ROMeANTICALLY CHALLENGED. Marina Adair
ALSO BY MARINA ADAIR
Nashville Heights series
Promise Me You
Sequoia Lake series
It Started with A Kiss
Every Little Kiss
The Eastons
Chasing I Do
Heroes of St. Helena series
Need You for Keeps
Need You for Always
Need You for Mine
St. Helena Vineyard series
Kissing Under the Mistletoe
Summer in Napa
Autumn in the Vineyard
Be Mine Forever
From the Moment We Met
Sugar, Georgia series
Sugar’s Twice as Sweet
Sugar on Top
A Taste of Sugar
Sweet Plains, Texas series
Tucker’s Crossing
Blame It on the Mistletoe
(coming October 2020)
RomeAntically Challenged
MARINA ADAIR
KENSINGTON BOOKS
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
Also by Title Page Copyright Page Dedication 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 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Acknowledgments
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, or events, is entirely coincidental.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2020 by The Adair Group
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4967-2769-5 (ebook)
ISBN-10: 1-4967-2769-X (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2766-4
First Kensington Trade Paperback Printing: August 2020
To my daughter, Thuy.
Your adoption story will forever
be my favorite.
Chapter 1
The moment Anh Nhi Walsh stepped into her wedding dress and shimmied the eighty-year-old silk over her hips, she knew there had been a mistake.
A mistake so terrible, all the chocolate in the world couldn’t fix it.
Annie had pulled a thirty-six-hour shift, so her brain was a little slow on the uptake, but the longer she stood in her silver Jimmy Choos and yesterday’s makeup, the more certain she became that even the world’s best push-up bra couldn’t compensate for the obvious.
This was not her dress.
“Oh my God,” she whispered through her fingers.
Sure, the gown had arrived on her doorstep in the trademarked cream and blush-colored–striped box, special delivery from Bliss, Hartford’s premiere bridal design boutique. And, yes, that was the silk gown Grandma Hannah had hand-carried from Ireland, now billowing around Annie’s waist. But this was not Annie’s dress.
Annie’s dress was elegant and sophisticated, a heartfelt tribute to her grandmother, the one person Annie had wanted by her side when she finally walked down the aisle. Grandma Hannah wouldn’t let something as insignificant as death keep her from her only granddaughter’s wedding. But Annie had wanted to feel her in more than just spirit.
Which was why she’d commissioned a modern-day restoration of the 1941 Grecian gown with cap sleeves and embellished mermaid train, cut from the same cloth that the most important woman in Annie’s life had worn on her special day.
Annie pulled the bodice of the gown to her chest and wanted to cry. The too-big, too-long, and most definitely D-cup rendition was that extra-special kick in the gut she needed to find closure.
Six years as an ER physician’s assistant had instilled in her a rational calm that allowed for quick and efficient assessment of any situation. Taught her how to differentiate between the life-threatening and painfully uncomfortable. With that in mind, she pulled up the planner app on her phone.
“Add