Calculated Risk - Softcover

McCarthy, Zoe M

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1611163560 ISBN 13: 9781611163568

Publisher: White Rose Publishing, 2014

Synopsis

Believing they're too opposite to attract, a jilted, vibrant marketing gal and a private numbers guy spend Thanksgiving with his family. She loves classical music; he listens to 70s tunes. She drives a red SUV; he owns a beige sedan. She orders a peppermint shake with extra chocolate bits; he prefers vanilla. What can change the improbable odds they'll fall in love? 

"Dating on the rebound, meddling parents, opposites fighting the attraction. . .with humor and tenderness, Zoe M. McCarthy puts fun, fresh spins on these favorite themes. No risk involved in picking up this romantic read!" ~~Becky Melby, author of the Lost Sanctuary Series  

                  

"It's easy to enjoy this story of faith, family and how two people find love at the exact time in their lives they need each other most. I loved spending Thanksgiving with Nick's family almost as much as Cisney did! Calculated Risk is a perfect title for a story of two people whose lives and livelihood must include measuring risk, but there is no risk for a reader in choosing this delightful romance!" ~~Maureen Lang, author of All in Good Time

About this title

About the Author

A writer and speaker, Zoe spins contemporary Christian romances and short stories. Christian Fiction Online Magazine has published two of her short stories. Her tagline is: Distraction to Attraction, Magnetic Romances Between Opposites. Calculated Risk is her debut novel. Zoe lives with her husband in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

From the Back Cover

Whoever said opposites attract was right, of course...but no one ever said what they attract.

Jilted by the latest of her father's choices of "real men," Cisney Baldwin rashly accepts an invitation to spend Thanksgiving weekend with a sympathetic colleague and his family. Nick LeCrone is a man too much her opposites to interest her and too mild-mannered to make her overbearing father's "list." Now, Cisney fears Nick wants to take advantage of her vulnerable state over the holiday. Boy, is she wrong.

Nick wants little to do with Cisney. She drives him crazy with all her sticky notes and quirks. He extended an invitation because he felt sorry for her. Now he's stuck, and to make matters worse, his family thinks she's his perfect match. He'll do what he can to keep his distance, but there's just one problem--he's starting to believe Cisney's magnesium is stronger than he can resist.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Calculated Risk

By Zoe M. McCarthy

Pelican Ventures, LLC

Copyright © 2014 Zoe M. McCarthy
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-61116-356-8

CHAPTER 1

In search of the yellow sticky with her ideas for today's meeting, Cisney Baldwin sifted through papers on her desk. She had a choice: honor her rash commitment to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with Nick LeCrone and his family, or lie and join her friends on the Colorado ski slopes.

Biting cold air and exhilarating speed might keep her mind off slime-ball Jason. And, she'd need her Richmond friends nearby to nurse her self-esteem after she told Daddy she'd lost his pick for her future.

She planted fists on her hips and stared at the papers sprinkled with yellow stickies that covered her workspace. Minutes before her meetings with Nick, she could never put her fingers on her notes. Why did this always happen?

How was she going to face him today, after he'd stood in her office doorway last week and watched her disintegrate during Jason's dump-Cisney phone call? If only she'd stopped there, but no, she hung up and blubbered about the end of her six-month relationship and having nowhere to go for Thanksgiving.

She splayed her arms over her paper-covered desk and knocked her head on the piles. This was all Jason's fault. Jason needed space? Right. What he needed was freedom to date that woman with a waist the size of his muscular neck.

"Hi."

She shot erect, raking her hair from her face.

Nick stood in her doorway. He didn't have a greasy mop of hair or wear button-down shirts two sizes too small, but he carried a calculator loaded with countless complicated functions. The joke around Marketing was that actuaries were accountants without personalities.

Nick came from a long line of actuaries, several still kicking. And unlike go-getter, snap-decision-maker Jason, built like a football tackle, lean Nick was analytical, reserved, and deliberating.

Daddy would eat him for lunch.

She peeled a yellow sticky from her arm and stuck it back on her desk. "Hi. Come in and have a seat." She moved aside a stack of company summaries. Her new marketing strategy would turn the profiled companies into customers for Virginia National Health Insurance — if Nick approved the financial risks.

As he eased into the chair beside her desk, she fiddled with her pen. She needed to back out of the weekend now, before he had a chance to give her holiday details. Which of her excuses would avoid hurting his feelings?

He hooked his arm over the back of the chair and rested his ankle on his knee, as if he had no upcoming trips on his mind. "Did you come up with an alternative to shortening the pre-existing period?"

Happy day! Could he have forgotten he'd invited her to spend Thanksgiving with his family? Oh, yeah, he never chitchatted before getting down to business. Didn't he want to know how she was holding up the week after her boyfriend had dumped her? He must know her heart still hurt like a triple bypass.

She lifted a legal pad. None of the yellow stickies beneath it had miraculously morphed into the one she needed since the last time she'd checked. "Yes, I do have a couple of new ideas that came out of our focus groups." If she could find them. She picked up an empty foam cup hinting of French vanilla and threw it into the trashcan. Maybe this was a good time to renege on their trip south.

Nick leaned over and removed a yellow sticky adhering to the side of her desk. "Is this what you're looking for?"

She squinted. Yep, that was the sticky. "How'd it get there?"

The knowing smile on the tight-lipped man's face probably meant he thought she'd resorted to using other s

Edition details

• Publisher: White Rose Publishing
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1611163560
• ISBN 13: 9781611163568
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 279