Slightly Married

Slightly Married
Wendy Markham

After two years, the man who bought a lifetime subscription to TiVo without trying it finally committed to a lifetime subscription to Tracey Spadolini.All Tracey wants is to get hitched without a hitch–but as the calendar marches toward her late-October wedding date, suddenly she and her fiancé can't agree on anything. From where to get married (New York City or Buffalo?) to how many attendants they're going to have (she's already asked eight; he was thinking of just a best man). Meanwhile, Tracey's friends are caught up in their own dramas. There's newlywed Raphael, who just had his gay wedding; newly pregnant Kate, who is trying to adjust to impending motherhood; and Buckley, who is acting inexplicably strange. When Buckley unexpectedly breaks off his own engagement, all but leaving his fiancée at the altar, Tracey is stunned to learn that he might be in love with her.With plenty of snafus to keep them distracted, is being Slightly Married the road to happily ever after, after all?

CRITICAL PRAISE FOR WENDY MARKHAM’S

Slightly

SERIES

SLIGHTLY ENGAGED

“[Tracey’s] confusion about what she wants to do with her life rings true; and when she comes to a major realization about her career, it’s a gratifying moment…. Readers who liked the previous two books will flock to this one.”

—Booklist

“Well-written with realistic characters and dialogue.”

—Romance Reviews Today

SLIGHTLY SINGLE

“An undeniably fun journey for the reader.”

—Booklist

“Bridget Jonesy…Tracey Spadolini smokes, drinks and eats too much, and frets about her romantic life.”

—Publishers Weekly

SLIGHTLY SETTLED

“Readers who followed Tracey’s struggles in Slightly Single, and those meeting her for the first time, will sympathize with this singleton’s post-breakup attempts to move on in this fun, lighthearted romp with a lovable heroine.”

—Booklist

“Tracey is insecure and has many neuroses, but this makes her realistic…And like many women, Tracey needs to figure out when to listen to her friends and when to listen to herself.”

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews

WENDY MARKHAM

is a pseudonym for New York Times bestselling, award-winning novelist Wendy Corsi Staub, who has written more than sixty fiction and nonfiction books for adults and teenagers in various genres—among them contemporary and historical romance, suspense, mystery, television and movie tie-in and biography. She coauthored a hardcover mystery series with former New York City mayor Ed Koch and has ghostwritten books for various well-known personalities. A small-town girl at heart, she was born and raised in western New York on the shores of Lake Erie and in the heart of the notorious snow belt. By third grade, her heart was set on becoming a published author; a few years later, a school trip to Manhattan convinced her that she had to live there someday. At twenty-one, she moved alone to New York City and worked as an office temp, freelance copywriter, advertising account coordinator and book editor before selling her first novel, which went on to win a Romance Writers of America RITA® Award. She has since received numerous positive reviews and achieved bestseller status, most notably for the psychological suspense novels she writes under her own name. Her Red Dress Ink title, Slightly Single, was one of Waldenbooks’ Best Books of 2002. Very happily married with two children, Wendy writes full-time and lives in a cozy old house in suburban New York, proving that childhood dreams really can come true. Visit her at www.wendymarkham.com.

Slightly Married

Wendy Markham

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

Dedicated with love to my sons Morgan and Brody,

but most of all to my husband, Mark—

in some cosmic coincidence I finished writing the last page

of this book on our fifteenth wedding anniversary.

Cent’anni.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

1

Meet Jack Candell, the man who bought a lifetime subscription to TiVo without first trying it out, yet spent six painstaking months in possession of an heirloom diamond engagement ring and no clue how—or when—or, I suspect, if—he should propose to me.

But all that excruciating will-he-or-won’t-he suspense is behind us now. Jack has finally committed to a lifetime subscription to Tracey Spadolini, live-in girlfriend of two-plus years.

What can be more romantic than getting engaged on Valentine’s Day?