Happy Ever After

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

HOT ICE
SACRED SINS
BRAZEN VIRTUE
SWEET REVENGE
PUBLIC SECRETS
GENUINE LIES
CARNAL INNOCENCE
DIVINE EVIL
HONEST ILLUSIONS
PRIVATE SCANDALS
HIDDEN RICHES
TRUE BETRAYALS
MONTANA SKY
SANCTUARY
HOMEPORT
THE REEF
RIVER’S END
CAROLINA MOON
THE VILLA
MIDNIGHT BAYOU
THREE FATES
BIRTHRIGHT
NORTHERN LIGHTS
BLUE SMOKE
ANGELS FALL
HIGH NOON
TRIBUTE
BLACK HILLS
THE SEARCH

 

 

 

 

 

BORN IN FIRE
BORN IN ICE
BORN IN SHAME

 

DARING TO DREAM
HOLDING THE DREAM
FINDING THE DREAM

 

SEA SWEPT
RISING TIDES
INNER HARBOR
CHESAPEAKE BLUE

 

JEWELS OF THE SUN
TEARS OF THE MOON
HEART OF THE SEA

 

DANCE UPON THE AIR
HEAVEN AND EARTH
FACE THE FIRE

 

KEY OF LIGHT
KEY OF KNOWLEDGE
KEY OF VALOR

 

BLUE DAHLIA
BLACK ROSE
RED LILY

 

MORRIGAN’S CROSS
DANCE OF THE GODS
VALLEY OF SILENCE

 

 

BLOOD BROTHERS
THE HOLLOW
THE PAGAN STONE

 

VISION IN WHITE
BED OF ROSES
SAVOR THE MOMENT
HAPPY EVER AFTER

 

REMEMBER WHEN

 

 

 

NAKED IN DEATH
GLORY IN DEATH
IMMORTAL IN DEATH
RAPTURE IN DEATH
CEREMONY IN DEATH
VENGEANCE IN DEATH
HOLIDAY IN DEATH
CONSPIRACY IN DEATH
LOYALTY IN DEATH
WITNESS IN DEATH
JUDGMENT IN DEATH
BETRAYAL IN DEATH
SEDUCTION IN DEATH
REUNION IN DEATH
PURITY IN DEATH
PORTRAIT IN DEATH
IMITATION IN DEATH
DIVIDED IN DEATH
VISIONS IN DEATH
SURVIVOR IN DEATH
ORIGIN IN DEATH
MEMORY IN DEATH
BORN IN DEATH
INNOCENT IN DEATH
CREATION IN DEATH
STRANGERS IN DEATH
SALVATION IN DEATH
PROMISES IN DEATH
KINDRED IN DEATH
FANTASY IN DEATH

 

FROM THE HEART
A LITTLE MAGIC
A LITTLE FATE

MOON SHADOWS
(with Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Marianne Willman)

 

The Once Upon Series
(with Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Marianne Willman)
ONCE UPON A CASTLE
ONCE UPON A STAR
ONCE UPON A DREAM
ONCE UPON A ROSE
ONCE UPON A KISS
ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT

SILENT NIGHT
(with Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes, and Claire Cross)

OUT OF THIS WORLD
(with Laurell K. Hamilton, Susan Krinard, and Maggie Shayne)

BUMP IN THE NIGHT
(with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

DEAD OF NIGHT
(with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

THREE IN DEATH

SUITE 606
(with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

THE LOST
(with Patricia Gaffney, Mary Blayney, and Ruth Ryan Langan)

 

 

 

THE OFFICIAL NORA ROBERTS COMPANION
(edited by Denise Little and Laura Hayden)

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700,Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2010 by Nora Roberts.

Excerpt from
Vision in White
copyright © by Nora Roberts.

 

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

BERKLEY
^®
is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

PRINTING HISTORY

Berkley trade paperback edition / November 2010

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Roberts, Nora.

Happy ever after / Nora Roberts.—Berkley trade paperback ed. p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-44496-2

1. Female friendship—Fiction. 2.Weddings—Planning—Fiction. 3. Connecticut—Fiction. I.Title.

PS3568.O243H37 2010

813’.54—dc22

2010017353

 

 

Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Beauty from order springs.

—WILLIAM KING

G
RIEF CAME IN WAVES, HARD AND CHOPPY, BUFFETING AND BREAKING the heart. Other days the waves were slow and swamping, threatening to drown the soul.

People—good, caring people—claimed time would heal. Parker hoped they were right, but as she stood on her bedroom terrace in the late-summer sun, months after the sudden, shocking deaths of her parents, those capricious waves continued to roll.

She had so much, she reminded herself. Her brother—and she didn’t know if she’d have survived this grieving time without Del—had been a rock to cling to in that wide, wide ocean of shock and sorrow. Her friends Mac, Emma, Laurel, a part of her life, a part of
her
, since childhood. They’d been the glue mending and holding all the shattered pieces of her world. She had the constant, unshakable support of their longtime housekeeper, Mrs. Grady, her island of comfort.

She had her home. The beauty and elegance of the Brown Estate seemed deeper, sharper to her somehow, knowing she wouldn’t see her parents strolling through the gardens. She’d never again run downstairs and find her mother laughing in the kitchen with Mrs. G, or hear her father wheeling a deal in his home office.

Instead of learning to ride those waves, she’d felt herself being swept deeper and deeper down into the dark.

Time, she’d determined, needed to be used and pushed and
moved.

She thought—hoped—she’d found a way, not only to use that time, but to celebrate what her parents had given her, to unite those gifts with family and friendships.

To be productive, she mused as the first spicy scents of coming autumn stirred the air.The Browns
worked
.They built and they produced and they never, never sat back to laze on accomplishments.

Her parents would have expected her to do no less than those who’d come before her.

Her friends might think she’d lost her mind, but she’d researched, calculated, and outlined a solid business plan, a sturdy model. And with Del’s help, a fair and reasonable legal contract.

Time to swim, she told herself.

She simply wouldn’t sink.

She walked back into the bedroom, picked up the four thick packets she’d set on her dresser. One for each of them for the meeting—though she hadn’t told her friends they were coming to a meeting.