Spotlight & Giveaway: Happily Ever Alaska by Patience Griffin

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Patience Griffin’s new release: Happily Ever Alaska

Lolly Crocker keeps a warm bakery in her chilly Alaskan town, but can she handle the rekindling of an old flame?

Whenever things get too serious, baker Lolly Crocker knows it’s time to break it off with a guy. Without fail, her gut will tell her that the man she’s dating wis not Mr. Right.

The one exception was Shaun Montana, her high school sweetheart. With Shaun, life felt complete; but her mother convinced her she was too young to be tied down, and Lolly broke up with him the night before she left for college.

While Lolly keeps every relationship light, Shaun is never less than fully committed—and still somehow his romances have all ended badly. When he comes back to Sweet Home, his attraction to Lolly is as fiery as ever, but he’s determined to keep things casual for once…just when Lolly is finally ready to risk her heart on a second chance.

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from Happily Ever Alaska 

As Lolly hurried to the car, she decided she’d be okay if she snuck in and snuck out of the Montanas’ homestead at the speed of light. Shaun would undoubtably be working on Jesse’s cabin and not be in the barn. Besides, what did she care if she was a mess or not? Shaun certainly didn’t care one iota about her now.
She just wished that the muscle memory of her heart were as smart as her rational brain. Just thinking about him, her silly heart beat faster—sometimes pounded like crazy, trying to get out of her chest. Each time that she’d seen him, her lungs had malfunctioned, too, as if the sight of him made her breath catch.
Before she left, she checked one more time to make sure that the baked goods in the back seat were secured, as if she were double-checking that a child was strapped in correctly. Satisfied they wouldn’t shift, she set off for Shaun and Patricia’s. The first part of the drive went just fine and she was proud of herself for being a mature woman who could handle a chance meeting with her high school boyfriend. But the last two miles had Lolly wanting to make a U-ey and head back home.
“What if he’s there?” she asked herself. Her heart was pounding out a Shaun, Shaun, Shaun! rhythm all the way up to her ears.
But when she pulled down the Montanas’ lane, she didn’t see any vehicles near the house or the barn. Her heart rate began to slow and she began to breathe more evenly. At the same time, she felt disappointed, let down, which was absurd.
She pulled her car up to the barn and got out, trying not to look around. Jesse and Tori’s cabin was over the hill and out of sight of the house and barn. Lolly had to stop herself from hiking up the hill to look for Shaun’s Jeep on the other side . . . or to look for Shaun the man.
Disgusted at herself, she sighed heavily and made the first trip to the barn, loaded down with baked goods. When Lolly got inside, she scanned the room but didn’t see the table that Piney had promised would be there. Frowning, she set her load of cupcakes and cookies on the riser along the wall, the same riser that had probably been borrowed from the high school choir room. When she turned to get the next load, she stopped short. Shaun stood in the doorway, a folding table leaning against his body. She had the crazy notion that he’d been standing there watching her for more than a single moment.
She was frozen, caught in his gaze like a deer in headlights. She gazed back, feeling as if they were playing a game of chicken. She had no intention of being the one to look away first.
But the table slipped from its position, breaking the moment, and he caught it before it hit the floor. “Where do I need to put this?” he said gruffly, as if his voice hadn’t been used all day.
She pointed to the right of the stage. “Piney wants it over here.” Piney—the one who’d clearly orchestrated this tête- à-tête!
He frowned at her as if she was the one to blame for them being alone together in the barn.
To defuse the mood, or to keep him from thinking this meet-cute was her idea, Lolly said, “So Piney called you, too?”
“Yeah.” He walked the table over to its spot and proceeded to set it up, pulling the legs out.
Self-consciously, Lolly grabbed the baked goods and walked with faked confidence toward the boy she’d once loved . . . who’d turned into a man. A gorgeous man. The man she wished she’d never broken up with. The kind of man she wouldn’t mind having in her life now. But she couldn’t.
He flipped the table over and turned to her. Then he frowned and took the boxes from her and set them on the table.
“Thanks for setting up the table for me,” she said. “Correction,” he said. “I was doing it for Piney. Now . . .
where are these decorations that Piney was telling me about?” “Don’t worry about it.” Yet, she wasn’t in a hurry for him to leave. Even though they couldn’t be together, she liked being around him. Which didn’t make any sense, especially since it was clear that he was still mad at her for breaking up with him. “I’ll take care of it from here.”
“Are the decorations still in your car?” he said as he walked toward the barn door.
“Yes, in the trunk.” Lolly needed to speak with Piney and tell her to stop interfering. It was just making Shaun like Lolly less . . . if that was even possible.
A minute later, he was back, his arms loaded with boxes, which would have taken her several trips. Lolly had moved everything from the table to the floor, only just remembering after he mentioned the decorations that she’d have to put the tablecloth on first.
“What next?” he asked.
“Really, Shaun, you don’t have to help.”
“Yeah, I do. We need to get this done before my mom gets back.”
His comment rang of old times, when they had been kissing on his couch and his mom and dad were due back any minute from running to the Hungry Bear for provisions. The memory made her smile . . . and then sad. Being Shaun’s girlfriend had been the happiest time of her life. Yes, she’d been contented this last year, being home, but with him back in Alaska, she just didn’t seem to be able to get him off her mind.
She really should concentrate on getting another job out of state. But she was afraid that now he’d awoken all the old feelings in her, she would never be the same.
They both reached down to pull things out of the same decoration box and their hands grazed one another. To her and her off-the-rails heart, the touch felt like a caress. Shaun pulled away immediately.
“You’ll need chairs for the table.” He was gone, stalking toward the back of the barn, where chairs on carts were ready to be set out.
She had to say something normal, something to defuse the awkwardness between them. She called out, “Do you recall the last party your parents threw in the barn?” She could remember it clearly. But the look on his face had her wishing she could take it back.
“You weren’t at the last party.” His voice sounded dead. “The last party was my graduation party. You were long gone by then.”
Lolly had been remembering her own graduation celebration. She hadn’t been around for his, but Jilly had told her all about it. How Shaun had changed—miserable, never smiling—and was no longer the sweet, happy guy she remembered. And it was all Lolly’s fault.
“Yes, you’re right. I was thinking of my own party.”
He stopped and stared at her. “Purple everywhere— streamers, balloons, paper table coverings.”
And Shaun had gotten her a purple carnation wrist corsage. She reached over and rubbed her wrist. That purple flower, now faded, was still pressed within the pages of her grandmother’s Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, right next to Shaun’s favorite recipe: cinnamon-raisin bars. Which were also a favorite of his mom’s. This past year was the first time she’d made them since they had broken up. She looked over at the blue container. Had she made cinnamon-raisin bars for tonight with Shaun in mind?
She reached into the box again, retrieved the sunflower tablecloth, and spread it over the table. Shaun carried the chairs over while she smoothed out the last corner. The sunflowers were cheery; maybe the sunflowers would cheer up the other half of the decoration committee.
But he still frowned. “I figured there’ll be two people managing the table so I brought two over.”
“It’ll probably just be me. But it never hurts to have a second chair.”
“Why only you?”
“Since I’ve been home, I seem to do most of the baking,” she explained lamely. She didn’t want to tell him how she hadn’t dated since she’d been back. How she had no expectations of leaving the table because no one would want to dance with Love ’em and Leave ’em Lolly. Then she tried again. “If I’m at the table, I can tell people what ingredients I’ve put into the desserts. In case someone has an allergy or something. Where’s your mom?” she asked feebly.
“A doctor’s appointment.” He glanced at his watch. “She’ll be back within the hour, I expect.”
But Lolly was staring at the inside of his wrist, where the pi symbol peeked out. So he hadn’t removed it! She started to lift her own wrist to show him her matching tattoo, an image of a pie. Their inside joke. He, the math geek, computer scientist, nerd; she, the cooking and baking savant. They’d gotten their tattoos at the beginning of her senior year, his junior, on a trip to Anchorage. Her mom and his parents had been furious with them, but they hadn’t cared. They were in love and loved that their pi/pie tattoos tied them together forever. She just couldn’t believe he still had his.
For her, it’d never been a question of whether to remove it or not. She liked having him permanently tattooed on her wrist, if not her heart. In the strangest way, Shaun had been her one constant. Even though she’d been engaged to others, her fiancés had oddly felt temporary. Had she gotten engaged to them to get over Shaun?
“Are you okay?” he asked, seeming genuinely concerned.
She snapped out of it and grabbed the paper plates from the box. “Oh, yes, fine. Just fine.” Just stumbling down memory lane. She pushed her hair behind her ears, wishing she’d taken a moment to brush her mop and put on some lip gloss. She couldn’t do anything about the way she looked, but she could do something about how she was acting . . . like a lovesick idiot. “So how is life, now that you’re back on the homestead? Have you adjusted to the slower pace?”
He laughed, and seeing that old smile of his did her heart good. “Slower pace? You’ve got to be kidding me.” He chuckled again. “Between working on Jesse’s cabin and making sure to keep my mom happy, oh, and apparently, be at Piney’s beck and call and bend to her will, I haven’t had a moment to myself . . . or a moment to reflect.” He gave a shrug. “I guess that last part is a good thing.”
Lolly knew he’d been engaged but didn’t know why it had ended. She also knew she couldn’t ask. Eventually she’d hear the truth from someone. Or a version of the truth. The truth according to Sweet Home.
The mood seemed lighter as they positioned everything on the table, but they left the food covered for later. Lolly was starting to feel comfortable, but then the barn door opened, and all the good feelings between her and Shaun seemed to exit the building.
Patricia halted. “What’s going on in here?” “Uh,” Lolly stammered.
Shaun had better presence of mind. “We were just finishing up, weren’t we, Lolly?”
She could only nod, as she was intimidated by this Patricia . . . Angry Patricia. Lolly really liked the old Patricia. Lolly couldn’t think of one thing that would get her back into Patricia’s good graces, except to move away as far as possible. And to have made it happen yesterday!
Patricia stayed at the door, holding it open, as if to show Lolly the way out. Or to make sure that she actually left.
Lolly stacked her empty boxes on the floor with Shaun helping. He was probably trying to rush her out of the barn as well.
“Thanks.” She looked up and he was staring at her. “No problem.” But he seemed confused.
She reached to pick up the empty box tower, but he snatched them up.
“I can get them.” She glanced over at Patricia, who didn’t seem happy that Shaun was being so helpful.
“Don’t get the wrong idea.” Shaun shrugged again. “I’d do this for anyone.”
“Okay.” But it didn’t stop her heart and mind from getting all kinds of wild notions. Hopeful thoughts really.
Lolly just didn’t know how she was going to stop herself from falling in love with him again.

Excerpt. ©Patience Griffin. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: One print copy of HAPPILY EVER ALASKA for a U.S. only winner.

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Meet the Author:

Patience Griffin is the award-winning author of the Kilts and Quilts series of contemporary romances. She grew up in a small town along the Mississippi River, enjoying life in a close-knit community. She loves to quilt and has gained national recognition with her September 11 Story Quilt, which has toured the country as the property of the Pentagon, and her extensive collection of commercially available quilting fabrics.

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