A Family Affair
A Family Affair: Bonus Scenes
Truth in Lies series Book 16
Mary Campisi
Mary Campisi Books, LLC
Copyright © 2019 by Mary Campisi
A Family Affair: Bonus Scenes is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and situations are all products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to real persons, locales, or events are purely coincidental. This book is copyright protected. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ebook ISBN: 978-1-942158-59-2
Created with Vellum
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
About the Author
Other Books by Mary Campisi
Introduction
I love reading bonus scenes or watching bonus clips on television. If someone told me I could read about or watch Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet get married, I would be beyond excited. Imagination is great, but there are times when I don’t want to imagine or guess—I want to know! I even want to know when storylines change and what might have been... That’s why I’m providing bonus scenes and extras from several of the A Family Affair books. I loved writing these scenes and now I want to share them with you. Enjoy!
Nate & Christine’s Wedding - A Family Affair
Wouldn't you like to know what Nate Desantro was thinking right before he married Christine? For a man of few words, there was a lot going on in his head. And how about discovering Harry Blacksworth’s thoughts as he prepares to give Christine away? That’s definitely one you won’t want to miss. Lily is still one of my favorites and she’ll warm your heart with her innocent and yet spot-on observations about the wedding, life, and love in Magdalena.
Always a Heartbeat Away - A Family Affair: Summer
I started A Family Affair: Summer several times as I tried to get a feel for Tess and her backstory. I knew it would involve heartache, just as I knew that deep down, she still loved Cash. But the rest? I wanted to find a way to take her as far from the life she thought she’d have as possible. Initially, that involved a calm, quiet man and a dog named Henry. That storyline changed and I decided not to use it, but it's a great bonus scene to let you see the possibilities, maybe even wonder how the story might have been different.
Who is Sasha Rishkov? - A Family Affair: The Secret
What if Angie Sorrento’s father turns up in Magdalena to visit his daughter and risks running into the only woman he’s ever loved, Angie’s mother, the one she thought died years ago? He’ll come so close to discovering the truth...
The Future Godfather - A Family Affair: The Wish
This is a conversation you won’t want to miss! Pop tells Harry that when the time comes, Harry will be the new Godfather of Magdalena, and he’ll make a darn good one. Of course, Harry doesn’t agree...
When Harry meets Stephanie - A Family Affair: The Gift
Harry Blacksworth is nobody’s fool and while he might once have been the playboy-good-for-nothing younger brother of Charles, he's come into his own as a well-respected and generous member of Magdalena’s community. When Cash and Tess hit a roadblock named Stephanie Richmond, Harry's not going to let anything jeopardize their happiness. Don't miss When Harry Meets Stephanie and read firsthand how he deals with the woman who thinks she can leverage a child to gain security.
The Real Stephanie Richmond - A Family Affair: The Gift
And because first drafts and ideas change, I'm including a scene I once considered using for the storyline. In this version, Stephanie isn’t as soft and guileless as she appears in the final version of the book, but straightforward and intent on letting Cash know exactly what she wants. While I like the final outcome, this is still an interesting read and portrays Stephanie Richmond’s true personality.
Who’s in the Cabin? - A Family Affair: The Cabin
Nate and Christine Desantro head to the cabin one last time before they sell it and discover an uninvited guest! Elissa Cerdi has snuck away to the Blacksworths’ cabin for quiet and a chance to consider her future with or without a controlling ex-boyfriend. Her innocent and trusting ways prevent her from seeing that she’s put herself in danger by choosing a secluded cabin. Of course, Nate and Christine aren’t about to risk her safety, even if she was Gloria Blacksworth’s friend and confidante!
Dedication
For everyone who wants to spend more time in Magdalena…
Chapter 1
Nate & Christine’s Wedding
A Family Affair
Bonus Scene
If folks had told Nate Desantro a year ago that he’d be marrying a well-bred, high-society woman from Chicago, he’d have called them ten kinds of a fool. Then he’d have booted them out of his house. Rich? Hoity-toity? City dweller? Not for him. He’d never been interested in any of it: not the money or the breeding and certainly not the noise and commotion of a place that didn’t let a person take a clean breath.
But damn if he wasn’t marrying one who claimed all three, and the hell of it was, none of it bothered him. Maybe because she didn’t act as if she were better than everybody else and didn’t turn her nose up at the town or its simple lifestyle. Christine wanted to belong; Nate wanted her to belong, too, but he didn’t have the heart to tell her it would take a lot of years and a lot more than a few smiles for that to happen. As for getting the town to trust her enough to open their wallets and let her invest their hard-earned money? Not happening anytime soon, but she’d learn that soon enough.
Maybe the biggest shocker of all was the fact that Christine was the daughter of Charles Blacksworth, the man he’d sworn to hell and back from the time he found out his mother was seeing him. He’d despised the man and what he stood for, despised the way he could make Nate’s mother hang onto those damnable four days a month as if they were her oxygen. And yet wasn’t it ironic that Nate had ended up doing the same damn thing with Christine, even going so far as to tell her he’d take whatever she’d give him? Hell, he’d even offered to take four days a month.
Did that make him a hypocrite?
“Nate?” Christine touched his cheek, snuggled closer to him on the couch. “Why the grouchy look? Is it because I just told you Uncle Harry thinks you should wear a suit and tie for the ceremony?” She laughed, kissed his temple, and whispered, “I told him I don’t care if you show up in flannel and jeans, as long as you show up.”
He pushed his thoughts of hypocrisy and Charles Blacksworth aside and faced his future wife. She was so damn beautiful, so much better than he was. “I’ll be there, no doubt about that.” Nate traced her lips, trailed a finger along her jaw. “I plan to get the ring on your finger before you wake up and change your mind.”
Those blue eyes turned bluer, sparkled. “I am not going to change my mind.” She inched closer, placed a soft kiss on his mouth. “Ever. Understand, Nathan Desantro?”
“Yeah. I understand.” He deepened the kiss, dipped his tongue inside her mouth, tasted her sweetness. Would he ever get enough of her? Doubtful. Nate unbuttoned the first two buttons of her shirt, started on the third. No woman had ever made him want to be better than he was. Christine filled his soul, forced him to admit things he didn’t want to think about, like fear, anger, loss, disappointment. She actually wanted to hear about it, said it made him stronger to own up to the fact that he wasn’t perfect. What man wanted to do that? He trailed kisses along her jaw, unclasped the peach bra and covered her breast with his hand. Soft and kissable. She let out a sigh, eased her hands around his neck, and guided him toward that kissable breast. Yeah, he supposed he could learn to spit out his emotions every now and again…
Another sigh, a hitch of breath. “Oh, Nate.”
In two days she’d be his wife. Did he deserve her? Absolutely not. Was he going to marry her anyway and spend the rest of his life showing her just how much he loved her? Hell, yes. And then some.
Harry Blacksworth ran a lint brush over the front of his suit jacket and checked his watch. Forty minutes from now he’d pick up Lily Desantro and drive her to the ceremony. She’d conned him into a ride because she’d said he might need help finding Nate’s place, even though Harry had a navigation system on the rental car and his phone. Go figure. The girl was growing on him, with those Blacksworth eyes and the point-blank questions that cut through the crap and made a person really think about his answer. No BS with Lily Desantro. How many people could do that and not raise their voice or pull rank? None that Harry knew of, and that in itself was awe-inspiring.
He’d checked into the Heart Sent late yesterday afternoon and enjoyed a hunk of coffee cake—screw his trainer’s no-sugar mantra—and a glass of hibiscus tea with the owner, Mimi Pendergrass. She was a real firecracker, a tell-it-like-it-is kind of woman with a shrewd gaze that he bet sized him up before he took his first bite of coffee cake. She’d asked about the wedding and Chicago, said she’d always liked Charlie and thought he’d found a slice of happiness in Magdalena, despite his tormented soul. What to say to that? Look closer and you’ll see a chunk of genuine Grade-A torment living and breathing right in front of you. Hell no. Harry changed the subject to his niece’s wedding, polished off the rest of his coffee cake, and excused himself to get ready to head over to the Desantros’ home.
He liked Miriam and Lily, and Christine’s mountain-man fiancé wasn’t bad either. The guy actually seemed happy that he was tying the knot. Hmm. Harry wanted to ask him if he was just the tiniest bit gun-shy since his first attempt at the marriage gig failed but then he reconsidered it. Even he knew some things were better left unsaid.
Harry removed the plastic from his dress shirt, unbuttoned the top three buttons. Nothing like a starched shirt and the right tie to boost a man’s ego and get him an extra look or two from the opposite sex…married and unmarried. He eased his arm into the white crispness of the shirt, inhaled the fresh scent. Oh, yeah, clothes did make the man, at least in Harry Blacksworth’s world. Wonder what Nate Desantro was wearing today? Dear God, anything but flannel and jeans. Chrissie told him she didn’t care what he chose, and the brightness in those blue eyes said she wasn’t joking.
Aw, hell. This was going to be a fashion disaster, but so what? The guy was honest, kept his word, and worshipped Christine. Nothing pompous or self-serving about him, not like that jerk Connor Pendleton. Harry checked his watch again. Ten minutes and he’d have to head out. He pulled on his trousers, grabbed his belt. He wasn’t big on marriage and he sure as hell didn’t enjoy weddings. What was the point when most of the unions weren’t going to make the five-year mark, and if they did, not without a helluva lot of collateral damage? Wasn’t it a lot easier on the wallet and the emotions to just change partners every season, the way you switched out your wardrobe? Summer seersucker? I’ll take the blonde with the long legs. Fall gabardine? How about the redhead with the sexy smile? Winter wool had to be the brunette with the DDD cup. Okay, so maybe that was cold, but did a guy really want to tie himself up with feelings? The thought of it made him wish he had a double scotch to blur the notion.
Of course, Chrissie would be pissed if she knew what he’d been thinking. She’d tell him to stop pretending he was so cynical and open up his heart. Yeah, like that was ever going to happen. Greta Servensen had told him the same thing last week and she hadn’t been shy about it. No sir, there’d been nothing shy about the woman’s words, lambasting him with that German accent and those blue eyes, as though she really thought he could change and have what she called a “relationship” with a woman that didn’t start and finish with the bedroom. She hadn’t said sex; oh, no, those pink lips wouldn’t let that word slip out of her mouth, but that’s what she’d meant. Women. Why would he want the pain and torture when he could avoid it? He ignored the pang in his chest when he thought of Greta. What was the point of considering anything but short-term? He wasn’t the kind of guy who committed to anything, not even feeding a fish, let alone a relationship. And damn it, Greta Servensen would demand a relationship. Harry yanked his tie off the hanger, flung it around his neck, and tied it. Peace, harmony, and one-woman relationships were for other men, not him. He grabbed the pocket watch Chrissie had given him, attached it to his suit jacket, and stepped in front of the full-length mirror. Get ready, big-ass world. Harry Blacksworth’s attending a wedding.
“Look at all the snow, Uncle Harry!” Lily pointed to the gobs of white stuff coming down hard and fast, covering trees, yards, signs, the windshield. “If we get more, we can make snow angels.” She leaned forward as far as her seatbelt would take her and let out a giggle. “Daddy taught me how to make snow angels and I can show you.” She turned her head, scrunched her nose at him. “Or do you already know how?”
Snow angels? What the hell was a snow angel? “Nope. No idea.”
She clapped her hands and smiled. “They’re magical. That’s what Daddy said. You lie down in the snow, nighttime is best, and you move your arms and legs real wide so you make wings.” Her voice turned whisper-soft. “Then you look up at the sky and you can talk to people in heaven.”
“Huh?” People in heaven? What was the kid talking about?
“People in heaven,” she repeated like he was a stooge and didn’t understand her language. “Like Daddy and Aunt Eleanor.” Pause, and then, “And sometimes I talk to Nate’s dad, too. His name was Nicholas. I say a prayer for him because Nate said he needs lots of them.”
“Okay. Well.” And he thought Mimi Pendergrass could make him feel uncomfortable. This kid zeroed in on the tough stuff and pulled the trigger before he could find a way around the question.
“Yup. Snow angel time,” she whispered. “But first we have to help Nate and Christine get married.”
The kid yakked all the way to the log cabin on the outskirts of town. By the time Harry stepped out of the car, he knew that some old guy named Pop made the best pizzelles in town, Nate liked jelly with alcohol in it, and you could smell when rain was on its way. Good to know, or maybe not.