College sweethearts reunite to restore more than just an old inn in this new romance by Katie Shepard, author of Sweeten the Deal.
When’s the best time to tell your ex that you want them back?
Probably not in the middle of a Category 3 hurricane. But when Broadway actor Tom Wilczewski is about to dive into the floodwaters to rescue his co-lead, he calls the ex-wife he hasn’t seen in ten years to swear he still loves her and ask for a chance to make things right.
Two months later, Rose Kelly is tired of seeing pictures of her ex-husband Tom rescuing Hollywood darling Boyd Kellagher. Not that she’s jealous. Of course not. She’s far too busy taking care of her elderly aunt and worrying about the storm damage to the family B&B on Martha’s Vineyard to miss the love of her life. But after belatedly hearing Tom’s voicemail, Rosie asks him to follow through on his promises for once by helping her fix the inn. Thinking this is the perfect way to win her back, Tom agrees.
When they get there, things are…less than ideal. Rosie expected the inn to be in better shape. She expected it to have more beds. And she expected more help from her actual family—not from Tom and the rest of his Broadway cast. But Rosie begins to wonder if maybe the life she expected isn’t the one she really wants. If she and Tom can repair the inn together, can they possibly repair the damage to the relationship they both thought was long gone?
Excerpted from No
One Does It Like You by Katie Shepard Copyright © 2024 by Katie
Shepard. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of
this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from
the publisher.
Rose clenched her jaw when she saw the article her
aunt was reading.
"That newspaper is three months old," Rose informed her aunt.
"Oh? Well, like you said, I have short-term memory loss. It'll be new to
me," her aunt said with purposeful sweetness.
Rose recognized the picture on the page because she couldn't mentally erase the
image of her ex-husband's distinctive Greek-god nose smooshed up against the
equally distinctive profile of Boyd fucking Kellagher.
As if she needed something else to deal with! This was the year Tom had to make
the national news with his tongue in someone else's mouth!
If the Times article was to be believed, Rose had at least another year of news
ahead of her about Tom smooshing faces with Boyd Kellagher onstage. And, hell,
probably offstage too, based on the equally pervasive image of Tom dragging the
movie star out of the floodwaters, the other man clinging to Tom's neck like a
giant, chiseled damsel in distress. Rose did not want to see it again. Those
photos gave her the same uncomfortable feelings as real estate listings for
homes she could never afford or other people's holiday cards, pictures that
made her quickly turn the page or close the card.
It wasn't that she begrudged Tom his first big Broadway role in ten years. Or
kissing Boyd Kellagher. Or even Boyd Kellagher kissing Tom. She was unsurprised
he had a gorgeous boyfriend now. But if Tom was going to get everything he ever
wanted-love, fame, professional success-could Rose not get just one thing? If
not Tom, if not a family of her own, why could she not at least get a couple of
happy weeks of vacation every year spent preparing extravagant meals and group
photo shoots in matching sweaters? It didn't seem like too much to ask for.
"I've seen it already," Rose said, trying not to sound as stressed as
she felt.
"So handsome," Max cooed, and she could have been referring to either
Tom or Boyd. "I always liked him."
"No, you didn't," Rose retorted, snapping at the bait before she
could stop herself. This was revisionist history. "None of you did. You
told me not to marry him."
"Telling you not to marry him is different from liking him. I thought he
was a nice boy. You should have waited for him to grow up."
Tom's age had nothing to do with it. "We just ended up wanting different
things." That was her standard line on their divorce, one that assigned no
blame while obscuring the painful truth that Rose, specifically, had not been
one of the things Tom wanted.
"And you didn't even send us a wedding present," Rose said, certain
that would get her aunt off the subject.
Max raised her eyebrows, unimpressed. "I'm sorry, but we all assumed you
were in a family way and too embarrassed to admit it before the wedding. I was
going to get all your nursery furniture."
Rose stiffened her shoulders in familiar hurt because she'd known what her
family thought, but nobody had ever given her the chance to set them straight.
She hadn't married Tom because she was pregnant, then or ever, or for tax
reasons, or to get him on her health insurance, or for any of the other reasons
people had speculated about their marriage at twenty-two.
She'd married him because he'd asked her and because she'd loved him-she'd been
utterly, stupidly in love with him-and she'd thought it would last forever.
Which had made their breakup only a year later much more embarrassing than an
unexpected baby would have been.
But that was a long time ago now. What was really embarrassing was that she was
still having feelings about it at all, which she decided she would stop doing
at once.
"Well, I wasn't. Obviously. And I'm happy he's finding success. He's a
very talented actor, so I'm not surprised he's working with people like Boyd
Kellagher," Rose said, getting herself in hand and saying the things the
kind of person she wanted to be would say.
"Are you going to see his new play?" her aunt asked.
"It looks like I'm going to be busy over the next few months," Rose
said dourly, checking the time again. Her family's tardiness did not bode well
for their contributions to fixing up the inn.
About the Author
Katie Shepard studied Soviet history and worked in human rights law before burning way—way out—and achieved professional tranquility as a simple country bankruptcy lawyer. She lives in Texas with her husband, kids, and elderly rescue cat, but is often found hiking in the Rocky Mountains or the virtual woods of Thedas.
Credit for Author Picture: Katie Shepard
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