Tag: romantic suspense

Only four more days until release day of On Best Behavior! It’s exciting to finish my first series.

Earlier I posted the first part of a scene that we cut in the editing process. Here’s part two of Sophie and Grant in the church, planning their wedding:

“You know what I was thinking about during our little moment of silence?” Grant asked.

Sophie shook her head.

“Well, I imagined you in your wedding dress, at the end of the aisle.” He gestured toward the altar. “I’m standing right there waiting for you, fidgeting with the flower on my lapel, and when I see you, you look so stunning. Radiant and exquisite.”

She glanced at the entrance of the sanctuary and then back at him. “Mmm, I can see it too. You’re standing by Pastor Tom, looking so McSailoricious in a tux. I want to tear down the aisle, run into your arms.”

He continued the little fantasy. “You try to run, but…your father, he slows you down. He walks you to me—” he flinched as if watching a horror flick “—but then he won’t let you go. You tug on his arm, try to get away, but he’s got a vice grip on you, and he’s glaring at me—”

“Nooo!” she cried, playfully pushing against his chest. “You’re cursing us. That could really happen, you know.”

Grant clasped her wrists and leaned in. “I won’t let that happen, Bonnie, even if I have to wrestle you away from your father.”

“Good, don’t freak me out like that.”

He drew her hand up to his lips and planted a kiss on her knuckles.

Sophie gazed off in the distance, remembering what she’d read in one of her textbooks about the symbolism of the father giving the daughter away at a wedding. When the bride moved from her father to her husband, she transferred her allegiance from her family to her husband. In successful marriages, the wife had to put her husband first, ahead of her family, and the husband had to put the wife first too. If a conflict erupted between the spouse and the family, the spouse’s needs won in a healthy marriage.

When Sophie explained the symbolism to Grant, he said, “Interesting. I thought it was more like the father saying ‘Take her off my hands, please.’”

Her mouth popped open with umbrage.

He smiled. “Seriously, I do like that explanation from your psychology book.”

“Of course you do,” she replied with a grin, “’cause that means I’ll be yours.”

He leaned in, brushing his lips on her neck, sweeping soft kisses up her chin and jaw until his lips landed on hers. Their kiss was sweet and gentle, and she gazed into his glittering eyes.

“I’ll tell you a secret, Grant. We don’t need a wedding ceremony for me to transfer my allegiance—I already belong to you.”

“And I to you, Sophie.”