Table for Two

Table for Two

by

Dara Girard

© 2003, 2011 by Dara Girard

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Please Note

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

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Thank You
.

This book is dedicated to my family,

who know the importance of a good meal.

Dear Reader,

Before I wrote category romance novels, I started my career in mainstream romance. Ten years ago, I decided to write about a character that was a complete contradiction: An overweight, insecure woman who’s a successful self-help instructor. And her love interest? An anti-social guy who loves food and owns restaurants.
 
I didn’t realize at the time that romance heroines were supposed to be beautiful and confident. Okay, I’ll be honest. I didn’t care because I loved this story.

The characters intrigued me. I loved that Cassie’s rival for Drake’s affection was a fitness guru (the chocolate scene between the two women still makes me laugh). I liked Drake’s sly brother Eric, his impish sister Jackie and Cassie’s sassy best friend, Adriana. I had a blast writing this story. It wasn’t the first novel I’d written (not by a long shot, it was probably book number fifteen and that’s not counting the plays, essays, articles…you get the point), but it was the first novel when I realized my true passion—creating stories.

For years I’d focused on publication, but suddenly I realized publication was just icing on the cake—creating was divine. Suddenly, I didn’t care if I became the most prolific unpublished writer around.

Which seemed likely because the moment I put my manuscript in the mail it returned to me like a boomerang. I was disappointed but not defeated.
 
I was gloriously stubborn and ambitious (if not a little insane) and didn’t stop writing and submitting. After a year of effort I finally got ‘the call’ and a year later
Table for Two
was published.

It has flaws and I’ve learned a lot since I was a young writer with a dream, but I wrote this story with love and joy and I hope that still comes through.

All the best,

Dara Girard

Chapter 1

Cassie Graham knew the moment of impact would be painful. She was certain it was impossible to have more than six feet of well-muscled male fall on top of her without suffering a few lasting bruises. She landed with an undignified
ooof!
on the grassy turf of the park with any belief that grass was softer than concrete forgotten. The impact knocked off her glasses, turning her world into an impressionist painting of hazy trees and buildings. She briefly wondered if all the nineteenth-century masters were just myopic.

"Are you all right?" the man asked. His voice was unusually kind, which it had no right to be since she was the cause of the collision. His concern made her feel even more foolish.

Cassie glanced up and two meltingly rich golden brown eyes came into focus, gazing at her like a medieval charm that had the ability to put someone under a spell. She was not sure if it was the expression or the color that brought heat to her face, but something made her cheeks grow very warm. She opened her mouth to say that she was fine and assure the poor man that there was no reason to worry, but words caught in her throat when she glanced down and realized that he was half naked. He was shirtless, proudly displaying his Brazilian nut skin in the summer heat. He hovered above her like a large cat, his solid arms on either side, trapping her as if she were some unfortunate prey. She knew that she was in no danger, but the image of his powerful arms and torso made her wary.