“ I meant to ask about your neighbor, Sylvie. I hear he’s really hot.”
“Who said that, Kay?” Sylvie Shea stopped cold.
“You mean he’s not?”
Sylvie shrugged. “I suppose, if looks are all you care about. He’s a bit of a grouch. Which you’ll discover if I don’t get out there and save his daughter’s cat. He’ll yell at me through an upstairs window and order me to corral my dog.”
“ Joel Mercer has a daughter? Wow, I don’t think the gals at the nail salon know he’s married.
A couple of them are drawing straws over him already.”
Sylvie didn’t mention that she hadn’t seen a wife show up next door. Nor would she admit that Joel Mercer was better to look at than a chocolate fudge sundae. The last thing Sylvie needed was her mother or her sisters to get wind of the fact that she considered her neighbor worthy of a second glance. If Mercer was separated, as she’d begun to suspect, the last thing he needed was to get flattened by the Shea freight train—aka the wedding express.
Dear Reader,
Ideas for stories come to writers in different ways. We don’t have (as some people seem to think) warehouses brimming with plots and characters. Ideas pop into my head at odd times—like when I sleep, or travel, or I’m reading a funky weekly newspaper I found in an airport. I never know if a setting will grab me first or a character will. But I’ve learned to take whatever I get, in whatever form it arrives.
Sylvie Shea and Joel Mercer kicked around in my brain for months. She’s a woman of eclectic talents who once left a small town nestled in the Smoky Mountain foothills and went to the big city, when she imagined fulfilling a lifelong dream. Her hopes dashed, she returns to Briarwood, North Carolina, a changed person.
He’s a city guy who made his mark in his career, failed at marriage, but wants to raise his daughter in the warm, small-community environment he remembers fondly from boyhood summer visits. That place, too, is Briarwood, North Carolina.
I confess that it took me too long to see that Sylvie and Joel were meant to find each other. I always knew, however, that Joel’s six-year-old daughter, Rianne, needed the unconditional love and acceptance of an extended family. A family just like Sylvie’s.
I hope readers reach the same conclusion—that Joel and Sylvie belong together. Sylvie’s sure that after being a bridesmaid thirteen times she’ll never find a love of her own. And Joel, a confident man, a good father, a successful comic strip artist, is equally sure he’s insulated against falling in love. I hope you’ll enjoy discovering that they’re both wrong!
I love to hear from readers. You can drop me a line at P.O. Box 17480-101, Tucson, AZ 85731. Or e-mail me at [email protected].
Roz Denny Fox
The Secret Wedding Dress
Roz Denny Fox
MILLS & BOON
Before you start reading, why not sign up?
Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!
Or simply visit
Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.
Books by Roz Denny Fox
HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE
1036—TOO MANY BROTHERS
HARLEQUIN SUPERROMANCE
649—MAJOR ATTRACTION
672—CHRISTMAS STAR
686—THE WATER BABY
716—TROUBLE AT LONE SPUR
746—SWEET TIBBY MACK
776—ANYTHING YOU CAN DO…
800—HAVING IT ALL
821—MAD ABOUT THE MAJOR
847—THE LYON LEGACY
“Silver Anniversary”
859—FAMILY FORTUNE
885—WELCOME TO MY FAMILY
902—BABY, BABY
926—MOM’S THE WORD
984—WHO IS EMERALD MONDAY?
999—THE BABY COP
1013—LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
1046—WIDE OPEN SPACES
1069—THE SEVEN YEAR SECRET
1108—SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
1128—THE SECRET DAUGHTER
1148—MARRIED IN HASTE
1184—A COWBOY AT HEART
1220—DADDY’S LITTLE MATCHMAKER
1254—SHE WALKS THE LINE
1220—A MOM FOR MATTHEW
Contents
Chapter One
Through an open window in her sewing room, Sylvie Shea heard car doors slamming, followed by men’s voices and, very briefly, a child’s. Seated on the floor, Sylvie was busy stitching a final row of seed pearls around the hem of an ivory satin wedding dress. The commotion outside, unusual to say the least, enticed her to abandon her project. Her rustic log cabin, nestled into the base of the Great Smoky Mountains, didn’t exactly sit on a highly trafficked street. Not that any street in her sleepy hamlet of Briarwood, North