Don’t miss this heartfelt conclusion to the beloved Always a Bridesmaid series from New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods.
When Luke Cassidy proposed to his best friend, Katie Jones was relieved that she was finally going to trade bridesmaid taffeta for bridal silk. Unfortunately, Luke had business—not love—on his mind. He only wanted a mother for his five-year-old son, and Katie’s dreams of bridal bliss were turning into her worst nightmare. She had loved Luke for as long as she could remember, so she’d just have to convince him that she was more than a temporary business partner—she was a marital partner for life!
Sherryl Woods Booklist
The Sweet Magnolias
Stealing Home
A Slice of Heaven
Feels Like Family
Welcome to Serenity
Home in Carolina
Sweet Tea at Sunrise
Honeysuckle Summer
Midnight Promises
Catching Fireflies
Where Azaleas Bloom
Swan Point
Chesapeake Shores
The Inn at Eagle Point
Flowers on Main
Harbor Lights
A Chesapeake Shores Christmas
Driftwood Cottage
Moonlight Cove
Beach Lane
An O’Brien Family Christmas
The Summer Garden
A Seaside Christmas
The Christmas Bouquet
Dogwood Hill
Willow Brook Road
The Devaney Brothers
The Devaney Brothers: Ryan & Sean
The Devaney Brothers: Michael & Patrick
The Devaney Brothers: Daniel
The Calamity Janes
The Calamity Janes: Cassie & Karen
The Calamity Janes: Gina & Emma
The Calamity Janes: Lauren
The Adams Dynasty
A Christmas Blessing
Natural Born Daddy
The Cowboy and His Baby
The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter
The Littlest Angel
Natural Born Trouble
Unexpected Mommy
The Cowgirl and the Unexpected Wedding
Natural Born Lawman
The Unclaimed Baby
The Cowboy and His Wayward Bride
Suddenly, Annie’s Father
The Cowboy and the New Year’s Baby
Dylan and the Baby Doctor
The Pint-Sized Secret
Marrying a Delacourt
The Delacourt Scandal
Finally A Bride
Sherryl Woods
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
PROLOGUE
“You’re going to need a new roof,” Ron Matthews informed Caitlyn Jones, gesturing toward the upper levels of the Clover Street Boarding House. “If you don’t replace the whole thing, you’ll just have me up there patching after every single thunderstorm rolls through here all summer long, and you’ll still need a new roof when all’s said and done.”
Katie heard the news with a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. First the wiring, then the plumbing, now the roof. Was there any part of this beautiful old Victorian house that wasn’t about to collapse around her?
The repairs were sopping up the last of her savings at a rate that made her banker very nervous. Charlie Hastings at the First National Bank of Clover, South Carolina, had already started asking pointed questions about where she was going to find the funds to make the balloon payment on her mortgage on the first of September. He was all too aware of the state of her bank balance and her pitiful cash flow.
He also knew in intimate detail what she’d already spent to make the once decrepit boarding house habitable after years of neglect. And he was just itching to remind her he’d warned her about all the pitfalls of taking an old relic and trying to remodel it on a shoestring budget. In essence, Charlie Hastings was a royal pain. Just the thought of admitting to him that he’d been right had her sighing heavily.
“Trouble?”
Katie’s heart thumped unsteadily at the sound of that one single word. She recognized Luke Cassidy’s voice as if she’d last heard it only yesterday. Instead it had been six years ago, on a night filled with the kind of seductive whispers that had made her heart melt. Trouble? Luke Cassidy’s return to Clover made the problems with the boarding house pale in comparison.
She’d been dreading a face-to-face meeting with Luke ever since he’d hit town. She’d hoped it would come when she was dressed fit to kill, rather than wearing ragged cutoffs and a cast-off man’s shirt that had belonged to one of her elderly boarders.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” she insisted, turning slowly toward the man who had broken her heart by abandoning her without a word of goodbye.
Aware that news of this meeting would spread through town like lightning, she faced him squarely. She raised her chin a notch just to show that his disappearance had meant nothing to her, that he meant nothing to her, despite all the years of friendship that had preceded that one stolen night of perfect bliss.
To prove just how independent she’d become and how unflustered she was by Luke’s presence, she shifted her gaze to Ron. “How soon can you start working on the roof?”
“What will it cost?” Luke asked, avoiding her entirely and concentrating on the roofer who’d been one class behind Katie in school.
Ron’s gaze darted from Katie to Luke and back again. Apparently he caught something in her expression that made him ignore Luke and respond directly to her.
“Week after next is the soonest, Katie,” he said apologetically. “I’ll put a tarp over it meantime. That should keep the worst of any rain from leaking into that front bedroom until I can get to it.”
“Thanks, Ron.”
“How much?” Luke repeated as if he had a perfect right to ask the question.
Ron regarded him doubtfully, then looked at Katie. She sighed. “How much?” she repeated.
“Four thousand. Could be closer to five with all those turrets. It’s not like slapping up a nice straight roof on some little single-story bungalow. I’ll get you a firm estimate by tomorrow.”
Katie gulped. Four or five thousand dollars! Where was she supposed to come up with that kind of money? Right now, though, it hardly mattered. She wouldn’t back down from the commitment with Luke looking on if her life depended on it.
“Fine,” she said, though there was the faintest tremor in her voice she couldn’t control.
“Is that a problem?” Ron asked, picking up on that tremor. “If it is, all you have to do is say the word and we can work out the payments. You know I’d do anything in the world to help you make a go of this place, Katie.”
“I’ll manage,” Katie snapped, then winced at her misdirected anger. If anyone deserved sharp words it was Luke, not Ron, and it was way too late to be delivering them. “Just schedule the
