Sometimes you have to trust your heart to find out what home really means.
Duncan McAllister is marrying Elaina Tripoli tomorrow. Except—he’s missing. Jordan, Noah, Griffin, Maggie, and Miles arrive in Greece for the festivities to find frantic messages from both the bride and groom. Noah and Griffin set off to find Duncan while Jordan, Maggie, and Miles try to salvage what should be a day of celebration before the wedding.
But the Americans have their own baggage. Noah’s got a surprise planned for Jordan that has to go perfectly. Griffin’s keeping life-changing news from Maggie. And Miles—well, he wasn’t looking for love on this trip until a Greek sous chef named Alex rocks his world.
The race is on for Duncan to make it back to Elaina before she decides not to take him back at all. For Noah to make sure his monumental plan goes off without a hitch. For Griffin to tell Maggie the truth without losing her. For Miles to admit that letting himself fall in love is worth the risk.
Happily Ever After waits at the finish line…if the four couples can make it on time.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Discover the If Only series…
If Only
What If
Discover more New Adult titles from Entangled Embrace…
The Finn Factor
No Kissing Allowed
Haunted Chemistry
Someday Maybe
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by A.J. Pine. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
Entangled Publishing, LLC
2614 South Timberline Road
Suite 109
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.
Embrace is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.
Edited by Karen Grove
Cover design by Heather Howland
Cover art from iStock
ISBN 978-1-63375-469-0
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition November 2015
For my family. I do love you.
Chapter One
Jordan
T here is no such thing as overpacking. There is no such thing as overpacking. There is no such thing as overpacking.
Now all Jordan had to do was click her heels together three times and her suitcase would close, right?
“Finished!” Noah yelled from the kitchen/living room—the only other room aside from the bedroom and a sad excuse for a bathroom.
“Packing or grading?” Jordan asked before dropping down, butt first, onto the unzipped case. She blew a lock of hair out of her eyes, but it fell back as soon as the puff of air left her lips.
“Figures,” she mumbled. She couldn’t even contain her hair. How would she contain the contents necessary for a trip overseas where she would be a bridesmaid for the first time? She didn’t know how to bridesmaid, let alone perform such duties in a foreign country. So she packed everything from a bathing suit to a parka. Maybe one of the two would have to go.
She looked up, sensing Noah’s presence, expecting quiet condescension at her inability to embrace the whole less is more concept.
Instead, he leaned in the doorframe and quirked a brow, dark waves flopping over his forehead.
“Both.” His brows furrowed. “I finished both. Grading and packing.” Noah’s eyes drank her in. “Nice outfit, Brooks.” The left corner of his mouth hinted at a grin. Then he was squatting in front of her, lifting the strap of her camisole that had strayed from her shoulder.
Goose bumps peppered Jordan’s skin at the soft graze of his fingertips. God, he could still set her on fire with the simplest touch, even after three years.
“I mean it,” he continued, his lips trailing after his fingers, brushing her pebbled skin. “This is my favorite outfit of yours. You should wear it every day.”
Butterflies danced in her belly at the low rasp of his voice. He dropped to his knees, resting a hand on her bare thigh and using the other to free her neck from its blanket of hair.
He nipped at the flesh below her ear, and she let out something between a sigh and a moan.
“This is what I wear every day…unless I’m in class.” She tried to sound annoyed, to assure the beautiful man doing beautiful things to her that she would wear more than pajamas at home—once grad school was over and she was done volleying between her own writing projects and grading those of her undergrad students.
“Do you remember what I look like in real clothes? Because I don’t. I’m not even sure I can wear a dress to the wedding. My body may actually reject it, like a virus.” She flailed her arms and added, “Danger, Will Robinson. Foreign object. Must destroy.”
This didn’t deter him. Jordan was ready to protest further, but then Noah’s fingertips reached the hem of her boy shorts, and she forgot why she was so frustrated. That is, until Noah’s lips found hers, and the two of them lost their balance, tumbling over the side of the still unzipped suitcase and into the frame of their bed.
“Shit!” she said.
Jordan rubbed her temple, and Noah massaged his shoulder.
He chuckled. “Loving you really is a contact sport, isn’t it?” He kissed the spot where her head had greeted the metal frame. “You okay?”
Jordan sighed. “You still love me? You do see the mess sitting in front of you, right?”
“Technically,” he said, his grin widening, “you’re more sprawled than sitting.”
She reached over her head to grab a pillow, but Noah caught her wrist before she could whack him with it. This was good, the two of them finding a few moments to pretend like all they had on their list was getting her suitcase closed. It wasn’t that things weren’t good between them. They were perfect when they had time for little moments like this. But the whole being-an-adult thing—classes, teaching, the day-to-day stresses—often got in the way.