Contents
Title Page
About the Author
By Carly Phillips
Praise for Carly Phillips
About the Book
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
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
About the Author
New York Times bestselling author Carly Phillips tossed away her legal briefs and a career as an attorney to become a stay-at-home mom. Within the year, she turned her love of reading into an obsession with writing. More than thirty published novels later, Carly writes sexy contemporary small-town romances, striking a balance between entertainment and emotion, and giving her readers the compelling stories they have come to expect and enjoy. She lives in Purchase, New York, with her husband, two daughters, and their dogs: Bailey, a soft-coated wheaten terrier, and Brady, a Havanese, who act like additional children. Visit Carly at www.carlyphillips.com or catch up with her at facebook.com/CarlyPhillipsfanpage or follow her on Twitter @carlyphillips.
By Carly Phillips
Serendipity Series
Serendipity
Destiny
Karma
Fated (e-novella)
Serendipity’s Finest
Perfect Fit
Perfect Fling
Perfect Together
Raves for the novels of Carly Phillips:
‘[An] entertaining and sexy romance . . . [A] fun and romantic summer read . . . Will please readers with its mischievous characters, red-hot passionate encounters, and spirited plot’ Publishers Weekly
‘Fast-moving and sexy . . . Her many readers will clamor for this’ Booklist
‘This sassy, sexy story with a rapid-fire pace . . . will send readers looking for the rest’ Library Journal
‘Fast-paced and fabulously fun, Carly Phillips entertains with witty dialogue and delightful characters’ Rachel Gibson, New York Times bestselling author
‘On a scale of one to five: a high five for fun, ease of reading, and sex — actually I would’ve given it a six for sex if I could have’ Kelly Ripa
‘This is one of Phillips’ best, a lighthearted, fast-moving plot filled with her signature quirky characters. The book also shows depth of heart, outlining some of the life choices we make that perhaps could use a second look. Great fun with a bit of insight tucked in — fans will be clamoring for this one! HOT!’ Romantic Times 4½ Stars
‘Once again Carly Phillips has done it. She knows how to combine suspense, romance, and comedy. Loved it’ Night Owl Reviews
‘An entertaining read from start to finish that fans of Ms. Phillips, both new and old, are sure to enjoy’ Joyfully Reviewed
‘Carly Phillips’ characters are always believable, and I think that’s what makes her books keepers . . . The only issue a Phillips fan will have is leaving these wonderful characters’ Fresh Fiction
‘A funny, sexy story with exactly the right mix of sass and heart’ Susan Mallery, New York Times bestselling author
Welcome to Serendipity, where love, fate and fortune are intertwined . . .
No longer interested in the prospect of being a trophy wife, Nicole Farnsworth calls off her wedding. All she wants is to be herself and where better to start afresh than in Serendipity – the place she met the one man who made her heart beat faster, and gave her the courage to reinvent her life.
After the heartbreak of losing his childhood sweetheart to his best friend, Officer Sam Marsden fears he can’t trust his instincts when it comes to love. Yet he’s so tempted by Nicole, who has starred in his dreams ever since their brief meeting. For Nicole and Sam, opening their hearts one more time could change their lives for ever. But who’ll be the first to take that chance?
One
There was something about being a Marsden that made people think if they asked him for a favor, Sam—the younger brother and the good cop—would be nice and accommodating. Take how his sister-in-law, Cara, was looking at him with big, pleading eyes, fully expecting him to agree to her beyond-unreasonable request.
“There is no way in hell I’m going on a date with Margie Simpson.” Sam Marsden glared at Cara, a woman he usually also called his best friend, from across their respective desks at the Serendipity police station.
“Her last name is Stinson, not Simpson, and you know it.” Cara frowned back at him. “Come on, Sam. Her parents are the biggest donors for the Women’s Heart Health fund-raiser, and the Serendipity Police Department is a co-sponsor. Do you want to be the one to tell the hospital, who will be the recipient of that shiny new medical equipment, that the Stinsons pulled their donation because one of our finest wouldn’t escort their daughter?”
“She’s more like a pit bull,” Sam muttered. “And isn’t there another single cop you can get to take her? What about Hendler?”
“He’s too old.”
“Martini?”
She shook her head. “Too young. Besides, Margie wants to go with you.”
He shuddered. “All the more reason for me to say no. I don’t want to give her the wrong idea.” Margie was one of those women who assumed that just a look implied male interest. Sam didn’t want to go there. No way, nohow.
“Are you giving my wife a hard time?” Sam’s brother, Mike, strode over to Cara’s desk and placed a possessive hand on her shoulder.
“More like she’s giving me one. Call her off, will you?” Sam asked.
Mike laughed and shook his head. “I like my life just the way it is. Sorry, bro. You’re on your own.”
Sam rolled his eyes. Ever since his bachelor brother had fallen—hard—for Sam’s sometime partner, Cara, he was now wrapped around his wife’s cute little cowboy boots—when she wasn’t in uniform, that is. Where she went, Mike followed. Sam was happy for him. Problem was, Sam’s single friends were dwindling fast. First Dare Barron, then Mike, and even their sister, Erin, had fallen.
Sam wasn’t jealous, but he could admit that his life and the routines he’d always enjoyed were growing stale around him. But that didn’t mean he was open to marriage, let alone escorting the female from hell, even for a good cause.
Cara rolled a pencil between her palms. “Do you already have a date?” she asked.
“Hell, no,” Mike said, before Sam could answer. “He hasn’t dated anyone in longer than I can remember. In fact, the last woman who remotely interested him—”
No, he would not let his brother go there. “Don’t you have an office to get back to?” Sam pointed to the police chief’s workroom at the back of the stationhouse.
Mike grinned. “Not when this is so much more fun.”
Cara elbowed him in the stomach. “Go. I’ll have more luck if you aren’t here poking fun at him and making this worse.”
Mike shrugged. “Hey, it’s not my fault he’s such an easy target.”
“Now that you’re happily married, you’re an even bigger pain in the ass,” Sam muttered.
Mike smirked and kissed his wife on the lips, lingering way too long before he finally walked—make that swaggered—away.
“Get a room.”
“You too could find true love,” Cara said, leaning closer. “We all want that for you.”
But Sam didn’t want that for himself. He’d tried, come close, and failed in the biggest possible way. As a cop, he trusted his instincts
, but when it came to women? To relationships? To personal choices? Not so much.
His so-called gut instinct had hurt one good friend, and his gullibility had led to him being betrayed by his fiancée and best friend. His family knew only some of the reasons he remained wary of trusting his personal instincts, and with his siblings settled down, Erin with a husband and a baby, they’d all turned up the pressure on him.
Cara leveled him with a serious stare. “I’m not asking you to marry Margie, just accompany her to the benefit. Make nice and go home. Can you do that for me? For Mike and the police station? Please?” Cara batted her eyelashes over her big blue eyes.
She’d been his best friend long before she became involved with Mike, and he’d have thought he was immune—except now she was also his family and he didn’t like turning her down. Besides, as she’d pointed out, the fund-raiser was for a good cause and he’d be representing the police force.
He blew out a disgusted breath. “You’re only doing this because I can’t say no to you,” Sam muttered, shuddering at the thought of accompanying the one woman in town who sent fear into any single man’s heart.
“Is that a yes?” Cara tapped her pencil against the blotter on the desk, her expression almost gleeful.
“Yeah,” he muttered, knowing he would absolutely live to regret the decision.
“Yay!” She jumped up and hugged him tight before resettling herself into the chair behind her desk. “This is perfect! One huge problem taken care of. I knew I could count on you.”
Yeah, perfect, Sam thought, hating that word even more than usual.
“Hey, I promise Mike and I will stick by you all night. I won’t leave you alone with that leech.”
Sam narrowed his gaze. “So now you admit she’s a leech.”
Cara didn’t look up or meet his gaze, but the red flush in her cheeks gave her away. Yeah, he was a patsy for his sister-in-law and a good cause.
“You know,” Cara said, peering out from beneath her long fringe of lashes, “you could avoid this whole kind of thing if you’d just—”
Find a woman of his own. “Let it go,” he said in response to her unspoken words.
“Okay, but Mike’s right. The last woman who interested you was—”
“Let. It. Go.” Sam set his jaw.
“Fine. I won’t say her name.” Cara buried herself in work at her desk, but she’d accomplished her mission.
She’d brought up the one female in more than a decade who’d made Sam want to drop his guard and rethink his vow not to get emotionally involved with any woman ever again. But Nicole Farnsworth, the raven-haired beauty who’d triggered his current state of discontent, had left town months ago and she wasn’t coming back.
Nicole Farnsworth packed up her clothing and the last of her things, trying to convince herself she was moving, not running away. In fact, she’d planned to leave Manhattan since deciding to end her engagement, but now instead of just the excitement of beginning a new life, she felt the dual need to flee. She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. Nothing she could do but go—get away—and do some soul-searching, during which she hoped to find clarity. But what clarity was there when she knew she held people’s livelihoods and even freedom in her hands?
The doorbell rang and she looked into the peephole, unwilling to take chances by just opening her door. She stared into the familiar if unwelcome face of her mother, who, as usual, was perfectly dressed in a Chanel jacket and wool slacks.
Suppressing a groan, she opened the door and let Marian Farnsworth inside.
Before Nicole could say hello, her mother launched into one of her typical tirades. “No sane woman breaks off her engagement to a handsome, extremely wealthy man. One you grew up with, might I remind you? He and his family are in business with your father. What were you thinking?”
Nicole walked into the family room and leaned against the nearest wall, knowing not to give her mother an edge by sitting down. “I was thinking that I shouldn’t marry a man I don’t love.”
Her mother joined her in the room filled with the remaining boxes waiting to be loaded into her car. She folded her arms across her chest and pinned Nicole with her disappointed stare. “What does love have to do with anything?”
Nicole did not want an explanation for that bit of insanity. It meant she’d have to look more deeply than she cared to into her parents’ marriage. Instead she drew a deep breath and promised herself she’d be on her way soon.
“Nicole, it’s insane to think someone like you needs to worry about a love match.”
She shrugged. “You know as well as I do, sanity doesn’t run in our family.”
“Don’t talk that way about your sister,” her mother chided, always looking to hide Victoria’s mental instability, as if being bipolar carried a stigma Marian couldn’t bear to admit to in her family.
The irony was Nicole hadn’t been talking about Victoria, merely making a not-so-subtle joke.
“Darling, you need to call Tyler and beg him to forgive you.”
This, Nicole had heard before. “No.” And she had more important things to worry about than her mother’s reaction to her breaking her engagement. Like the illegal activities Nicole had overheard her ex-fiancé’s father and his accountant discussing—and what she was going to do about them. Considering, as her mother reminded her, that the partnership of Farnsworth and Stanton Financial Investments affected both families, Nicole needed distance to study all the angles.
Such as, did Nicole’s father know that his partner was accepting money from mob-connected companies and funneling that money into investments from which they all made millions? Did her ex-fiancé Tyler know?
“Nicole,” her mother said, snapping her fingers in front of her face. “You’re not listening to me.”
“Because I have things on my mind. Like moving.” Not just so she could get away and think, but so she could forge a new life where people would get to know and like Nicole for herself, not her family’s connections.
Her mother’s face flushed red at the reminder. It was amazing how the woman could ignore the evidence in front of her: the boxes, packing tape, and clothing covered by heavy-duty bags. “You have to reconsider. This whole situation is humiliating in the extreme. Not to mention, you have a job. Tyler’s mother is running for borough president and you’re her number one fund-raiser. She needs you.”
“I gave her notice. My assistant is capable and ready to take over. She’ll be fine.”
“You’ll cause a rift between the families,” her mother pushed on.
Nicole stiffened, not missing the irony. Growing up, she’d sought her parents’ approval and attention by being good and kind and perfect—without success. But now, when she no longer cared what her family thought of her choices, she’d accomplished her goal. Her mother was here, paying attention to her life, begging her to help them.
“The Stantons won’t hold my choices against you.”
“Nicole!”
“No. Stop it. I told you before. I am not going back to Tyler. I don’t love him. I should have realized it long before now.” And the reasons why she hadn’t were glaringly obvious in light of her mother’s callous disregard of her daughter’s feelings.
She’d desperately wanted someone to love and approve of her, and Tyler, unlike her parents, had been kind and caring. He paid attention to her and he’d given her everything she’d yearned for in her emotionally deprived life. Unfortunately, Nicole had mistaken her gratitude toward him for love, and she’d hurt Tyler in the process.
It had taken her sister’s downward spiral and Nicole’s resulting meeting with a sexy small-town cop to point out to her exactly what she didn’t feel for her then-fiancé. Desire, excitement, the pounding of her heart every time he was near. She’d settled for less every minute of her childhood. She couldn’t bring herself to do it in marriage.
Nicole realized her mother was still staring at her with frustration and disappointment in her expression.
> “It’s better I made the decision now than after the wedding,” Nicole told her.
Marian huffed. “Just when did I teach you that fairy tales come true?” she asked in disgust.
Nicole met her mother’s gaze. “You never did.”
Without so much as a word, not good luck or even goodbye, her mother turned and stormed out the door.
Nicole swallowed the lump in her throat. Her mother hadn’t changed in all of Nicole’s twenty-eight years. But Nicole had. With this move, she wasn’t looking for some improbable happy ending. All she wanted—no, craved—was a life of her own that fulfilled her dreams and desires, not those of her impossible-to-please family.
So she was heading to the one place where she’d found a sense of peace despite the insanity—no pun intended—that had brought her to the sleepy upstate town. She hoped that once there, she’d figure out the right thing to do about the information she’d stumbled over.
Nicole was ready for Serendipity. She just hoped the people in Serendipity were ready for her.
One of the things Nicole liked about Serendipity was its old-fashioned charm. Where else could you find a diner-slash-restaurant named The Family Restaurant? After spending the morning moving into her new apartment over Joe’s Bar, she decided to eat dinner out and go food shopping tomorrow.
She sat at the counter, happy to just soak in the atmosphere, and had just finished a delicious plate of meat loaf and mashed potatoes when a dark-haired woman approached her from behind the counter.
“Wait. I know you,” the woman said, her gaze narrowing.
Nicole met the other woman’s concerned stare, well aware of the reason for the worry in her eyes. The one thing that had concerned Nicole about moving here was being mistaken for her twin. But the pull of the small town had been strong, and despite Victoria’s actions, people here hadn’t judged Nicole, at least not once she’d tried desperately to help them find her twin.
Nicole wanted to give them the same benefit of the doubt. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
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