To Have and to Hold (The Wedding Belles #1)
Lauren Layne
About the Book
Sex and the City meets The Wedding Planner in To Have And To Hold, the first sizzling contemporary romance in Lauren Layne’s The Wedding Belles series about three ambitious wedding planners who can make any bride’s dream come true . . . but their own. For fans of Jill Shalvis, Julie James and Rachel Gibson.
Discovering her fiancé is a con man moments before they exchange vows devastates LA celebrity wedding planner Brooke Baldwin. With a fresh start in New York and her first Wedding Belles bridal client, things are looking up. Until she meets the uptight businessman who’s holding the purse strings . . .
Seth Tyler wishes he could write a blank cheque and be done with his sister Maya’s wedding, but micromanaging the event is his only chance at proving that Maya’s fiancé is a liar. He needs the help of her stunning, sassy wedding planner who he finds both irritating - and undeniably tempting.
Can Seth persuade Brooke to unplan a wedding? And, more importantly, how will he convince her that the wedding she should be planning . . . is theirs?
Want some fun, fresh, flirty and very sexy rom-com? Check out the titles in the Oxford series: Irresistibly Yours, Playing For Keeps and Someone Like You.
Can a guy and a girl really be ‘just friends’? You won’t want to miss Lauren Layne’s sexy take on this timeless question in Blurred Lines.
For Anth
Acknowledgments
THANKS SO MUCH TO everyone who used their precious reading time and book dollars to meet the Wedding Belles! It’s always so much fun for an author to delve into a brand-new world with brand-new characters, and the idea for a wedding planner–centric series is one that’s been on my writer’s bucket list for a long time.
I can’t think of a better “home” for the Wedding Belles than the fantastic team at Pocket, who’ve helped see my writing dream into reality, with amazing covers, marketing support, and editing.
First shout-out goes to Elana Cohen, who had faith in this book from the very beginning and worked her butt off to ensure that it lived up to its potential. I owe so much to her, as do Seth and Brooke, whose romance sparkles all the more because of her guidance.
To the rest of the fantastic team at Pocket, you guys are absolutely exceptional and deserve a long slow-clap. From the breathtaking cover to the precise editing and proofreading, you guys are absolutely responsible for turning a writing dream into a beautiful book.
I also need to say a huge public thank-you to my dear friend, Kristi Yanta, for her exceptional beta-reading services. Nobody knows my writing and understands my vision for each book quite like Kristi, and I’m so lucky to have her stick by my side through multiple publishers and multiple series, ensuring that each LL story is the best it can be.
And finally, to my “behind the scenes” crew: my amazing assistant, Lisa; my Twitter guru, Kristina; and my daily (online) writing companions, Jessica Lemmon and Rachel Van Dyken—you guys make my job easier and more fun.
Chapter One
HOLD ON. BACK UP. Back all the way up. What do you mean you’re getting married?”
It was eleven p.m. on a Wednesday, and Seth Tyler was exactly where he always was these days: behind his expansive mahogany desk at the Tyler Hotel Group, suit jacket slung over the back of his ergonomic chair, tie begging to be undone, impeccably pressed white shirt cuffed at the wrists.
He raked a hand through his thick light brown hair in frustration and fixed his younger sister with his best no-nonsense glare, an approximation—like everything else he seemed to do lately—of his deceased father.
When Seth’s father dropped dead of a heart attack eight months ago, Seth had thought the hardest part about his father’s passing—other than the mourning, of course—would be taking over the family company.
Sure, Seth had been groomed for the role. He’d wanted the president and CEO title. He’d always wanted it.
Eventually.
But not yet, for God’s sake.
Seth had no problem admitting that he was a perfectionist, and he’d been bound and determined to take over the family company his way. The right way.
And the right way, as Seth had determined it, was spending at least a year shadowing each of the senior-level Tyler Hotel Group executives. Seth had wanted to learn every possible detail, every in and out of the business, before even thinking about taking over the reins of the Fortune 500 company.
But his father’s heart had had other plans. Mainly, up and quitting during a routine round of golf. And so, quietly, per his father’s wishes, Seth had become CEO two years ahead of schedule.
Not a day passed that Seth didn’t wish his father were still with him, but in truth, taking his place at the head of the boardroom table had been easier than Seth had anticipated. The investors hadn’t freaked out. The executive team hadn’t left in mass exodus. Even Hank’s longtime assistant, Etta, had stuck around, seemingly content to call Seth boss even as she busted his balls about not eating enough vegetables, getting enough sleep, or getting his hair cut.
But if taking over the family company was easier than Seth had expected, there was one ramification of Hank Tyler’s death that Seth hadn’t been in the least prepared for: