The Blind Date by Delaney Diamond
Synopsis
One night changes everything . . . again.
Years ago, when Ryan Stewart saw Shawna Ferguson, it was love at first sight. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a free man, and his deception caused him to lose her after a weekend that changed his life.
When Shawna’s sister and brother-in-law set her up on a blind date, she has no idea it’s with Ryan, with whom she’d spent a weekend she wishes she could forget. She reluctantly agrees to finish the date with him, but doing so leaves her vulnerable to his charms and the heat he ignited in her that very first night.
The Blind Date by Delaney Diamond Copyright ? September 2013, Delaney Diamond Cover art by www.bookcoversale.com ? September 2013
Delaney Diamond
Atlanta, Georgia
ISBN: 978-1-9406360-0-9
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and e-mail, without prior written permission from Delaney Diamond.
Chapter One
Shawna Ferguson was late. Very late. And she hated being late because she valued people’s time the same way she wanted them to value hers.
Bottom line, she’d have to bite the bullet and buy a new car, no matter how much she dreaded the car-buying process. Her once dependable Corolla was no longer dependable now that it was on its last leg.
She hurried to the front door of her favorite French restaurant, the heels of her Manolo Blahniks hitting the pavement hard with each stride. She pulled her camel-colored wrap sweater tighter over her sleeveless dress to protect against the chill in the air. It was early spring, that time of year when the days were warm but the nights were cool, and the best way to protect against the changes in temperature meant dressing in layers.
A blind date.
Why had she agreed to this? For some reason she’d listened to her older sister, Yvonne, and decided to take the plunge back into the dating pool, even though her luck with men seemed to have run out months ago.
The three-day-old conversation with Yvonne about tonight’s date replayed in her head.
****
Yvonne Wallace looked at Shawna from across the table in the kitchen. They were having breakfast, and as usual, Little Miss Homemaker—as Shawna liked to teasingly call her sister—had set out a feast of homemade raisin bread, butter and homemade jam, scrambled eggs, and fruit cups.
Only two years separated the sisters, but their personalities were as different as black and white. While Shawna had dreamed of opening her own boutique, which she’d accomplished four years ago, Yvonne had dreamed of becoming a wife and mother. At twenty-four she’d married a doctor, and by their second anniversary, she’d quit her job to make that dream a reality. After six years of marriage, they had a four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son, and Yvonne was seven months pregnant with her second son. Taking care of her family and getting ready for the baby filled her days.
Yvonne was one of those people who, because she was happily married, wanted the same for everyone else. She’d found her Mr. Right and claimed he existed for every woman. Shawna knew better. Finding a good man—with whom one was compatible—seemed as unrealistic as finding a diamond mine on her property. Basically, it wasn’t gonna happen, and Shawna had resigned herself to the fact.