Maybe It's Fate, page 1
Praise for Heidi McLaughlin
The Art of Starting Over
“Pulls you in with one hard yank, and, while your heart is in shreds, you can’t put it down. It’s not your average small-town, second-chance romance. The pain is worth it, because when the pleasure hits—it comes in strong.”
—Abbi Glines, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Rosemary Beach series
“Second chance romances are my love language, and this one did not disappoint. A beautifully rendered emotional slow burn complete with crackling chemistry, a charming setting, and a cast of characters to fall for completely. Nostalgic, hopeful, and full of heart!”
—Marissa Stapley, author of Lucky
“A big, beautiful story about the power of love to heal and grow our very human hearts. Get the tissues ready for this one!”
—Jennifer Probst, author of To Sicily with Love
“The Art of Starting Over is a fantastic story of second chances and starting over. The residents of small-town Oyster Bay add great found-family elements into the story. A definite must read!
—Taylor Delong, author of Pucked Up Plans
Heartbreak Hill
“Heartbreak Hill is a heartbreakingly beautiful novel. Grayson and Reid’s journey to love is emotional until the very last page. You don’t want to miss this read.”
—A. M. Guilliams, author of Bring Me Back Here
“Heartbreak Hill is a beautiful, heart-stirring, stick-with-you-for-days story of several lives that are intertwined through loss and an extraordinary act of giving.”
—M. E. Montgomery, author of Call It Fate
“Heartbreak Hill took me on a roller coaster of emotions. Heidi has a remarkable talent for creating characters that leave a mark on you.”
—J. C. Hannigan, author of Riverside Reverie
“In Heartbreak Hill, McLaughlin weaves a poignant tale of love, loss, and second chances. Grab your tissues . . . You’re going to need them!”
—Taylor Delong, author of Waiting on Forever
Before I’m Gone
“Palmer’s ability to find the beauty of life in the face of death makes her an admirable heroine. Readers should have tissues ready.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Before I’m Gone is a heartbreakingly beautiful love story about finding your soulmate against all odds.”
—USA Today bestselling author Ashley Cade
“This book is absolutely gut-wrenching and broke my heart into a million pieces, but their story hit me in such a beautiful way.”
—Vanessa Valencia, Goodreads
“Beautiful and emotional, cried buckets.”
—AC Book Blog
“I am not okay. And that’s okay. Damn, this book wrecked me with all the feels. Such a cathartic cry I hadn’t realized I needed.”
—Courtney, Goodreads
Cape Harbor
“I love a good second-chance romance, and Heidi McLaughlin did Not disappoint.”
—New York Times bestselling author L. P. Dover
“This is a story that will stay with me for a long, long time.”
—Sara, Goodreads
“A beautifully written story that will pull you in and tug at your heartstrings.”
—Nikki, Crazy Cajun Book Addicts
“The reader will instantly fall in love with Cape Harbor.”
—Nicki, The Overflowing Bookcase
“McLaughlin knows how to put a person in touch with their emotions.”
—Isha, Hopeless Romantic
The Beaumont Series
“If you want to read a book that is all heart—full of characters you will instantly connect with and love from the first page to the last—then Forever My Girl is the book for you.”
—Jenny, Totally Booked Blog
“Forever My Girl is a sweet, loving, all-around adorable read. If you, like me, have a thing for musicians and reconnections, then this read is for you.”
—Jacqueline’s Reads
“This is an utterly moving story of second chances in life, of redemption, remorse, forgiveness, of loves lost and found again, of trust regained. Through alternating points of view, we feel both Liam’s and Josie’s emotions, fears, and sorrow. These are well-developed characters whose love for each other survives time and distance.”
—Natasha Is a Book Junkie, on Forever My Girl
“My Unexpected Forever completely outdid my expectations and blew Forever My Girl out of the water. My Unexpected Forever is without a doubt a book that I would recommend, and Harrison is officially my new book boyfriend!”
—Holly’s Hot Reads
Also by Heidi McLaughlin
Stand-Alone Novels
The Art of Starting Over
Heartbreak Hill
Before I’m Gone
Cape Harbor Series
After All
Until Then
The Beaumont Series
Forever My Girl
My Everything
My Unexpected Forever
Finding My Forever
Finding My Way
12 Days of Forever
My Kind of Forever
Forever Our Boys
Forever Mason
Forever My Boy
The Beaumont Series: Next Generation
Holding Onto Forever
My Unexpected Love
Chasing My Forever
Peyton & Noah
Fighting for Our Forever
A Beaumont Family Christmas
Give Me Forever
Everything for Love
The Beginning of Forever
The Road to Forever
The Seaport Series
The Lobster Trap
The Love in Sunsets
Sail Away with Me
The Archer Brothers
Here with Me
Choose Me
Save Me
Here with Us
Choose Us
Nashville Nights
Sangria
Rye
Holiday Novels
Santa’s Secret
It’s a Wonderful Holiday
Stranded with the One
Love in Print
This Christmas
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Otherwise, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2026 by Heidi McLaughlin
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
EU product safety contact:
Amazon Media EU S. à r.l.
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amazonpublishing-gpsr@amazon.com
ISBN-13: 9781662537363 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781662537356 (digital)
Cover design by Ploy Siripant
Cover image: © Jung Getty, © goinyk / Getty
For Erik:
You’re my person.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1: Antonia
Chapter 2: Weston
Chapter 3: Antonia
Chapter 4: Weston
Chapter 5: Antonia
Chapter 6: Antonia
Chapter 7: Weston
Chapter 8: Cutter
Chapter 9: Antonia
Chapter 10: Weston
Chapter 11: Cutter
Chapter 12: Antonia
Chapter 13: Weston
Chapter 14: Antonia
Chapter 15: Antonia
Chapter 16: Antonia
Chapter 17: Cutter
Chapter 18: Antonia
Chapter 19: Weston
Chapter 20: Antonia
Chapter 21: Weston
Chapter 22: Antonia
Chapter 23: Weston
Chapter 24: Weston
Chapter 25: Antonia
Chapter 26: Cutter
Chapter 27: Antonia
Chapter 28: Weston
Chapter 29: Antonia
Chapter 30: Weston
Chapter 31: Antonia
Chapter 32: Cutter
Chapter 33: Antonia
Chapter 34: Antonia
Chapter 35: Cutter
Chapter 36: Antonia
Epilogue: Weston
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Prologue
At seventeen, you thought you had your entire world figured out. Your parents were wrong about everything, and the boy you were in love with—the one everyone had warned you about—was the love of your life. Deep down, a part of you knew he was going to hurt you, destroy your faith in men, in the world. But you didn’t care because, at that moment, he was your whole world, and he’d told you there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for you.
Except stick around when the line on the stick turned pink or blue or appeared twice. And while you were happy because a baby meant you’d be with him forever, he had other ideas.
As did your parents. They were deeply religious and didn’t understand why you’d insisted on disobeying them. Why would you throw your life away for a boy who didn’t care about anyone but himself?
I love him, Daddy.
Love wasn’t enough. At least not to him.
Love meant something else to him, and as long as everything was just the two of you, there weren’t any issues.
Three of you became a problem.
I lay back and stared at the blue sky. I tried to imagine the clouds forming those shapes everyone saw when they gazed upward, but all I saw were mounds of cotton balls floating off to someplace better than where we were.
My best friend, Antonia, lay beside me, her hand in mine, staring at the same sky, the same clouds, the same nothingness.
“Maybe I should do what my parents want and give the baby up for adoption.” Instinctively, my hand covered my lower abdomen, where my little pea nestled.
“I can go with you, if you want to speak to someone about it.”
Antonia had always been by my side since we were three. Although I didn’t remember us at three, four, or five, I did remember us starting kindergarten together. Our teachers called us “inseparable busybodies,” and they wanted us in different classes. The joke was on them. The powers that be, thanks to Antonia’s aunt being the registrar at school, put us in the same class every single year. It wasn’t until junior high that we had different classes.
Different likes.
Always best friends.
“What if I keep her?”
“Is it a girl?”
I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I guess it could be a boy.”
“Or twins.”
I groaned at the thought and covered my face as a fresh wave of tears began to fall. “What have I done?”
Antonia let go of my hand and propped herself up on her elbow. “Nothing that any of our classmates haven’t done. We’re graduating soon, Miriam. Things will be okay. You can still go to college if you want.”
I did want to, but I knew my parents wouldn’t foot the bill if I had this baby. I’d heard about some programs, though. The government gave a lot of financial aid to single moms, and I could take out a school loan.
“If I keep this baby, we won’t be able to go to school together.” Going away to a big school like the University of Arizona had been our dream. Now it was just Antonia’s unless I made the right decision. Or the wrong decision. It was hard to know which decision fell into the right category.
“If you keep this baby, you’ll be a mom, Miri.”
“I know.” My words were barely above a whisper. Being a mom was something I’d always said I’d do. Sure, I wanted a career, but I wanted children too. I just never thought I’d be a mom at eighteen.
“When do you have to decide?”
Without asking, I knew what she meant. I supposed when you were early in your pregnancy, everything was on the table.
“Soon.” I already knew I wouldn’t be able to do it, to follow through with ending my pregnancy. The father—the boy—I had considered the love of my life didn’t want anything to do with me or his child. He’d walked out on me, saying he had bigger dreams and aspirations than working some nine-to-five job so he could buy diapers and formula. This was news to me, since he’d already dropped out of high school and had a part-time gig at the auto shop.
Antonia lay back down, scooching closer to me. We tilted our heads toward one another, both sighing.
“Maybe my parents can help?”
She had the best parents. Renzo and Carmela Bernardi were kind and gentle, and they let Antonia and her siblings, Rocco and Isabella, do anything they wanted, as long as they obeyed the law.
“Renzo would hunt . . . him . . . down.” I couldn’t even bring myself to say his name. Anyone who walked out on their pregnant girlfriend didn’t deserve a name.
“He would.” Antonia squeezed my hand. “So would Rocco.”
The thought of her family helping me this way brought more tears to my eyes. Why couldn’t my parents feel the same way?
“If I don’t do what my parents want, they’re going to ask me to leave. They won’t tolerate me showing up at church with a protruding belly and no band on my finger.”
“You don’t want to marry him, Miri.”
I coughed out a strangled sob. “You know, when I saw the lines on the test, I thought he’d get down on his knee and ask me to marry him. The moment was so vivid in my mind. Him sweeping me off my feet, twirling me around, and telling me how much he loved me. How we were going to be a family.”
“Just because he didn’t, doesn’t mean someone won’t. He wasn’t the one for you, Miriam.”
“I wish I’d listened to everyone.”
“This is one of those hindsight moments. We can’t change what happened because, if you want to get technical, I encouraged you to date him. I saw how your eyes sparkled when he came near. He’s hot, but unfortunately, he knows it and uses it to his advantage.”
“Don’t I know it.”
I lost track of how long we lay there, watching the clouds move overhead, letting time pass us by, the tall grass tickling us with each gust of wind. I was content because nothing mattered here. Antonia would never judge me for my decisions, and she was the only person to have vowed her unconditional support.
She must’ve sensed I needed a little reassurance, because she reached for my hand. “Are you getting hungry?”
My shoulder lifted in a weak attempt at a half shrug. “Do you think eating for two is a real thing?”
“We learned about cravings in health class, remember?”
I nodded. “I wish we’d learned more about the consequences of the bad-boy attraction and sex.”
Antonia laughed. I knew it was in good fun, and not mocking. “The teachers would never. Parents would throw a fit. Can you imagine what the school board meeting would be like?”
I laughed with her. She was right. “My mother would’ve lost it, demanding to know why her daughter had learned how to put on a condom.” I covered my face with my hand. “If only.”
“It’s not just your responsibility.” Antonia’s voice was soft, kind. She was right. I was not the only one to blame. “Things happen.”
“Things?” I turned to look at her, only to find her staring at me.
Antonia shrugged as best she could while being prone. “I didn’t want to call the baby an accident, because if you decide to keep him or her, then they definitely weren’t an accident, ya know?”
I wanted to hug her and strangle her at the same time. Why did she have to say things to make me question my already-questioning mind?
“If I keep this baby, will you still be my friend?”
“Always and forever, Miri.”
“And if something ever happens to me, you’ll take care of them for me?”
Antonia nodded.
“Do you promise?”
“With my whole heart, Miriam. I’ll treat your son or daughter like they’re my family. I’ll be Auntie Toni.” She smiled brightly. “Besides, nothing will ever happen. We’re going to grow old together. Remember?”
“Yes, spinsters. The two of us sitting on a porch in our creaking rocking chairs, yelling at the teens racing down the dirt road.”
Antonia chuckled. “Why do we live on a dirt road?”
I gave her another half shrug. “Because we bought and restored an old farmhouse.”
“We did?”
I nodded. “We have chickens for fresh eggs every morning, and a goat because they like to eat grass, and we wouldn’t have to mow.”
“No cats, though, because I’m allergic.”
“Barn cats are a must because they keep the mice away.”
Antonia shuddered. “Our home sounds magical.”
“It will be because we’ll be together.” I held up our clasped hands. “Best friends forever.”
“The future spinsters of America.”
We both laughed until our sides hurt, and then everything turned serious again.
“I’m scared.”
“I know you are. Let’s go talk to my mom, Miri. She’ll help you.”
“Okay.”
Antonia drove her Ford Escort at a snail’s pace, telling me I had precious cargo, and she wasn’t going to be the one at fault if we got into an accident. As much as I appreciated her efforts, I wanted to go to her house and get this over with.
