by Bella Andre
Her mother huffed. “No daughter of mine will ever be in the same category as a man like that. Good grief, he probably does drugs, Margaret. Is that the kind of person you hang around with in this job of yours?”
Meg bit back an angry retort. It was always better, when it came to her mother, to simply leave things and hope that she forgot about them. Which was precisely what Meg had done with her job.
But it hadn’t worked, had it? Because she’d made Meg come today not because she missed her and wanted to catch up, but so she could pressure her into quitting.
“Thank you for inviting me to tea.” She forced herself to lean in to kiss her mother’s cheek. “But I think it might be best if I came again another time. I have a lot to take care of in my office.”
“Yes,” her mother agreed. “It would be best if you came back when you’re ready to see some sense. Here.” She shoved the newspaper at Meg. “Take this and throw it away. I can’t stand to look at it.”
As Meg walked out of the house, she looked at the photo of Lucas Crosby again. He looked so free, leaping toward the cameraman with a huge smile. Meg couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be that free, something she’d always longed for.
But even more than freedom, Meg longed for love.
Was there any chance that one day the magic surrounding everyone at Married in Malibu—first Liz and Jason, then Jenn and Daniel, and now Travis and Amy—would rub off on her?
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Please enjoy an excerpt from THE WEDDING GIFT, Book 1 in Lucy Kevin’s New York Times bestselling Four Weddings and a Fiasco series!
After Julie Delgado’s restaurant closes, she temporarily takes over the catering position at the Rose Chalet, a full-service San Francisco wedding venue. She plans to dazzle the bride and groom so the Chalet’s owner will keep her around, but fate has other plans for her when the bride’s brother shows up for the first food tasting.
Andrew Kyle is not only the Cuisine Channel’s Edgy Eats host and chef, but his recent review of Julie’s restaurant was the final nail in its coffin. Once he meets Julie at the Rose Chalet, he’s certain she’s playing it safe. And he wants nothing more than to be the one to break her guarded passions loose.
But despite the undeniable sparks between Julie and Andrew–and the fact that he seems to believe in her when no one else does–can she afford to be taking risks with her cooking, with her career…or with her heart?
It wasn’t easy trying to finish off the main courses and desserts, knowing all the while that Andrew Kyle was probably out there telling the Rose Chalet’s owner exactly how awful Julie’s food was. And Rose would listen, of course, because what else would she be able to do in the face of a triple whammy: celebrity chef, the groom’s brother, and great dimples?
Enough about the dimples, Julie ordered herself. Just remember what he did.
It was pretty hard to forget. One review from the city’s most prominent TV chef, and her business had come crashing down around her ears. The faint trickle of new customers Julie had hoped would widen into a stream dried up completely. Her entire dream went south in a matter of weeks, all thanks to the man who was currently sampling Julie’s seafood platter.
Well, she couldn’t let him ruin this dream too. Which meant Julie couldn’t do anything horrible to his food, even if a small part of her wanted the revenge.
The truth was, the best revenge would be to show him just how wrong he had been. All she had to do was present him with the best plates of food in her life, and then force him to eat his words.
Easy.
Though if it was that easy, why was her hand shaking while she finished the duck? She needed to focus, take her time, and—
“Is everything okay?”
Julie jumped at the sound of Andrew’s voice, almost slicing a finger open in the process.
What was he doing in her kitchen? Had he finally realized who she was? Had he come to gloat?
Or, maybe, to apologize for what he’d done?
Knowing anything she really wanted to say to him would get her instantly fired by Rose, Julie settled for, “I’m not sure you should be in here.”
“No, it’s fine—”
“Julie,” she reminded him, like he hadn’t just been told her name a few minutes ago. “Julie Delgado.”
Was there a flicker of recognition in his eyes? Did he even vaguely remember her name?
Then again, why would he? He was a famous chef. She was a nobody who couldn’t keep her own kitchen open and was now cooking for scraps at a wedding venue.
“I asked Rose before I came in to see the kitchen where the food for the wedding might be prepared.”
“Might be?”
“My brother and his fiancé deserve the best. I promised I’d cast my chef’s eye over it as my wedding gift to them. Which is why I’d appreciate it if you could bring the desserts out with the main courses and stay with us as we go through everything.” He flashed that brilliant smile of his. “After all, I’m sure the two of us will have a lot to talk about.”
For a moment, Julie wondered if he meant the review, but those darn dimples of his were turning her brain just enough to mush so that all she could manage was, “Will we?”
“Sure,” Andrew replied, with another smile.
Oh my God, after all he’d done, was he actually flirting with her?
Julie just barely resisted the urge to hit him with the nearest thing on hand, but only because it happened to be a saucepan full of steadily reducing plum sauce. Of all the arrogant…
Again, Julie forced herself to take a deep breath and reminded herself that since she obviously wasn’t important enough for the big star to remember, why wouldn’t he try out the charm that had everybody else fooled?
“I’d be happy to bring out everything at once,” Julie said, if only because it seemed like the quickest way to get him out of her kitchen. “Just give me a minute or two.”
* * *
Watching Andrew Kyle eat was an experience. He didn’t talk between bites, as though that would in some way spoil his concentration. Instead he assembled the food carefully on his fork, closing his eyes and letting his nose take in the scent of it for a moment before he finally pushed it into that sensuous mouth.
Julie found herself briefly entranced by the way he clearly wanted to involve as many of his senses as possible, by the fact that he seemed to treat food as something truly important.
Of course, that didn’t make up for the way he kept Julie and Rose waiting while he tasted everything. In fact, the only time he spoke at all was about halfway through, when he glanced up and raised an eyebrow.
“Is everything to your satisfaction?”
Andrew put his fork down carefully. “It’s all well cooked,” he said. “The scallops are nicely done and the fish goes well with them. The salad is crisp and fresh. The plum sauce with the duck is just right, and I like the richness of the gateaux. The food is well prepared,” he said, “but, unfortunately, it’s too bland.”
Bland.
It was the same word he’d used about her restaurant.
Julie’s hands closed on the tablecloth. “Bland?” she repeated.
Andrew nodded. “As I said, it’s fine, it’s just…frankly, it’s wedding food.”
“That’s what this food is for,” Julie had to point out. “A wedding.”
“Yes, but it’s for my brother’s wedding, and I’m sorry, this menu won’t work. It’s been done. There’s nothing exciting here. There’s no twist on any of the classic dishes, and there isn’t anything innovative, either. This is my wedding gift to my brother and his fiancée. It needs to be special. But nothing about this menu makes it clear that their wedding is a really special occasion.”
Julie thought the part where there would be a bride and groom saying “I do” in front of a few hundred people mi
ght be a clue as to the specialness of the occasion, but, of course, she wasn’t going to say that. Besides, just then, she was too busy remembering the first time Andrew Kyle had made these comments about her food. Remembering how much it had hurt.
About as much as it hurt right now, come to think of it.
“So what is it you want?” Julie asked. She very carefully kept her voice level. Completely devoid of emotion.
“Something special. Something different. Something with a bit of imagination to it. Look,” Andrew said, “I’d like to come back so that we can throw a few ideas around. Between Julie and myself, I suspect we can come up with something that’s perfect for the wedding.”
He’d just demolished her cooking for the second time in a few short months, and he thinks she would want him around?
“What a wonderful idea,” Rose said before Julie could flat-out refuse to ever see Andrew Kyle again. “Our aim at the Rose Chalet is to make sure the day goes exactly the way the happy couple wants it. Julie would be happy to brainstorm menus with you, wouldn’t you, Julie?”
Since the question was obviously rhetorical, Julie mumbled something that could be taken as a yes.
Rose stood. “Andrew, if you have a few more minutes, I’d like to talk you for a walk around the Chalet to get a feel for the place. My full staff isn’t here at the moment, but we can start to discuss a few options.”
Julie had never been so grateful for anything as when Andrew agreed. Ordinarily, with a guy like him, she would have watched him go just because she couldn’t not stare. Today, however, it was simply to make sure he was well and truly gone before she let out a sigh and slumped down in her seat.
What had she gotten herself into?
…Excerpt from THE WEDDING GIFT by Lucy Kevin © 2016
Buy The Wedding Gift
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Enjoy an excerpt from BE MY LOVE, the first fun, sweet and emotional contemporary romance in Lucy Kevin’s Walker Island series!
Come for a visit to Walker Island where you’ll find stunning Pacific Northwest ocean views, men too intriguing to resist…and five close-knit sisters who are each about to find their one true love.
After four years on the Seattle mainland, when Hanna Walker returns to Walker Island to make a documentary about the infamous Peterson-Walker feud from the early 1950s, she’s shocked to realize that passions still run high. Especially when it comes to Joel Peterson, the one man who is totally off-limits…but that she’s never been able to stop dreaming about.
The last thing Joel wants is for Hanna to dredge up the past, but when he realizes she’s determined to follow through with her documentary no matter what, he knows he has no choice but to join her. Despite vowing to hold back his growing feelings for her, as Joel works with Hanna to unravel the mystery of what really happened between their two families, he soon begins to see that love is an unstoppable force…and that sometimes two people are meant to be.
Joel didn’t have time to straighten his tie before a woman pushed open the door to his office. Small and fine-boned, she was incredibly beautiful, albeit in a slightly unconventional way. Her blonde hair was streaked with light pink highlights, and her eyes shone out, blue and fierce from beneath her bangs. Even in cargo pants and a denim jacket it was obvious that she had a gorgeous figure.
As a high school quarterback, the son of the local shipping magnate, and then the director of the family business, Joel had had his share of relationships with good looking women. But there was something uniquely attractive about the way this woman strode over to his desk like nothing in the world was going to stop her from getting what she wanted.
Of course, by that point, two other things had become pretty obvious, both of which should have dampened the attraction Joel had felt in that first glance. The first was that she was probably only in her early twenties, which was far too young for him. But it was the second that was far more important.
She was a Walker.
Hanna Walker.
She might have been the youngest Walker sister, but she was no longer a little girl. Not even close.
“Oh, wow,” she said, her eyes widening as she stopped moving closer to stare at him. “You would look just great on camera.”
“Hanna—”
“You recognized me.” She sounded surprised. “I wasn’t sure you would. I’ve grown up.”
Yes, he thought, you certainly have. This close, he could smell the fresh scent of the sea on her and guessed that she must have only just come over on the ferry. He knew she was here to convince him to let her into the archives, but just looking at her beautiful face scrambled up his brain cells so badly that before he could put them back in order and let her know he wasn’t going to change his mind, she was moving closer…and scrambling his insides up more and more with every step she took.
“I just spoke to Mr. Neale, who told me that you’d said I couldn’t have access to the archives, but I figured that couldn’t be right. I mean, why would you do that? And since he’s very busy with everyone who wants ice cream today, I thought I’d come here and talk to you directly. And you know, you really would look great on camera. Maybe we could do a segment in the documentary with you talking about how the Peterson family is doing now, a couple of generations after the big feud? And we could also include a few shots of mussel farming, because though I know it isn’t totally relevant to our families’ stories, it is a really big part of the island culture and industry.” Barely pausing for breath, she added, “So if you could let Mr. Neale know it was just a slight mix up, that would be great. And it would be even better if you could talk to him today, because I need to get to work on my documentary immediately so that I can edit it together and submit it before the end of the summer.”
Joel was, frankly, stunned by Hanna’s passion. He’d hoped that her interest in the Walker-Peterson feud would be fleeting. But as she began to move even closer—close enough that he could smell the lavender scent of her shampoo in addition to the sea spray on her skin—he realized he had to stop this here and now. All of this.
“There is no mix up.” He pushed away from his desk, and made himself move across the room, away from all of her incredible beauty and passion. “I’m not going to give you access to the historical archives.”
“But why?”
How, he wondered, could she be this genuinely surprised by his response? “Hasn’t your grandmother told you why?”
For the first time since entering his office, she looked a little unsure. “I haven’t told Grams about it quite yet,” Hanna admitted. “The interview with her will be one of the main features of the documentary, and if I told her what I was doing too soon, it might spoil her natural reaction. It’s really important with documentaries to get people’s real reactions.”
“Oh, trust me,” Joel told her, “once you bring this up with your grandmother, you’ll get a real reaction. Surely, you know the details of the island scandal, don’t you?” Details of a feud that had been drummed into Joel’s head from as far back as he could remember.
“Some of them,” she replied, “although I won’t know everything until I’ve had a chance to look through the archives properly.”
“No,” he said again. “And once you speak with your grandmother, I’m certain you’ll understand why I can’t support your documentary project.”
Before Hanna could try to argue her case again, Margaret opened the door. “Joel, Frank Williams is here for your meeting. Do you need him to wait a few minutes?”
Hanna spoke first. “No, that’s okay. I need to go let my family know I’m back home.” Scrupulously polite now, and in direct contrast to the way she had barged in earlier, she said, “Thank you for your time, Joel.”
When she turned and walked out with her spine straight and her head held high, Joel couldn’t help but admire her beauty yet again. Working to shake her vibrant image out of his head as he shook hands with the head of the Mussel Farmers’ Union, Joel did his best to focus on the meeting so
that he could understand the changes they wanted. But all the while his brain was somewhere else entirely.
Still thinking about Hanna…
…Excerpt from BE MY LOVE by Lucy Kevin © 2016
Buy Be My Love
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BELLA ANDRE writing as LUCY KEVIN
Lucy Kevin is the “sweet” pen name of Bella Andre. Lucy Kevin books are fun, flirty and romantic—without the steamy scenes.
Married in Malibu Series
The Beach Wedding
The Summer Wedding
The Barefoot Wedding
The Walker Island Series
Be My Love
No Other Love
When It’s Love
All For Love
Forever In Love
The Four Weddings and a Fiasco Series
The Wedding Gift
The Wedding Dance
The Wedding Song
The Wedding Dress
The Wedding Kiss
Stand-alone Lucy Kevin novels
Falling Fast
Sparks Fly
Seattle Girl
BELLA ANDRE BOOKLIST
The Sullivans
The Look Of Love
From This Moment On
Can’t Help Falling In Love
I Only Have Eyes For You
If You Were Mine
Let Me Be The One
Come A Little Bit Closer
Always On My Mind
Kissing Under The Mistletoe
One Perfect Night
The Way You Look Tonight
It Must Be Your Love
Just To Be With You
I Love How You Love Me
All I Ever Need Is You
Every Beat Of My Heart
Now That I’ve Found You
Since I Fell For You
Sweeter Than Ever