At Wild Rose Cottage. Callie Endicott

      

      If these walls could talk...

      Trent Hawkins won’t rest easy until his childhood home and the secrets it holds are finally demolished. So he’s shocked when a contract for its renovation comes across his desk. When the new owner, Emily George, refuses to sell, Trent’s only option is to take the job.

      Straitlaced Trent and free spirit Emily don’t exactly see eye to eye. But she’s not the flaky city girl he took her for at first, and before long her enthusiasm for renovating Wild Rose Cottage reminds him of better times. Trent’s first priority is protecting his family’s reputation. But the closer he gets to Emily, the less concerned he is with the past.

      Emily squared her shoulders.

      “Are you interested in the job or not?”

      He paused a long moment before answering. “Yes.”

      “In that case, I’ll let you know tomorrow whether I’ve chosen your company to do the work,” she informed him coolly. “Is there anything else you need for your estimate?”

      “No, that’s complete.”

      She conducted him to the door and shut it behind him, relieved. Trent Hawkins might be near perfection in the appearance department—the perfect image of a rugged Western male—but he was also rude and pushy. She wasn’t sure she liked him, and was definitely sure he made her nervous.

      Before he’d come, she had made up her mind that if the estimate was reasonable, she’d go with Big Sky because of their reputation. They really were the best. But now she needed to think it through again. It gave her a peculiar sensation to know Trent wanted the house for reasons he refused to explain.

Dear Reader,

      One of my dreams is to buy an old house and discover a forgotten treasure in the attic, such as an artifact from the Titanic or a previously unknown Rembrandt painting. So for my loner hero, Trent Hawkins, I couldn’t resist pairing him with Emily George, a cheerful, new-age city woman determined to renovate his childhood home.

      Trent isn’t sentimental about Wild Rose Cottage, as Emily calls it, but he doesn’t want a stranger tearing the place apart and discovering some of the dark, hidden secrets of the Hawkins family. He hadn’t known the property was for sale, and Emily won’t sell, though he makes an offer that few people would refuse. So when she chooses his construction company to do the renovations, he decides to supervise the job himself.

      I hope you have fun reading At Wild Rose Cottage. Writing it indulged my dream of finding treasure, because while Trent and Emily don’t uncover a Rembrandt, they discover something worth far more…each other.

      I enjoy hearing from readers and can be contacted c/o Mills & Boon, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, ON M3B 3K9, Canada.

      Callie Endicott

      At Wild Rose Cottage

      Callie Endicott

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      As a small child CALLIE ENDICOTT was fascinated that little squiggles on the page of a book could actually tell tales of faraway places and people. So naturally, she grew up wanting to use those squiggles to share the stories she made up in her head. Callie is grateful for laptop computers, which allow her to indulge one of her passions and still write…travel. At the same time she loves home and her guy, along with her cats, walking on a beach or hiking a forest trail.

      MILLS & BOON

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      To my dad’s father, who worked with his hands.

      Contents

       COVER

       BACK COVER TEXT

       INTRODUCTION

Dear Reader

       TITLE PAGE

       ABOUT THE AUTHOR

       DEDICATION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

       CHAPTER FIVE

       CHAPTER SIX

       CHAPTER SEVEN

       CHAPTER EIGHT

       CHAPTER NINE

       CHAPTER TEN

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

       CHAPTER TWELVE

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN

       CHAPTER FOURTEEN

       CHAPTER FIFTEEN

       CHAPTER SIXTEEN

       CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

       CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

       CHAPTER NINETEEN

       CHAPTER TWENTY

       EXTRACT

       COPYRIGHT

CHAPTER ONE

      EMILY GEORGE STROLLED downtown to her new store. What a treat to take a leisurely ten-minute walk instead of fighting Los Angeles traffic for an hour.

      It still seemed incredible that she’d bought the Emporium. She’d passed through