Happy Mother's Day: Ready for Romance / Ready for Marriage

Ready for Love

Ready for Romance Ready for Marriage

Debbie Macomber

featuring Ready for Romance and Ready for Marriage

www.mirabooks.co.uk (http://www.mirabooks.co.uk)

Ready for Romance

For Jessica,

who caught the wedding bouquet first

Prologue

Jessica Kellerman looked both ways, then slipped around the corner of the Dryden four-car garage. She flattened her body against the wall and moved cautiously, one infinitesimal step at a time. It was vital no one see her.

Evan’s vehicle, a fancy sports car, was parked just outside the garage—and in direct view of the house. She needed to be quick.

Squatting down by the side mirror, she withdrew a bright red tube of lipstick from her pocket, opened it and heavily outlined her lips. She took a soft white rag from the pocket of her jeans, wiped his mirror clean, then kissed it. The imprint of her mouth was left in bold red.

Jessica sighed with satisfaction as she carefully opened the door on the driver’s side and crawled into the front seat. The mirror over the dash was next. Her heart was pounding hard, but it wasn’t entirely due to her fear of being discovered. Her heart rate tended to accelerate whenever she thought about Evan.

There wasn’t a man in all of Boston who could compete with Evan Dryden. To think she’d lived next door to him all these years and hadn’t noticed until recently how gorgeous he was! As far as Jessica was concerned, he was the handsomest man in the universe.

She remembered the exact moment she had realized her destiny. She hadn’t been the same since. The Dryden estate, Whispering Willows, was next to her own family’s, and she’d often spent time in the huge oak tree spying on the two brothers. Damian was in law school now and Evan in college. Being an only child, Jessica had to invent her own amusement, and spying on the Dryden brothers had always been great fun.

She’d been sitting in the tree one day when Evan had walked to the pond and stood on the footbridge tossing rocks into the water. His back was to her and she held her breath, wondering if he’d seen her hiding in the thick foliage.

She must have made a sound, because he turned abruptly and stared into the tree.

“Jessica?”

She didn’t dare move or even breathe.

He stared upward and the sun cut across his shoulder, highlighting his handsome features. It was then that she realized Evan wasn’t just an ordinary boy. He was an Adonis. Perfect in every way.

After that, she started having dreams about him. Wonderful dreams about Evan falling in love with her. Dreams about marrying him and having a family. It seemed so … so right. About a week later, she’d decided that fate had thrown them together. They were meant for each other. The only problem was that Evan had yet to make this discovery for himself.

Jessica had recently turned fourteen and Evan was much older. Six whole years, but it might’ve been a hundred for all the notice he gave her.

That was when Jessica decided she had to take matters into her own hands. She was a woman of the world, and when a woman knew what she wanted, she went after it. It, in this case, was Evan Dryden.

Jessica soon discovered that she wasn’t nearly as dauntless as she would’ve liked. She must have phoned him ten times, and each time he answered, she lacked the courage to even speak, much less tell him about her undying love. Each call had ended with her slamming down the receiver in frustration.

She’d always been better at expressing herself with the written word, so she’d taken to writing him love notes, pouring out her devotion. She let her best friend read one of these notes, and Emily said it was the most beautiful love letter she’d ever seen. Unfortunately, Jessica hadn’t found the courage to sign her name.

This latest trick, planting kisses on his rearview mirror, was sure to accomplish what nothing else had. He’d know it was Jessica and he’d finally come for her, and together they’d ride into the sunset in his sports car.

Outlining her lips with a fresh coat of brilliant red, Jessica was about to kiss the inside mirror when the car door was flung open.

“So it is you.”

Her heart sank all the way to her knees. Slowly she looked over and her eyes connected with Damian Dryden’s. He was taller than his younger brother, dark and handsome in his own way. She was certain the day would come when some girl would feel as strongly about him as she did about Evan.

“Hello,” she said, pretending it wasn’t the slightest bit out of the ordinary for her to be sitting in his brother’s car kissing the mirrors.

“You’re the one, I’ll bet, who’s been phoning at all hours of the night.”

“I’ve never called past ten,” she denied heatedly, then realized her mistake. It probably would’ve been best to pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about.

“The notes on Evan’s windshield have been from you, too, haven’t they?”

She could’ve denied that, but it wouldn’t have done any good. Feeling trapped in Evan’s car, she swung her legs around and gingerly climbed out. “Are you going to tell him it was me?”

“I don’t know,” Damian said thoughtfully. “How old are you now?”

“Fourteen,” she said proudly. “I know Evan’s older, but I was hoping he’d be willing to wait for me to grow up so we could get married.”

“Married!”

Damian made the word sound ludicrous and Jessica bristled. “Just wait until you fall in love,” she challenged. “Then you’ll know.”

“You aren’t in love with Evan,” he said gently. “You’re too young to know about things like that. You’re infatuated with him because he’s older and—”

“I most certainly do love Evan,” she flared, shoving the lipstick in her pocket. She wasn’t going to stand there and let him ridicule her. She might be only fourteen, but she had the heart of a mature woman and she’d made her decision. Someday she would marry Evan Dryden, and Damian would not stand in her way.

“I’m sure my brother’s flattered by your devotion.”

“He should be. The man who marries me will see himself as the luckiest man in the world.” Her words were fed by pure bravado.

Damian laughed.

Jessica had been willing to overlook his earlier statements, but this was unforgivable. Hands on her hips, she glared at him with all the indignation she could muster, which at the moment was considerable.

“You might be older than Evan, but you don’t know anything about love, do you?”

Her question appeared to amuse him, and that only irritated her further.

“When a woman makes up her mind about a man, nothing can change the way she feels. I’ve decided to marry your brother, and not a thing you say or do will have the least effect, so save your breath. Evan is my destiny.”

“You’re sure about this?”

At least he had the courtesy to wipe the grin off his face.

“Of course,” she said confidently. “Mark my words, Damian Dryden. Time will prove me right.”