Gina Wilkins: Dateline Matrimony

Teresa asked reporter Riley O’Neal, a regular at the Rainbow Café.

“How about a date with you?” Riley answered, a boyish grin resting on his lips.

It was hard to resist him, but Teresa had two kids and too many bills. Besides, this gray-eyed charmer might be the sexiest man that she’d ever seen, but she wasn’t interested in his reckless attitude and irresponsible fun.

“The answer is no. I’m not on the menu, Mr. O’Neal.”

“Teresa, one day I will come in here and you will offer me more than just eggs.”

—A conversation between reporter Riley O’Neal and waitress Teresa Scott at the Rainbow Café

Dear Reader,

“It was a high like no other,” says Elaine Nichols. She’s speaking, of course, about getting “the call.” After numerous submissions, Elaine sold her first manuscript to Silhouette Special Edition and we’re pleased to publish Cowgirl Be Mine this month—a reunion romance between a heroine whose body needs healing and a hero whose wounds are hidden inside. Elaine has many more Special Edition books planned, so keep an eye out for this fresh new voice.

And be sure to pick up all the novels Special Edition has to offer. Marrying the Bravo fortune heir granted the heroine custody of her son, but once the two are under the same roof, they’re unable to sleep in separate beds, in Christine Rimmer’s The Marriage Conspiracy. Then a hungry reporter wishes his tempting waitress would offer him a tasty dish of her each morning, in Dateline Matrimony by reader favorite Gina Wilkins.

What’s The Truth About Tate? Marilyn Pappano tells you when her journalist heroine threatens to expose the illegitimate brother of the hero, a man who would do anything to protect his family. She hadn’t giggled since her mother died, so His Little Girl’s Laughter by Karen Rose Smith is music to Rafe Pierson’s ears. And in Tori Carrington’s The Woman for Dusty Conrad, a firefighter hero has returned to divorce his wife, but discovers a still-burning flame.

We hope you enjoy this month’s exciting selections, and if you have a dream of being published, like Elaine Nichols, please send a self-addressed stamped query letter to my attention at: Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd St, 6th floor, New York, NY 10017.

Best,

Karen Taylor Richman

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

is a bestselling and award-winning author who has written more than fifty novels for Harlequin and Silhouette Books. She credits her successful career in romance to her long, happy marriage and her three extraordinary children.

A lifelong resident of central Arkansas, Ms. Wilkins sold her first book to Harlequin in 1987 and has been writing full-time since. She has appeared on the Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and USA Today bestseller lists. She is a three-time recipient of the Maggie Award for Excellence, sponsored by Georgia Romance Writers, and has won several awards from the reviewers of Romantic Times Magazine.

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

The man with the sharp gray eyes was back for breakfast. It was Friday morning, and it was the third time he’d come in during Teresa’s first week on the job in the Rainbow Café. Still she hadn’t gotten any more comfortable with him. On each occasion he had been reasonably well behaved, but there was something about him that made her nervous.

He flirted with her—not overtly, but with an underlying impudence that made her wonder if he was mocking her. What was it he found amusing about her? Was he one of those smug and superior types who thought everyone else was slightly beneath his intellectual level, especially a waitress in a small-town diner? He looked the type, she decided, then chided herself for making judgments about a man she didn’t even know.

“What can I get you this morning?” she asked him.

She had never seen him open the menu, but he always had his order ready when she asked. “Denver omelette with a side order of salsa. And coffee. Black.”

“Biscuits or toast?”

“Toast. Has anyone ever mentioned that you look a bit like Grace Kelly?”

“Oh, sure. I get compared to dead movie-star princesses all the time,” she answered airily. She’d decided the first time she met him that he enjoyed disconcerting people with off-the-wall comments, and she’d quickly decided that the best way to respond was in kind and without making it personal. She figured this guy didn’t need any encouragement. “I’ll be right back with your coffee.”

She made another couple of stops on the return trip with the coffee carafe. Two elderly gentlemen, old friends who met in the diner every morning for breakfast, flirted outrageously with her when she refilled their coffee cups. She deflected their teasing easily, comfortable with them as she couldn’t seem to be with the gray-eyed man watching her from the back table.

Though most of the customers were pleasant enough, there’d been a few who were rude, one or two whose innuendos went a little over the line, even a couple who were downright obnoxious. Having worked as a waitress before, she handled them all skillfully. The man who’d introduced himself to her only as Riley didn’t fit any of those descriptions. He just made her…nervous.

“You aren’t letting those guys turn your head with their flattery, are you?” he asked when she approached his table again to fill his cup. “Old Ernie thinks he’s a real Romeo. He’s probably proposed to you two or three times already.”

She poured his coffee and answered blandly, “They seem quite nice.”

It appeared to her that his smile turned faintly mocking again. “Do you say that about everyone you serve here?”

“Not everyone.” With that subtle zinger, she stepped away from the table. “I’ll go check on your food.”

She didn’t hurry to the kitchen, stopping twice on the way to refill coffee cups and check on customers. Letting the kitchen door swing closed behind her, she set the carafe down with a thump. “That guy is just strange,” she muttered.

Shameka Cooper looked up from the pancakes and sausage links sizzling on a large griddle in front of her. “Which guy is that, hon?”

“Around thirty, brown hair sort of falling in his face, silvery gray eyes. Attitude.”

Shameka didn’t even have to glance toward the pass-through window that gave her a view of the dining room. “Sounds like Riley O’Neal.”

“Yes, he said his name is Riley. Is he a jerk, or have I gotten a bad first impression?”

Shameka responded with the deep chuckle that had drawn Teresa to her from the beginning. “Oh, Riley’s a sweetie who comes across as a jerk. Usually you just want to hug him, even though there are times you’d really like to whomp him a good one.”

Teresa couldn’t imagine actually hugging the guy, though she could picture herself wanting to whomp him. “He acts so smug,” she said. “As if he knows something I don’t. Something he finds amusing.”