The Wedding At Seagrove - Rachel Hanna

Chapter One

Julie stared out over the rolling waves, Vivi firmly attached to her hip. She loved when Meg and Christian would allow her to keep her granddaughter. Lately, since Christian was working more hours and Meg had decided to go back to school at the local community college, Julie had gotten plenty of time to spoil her new grandbaby rotten.

The sun was starting to set in the sky beside the inn, and she knew Dawson would be calling her in to eat dinner any time now. Lucy was cooking up fried chicken and homemade biscuits tonight, complete with her peppery sawmill gravy, and Julie definitely didn’t want to be late for that.

Vivi was growing so fast and almost crawling now. Her first Christmas had been so fun, watching her eyes light up when she saw the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree at Julie’s cottage. Of course, her first picture with Santa Claus hadn’t been so great. The photographer captured her terror as her face turned all shades of red and tears streamed from her eyes. Julie had tried to convince Meg that it would be a funny family memory one day, but Meg was disappointed nonetheless. She’d wanted a cute photo of Vivi looking at Santa for her Christmas card, but that didn’t work out at all.

Now that winter was almost gone, Julie was looking forward to the warmer temperatures of springtime so she could build sandcastles with Vivi. It had been one of her fondest memories as a kid when they would take a yearly trip to the beach and she and Janine would have a competition of who could build the best sandcastle. Julie had always won, and it usually ended with Janine kicking over the winning display and stomping off in a fit. Ah, memories.

Vivi bucked and kicked on her side, wanting to go closer to the water. She was used to it already as they all spent so much time there. Even in winter, which wasn’t too harsh in the lowcountry anyway, they spent most weekends having picnics or cookouts at the inn. Vivi loved it when Christian would hang her over the lapping waves and dip her toes into it.

“Not now, little one,” Julie said, lightly tweaking her nose. It was hard to believe she was already eight months old. In the last week, she’d started a version of crawling that looked something like a crab that was missing a leg. As the days went on, she was getting better and better, and soon she’d be hard to stop.

Meg was going to school three days a week, and Julie sometimes had to take Vivi with her to the bookstore. For such a small island, she sure was able to keep herself busy between running the bookstore, helping Dawson with the inn and keeping her new granddaughter. But she’d never been happier in her life than she was right now.

Julie turned to look back at the inn. Dawson had done such a great job with the place since opening it a few months ago. The guests loved him, as did everyone he met, it seemed. Lucy was having a ball trying out new recipes and tweaking old ones, and Julie loved being her taste tester every now and again.

The worst part of the last few months was how much she’d missed Dixie. Right after Thanksgiving, Dixie and Harry had set off on their adventure of traveling around the country together. Occasionally, Julie got a postcard from some tourist destination, but Dixie mostly kept in touch with texts and video chats. It still wasn’t the same as having her there live and in person. Julie missed their talks and Dixie’s no-nonsense advice.

But, she had her mother there now. SuAnn had done surprisingly well in her efforts to keep her nose out of everyone’s business. Sure, she said things. She would always say things. Julie and Janine had learned to cut her some slack, and she’d learned that her girls had boundaries. It was a work in progress.

Julie leaned down and held Vivi’s hands, allowing her to kick her little feet on the surface of the sand. She didn’t think Vivi would be crawling long before she learned to walk. After all, Meg had started walking at only ten months, and Julie definitely hadn’t been ready for that.

“Well, there are my two best girls,” Dawson said as he walked up behind them. He kissed Vivi on the head before sneaking a peck on Julie’s lips. Sometimes, she just