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"The Wedding Surprise"

"A kiss for the camera...

Desperate to save her Father's business, Caitlin Rourke enters a Reality TV Contest with one thing on her mind - The prize money! To win she has to convince her family and friend's that she's marrying a stranger...

As she gets to know her gorgeous fiancé, Aiden Flynn, she gets increasingly torn between helping her family and keeping her feelings for Aiden a secret. As their wedding day looms and the cameras roll there's another surprise in store for Caitlin...

For more books like this one go to my Harlequin Romance page

     “You really are something out of a 1950’s TV show aren’t you?”

Caitlin blinked up in the dim light at the voice that sounded from across her hall. It had made sense that they spend some time in her house playing the ‘getting to know each other’ game. But when she’d agreed she hadn’t realized she was going to be stuck under the same roof with someone so damned annoying.

They’d made out a set of questions for each other, swapped them to fill in the answers and had then retreated to different parts of the house to ‘study up’. After four hours of learning how many sugars they took in coffee and what side of the bed they slept on, her head was numb, so she’d opted for fleecy pyjamas and the security of her huge bed.

But with the door to her room slightly ajar she could still see the light shining from where Aiden lay in bed across the hall from her. She was only too aware of where he was in the house at any given time. Aware of the sounds of another human being sharing her space. But there wasn’t the same comfort associated with those noises as there would be if it were a friend or a family member staying.

She sighed into the air, “What does that mean exactly?”

“Everything in your life is just so bloody neat and pretty.”

“I happen to like a tidy house,” And she wasn’t normally in it much, which helped. But she didn’t mention that.

“I don’t mean just your house.”

She rolled over to face the door, moving the pillow to fit underneath her neck better, “So what do you mean?”

“I mean your whole life. Neat little family, neat crowd of friends, neat career direction. Your life is all wrapped up with ribbons and bows.”

Caitlin wished.

“You have no idea what my life is like.”

“That’s what I’m in here studying.”

“You don’t get a picture of someone’s life from a set of questions dealing with what size feet they have or their favourite colour.”

There was silence for a few moments, and then Caitlin heard his bed creak slightly as he moved, “So tell me something that's not on the questionnaire.”

“Like what?”

“Something that only someone you love would know.

She pursed her lips and frowned at his words. He was looking for personal information. Something that meant she would have to give something of herself to him. And she really didn’t want to do that. Didn’t want this person she didn’t like much knowing things he would still know when he walked away in three months.

Aiden strained to hear any movement when she didn’t reply, holding his breath to keep silent.

“Caitlin?”

“I’m still here.”

He smiled at her small voice. She didn’t want to tell him anything did she?

“What’s wrong, skeletons in your closet?

“Only ones wrapped neatly in ribbons and bows.”

Her sarcastic answer brought a larger smile to his face, “Come on. One thing. I promise to forget it when the show ends.”

She turned her face into her pillow to call him a name then came out to take a deep breath, “We’ll swap. You get one subject, I get to ask one in return.”

He considered the proposal for a moment and then quirked a brow at the doorway. What harm could it do?

“Okay.”

Caitlin waited. Then waited some more, “So?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Don’t strain yourself

“Funny,” He propped himself up on an elbow and continued to stare at the door, as if by staring harder he would be able to see through it to read her face, “So how come there’s no neat boyfriend around to complete the picture?”

Damn. He just would ask that wouldn’t he?

“Maybe I like being single.”

“You’re twenty eight years old. In the 50’s you’d be a spinster already. Don’t you want neat little kids so you can scrub their little faces and read them fairy stories at night?”

“Thats a second question.”

“Oops.”

She raised herself up on an elbow and thought about her answer. To tell or not to tell. That was the question really.

“I used to have a boyfriend. A fiancé.”

He wasn’t surprised at the first part of her answer but the second part caught him off guard, “What happened?”

She took a breath, “He died.”

Aiden flumped onto his back and frowned at the ceiling, “How?”

“He had this stupid motorcycle that he loved nearly as much as he said he loved me.”

“Was it long ago?”

Yesterday, she wanted to answer. There were still the odd moments when it felt like it was. But the moments were further apart now than they had been at the start. The pain she’d felt back then was a bearable numbness now.

“Nearly five years. We met in High School.”

Aiden heard the matter of fact tone to her voice as she recited facts that must have hurt like hell at the time. Her perfect life had hit a glitch. A big one. And that made him think some, “I’m sorry.”

Caitlin was surprised by the softness in his voice. It was a completely different tone to the sarcastic edge he’d had with her for most of the evening. She sank back down into the haven of her duvet and lifted the bottom of it with her legs to tuck her feet in. The two words spoken with that softness making her reach out for a simpler form of comfort she supposed.

She blinked upwards for several long seconds then replied with an equally softly spoken, “Thanks.”

The house fell silent again until Caitlin’s voice sounded out with, “So, no neat little girlfriend for you then?”

He laughed, “No, nothing neat in my life.”

“You’re this charming to everyone then?”

“Careful Caitlin, I’ll get the impression you don’t like me much.”

“Oh and that would hurt your feelings would it?”

“Well if you still think I have feelings then I’m not a lost cause just yet am I?”

She smiled, “Every human being has to have a feeling on something or another. I’ll allow you that much.”

“Cheers,” He turned his head to smile back at the door.

“You’re welcome.”

Aiden was surprised when it went silent again. She was quitting that easy? He was almost disappointed that she was. Not that he was up for a deep psychoanalysis of his own life. But she had told him something very personal, had allowed something painful to be talked about, even briefly. And he felt he owed her something back for that.

“Six months.”

“What?”

“Six months. Its how long I can manage to stay in a relationship with a woman, apparently.”

Caitlin thought about the unexpectedly volunteered information, “How come?”

“I wear them out?"

She laughed at his joke, “I’ll bet.”

He smiled, “I guess I’m just not neat little marriage material.”

“No kids to scrub and read fairy stories to, huh?”

The ache in his stomach came back, “I don’t have any experience on either of those things.”

She turned her head towards the door at his answer, “Your mother didn’t scrub your face and read you fairy tales when you were little?”

None of them had. They’d had so many kids in their care that it had been miraculous enough they all made it through each day fed and watered. Fairy tales hadn’t exactly been on the menu at any stage.

“That’s a second question.”

She opened her mouth to push him on it but he got there first, “Thats probably enough to add to the lists for one night anyway.” The bed creaked again as he turned away from the door and switched off the bedside light, “Goodnight Caitlin Rourke.”

Caitlin blinked into the darkness, her eyes adjusting to make out the dark forms of her bedroom furniture while her mind worked overtime. Aiden had more facets than he first appeared to have. And that intrigued her. The fact that it intrigued her bothered her.

She’d never met anyone like him before. But the simple fact was, in three months time she’d probably never meet him again.

“Goodnight Aiden.”

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From "The Wedding Surprise" by Trish Wylie
Mills and Boon Tender Romance January 2006

ISBN: 0-263-84875-2     Copyright: © 2005 Trish Wylie
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. The edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. For more romance information surf to: http://www.eHarlequin.com

Opposites can attract was the theme behind The Wedding Surprise...

It all started with one itty bitty photograph mid-hero inspiration search... and the whole book grew from there... Actually, no, I need to take a step back from there. It started before that - with a character arc in the TV Show ER... where Abby was fighting off a rather persistent admirer in the form of another doctor, played by Eoin Bailey...

Now - being as and how I like to think that by the time I had hit this, my fifth book, I had developed a finely tuned sense of what made good hero material, I straight away noticed that this chap had rather lovely eyes... and I thought Abby was a fool to keep turning him down when he was so charming - even if he did have a beard! (I have a childhood aversion to the things - really - which is why my heroine Caitlin is none too pleased when Aiden arrives sporting one in the book). So, off to the internet I went to study up on said Mr. Eoin Bailey...

That's when I found the picture that launched a book...

And thanks to his performance in ER I also had a good part of Aiden's character traits down pat too!!! So all in all, he was a good find... (I'm still not entirely convinced Abby in ER shouldn't have stayed with him you know...though that's a tough one... Eoin or Goran...mmm.... I wonder what deodorant that girl wears?)

Although the majority of the book is centred around a 'Reality TV Show' - it's not really what it's about. This is a book about family - one character with one - one without. About love - one character surrounded by it growing up - one without. And it's about how first appearances can be deceptive... and that one person you ignore in the street could in fact be the one you were meant to meet...

It only had a TV Show because it was a TV Show that started the whole thing off... well, it made sense to me!

Locations for this book:

The majority of the book is centred in and around Dublin - though a lot of the key scenes were in Caitlin's Georgian town house, the kind that are all over Dublin.. However, seeing as and how the important scenes in that house tended to be when Caitlin and Aiden talked across the hall in the dark, I can't really show you any pictures ;)

We never actually visit where Aiden lives, though we do get to visit the studios where he works - and we visit Caitlin's family... It's through them, and planning for the fake wedding, that we end up inside the huge country house hotel where Caitlin and Aiden have to fool everyone into believing they are getting married... And there are plenty of these gorgeous venues scattered around Ireland, just in case anyone feels like getting married here...

It's because of this book I've been itching to feature a Country House Estate in a book... so who knows what I might come up with next!

Soundtrack playing: 

The Wedding Surprise was the first book I took to attaching music to.

Because the story centred around the TV Show, I guess I always had a kind of 'soundtrack' in my mind for it. And the very Irish album Adiemus provided that for me in spades!

One track in particular as it happens - The Wooing Of Etain, which I played on constant repeat every time I had a particularly emotional scene to write - and it was my theme for Caitlin and Aiden's wedding...

You can buy the album here and you can scroll down and listen to The Wooing Of Etain here.

*All Photographs are used to give a visible representation of the Authors 'view' and are in no way representative of the people or places in real life beyond the realms of the Authors imagination.

"Trish Wylie's The Wedding Surprise (4) should amuse fans of reality TV and charm everyone else with its characterization and often witty dialogue"

Catherine Witmer - Romantic Times

"Trish Wylie's books are simply divine! She has this marvellous ability of writing heart-warming romantic novels featuring characters which you take straight to your heart. In The Wedding Surprise, her hero Aidan is the kind of guy any woman would love to be with - he's funny, kind, charming and devilishly sexy whereas her heroine Caitlin is a woman women everywhere will admire. She's tough and she's strong, but just like each and every single one of us she's had some hard times to get through."

Julie Bonello -   Cataromance

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