Nancy Thompson - Texas Magic

EVEN BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE!

If Caroline Coopersmith had her way, she would refuse to run the family firm. She wouldn’t put up with her sister’s bridezilla antics. She would sign on as Celebrations, Inc.’s full-time pastry chef. And just this once, she would treat herself to something better than Belgian chocolate: a night of bliss with her sister’s best man, journalist Drew Montgomery.

For Drew, the foundation of a good story is fact. And when it comes to Caroline, the facts are easy: she makes him feel electrically charged, and he can’t stop daydreaming about a future with her. Drew has never believed in love at first sight...until now. If he gives in to Caroline today, will she make room for him in her heart tomorrow?

Drew made her think and feel things she had no business thinking and feeling, because the places they led were dangerous.

He leaned in a little closer, resting his arm along the back of her chair. He was so close, she could feel the heat of his body and smell the intoxicating scent of him. It made her want to breathe in a little deeper.

Drew left her breathless—or maybe it was just the physical reaction of a woman wanting a man who seemed to want her back. Why make it any more complicated than it was?

Sometimes a girl just had to say what the hell and go for broke with the gorgeous guy who’d been flirting with her since the moment they’d first laid eyes on each other.

Even if it wasn’t going to last longer than the moment...or the night.

Dear Reader,

As a romance writer, I feel very blessed to be living my dream. I sometimes work long hours and when I’m on deadline my social life seems nonexistent, but other than being a wife and mother I can’t think of anything I’d rather do with my life. In the world of romance, my heart is at home. I wish this same sense of belonging to everyone.

So does Drew Montogmery, my hero in Texas Magic. Drew is a newspaperman with an unshakable conviction that people aren’t really living unless they go after what they want in life. If not, then what’s the point? This notion is an epiphany for heroine Caroline Coopersmith. Even though Caroline seems to have it all, she is living the life that her father has sculpted for her as his heir apparent. It’s not what Caroline wants, but she feels beholden to family tradition. It’s only when Drew makes her realize that she has spent way too many years doing what’s expected of her, not what she wants, that she is able to fall in love and live her dream.

I hope you’ll enjoy Drew and Caroline’s story, which is book two in my Celebrations, Inc. series. Please be sure to look for the final book in this series, Texas Christmas, in November. And be sure to let me know what you think of them. You can reach me at nrobardsthompson@yahoo.com.

May all your dreams come true,

Nancy Robards Thompson

Texas Magic

Nancy Robards Thompson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

NANCY ROBARDS THOMPSON

Award-winning author Nancy Robards Thompson is a sister, wife and mother who has lived the majority of her life south of the Mason-Dixon line. As the oldest sibling, she reveled in her ability to make her brother laugh at inappropriate moments, and she soon learned she could get away with it by proclaiming “What? I wasn’t doing anything.” It’s no wonder that upon graduating from college with a degree in journalism, she discovered that reporting “just the facts” bored her silly. Since she hung up her press pass to write novels full-time, critics have deemed her books “funny, smart and observant.” She loves chocolate, champagne, cats and art (though not necessarily in that order). When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, hiking and doing yoga.

This book is dedicated to Kathleen O’Brien

and Lori Harris.

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

Excerpt

Chapter One

Dark chocolate for a white wedding.

The juxtaposition brought a smile to Maya LeBlanc’s lips as she stood at the worktable in the kitchen of Maya’s Chocolaterie, threading the last sterling-silver heart charm onto the final strand of white satin ribbon. Savoring the scent of roasted cocoa beans, cinnamon and dried rose petals that lingered in the air, she tied a bow on the last box of wedding favors and placed it on the baker’s rack with the other 349 she had already put together. Each small package contained a quartet of handmade truffles—an exclusive recipe she had concocted specifically for the Coopersmith/Harris wedding, which would take place at the end of the week across the Atlantic Ocean in Celebration, Texas.

Nothing that came out of Maya’s kitchen was mass-produced. In fact, all of the chocolates she made were as exclusive as the occasions and clients for whom she designed them.

However, she wasn’t accustomed to producing her sweets on this large of a scale: fourteen hundred truffles in three days. The wedding chocolate—in addition to what she needed to sustain her shop’s daily business—was a tall order that took more manpower than Maya, in her tiny St. Michel shop, possessed. She had put in a lot of extra hours this week after she had turned over the Shop Closed sign. Now that she was finished and staring at the mountainous pile of white boxes, she wasn’t sure she would ever take on another task of such epic proportions. But she blinked away the thought, feeling like a first-time marathon runner who had just crossed the finish line and was already contemplating her next race.

Maya had done this order as a favor for her friend Caroline Coopersmith, the sister of the bride. Despite the fact that Maya had never met Caroline’s sister, Claudia, she couldn’t say no after hearing the desperation in Caroline’s voice. Apparently, Claudia was more aptly described as Bridezilla on the rampage than blushing bride to be. The Texas-based chocolatier originally procured to provide the truffles for Claudia’s wedding had gone out of business, disappearing lock, stock and bridal favors into the night with Claudia’s deposit—one week before the wedding.

While individual boxes of truffles for the guests would not make or break the wedding, Bridezilla was breathing fire and Caroline had called Maya, desperate for her to work her magic: produce an exclusive confection for the occasion and ship it to the States in a matter of days.

“It wouldn’t hurt if you sent a special box made with ingredients that will calm my sister’s nerves,” Caroline had joked.

Hmmm...not a bad idea. Some chamomile and lavender in white chocolate. That was a good start, and Maya had been stewing on it as she finished up the large order.

She glanced at her watch. It was nearly two in the morning, which made it just before eight o’clock in the evening in Texas. She picked up the telephone and dialed Caroline’s cell phone number.

Caroline picked up on the third ring. “Hello?”

“Bonjour! It’s Maya.” She settled into a chair, trying not to let the fatigue that suddenly weighed on her like an anchor show in her voice. “Fait accompli. Tell your sister to rest assured that the order will arrive in plenty of time for the wedding. I will package the truffles in foam coolers and ship them to you tomorrow. Tout de suite!”

“You’re wonderful! And you must be a mind reader, because not ten minutes ago Claudia called asking for an update on the chocolate. I told her I’d call you tomorrow since it was late in St. Michel. I hope this job hasn’t cost you too much sleep.”

“Sleep is overrated. How are your sister’s wedding plans progressing?”