Modern Romance Collection June 2024 Books 5-8 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2024-05-25T22:01:11+00:00

CHAPTER ONE

EMMALINE SWENSON HAD always known her place in the world. With four rambunctious younger brothers, a struggling father and overwhelmed mother, Emmie’s job was to help her family, not herself.

She’d always known she wasn’t pretty, with limp dishwater-blond hair and a shape inclined to plumpness from her time baking in their tiny kitchen. As a teenager, she’d dreamed about falling in love with a strong, honorable man and sharing a passionate first kiss in the moonlight. But even then, she’d known romance was unlikely for a plain, dutiful girl like her.

Then, at twenty-seven, she’d fallen in love. She’d been seduced beyond her dreams. For one perfect night, she’d felt desirable, beautiful and valuable—cherished in the arms of the most dazzlingly gorgeous man in the world.

By the next morning, it was over.

Now, at twenty-eight, any romantic daydreams Emmie had ever had were well and truly gone.

“Are you ready, sweetheart?”

Turning away from the mirror, Emmie saw her father at the door, his craggy face beaming with pride and love.

“I wish your mother could see you now,” he whispered, wiping his eyes. “She’d be so proud.”

“Thanks, Dad.” A lump rose in Emmie’s throat. She wasn’t sure her mother would, in fact, be proud of her today. While she’d lived, Margie Swenson had always tried to convince Emmie to look beyond the grind of endless work and household tasks and find the quiet beauty of life.

Emmie hoped to follow her mother’s advice someday. Just not today.

Her wedding day.

Looking at her, the happiness in her father’s eyes faded. “Is something wrong?”

“Of course not.” Forcing a smile, Emmie rose from the vanity table and stepped into a pool of bright June sunlight from the changing room’s window, which shimmered gold against her white satin skirt. It had been her mother’s wedding dress decades before and was a little too tight for Emmie in her current condition. She should have had it tailored to fit her expanding waistline, but it had fit her fine just two weeks ago, when she’d agreed to marry Harold Eklund.

A man she didn’t love. A man she’d never even kissed.

Emmie’s knees shook as she picked up her small bouquet of beautiful red roses sent as a wedding gift from her best friend’s grandfather, who ran the flower shop in their vibrant Queens neighborhood. She risked another glance at the full-length mirror. The faded gown was lumpy and unflattering on her pregnant body, making her belly and breasts seem huge beneath the straining fabric.

Her face looked scared and pale in the mirror, in spite of the makeup she’d carefully applied following a video tutorial. The dark eyeliner, mascara and red lipstick made her look strange. Her dark blond hair was pulled back severely beneath her mother’s veil, the tulle headpiece perched awkwardly on her head, like a wad of tissues sticking in all directions.

She bitterly regretted not taking Honora up on that offer to hire a professional hair and makeup stylist. Too late for that now. Emmie’s best friend should have been

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