Kristy Woodson Harvey), you all have been an absolute joy in my life. I love growing with you!
To Jim Hart, thank you for believing in me and my books! I will be forever grateful to you for that chance and your kind support.
To my patient husband, for all those nights you put the kids to bed so I could work, for all the times you read my drafts, and the thousands (millions?) of hours you’ve listened to me talk through my books. I love you!
To the barista in Zazzy’s coffee shop and the Barter actress who wandered in one day and gave me tips—ah! I wish I had your names to thank you! To Courtney Walsh, for letting me sidle up beside her and ask her for theater-life lingo.
To the Barter Theatre, the Martha Washington Inn, Zazzy’s, the Tavern, 128 Pecan, Bone Fire Smokehouse, King Museum, and the incredible town of Abingdon I’ve been privileged to enjoy as a Bristolian all these years, thank you for being the most Hallmark-worthy town in all creation. You are a world of inspiration, and I can’t wait to show readers our wonderful town through this book and my next novella, Pining for You!
To the Barter especially, I have been to more plays and musicals at the theatre than I can count over the last fifteen years, and the tradition continues with my children. Thank you for being the world’s best live performance theatre! You say, “If you like us, talk about us. And if you don’t, just keep your mouth shut.” Well, here I am, telling the world about you!
To those bookstagrammers and bloggers who have shared my books in the most gorgeous of ways. To Barnes & Noble in Johnson City for being the first bookstore to support me and welcome me so warmly into the published life! I was just a fledgling with my debut, The Dating Charade, and your encouragement meant the world.
To my Creator, for rest. This book was about finding peace after the inescapable sense of restlessness we all face in this life, and truly as St. Augustine states, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.”
And thanks to every single reader who encourages on social media, replies to my newsletter emails, shares my books, writes reviews, tells your book clubs, and just makes me feel like I’m part of a cozy community. I appreciate everything you do more than I can say.
An Excerpt from The Dating Charade
1
Cassie
If one was going to dip one’s toes into the murky, pestilential waters of online dating, an escape plan was critical.
Fake emergencies worked on occasion. You know, the gasp as you take a “phone call” and dash out the door to an imaginary emergency with an imaginary friend. But in general, Cassie found the method too cliché and utterly devoid of, well, imagination. Besides, whenever she needed to make a hasty exit, her dates usually saw through such tricks.
It’d taken months to create the perfect escape plan. Months of trial and error, of late nights scribbling elaborate routes under lamplight, of miniscule alterations schemed up with her most devious of friends.
But here, watching the stingrays circling the scuba diver in the aquarium glass behind her date, she knew she’d finally done it. Her plan was positively, utterly airtight.
“Married, you ask?” He cocked his head to one side as though the question actually required mental searching. His thin lips pressed together, resembling the fish floating behind his head.
“Yes. Are you married?” Cassie’s eyes ticked to the culprit: the ring finger on his left hand. The tan line was minimal, almost nonexistent. His nails were clean, and in Cassie’s mind nothing good ever came from a man with immaculate hands. And yet even if her eyes had wronged her on those matters, there was no getting around the slight indention where a band would be and the slightest puff of the skin between ring area and knuckle.
Two minutes. After a year of online dating, she’d developed the ability to spot a rat in under two minutes. That deserved some sort of recognition.
His hand swiftly dropped from the glass just as hers lifted to discreetly tap it twice.
Escape plan in motion.
“Technically . . . yes. But it’s more complicated than you think.” He laughed good-naturedly as he scratched the back of his head with his pristine hand.
She didn’t smile in return.
His smile slipped down with his arm. “Surely you didn’t expect me to drop something like this in the first five