Almost A Bride. Rula Sinara

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Almost A Bride - Rula Sinara Mills & Boon Heartwarming

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target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ucce070d1-98ce-58a3-af89-6cd48b66ceea">Dear Reader,

      Welcome to Turtleback Beach! I hope you enjoy my new series set in a small, fictional beach town on the real Outer Banks of North Carolina’s Hatteras Island. This series is filled with heartwarming animals, lots and lots of romance and a little mystery. I hope you join me for the ride!

      The towns of Hatteras Island, including the famous Rodanthe, are small and quaint (no big hotels or crowds). This breathtaking island boasts quiet beaches and natural surroundings. The Outer Banks is also famous for sea turtle nesting grounds, wild horses, picturesque lighthouses and so much more. It’s one of my favorite places to visit.

      This first book of the series includes many themes, but one of the most significant is secrets—the life-changing kind. Often, what we’re hiding is so serious or personal it keeps us from being able to embrace life, live freely, own our truth...or love who we want to love. Keeping that kind of secret is stressful, and might include lying to friends and family, but sometimes doing so can be a matter of life or death.

      So, when are secrets worth the sacrifice? I’d love to hear what you think after experiencing what Mandi Rivers, a runaway bride, and Grayson Zale, who is in the witness protection program, must overcome in order to find love in Almost a Bride.

      My door is always open at rulasinara.com, where you’ll find my newsletter sign-up, social media links, information on my series and books and more.

      Wishing you love, peace and courage in life.

       Rula Sinara

      Contents

       Cover

       Back Cover Text

       About the Author

       Booklist

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Introduction

       Acknowledgments

       Dear Reader

       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

       EPILOGUE

       Extract

       About the Publisher

       CHAPTER ONE

      GRAYSON ZALE BIT back a curse as he ducked between the weather-beaten posts that hoisted the pier at Turtleback Beach over the clawing surf. He crouched down, pulse racing, as he pretended to reach for a shell stranded by the low tide, and waited for the guy in the backward cap and sunglasses to finish taking a panoramic shot with his cell phone. The last thing Gray needed was to have his face plastered on social media and recognized by the wrong people. Or worse yet, what if this guy wasn’t some random tourist? Not many tourists ventured this far south along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and those who did usually stayed away from the areas roped off and marked as turtle breeding grounds. Most vacationers settled on staying in towns farther north of Hatteras Island, like Duck or Kill Devil Hills, where they could have their pick of hotels, amenities, shops and attractions, like the memorial where the Wright brothers took their first flight. Granted, Turtleback and neighboring towns, like Rodanthe or Avon, did get some visitors—usually more peace-and nature-loving types. It was just that being cautious and suspicious had become a twisted, unsettling part of who he was...like a leech or parasite, unwilling to let go.

      Laddie, Gray’s rough collie rescue, positioned himself stoically between Gray and the stranger. No barking or growling. That was a good sign, but getting caught in an online photo was a threat in and of itself. It was more than out of the question. It was a matter of life or death.

      Sure, he was the town’s veterinarian, which meant just about everyone had come to know him in some capacity or another since he’d landed in town five years ago. He was their pet’s doc, a friend of a friend, the guy who grabbed his coffee and bear claw at the local bake shop the second it opened at six in the morning with Laddie ever at his side. He was the guy they’d wave to as he took off on a motorcycle ride down Highway 12. But as much as he’d integrated himself into the town, he’d also become adept at skirting photos, and he almost always wore his “Save the Turtles” ball cap and Oakley sunglasses when walking the beach during the busier summer season, just in case he did end up in the background of a tourist’s photograph. He took every precaution to stay under the

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