. What
difference does it make if you both get the same flavor?” Maddy asked,
remembering a similar argument she’d regularly had with her older sister, Liv.

James sighed. “Never mind. I’m
going to get cookie dough instead.”

Lena opened her mouth as if to
change her mind too, but thought better of it and closed it.

“Have you decided then?” Mrs.
Jenkins asked. She plucked the ice cream scoop out of the bin of warm water it
was soaking in. A small, wiry woman, Mrs. Jenkins had been scooping ice cream
for as long as Maddy could remember.

“Yes. I think so,” Maddy answered.
“Go ahead, Lena. Tell her what you’d like.”

Lena stood on her tip toes,
pressed her nose against the glass and pointed to the blue ice cream. “I want a
scoop of the blue one.”

“Cake cone, sugar cone or waffle
cone?” Mrs. Jenkins inquired.

Lena looked at Maddy for guidance.

“Why don’t you get it in a cup
instead? It might be easier to eat that way.”

Lena pouted. She wanted a cone
like she knew James would get.

“I could put it in a cup and then
put the cone on top,” Mrs. Jenkins suggested.

Lena smiled and nodded yes as the
older woman fitted a sugar cone on top of the blue ball of ice cream and then
pressed in two chocolate chips for eyes and a third for a nose.

James spoke up next. “I’ll have a
scoop of the cookie dough in a waffle cone.”

Mrs. Jenkins nodded understanding
as she deftly carved the ice cream into a perfectly round sphere of yumminess
and placed it into the waiting cone. She stuck a spoon into the back of the
waffle cone and handed the napkin-wrapped cone to James.

She looked expectantly at Maddy.
“What about you, Maddy dear? Butter pecan in a sugar cone?” After all these
years, Mrs. Jenkins still remembered everyone’s name and favorite flavor.

“You got it, Mrs. Jenkins,” Maddy
answered. She always thought about trying one of the new exotic flavors, but
the salty sweetness of butter pecan beckoned to her in the end.

“So how’s your grandmother doing
these days?” Mrs. Jenkins asked as she scooped the ice cream.

“She’s as busy as ever. Right now
she’s planting petunias.”

“She always has the most beautiful
flower beds.”

“Can we sit outside?” James
interrupted.

“Sure. Just don’t go down by the
water without me. Stay on the benches outside the shop.”

“We will.”

Maddy turned back to Mrs. Jenkins
and handed her the money for the ice cream.

“I saw your sister a few weeks
back,” she commented as she made change.

“Which one? Lisa or Liv?”

“Liv. She looked radiant.”

“I know. I’m so happy for her,”
Maddy answered. She paused a moment and twisted her mouth. She was happy for
older sister. Happy and jealous. Liv was marrying her childhood friend,
Cameron, at the end of the summer. They’d reconnected the previous summer after
almost a decade apart. Liv had already been married once before and had a
beautiful daughter named Sara. Liv’s ex-husband had been overly critical and
controlling. Maddy was amazed at her sister’s strength and knew how hard it had
been for Liv to leave him. Cam was perfect for her sister. Yet, Maddy couldn’t
help the feelings of jealousy in the pit of her stomach. It didn’t seem fair.
When would it be her turn?
Never,
her
inner voice told her.

As if reading her mind, Mrs.
Jenkins reached over and clasped Maddy’s free hand. “Don’t worry sweetie. It’ll
be your turn soon enough.”

“Right,” Maddy answered softly.
“Always a bridesmaid, never a bride…” she joked with the older woman, trying to
put on a happy face.

Mrs. Jenkins held her gaze. “It’ll
happen to you. Believe me. It’ll happen when you least expect it.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Maddy
answered with her voice, but her mind filled with disbelief.
Not in
this lifetime.
“I better get going before the
kids get antsy and wander off. Thanks for the ice cream.” Maddy hurried out of
the shop into the warm sunshine. She sat on the bench next to her niece and
licked off the drips of melted butter pecan ready to fall on to her leg. Ice
cream was definitely one of her weaknesses. She pondered going on an “ice cream
only” diet as she crunched into the cone. Upon finishing the last bite she
wiped her mouth and turned toward Lena.

The girl’s chubby face was smeared
with the blue ice cream she still spooned into her mouth.

“You’re quite the sight to see,”
Maddy teased. Lena stuck her tongue out at Maddy. It was also blue. Maddy stood
up and backed a few feet away from Lena. She grasped the camera hanging around
her neck and brought the viewfinder to her eye. She focused on Lena and pressed
the shutter release repeatedly, capturing the various faces the little girl
made as she ate her ice cream. After a few moments she lowered her camera and
sat back down.

“Can I see?” Lena asked.

“First go throw your empty cup in
the trash over there.” Maddy pointed to the trash receptacle a few feet way.
“And then wipe off your mouth and hands. Here’s a wipe.” She pulled the small
packet out of her backpack and handed it to Lena.

“Can I have one too?” James asked.

“Sure.” Maddy handed a second
packet to the boy.

Lena raced back and sat in Maddy’s
lap as Maddy put the camera in front of them and tilted the LCD display out of
the sun so they could see the various images of Lena flip by as Maddy pressed
the forward button.

“I look silly!” Lena laughed.

“You sure do!”

“Go over and stand by your brother
and I’ll take a nice one of the two of you.”

James frowned. “Do I have to?” he
complained.

“Yep, you do.”

Lena hurried toward her brother,
who leaned against the boardwalk railing. The blue lake expanded in the
background behind them.