Excerpt

EMERSON

Deciding it’s useless, I open up the last message I received from my father, needing to feel some connection with him. It simply asks me to dinner on Sunday night. Sunday never came for him. The ache in my chest comes back at the thought. I miss him so much. I wonder why he wanted to have dinner with me. It wasn’t unusual for us to eat together, but since Lana came into our lives, it’d been more a quick meal at the hotel restaurant or takeout in his office when we worked late together, not a meal with the two of them at his estate. A stray tear rolls down my cheek, followed by another. Before I know it, the phone screen in front of me becomes a blur and I’m openly sobbing.

“Emerson,” I hear a deep voice say quietly, “Are you okay?”

I glance up to see the handsome stranger from earlier. “What are you doing here?” I ask, wiping my cheeks with the back of my hand. My phone falls to the floor, and I snatch it up, not wanting him to see what I was reading.

“I came searching for you. Are you alright?” he asks, concerned.

He was looking for me. I attempt a smile, but in my current mood, it probably doesn’t look very genuine. “It’s just been a long day, I’ll be fine.” A sigh escapes me. “Just reading while I wait for my friend to drive me home. Must have gotten swept up in the story too much,” I lie, trying to justify the tears. “Why were you looking for me? We’re all out of burgers, if it’s food you’re after,” I attempt as a joke, not wanting to rub my sadness off on him.

“I was hoping you might help me with something. You offered anything else?” He raises a brow suggestively. This guy is flirting with me, and the thought makes me feel all warm inside.

I smile a genuine smile for what feels like the first time in a week. I like his attention on me. I don’t know why, but it makes me feel special, and I need that tonight. “What kind of something else?” I ask, more than a little intrigued.

“Wedding’s all but over. I thought you might like to join me for a drink at the bar,” he suggests boldly. This guy knows what he wants, and I like that.

“Did you?” I ask, my eyes narrowing in on him as I think it over. I would love nothing more than to have a drink with this guy. He looks like fun. But the walls in this place talk, and I know if I sit at the bar with him, I’ll be hotel gossip by tomorrow morning. Not what I need right now.

The music outside changes to a favorite song of mine, “Parallel Line” by Keith Urban.

“What was that look?” he asks.

“I love this song.”

He holds his hand out for me. “Dance with me then.”

“I’m in my work uniform.” I laugh. “There’s no…”

“Dance with me,” he cuts me off, pulling me up to standing in his arms.

I glance around, worried how this could look, but there’s not a staff member in sight. So, I kick off my heels and let him take me in his muscular arms. He’s so much taller than me, but I like the way it feels to have him gracefully maneuver me round the dance floor. I soften into him. This was the last thing I expected him to do, but instantly, my mood brightens just being close to him. He has this amazing energy about him, so confident. He’s everything I’m not.

He spins me around as I stare up at him, wondering who on earth he is. I’ve never met someone quite like him. Suddenly I want to know everything about him: what he does for work in New York, who taught him how to dance, why he’s in our small town at a wedding.

“How did you know my name?” I wonder the most, this time out loud.

“I heard your friend say it earlier, the other server.”

I bite my lip as my belly flip-flops with excitement. “So, you don’t know who I am?”

He slides his hand further down my back to settle on my ass. A tingle runs through me. “Who are you?” He smirks cheekily.

“No one at all.” I grin up at him like I just won the lotto. Everyone in this town knows me, or at least about me and my family. But this gorgeous man is a complete stranger from out of town, and the thought sends a thrill through me. I don’t have to be Emerson Alexander with him, the girl everyone expects me to be. I can just be me.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Just when you think your life has hit rock bottom, fate proves it can always get worse.

My daddy’s death left me burdened by grief, stuck with a stepmother from hell, and with the weight of our family hotel on my shoulders. The only person who can help me out of this mess, my brother, is halfway across the country, choosing to pretend that our little town of Deception Bay and everything in it, including me, doesn’t exist.

Hamilton Prescott walked into my life, just when I needed saving the most. In his expensive suit and with his irresistible charm, he made me feel seen, special, like the luckiest girl at the wedding.

One night with him was like a dream—until the harsh light of day revealed the truth.