Jen Safrey - Ticket To Love

Acey, her mind chastised, kissing and related activities are not part of the plan. The plan is the priority. Follow through.

She forced herself to smile with her own lips stretched thin, tight and unapproachable. Very difficult, considering that her libido was screaming at her to do the opposite.

Acey was fast realizing that being with Harry was becoming more and more of a challenge. She was going to have to kick it up a notch. Maybe more for her sake than his, at this point. She feared losing her senses if she hung around him much longer. She was going to fast-track him to that money, so she could fast-track herself away from him. Acey lifted her chin in resolution.

Harry Wells was about to get a healthy dose of tough love.

Love?

Dear Reader,

It’s hot and sunny in my neck of the woods—in other words, perfect beach reading weather! And we at Silhouette Special Edition are thrilled to start off your month with the long-awaited new book in New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber’s Navy series, Navy Husband. It features a single widowed mother; her naval-phobic sister, assigned to care for her niece while her sister is in the service; and a handsome lieutenant commander who won’t take no for an answer! In this case, I definitely think you’ll find this book worth the wait….

Next, we begin our new inline series, MOST LIKELY TO…, the story of a college reunion and the about-to-be-revealed secret that is going to change everyone’s lives. In The Homecoming Hero Returns by Joan Elliott Pickart, a young man once poised for athletic stardom who chose marriage and fatherhood instead finds himself face-to-face with the road not taken. In Stella Bagwell’s next book in her MEN OF THE WEST series, Redwing’s Lady, a Native American deputy sheriff and a single mother learn they have more in common than they thought. The Father Factor by Lilian Darcy tells the story of the reunion between a hotshot big-city corporate lawyer who’s about to discover the truth about his father—and a woman with a secret of her own. If you’ve ever bought a lottery ticket, wondering, if just once, it could be possible…be sure to grab Ticket to Love by Jen Safrey, in which a pizza waitress from Long Island is sure that if she isn’t the lucky winner, it must be the handsome stranger in town. Last, new-to-Silhouette author Jessica Bird begins THE MOOREHOUSE LEGACY, a miniseries based on three siblings who own an upstate New York inn, with Beauty and the Black Sheep. In it, responsible sister Frankie Moorehouse wonders if just this once she could think of herself first as soon as she lays eyes on her temporary new chef.

So keep reading! And think of us as the dog days of August begin to set in….

Toodles,

Gail Chasan

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

This book is for New York, a city powered by millions of dreams. And I especially dedicate this book to Valley Stream. I’ve noticed most people have a love-hate relationship with where they grew up. This book was written in my moments of love.

grew up in Valley Stream, New York, and graduated from Boston University in 1993. She is a nearly ten-year veteran of the news copy desk at the Boston Herald. Past and present, she has been a champion baton twirler, an accomplished flutist, an equestrienne, a student of ashtanga yoga and a belly dancer. Jen would love to hear from readers at jen02106@lycos.com.

Milk, Juice, Eggs…Jackpot?

You’d better believe it, readers—some lucky person picked up more than pantry staples at the Bread and Milk bodega right here in Valley Stream, Long Island. Last night, the New York Lottery picked a winner for the $35 million-dollar jackpot. That ticket was sold by the owner of this humble neighborhood grocery, who hopes that this news will be good for her business.

Unfortunately, the Post is unable to reveal the identity of the winner. That’s right, winner—lottery officials determine that only one winning ticket was sold. So be kind to your neighbors, because you could be talking to a brand-new millionaire!

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

Epilogue

“A aahhh!”

A piercing, someone-is-being-ax-murdered scream shattered the early-evening peace in the apartment Acey shared with her younger sister.

“Yeow!”

A startled Acey accidentally pressed her scalding curling iron against her cheek. “Damn!” she said. She tried to untangle a lock of long thick black hair from the contraption. “Stephanie! Are you all right?” she called.

“Acey!” Steph screamed. “Get in here! Quick! Fast!”

Between Steph’s shrieks, the smell of scorching hair ends and the rising red blotch on her cheek, Acey was getting agitated. Steph was even-keeled, polite, quiet. Acey knew the one prone to the trademark Corelli excitement and hissy fits was herself. It was disconcerting, to say the absolute least, to hear Steph screaming like a banshee.

Acey finally dropped the hot iron onto the bathroom countertop and fled down the short hallway as Steph kept screaming. “Acey! Acey!”

Acey screeched to a halt in the small living room, where Steph was standing in front of the television, hands now covering her mouth in disbelief. “What? What is it?” Acey demanded.

Steph pointed at the TV, which was showing a picture of Bread and Milk, the convenience store two blocks away where the sisters constantly ran for food-and-drink emergencies. Acey shook her head, not understanding. Steph turned up the volume just as the reporter thrust a microphone into the face of Rosalia, the store’s owner. Acey panicked a moment at the sight of one of her favorite people on the news.

“Is she okay?” Acey asked, then realized she should just listen.

“Yes, we’re very excited,” Rosalia was saying in her Colombian accent, still thick despite her many years just outside New York City. “It’s a very good thing for our store.”

The camera cut away and Acey yelled, “What? What’s a good thing?” Then a series of numbers flashed against a blue background. “These are the numbers,” the anchorwoman trilled, “that are worth thirty-five million dollars. So if you are a Bread and Milk customer and haven’t taken a good look at that ticket you bought yesterday, now might be the time.” Then she turned to the meteorologist and asked him for the weekend forecast.

Steph was scratching the numbers into the notebook she always kept handy, then muted the television. The sisters stared at each other.

“Did I hear that right?” Acey asked quietly.

“They picked the thirty-five-million-dollar numbers in the New York lottery last night,” Steph said. “There was one winner. One winning ticket. And it was bought at our store.”

Neither woman moved. Acey could tell from her sister’s wide-eyed expression that they were thinking the same thing. They talked about it every week when they cashed their meager paychecks up the street. They talked about it every month when they had to decide which bill was going to have to be paid late.

It shimmered in the air there between them, dancing for them, teasing them that it could be real.