Robyn Carr - Midnight Kiss: Midnight ConfessionsMidnight SurrenderMidnight Assignment

Praise for New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Robyn Carr

A remarkable storyteller.

Library Journal

The Virgin River books are so compellingI connected instantly with the characters and just wanted more and more and more.

New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber

Robyn Carr provides readers [with] a powerful thought-provoking work of contemporary fiction.

Midwest Book Review on Deep in the Valley

Praise for Jean Brashear

Jean Brashears unique writing style gifts readers with marvelous love stories.

RT Book Reviews

Jean Brashears writing combines sizzling romantic tensiongripping action and elegant prose.

RomanceJunkies.com

Jean Brashear is a writer of rare talent.

Affaire de Coeur

Praise for Victoria Dahl

A fun, feisty and relentlessly sexy adventure.

Publishers Weekly on Talk Me Down

[A] hands-down winner, a sensual story filled with memorable characters.

Booklist on Start Me Up

Dahl has spun a scorching tale about what can happen in the blink of an eye.

RT Book Reviews on Start Me Up (4 stars)

ROBYN CARR

JEAN BRASHEAR
VICTORIA DAHL

Midnight Kiss

CONTENTS

MIDNIGHT CONFESSIONS

Robyn Carr

CHAPTER ONE

S UNNY A RCHER WAS SERIOUSLY considering a legal name change.

Come on, Sunny, her uncle Nathaniel said. Lets go out on the town and see if we cant put a little of that legendary sunshine back into your disposition!

Out on the town? she thought. In Virgin River? A town of about six hundred? Ah, I think Ill pass

Cmon, sunshine, you gotta be more flexible! Optimistic! You cant lick this wound forever.

Maybe it was cute when she was four or even fourteen to say things like Sunny isnt too sunny today!

But this was December 31 and she had come to Virgin River to spend a few quiet days with her uncle Nate and his fiance Annie, to try to escape the reality of a heart that wouldnt heal. And if the hurt wasnt bad enough, her heart had gone cold and hard, too. She looked at her watch4:00 p.m. Exactly one year ago at this time she was having her hair and makeup done right before slipping into a Vera Wang wedding gown, excited, blushing and oblivious to the fact that her fianc Glen was getting blitzed and ready to run for his life.

Im not really in the mood for a New Years Eve bash, Uncle Nate, she said.

Aw, sweetheart, I cant bear to think of you home alone, brooding, feeling sad, Nathaniel said.

And feeling like a big loser who was left at the altar on her wedding day? she wondered. But thats what had happened. How was she supposed to feel?

Nate, Annie said under her breath, this might be a bad night to push the party idea.

Ya think? Sunny said sarcastically, noting to herself that she hadnt been so irritable and sarcastic before becoming an abandoned bride. Listen, you guys, please go. Party like rock stars. I actually have plans.

You do? they both asked hopefully.

I do. Im planning a ceremonial burning of last years calendar. I should probably burn three years worth of themthats how much time and energy I invested in the scumbucket.

Nate and Annie were speechless for a moment; they exchanged dubious looks. When Nate recovered he said, Well all-righty then! Well stay home and help with the ceremonial burning. Then well make some popcorn, play some monopoly, make some positive resolutions or something and ring in a much better new year than the last.

And that was how Sunny, who wasnt feeling at all accommodating, ended up going to the big Virgin River blast at Jacks Bar on New Years Evebecause she just couldnt let her uncle Nate and sweet, funny Annie stay home to watch her sulk and whimper.

T HERE HAD BEEN A LONG HISTORY in Sunnys family of returning to the Jensen stables for a little rest and rejuvenation. Sunny and her cousins had spent countless vacations around the barn and pastures and trails, riding, playing, inhaling the fresh clean air and getting a regular new lease on life. It had been Sunnys mothers idea that she come to Virgin River for a post-Christmas revival. Sunnys mom was one of Nates three older sisters, and Sunnys grandpa had been the original owner and veterinarian of Jensens Clinic and Stable. Now Uncle Nate was the vet and Grandpa was retired and living in Arizona.

Sunny was her mamas only child, age twenty-five; she had one female cousin, Marywho it just so happened had managed to get her groom to the church. Since Uncle Nate was only ten years older than Sunny at thirty-five, she and her cousin had had tragic crushes on him. Nate, on the other hand, who had grown up with three older sisters, thought he was cursed with females.

Until he was thirty, anyway. Then he became a little more avuncular, patient and even protective. Nathaniel had been sitting in the church on New Years Eve a year ago. Waiting, like everyone else, for the groom to show, for the wedding to begin.

The past year had passed in an angry, unhappy blur for Sunny. Her rather new and growing photography business had taken offa combination of her kick-ass website and word of mouthand rather than take a break after her personal disaster, she went right back to work. She had scheduled shoots, after all. The catastrophic twist was that she specialized in engagement, wedding, anniversary, belly and baby shotsfive phases of a couples life worth capturing for posterity. Her work, as well as her emotional well-being, was suffering. Although she couldnt focus, and she was either unable to sleep or hardly able to pull herself out of bed, she pressed on the best she could. The only major change shed made in her life was to move out of the town house she had shared with Glen and back into her mom and dads house until she could afford something of her own. She had her workroom in the basement of her parents place anyway, so it was just a minor shift in geography.

During the past year at her parents, Sunny had a revelation. The driving reason behind most young women her age wanting their own space, their independence and privacy, was their being involved in a serious relationship. Since she was determined not to repeat past mistakes by allowing another man into her life, there was no need to leave the comfort, security and economy of her parents house.

She was trying her hand at photographing sunrises, sunsets, landscapes, seascapes and pets. It wasnt workingher images were flat and uninteresting. If it wasnt bad enough that her heart was broken, so was her spirit. It was as if her gift was lost. Shed been brilliant with couples, inspired by weddingsstills, slideshows, videos. She saw the promise in their eyes, the potential for their lives. Shed brought romance to the fat bellies of pregnant women and was a veritable Anne Geddes with babies! But now that she was a mere observer who would never experience any of those things firsthand, everything had changed. Not only had it changed, it pierced her heart each time she did a shoot.

When she confessed this to Annie, Annie had said, Oh, darling, but youre so young! Only twenty-five! The possibilities ahead are endless if youre open to them!

And Sunny had said, Im not upset because I didnt make the cheerleading squad, Annie. My fianc dumped me on our wedding dayand my age doesnt matter a damn.

T HE TOWN WAS CARPETED in a fresh blanket of pretty white snow, the thirty-foot tree was lit and sparkling as gentle flakes continued to fall, and the porch at Jacks Bar, strung with lights and garlands, was welcoming. There was a friendly curl of smoke rising from the chimney and light shone from the windows.

Nate, Annie and Sunny walked into the bar at 8:00 p.m. and found the place packed with locals. Jack, the owner, and Preacher, the cook, were behind the bar. There was a festive table set up along one whole wall of the room, covered with food, to which Annie added a big plate of her special deviled eggs and a dill-speckled salmon loaf surrounded by crackers.