Sneak Peek!

Here it is! Enjoy the first ever sneak peek of Savannah Carlisle’s If I Had Known!

Chapter One

Gigi

“Who’s ready to get married?” Gigi Franklin said in a sing-song voice as she slid into a chair across from her best friend, country music superstar Callie Jackson.

Callie beamed. “I still can’t believe it’s really happening.”

“Oh, it’s happening,” Gigi said as she pulled a three-ring binder out of her oversized purse and plopped it on the table between them for emphasis.

“Omigosh, you still have this,” Callie practically shrieked as she pulled the binder across the table for a closer look. She trailed a finger over the puff-paint title on the cover: The Perfect Wedding.

“Don’t tell Myrtle,” Gigi said, referring to her mother, whose only dream for her daughter’s life was a husband and children. “I don’t want to give her any false hope.”

Callie frowned. “You’re going to find your Prince Charming one day too.”

“No,” Gigi said, waving a finger. “I do not need or want a Prince Charming. Do you have any idea how many divorces I did last year? No thanks.” Then when she realized Callie was frowning again, she said, “That won’t happen with you and Jesse, of course. You found the one man on the planet who actually doesn’t mind that you have a career and that you make more money than him.”

“He might change his mind if I can’t get this album recorded before the wedding so we can actually go on a honeymoon.” Callie laughed as she picked up her mug to take a sip.

“How’s that going?”

“We’re a little behind schedule, but I should be able to get caught up. Luckily, Jesse is having to work overtime at the Watson House to get it done before the wedding too, so I don’t feel so guilty holing up in the recording studio all the time. Did I tell you Sienna and I are doing a two-part duet? The first one will be on my album, and then the second one will be on hers. I’m the wife in the story, and she’s the other woman, and we each get to sort of tell our side of the story.”

“Kind of like ‘Jolene’ and ‘That Girl’?” Gigi asked, referring to the Dolly Parton classic that later had the other side of the story told in a Jennifer Nettles song.

“Yes, exactly. The record company thinks it’ll help boost sales for Sienna when her debut comes out this winter. I don’t think she’ll have any trouble—you know how talented she is—but if they think it’ll help, I’m happy to shine the spotlight—”

Callie stopped mid-sentence as Gigi practically leaped across the table to grab the binder and flip it over to the nondescript back side. Chloe Beckett, the owner of Island Coffee, was approaching, and she had a bit of a reputation for gossip and the inability to keep a secret.

“Hi, Gigi,” Chloe said in her bright, bubbly voice. “Can I get you anything?”

“Two shots of espresso. Thanks.”

Chloe glanced down at Gigi’s hand still protectively on top of the binder, and it looked like it physically pained her not to ask about it. “Okay, be right back,” she finally said after a long pause.

Callie raised an eyebrow after Chloe had left them. “Espresso at four in the afternoon?”

“You’re not the only one who’s behind schedule.” Gigi sighed, sitting back in her chair. “I have a bunch of paperwork to do for the Nickersons to adopt Ty.”

Normally, Gigi wouldn’t have been able to share privileged legal information, but Big Dune Island was a small town and the Nickersons were high school classmates of Gigi and Callie. Callie knew they’d fostered the five-year-old boy after having two newborn adoptions fall through when birth mothers changed their minds. She also knew they had decided to formally adopt him.

“I’m totally in awe of them,” Callie said. “It takes special people to welcome an older child into their lives.”

“Right?” Gigi said. “It’s actually the first adoption I’ve done for an older kid. Everyone wants a baby.”

Gigi didn’t add that she personally felt zero maternal instinct when she saw babies. However, she did find a small part of herself wishing she had the time or energy to help one of the kids she’d met through the local foster care system during her time as an attorney on the island. Although her mother was an overbearing helicopter parent who’d tried to orchestrate her entire life from the day she was born, Gigi knew she was lucky to have grown up with parents who loved each other and provided her with everything she could ever need.

Chloe approached with the espresso, and Gigi thanked her.

“I know this one’s your favorite.” Chloe winked, referring to the cup and saucer covered in pink peonies.

“It is,” Gigi agreed, holding up the tiny espresso cup to admire it.

Chloe was her friend Austin Beckett’s younger sister, and she’d opened the town’s only Main Street coffee shop a few years prior. One of its most unique features was the china everything was served on, which consisted of pieces donated by women in town who wanted to preserve their formal china, but didn’t have children interested in inheriting it. It meant every piece in the cafe had a story to tell and allowed the history of the town’s families to be carried into the future.

The cookie Callie had ordered before Gigi arrived sat half eaten on a Noritake plate adorned with pink azaleas that had once been owned by Callie’s maternal grandparents. She’d donated pieces of the formal china to the cafe when she’d cleaned out her parents’ house last year, opting to only keep her parents’ everyday china for her future in the newly renovated family home she would share with Jesse after they were married.

“Back to the task at hand,” Gigi said, flipping the binder open between them. “I left all your inspiration photos at the beginning here in case there’s something that still catches your eye.”

“You mean like those sheer puff sleeves?” Callie said, pointing at a cut-out photo of a bright white wedding dress with the sleeves that were popular in the 1990s.

“Okay, maybe not the dress, but I do still love this cake,” Gigi said, flipping the page to a three-tier wedding cake with edible pearls dotting it and a few white roses tucked into the side of the first layer. It was simple. Classic.

“Let them eat cake!” Austin declared as he approached their table with Callie’s fiancé, Jesse Thomas.

Austin’s trademark was his ability to find a quote or corny saying for every situation. Gigi rolled her eyes, even if it was one of his more endearing qualities.

As he sat in one of the two empty chairs at the round table, Austin motioned for his sister. Jesse leaned over to kiss Callie on the cheek before settling in the chair next to her.

Gigi snapped the binder shut again as Chloe approached. Meeting at the cafe was probably a bad idea for privacy’s sake, but it had become a bit of an afternoon habit. It was almost equal distance between Gigi’s office in a little historic house one block south of Main and Callie’s family home, one block north of it.

Callie steered the conversation to updates on her album after the men ordered their drinks, filling the time until Chloe had delivered their order and was back at the other end of the shotgun-style cafe.

“Is this your wedding-planning bible?” Austin asked, flipping the binder open again on the table.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, it is,” Gigi said, attempting to grab it from him.

He was too quick though, and swiped it from her reach.

“Look,” he said to Jesse, “it’s color-coded and there are even little tabs. Venue. Flowers. Caterers.” Austin rattled off each tab as he flicked through them. “Dress. Sorry, dude, you can’t see this one,” he said, pretending he was peeking at the next page while holding up a hand to block Jesse’s view. “No seeing the dress before the wedding. Right, ladies?”

“Give me that before you mess it up,” Gigi said, leaning across the arm of her chair to reach for the binder, which he passed to her as he laughed and shook his head.

“Sorry,” Callie said, shrugging. Her smile said she wasn’t really. “I invited the guys to help us figure out how to pull this off. I want a normal wedding, but I have no idea how we can do that without someone from the media getting wind of it and turning it into a circus.”

“You heard her. She doesn’t want any media there,” Gigi deadpanned in Austin’s direction. He’d moved back to town after his brief stint as a Major League Baseball player to host a sports talk-radio show in nearby Jacksonville.

He smirked. “Someone has to make sure this shindig is actually fun. I didn’t see a tab for that.”

“Children, children,” Jesse chided. “There’s enough wedding planning to go around. Everyone will get their turn.”

“There won’t be anything to plan if we can’t figure out where to have the wedding and how to keep it a secret,” Callie said.

“Yes, that’s priority number one,” Gigi said, pulling a pen out of her purse and opening the binder in her lap to a blank page.

“Do we need to call the meeting to order before the secretary begins taking notes?” Austin asked her.

“I move we vote Beckett off the committee,” Gigi said, looking then to Callie and Jesse, smiling. “Do I have a second?”

“Motion fails to carry,” Austin said after their friends only laughed in response. “In new business, we need somewhere these two can get hitched that’s worthy of the great Callie Jackson.”

Despite the Country Music Awards that confirmed Callie was basically country music royalty, she blushed just like she always did when anyone on the island acknowledged her stardom. The locals had mostly let her live like a normal person since she moved back to town, but tourists still marveled at the sight of her if she ventured into town without a wig. It was why they were sitting in the back corner of Island Coffee, Callie with her back to the door and her trademark blonde curls tucked up into a baseball cap.

“I don’t care where it’s at or what it looks like. I just want it to be on Big Dune where everyone we love can be there to celebrate with us,” Callie said, reaching over to take Jesse’s hand.

“What my Cal wants, my Cal gets,” Jesse said, leaning over for a quick peck.

The only hitch was they were going to have to put something together quickly if they wanted to fit in a honeymoon before Callie and Sienna had to go on the road to promote albums this winter.

“Well, obviously, I’ll draft up NDAs for all the vendors to sign,” Gigi said, making a note on the to-do list she’d started.

“Do you think that’s enough though?” Callie asked, raising her eyebrows.

“If one of them dares break their nondisclosure agreement, I’ll sue their pants right off of them.”

“What if they didn’t know it was Callie’s wedding?” Austin asked.

“If we tell them it’s for a secret bride, they’ll know it’s Callie,” Jesse said, shaking his head. “Who else around here would be getting married secretly?”

“Actually, I hate to admit this, but Beckett might be on to something,” Gigi said, ignoring the hand Austin held up triumphantly for her to high-five. “I wonder if we could figure out how to book things as if it’s a different kind of event, like a surprise birthday party or something.”

“Or one of those big events Ms. Myrtle always has,” Austin chimed in, referring to Gigi’s mother.

“Wait, isn’t your parents’ wedding anniversary in the fall?” Callie asked, her bright blue eyes lighting up with an idea.

“Yes,” Gigi said slowly, hoping she wasn’t right about where Callie was going next.

“What if we told people it was a vow renewal for your parents? It’s totally something Ms. Myrtle would do, and everyone in town would be sure to show up.”

Jesse nodded. “That actually makes a lot of sense. Would your mom go for it?” he asked Gigi.

“Are you kidding me? She loves weddings, and heaven knows she’s not going to see me get married anytime soon. The only problem will be keeping her from planning the wedding she wants instead of the one you want. But I can ask her tomorrow. I need to go over this week to drop off some paperwork for her to sign anyway.”

“We have an early morning session tomorrow because Bruce has a flight to catch,” Callie said, referring to her producer, “but I could go with you any other time this week.”

“Perfect. Then we can figure out if any venues have openings this fall and go from there.” It was September already, but surely somewhere would have an off-peak date available. Fall wasn’t a busy time on Big Dune Island after school was back in session, and Callie had already said she didn’t care what day of the week they held the wedding.

“Now that that’s settled, let’s talk about the bachelor party,” Austin said, wiggling his eyebrows at Jesse. “I’m thinking Vegas. Nothing trashy, of course,” he said to Callie. “The showgirls are all true professionals. They really don’t get enough credit for their artistry.”

Gigi rolled her eyes. “They want a joint bachelor-bachelorette weekend away with just a few close friends. I’ve already scoped out some vacation rentals up in Savannah and on Tybee Island.”

“My apologies. I must have missed that tab,” Austin joked, nodding toward the binder. “It’s a little different to the vibe I was going for, but I can work with it.”

Callie laughed. “I’m not sure I want to be stuck in a house with the two of you after all.”

Gigi wasn’t sure it was a good idea either. She and Austin had been friends since high school, growing even closer when they both lived in Atlanta during her college and law school years while Austin was playing for the Braves. What rattled her now, however, was that she still remembered how close they’d come to kissing the last time they’d stayed in a house together for a wedding.

Later that evening, Gigi took a glass of wine and her laptop out to the table on her back deck to start researching local wedding venues. She’d renovated a beachfront cottage herself when she’d moved back to Big Dune Island from New York City, where she worked after law school. She spent most of her time at the office, but when she was home, she liked to be on the back deck breathing the salty air and working to the soundtrack of the waves that crashed thirty yards behind her house on the other side of the dunes.

Lighting a citronella candle to keep the mosquitos and no-see-ums away from the glow of the laptop, she opened a browser tab and began looking up the venues she knew off the top of her head. On the fancier end of things, there was the Palm Yacht Club, The Dunes—the only luxury hotel on the island—and Wilson’s Landing, a private venue for residents of the island’s most exclusive community. All three were on the south end of the island, where Jesse used to help developers build second-home monstrosities that wiped out one-hundred-year-old live oaks and the last of the natural land on the island. Thankfully, he now focused on preserving and renovating historic homes.

She was on the weddings page for the yacht club when she realized it was the location her mother would choose, which made her immediately exit the browser tab. Sure, it might be what people would expect for the Franklins’ vow renewal, but the actual event needed to fit Callie and Jesse. And despite the fact that Callie’s wealth eclipsed most of the people on the island, a stuffy, white-tablecloth affair with servers in tails and three different kinds of forks at every place setting was about as far from her taste as you could get.

The same went for The Dunes. Too buttoned up for Callie and Jesse. Wilson’s Landing might work though. It was a giant wooden pavilion built out over the marsh on the river side of the island. The website showed white twinkle lights and sheer white fabric swagging across the exposed beams. She could picture Callie and Jesse there, so she sent the PDF with more details and contact information to her printer. She’d add it to her binder and give them a call tomorrow to inquire about availability.

The website featured an Instagram feed full of past weddings at the bottom of the page, so she began clicking through for inspiration. As she went down the rabbit hole of one bride’s big day, she ended up on the photographer’s page, that included photos from other nearby wedding venues. Gigi had been so focused on Big Dune Island that she’d forgotten about the Whispering Palms on Fort George Island just south of them. It was an easy twenty-minute drive.

Fort George Island was largely uninhabited, much of it preserved as a state park. A small portion of the island had been developed in the 1920s, including the historic Whispering Palms estate, once the summer home of a wealthy railroad magnate. It was close enough for everyone to attend, but far enough to give the couple privacy. Gigi printed out their wedding brochure to add to her binder and picked up her wine for a long sip. Something told her she’d already found the venue. Fingers crossed they’d still have an open date.

Whispering Palms had an Instagram feed as well, so she browsed the photos to get a better look at the indoor and outdoor options for the ceremony and reception. One photo in particular caught her attention because it featured the same seafoam-green bridesmaid dress she’d worn to her childhood friend Mary Catherine Morgan’s wedding back in college. Apparently, it was one of those bridesmaid dresses that never went out of style—despite the fact it had never actually been in style.

Originally, she’d been planning to go to the wedding on the arm of her longtime boyfriend, Dalton, with a ring on her own finger. But then he’d suddenly broken things off, and she’d been surprised when Austin gave up the opportunity to go to the wedding of their mutual friend as a single man and instead suggested they go together. He had stayed at her side the entire evening, giving up his chance to flirt with the single bridesmaids.

What she remembered most about that weekend, however, was when, after the wedding, they’d ended up being the last two still in the hot tub at the beach house Mary Catherine’s mother had rented for the wedding party. Still buzzing from the champagne at the reception, they’d ended up in a deep conversation about their overbearing parents and their impossible expectations. Austin had made it to AAA, the highest level before reaching the majors, and his dad still wasn’t happy. It was Major League Baseball or nothing. Meanwhile, Myrtle asked Gigi more about the guys in her classes than her grades. The only degree Myrtle cared about Gigi getting was her “Mrs. degree.” College was for finding a husband, not a career.

They’d stayed in the hot tub until their skin was prune-like, and then Austin had exited first and held out his hand to help her up the slippery steps. When she’d reached the top, he’d held her hand a beat longer than was necessary. She remembered looking up at him, water beading down his tan, muscular chest, his green eyes fixed on hers. There had been a moment, hadn’t there? Then Carly Lassiter had stumbled out the back door, interrupting them as she shouted Austin’s name, still feeling the effects of the shots Gigi had seen her taking in the kitchen when they returned from the wedding.

Gigi shook her head to dislodge the memory, grabbing her wine glass to take a big swig. It didn’t matter, anyway, because a week later she wasn’t even speaking to Austin anymore. They’d mended fences after they’d both moved back to Big Dune Island, and then Callie had returned to complete their foursome, but Gigi hadn’t forgotten. Not about the almost kiss or what happened afterward.

To be continued… If I Had Known is coming out in all formats (paperback, ebook, and audiobook) on August 19th, 2025. However, you can be one of the first to receive your copy by pre-ordering today at the link below!