There goes the groom . . .
For Professor
Laurie Wilson, planning her wedding to longtime boyfriend Brandon Kopp has been
a whirlwind. But somehow, between all the cake tastings and dress fittings, she
never imagined being left at the altar. In the aftermath, she does what any
sensible woman would—she swigs champagne and considers keying his car. Until
someone knocks on her door with a much better idea for revenge.
Best man Andrew
Lyndon thinks Laurie's better off without Brandon. But Laurie's father—and
Andrew's boss—isn't going to accept anything less than a reconciliation. And
he's made it Andrew's problem to solve. So Andrew decides to make Brandon
jealous by setting Laurie up on a string of "dates." After a couple
of weeks, Brandon will be begging Laurie to take him back. But Andrew's plan
works a little too well because suddenly he's the one falling for Laurie—and
planning a proposal of his own.
Excerpt
Laurie was busy killing her waistline
with her days-long ice cream, popcorn, and pizza binge. But hey, she didn’t
have to worry about fitting into the beautiful lace wedding dress anymore. And
binging on junk food and all twenty-six episodes of the first two seasons of House of Cards kept her mind off
her troubles.
But she hadn’t watched more than fifteen
minutes before someone knocked on her front door. Damn. Couldn’t people just
leave her alone? But then whoever it was decided to peep through the gigantic
living room window that overlooked her rickety porch.
Laurie’s heart soared. The visitor who
pressed his face up against the grubby window pane was definitely male. For an
instant, she thought it might be Brandon, come to tell her that calling off the
wedding was a horrible mistake.
But the guy on her porch was taller and
thinner than Brandon. “C’mon, Laurie, open the door,” he said as he raised a
green and red donut box. “I brought Krispy Kremes.”
Speak of the devil. Andrew Lyndon
himself. The best man. With donuts.
She hauled herself up from the couch and
padded to the front door. She cracked it open. “I’ll take the donuts, please.”
She reached her hand through the narrow opening.
He cocked his head like an adorable
puppy with big, soulful eyes. “You don’t get the donuts unless you let me in.”
“I’m not dressed for company,” she said,
glancing down at her pink bunny slippers, gray sweatpants, and George
Washington University sweatshirt. She’d been wearing these clothes since Sunday
afternoon.
“I’m not company,” he said.
“No? Then why are you here bearing
bribes?
Andrew’s mouth twitched. “Your dad sent
me.”
How could you not like Andrew when the
guy always told the truth? He was dependable. And honest. “Why did he send you
and not come himself?”
“I don’t know. I’m here to talk to you
about an idea.”
“What kind of idea?”
Andrew looked away and to the left, his
body language screaming discomfort.
Laurie was suddenly intrigued. She
opened the door wide and knew a moment of humiliation as he scanned her from
head to toe. She hated the look in his eyes. Was it pity? She didn’t want
anyone, least of all Brandon’s best friend, to pity her. “So what is this
idea?”
“Teaching Brandon a lesson.”
“How? And why would you be interested in
doing that? I mean, you’re his friend, right?”
He looked her straight in the eye. “Yes,
I am. And I also work for your father.”
“Right. So conflicted.”
He nodded. “Your father wants to help
you and Brandon get back together. He’s enlisted my help.”
She snatched the box of donuts from his
hands. “I’m really sorry, Andrew. He can be a pain in the butt. But thanks for
these.” She clutched the box to her breast and tried to shut the door in
Andrew’s face.
Unfortunately, Andrew had good reflexes.
He wedged his foot in the door and forced it open.
She retreated in the face of his
superior strength, but not without a snarky retort. “I’m not sharing the
donuts.” She selected a donut from the box and nodded her head at him. “Okay,
you’ve got exactly five minutes for whatever it is you came to say.”
“On Saturday, when I asked you what you
wanted, you told me that you were willing to forgive Brandon. Do you still feel
that way?”
A rush of sugar coursed through her as
she sank her teeth into the donut. There was nothing in the world—not even sex—
as good as a Krispy Kreme. She thought carefully about Andrew’s question as the
donut melted in her mouth. “I don’t know,” she said honestly.
Andrew nodded, as if her answer hadn’t
surprised him in the least. “He broke my heart,” she added, just to be clear.
“How can I forgive that?”
“Easy. If you love him and want to be
his wife.”
“Not so easy. I mean, why did Brandon do
that to me? We were together for so long.”
“What if that’s the problem?” he asked.
“What? That we’ve been together? Like
it’s okay for him to get bored?” Although that’s exactly what had happened.
Andrew shook his head. “No, it’s more
like fear of better options.”
“What does that mean?”
“Maybe he feels as if he never took the
time to…I don’t know, play the field, sow some wild oats, whatever.”
“Right.” She took another bite of the
donut. In a minute, she would ask Andrew to leave, and she would forget this
unsettling conversation.
“So,”
he said when she was down to licking the sugar off her fingers, “what if we
showed Brandon the consequences of looking for better options?”
“Okay. And what, in your judgment, are
the consequences?”
“I’m pretty sure Brandon hasn’t thought
through how he might feel if you decided to go out and play the field.”
“So you’re saying that if I do what
Brandon asked me to do—go explore other options—it will make him jealous?”
“Well, sort of. See, I’m not suggesting
that you actually date other people. I’m suggesting that you give the appearance
of dating other people. In order to make him realize what an idiot he’s being.”
“Okay, how do I give the appearance of
dating? What do I do, just go directly to Match.com and post a sexy profile?”
He leaned back in the chair, looking so completely comfortable that it irked her. “Instead of Match.com, I was thinking along the lines of setting you up on a series of show dates, with guys Brandon either knows or admires or even hates. In short, guys that will annoy the crap out of him. We’d arrange them so that Brandon either sees you out with someone else, or hears about it. I’m betting that seeing you out with someone else will drive him crazy.”
He leaned back in the chair, looking so completely comfortable that it irked her. “Instead of Match.com, I was thinking along the lines of setting you up on a series of show dates, with guys Brandon either knows or admires or even hates. In short, guys that will annoy the crap out of him. We’d arrange them so that Brandon either sees you out with someone else, or hears about it. I’m betting that seeing you out with someone else will drive him crazy.”
ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: HERE COMES THE BRIDE
Author: Hope
Ramsay
Series: Chapel
of Love, #3
On Sale: August
29, 2017
Publisher: Forever
Mass Market:
$7.99 USD
eBook: $5.99 USD
Audio: $19.98
USD
PREORDER THE BOOK HERE
THE CHAPEL OF LOVE SERIES
A FAIRYTALE BRIDE, #.5
A CHRISTMAS
BRIDE, #1
A SMALL-TOWN
BRIDE, #2
HERE COMES THE
BRIDE, #3
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 and a couple of demanding lap cats. She lives in Virginia where, when she's not writing, she's knitting or playing her forty-year-old Martin guitar.
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