Send Me No Flowers

Rachel Grant wishes she’d sent such a card to Mayor Drew Lavery.

She tried to resist his sexy charms, but the guy is pretty irresistible. Then she learned that the Chamber of Commerce pressured Drew into dating her. She didn’t know what was worse: not knowing whether he was wooing her for love or money, or liking it!

Valentine’s brings more wonderful and funny books from LOVE & LAUGHTER!

Then, in
Send Me No Flowers,
Kristin Gabriel takes her revenge for all of us who sometimes get a little fed up with all the hoopla surrounding Valentine’s Day. This fast-paced comedy pits a sexy mayor against a determined therapist. While both Drew and Rachel have good arguments for opposing or supporting the Valentine’s Day festival, it is their hearts that win the battle. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did.

Have a happy Valentine’s Day!

Associate Senior Editor

My sweetheart doesn’t send me flowers on Valentine’s Day. Or buy me candy. Or shower me in expensive jewelry. Even though I give him plenty of little helpful hints. Like cutting out pictures from jewelry catalogs and placing them on his pillow.

What’s a girl have to do to get a little attention on this special day? When my heroine in
Send Me No Flowers
declares a Valentine’s Day boycott, she gets more attention than she ever imagined. Now, there’s an idea....

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Rachel Grant strode into the ladies’ rest room in Luigi’s Ristorante, her sister Pam close on her heels. The scent of garlic and oregano wafted in after them, mingling with the floral air freshener in the tiny pink-and-white lavatory.

“C’mon, Rach. I know Gordon is a little eccentric,” Pam admitted. “But he isn’t that bad.”

“He was flossing his teeth at the table!”

“So he’s got good hygiene habits. I think that makes up for some of his other...flaws.”

“Like stealing that tip from the next table?”

“Actually I was talking about his toupee.” Pam leaned toward the minor, checking her makeup. “I’ve never seen him wear it at the office, and believe me, he looks much better without it. Very distinguished. I really thought you might like this one.”

Groaning with frustration, Rachel turned away. She’d had it with her three younger sisters’ attempts to fix her up. She’d been a bridesmaid at each of their weddings, and now they were bound and determined to wrap her in white and shove her down the aisle.

For the last year they’d besieged her with single men. Finally Rachel had drawn the line, insisting on no more than one blind date a month. In her opinion, that was still one too many, but a small penance to pay to keep her sisters happy. Unfortunately Gordon proved just how far they were willing to go.

Pam had even dragged along her poor husband for this disastrous double date. Now he was stuck out there watching her date floss. Rachel loved her sisters and all her brothers-in-law but there were some things even she wouldn’t do for her family. And suffering through the rest of this date was one of them.

She moved to the window, checking the dimensions. “It looks like a tight squeeze, but with a little luck and some Vaseline, I might be able to make it.”

“What are you talking about?” Pam exclaimed. “You can’t escape by climbing out the window. We’re on the top floor of a ten-story building!”

“I’m not going to escape, I’m planning to jump. It’s definitely preferable to hearing Gordon’s disgusting toenail fungus story again.”

“All right,” Pam said with a resigned sigh. “I get your point. Maybe we have gone a little overboard with some of these guys. We just want you to be happy.”

Rachel tamed to look at her sister. “I am happy. Really. I’m single, okay? It’s not exactly a terminal condition. All I want is for everybody to leave me and my love life alone.”

“You don’t have to pretend with me. You don’t have a love life.”

“I’m just in between men at the moment,” she said, brushing stray bread crumbs off the skirt of her new topaz blue wool dress. She’d loved this dress until Gordon had told her his grandmother had one just like it.

“
At the moment?
You haven’t seriously dated anyone since Russell dumped you.”

Rachel stiffened. “He didn’t dump me. He went on a sabbatical.”

Just hearing his name made her develop a sudden, insatiable craving for Twinkies. She’d consoled herself with cases of Twinkies for six months after Russell’s defection. But she’d broken the habit cold turkey and had been clean of Twinkies for the last six months.

“Your fiancé left the country without even telling you! He’s been gone for almost a year.”

“We never officially broke up.”

Pam rolled her eyes. “Does Russell write to you? Call you? Send you any messages by carrier pigeon?”

“He’s in a very remote part of Africa,” Rachel replied. “Now I
really
don’t want to talk about Russell” She’d gotten over him much faster than she’d gotten over her craving for Twinkies, a sure sign that he wasn’t the man for her. “Why don’t we go grab some Twinkies out of the vending machine in the foyer, then make a run for it?”

“You always do that.”

Rachel blinked back her surprise at the vehemence in her sister’s voice. It wasn’t as though she was addicted. At least not anymore. “I haven’t had a Twinkie for months.”

“I mean you always change the subject. Whenever I try to bring up Russell, you start talking about something else.”

“I do not.”

“You do, too!” Pam flipped her long brown hair over her shoulders. “And I’ve never heard you say one bad word against him.”

“Well...he always left the toilet seat up.” Rachel laughed. “Look, you don’t have to worry about me. I’m a therapist.” She pulled open her purse, searching for quarters for the vending machine. “I can handle rejection.”