Title Make It Real, book 2 in the Walkers of River’s Edge series
Author Nan Reinhardt
Genre Sweet Contemporary Romance
Publisher Tule Publishing
Book Blurb:
They were only faking it….
A landscape designer for his family’s construction firm, Joe Walker, is nearing completion on one of the most important projects of his career—gardens for spec homes that if they wow, Walker Construction will survive. When a freak accident sidelines him with a broken leg, the firm hires a competitor. Her ideas are radically different, but his stalker ex arrives to play nurse, and Joe needs more than gardening help.
After six-years working in English manor gardens, horticulturist Kara Sudbury returns to River’s Edge to help in her grandparents’ struggling garden center. She’s thrilled when Jackson Walker hires her to execute his injured cousin’s designs. Ignoring Joe is difficult because he’s as sexy now as he was in high school and even more stubborn. But when Joe asks Kara to play the role of girlfriend, they strike a deal that will help Joe handle his tenacious ex and put Sudbury’s Nursery back in the black. Kara’s up for the subterfuge…for a price, but then the pretense feels real, and Kara is reminded that every rose has its thorns.
Excerpt:
He took a breath, formulating his request so that it didn’t sound self-serving and maybe even a little disturbing. “Could you . . . I mean, would you possibly be willing to pretend for a little while longer that we’re together? You and I?” At her startled expression, he hurried on. “You were darn close when you referred to Allyson as a stalker. She’s not dangerous at all, but she’s damn persistent. Somehow she’s managed to turn a few dates into the romance of the century.”
She moved the cookie box farther away, dammit, and plopped down in the chair by the bed, crossing her arms over her chest—the universal signal for I’m not open to anything you might suggest, buddy.
He ignored that and continued, “If she thinks I’ve moved on—”
“To me,” she interrupted wryly.
“To you.” He smiled his best rash-covered smile. “Then maybe she’ll finally get the message and go away.”
“This little ruse would only play out here, while you’re in the hospital?”
Ah-ha—she’s thinking about it.
“Well, no.” He scratched absently at a healing blister on his wrist.
“Don’t scratch,” she admonished like a mother hen. Oh, she was going to be good at this role if she was willing to take it. “Wouldn’t it take just one time of—Allyson, is it?”
He nodded.
“Of Allyson seeing us together to get the job done?”
“You don’t know this woman. She’s tenacious and smart.” His mind was whirring now, creating scenarios where he and Kara could be a believable couple. He wished he had a piece of paper so he could diagram out a plan. Maybe come up with some definite ways to let everyone see them together. It would have to be so convincing that even his family would buy it, because knowing Allyson, she’d break someone down—probably Cam—and force them to admit it was all a big hoax.
Kara gave him the side-eye. “If she’s so smart, why would she ever buy you suddenly falling madly in love with me?”
“What do you mean by that?” Did she think he couldn’t be convincing as a man ass-over-elbows in love? Hell, he’d played Romeo in the eighth-grade production of Shakespeare’s classic play. He could totally do this.
“Well, for one thing, you’re a lot older than me.”
That was just offensive. “I am not! I’m only thirty-three.”
“Okay, I’m twenty-eight.” She pursed her lips. “Plus, I’ve only been back in town for a couple of months, and when’s the last time you had a date with the lovely Allyson?”
“’Bout three weeks ago.” He thought for a moment. “But you and me? All it took was one look—our eyes met across a sunflower field and pow!” He punched his fist into his palm. “I fell like a rock in a pond.”
She laughed out loud—a sexy, throaty sound that sent a startling tingle through him. “Yeah, you were so bowled over by my unbelievable beauty, you tripped over a log, broke your leg, and damn near shot me.” She rose, swept her hands over her Sudbury Garden Center T-shirt and crumpled khaki shorts. “Because this”—she yanked off her ball cap, raked her fingers through her curls, and pulled a goofy face—“was the sexiest thing you’d seen since Allyson’s behind in a pair of tight jeans.” She dropped back into the padded chair. “Sure. Why not?”
“Come on, we can do this,” Joe urged, because now he was intrigued with the whole idea of Kara Sudbury. She was cute and funny, and he found the little bit of self-deprecation pretty damn appealing. “Please be my girlfriend until Allyson is convinced you are, then we can part ways amicably. But we have to convince everyone, not just Allyson. It has to look real.”
“So, we fake passion until hers cools? Then we just say, oh, we decided to call it a day.”
“Exactly!” Joe was exultant. Surely this would get batshit-crazy Allyson off his case, and he could focus on healing without being scared to answer his door. “But, remember, everyone has to buy this: your family, your friends, my family, my friends. Oscar-worthy performances by both of us.”
She squinted at him. “Just one question?”
“Okay.”
“What’s in this for me?” She still had her arms crossed over her chest.
“What do you mean?”
“Do you honestly think the thrill of being Joe Walker’s fake squeeze is reward enough for lying to everyone I know and love?”
“You’re stuck on that word lying, aren’t you?” Joe squirmed a little, trying not to move his broken leg, but he was uncomfortable and his left butt cheek was asleep.
“I suck at it.” Kara’s direct gaze gave credence to her words.
He raised the bed slightly and adjusted it to a more comfortable position. “Try to think of it as make-believe, like when you were a kid.”
She rolled her eyes. “My grandmother is going to want to invite you to dinner. She’ll make a pot roast with carrots and onions and new red potatoes. She’ll want to bake a pie,” she declared, like all that was a bad thing.
“I love pie. Besides, my sister will probably interrogate you to within an inch of your life,” he tossed back, “and my brother and cousins will tease you to death, but we can handle it.” He pointed to a drawer in the stand next to the bed. “See if there’s some paper and a pen in there.”
Kara reached down beside her and produced a small fat notebook from her purse—a capacious leather bag that had seen better days. “What do you want to write down?”
“Our story.” Joe stuck his hand out. “Gimme.”
“We don’t have a story,” she muttered and started to hand him the notebook, but stopped just out of his reach. “Hang on a minute. We haven’t talked about what I’m getting out of this.”
He sighed. “What do you want?”
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/make-it-real-nan-reinhardt/1144709641 (eBook and Print)
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Author Biography:
Nan Reinhardt is a USA Today bestselling author of sweet, small-town romantic fiction for Tule Publishing. Her day job is working as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader, however, writing is Nan’s first and most enduring passion. She can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t writing—she wrote her first romance novel at the age of ten and is still writing, but now from the viewpoint of a wiser, slightly rumpled, woman in her prime. Nan lives in the Midwest with her husband of 51 years, where they split their time between a house in the city and a cottage on a lake.
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