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CHAPTER ONE
Jessamine Everett checked the side mirror before she changed lanes. “Yeah, just what you need to do,” she muttered under her breath. “Run over somebody’s compact car with a moving van. That would be a fine welcome back to Philadelphia.”
Jess wished this move weren’t necessary, but since she couldn’t get her life back on track in the comforting familiarity of her hometown, she figured the best thing to do was to return to the place where her life had derailed. Philly.
Why couldn’t her romances turn out well like While You Were Sleeping? How much more romantic could a love story get than Lucy and Jack finding true love through such a comedy of errors? Jess’s failures didn’t keep her from being an unrepentant dreamer. She still wanted her life to turn out like the movies.
“You’d think I’d learn. Especially after that fiasco with Aidan,” she told the large rag doll that sat in the passenger seat. The doll’s blank stare summed it up for Jess. “Exactly so. I forget so many of the lessons I’ve learned, it’s like there’s someone in my head erasing them.”
Aidan.
She could say his name all day long. Aidan Michael Warner. Heck, she could listen to him say his name all day long. Better still, she could listen to him say her name all day long. He had a way of caressing her name with that amazing basso profundo voice of his. Aidan put the emphasis on the third syllable of her name: Jess-a-mine. Not min – mine.
Desperate for something to take her mind off Aidan, Jess turned on the radio. She preferred the oldies stations, and as luck would have it, found one almost immediately. The commercial break ended as she raised the volume. A long hum, followed by the word “memories” filled the cab. Barbra Streisand’s distinctive voice crooned The Way We Were, which was no help in Jess’s quest to stop thinking about Aidan.
Memories flooded over her, one image tumbling over an other as she got closer to her destination. The need for closure brought her back to this place filled with both love and heartache.
The time had come for her to discard her diapers for a pair of big girl undies.
Not much had changed in the heart of Philadelphia. Even the air smelled the same. Ick. She hadn’t missed the foul big city air. Okay, the farm animal stench on the air at the commune reeked too, but it was a natural odor.
Jess met no one on the street as she drove slowly, looking for her new address. She chose a different area of town for her return, as the old neighborhood would be filled with the watercolor ghosts of happier days.
A tree all dressed out with tiny buds and baby leaves pinpointed her destination. She couldn’t wait to see that tree in the autumn, bedecked in splendid fall colors.
Jess slowed as she turned into the wide driveway she’d have to share with her landlord, but slammed on her brakes when she almost hit the car parked there.
“Who parked in the middle of the driveway?” Jess yelped. Her body rocked with the force of the stop. With shaky hands, she put the van in park and switched off the engine.
It took a moment to convince the seatbelt to release, but when it did, Jess slumped over the steering wheel. The Mercedes parked dead center of the driveway meant someone was home in the big house. She wondered if she’d missed something, because she didn’t remember the realtor saying the landlord would be home on the weekend Jess wanted to move in. In fact, she had said he would be gone.
Jess took a deep breath to steady her pounding heart. “Way to make a good impression, Jess. Run over your landlord’s vehicle on move-in day. What do you think, Dolly?”
The rag-doll’s still blank expression confirmed Jessamine’s suspicions that totaling the landlord’s car wouldn’t be the best way to say hello.
Something or someone slapped the window. “I’m sorry, I’ll pull the car over so you can get around.”
In the act of looking up to see the speaker, Jess froze.
That voice sent shivers down her spine.
It couldn’t be him.
Her luck couldn’t be that horrendous, could it?
Aidan turned when he reached his car. Their gazes clashed through the windshield. Even with the distance between them, Jess felt herself being pulled into his dark sapphire gaze.
“Welcome home, Jess-a-mine.”
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