Once Upon An Heirloom

Book 3: Meet Cute Romance

by Kait Nolan

Genres: Contemporary Romance; secret identity

Synopsis

A blind date on Valentine's Day. What could possibly go wrong?

After being duped and robbed by a charming ex-boyfriend, Sylvie Noll is forced to go to a jewelry store to sell a beloved family heirloom or lose the business she's put everything into.

Everett William Sperry, III is a hard-core do-gooder with a heart of gold and bank account to back him up. He impulsively buys Sylvie's hocked ring, intent on returning it to her. But Sylvie disappears.

How will he find her again? And if his friends find his grand gestures...eccentric, how will a complete stranger react?

A novelette of approximately 10.5k words.

"Meet cute" is a term used to describe a situation in which a future romantic couple meets for the first time. Meet Cute Romance is a series of contemporary romantic shorts celebrating the possibilities of that first meeting.

Release date: February 10, 2014

Publisher: Take The Leap Publishing

Print pages: 65

Sample

Sneak Peek

The sidewalks were packed with people.  Crowds moved in steady streams in and out of the shops lining the cobbled streets, juggling bags and packages.  In general, they moved with frenzied purpose and a serious lack of holiday spirit.  As he wove his way through them, Everett William Sperry, III wondered why in God’s name Brandon felt the need to meet at the Taproom in the midst of all the holiday crazy. This is what on-line shopping is for.  To avoid this insanity.  Also to avoid all the bell ringers, because he had absolutely no defense against them and felt compelled to drop a substantial donation into every charity bucket he passed.  But Brandon had declared a state of emergency, so Everett had come.

Snow swirled from the pewter sky in fat, wet flakes, sticking to his lashes, his clothes, rapidly slushing up the street of the massive outdoor mall.  The hike back to his car when this was over was going to be lots of fun.  Everett hunched his shoulders against the bitter wind blowing down from the mountain and picked up the pace.  The sooner he got there, the sooner he’d thaw out.

Up ahead, someone burst out of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, flinging the door wide and barreling onto the sidewalk.  A middle-aged woman in a puffy pink coat jerked to a halt in an effort to avoid being smacked in the face by the door.  The abrupt motion had her feet sliding, the arms full of bags beginning to pinwheel.  Everett leapt forward, skidding, and reached for her.  The bags went flying, but he managed to catch the woman before she hit the cold, hard ground.  The man who’d come out of the chocolate shop never even noticed, already halfway down the block with a cell phone pressed to his ear.

Nothing like Christmas to bring out the Grinch in people, he thought.