Title: SECOND TIME AROUND
Author: BETH HENDERSON
Genre: ROMANTIC COMEDY
Book Blurb:
He blew his chances once, heard the "M" word in the past and ran. Will he inadvertently do so again when it means even more to him this SECOND TIME AROUND.He'd given her diamond earrings, helped her find a shop in which to start her business! He'd even filled the trunk and the back seat in his convertible with wildflowers then put the top up and never said a word about the mess the Queen Anne's Lace would leave in the expensive machine. She'd thought everything was headed toward a marriage proposal.Oh, he'd made a proposal alright. One where they went their separate ways! Why should he think he deserved a second chance must less that she'd give him one?
Excerpt:
TIM RECONNOITERED while gathering the courage to approach Roni's shop. The quest was on; there would be no backsliding from here on in. His mother might have museum business in mind...but he had personal reasons on his own agenda. Now that he had a legitimate excuse to turn up at her shop, he would do whatever it took to win Veronica Dey back.
Hoping his quotient of courage was sufficient, Tim strode across the street.
The window display was tastefully eye-catching. The open area into the shop proper was partially blocked by a folding screen of weathered red shutters. Wreaths and arrangements in baskets complimented it as did the scattered trail of flower petals and bowls of crumbled flower bits. Female stuff. He restrained the natural shudder of masculine unease. An old-fashioned bell tinkled when he pushed the door open and was instantly engulfed in the overwhelming scent of unidentifiable flowers.
Tim looked past the merchandise to where Roni was rising from a seat near the rear of the shop. She realized who he was a second later and froze. The customer-greeting smile fell from her lips faster than any of his grandmother's china teacups had ever slipped from his boyhood fingers to shatter on the floor. Tim was fairly sure the smile had met a like fate.
"Hi, Roni," he ventured, drinking her in. He'd remembered she was beautiful – but not this incredibly beautiful.
She was dressed simply, a tan-colored blouse tucked into the waistband of dark blue jeans, her feet shod in black slip-on flats. Her complexion was porcelain perfect, her figure the stuff of dreams, her glorious honey-toned brown hair was cut short now and haloed by the setting sun that shone in the rear window, and her gray eyes were…well, gleaming with an emotion he didn't care to identify.
Suffice it to say, his mere presence in her store had put a very large chip on her shoulder.
"Hi, Roni? Do you have a death wish, Mr. Starling?" she snarled.
He ignored the death wish comment but felt a chill that Mr. Starling boded more ill will, even if the sound of her voice had set long-dormant nerve endings tingling throughout his body. "No, I've just been thinking about you lately," he admitted cautiously.
Balled fists found their way to a perch on her hips. She rolled her shoulders back, straightening them for battle. Her brow looked thunderous, but with her man-pleasing curves displayed to advantage by the Wonder Woman stance and the curling wisps of her pixie-styled hair begging to have his fingers buried in them, Roni took his breath away.
As she always had.
As she always would.
The tone of her voice wasn't the one he heard in his dreams, though. "Yeah, right. What do you want, Tim? And make it fast," Roni snapped.
It probably wasn't the right time to be totally forthcoming about that. She'd get even more belligerent. "I need a favor. Well, actually two favors," he said and tried adding a smile. A weak one.
"You?" Roni scoffed. "I know you can lie better than that."
True. In a pinch, he could think fairly fast on his feet. But not this time. "I'm being honest," Tim insisted. Did he sound contrite enough, sincere enough? It felt as if his world was hanging by a thread. "I have thought about you a lot lately."
"I'm touched," Roni declared, sounding far from it.
He needed to work on the groveling thing. Apparently, he sucked at it. "Okay, it's this way. That art ball whatchamacallit is coming up and I need a date. I'd like it to be you."
She stared blankly at him for what felt like an eternity before relaxing her defensive stance. "Oh, give me a break, Tim," she said and returned to her perch, a tall stool he now saw. Tim was so relieved she no longer had battle in mind, he felt weak.
But hadn't he always in Roni Dey's presence? Weak…yet incredibly strong, able to slay any dragon that threatened her. He'd also felt tender, out of control, and downright enchanted. It was taking all his presence of mind to keep from rushing to her side, bury his hands in the divinely soft texture of her hair, tumbling it even more until—
"The museum's art ball? That's your parents' turf. And I'm sure that Sarah Pellier, Penelope Cox, or Cynthia Arthur would fit in with that crowd much better," Roni said wearily, apparently dismissing his request as unworthy of consideration.
Oh, yeah. Now he remembered. He'd been one of those dragons and she'd slain him herself. She was right about the other women, though. But they loved him for the size of the Starling family bank account. Roni had always loved him for himself.
Had being the operative word.
It was time to do whatever it took to win her back.
Tim quickly explained his parents' anniversary trip, then added, "And the Upper-Crust Three aren't as entertaining company as you are, Roni."
She shook her head slowly, let out a long weary sigh. "If that was meant to be a compliment, it was a sorry one," she said. "Besides, this sudden disgust of your playmates doesn't hold up when matched against the evidence in the society pages."
A glowing, growing flare of hope began warming Tim's midsection. She had known the names of his most frequent escorts of the last few years. It had to mean she couldn't forget him entirely, either.
Or maybe she was thanking her lucky stars that he'd booked from her life rather than settle down with her. The flare of hope blinked out as quickly as a lone birthday candle on a cake.
"You said there were two favors," Roni prompted. "What's the second one?"
"I need you to go to the art ball with me," Tim said.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
What’s your favorite part about being a romance author?
My mental romance life is far more exciting than any real life one has been. And varied, too. I’ve frolicked with successful and dashing musicians, with cowboys and gamblers in the Old West. I’ve solved crimes with delicious male partners (though that makes me sound like a praying mantis, doesn’t it?) all without leaving home. And, as happens in SECOND TIME AROUND, I can have a return engagement with any of these heroes when I wish. When I can’t find a book written by someone else to hold my interest, I hit my own published tales for not just second times around with these heroes, but sometimes eleven or twelve times.
Here’s my tip to add romance to your love life:
Outside of a book, I’ve had a very unsuccessful love life, so the best way to add romance to it is to grab a book with a delectable hero. That means he has to sweep me off my feet with clever teasing, tender (imagined) touches, and break my heart by going off with the heroine. But there’s always another hero to entice me between the covers of another book, so there is a back up plan!
On the other hand, if you pick out parts from your favorite books and reverse engineer them to give your sweetheart some ideas, that is probably far more satisfying than living vicariously with imaginary lovers!
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $100 Amazon gift card.
Open internationally.
Runs February 1 – 28, 2025
Drawing will be held on March 1, 2025.
Author Biography:
Not long ago Harlequin included a count of all the books sold by one of their authors with the royalty statement and I discovered I was closing on a huge number. And that was just with my two historical romances, three Special Editions (back when Silhouette was part of the Harlequin group) and two Your’s Truly (also Silhouette releases). The number was closing on 800,000 books sold. And that didn’t count those I wrote for other publishers under other pen names. 2025 is a banner year because I’ll have been a published author for 35 years and my 40th novel releases. That doesn’t count the novellas and short stories. Now if I can find all the old royalty sheets and tally the extras up, I may reach a million copies sold, though not of just one title. If only I could claim to have Nora Roberts’ or James Patterson’s bank account, that would really be icing on the cake!
Social Media Links:
Beth Henderson on Facebook at http://bit.ly/2GvFyog
@Beth__Henderson on X/Twitter