Excerpt of The Wedding at Moonglow Bay by Lori Wilde

Samantha followed her foster sister’s gaze and—bam!—it was like something from the romance novels she read in secret so Piper wouldn’t tease her.

There, in the illuminating glow from the overhead skylight, stood a handsome, dark-haired student in a letterman jacket.

He was tall, around six feet, broad of shoulders and narrow of waist. His teeth were straight and white. Dude could have modeled for a toothpaste commercial. In his left cheek, a dimple deepened with his expanding grin. He wore tight jeans, Converse sneakers, and a fitted black T-shirt. His skin was beach-bum tan, the color of cinnamon-soaked peaches. His nose crooked slightly, as if it had been broken, as if he wasn’t afraid of a fight. His good looks had a Mediterranean vibe. What was his ancestry? Italian? Greek? Spanish?

Samantha studied him, intrigued. Italian, she decided before she ever found out his last name.

Her heart did a crazy bump and grind, stalling her breath in her lungs. Her hormones blistered a trail from her cheeks, down her neck, and around her spine to lodge squarely in her stomach before spreading electric shock waves straight to her pelvis. She met his dark brown mischievous eyes and welcoming grin.

And Samantha was a goner.
Mine, she thought greedily.

This one was heaven-sent just for her. This was what she’d waited for her entire life. Her nerve endings tingled, and her brain locked up as saliva filled her mouth. She hopped right onto the high-speed train to Sexy Danger Town and didn’t look back.

Samantha stood frozen to the spot, unable to move or speak. Finally, she understood what people meant when they said someone was caught like a deer in the headlights. Her—doe. Him— eighteen-wheeler.

Everything evaporated except this guy.

She couldn’t have run if there’d been a zombie apocalypse. Illogical words exploded in her brain.

Fate. Destiny. Kismet.

“Hi, I’m Nick Ginelli.”

“Sa-Sa-Sa . . .”
“Sa-Sa-Sa?” he teased. “Unusual name.”
“I . . . um . . . Samantha. My name is Samantha Riley.”

“You’re new here.” Nick’s focused attention sent a sweet shiver through Samantha’s solar plexus. Intoxicating stuff for a girl who’d spent a lifetime rolling from one foster home to the next.

Nick extended his hand.

Nervous, Samantha pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose and caught a whiff of his fragrance before she shook his hand.

His touch was electric, and she lost her breath completely.

“You heard it, too, didn’t you.” Statement, not a question.

“Wh-what?”
He didn’t let go of her hand, kept his gaze locked on to hers. “That unmistakable click.”

Oh yeah, she had heard the snap inside her brain like the missing piece of life’s puzzle clicking into place, and her mind filled with romantic what-if scenarios revolving around her future and this boy.

But she wouldn’t admit that to him. Far too scary.

“You felt it.” He paused, continuing to hold her hand and staring deeply into her eyes.

“Mm . . . um . . .”

“Like cobalt-blue lightning jumping from the sky and shooting straight through your heart.”

“Y-yes.” She blinked, both impressed and confused by his insight. “How did you know?”
“I felt the same thing. When you know, you know.”

Know what? she wanted to ask, but her tongue wasn’t working.

“When the lightning strikes, the lightning strikes, and there’s nothing you can do but climb aboard the ride.”
            Mixing metaphors, but okay. Sign me up!

Nick’s hand was still hot on hers, his eyes aglow like twin flames burning just for her. “We’re fated, Samantha Riley. You and me. I know it. You know it. And the Lightning Strike knows it.”

From anyone else, at any other time in her life, this might have sounded super corny, and maybe even a little creepy. But at sixteen, eager for adventure and yearning for her first boyfriend, it was the coolest thing she’d ever heard. In her head, she heard Kylie Minogue singing “Love at First Sight,” and just like that, Samantha was lovestruck.

            And from that moment forward, there was no one else for her but Nick Ginelli until the day he died.