by Hope Ramsay
Willow strolled into the office without answering his question, and that’s when Dusty noticed Amy Lyndon hovering in the doorway, eyeing Sven like he was one of those dire wolves from Game of Thrones. Why was Amy here? And why had she been having breakfast at oh dark thirty at Gracie’s?
She looked like a windblown juvenile delinquent in those ragged jeans and that biker-girl jacket. ’Course that only proved that he knew nothing about fashion. If Amy Lyndon was wearing it, then it cost the moon. Dusty would never understand why rich folks spent good money for jeans with holes in them.
“Good news,” Willow said in a falsely bright voice. “I’ve found you the helper you needed.” Willow gestured toward Amy. “Come on in, Amy. Dusty doesn’t bite.”
“Does the dog?” Amy continued to eye the pooch as if Sven might attack at any moment.
“Sit,” Dusty commanded, and Sven actually complied.
“How’d you get him to do that?” Willow asked.
“I don’t have any trouble with him.” He cast his glance from Willow to Amy and back again. This had April Fools’ prank written all over it. Willow was notorious for her April Fools’ pranks. Last year she’d wrapped his entire office in Bubble Wrap. This year he’d retaliated with toilet paper. Had she visited her office yet this morning? Was this her weird way of getting him back?
“Ha-ha. Funny. But the Bubble Wrap last year was better,” he said.
Willow’s cheeks pinked. “Um, Dusty, this isn’t an April Fools’ prank. I’m not joking. I’ve hired Amy to be your summer intern.”
Amy took a cautious step into the office and shoved her hands into her back pockets. “Yeah. Like she said, I’m not a joke.”
“What?”
“You heard me,” Willow said, giving him a serious stare. “I’m sure Amy has a lot to learn from you.”
“But—”
Willow turned her back on him and headed toward the exit like a coward running from a fight.
“Wait, Willow,” he said to her retreating back, but she didn’t stop.
“You, stay right there,” Dusty said, pointing at Amy and Sven at the same time. He turned and scooted after Willow, catching up to her on the gravel walk that led to the manor house.
“I need a hand, not an…itty-bitty, spoiled rich girl who’s scared of dogs.”
Willow lifted her chin. “Dusty, you know better than to judge her that way.”
Yes, he did. But it was hard not to. “Come on, Willow. She’s not strong enough to haul stuff or dig holes. She probably doesn’t even weigh a hundred pounds.”
“I know, but here’s the deal. I never in a million years expected Amy to ever even think about getting a job, much less a minimum-wage job. I don’t know what’s gotten into her, but I think her wanting a job—any job—is a good thing. And, to be honest, getting her hands dirty will be good for her. I can’t think of anyone better than you to teach her what she needs to learn.”
He held Willow’s gaze. “So, just to be clear,” he said, “you aren’t expecting me to treat her with kid gloves?”
“Did I say I wanted you to do that? She’s been hired to be a seasonal helper on the maintenance crew. Do I need to e-mail you the job description?”
“She won’t last a day.”
“So?”
“C’mon, Willow, you can’t be serious.”
“I am serious. And now I’ve gotta go. Courtney and Brianna, the new wedding planner, need help managing today’s bridezillas and their equally scary mothers.”
Dusty stood on the path for a solid minute watching his oldest friend rush back to the manor house. Well, didn’t this beat all?
He was scratching his head as he returned to the office and found Amy backed up against the wall with Sven sitting right in front of her. The dog wasn’t doing anything but giving her his adorable cocked-head puppy-dog appraisal.
Boy, she was a tiny thing. She’d be useless in the garden. And she was clearly scared of her own shadow. How the hell was he supposed to manage her?
“The dog isn’t going to hurt you. He might jump up on you from time to time, but that’s only because he’s friendly,” he said.
She jumped as if he’d hit her with a Taser. “Uh, sorry,” she said, although he couldn’t figure out what she was sorry about. Then she simpered a little, which annoyed the hell out of him. He wasn’t going to fall for that poor-little-rich-girl routine.
“So Willow says you need this job, huh?”
She pressed her lips together and nodded, even though her chocolate-drop eyes watered up a bit. Crying was not allowed on his crew, so he steeled his heart against the adorable, sad puppy-dog look on her face. It was a toss-up as to which of them, Amy or Sven, had the poor-pitiful-me look mastered.
“So what do you want me to do, Dusty?” she asked.
Her high-handed and familiar tone seemed at odds with that sad look on her face. It chapped his butt. “First of all, you will call me Mr. McNeil.”
Did she roll her eyes? Yup, she did. He folded his arms and glared at her while the silence unreeled.
She finally cleared her throat. “May I ask a question, Mister McNeil?”
“Sure.”
“When do I get paid?”
“Paid? You gotta work first. Payday is every other Friday.” He glanced at the whiteboard calendar on the wall. “So I guess you’ll get paid in a week.”
She paled but said nothing.
“As for stuff you need to do, first thing is you need to go home and change clothes.”
“What?”
He waved at her outfit. “I’ve got a golf shirt for you, and you’ll need to get a pair of khaki pants and some work boots. Everyone on the grounds crew wears a uniform. We supply the shirts. You supply the rest.” He walked into the back storage room and rummaged through the boxes of golf shirts until he found a men’s small. It would be too large for her, but he didn’t have any women’s shirts. Amy was the first female on his crew.
He tossed the blue shirt at her, and she managed to catch it. “It’s a busy day. We’ve got a one o’clock wedding at the chapel with a small reception afterward and a two-hundred-guest reception here starting at 6:00 p.m. The setups are mostly done for the early wedding, but we’ve got boatloads of work for the evening reception.” He checked his watch. “Be back in an hour, dressed for work.”
About the Author
Hope Ramsay is a USA Today bestselling author of heartwarming contemporary romances. Her books have won critical acclaim and publishing awards. She is married to a good ol’ Georgia boy who resembles every single one of her Southern heroes. She has two grown children, a couple of demanding lap cats, and a puppy named Daisy. She lives in Virginia, where, when she’s not writing, she’s knitting or playing her forty-year-old Martin guitar.
You can learn more at:
HopeRamsay.com
Twitter, @HopeRamsay
Facebook.com/Hope.Ramsay
Acknowledgments
Writing is solitary work, but there are always a few people who deserve special thanks when a project is finally finished. First of all, I’d like to thank Tanni Rednor, who sat down with me one day and helped me come up with the idea that we called “fifty dates with a bride.”
I’d also like to acknowledge the singer-songwriter James Taylor, and his song, “Her Town Too,” a song about how breakups affect friends and family. I listened to this song on an endless loop as I was writing the first draft.
I’d also like to thank the chat room writers who convened every morning during the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood’s 2017 Winter Writing Festival. You kept me sane as I was working on the many revisions this book required.
And speaking of revisions, Alex Logan, my longtime editor, deserves special thanks because the first draft of this book needed a lot of work, and her advice was, as always, invaluable in shaping the second, third, and fourth drafts.
Finally, many thanks to my husband, Bryan, for his support and tolerance for the messy house, the take-out dinn
ers, and the stress of living with an author on a tight deadline.
Also by Hope Ramsay
The Chapel of Love series
“A Fairytale Bride” (short story)
A Christmas Bride
A Small-Town Bride
The Last Chance series
Welcome to Last Chance
Home at Last Chance
Small Town Christmas (anthology)
Last Chance Beauty Queen
“Last Chance Bride” (short story)
Last Chance Christmas
Last Chance Book Club
“Last Chance Summer” (short story)
Last Chance Knit & Stitch
Inn at Last Chance
A Christmas to Remember (anthology)
Last Chance Family
Last Chance Hero
“A Midnight Clear” (short story)
Praise for Hope Ramsay
A Small-Town Bride
“Ramsay charms in her second Chapel of Love contemporary...[and] wins readers’ hearts with likable characters, an engaging plot (and a hilarious subplot), and a well-deserved happy ending.”
—Publishers Weekly
A Christmas Bride
“Happiness is a new Hope Ramsay series.”
–FreshFiction.com
“I’m so glad that A Christmas Bride is the first of Ramsay’s Chapel of Love series because there are more stories to be told—and I’ll be reading them.”
—HeroesandHeartbreakers.com
Last Chance Hero
“Fans will enjoy another visit to Last Chance, the quintessential Southern small town. The characters in this town are priceless…Readers can expect to have a whole lot of fun.”
―RT Book Reviews
“I love visiting Last Chance and getting to revisit old friends, funny situations, the magic and the mystery that always seem to find their way into these wonderful stories.”
—HarlequinJunkie.com
Last Chance Family
“4 stars! Ramsay uses a light-toned plot and sweet characters to illustrate some important truths in this entry in the series.”
―RT Book Reviews
“[This book] has the humor and heartwarming quality that have characterized the series…Mike and Charlene are appealing characters—unconsciously funny, vulnerable, and genuinely likable—and Rainbow will touch readers’ hearts.”
—TheRomanceDish.com
Inn at Last Chance
“5 stars! I really enjoyed this book. I love a little mystery with my romance, and that is exactly what I got with Inn at Last Chance.”
—HarlequinJunkie.com
“5 stars! The suspense and mystery behind it all kept me on the edge of my seat. I just could not put this book down.”
—LongandShortReviews.com
Last Chance Knit & Stitch
“Hope Ramsay is going on my auto-read list for sure. Last Chance Knit & Stitch may be my first Last Chance book, but it won’t be my last.”
—HeroesandHeartbreakers.com
“Ramsay writes with heart and humor. Truly a book to be treasured and heartwarming foray into a great series.”
—NightOwlReviews.com
Last Chance Book Club
“The ladies of the Last Chance Book Club keep the gossip flowing in this story graced with abundant Southern charm and quirky, caring people. Another welcome chapter to Ramsay’s engaging, funny, hope-filled series.”
—Library Journal
“Last Chance is a place we’ve come to know as well as we know our own hometowns. It’s become real, filled with people who could be our aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, or the crazy cat lady down the street. It’s familiar, comfortable, welcoming.”
—RubySlipperedSisterhood.com
Last Chance Christmas
“Amazing…This story spoke to me on so many levels about faith, strength, courage, and choices. If you’re looking for a good Christmas story with a few angels, then Last Chance Christmas is a must-read.”
—TheSeasonforRomance.com
“Visiting Last Chance is always a joy, but Hope Ramsay has outdone herself this time. She took a difficult hero, a wounded heroine, familiar characters, added a little Christmas magic, and—voilà!—gave us a story sure to touch the Scroogiest of hearts.”
—RubySlipperedSisterhood.com
Last Chance Beauty Queen
“4½ stars! Enchantingly funny and heartwarmingly charming.”
—RT Book Reviews
“A little Bridget Jones meets Sweet Home Alabama.”
—GrafWV.com
Home at Last Chance
“An enjoyable ride that will capture interest and hold it to the very end.”
—RomRevToday.blogspot.com
“Full of small-town charm and Southern hospitality…You will want to grab a copy.”
—TopRomanceNovels.com
Welcome to Last Chance
“Ramsay’s delicious contemporary debut introduces the town of Last Chance, SC, and its warmhearted inhabitants…[she] strikes an excellent balance between tension and humor as she spins a fine yarn.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] charming series, featuring quirky characters you won’t soon forget.”
—Barbara Freethy, New York Times bestselling author of At Hidden Falls
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
HERE COMES THE BRIDE
By Hope Ramsay
The newest novel in the Chapel of Love series from USA Today bestselling author Hope Ramsay will appeal to readers who love Jill Shalvis, Robyn Carr, and Brenda Novak.
Laurie Wilson is devastated when she is left at the altar. How long will it take her to realize that Best Man Andrew Lydon is actually the better man for her?
THE PLAYBOY BACHELOR
By Rachel Van Dyken
New from #1 New York Times bestselling author
Rachel Van Dyken!
Bentley Wellington’s just been coerced by his grandfather to spend the next thirty days charming and romancing a reclusive red-haired beauty who hates him. The woman he abandoned when she needed him the most. Bentley knows just as much about romance as he knows about love—nothing—but the more time he spends with Margot, the more he realizes that “just friends” will never be enough. Now all he has to do is convince her to trust him with her heart…Fans of Jill Shalvis, Rachel Gibson, and Jennifer Probst will love this charmingly witty and heartfelt story.
WHEN THE SCOUNDREL SINS
By Anna Harrington
When Quinton Carlisle, eager for adventure, receives a mysterious letter from Scotland, he eagerly rides north—only to find the beautiful—and ruined—Annabelle Greene waiting for his marriage proposal. Fans of Elizabeth Hoyt, Grace Burrowes, and Madeline Hunter will love the next in the Capture the Carlisles series from Anna Harrington.
HARD JUSTICE
By April Hunt
Ex-SEAL commander Vince Franklin has been on some of the most dangerous missions in the world. But pretending to be the fiancé of fellow Alpha operative Charlotte Sparks on their latest assignment is his toughest challenge yet. When their fake romance generates some all-too-real heat, Vince learns that Charlie is more than just arm candy. She’s the real deal—and she’s ready for some serious action. Don’t miss the next book in April Hunt’s Alpha Security series, perfect for fans of Julie Ann Walker and Rebecca Zanetti!
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