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

      WWW.KENSINGTONBOOKS.COM

      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