Charity Case - The Complete Series - Piper Rayne Page 0,199

marriage. We purposely didn’t do any flashback scenes because we wanted their story to be about the here and now…how they’ve both grown and how Chelsea was finally able to open her heart again at the risk of having it broken again. BUT…that would make PERFECT box set material, don’t you think?

That’s about all the 411 on Afternoon Delight.

Our usual dream team plus a few new additions who need a round of applause.

Letitia from RBA Designs.

Ellie from Love N Books.

Shawna from Behind the Writer.

Sarah Ferguson and Social Butterfly PR

All the bloggers who continue to make room for our books!

Heather and Angela for being (not so early) readers. One of these days we’ll be ahead of the game. LOL

All our early ARC readers.

And of course, all our unicorns. <3 Without you we wouldn’t be able to keep doing what we do. This industry becomes more challenging every day, but we push on because we have you in our corner shouting from the rooftops and encouraging other readers to try our work. <3

Be on the lookout for Happy Hour. As with the entire series, our hero, Roarke Baldwin has a lot of ground to make up if he wants to win Hannah Crowley’s heart! Should be interesting!

xo,

Piper & Rayne

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

© 2018 by Piper Rayne

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Cover design: RBA Designs

Line Editor: Gray Ink Editing

Proofreader: Shawna Gavas, Behind The Writer

The perfect man for her is the one she hates most. #gofigure

Dating is hard.

Dating in your thirties is even harder.

Dating in Chicago is harder still.

I haven't given up on finding my happily-ever-after, but in the age of swiping right and Netflix and chill, I'm wondering if everything is as temporary as my marriage turned out to be.

Truth is, there is one guy I can't get my mind off of.

Roarke Baldwin has salt and pepper hair I've dreamed of running my hands through and I'm pretty sure that if I checked he really does have a six pack of abs underneath his suit. And I've always wondered what that stubble on his face would feel like between my thighs.

The problem? He's the one man I hate more than my ex-husband…

His divorce attorney.

Chapter One

What are the worst four words to hear in the English language besides ‘we need to talk?’

‘We overbooked. You’re out.’

Especially six weeks before you’re hosting a gala to pop the cork on the new charitable foundation you started.

Normally, the buzz of the alcohol would’ve lifted my spirits, or at least let me have an ounce of optimism in this shitty situation. There has to be a venue in one of the largest cities in America that has availability on short notice. Weddings get canceled all the time. Not that I’m wishing a broken heart on anyone so I can steal their venue spot, but if I’m being cynical—and I’m speaking from experience here—it’s a lot better to never say I do, than to say it then have half your worldly possessions stolen from you in divorce court.

Let’s all be honest, love fogs up a sane mind more than a bottle of tequila on a Mexican beach. One minute you’re all ‘woohoo,’ licking salt and sucking back limes under a makeshift tiki hut poolside. The next you’re hunched over the trunk of a palm tree with your stomach rejecting the good times you promised.

Love’s bred from the same false high. Except the regret doesn’t always come on the same night. Sometimes it creeps up on you like a long night of drinking expensive champagne. You think you’re having a sweet time, drinking conservatively and keeping away from the hard stuff. Then you pass out on the way home to wake up wondering what the hell you did and where the damn Advil is.

My experience with marriage was the latter.

I’d known Todd my entire life. Grown up with him from our first week at Montessori school together. He chased me around the playground and gave me a locket in the first grade. He asked me to the carnival in third grade. I wouldn’t call what we had kismet. Half the time he annoyed me, but he was kind and considerate. A good guy. Before walking down the aisle, I convinced myself that passion and spontaneity were