Footloose

Footloose
Leanne Banks

Even on a tropical getaway, a girl's got to watch out for the sharks…Think working for a leading international shoe company sounds like a dream job? Not if you're Amelia Parker, an overworked, downtrodden temp working for Bellagio, Inc.'s grande dame, Lillian Bellagio. But things are looking up for Amelia. She's just been given the assignment of accompanying Ms. Bellagio to her estate in the Keys. Trading pumps for flip-flops and a cell phone for a conch shell—could be worse, right?Especially when life on the island includes her very own mystery man—one Jack "The Shark" O'Connell, dashing venture capitalist. He dares Amelia to use this time to do something wild: drink a hurricane, go skinny-dipping…have an affair with a dangerously attractive man. Now Amelia will have to decide whether to step into that glass slipper.

Footloose

Leanne Banks

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

This book is dedicated to everyone who has ever been dumped and eventually felt as if they’d dodged a bullet.

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

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

EPILOGUE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Special thanks to Alisa Banks, Rhonda and Bob Pollero, Cindy Gerard, Cherry Adair, Traci Hall and terrific editor and lifesaver Margo Lipschultz.

Dictionary Definition:

Heel: Noun. A solid attachment of a shoe or boot forming the back of the sole under the heel of the foot.

Amelia Parker’s Definition:

Heel: Noun. A low-down dirty guy who steals your heart then stomps it into a thousand pieces.

CHAPTER ONE

AMELIA WAS SO EXCITED she could barely breathe, let alone eat the delicious dinner she would share in a short time with Will, his boss and his boss’s wife at the fabulous restaurant in Buckhead.

Her ex-fiancé, William, was about to become her fiancé again and everything would be right with the world. She wished the two of them could have managed some alone time before dinner, but Will was arriving directly from the airport.

They would share a sweet reconciliation afterward. She had it all planned. Fighting butterflies, she walked down the stairs of the historical mansion that belonged to her recently married landlord, Aubrey Carter Elizabeth Roberts Gordon.

“You look beautiful, dear. He’ll regret every minute he’s spent without you,” Aubrey said. “And if he doesn’t, Harold will—”

“Pull out a can of whoop-ass like that boy has never seen,” Harry finished.

Aubrey tried to pinch her lips together in disapproval, but a smile escaped. Polar opposites, the middle-aged couple provided a constant source of amusement and encouragement to Amelia. Harry was a rough rascal of a man who’d made a mint in mobile home sales and Aubrey was the quintessential perfect, proper, Atlanta-born-and-bred woman. Who would have thought the two of them would fall in love and marry within a month of meeting each other? Surely if Harry and Aubrey could make it work, then so could Amelia and Will.

“Do you have everything ready?” Aubrey asked.

Amelia nodded. “I’ve got candles waiting to be lit. I baked his favorite pie from scratch, bought his favorite wine and put his favorite country music CD on the stereo.”

“You’re going to knock him off his feet,” Aubrey assured her.

“That pie smells awfully good. You sure you don’t want me to test it?”

Aubrey gave Harry a playful swat. “Stop teasing her. Can’t you see she’s nervous?”

“Do I really look okay? This is his favorite dress. And I’m wearing his favorite perfume. He always said he liked my hair best this way.” Amelia touched a hand to her carefully-straightened locks.