His Perfect Bride?

‘Dad!’ he warned. ‘Don’t start.’

‘I’m not starting,’ he replied innocently. ‘Just encouraging you.’

‘Let me get this straight. You’d want to see me with a woman like Lula?’ He almost couldn’t believe his ears. His father was the most strait-laced man he knew!

‘Why not?’

‘Well, because she’s …’

‘She’s what?’

Olly wasn’t sure how to answer him. ‘Out there!’

‘She’s just what you need. After all that business with Rachel.’

As if he needed reminding. That had been a really dark time. Rachel had barged into his life like a wrecking ball and left just as much devastation behind.

Would Lula do the same?

CHAPTER THREE (#u4c33a401-aa48-5981-822b-325965fdcb12)

AFTER WORK, LULA TOOK herself over to the village library. It wasn’t huge. In fact it was barely a library at all—just one small room, lined with books. Since the funding had been cut it was no longer staffed, and it relied on the goodwill of its customers to ensure it was looked after and that they signed out their own books.

It was a strange set-up, and for a while Lula felt odd, standing there alone, looking around the small room. One side was fiction, in alphabetical order, and the other side non-fiction, all in the Dewey decimal system. In the centre were racks of children’s books and some old DVDs. In one corner, beneath a window, sat an ancient computer and a microfiche reader, alongside a filing cabinet. She headed over.