First time this excerpt from April's Kiss in the Moonlight has ever been shared. Gavin and April are at a farm fair. April visited the rabbits in cages. She saw her future as living in a cage, too, an invisible cage built by her father. She broke down. Here is a snippet of what happens next.
Gavin took her hand and guided her out of the exhibit and into the midway area. She found a ladies room and splashed cold water on her face. Standing by herself at the sink, she felt alone, totally alone. But she knew no matter what else happened, there was no way she could go back to San Francisco. Although she didn’t know where she was headed, her resolve not to return to San Francisco tightened in her gut and the decision made her sadness disappear. She decided she'd have a different life and not be a rabbit in a cage. Not ever. Not for anyone. And it made her feel more secure. Relieved, she returned to Gavin.
“I hate to see any animals in cages. I can’t stand it,” she said.
Gavin laced his fingers with hers and led her over to a quiet spot on the edge of the midway, behind the rifle shoot.
“Once my father brought home a parakeet. He used to visit it and coo to it for five minutes when he got home from work. But when he was at work, the poor bird jumped around the cage, trying to figure out how to escape and chattered as if he was looking for a mate. One day, I couldn’t take it anymore and took the cage outside and opened the door. The bird flew away. My father was furious and I was punished severely. But I was happy the bird was free.”
Gavin squeezed her hand. “You should be free, like a beautiful bird, free to fly wherever you want.”
She smiled at him. “I will be. Forever . . . free. You understand, don’t you?”
He nodded. “I think I do. Ready?”
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A little bit about the book
How could anything bad happen to a young woman, fresh from graduate school, who strikes out on a new path rather than return to take a job with her father’s firm? April McKenna sets off for an escapade that ends in tragedy. Injured and alone she is taken in by a friend of her mother’s who lives in a small town in the Catskill Mountains in New York.
During her recovery, April resolves to carve out an exotic life of travel and adventure. But she didn’t count on a sexy fireman upsetting her plans. Gavin Dailey has dated practically every woman in the county, but when he meets April, he knows he’s finally found the one he wants. Only a stubborn man like Gavin wouldn’t let April’s resistance to his charm and his small town change his plans. Determined to win her, he pulls out all the stops until he encounters one stumbling block he didn’t count on. Only a near-tragedy resurrected from the past gives April the tenacity she needs to make the right decision for her life in April’s Kiss in the Moonlight.
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