Lowcountry Love

By Rhonda McKnight

A novelette based on the characters from The Thing About Home and Bitter and Sweet. This may not be a story you will fully appreciate if you haven't read the novels.

 

Victoria Black's life of comfort and control is shaken when she travels to the South Carolina coast for the opening weekend of her daughter Casey and son-in-law Nigel's new beach resort, Black Sweetgrass. The successful widow has finally allowed herself to love again, with one of the investors in the resort. However, Victoria harbors deep fears of losing love. Will she let go of the ghosts of the past and embrace a new opportunity for love?

 

Mariah Holland has always wanted a cooking show. Years ago, the dream was stolen when her ex-husband evicted her from their home and his family restaurant. But now Mariah's dream is within reach, will a mishap in the kitchen cause her to lose all that she's prayed and worked for?

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rhonda McKnight
• Release date: Aug 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227341945

Rhonda McKnight

Rhonda McKnight is the author of several bestselling novels, including An Inconvenient Friend and What Kind of Fool. She is the winner of the 2015 Emma Award for Inspirational Romance of the Year. She loves reading and writing books that touch the heart of women through complex plots and interesting characters in crisis. Themes of faith, forgiveness, and hope are central to her stories. Originally from a small coastal town in New Jersey, Rhonda writes from the comfort of her South Carolina home. Visit her online at rhondamcknight.com; Instagram: @authorrhondamcknight; X: @rhondamcknight; Facebook: @BooksByRhonda; and Pinterest: @rhondamcknight1.

Book preview

A novelette based on the characters from

The Thing About Home and Bitter and Sweet.

This is not a story you would fully appreciate

if you haven’t read the novels.

Lowcountry Love

All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2024 Rhonda McKnight

This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the story a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places and incidents is entirely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Prologue

Nigel and I married shortly after he traveled to New York with that basket of tomatoes to claim my heart in The Thing About Home .

It was fast.

Because we couldn’t wait.

We were in love. And he was saved-saved if you know what I mean.

Okay, I’m saved now too, but in the summer of 2019, I was still leaning to my own understanding about celibacy. My man was not.

I had learned a scripture: It’s better to marry than to burn.

Nigel tells me I use that scripture wrong. That’s not what it means. I kept using it though.

We got married on July 7th at Black River with his parents and brother, my mother, Aunt Thea and Uncle Roger as witnesses. Afterward, we honeymooned for ten days in Negril. 

I got pregnant so fast that I thought I was bringing the next Baby Jesus into the world. (You met our Elijah in the epilogue.)

We’re approaching our fifth-year anniversary and guess what? We’re having an anniversary party. We’re keeping it quiet. The world no longer needs to know my business, but the thing is...the world still cares.

Chapter 1

Victoria

W e don’t have to.

Emory Harden’s smooth baritone voice filled the spaces in my emotions that anxiety splintered. I felt everything and nothing at the same time. And although I hadn’t been pondering what Emory thought I was, our Georgetown destination cycled back to the front of my mind.

I wasn’t sure what he meant. We had to go to the opening of Nigel’s resort, Black Sweetgrass. "We do have to go—even if our reasons are different."

Emory was the biggest financial investor in the resort. I was an investor too, but I was going because Casey and Nigel were having an anniversary party. Young people celebrated—everything—and even though I thought it was sweet to do so, Casey was nine months pregnant. She was forty and high-risk. This was a lot for her.

Emory clarified his meaning. I’m saying we don’t have to go as a couple—if you’re not ready.

I placed my hand on top of Emory’s. He didn’t mean what he was saying. We’d discussed this several times, with me agreeing to do it this weekend. I had to pull the trigger, come out now because, although it was ridiculous, I’d technically never be ready to introduce a man to my daughter. 

Casey’s never seen me with anyone.

I know.

Is that strange?

Emory hesitated before speaking. Then a double dimpled smile crept over his face. Perhaps discerning.

I smiled too. Always the one with the gentle answer, Emory wasn’t going to confirm that I had in fact made myself out to look like a nun in front of Casey, even though it wasn’t true. I had dated over the years. I just hadn’t introduced any of my men to anyone. None of them were worth it...until now. I stole another peek at Emory in my peripheral vision. His handsome, mature looks were made better