What if we wrote a book together…what if we each had a hero…what if one was British and the other American…?

Of course, one what if led to another, and when Anne went home to America and Lucy went home to Northampton, we e-mailed each other more what ifs…and Gabe and Randall-and their crusty grandfather, the earl-were born.

What we’ve written is a book about two men who look alike but think differently, cousins from opposite sides of the Atlantic, cast adrift in each other’s world, floundering until two feisty, loving women take them in hand.

We wrote the Prologue and Epilogue jointly. Individually, Anne wrote about Gabe and Frederica (and counted on Lucy for advice on “darkest” Devon) and Lucy wrote about Randall and Claire (and depended on Anne to get her unscathed through a Montana winter).

Working together was a fresh and fun experience. We had a great time. We hope you do, too.

In darkest Devon…

GABE

Prologue

As Gabe McBride’s plane touched down in England he didn’t have a clue that he was about to have a meeting with Destiny.

His cousin, Lord Randall Stanton, waiting for him outside Customs, didn’t look like Destiny. Randall looked, as he always had, like an English version of Gabe: same tall figure and broad shoulders, same dark hair and eyes, and lean, handsome features that had a strong family likeness. Their differences lay less in looks than mannerisms.

Randall carried his head with the proud air of an English toffee.

“You’d know he was a lord, just looking at him,” Gabe thought with an inward grin.