Genie
Gabriel
genene@genenevalleau.com
Excerpt
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BLURB:
Super-mom Tallie O'Shea took on eight adopted children and
built a legacy of compassionate justice with her policeman husband. When he is
gunned down, she doesn't think it's an accident. Then a former lover shows up
and the lies from her past start unraveling. As dangers explode around her, can
Tallie set things right before everything she loves is destroyed?
EXCERPT
The pressure of Pierce's fingers on hers surprised Tallie. She knew
speculation about the two of them had been raging through town since Pierce
showed up the night Halo exploded. Fitting, it seemed, since his arrival and
the news he was Marly's biological father had rocked the foundation of her
world.
Events continued to unfold at a rapid pace, including the whirlwind
courtship and marriage of her oldest son, Collin, and local café owner, Beth
Boulanger. Tallie already loved Beth like a daughter, though she had questioned
Collin about the haste of their wedding.
However, Beth glowed with innocent love as she walked down the aisle
toward Collin. And Tallie had never seen her oldest son as happy as when he
took Beth's hand and tucked it under his arm, then turned to face his brother,
Patrick, who was performing the ceremony.
"Dearly beloved..."
What a difference the packed church was to the intimate setting when
Tallie had married Bernie. Just the minister, his wife, and Bernie's uncle,
along with Collin and Patrick, who were still wary little boys not believing
they might actually have a loving home of their own.
Collin is so handsome. Just
like Bernie was.
Tallie dabbed at her tears with a tissue. Bernie had worn a navy blue
suit and starched white shirt. Tallie wore the new dress he insisted on buying
for her and carried a bouquet of flowers--real ones--from the florist fifty
miles away. The two boys were self-consciously silent in their borrowed suits
and slicked-down hair.
"This will be a real marriage." Bernie
had told her when he proposed a union so the boys would have both an adoptive
father and mother. "You decide when you're ready to be physically
intimate. But I'll always be faithful to you."
Tallie touched the wedding ring still circling the third finger of her
left hand. A ring that had belonged to Bernie's grandmother.
When they married, Bernie spoke his vows clearly and looked directly at
her. In all their years of marriage, Tallie knew without a doubt Bernie had
indeed been true to her. He never gave her reason to think anything else.
You would be so proud of your
children, Bernie.
As she dabbed at her tears again, Pierce took Tallie's hand and smiled
at her. What would her life have been if she had married Pierce? She would have
missed out on all her children, as well as the courage that came with being
part of Bernie's legacy. She might have become as bitter as Portia Stratford.
She had loved Pierce with a deep physical passion--in a different way
than she loved Bernie. She and Bernie were partners, with a love that grew from
shared respect and purpose. No matter the past and whatever the future might
hold, Tallie was grateful she had her marriage with Bernie and the blessings of
all her children.
Only time would tell if her relationship with Pierce would become more
than being parents to Marly. Today, Tallie simply cherished this beautiful time
of her oldest son marrying the woman he now gazed at with total devotion and
love.
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