More Than a Promise by Ruth Logan Herne
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Widower Matt Wilmot is in trouble. His boys are causing chaos and wreaking havoc, his former mother-in-law is threatening to sue for custody, his father just had heart surgery and their family company is liable for a huge balloon payment on a loan his father took out to expand the business the previous year. But rain and illness took their toll, and Matt is having a rough time spinning multiple plates in the air.
But when he discovers Elle Drake next door, a woman with a wonderful hand at managing errant boys, cranky relatives, and frustrated men… Matt’s world suddenly tips back into a more normal orbit. And when drastic measures are required, it’s the girl next door who’s there to save the day.
Elle Drake wanted nothing more than to create beautiful pottery and have a family, but when her millionaire husband publicly dumped the renowned artist for another woman, Elle moves back to Cedar Mills to start anew, the spinster artist with her big potting shed. But when her to-die-for good-looking neighbor thinks marriage is a good idea, Elle figures he’s either crazy, desperate or right.
But a marriage of convenience can become its own conundrum, and when life takes sudden turns, can this marriage become all that they bargained for? And maybe more than a promise?
“My Three Sons”… Naughty sons, at that!… meets “Sarah, Plain and Tall” in this delightful marriage of convenience story that shows how amazingly inconvenient love… and life… can be!
Mayhem and madness, love and laughter abound! Ruth Logan Herne always captures the intricacies of family life in her stories, and More Than a Promise is certainly no exception!
The three Wilmot boys are rambunctious rascals, and their dad Matt has his hands full as a single parent and a business man. “If the Wilmots were a hashtag, they’d rock the “trending now” list daily.” When next door neighbor Elle Drake finds herself in the midst of the Wilmot chaos, her life takes a turn she never expected.
I enjoyed the humor and heart of this story and reveled in the relationships and romance that developed. More Than a Promise is another delightfully heartwarming story from a wonderfully talented author!
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All thoughts expressed are my own.
But Elle…
Elle was amazing.
Elle made the boys laugh. She made him laugh. She made them think about things other than themselves. She made them cookies, made them work, and most of all, she expected them to rise to a challenge. To be good. To be kind.
And when they were around her, they tried to meet her expectations.
Married. To Elle.
He gripped her hand tighter as they made their way over to her house. His father moved ahead and Matt took advantage of the moment to slow Elle’s steps. “You seem to excel at getting me out of trouble.”
Elle winced. “I couldn’t let her rake you over the coals like that. Who does that kind of thing, when someone’s house is burning down alongside them? Sorry.” She made a face of regret and sighed. “Now we’ll have to wiggle our way out of this and that’s going to be a tangle, but I figured it would quiet her down. And it did work,” she added with a quick, small smile.
“What if we don’t wiggle our way out of this?”
“What?”
She tried to stop their progress, but Matt kept her hand in his and kept walking.
“Matt.”
“You said yourself it makes perfect sense.”
“I said no such thing,” she hissed as they drew closer to the house. “We barely know each other.”
He smiled into her eyes and saw the answering flicker of acknowledgment and interest. Real interest. “A lifetime gives us plenty of time for that, I guess.”
“Are you crazy?”
He was, kind of, because her off-the-cuff idea was growing in appeal. “Maybe. Or maybe you came up with the best answer possible.” They’d reached the door. He put a finger to his lips. “We’ll hash this out later.”
“There is nothing to hash out.”
He winked, because the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea.
“Matt, I—”
He kissed her.
He kissed her long and slow and with a gentle firmness that said they had a lot to talk about.
Later.
And when he stopped kissing her, he cupped her face with his two hands and whispered, “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
It was wonderful and he knew it, which meant she should take him down a peg, but his parents were excitedly waiting inside her back door. “We’ll discuss this later.”
He grazed one finger across her lips. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Insufferable.
Confidence bordering cockiness.
Righteously good-looking.
And he couldn’t possibly be serious. Could he?
One look at his face said otherwise.
Multi-published, bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne loves God, her family, her country, dogs, chocolate and coffee! A country gal with a heart for the big city, Ruthy likes nothing more than to write the kind of books she loves to read, and she’s even more happy that now she gets paid to do it! She’s been married for a Very Long Time and she and her husband Dave live on a small farm in upstate New York where lake effect snow buries them on a regular basis in winter. But that’s all right… it gives her more time to write!
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