No One Like You

Book 1: Chateau Jolie Romance

by Heather McGovern

Genres: Women's Fiction; Contemporary Romance; Romantic Comedy

Synopsis

In the quaint mountain town of Windamere, North Carolina, the three Sargent sisters are determined to make their hotel and winery, Chateau Jolie, a success. And one by one, they’re finding that nothing pairs better with new beginnings than unexpected love… The downside of living in a charming small town is that it’s impossible for Brooke Sargent to avoid anyone. Especially someone as big, handsome, and friendly as Trevor Bradley. At his brother’s wedding, they flirted and danced…before Brooke recalled that she’s not ready to trust any man after her divorce, let alone one who’s the competition. Her family’s struggling chateau is planning to host the local senior prom— without the Bradley family’s renowned Honeywilde Inn muscling in and stealing the glory. Trevor has thought of no one else since the night he and Brooke connected. Even though she shot him down—hard—he’s seen the warmth beneath her guarded facade. Working together, they could give the high school students a spectacular prom. Navigating the rough terrain of Brooke’s business, while proving himself to his own siblings, won’t be easy. But Trevor loves a challenge—especially one that could win him the woman he can’t stop wanting . . . NO ONE LIKE YOU

Release date: October 30, 2018

Publisher: Lyrical Press

Print pages: 266

Sample

Chapter 1

Brooke clung to her menu like it was a full skirt on a windy day. “Coffee,” she said to the Honeywilde waiter.

Her hands cramped, palms sweaty, and the pinching start of a headache worked its way up both temples.

Meeting with Roark Bradley shouldn’t set her on edge like this. Roark was professional and pleasant. All of the Bradleys were nice people.

Trevor Bradley in particular.

Nice looking too, though that was beside the point.

Since Devlin’s wedding in August, she’d seen Trevor only in passing. In town, she’d see him maybe shopping or walking down the sidewalk, but the glimpses were enough to confirm what she already knew—he was still as wickedly handsome as ever.

Her muscles tensed, ready to jump out of her skin, but her nerves couldn’t be because of Trevor.

“I’m back. Sorry to keep you waiting.” Roark took the seat across from her and motioned for coffee. “Anyway, as I was saying, the high school needs Chateau Jolie’s help with their prom.”

Ding, ding, ding.

The prom.

That would be the source of her anxiety.

Didn’t matter that she and her sisters had been running Chateau Jolie for almost a year, the prospect of being the location for the school’s emergency prom had her more wound up than a set of novelty chattering teeth.

Brooke unclenched her jaw. “I believe you were about to ask if we could host the prom at Jolie.” Both a blessing and a curse that couldn’t come at a more inopportune time.

“Yes. The venue they were going to use went out of business last week. With no notification to the school, their prom is just…gone.”

“Gone?”

“No place to have it, no backup plans. Nothing.”

“Those poor kids.”

Taking this project on wasn’t ideal, but how could she say no to a bunch of sad teenagers who would get all dressed up and have no place to go?

Roark sipped his coffee and shook his head. “They lost their money too. That event place in Newton went bankrupt. All of the juniors and seniors had bought tickets, so that’s their hard-earned cash gone. Which means they’ve got no budget.”

Her stomach dropped. “Well, that—” Sucks. “That’s awful.”

And she couldn’t help them without a budget. Chateau Jolie certainly didn’t have the spare cash to fork over.

“The assistant principal came to me yesterday asking—actually, pleading is more accurate—to use Honeywilde. But we’re booked solid for the whole season.”

Of course they were.

Honeywilde was always booked. This season, next season. Every season two years from now. Honeywilde’s success was one of the reasons for Jolie’s lackluster couple of years.

But she wasn’t about to tell Roark Bradley that.

“Then Sophie thought of Chateau Jolie. Thank goodness your ballroom is available.”

She pasted on a smile. “Yes. Thank goodness.”

“That is, if you can host the event. It’s in two and a half weeks.”

Her eyes almost popped out of her skull.

“I know, I know. It’s not much time, but we’re still going to help,” he rushed to add. “You wouldn’t be doing this alone. I’m ready to offer up a donation for food, décor, and other expenses. And some added manpower for the event itself, since Jolie is…well, we have a larger staff here.”

He was understating to be polite. Honeywilde had the money and people to spare. Chateau Jolie did not.

The throb in her skull got a little bit worse. “I think…”

She didn’t have the luxury of thinking. Chateau Jolie needed to catch a break, especially now that she had to shell out thousands of dollars to keep from losing part of Jolie to an evil a-hole of a man.

Not only was hosting the school’s prom the right thing to do, but a community event and charity might give the hotel the kind of promotion and PR it needed to spark off their slumping reservation rates and make some much needed money.

“We wouldn’t throw all of this on you to deal with alone.” Roark leaned forward, his coffee mug cradled between his hands. “We plan to help out as much as we can. But what the school needs most is a location.”

Brooke flexed her fingers to get some blood into them. Chateau Jolie could easily be the location, but they didn’t have Honeywilde’s financial resources to fund a party.

She wasn’t about to tell Roark Bradley that either.

“We’d love for the school to use our ballroom,” she said instead.

“Great!”

But she couldn’t only offer up a location.

If all she provided was a room, then yet again, Honeywilde would be the hero of the day. They’d swoop in, save the town, and hog all the glory. Again. Chateau Jolie would be the little stepsister who got dragged along to the dance.

Her family’s business couldn’t afford to be the stepsister anymore.

Brooke stiffened her spine. “We’d want to do more than provide a location though. We have resources of our own.” Pitifully few, but po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe. “If the prom is at our hotel, I’d prefer to be the one in charge of coordinating with the prom’s committee chair.”

Roark nodded. “Absolutely. I agree.”

Proms weren’t in her wheelhouse, but she knew enough about parties to handle one for teenagers.

Roark took another sip of his coffee, looking proud as a peacock. “That works out perfectly for us too. With the Blueberry Festival coming up, and peak season, we don’t need to commit to managing more than we can handle.”

Peak season. Must be nice.

She shook off the resentment to concentrate on the possibilities. This prom could be the very thing Jolie needed, and if she could run the show with a Honeywilde income, even better.

She could make this the goodwill event of the year, get on every social media platform, and prove her family’s hotel was every bit as charitable and wonderful as Honeywilde, and she might be able to redeem herself. No, she would redeem herself.

“Hey.” A deep voice interrupted her pep talk.

Brooke looked up, into striking blue eyes and dimples that ought to be outlawed.

Trevor Bradley.

The best-looking man to ever ask her out, and the one she’d turned down the hardest.

Brooke stared, trying to recall the reasons why.

Roark cleared his throat. “Our breakfast started at nine thirty, Trev.”

Trevor checked his wrist, where a watch might be if he wore one. “What is it now? Nine forty?”

“Nine forty-five.”

“Then you’re getting to the good stuff.” He pulled out a chair and sat beside her. “Besides, the first ten minutes of breakfast should be spent enjoying coffee and these biscuits. You haven’t had a biscuit yet?” He scowled at the untouched basket as though it were a sin, then held the basket toward her until she took one.

Roark took one as well. “Chateau Jolie has agreed to be the location for the prom and we were about to discuss your involvement.”

Brooke’s gaze jerked toward Roark. “We were?”

“Like you said, Jolie would head up this project, but we want to lend our management’s support too. Trevor eagerly volunteered. This way, our hotels can partner up and give the school the best prom they’ve ever had.”

No! Brooke bit back the desire to snap at the perfectly nice offer.

“That’s…very generous, but you guys don’t have time to deal with all the minutiae of planning.”

“I love minutiae.” Trevor popped a bit of biscuit into his mouth.

She bet he did.

Last summer, Trevor had wooed her at Dev’s wedding, the likes of which she’d never seen or experienced. She’d darned near kissed him too, until her reality came crashing in.

Men like Trevor were dangerous.

Delicious, but dangerous.

They could not partner, and not just because of his dimples. A partnership meant shared credit, and in the case of sharing with Honeywilde, it meant they’d get all the credit.

Brooke sat up a little straighter. “I can plan the majority and simply call on you as needed. No reason to assign one of your managers to this full time.”

Especially not Trevor Bradley. She couldn’t have him all up in her space, every day for the next two weeks.

Roark pinched his lips together with a thoughtful sound.

Not a good sign. A man like Roark, with a place like Honeywilde, was never going to let her do all the work and refuse his help. He also wasn’t about to throw a bunch of money at the competition and walk away, trusting her to spend it well and wisely.

He didn’t get to be a success by being stupid.

She’d be the exact same way.

“I’m only half-manager,” Trevor argued, a lock of chocolate brown hair brushing his sun-kissed forehead as he leaned back.

Trevor’s casual attitude might work in her favor. Goodness knew she’d never be able to take the reins with the likes of Roark around, but she’d already learned Trevor was easygoing and fun loving.

And charming and insanely good looking…

But the point was, he probably wouldn’t care if she wanted to head up the project while he played second fiddle.

Still, having Trevor around all the time? When it’d taken him only one night to have her swooning in his arms, after years of no swooning at all, not even a sway?

Nothing good could come of that.

His eyes and dimples remained on full blast, like he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“I couldn’t ask you to give up Trevor permanently for more than two weeks. The occasional conferring ought to be enough.”

Roark shook off her objection. “No, he wants to help. He asked me to give him this job.”

“And I want to work full time on this, not as a consultant.” Still leaning back, looking like some Folgers commercial in his blue jeans and soft henley, Trevor drank his coffee.

Meeting with Roark at Honeywilde meant the chances of running into Trevor were high. She’d made peace with that, but she wasn’t physically or emotionally prepared to work with him full time. Particularly not when he insisted on being like that.

Roark sat forward again, his elbows on the table. “I’m with Trevor. Honeywilde needs to be involved beyond consultation. Believe it or not, Trev’s handy, works best under pressure, and he’s become our go-to guy for last-minute creativity. If there’s a lot to accomplish in very little time, he’s your guy.”

Trevor angled himself toward her, hair as dark and tousled as it was last summer, with teeth so perfect they were blinding. “See? I’m handy and available. That’s also his code for saying I’m the most dispensable member of management.”

Roark stiffened. “I didn’t say that.”

“Relax, Roark. Brooke is a friend. She knows I’m kidding.” A mischievous smile crept across Trevor’s lips. “He’s so easy to outrage.”

Brooke grabbed her coffee, focusing on the breakfast beverage as though life depended on it.

Months had passed since Devlin’s wedding. Autumn and winter came and went, but that playful smile of his still made her insides flutter more than a migration of monarchs.

He’d been utterly gorgeous the night of the wedding. So guileless and determined in his pursuit, she’d forgotten herself. They’d laughed and flirted, spent almost the entire evening talking and dancing and, near the end of the night, she thought he might kiss her.

She’d wanted him to, even though the idea of letting a man close to her again made her physically ill.

“Dispensable or not, I can’t take away one of your managers,” she tried. “He’ll be needed here as your season ramps up.”

“They don’t need me here full time.” Trevor sat close enough to make out his long, envy-worthy lashes, the complete lack of laugh lines or crow’s feet. “This prom needs to knock socks off. Those Windamere High kids are good kids. They got the raw end of the deal and that’s not okay in my book.”

Heat rushed up the back of her neck. His offer was considerate and kind, and under any other circumstance she’d accept, but this prom needed to be her baby.

“I know. I feel the same way, but—” The words froze on her tongue. She couldn’t tell them all of the reasons why she needed this success to be hers.

Not only for Jolie, but for her.

“I’d prefer to oversee things alone.”

She needed a win. She needed to know she could do something without making a mess and then failing miserably.

Roark frowned, his hackles almost visibly rising. “Wait. Are you saying you don’t want us involved at all?”

Chapter 2

Brooke’s face went blank, except for the flash of panic in her eyes.

Beautiful, bottomless, and so dark they were almost black. He’d thought about those eyes dozens of times since last August.

Even after he’d asked her out and she shot him down with the force of a torpedo fired from ten feet away, he’d pictured how the darkness danced in them when she laughed.

Roark hunkered down. “If we’re donating money, we have to be involved.”

Now her eyes were full of fear.

Trevor’s understanding of why would have to wait for later. First, he had to run Roark interference.

“Of course we do. Brooke isn’t saying otherwise.” Trevor stepped in with a breezy tone before his oldest brother botched things completely. “And of course she wants us involved, don’t you?” He shot her a wide-eyed glance.

“Yes?”

“See?” He looked back at his brother. “But Jolie is Brooke’s hotel. That’s her baby the same way Honeywilde is yours. Plus, she’s more than capable, and she wants to be lead on the event without me stepping all over her toes. Right?” Another darted glance her way.

“Right,” she agreed.

“Good. See? Brooke will head things up and I’ll help out. We’re all on the same page.” Trevor gave his brother a narrow-eyed glare.

“Are we?” Roark scowled.

Brooke met Roark’s stare. “We are now.”

God, she was something.

Since he was fifteen, he knew who Brooke Sargent was. She’d been a senior, and so far out of his league they weren’t even playing the same sport, but even then, she’d fascinated him.

Studious, serious, pretty, and perfect.

Until a couple of years ago, she’d been MIA somewhere. Probably living the high life. Didn’t matter. All that mattered was he’d made her laugh so hard at Dev’s wedding, he’d felt like a king.

They’d laughed and talked and dined. Even danced.

But when the clock struck midnight, and he’d asked her out for coffee or lunch sometime, her answer had been a carriage-back-into-a-pumpkin, gut-punching no.

He still couldn’t figure out where he’d gone wrong, or how the hell he’d screwed things up.

Roark’s surly expression remained firmly in place until his phone trilled with an incoming call. “Excuse me, I have to take this.” He left the table and walked toward the kitchen.

With a sigh of relief, Trevor scooted his chair back up to the table. “Good, he’s gone. Look, I understand your concern, but you’ve got to work with me, not against me. You keep arguing with Roark, and he’ll argue right back ’til the cows come home.”

“I wasn’t trying to be argumentative.”

“Really? You might want to try harder.”

“I know, but I—”

“Look, I’m not going to get in your way or try to call the shots at your hotel. I know how you manager types like to run the show. Have you met my boss, Roark? I’ve learned to help out without being a hindrance. Trust me, I’m not in this to take over the event or, like, I don’t know, take your hotel.”

Brooke fidgeted with her napkin before folding it neatly to lie next to her plate. “I should go.” She pushed her chair out and grabbed her purse.

“You’re leaving? You haven’t eaten. You barely tried your biscuit.”

Her gaze darted around the restaurant. “I’m not hungry.”

She started for the door like someone had pulled the fire alarm.

Whatever was going on with her, this was about more than a prom.

“Hey.” He hurried to catch up, following her into the great room. “Don’t stress about it. I’ll help you with the prom. Roark’s not going to pull out our money or anything like that. As for the rest, you run a hotel and winery. This is a prom. No big deal.”

She came to a full stop. “That’s easy for you to say. Your family throws events bigger than this on a weekly basis.”

“I meant that as a compliment.”

The corner of her mouth pulled down and she walked away again.

“Hang on.” He was right behind her. “Hold up for a second.”

She finally stopped at the front doors.

“If you’re worried about the event happening on such short notice, I’m here for that. Like Roark said, I’m good under pressure. Great, actually. We can work together.”

Brooke didn’t respond. She stared. And stared some more. The silence stretched out until it was painful. “I’m not worried. But why would you help me?”

Trevor grinned. “Because my brother told me to?”

“You know what I mean. After Dev’s wedding, why would you ever want to help me?”

“Because I want to and it’s my job.”

She studied him, her eyes fathomless, revealing nothing.

But he could render a guess. “Yes, I asked you out before, and you said no. Yes, that kind of took the wind out of my sails, but I’m a big boy. And yes, I find you attractive, but that’s not why I’m offering to help.”

Her stare remained steady.

“Fine. That is not the only reason I’m offering. I admit, hearing your name and Chateau Jolie made me pay attention in Roark’s meeting, but hearing about the canceled prom is what made me want to help.”

One dark eyebrow of disbelief crept up.

Trust issues much?

“I meant what I said about those kids. They deserve a prom, and I happen to know more about that school and teenagers than probably you or anyone else around here. I’ve volunteered there before and—”

“You have?” She blinked.

“Don’t look so shocked. I make good use of my free time.”

Brooke shook her head, one hand still on the door. “After Dev’s wedding and…I don’t know…using you feels wrong.”

Her saying things like “using you” felt pretty good to him.

She bit at her bottom lip, clearly debating with herself. She released it, redder and plumper than before, and a fire lit inside him.

“It wouldn’t be some kind of conflict of interest?”

“No.” He’d gone for months wishing he could talk to her again, hoping he’d get another chance. Now the perfect opportunity stood before him, and all because he’d paid attention in a morning meeting.

Somehow, some way, he was going to help her with this prom and help those kids to boot.

But clearly, Brooke wasn’t a woman to be pressured. She needed time to process.

He stepped away, hands up in resignation. “Look, I’m not going to badger you. I told you this would be your show, and it is. The prom is coming up soon, and I’m here for you.”

Again, she went still and quiet. The woman would make a ridiculously good ninja.

Then she straightened and spoke, her voice firmer than before. “Seems your brother won’t have it any other way.”

“Then I guess I’ll be seeing you.”

She was halfway out the door before he could catch it. Her long dark hair swung over her shoulders as she hurried through the portico. “I guess so,” she called out.

Chapter 3

“It’s a good thing you’re here.” The Tavern’s bartender chuckled and shook his head. “She’s not too far gone, but I’m cutting her off.”

Brooke searched the bar for her sister Reagan. “Good call. And thanks for calling the chateau.”

“No problem. Seeing as how . . .