Lighthouse Cove (South Carolina Sunsets Book 7), Rachel Hanna [best smutty novels txt] 📗

lounges on the beach, the wind blowing toward them as they each drank a cup of coffee. The spring festival had been exhausting, and Julie was glad it was over even though she had enjoyed it immensely.

Seeing her sister and William get engaged in such a romantic and spontaneous way made her giddy with delight. She couldn’t wait to see them finally get married and start their lives together. Janine had talked a lot about adoption, and she was thrilled at the idea of finally getting a niece or nephew.

“Lucy makes a dang good cup of coffee,” Charlotte said.

“She certainly does. And those pancakes this morning? The woman knows her way around the kitchen, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, she does,” Charlotte said, setting her book on the table between them and sighing. “I almost hate to leave here. You live in heaven on earth, Julie.”

“Well, don’t tell anybody. We certainly don’t want thousands of extra people moving here and messing up our balance.”

Charlotte laughed. “My lips are sealed. Listen, I wanted to talk to you about your book.”

Julie cringed. How she wished she hadn’t handed Charlotte those few pages of her work in progress last night. But she was feeling excited after the festival and the proposal, and she just wasn’t thinking straight. It was in no way her best work, and it hadn’t even been edited yet.

“Listen, I know it isn’t good. I’ve never written anything like that before…”

“No, it’s fabulous!”

Julie looked at her. “Charlotte, you don’t have to try to be nice. I understand that writing is a lot harder than it looks.”

“Not if you have natural talent, and I think you do. So, I wanted to ask your permission to send this over to my publisher. Just let some of my contacts take a look and see if they think there’s marketability there.”

Julie was in shock. “What? Are you serious? You want to send that to your publisher?”

“I think it’s worth a shot. There aren’t a lot of great books for women in this age group, and I don’t mind a little extra competition.”

“I don’t think I’m going to be any competition for you,” Julie said, laughing. “But feel free to give it to your publisher. They might need a good laugh.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. I didn’t think I would have the success that I have, but here I am!”

“So when do you have to leave?”

“Tomorrow morning. I have a book signing tomorrow evening in Savannah. So I need to make the drive and go to my hotel.”

“I’m really going to miss you around here. It was nice having somebody to talk to.”

“Oh, I’ll be in touch. I’m sure my publishers are probably going to want to talk to you.”

Julie crossed her fingers. “We can only hope!”

“And, truth be told, I’d like to have a second home here in Seagrove someday. I feel at home here.”

“We’d love to have you! Although, I’d lock your doors because I’m afraid Dixie might try to break in and have dinner with you,” Julie said with a laugh.

Dixie locked up the bookstore and turned to walk down the sidewalk to her car. She was exhausted after the festival, but she’d had to come back to the store to retrieve her tote bag and empty the coffee pot.

“Hey, old lady!” She turned around to see SuAnn doing the same thing. She was locking the door to her bakery.

“Old lady? You’re one to talk!” Dixie replied, laughing.

They met in the middle between their two stores. Over the last few months, they had managed to forge a strange friendship that mainly consisted of sarcastic comments and the occasional sit down coffee date to gossip about everyone they knew.

“So how did the festival go for you?” SuAnn asked.

“Pretty good. Julie handled most of it so I could walk around with Harry. He’s still having some back trouble, so we couldn’t do a whole lot.”

“We sold out of all of our cakes. I think I will have a bunch of new customers on Monday morning!”

“That’s great! Where is Nick?”

“Oh, he had to go out of town to visit his niece. She just had a baby.”

“How nice. He seems like a lovely man.”

“He is. The love of my life,” SuAnn said, smiling. It wasn’t often that a person could get SuAnn to open up and act like a normal human being, but Nick seemed to have a special touch.

“So where are you headed?”

“I guess I’m going to go home and rest these old feet. Maybe take a bubble bath and drink several glasses of wine.”

“Well, I don’t drink the wine because I can’t mix it with my medication, but I think a nice bath sounds like a wonderful idea.”

“Say, Dixie, do you ever feel like we are the luckiest women in the world?”

Dixie tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“I mean we’re still vital at our ages, still building successful businesses. We have wonderful men in our lives, great kids. I even have a great-granddaughter now. And William and Janine just got engaged. We live in this fantastic little town. Sometimes it just seems like we have been given way more blessings than we might deserve.” It wasn’t often that SuAnn spoke so poetically.

Dixie thought for a moment. “We are blessed beyond measure.”

“We sure are. Well, I guess I better get home. Nick is supposed to be calling me in a little bit.”

“Have a good night, SuAnn. I’ll see you back here on Monday.”

“Enjoy your bath,” SuAnn said, laughing as she turned around and walked towards her car.

Epilogue

The Fourth of July had always been one of Julie’s favorite holidays. Aside from the patriotism of it all, she loved the fireworks, a cookout and the gathering of family and friends. And this Fourth of July, they had so many different things to celebrate.

Having a party at the inn had become one of her favorite traditions. Lucy and Dawson had spent the whole afternoon cooking up all kinds of food, with Lucy in the