Doing It Her Way by Rita Sawyer
Lainey Miles wants nothing more than to marry her fiancé Jace Cannon. She’s been putting off setting a date because she doesn’t want the big white wedding her mother’s counting on. Jace isn’t hiding the fact he’s getting antsy either. She knows something has to be done and fast. So she recruits her friends to plan a surprise wedding that Jace will never forget.
Jace doesn’t understand why Lainey won’t even talk about setting a date for their wedding. If she changed her mind, he wished she’d just say so, but with the way they were burning up the sheets he didn’t think that was the problem. He was determined that as soon as he got back from his business trip they were going to sit down and work things out. One way or another he is going to get an answer out of her.
Description
Find more from this author on:
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Rita Sawyer is a Massachusetts native, who did brief stints in Georgia and Maine. Now she lives about an hour from Boston with her husband. She has always been an avid reader, mostly romance novels (though she says she’ll read anything).
She writes contemporary romances and romantic comedies. Her stories vary in heat level from sweet to sizzling, but she hopes they all have at least a hint of humor. What good is romance without a little laughter? If you enjoy family and friend based series then you've found the right author. More about Rita and her books can be found at www.RitaSawyer.com. Readers can contact her anytime at [email protected].
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What inspired you to write your book?
I wanted to write a book series about friends who had each others backs while they were falling for the men who popped into their lives and made them want to keep the there.
Here is a short sample from the book:
Chapter One
Lainey looked around the room at her friends. It was hard to believe that at one time they’d all been so wild, willing to break the rules any chance they got. What the hell happened to us? Back in junior high and high school, they had been the first girls they knew to swear loudly, cut class, and kiss boys. The nuns at Saint Mary’s, the all-girl Catholic school they attended from sixth to twelfth grade, had complained, telling their parents they were sisters in sin. Once it had gotten out, the other kids in school thought calling them “The Sin Sisters” would be some kind of put-down. Instead, they’d embraced it, and the name had stuck. The name and its connotation had given them all some sense of freedom none of their other friends had. Wherever one had gone, the rest had soon followed. Their open wildness had welded their friendship, giving them an even stronger bond. So strong, in fact, that they’d all decided to attend the same all-girl college, where they had been the first ones to break even more rules.
Now look at them. Set in their ways and going about their lives, which, some days, seemed pretty mundane. The five women sitting around her table looked at her with a mixture of surprise and barely contained glee. These women were her closest friends and, more importantly, her confidants. If she couldn’t tell them what she was thinking, then she couldn’t tell anyone. They made a strange group for sure. So she had a model, a dancer, a high-profile investigative reporter, an elementary school teacher, a car mechanic, and herself, a baker, to help her with this project. Lainey didn’t think she’d find a more diverse group of people if she tried. She knew this had to sound like the craziest idea they’d ever heard, but damn, it would be unforgettable if they managed to pull it off.
“So you want to forgo the whole traditional wedding, including the bachelorette party?” Sadie, the reporter, poured her another glass of wine.
“Yup. And I figure since my mother probably has her heart set on throwing a huge wedding, we should keep this quiet,” Lainey explained, noticing how none of them had said no yet.
Her mother had always told her as she was growing up that since she was only going to get to throw one wedding, she was going to make sure it was absolutely perfect. In Lainey’s mind, perfection equaled an uptight and stuffy ceremony and reception with her in a dress she’d be afraid to move in. It was a scenario she wasn’t about to let happen.
“And you want to do this quick because you’re afraid your mother and aunts would put up a huge fight if they found out. We all know what would happen then. A few tears and a lot of ranting and you’d wind up giving in.” Jillian, the dancer, and the teaser of their little group, sounded way too serious for Lainey’s liking because she was dead on.
“Yeah. And because this trip he has to take would be the perfect opportunity. Besides, I won’t be telling my family. If I told any of them what I was going to do, they’d probably faint.” After that, they’d lock her in her room and call one of the nuns from down the road to come and try to talk some sense into her.
“True. But there’s another issue to think of. If you do this, your cousins probably won’t talk to you for months.” Amy, who happened to be a top-notch mechanic, would bring up the sleazy vultures.
Though her four cousins, all girls, were close to her age, she’d never bonded with them in any way. Thankfully, her mother hadn’t pushed her to hang around with them. They’d all been quite boring growing up, held under their mothers’ thumbs. Now that they had control over their own lives, the only thing they were interested in was men, and lots of them. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her cousins—well, to be totally honest, she didn’t—but in this case Lainey just didn’t want to subject any of the guys Jace would ask to be groomsmen to their voracious appetites. They couldn’t be in a room with a man without hitting on him, married or not.
“I think that’s just more of a reason to do it,” Dianne, the model, said around bites of the green pepper and onion pizza she was devouring.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” asked Karen, the teacher. Lainey hated asking just in case word got out about what they were going to do.
“Yes.” She nodded so hard her drink splashed over the sides of her glass.
“Then I’m in, if you tell me why.” Karen’s quick agreement had her friend’s gazes turning from Lainey to her. “What, you think teachers don’t experiment except for in the classroom?”
Everyone laughed, and when Lainey caught her breath she said, “I have been dating Jace for two years. We’ve been engaged for the past eighteen months. I can’t keep putting him off, or he may change his mind.” She was joking, but somewhere deep inside she was afraid it might be true.
“That would be a big mistake on his part.” Amy rolled the pizza cutter back and forth with a big grin.
“Seriously. Jace is a fun and passionate lover. I want to make our wedding an event he’ll never forget. In a good way. Who knows, maybe every year on our anniversary, I’ll work up something special for him.” Lainey waggled her eyebrows, and they all laughed.
“Okay, so how do you want to do this?” Amy reached over, grabbed a couple of napkins, and handed them to Sadie.
“This pizza is a delicious disaster.” Sadie wiped her mouth before adding, “Amy’s right, we need a plan.”
“How far do you want him to be in on it? Somewhat informed or a kablammy surprise?” Dianne brought up a good question that had them all going quiet for a few seconds.
“I think he should be surprised. I mean, men suck at keeping secrets, unless it’s something that will get them in trouble. If you tell him, he’ll want to help plan it, then you could really end up with things slipping out.” Since Amy had four brothers, she knew what she was talking about.
“True. See, this is why I called you guys. I knew you’d help me. So we surprise him, too. This is good because if my mother found out he knew, then she would never forgive him. Now where do we start?” Lainey was starting to feel buzzed, and it wasn’t from the wine.
“Well, his trip to Vegas is in, what, three weeks?” Lainey nodded and Sadie went on. “That doesn’t give us much time, but if we each take a part, we can definitely pull this off.”
“We’ll need a copy of his itinerary, and someone is going to have to work with Gage. I figure Jace would have asked him to be his best man. They’ll need to gather up the rest of the groomsmen.” Amy turned to Dianne, who instantly blushed.
“No way!” She put her drink down and shot to her feet. “That guy is beyond manageable.”
“But honey, he likes you,” Karen teased.
Lainey laughed as Sadie pulled out one of the notebooks she never left home without. They were in for it now. She wasn’t going to let them leave until each one of them knew exactly what their jobs were and what it entailed. Then she’d hound them until she had everything they needed to pull this off.
“You guys know I love you, right?” Lainey wiped at the lone tear that had escaped.
Karen gave her a hug then grabbed another piece of pizza. “We love you, too. Now let’s get to work.”
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