Designing Emma (Volume 1): A Friends to Lovers Fashion Romance: Designing Emma, #1

By Clarissa Carlyle

Volume 1 in the Designing Emma A Friends to Lovers Fashion Romance series
Also available as part of the the Designing Emma boxed set.

*** Volume 1 in this series is a quick read of 9,500 words ***

With her two best friends, Daniel and Damion, at her side, Emma finally feels as if all her dreams are coming true. Her fledgling fashion company, Delacourt Designs, is finding its feet and a love she never imagined is beckoning.

Yet just when Emma's life seems to be falling into place, it all falls apart on the heels of her father's alcoholism and gambling addiction. Watching someone she loves tumble into ruin destroys a part of her, and suddenly Emma is faced with a choice that could change everything.

NOTE: This volume has a cliffhanger ending. If you don't like cliffhangers, the boxed set is recommended. It contains all 6 volumes in the series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clarissa Carlyle
• Release date: Nov 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781502291929

Book preview

Dressing to Impress

THE AISLES IN THE STORE were uncomfortably narrow, so it was a task in itself to get around without crashing into someone, or worse. Stacked precariously high, the produce waited for that fateful moment for someone to accidently catch the bottom corner and, like a giant game of Jenga, it would cascade down.

Emma smiled politely at an old woman testing the firmness of the watermelons in the grocery store as she carefully maneuvered her shopping cart past her.

None of Emma’s friends shopped there. She never ran the risk of bumping into someone she knew when she was picking up the weekly groceries for her and her father. Emma’s friends wouldn’t be caught dead in the cheap, yet cheerful store located on the outskirts of town within a retail park. They preferred to shop at the organic stores, selecting free-range chicken and fresh, farm-grown fruit.

If someone really scrutinized her, then they’d see that her clothes had been sewn back together more than once, and that any designer item she owned was from a long-forgotten line, having been purchased from a thrift store. But no one got close enough to check her over like that; she wouldn’t let them. Life had been hard for Emma Delacourt, and in turn, she had hardened herself to endure it, her skin becoming more like steel than soft, palpable flesh. Emma couldn’t afford such luxuries, not that anyone knew that. She did a faultless job of existing among the elite while toeing the bread line.

I always get those when they’re on sale, a kind-faced woman said as Emma forced the cart past her, and she cast her eyes downward at its contents. She was referring to a brand of cereal that Emma’s father particularly favored.

Yeah, it’s three for two this week. Emma smiled. She enjoyed saving money. Each dollar she saved was a dollar farther away from bankruptcy, or so she told herself.

Closing her eyes for a brief moment, Emma pushed thoughts of her father’s gambling habits out of her mind. She wouldn’t let his demons ruin her shopping trip, which she actually rather liked. For just a moment, she could stop pretending to be rich and wander the store without a care in the world. Here, people applauded her thrifty nature. Within the circles she had grown up in, people would scorn her for such actions, accusing her of being cheap or, worse, poor.

My children love it. The woman smiled, still referring to the cereal. Emma smiled back, not doubting that the lady’s children loved it; after all, it was covered in sugar. Yet she wasn’t purchasing it for a child, she was buying it for her father, and in some ways there wasn’t much difference between the two.

With her cart containing all the items on her carefully planned-out list, Emma headed towards the checkout counter, aware as always that she