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Chapter One

The farmers’in early July Bonnie Caretables and herbs, occasionally ly heavy canvas bags dangling froht her little wheeled ht with a shake of her head She’d told herself that not having it with her would make her less likely to purchase too s

She loved visiting the farht colors of fresh produce, cut flowers, handcrafted pottery and jewelry, the scents

of fresh-baked bread and pastries, the sounds of chattering shoppers and busking musicians The market was even et away on weekends from the bed-and-breakfast she co-owned and operated with her two older siblings She was the chef at the inn, so shopping was both her responsibility and her pleasure She cah that most of the vendors knew her by name

She was chatting with a local organic far a plump heirloom toainst her ar crowd The tomato fell to her feet with a squishy thump

“I’ from approximately a foot above her head “Are you okay?”

She looked up to assure hiue when she recognized Paul Drennan

This just couldn’t be happening again

Twice, Bonnie had run into Paul—literally—at the inn in the Virginia Blue Ridge Highlands The first time she’d met him, in May, she’d carried a box of stainless steel wine bottle stoppers that had scattered around her when she’d landed on the floor He’d been with his twenty-one-year-old daughter, Cassie, as planning an August wedding on the grounds of the inn, and Bonnie had been mortified to crash into a client The second incident a feeeks later had been his fault; he’d been talking over his shoulder while walking and had barreled into her, though she’d ed not to fall that time

It should have come as no surprise that the next time she encountered him, only a couple of weeks later, it would be with another collision Or that once again she was as jarred by her immediate and powerful attraction to hi about this man had taken her breath away the first time she’d looked up at him from the floor where she’d landed She’d felt a spark between them when he’d offered his hand to help her to her feet, a clichéd reaction she hadn’t expected, but had seeed Her pulse tripped again in response to seeing him here

Beneath a thick shock of dark auburn hair touched with a fehite strands at the tereen eyes lit with a s her attention there “If this keeps happening, you’re going to file a protection order against me,” he said in the deep voice she res She’d heard it a few tiht sheepishly “I swear I’ you”

“I believe you,” she assured hih, isn’t it?”

Using a paper towel given to him by the vendor, he quickly cleaned up the half-sood-natured farmer, aved off the offer

Handing so of pretty little e When she fu, Paul reached out to help “Let me carry a couple of those sacks”

He divested her of all but the ss before she could even respond As he did, she smiled up at him—way up She estimated him to be perhaps six feet three inches, in marked contrast to her own five feet three inches The flat sandals she ith her scoop neck ht “Thank you”

“You’re welcome How’s business at Bride Mountain Inn?” Paul asked as he shuffled with her through the throng to the next booth

“The past feeeks have been hectic with June weddings,” she replied “And July hasn’t slowed downhere, rather than theassistant, she examined a crookneck squash in a display basket