A sound came from deep in his chest. I realized it was an immensely attractive chuckle, and he said, his voice deep and vibrating with his chuckle, “Mara.”

There were many things I wished in my life. Many. Too many to count.

But the top one at that moment in time, scratched at the top of that list in a way I knew it would stay there a good long while, was that I wished with everything that was me that my life would lead me to a new life. One where I would hear Detective Mitch Lawson say my name in his deep voice that vibrated with his laughter time and time and time again.

“I’ll just go,” I whispered and turned to leave.

“I’ll show you the valve to turn off the water another time,” he offered to my back.

“Thanks,” I said to my bedroom.

Then I was out the door.

Detective Mitch Lawson left not ten minutes later. He was carrying his toolbox. He lifted a hand in a wave as he walked through my living-room-slash-dining-room space. But he stopped at the door, his eyes leveled on mine and he said two words.

“Saturday. Pizza.”

Then all I saw was my closed door.

THE DISH

Where Authors Give You the Inside Scoop

From the desk of Roxanne St. Claire

Dear Reader,

Years ago, I picked up a romance novel about a contemporary “marriage of convenience” and I recall being quite skeptical that the idea could work in anything but a historical novel. How wrong I was! I not only enjoyed the book, but Separate Beds by LaVyrle Spencer became one of my top ten favorite books of all time. (Do yourself a favor and dig up this classic if you haven’t read it!) Since then, I’ve always wanted to put my own spin on a story about two people who are in a situation where they need to marry for reasons other than love, knowing that their faux marriage is doomed.

I finally found the perfect characters and setup for a marriage of convenience story when I returned to Barefoot Bay to write BAREFOOT BY THE SEA, my most recent release in the series set on an idyllic Gulf Coast island in Florida. I knew that sparks would fly and tears might flow when I paired Tessa Galloway, earth mother longing for a baby, with Ian Browning, a grieving widower in the witness protection program. I suspected that it would be a terrific conflict to give the woman who despises secrets a man who has to keep one in order to stay alive, with the added complication of a situation that can only be resolved with a fake, arranged marriage. However, I never dreamed just how much I would love writing that marriage of convenience! I should have known, since I adored the first one I’d ever read.