Susan Mallery, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fool’s Gold romances, proves there’s nowhere better than Happily Inc to rekindle first love.
Silver Tesdal has a head for business and a mouth made for kissing, and banker Drew Lovato has his eye on both. But ever since he was dumb enough to let her go, she’s kept him at a distance. When the bank turns her down for a loan, Drew sees a double opportunity—he can finance her brilliant, unique idea to rock Happily Inc’s wedding industry and win back her trust.
Despite her reputation, Silver’s not as tough as she seems. Losing Drew nearly destroyed her. Still, his kisses are as tempting as his offer to invest in her business. If she can’t quite get over him, maybe she should get under him and knock him out of her system once and for all.
But her best laid plans begin to unravel as Silver finds herself falling even harder than when they were high school sweethearts. Which means that she’ll have to come clean about the secret she’s been hiding from him for years—and risk losing him forever.
Everyone’s falling in love with Happily Inc!
You Say It First
~ An Amazon.com Best Book of 2017 in Romance ~
“Delightfully flirtatious and deceptively easy dialogue... Mallery excels at creating protagonists who grow individually as well as together on the way to their destined happy ending.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The first in ever-popular Mallery’s new Happily Inc series has the author’s signature blend of humor, poignancy, and small-town charm.”
—Booklist
“There’s a lot to like about this first book in Mallery’s new series, Happily Inc, about a California desert town that’s known as a wedding destination. The romance is sweet and hot, the writing is quick and easy... A great choice for a weekend read.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Verdict: An inventive heroine who comes into her own and a caring hero who figures out what’s important give in to love in this lighthearted romance.”
—Library Journal
Second Chance Girl
“A heartfelt and genuine friends-to-lovers story fraught with emotional trauma that makes the happily-ever-after satisfyingly sweet.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Mallery’s second title in the new Happily Inc series features her typical mastery of the romance format, with another quirky small town and a set of characters for her fans to love, complete with a mascot animal. The potent and prolific Mallery delivers again.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“You can always count on Mallery to deliver warm-hearted and quirky stories featuring emotionally dented individuals doing their best to survive and hopefully thrive.... A truly unforgettable read! Mallery is one of a kind!”
—RT Book Reviews, Top Pick!
Also by Susan Mallery
When We Found Home
Secrets of the Tulip Sisters
Daughters of the Bride
Happily Inc
Not Quite Over You
Why Not Tonight
Second Chance Girl
You Say It First
Mischief Bay
Sisters Like Us
A Million Little Things
The Friends We Keep
The Girls of Mischief Bay
Fool’s Gold
Best of My Love
Marry Me at Christmas
Thrill Me
Kiss Me
Hold Me
Until We Touch
Before We Kiss
When We Met
Christmas on 4th Street
Three Little Words
Two of a Kind
Just One Kiss
A Fool’s Gold Christmas
All Summer Long
Summer Nights
Summer Days
Only His
Only Yours
Only Mine
Finding Perfect
Almost Perfect
Chasing Perfect
For a complete list of titles available from Susan Mallery, please visit www.SusanMallery.com.
Not Quite Over You
Susan Mallery
To Shari—you are a delight and an unexpected bonus in my life. Thank you for being so kind and generous and just plain fun to be around. This one is for you. Well, honestly, you’re going to have to share Mr. Whiskers with the whole group, but the rest of it is yours!!
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
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
EXCERPT FROM CALIFORNIA GIRLS BY SUSAN MALLERY
CHAPTER ONE
LOVE AT FIRST sight was never a wise decision, but Silver Tesdal couldn’t help herself. Sure, the Airstream was a few years old, with a couple of exterior dents and a messed-up interior in need of complete refurbishing, but still, the lines, the space. It was everything she’d wished for. She would need a three-quarter-ton truck to tow it and more staff, but she could make that happen—at least in her dreams.
There was a second, smaller Airstream in even worse condition, but the twenty-three-foot length would be perfect for low-key affairs. She could already picture what the two would look like refurbished and sporting her AlcoHaul company logo.
She leaned back in her desk chair and smiled. Right now her “company” had exactly one full-time employee—her. She hired any staff she needed on a per-job basis. But, she thought longingly as she looked at the For Sale listings on her computer, with the Airstreams, all that would change. She would need someone to run each of the new trailers, which meant a second and third employee, and hey, the money to meet payroll.
But first she had to buy the trailers, fix them up, get a couple of trucks to tow them from venue to venue and make sure she had enough bookings to make it all worthwhile. She’d run the numbers and she could do it and still turn a profit... In time. As for making it all happen now, when the trailers were available, for that she needed a loan. And while she loved her some Airstreams, she was less excited about dealing with banks.
Silver shut down her browser and picked up the slim, black leather briefcase she’d bought for eight dollars at an estate sale a couple of years ago. She wasn’t the briefcase type, but since starting her business, she’d realized there were times she had to fit in with the conventional world. The briefcase helped her fool those who would otherwise judge.
She slipped in her wallet and her phone, then smoothed the front of her black pencil skirt before heading to the door to her loft. Today and today only, she’d traded in jeans and a tank top for a skirt, silk shell and cropped black blazer. She had applied conservative makeup and had pulled her long blond hair back into a French braid. Faux gold studs and black pumps with three-inch heels completed her transformation. She felt stupid, but knew appearances mattered. Dumb but true.
Ten minutes later, she pulled her truck into the parking lot of California First Savings and Loan. She had already been turned down by three other banks. If California First didn’t give her
a loan, then she was screwed.
“Not screwed,” she murmured to herself. “If I don’t get the loan, I will go on as before. I’m doing great and whatever the outcome, I’m going to be completely and totally fine.”
Only she wanted the Airstreams. She wanted to grow her business and be more than anyone had assumed was possible. She was just a nobody from the wrong side of the tracks who had made a lot of stupid decisions along the way. Being able to expand her business meant proving to herself that she’d left all that behind. And yes, there might be a bit of neener-neener to those who had told her she would never amount to anything, but that was just a bonus.
She walked into the bank and headed directly to the executive offices. Her appointment was with Libby Saunders, the vice president in charge of commercial lending. Silver had met with her once before, when she’d applied for the loan, and today they were to discuss the outcome of the loan committee meeting. Despite Libby being the mother of one of Silver’s closest friends, the thirty minutes with Libby had been tense and awkward.
Libby couldn’t have made it more clear she disapproved of Silver, of her business and the viability of her business plan. Silver had been determined to defy the odds. She’d rerun the numbers, had lowered the amount she’d wanted to borrow and had instructed all her friends to pray, burn sage or sacrifice to create good karma.
She knocked once on Libby’s open office door. The older woman looked up from her computer.
Libby was in her fifties and nearly a caricature of what people assumed a woman in banking management should look like. She wore dark suits, pearls and always had her hair up in a tight bun. She looked disapproving, with a perpetual almost-frown knitting her eyebrows together. Silver tried to remember if she’d ever seen Libby smile and couldn’t. Not that she was around her that much, but on the surface, the banker was not a happy person.
“Silver,” she said, the corners of her mouth nearly but not quite lifting in a smile. “How nice of you to be on time.” She motioned to the chair opposite her desk.
“Libby.”
Silver sat down and did her best to look confident and professional. She set her briefcase where Libby could see it and be impressed.
The other woman barely glanced at her estate sale find. “You did an excellent job revising your business plan. The numbers look good.”
Silver allowed herself an internal fist bump, but kept her expression neutral.
“Having said that, I’m sorry to tell you that we won’t be giving you the loan. You were right on the edge of being approved, but given the nature of your business—with the potential for liability and lack of steady customers—the committee simply couldn’t come to an agreement.”
A committee of one, Silver thought, determined not to let her disappointment and bitterness show. Libby had been her last hope. Okay, not Libby but the bank. Silver had already been to every other one in town. There was no point in trying out of the area. Happily Inc was a quirky destination wedding town. Things here moved to their own rhythm. Explaining to a banker outside Happily Inc that she wanted to buy trailers to fix up to be traveling bars for weddings would make her sound like an idiot—despite her excellent business plan.
“I am sorry,” Libby added, her eyes bright with something that looked a whole lot more like satisfaction than regret.
She should have known, Silver told herself. There was no escaping her past—not in this town. Not with people like Libby around.
Silver knew the polite thing to do was to thank the other woman or offer to shake her hand or something socially acceptable. But she couldn’t do it. Instead, she nodded before standing and made her way out of the suddenly too-warm office.
She felt ridiculous in her business clothes, as if she were a child at Halloween. No one was fooled. She was who she had always been—wild Silver Tesdal, the woman who owned a bar and didn’t give a damn about what anyone thought of her.
She held on to her stupid briefcase as she crossed the lobby, her heels clicking on the marble floor.
“Silver?”
The voice came from behind her. She didn’t have to turn around to know who was calling her name. She did her best not to hunch like a cat in the rain, even as she faked a smile.
“Drew. Fancy seeing you here.”
She didn’t express surprise at seeing him—Drew also worked at the bank. He was, in fact, heir apparent to the glory that was California First Savings and Loan. A fact that was no doubt thrilling to him, annoying to her and completely irrelevant when it came to her loan.
His dark gaze swept over her, taking in the skirt, the heels and the briefcase. “What are you doing here?”
“Visiting an old friend.”
“You don’t have any friends here,” he told her.
“Yes, I’m aware of that.” More so now than ever.
Unfortunately, Drew wasn’t an idiot. He looked from her back to the executive offices.
“You had a meeting with Libby.”
“She is in charge of commercial loans.” She began walking toward the exit.
All she had to do was get in her truck, then get home. She would go for a four-mile run, take a shower, scream into a pillow, and then mask her disappointment with a bottle of red wine and a burger. Tomorrow she would be strong and determined, but tonight there would be wine.
“Your loan application for the Airstreams,” he said, as if putting the pieces together. “The loan committee isn’t supposed to meet until tomorrow.”
“They decided to meet early.”
She could see the glass door leading to the parking lot, could almost touch it. Freedom was just. So. Close.
He stepped between her and the door. “She turned you down.”
Not a question and not anything she wanted to talk about.
Sarcasm would be easy. There were a thousand choices, each of them more biting than the one before. Sarcasm could be a weapon, as were lies and the act of simply ignoring him and walking away. They were also proof that she felt the need to protect herself, as if Drew could still hurt her. Twelve years after the fact, shouldn’t she not care in the least? Wouldn’t that be the real victory?
She summoned a genuine smile. One that made her seem smart and confident and more than capable—or so she hoped. Because to her at least, the truth was just so obvious.
“Drew, there was no way Libby was going to be anything but a long shot. I did my best and I wouldn’t change anything.” Not even falling in love with you all those years ago. Even if you were an immature jerk who didn’t know what he’d lost until it was too late.
Okay, that last bit might have taken away her claim to the high ground, but at least she’d only thought it rather than saying it.
“Let me talk to her,” he began.
“No. It’s done. Let it go. I’m going to.”
Even if letting it go meant not having two beautiful Airstreams to remodel. There would be other used trailers when she could save enough cash to buy them, refurbish them and gift them with trucks to tow them. She hadn’t done the math, but she would guess her time frame would be two years. Maybe three.
The thought of waiting all that time was too depressing for words, but hey, that was why there was going to be wine later.
“It’s not right,” he told her. “I saw your business plan. You’re an excellent risk.”
“According to Libby, I was right on the margin. Hardly an excellent risk.”
His gaze flickered. Ah, she thought. Some things never changed. Drew had never been a very good liar.
“We’re done,” she said, heading for the door.
Not just with the loan process, she thought, but with whatever had ever been between them all those years ago. She’d processed the anger, hurt, sadness, resentment and nearly every emotion in between. Facing him like this in a moment of disappointment and shame, she was happy to a
dmit she felt almost nothing. Finally. Finally Drew was just some guy she used to know. Talk about a miracle.
She reached her truck, slid onto the seat and reviewed her plan. A run, a shower, wine and a burger. Celebrating the loan would have been a whole lot better, but that hadn’t happened so she’d earned a night to mourn. First thing tomorrow, she would get her butt in gear and start a new plan. One that didn’t involve banks or loans. She would be self-sufficient, she would be victorious and, truth be told, she would probably be a little hung over. But no matter what, she would be fine.
* * *
DREW LOVATO TOOK a couple of days to consider his options. Calling a special meeting of the commercial loan committee was one, only he’d checked the records of the last meeting and Silver’s loan application had been shot down 7–2. He doubted any impassioned plea on his part would make a difference. Libby had made her case first, and apparently it had been a good one. A single swing vote he could probably manage, but finding three people willing to vote yes instead of no seemed unlikely.
He didn’t know what his aunt had against Silver, but there was something, he thought grimly. Regardless, Silver still needed the money to expand her business.
Soon, he promised himself. When his grandfather retired and Drew took over the bank, policies would change. He wanted to support local businesses and help the community grow. That meant loaning money to entrepreneurs like Silver.
His second thought had been to set up a fake loan through the bank—using his own money. However, violating federal banking statutes was never a good idea. He doubted he would enjoy prison.
He could simply give her what she needed to buy the trailers. He smiled as he imagined how that conversation would go. Would she tear him a new one before or after she backed her truck over him? Silver was many things—beautiful, smart, determined. She was also proud as hell, highly verbal and occasionally impulsive. The combination made life with her interesting, to say the least, and sometimes it came with an unexpected thrown object.
Alternatively, he could offer to loan her the money, using the same terms as the banks. Whatever risk the loan committee might have worried about wouldn’t exist for him. He knew she would sell a kidney before defaulting on him of all people. Which meant she would probably say no. Or several versions of no, some of which would question his masculinity, his humanity and his relationship with everyone’s mother.
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