Looking for a Hero Read online

  Two classic stories of finding love where you least expect it!

  MARRIAGE WANTED

  As far as Nash Davenport’s concerned, marriage isn’t shelter from the storm—it is the storm. He’s a divorce attorney, himself divorced, who believes no married couple can live up to their wedding vows. Savannah Charles, however, believes in the value—and the values—of marriage. She’s a wedding planner who finds herself saying yes when Nash unexpectedly proposes. Even though it’s strictly a business proposal...

  MY HERO

  Would-be romance writer Bailey York has already failed twice at love. She thinks men are wonderful to read and write about, but that’s it. Which is probably why she has such difficulty creating a hero for her novel. What she needs is a real-life example. She finds one in Parker Davidson—he’s everything a hero should be. Compellingly attractive. Forceful and determined, yet capable of tenderness. A man of substance. Parker is perfect as Bailey’s inspiration—but he wants to be the hero in her life, not just in her book!

  Praise for the novels of

  #1 New York Times bestselling author

  Debbie Macomber

  “Prolific Macomber is known for her honest portrayals of ordinary women in small-town America.... [She is] an icon of the genre.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Debbie Macomber tells women’s stories in a way no one else does.”

  —BookPage

  “Popular romance writer Debbie Macomber has a gift for evoking the emotions that are at the heart of the genre’s popularity.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Debbie Macomber is one of the most reliable, versatile romance writers around.”

  —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

  “No one writes better women’s contemporary fiction.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “With first-class author Debbie Macomber, it’s quite simple—she gives readers an exceptional, unforgettable story every time, and her books are always, always keepers!”

  —ReadertoReader.com

  DEBBIE

  MACOMBER

  Looking for a Hero

  Also by Debbie Macomber

  Blossom Street

  The Shop on Blossom Street

  A Good Yarn

  Susannah’s Garden

  Back on Blossom Street

  Twenty Wishes

  Summer on Blossom Street

  Hannah’s List

  The Knitting Diaries

  “The Twenty-First Wish”

  A Turn in the Road

  Cedar Cove

  16 Lighthouse Road

  204 Rosewood Lane

  311 Pelican Court

  44 Cranberry Point

  50 Harbor Street

  6 Rainier Drive

  74 Seaside Avenue

  8 Sandpiper Way

  92 Pacific Boulevard

  1022 Evergreen Place

  Christmas in Cedar Cove

  (5-B Poppy Lane and A Cedar Cove Christmas)

  1105 Yakima Street

  1225 Christmas Tree Lane

  The Dakota Series

  Dakota Born

  Dakota Home

  Always Dakota

  Buffalo Valley

  The Manning Family

  The Manning Sisters

  (The Cowboy’s Lady and The Sheriff Takes a Wife)

  The Manning Brides

  (Marriage of Inconvenience and Stand-In Wife)

  The Manning Grooms

  (Bride on the Loose and Same Time, Next Year)

  Christmas Books

  A Gift to Last

  On a Snowy Night

  Home for the Holidays

  Glad Tidings

  Christmas Wishes

  Small Town Christmas

  When Christmas Comes

  (now retitled Trading Christmas)

  There’s Something About Christmas

  Christmas Letters

  The Perfect Christmas

  Choir of Angels

  (Shirley, Goodness and Mercy, Those Christmas Angels and Where Angels Go)

  Call Me Mrs. Miracle

  Heart of Texas

  VOLUME 1

  (Lonesome Cowboy and Texas Two-Step)

  VOLUME 2

  (Caroline’s Child and Dr. Texas)

  VOLUME 3

  (Nell’s Cowboy and Lone Star Baby)

  Promise, Texas

  Return to Promise

  Midnight Sons

  Alaska Skies

  (Brides for Brothers and The Marriage Risk)

  Alaska Nights

  (Daddy’s Little Helper and Because of the Baby)

  Alaska Home

  (Falling for Him, Ending in Marriage and Midnight Sons and Daughters)

  This Matter of Marriage

  Montana

  Thursdays at Eight

  Between Friends

  Changing Habits

  Married in Seattle

  (First Comes Marriage and Wanted: Perfect Partner)

  Right Next Door

  (Father’s Day and The Courtship of Carol Sommars)

  Wyoming Brides

  (Denim and Diamonds and The Wyoming Kid)

  Fairy Tale Weddings

  (Cindy and the Prince and Some Kind of Wonderful)

  The Man You’ll Marry

  (The First Man You Meet and The Man You’ll Marry)

  Orchard Valley Grooms

  (Valerie and Stephanie)

  Orchard Valley Brides

  (Norah and Lone Star Lovin’)

  The Sooner the Better

  An Engagement in Seattle

  (Groom Wanted and Bride Wanted)

  Out of the Rain

  (Marriage Wanted and Laughter in the Rain)

  Learning to Love

  (Sugar and Spice and Love by Degree)

  You...Again

  (Baby Blessed and Yesterday Once More)

  The Unexpected Husband

  (Jury of His Peers and Any Sunday)

  Three Brides, No Groom

  Love in Plain Sight

  (Love ’n’ Marriage and Almost an Angel)

  I Left My Heart

  (A Friend or Two and No Competition)

  Marriage Between Friends

  (White Lace and Promises and Friends—And Then Some)

  A Man’s Heart

  (The Way to a Man’s Heart and Hasty Wedding)

  North to Alaska

  (That Wintry Feeling and Borrowed Dreams)

  On a Clear Day

  (Starlight and Promise Me Forever)

  To Love and Protect

  (Shadow Chasing and For All My Tomorrows)

  Home in Seattle

  (The Playboy and the Widow and Fallen Angel)

  Together Again

  (The Trouble with Caasi and Reflections of Yesterday)

  The Reluctant Groom

  (All Things Considered and Almost Paradise)

  A Real Prince

  (The Bachelor Prince and Yesterday’s Hero)

  Private Paradise

  (in That Summer Place)

  Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove Cookbook

  Debbie Macomber’s Christmas Cookbook

  Table of Contents

  Marriage Wanted

  My Hero

  Excerpt from Starting Over on Blackberry Lane by Sheila Roberts

  MARRIAGE WANTED

  To Randall Toye,

  who has supported and encouraged me

  for twenty-eight wonderful years.

  Contents

  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

  One

  Savannah Charles watched the young woman wandering around her bridal shop, checking prices and looking more discouraged by the moment. Her shoulders slumped and she bit her lip when she read the tag on the wedding gown she’d selected. She had excellent taste, Savannah noticed; the ivory silk-taffeta dress was one of her own favorites. A pattern of lace and pearls swirled up the puffed sleeves and bodice.

  “Can I help you?” Savannah asked, moving toward her.

  Startled, the woman turned. “I... It doesn’t look like it. This dress is almost twice as much as my budget for the whole wedding. Are you Savannah?”

  “Yes.”

  She smiled shyly. “Missy Gilbert told me about you. She said you’re wonderful to work with and that you might be able to give Kurt and me some guidance. I’m Susan Davenport.” She held out her hand and Savannah shook it, liking the girl immediately.

  “When’s your wedding?”

  “In six weeks. Kurt and I are paying for it ourselves. His two younger brothers are still in college and his parents haven’t got much to spare.” Amusement turned up the corners of her mouth as she added, “Kurt’s dad claims he’s becoming poor by degrees.”

  Savannah smiled back. “What about your family?”

  “There’s only my brother and me. He’s fifteen years older and, well...it isn’t that he doesn’t like Kurt. Because once you meet Kurt, it’s impossible not to love him. He’s kind and generous and interesting....”

  Savannah was touched by Susan’s eagerness to tell her about the man she wanted to marry.

  “But Nash—my brother—doesn’t believe in marriage,” the young woman went on to explain. “He’s an attorney and he’s worked on so many divorce cases over the years that he simply doesn’t believe in it anymore. It doesn’t help that he’s divorced himself, although that was years and years ago.”

  “What’s your budget?” Savannah asked. She’d planned weddings that went into six figures, but she was equally adept at finding reasonable alternatives. She walked back to her desk, limping on her right foot. It ached more this afternoon than usual. It always did when the humidity was this high.

  Susan told her the figure she and Kurt had managed to set aside and Savannah frowned. It wasn’t much, but she could work with it. She turned around and caught Susan staring at her. Savannah was accustomed to that kind of reaction to her limp, the result of a childhood accident. She generally wore pants, which disguised the scars and disfigurement, but her limp was always noticeable, and more so when she was tired. Until they knew her better, it seemed to disconcert people. Generally she ignored their hesitation and continued, hoping that her own acceptance would put them at ease.

  “Even the least expensive wedding dresses would eat up the majority of the money we’ve worked so hard to save.”

  “You could always rent the dress,” Savannah suggested.

  “I could?” Her pretty blue eyes lit up when Savannah mentioned the rental fee.

  “How many people are you inviting?”

  “Sixty-seven,” Susan told her, as if the number of guests had been painfully difficult to pare down. “Kurt and I can’t afford more. Mostly it’s his family.... I don’t think Nash will even come to the wedding.” Her voice fell.

  Despite never having met Susan’s older brother, she already disliked him. Savannah couldn’t imagine a brother refusing to attend his sister’s wedding, no matter what his personal views on marriage happened to be.

  “Kurt’s from a large family. He has aunts and uncles and, I swear, at least a thousand cousins. We’d like to invite everyone, but we can’t. The invitations alone will cost a fortune.”

  “Have you thought about making your own invitations?”

  Susan shook her head. “I’m not very artsy.”

  “You don’t need to be.” Opening a drawer, Savannah brought out a book of calligraphy. “These are fairly simple and elegant-looking and they’ll add a personal touch because they’re individualized.” She paused. “You’ll find other ideas on the internet.”

  “These are beautiful. You honestly think I could do this?” She looked expectantly at Savannah.

  “Without a doubt,” Savannah answered with a smile.

  “I wish I could talk some sense into Nash,” Susan muttered, then squared her shoulders as if she was ready to take him on right that minute. “He’s the only family I have. We’ve got aunts and uncles here and there, but no one we’re close to, and Nash is being so unreasonable about this. I love Kurt and nothing’s going to change the way I feel. I love his family, too. It can be lonely when you don’t belong to someone. That’s Nash’s problem. He’s forgotten what it’s like to belong to someone. To be in a relationship.”

  Loneliness. Savannah was well acquainted with the feeling. All her life she’d felt alone. The little girl who couldn’t run and play with friends. The teenage girl who never got asked to the prom. The woman who arranged the happiest days of other people’s lives.

  Loneliness. Savannah knew more than she wanted to about long days and longer nights.

  “I’m sure your brother will change his mind,” Savannah said reassuringly—even though she wasn’t sure at all.

  Susan laughed. “That only goes to prove you don’t know my brother. Once he’s set on something, it takes an Act of Congress to persuade him otherwise.”

  Savannah spent the next hour with Susan, deciding on the details of both the wedding and the reception. With such a limited budget it was a challenge, but they did it.

  “I can’t believe we can do so much with so little,” Susan said once they’d finished. Her face glowed with happiness. “A nice wedding doesn’t mean as much to Kurt as it does to me, but he’s willing to do whatever he can to make our day special.”

  Through the course of their conversation, Savannah learned that Kurt had graduated from the University of Washington with an engineering degree. He’d recently been hired by a California firm and had moved to the San Francisco area, where Susan would be joining him.

  After defying her brother, Susan had moved in with Kurt’s family, working part-time and saving every penny she could to help with the wedding expenses.

  “I can hardly wait to talk to Kurt,” Susan said excitedly as she gathered her purse and the notes she’d made. “I’ll get back to you as soon as he’s had a chance to go over the contract.” Susan paused. “Missy was right. You are wonderful.” She threw both arms around Savannah in an impulsive hug. “I’ll be back as soon as I can and you can take the measurements for the dress.” She cast a dreamy look toward the silk-and-taffeta gown and sighed audibly. “Kurt’s going to die when he sees me in that dress.”

  “You’ll make a lovely bride.”

  “Thank you for everything,” Susan said as she left the store.

  “You’re welcome.” It was helping young women like Susan that Savannah enjoyed the most. The eager, happy ones who were so much in love they were willing to listen to their hearts no matter what the cost. Over the years, Savannah had worked with every kind of bride and she knew the signs. The Susans of this world were invariably a delight.

  It was highly unlikely that Savannah would ever be married herself. Men were an enigma to her. Try as she might, she’d never been able to understand them. They invariably treated her differently than they did other women. Savannah assumed their attitude had to do with her damaged leg. Men either saw her as fragile, untouchable, because of it, or they viewed her as a buddy, a confidante. She supposed she should be flattered by the easy camaraderie they shared with her. They sought her advice, listened politely wh
en she spoke, then did as they pleased.

  Only a few men had seen her as a woman, a woman with dreams and desires of her own. But when it came to love, each of them had grown hesitant and afraid. Each relationship had ended awkwardly long before it had gotten close to serious.

  Maybe that wasn’t a fair assessment, Savannah mused sadly. Maybe it was her own attitude. She’d been terrified of ever falling in love. No matter how deeply she felt about a man, she was positive that her imperfection would come between them. It was safer to hold back, to cling to her pride than risk rejection and pain later on.

  * * *

  A week later, Susan came breezing through the door to Savannah’s shop.

  “Hello,” she said, smiling broadly. “I talked to Kurt and he’s as excited as I am.” She withdrew a debit card from her purse. “I’d like to give you the down payment now. And I have the signed contract for you.”

  Savannah brought out her paperwork and Susan paid her. “My brother doesn’t believe we’ll be able to do it without his help, but he’s wrong. We’re going to have a beautiful wedding, with or without Nash, thanks to you.”

  This was what made Savannah’s job so fulfilling. “I’ll order what we need right away,” she told Susan. Savannah only wished there was some way she could influence the young woman’s unreasonable older brother. She knew his type—cynical, distrusting, pessimistic. A man who scoffed at love, who had no respect for marriage. How very sad. Despite her irritation with the faceless Nash, Savannah couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. Whether or not he realized it, he was going to lose his sister.

  There were just the two of them, so she didn’t understand why Nash wouldn’t support his sister in her decision. Luckily Susan had Kurt’s parents. Undoubtedly this was something her brother hadn’t counted on, either.

  Susan left soon afterward. What remained of Savannah’s day was busy. The summer months used to be her overburdened time, but that hadn’t held true of late. Her services were booked equally throughout the year.

  Around five-thirty, when Savannah was getting ready to close for the day, the bell chimed over her door, indicating someone had entered the shop. She looked up from her computer and found a tall, well-dressed man standing by the doorway. It had started to rain lightly; he shook off the raindrops in his hair before he stepped farther inside. She saw him glance around and scowl, as if being in such a place was repugnant to him. Even before he spoke she knew he was Susan’s brother. The family resemblance was striking.