Real-life Romance: Take me Away!

How well does your significant other know you? Well enough to plan a surprise party? Or well enough to NOT plan a surprise party?
Guest author, Regina Rudd Merrick is chatting with us about what her husband did for her last birthday. I think a lot of us resonate with this.

​When you write romance, you try your best to think of the MOST ROMANTIC situations your characters can be in.
Here’s the problem, though—most of the interactions between people who love one another are the little, day-to-day things and the occasional spark of inspiration that make up a life.
 I will fully admit that my husband is the romantic in my marriage, but when your love language is acts of service as mine is, no amount of hugging, gifts, or words of affirmation are going to do it for you regularly.
That’s why last year, for my birthday, my husband chose the best birthday present I could have ever imagined.
A weekend out of town.

He didn’t tell me until the day we were leaving, and if I hadn’t needed to pack, he wouldn’t have told me then. (In 40 years of marriage, he knows he can’t pack for me!) Even then I was thinking of all kinds of reasons why I couldn’t get away.
Here are a couple:
1. I had to be available in case the nursing home where my dad resided needed me for anything.
Nope. He called them and said not to call my phone that weekend, and to call my sister instead. Yes, she was in on it, too.
2.  Church! I help provide keyboard and vocals on the praise team.
Nope. He’d involved nearly everyone in our music ministry to keep me in the dark. I was a little surprised at rehearsal on Wednesday that my load was so light, as far as leading in worship …
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Now, I’m not a person who cries easily (told you I wasn’t the romantic – my husband cries at touching commercials), but when we got in the car, and headed East – that’s all he would tell me for a while—I cried.
The last few years have been tough – we lost three of our parents in about a year. The fact that he planned so far in advance and involved so many people to make sure it was a success and a surprise touched me in a way I hadn’t been in a long time.
He and I both learned something that weekend: Don’t plan surprise parties for me. Take me AWAY from people and responsibilities! That is romance.
We went to a lovely inn in the historic town of Harrodsburg, KY, south of Lexington, and there was a cold snap that made it difficult to do outdoor activities, which was fine with me! 😊  It was quiet, roses and chocolate-dipped strawberries were waiting when we arrived, and there was a fireplace room where we could enjoy a real fire and visit with a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. We had no hard and fast plans except to relax and enjoy time away from the day-to-day things that threatened to consume me.
I’m not sure I’ve adequately thanked my husband, but he saw the difference in this celebration of my birthday (my 59th) and the surprise party he planned for my 40th. He knows me much better, now.
I had a character, in my first contemporary romance novel, to arrange delivery of a piano for the woman he was falling in love with. He wasn’t sure how she would react, but when her grandmother’s piano arrived in a truck at her door, it confirmed every feeling she had for him, and he for her.
It’s those small flashes of inspiration that express true love. Maybe those are the things that need to be in a romance novel after all …

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​Enjoy two novellas connected to Regina Rudd Merrick’s A Southern Breeze series in one convenient volume. Both of these stories were previously included in multi-author collections: “Pawleys Aisle” (Coastal Promises) and “Mr. Sandman” (Candy Cane Wishes and Saltwater Dreams). Now you can complete your collection of A Southern Breeze stories with this novella duo, Carolina Connections.

​Check it out here.

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​Regina Rudd Merrick is a multi-published author, church musician, wife, mother, former librarian, lover of all things fun, beachy, and chocolate, and grateful follower of Jesus Christ. Married to her husband of 40 years, she is the mother of two grown daughters and lives in the small town of Marion, KY. Connect with Regina on Facebook, Instagram, or her website at https://www.reginaruddmerrick.com .

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