I Want to Hold Your Hand
Read I Want to Hold Your Hand Online
Authors: Marie Force
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #General
Praise for the Green Mountain Romance series
“
All You Need is Love
is the quintessential romance and, boy, does it deliver!”
—RT Book Reviews (4 stars)
“If you’re looking for a heartwarming, feel-good story to lose yourself in for a few hours, then this is one book you should look into!
—
Night Owl Reviews
(Top Pick)
Praise for the
New York Times
bestselling McCarthys of Gansett Island series
“With the McCarthys of Gansett Island, Marie Force makes you believe in the power of true love and happily ever after. Over and over again.”
—Carly Phillips,
New York Times
bestselling author
“This is one sexy story . . . Hang out with Evan and Grace and you’ll want to stay on Gansett Island, too!”
—
USA Today
“This is another beautifully written love story. It draws you in and stays with you after you are done reading.”
—
Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews
“[Force] is quickly becoming one of my favorite romance series writers.”
—
Lisa’s Reads
“As always, Force’s writing is wonderfully entertaining . . . Force hits a home run with
Season for Love
and her entire Gansett Island series.”
—
Ravishing Romances
“Ms. Force has the ability to make you fall in love with her Island and all of the quirky and sweet characters that reside there . . . [A] fantastic series!”
—
Joyfully Reviewed
Titles by Marie Force
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
I
WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
USA • Canada • UK • Ireland • Australia • New Zealand • India • South Africa • China
A Penguin Random House Company
I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with HTJB, Inc.
Copyright © 2014 by HTJB, Inc.
Excerpt from
I Saw Her Standing There
by Marie Force copyright © 2014 by HTJB, Inc.
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group.
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The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
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375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-63775-3
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / June 2014
Cover photos by Shutterstock.
Cover design by George Long.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
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CONTENTS
Excerpt from
I Saw Her Standing There
To all the men and women in uniform serving our country around the world—and all the people at home who love and miss them.
And for John Gomes, the “Nolan” of my hometown, who was much loved and is dearly missed.
CHAPTER 1
A new boy moved to town over the summer. His name is Caleb Guthrie. Hunter and Will like him, but I haven’t decided yet.
—From the diary of Hannah Abbott, age twelve
H
annah Abbott Guthrie looked forward to the second Thursday of every month, when she met her high school friends in St. Johnsbury for lunch and an afternoon at their favorite spa. The tradition began after Hannah lost her husband, Caleb, in Iraq almost seven years ago. She’d continued to meet the girls every week long after the first awful wave of grief passed into the new reality of life without Caleb.
Like her family, her friends had been there for her one thousand percent, and Hannah loved her “escape from it all” days passionately. This time, she was even considering the possibility of taking her friend Becky up on the standing invite to spend the night in St. Johnsbury so she wouldn’t have to drive home after the relaxing afternoon.
Her brother Hunter had volunteered to come by when he got back to town to check on Caleb’s old dog, Homer, so he wouldn’t have to spend the whole day and night alone. Even with Homer covered, she was playing the invitation by ear. Since Caleb died, she had a lot of trouble sleeping, and if she was going to be up at all hours, she preferred to rattle around in the privacy of her own home.
Hannah picked up the overnight bag she’d packed just in case she decided to stay, gave Homer a snuggle and let him know Uncle Hunter would be by to see him later. She locked the door to the huge Victorian she’d inherited from Caleb. The house was far too big for one person, but Caleb had loved the house that had come from his grandmother, and Hannah would never sell it.
She unlocked her aging SUV and put her bag into the back before sliding into the driver’s seat. The day was chilly but sunny, an early spring day in northern Vermont, where winter hung around far longer than it did just a few hours south. In deference to the lingering winter, Hannah had chosen to wear a heavy coat rather than the new spring jacket she was ready to break out any day now.
With the key in the ignition, she turned it and got a clicking sound that didn’t bode well for going anywhere. “Come on,” she whispered. “Not today. Do this tomorrow when I’ve got nowhere to be.” She turned the key again and got the same
click, click, click
noise that she recognized as a dead battery. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
She leaned her head on the steering wheel as she tried to remember where everyone was today. Her dad and Hunter had gone to a business conference in Montpelier. Will was in New York helping his girlfriend, Cameron, pack up her apartment for her move to Vermont. Colton was up on the mountain at the family sugaring facility, Wade knew as much about cars as she did, Lucas and Landon were working a twenty-four-hour shift at the volunteer fire department and Max was at school in Burlington.
Her sisters, Ella and Charley, were as useful in this situation as Hannah and Wade. Her mom had taken Hannah’s grandfather for his annual physical this morning. That left one person she could call and, as luck would have it, he was the last person she wanted to call.
“If I call Nolan he’s going to get all hopeful, and I can’t do that to him,” she said, reasoning with herself and the cold air. It had been enough that recently she’d danced with him at the Grange and then let him drive her home. That was more than she’d done with any man in all the years since Caleb died.
But Nolan wasn’t just any man. He’d been less than circumspect about his feelings for her, never missing a chance to inquire about her to one of her family members—all of whom
loved
relaying Nolan’s thoughtful sentiments to her at every possible opportunity.
“You’re being foolish. You can either call Nolan and continue with your plans or miss the day with the girls. Those are your choices.” The one thing she didn’t feel foolish about, after living alone for close to seven years, was talking to herself. If anyone knew how often she had full conversations with herself, they’d probably have her committed.