Nerdy stage manager, Jeremy Marks sees right through
Jocelyn Tate’s stunning beauty to the vulnerable girl she is underneath. It’s
no secret he’s in love with her. Jocelyn thinks Jeremy is sweet but poor; she’s
not interested. Still smarting over Hudson Grace’s rejection, she’s more
determined than ever to marry a rich man--preferably a billionaire. Jeremy
doesn’t have a hope until a mysterious notice appears in the Gazette announcing
their engagement. Thrown together, the young
couple form
a bond to find out who has it in for them. Jeremy is challenged to protect the
girl he loves and Jocelyn develops feelings for the boy she believes she can
trust. But Jeremy Marks has a secret. A father with big goals for his son, and
a bankroll, threaten the young lovers’ fragile happiness.

Love Rising
is
the final story in Mandrake Falls Romance. In wrapping up the series, there are
some old characters, some new favorites and the star-crossed love of Jeremy and
Jocelyn. The novel contains spicy love scenes written for a mature audience.

LOVE
RISING

Do I entice you? Do I
speak you fair?

Or, rather, do
I
not in plainest truth

Tell you I do not nor
I cannot love you?

—Shakespeare

Chapter 1: A Spring Wedding

MANDRAKE FALLS was just waking up out of its long winter
sleep. Some parts of the country had been roused a month ago, but spring came
later to Vermont and consequently was far more welcome.

Purple and yellow crocuses had pushed out of the snow on the
town green. The air turned soft, warmed by the sun, the knife blade winds of
February became the wild cleansing winds of March. Everyone remarked that March
coming in like a lion was a good sign that spring was well and truly here. The
birds took their time, lured back to feeders and front lawns by the grub worms
that emerged from the thawing earth. A couple of days of rain had pushed the
frost out of the ground and dressed the hardwood forests in Green Mountain Park
in pale yellow-green leaves.

Jocelyn Tate jiggled her foot and cast her eyes over the
congregation assembled in All Souls’ Church for the wedding of Hudson Grace and
Michael Shannon. The place was packed. Every pew was filled as well as the
extra chairs crammed at the front, and that didn’t include the media circus
that had crowded into the choir loft. Michael Shannon, star of
Tomorrow Never Comes
and the new
Artistic Director of the (renamed) Mandrake Falls Theater Company was a big deal
locally and a semi-big deal nationally. Jocelyn doubted anyone outside of the
U.S. cared about Michael Shannon’s wedding but she was probably wrong about
that. She was wrong about Hudson, she was wrong about Michael Shannon not having
any talent. She was wrong about everything lately.

Shake it off, Jocelyn told herself firmly. Don’t allow
negative thoughts to invade your energy or you will attract negative outcomes.
This was a scientifically proven fact. Jocelyn smiled at her date, Ryan
McIntyre, to show she wasn’t negative or bothered at all that Hudson Grace had
chosen Michael Shannon over her. Hudson could’ve broken the news to her
before
she announced their relationship to
Darlene at the Beauty Box because the word spread faster than she could contain
it after that. Then when Hudson called to “talk” after Christmas, it was pretty
damn embarrassing. Not that she cared less who Hudson Grace fell in love with
but he shouldn’t have strung her along. That’s all she was saying. And just
about everybody agreed with her, except for hopeless Michael Shannon fan-boys
like Jeremy Marks.

She peered around Ryan to get a look at Jeremy who was
sitting with Paula Dunlop from the Beauty Box—a totally weird choice in a date.
Paula was cute but she had red hair and wore makeup and obviously read all the fashion
magazines. She was a huge fan of Michael Shannon. That’s probably all Jeremy
and Paula had in common. If that’s what Jeremy Marks was looking for in a
woman, he sure wasted his time pursuing Jocelyn over the winter. Did he really
think she was going to give up a man like Hudson Grace for a nerdy, nervous
stage manager who was only a year older than she was and marginally employed?

Jocelyn Tate had plans for her future. She was ambitious and
now was the best time to lay the foundation, while she was still young and
appealing to older men. She had it all figured out. Her future husband would be
a man in his mid-to-late thirties, preferably a billionaire, but if she couldn’t
get that, he’d have high earning potential. Her organic soap-making business
was doing all right but Jocelyn was so over being poor. It was cool being frugal
when she first graduated from high school but four years later, she wanted more
out of life than minimum wage jobs.

Jeremy Marks had called her a gold-digger and that’s the
last time she spoke to him. If he was going to be abusive, he could go to hell.
Enjoy your boring date with Paula “
Squee
” Dunlop, Jeremy Marks,
Jocelyn thought, suddenly
irritated by everyone and everything.

“Having a good time?” Ryan asked.

Jocelyn beamed and squeezed his arm hoping Jeremy was watching,
but Mrs. Louise Dean sat down and blocked the sightline with her enormous
pregnancy. Louise was better known as Scout Rutherford. No one could get used
to calling her Mrs. Dean. She married her best friend Ryder last summer and now
they were expecting twins. Scout seemed happy about it which Jocelyn would
definitely
not
be if it was her body
being stretched out of shape. Scout’s antiques business was the hottest ticket
in town for the tourists and Ryder Dean worked for Green Mountain Parks and
Forestry, so no worries there. He was really good looking, Jocelyn noticed.
Scout looked like she could go into labor at any minute. Knowing Scout
Rutherford, she probably would. Jocelyn had heard the stories. Disaster seemed
to follow that girl around.

Sheriff Sawyer McIntyre was here too with his wife, Shelby. Not
a lot of money in law enforcement so he was never on Jocelyn’s radar.
Great-looking guy though. They got married on Halloween of all the weird days.
Shelby Porter was five months pregnant but still working the media scrum like a
pro. She owned the
Mandrake Falls
Gazette,
the only paper in town anyone
bothered to read, and as far as Jocelyn could tell, the woman never took a day
off. She’d give birth in the newspaper office if her husband would let her.
Jocelyn remembered hearing a story about those two that they used to hate each
other.
Bizarre.
Because it was like they couldn’t keep
their hands off each other. Bit disgusting seeing as they were in a church, she
thought.

Maybe the sheriff’s brother, Ryan McIntyre was the man for
her. He was hot
and
he had money. This
was only their first date so it was too early to tell but the fact that he’d
called and asked her to the wedding had to be a good sign.

Unless this was a pity date.
Maybe Ryan
felt sorry for her because she was the only person in town not invited to the
Wedding of the Year. For days now, Mandrake Falls had been overrun with camera
crews and photographers from every entertainment magazine ever published. Michael
Shannon wasn’t super famous but she did something newsworthy before Christmas
that sparked a media firestorm and it hadn’t let up.

Jocelyn hoped Ryan could see how unimpressed she was by the
spectacle. She knew better than to appear overawed. Ryan McIntyre was by far
the most successful man in Mandrake Falls, the best looking and
he was still a bachelor. If she played
this opportunity right, who knew where it could lead? She could be the next one
down the aisle.

THE CONGREGATION rose to their feet as the bride stepped
into the nave. Michael Shannon was breathtaking in a heavy cream antique
wedding gown that was simple yet incredibly classy, perfectly suited for a small
town wedding. The assembly would never have guessed the expense that pulling
off this ‘simple’ look had been for the bride. Michael Shannon had a genius for
creating atmosphere and the right atmosphere did not come cheap.

The groom, Hudson Grace, watched his nephew Simon march down
the aisle bearing the ring box on a cushion. The four-year-old took his duties
very seriously and had even agreed to allow his hair to be cut for the event. A
flash went off. One of the photographers was pushing the rule of no photos during
the service to the limit.

There would be a few years more of that ahead for them,
Hudson sighed inwardly. His bride wasn’t completely done with fame. Michael
tilted her head on cue to give the media scrum a better angle. He knew the sort
of woman he had fallen in love with. Michael Shannon was devoted, fearless,
vain and stubborn. But all that mattered to him as he watched her come down the
aisle smiling with the same secret joy he had in his chest, was marrying her.

This wedding wasn’t even supposed to be happening. Hudson
and Michael were not eager to get married—not ever. They’d only just declared
their love to each other and were still trying to wrap their heads around that
catastrophe when word got out that Hudson was involved with Jocelyn. The news
had been posted at the Beauty Box where all relationship news is generated,
forcing Hudson to break it off with Jocelyn, which was unfair because he didn’t
think they were involved in the first place. But Jocelyn obviously did and the
longer he put it off, the worse it would be for her when the truth came out
about him and Michael.

So he told her face-to-face but since when is that the end
of it with women. A barrage of questions followed; everyone demanding to know
why he’d dumped poor Jocelyn Tate over Christmas of all the rotten things. Backed
into a corner, Hudson blurted that he was in love with Michael Shannon. In
Mandrake Falls one thing leads to another and now here they were—a couple of
players—Michael Shannon and Hudson Grace, grinning at each other like fools
because they were about to tie the knot. They appreciated the irony.

In the end, Jocelyn Tate did him a favor by going public and
pushing Hudson to declare his involvement with Michael. Vain, stubborn and
expensive—life with Michael Shannon wasn’t going to be easy and Hudson Grace
wouldn’t have it any other way.

JEREMY MARKS pushed his glasses up on his nose and shot
Paula a quick smile. He was sweating a little under his tweed jacket. He
probably shouldn’t have worn the sweater vest but his one good shirt had a
button missing and the sweater vest hid the problem. Besides, it was usually
cold and drafty in the church. The heating system was faulty and March wasn’t warm
enough to make up the difference.

“You look nice,” said Paula.

His head bobbed and he grinned. “So do you.”

“Thanks,” she whispered back, her eyes were on Michael
Shannon walking down the aisle. “I picked this dress out at
Très
Jolie. Lisa said it was a good color for my hair.”

Paula’s hair was the color of an apricot but most people
called it red. It was very shiny and Jeremy thought she did look pretty in that
dress which was black chiffon with tiny orange rhinestones. To be honest, Paula
Dunlop looked pretty damn sexy and almost no guy ever thought of Paula Dunlop
as being sexy. She was the ‘runner-up’ girl; the girl a guy will ask to go to
weddings, dances and office parties after he’s turned down by his first choice
girl.

He stole a glance at Jocelyn. She looked like ... a goddess.
A beautiful, unapproachable goddess.
He almost hated
looking at her because it killed him whenever he saw her these days and if she
was in the room he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. It was a horrible place to
be, being in love with Jocelyn Tate. Correction—being in love was horrible full
stop. He was pretty sure the whole emotional process was hell until a guy and a
girl got married. Hudson Grace was lucky to get it over with.

Jocelyn was wearing a vintage blue satin dress, belted at
the waist like a warrior princess and she had on boots of brown leather. He
knew for a fact that when she tried to wear heels she fell off them. She was
too tall. The boots were sexy. Jeremy liked a girl in boots. Jocelyn wore her
blonde hair board straight and parted down the middle. She had a heart shaped
face so she could get away with it. He noticed these things—face shapes and
hair and clothes. It was almost a hobby, to catalogue what people looked like
at different events. Jocelyn didn’t have her hair up in a ponytail as she
usually did. It hung to her waist.
Very thick and shiny.

Paula dug her nails into his thigh. “You’ve got to stop
staring at her. Everyone is wondering what she’s going to do at this wedding;
if she’s going to pull a scene after going public about Hudson and their
non-existent romance. I felt bad for her for about five minutes until I realized
she didn’t care about Hudson, only his money. She just wanted a rich husband.”

“Hudson isn’t rich. He’s a forester for the State Parks
Department.”

“Hudson Grace has money enough to suit Jocelyn. When his
brother and sister-in-law died he became the beneficiary of their estate. Riley
surrendered his property when he became a minister but his wife had property in
Florida. It was sold when Simon was orphaned and Hudson manages the funds. It’s
for the little boy’s education but Jocelyn doesn’t care about that. When you’ve
been raised in a backwoods shack, poorer than dirt, Hudson Grace looks like a
millionaire. He was supposed to be her sugar daddy, a flunky to pay the bills
so she can keep on being the special snowflake she is.”

“I accused her of being a gold digger. We’ve all kind of
dumped on her lately.”

“She brought it on herself. The romance she claimed to have
with Hudson was all in her head. It was bound to catch up with her sooner or
later.”

“What was bound to catch up with her?”

“Her arrogance with men!
Jeremy,
even you must see it. She thinks because she’s hot she can do what she wants
and men are going to fall all over her. She reminds me of the other one—Sheriff
McIntyre’s fiancée, Janice
Feron
. She broke up with
him right before their wedding and then came back, expecting him to be
thrilled. But he’d already fallen for Shelby so it serves her right.”

Jeremy grinned. “Be nice. Everyone is stupid when they’re in
love. And Janice
Feron
is in town for the wedding.
She was Michael Shannon’s interior designer in New York. The wedding planner
hired her to help design the reception. I had to give her the spare key to get
into the theater and set up. I’ve never met the sheriff’s ex-fiancée before.
She’s really hot. She looks like a model.”

“She’s in
town
?” Paula
craned her neck to see over the congregation. “Janice
Feron
was always gorgeous but she’s a total bitch. I wonder how she’s taking it seeing
Sawyer and Shelby together.
Probably about as well as Jocelyn
is taking being at Hudson’s wedding.”

“Jocelyn isn’t like Janice
Feron
.
She’s just going through some stuff right now with her business and trying to
figure out what she wants to do with her life.”

BOOK: Love Rising: Spring (Mandrake Falls Series Romance Book 4)

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