âWhat does a brother have to do
to meet you?â Jason said with a debonair smile.
Billie raised an eyebrow and hesitated a second before extending her hand for a shake.
âAll you have to do is say hello. Iâm Billie Phillips.â There was a gleam in his eye that she couldnât quite interpret and she waited to see what he would say next.
Jason brought her hand to his lips for a brief kiss and missed the look on Billieâs face when he said in a low, silky voice, âItâs a pleasure to meet you, Wilhelmina. Iâm surprised to see one of the most sought-after models in the world at my event.â
âMy name is Billie,â she said firmly. âWilhelmina is the woman they pay to pose. Billie is the real person.â
She waited for Jasonâs reaction. Some people got it right away that she wasnât trying to trade on her reputation. Other people took longer to catch on. And some people never got it. Billie hoped Jason Wainwright wasnât one of the clueless ones!
started reading when she was four and believes thatâs why sheâs a writer today. She was always fascinated with books and loved telling stories. From the time she was very small she wanted to be a writer. She fell in love with romances when she began reading the ones her mother would bring home. She would go to any store that sold paperbacks and load up! When she had a spare moment she was reading. Schuster loves romance because itâs always so hopeful. Despite the harsh realities of life, romance always brings to mind the wonderful, exciting adventure of falling in love and meeting your soul mate. She believes in love and romance with all her heart. She finds fulfillment in writing stories about compelling couples who find true, lasting love in the face of all the obstacles out there. She hopes all of her readers find their true love. If theyâve already been lucky enough to find love, she hopes that they never forget what it felt like to fall in love.
Dear Reader,
Sometimes when youâre not looking for it, love will find you. Thatâs what happens to Billie Phillips and Jason Wainwright. Neither one of them was looking for a serious relationship, but they got one.
Jason didnât make a good impression on Billie when they first met because he viewed her in terms of her physical appearance only. Billie realized that and resented it highly. It took a minute for each of them to set aside their initial assessment of the other and begin to get to know the real person behind the facade. Once they were able to do that, they began to realize that theirs could be a real love, a love to last for all time.
How many of us have judged someone unfairly in the beginning and never gave them a chance to reveal their real personality? And how many times have you been totally caught off guard when a person you thought you couldnât stand turned out to be a fascinating individual? Itâs happened to me, and thatâs what gave me the inspiration for this story. Two people who think they know all there is to know about the other person end up getting surprised by love when they open their minds and their hearts.
Stay Blessed,
Melanie
I Chronicles 4:10
[email protected] P.O. Box 5176 Saginaw, Michigan 48638
Dedicated to all my loyal readers.
Thanks for going on another journey with me.
Acknowledgment
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
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
A very special thank-you to Rhodora, Phil, Liz (aka Vlad the Impaler) and Carrie. A special thank-you to Betty Dowdell, even though thank you is never enough. Thanks to all the ladies in my group for keeping me lifted up.
And as always, to Jamil. Youâre my rock.
âIs that a dead rat?â
âYeah, thatâs a big olâ dead rat. Or a small dead cat. Itâs kinda hard to say at this point.â
The first voice, which belonged to Billie Phillips, was undeniably female, although she sounded like an excited preadolescent boy at the moment. âThatâs really gross! That was one big-A rat,â she said with a whistle. âWhat else are we going to find?â
The second voice was the deep, amused one of her brother-in-law, Nick Hunter. âThis house has been empty for a long time, so weâre liable to find rats, cats, possums, bats and a bunch of drug paraphernalia. Just watch where you step,â he cautioned.
They were looking over a house that she desperately wanted to buy. It was a three-bedroom brick bungalow in a part of Chicago that had seen better days. The house had fared much worse than the neighborhood, however. It had passed through many owners and tenants and it was currently a mess. It was by far the worst house on the block and there was a lot of work to be done to it to make it livable, which was why Billie wanted to get her hands on it. Sheâd been working with Nick at his construction business for over three months and she was eager to take on more responsibilities. Nick was mostly into commercial construction, but he did do some residential work. That was where Billieâs main interest lay and she was dying to get hold of a house like this. Her passion was home renovation, and as sheâd been telling Nick, there was no better way to learn the business of flipping houses than by actually flipping one. And this semidilapidated house was just the place to begin, she thought.