âIs there still something between you and your ex?â
âAre you kidding?â Piperâs grimace, complete with eyes rounded in horror, did Joshâs heart good. âHeâs one of the reasons I need boyfriend camouflage this weekend.â
âOh.â Josh glanced at the doorway, noting that he and Piper were visible to anyone in the dining room. âAnd your grandmotherâs fondest dream is to see you in the arms of a good man, right?â Donât do it.
âRight.â
He took a step toward her. Maybe he shouldnât do this, but how could just once hurt? âI have an idea that should make your grandmother ecstatic.â
Piperâs ocean-colored eyes grew so wide he could drown in them. She stood on tiptoe to meet him, and then his lips were on hers.
Fire raced in his blood. Too late he realized that the reality of kissing her was far more devastating to his senses than the fantasy, and his assumption that he could walk away from âjust oneâ kiss unaffected had been foolish.
Still, as long as he was making the mistake, he should make the most of it.
Dear Reader,
One of the fun parts of my job is exploring the different ways two people can end up together. As much as I love stories about a man and a woman who make an instant connection, Iâm a sucker for stories about people who start out as friends. People who donât immediately realize (or want to admit) whatâs right in front of them, so they try in vain to fight the attraction. But the sexual tension and emotional undercurrent canât be ignored.
At least, thatâs the case for my heroine, Piper Jamieson, and her best friend, Josh Weber. Career-driven Piper has no time for romance in her life, especially not with a heartbreaker like Josh. When she needs a date for the weekend, though, her sexy best friend fills inâwith unexpected results.
Piper and Josh are very special to me, maybe because I married my own best friend, maybe because they were just so much fun to write. I hope you enjoy their story and will check out the information about my other books and my story-themed giveaways at www.mindspring.com/~tjmic.
Happy reading!
Tanya
PIPER JAMIESON SAGGED against the sofa cushions and rolled her eyes at the phone receiver. It could have been a wrong number, a pushy telephone solicitor, an obscene caller even, but nooo, it was her mother. Piper loved her mom, but all their conversations boiled down to the same argumentâPiperâs love life.
She started to put her feet up on the oval coffee table, but stopped suddenly, as though her mother could see through the phone line and into her apartment. âSo, howâve you been doing, Mom?â
âNever mind that. Iâm more concerned with how you are,â her mother said. âYou donât feel acute appendicitis coming on, right? You arenât going to call us tomorrow with a severe case of forty-eight-hour east Brazilian mumps or something?â
Piper groaned. Although sheâd bailed out on all of the family reunions in recent years, sheâd used legitimate work-related excuses, never fictional medical ones. But this year sheâd made a promise to her grandmother.
This year, there would be no reprieve.
âIâll be there,â she assured her mother. âAnd Iâm looking forward to seeing you all.â Mostly.
âWeâre looking forward to seeing you, too, honey. Especially Nana. When I went to visit her at the hospital last weekââ
âHospital?â Piperâs chest tightened. She adored her grandmother, even if Nana did stubbornly insist women needed husbands. âDaphne told me she was under the weather, but no one said anything about the hospital.â As Nana advanced in years, Piper couldnât help worrying over her grandmotherâs health.
A worry her mother was not above exploiting. âYou know what would help your Nana? If she knew you had a good man to take care of you.â
Ah, yesâhere came the Good Man Speech. Piper knew it well.
âYouâve always been independent,â her mother was saying, âbut thereâs such a thing as being too stubborn. Before you know it, youâll wake up fifty, without anyone to share your lifeâ¦.â
Knowing from experience that it did no good to point out she was decades away from turning fifty, Piper stretched across the maroon-and-black-plaid couch. Might as well be comfy while she waited for her mother to wind down.
Though sheâd escaped her small hometown of Rebecca, Texas, and now lived in Houston, Piper couldnât escape her familyâs shared belief that a womanâs purpose in life was to get married. Piperâs sole brush with matrimony had been a broken engagement that still left her with a sense of dazed reliefâhow had she come so close to spending her life with a man whoâd wanted her to be someone different? When her sister, Daphne, had married, Piper thought the pressure would ease, that their mother would be happy to finally have a married daughter. Instead, Mrs. Jamieson was scandalized that her youngest was married, now pregnant, while her oldest didnât even date.