Published by: CJ BooksRelease Date: Coming soon!
Genre: Contemporary
Ben Hudson has had a thing for Nora Kirby since they were in junior high. Unfortunately, he’d gone the pull-the-girl’s-ponytail route to express his affection, and it back-fired big time. They’ve shared a mutual antagonism for a decade and a half, which he uses to cover how desperately he wants to get his hands on the grown up version of his schoolboy crush.
Then Ben overhears a frantic phone call from Nora’s younger sister, saying she and her friends had been robbed and left penniless on vacation in Ensenada, Mexico. Nora’s planning to drive down to pick up the college co-eds. Oh, hell no. He’s not letting her take that trip alone. So, he blackmails his way into coming along—he threatens to tell her semi-psychotic drama queen mother what she’s doing. Underhanded? Yes. But he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe.
Ben has been a thorn in her side for years, but this stunt has to take the cake. She’s a nurse—she knows how to handle an emergency without the assistance of a pushy, antagonistic lawyer. It’s just her bad luck that he’s also one of the most attractive men she’s ever met. They spend most of the trip bickering, and somehow during one of their arguments, he ends up kissing her. And it is amazing. Mind-blowing. She can’t stop wishing for more, even if she knows she’s shouldn’t.
She gets to see whole different side of Ben—the smooth, competent lawyer—when he deals with the police in Ensenada. Then he helps her clean up the mess after her sister and her roommate get a nasty case of food poisoning. It’s a road trip straight from hell, but he never complains and does everything to make it easier on Nora. And somewhere along the way, she realizes she fallen in love with her worst enemy.
Ben has waited so long for the opportunity to change Nora’s mind about him, and he’s not about to waste the chance. When they stop fighting and work together, they’re a great team. If he has his way, when they get home, things won’t go back to the combative status quo—instead, they’ll spend the next fifty years having the best make-up sex of all time.
Excerpt
“Nora!”
The call from her elderly neighbor drew Nora up short before she’d made it inside her house. Her shoulders sagged. It was only noon, but she was bone-weary from a long night shift at the local hospital. All the nurses had a 3x12 schedule—three days on for twelve hours—but this shift had been especially rough, with a patient flat-lining on her twice. The man had pulled through, but without a heart transplant, his prognosis wasn’t good. Sad, but there was little she could do except help keep him alive as long as possible. She’d been glad to hand him over to her replacement, was just as glad to be home, and even gladder she had four whole days to relax. She’d really been looking forward to collapsing on her couch and doing nothing for a while.
Instead, she turned back and pasted on a pleasant expression. “Hi, Mrs. Hernandez. What’s up?”
The other woman’s wrinkled face creased in a grin as she walked across the lawn holding a box. “The mailman dropped off a package for you on my doorstep by mistake. All the way from Thailand. Isn’t that strange?”
Considering Nora’s older sister was currently vacationing there with her husband and infant son, it was hardly a shocker. Anne liked to send gifts from all the exotic locales she visited. She and her husband made their living as outdoor guides, though this trip was more of a working holiday.
Hurrying to take the package in case it was heavy, Nora smiled. “Thanks for bringing this over. It’s from my sister.”
“Ah, yes. The oldest one, verdad? So many girls and no boys. Your poor mother.”
She shook her head at the familiar sentiment. Mrs. Hernandez was pretty old school about everyone preferring male children. Nora just let it slide. It wasn’t worth getting into a women’s lib argument with someone she rarely saw and would rather remain on good terms with.
“Four girls, actually. Anne, then me, Hazel and Camille. I don’t think my mom ever mentioned wishing for boys.”
“Sí, but your mother is muy loca.” Mrs. Hernandez winked and trundled back over to her own porch.
Well, there was no arguing the older woman’s point. Dinah Kirby was a level of drama queen that most people would see as certifiably insane, and that was putting it kindly. Nora pressed her lips together and marched into her house.
She set the box down on her kitchen table and dumped her purse next to it. Using the edge of one key, she opened the package. Almost a dozen flat tissue-wrapped bundles were nestled inside. A note sat on top, so she grabbed that and read it first.
Hey babe!
I just got back from a week in the Khorat Plateau where they hand-weave some of the most amazeballs silk you’ve ever seen in your life. I sent a silk scarf for each of my sister-friends. And, yes, there’s even one for Mom. Be a doll and give them out for me. The post office here is a pain, so I just tossed them all in one box and shipped it to you. I threw in an extra scarf as a bribe for you dealing with the drama llama mama delivery.
Gabe and the munchkin say hello. Or Gabe does. My boy mostly just gurgles and looks adorable. But he’d say hello if he knew how!
Love you muchly. See you next month!
Anne
Nora made a face at the note. “As if one scarf is going to be enough for dealing with Mom. Anne, dear, you owe me big time.”
She plucked out the two packages with her name on them and unwrapped the scarves. The colors and patterns were exquisite and she couldn’t help the little “ooh” that escaped her lips. One was pastel blue shot through with pale gold and the other was a rich navy, patterned in bold reds and pops of yellow. They both felt incredible under her palm as she stroked them.
Her cell rang, jolting her out of her lovefest with the silk. She fished her phone out of her purse and answered it. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Karen.”
One of Anne’s best friends in the world. She’d also babysat Nora, Hazel, and Cami when they were young girls.
Nora tucked the phone between her shoulder and her ear. “Hi, hon. How’s it going?”
“Good, good. I was wondering if you had a sec to go over some stuff for the baby shower?”
Nora bit back a groan. How, how, had she gotten herself roped into planning a double baby shower for two of her older sister’s best friends? But she knew the answer—because Anne was in Thailand and couldn’t plan it herself, and Nora was a sucker for the people she loved. Anne’s friends had always been good to her, little pools of sanity and stability that helped keep her mother’s crazy at bay.
After digging around in the box, she came up with the scarf labeled for Karen. “You know what? Why don’t I come over and we can chat about it? I have a present here for you from Anne, and I will allow you to feed me lunch as a delivery fee.”
Karen laughed. “Well, I’m lolling around like a beached whale since I went on maternity leave, but the nice lady my husband hired to chase our two sons around and occasionally throw food at our family made some amazing Swedish meatballs last night. We’re having leftovers for lunch.”
“Sold,” Nora declared, heading for her room to change out of her scrubs. “I like any leftovers I didn’t have to cook in the first place. Be there in twenty minutes.”
“Great. I could use the company anyway.”
Exactly eighteen minutes later, Nora was knocking on Karen’s door. A sober-looking woman with iron-gray hair answered the door. “You must be Nora.”
“That’s right. And you must be the maker of amazing Swedish meatballs.”
A small smile cracked the woman’s façade. “They’re my specialty.”
“I can’t wait to taste them then.” Nora winked as she was waved into the house.
“Nora!” Karen sat in an easy chair by the fireplace, her feet propped on a stool. She held out her arms. “Forgive me if I don’t heave myself up. That takes all of Tate’s strength and a small crane.”
“I’m sure your hubby is up to the challenge.” Nora bent down for a hug, and felt the baby give a hard kick. “Are you sure we should have waited this long to hold the baby shower?”
“I’ll make it to the shower, don’t worry.” Karen waved that concern away. “Besides, Julie’s due date is a few weeks behind mine and it’s her first.”
Julie was another of Anne’s best friends, another of Nora’s childhood babysitters. It was nice to see her happily married and having a baby too.
After setting Karen’s present on her lap, Nora retreated to another chair and sat. “Open it. I want to see what you think.”
Without further urging, Karen shredded the tissue and pulled out the length of silk with a gasp.
“This is fantastic!” She wrapped the scarf around her neck, tying an artful knot. The light green on dark green was just the right combination to accent her emerald eyes.
“It’s beautiful,” Nora agreed. “Big sis picked great colors.”
“What’s beautiful?”
She tensed at the sound of that familiar, deep voice behind her. Ben Hudson, Karen’s younger brother, who had been in the same grade as Nora in school. Unlike their sisters, they’d never grown close.
“This.” Karen pointed to her gift. “Anne sent it from Thailand.”
“Hey, that is pretty awesome.” He was carrying three plates, two stacked on a single brawny arm. He handed a dish to his older sister and popped a kiss on her cheek. Then he hooked a foot around the footstool in front of Nora’s chair and pulled it away so he could sit on it. He handed her one of the remaining plates.
“Thanks.” Nora couldn’t help it if her tone was a bit grudging. Ben had been rubbing her the wrong way since junior high. Their older sisters had been best friends forever, so they were all thrown together at every family gathering. There was no real way for Ben and Nora to avoid seeing each other, but running into him unexpectedly wasn’t her idea of a good time, especially when she’d been hoping for a relaxing gab session.
He caught her gaze and gave her a cheeky wink, which just made her stiffen. The jackass felt a compulsion to needle her every damn time he was near, and she had to suppress the urge to deck him. She offered him a stony stare and turned her attention to her food. The meatballs were as delicious as promised, but she would have enjoyed them more if he hadn’t been there. His very presence bothered her.