Three Times the Charm

By Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy

A blind date for kindergarten teacher Carisa Russo with her best friend’s boss, a sexy hunk who works at the local all news radio station, seems sure to fail. After all, Carisa is hard to please, and she’s yet to find the man to be in sync with. Alex Milton, however, turns out to be better than expected and the attraction is mutual.

Three very different dates and three extremely steamy nights bring the couple to the place where falling in love might have a chance. Maybe three times is the charm after all, and time will tell if it is for Carisa and Alex.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evernight Publishing
• Release date: May 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781772333381

Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy

Growing up in historic St. Joseph, Missouri, Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy scribbled her stories from an early age. Her first publication – a poem on the children’s page of the local newspaper – seems to have set her fate. As a full time author, she has more than twenty full length novels published along with assorted novellas and short fiction. A contributor to more than two dozen anthologies, her credits include Chicken Soup For The Soul among many collections of short fiction. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Missouri Writers Guild, and the Ozark Writers League. Lee Ann earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Missouri Southern State University as well as an Associate Degree from Crowder College. She has worked in broadcasting, retail, and other fields including education. She is currently a substitute school teacher. As a wife and mother of three, she spends her days penning stories, cooking, reading, and other daily duties. She currently makes her home in the Missouri Ozarks, living in what passes for suburbs in a small town.

Book preview

Published by Evernight Publishing ® at Smashwords

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2015 Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy

ISBN: 978-1-77233-338-1

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Editor: JC Chute

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

To my readers, whose love of romance and story make what I do possible!

THREE TIMES THE CHARM

Romance on the Go TM

Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy

Copyright © 2015

Chapter One

Wearing stiletto heels empowered Carisa. The increased height gave her confidence, because she didn’t feel short any longer. For her date, she’d chosen her brightest, sexiest garment––a scarlet mini-dress. The hemline halted at her upper thighs and the fabric clung to her figure. Red favored her coloring, too, making her otherwise drab brown hair shimmer with auburn highlights and her light brown eyes appear larger. At Daphne’s insistence, Carisa wore her hair down, the waist-length tresses cascading in a wild series of curls that proved far more flattering than the bun she usually skewered on top of her head. She put on more make-up than her normal foundation and a touch of lip-gloss too, all because Daphne swore Alex Milton would be worth the effort.

I look like someone else, Carisa complained as she leaned closer to the vanity mirror to study her appearance.

You look amazing, Daphne told her.

Carisa sighed. No matter how lovely she might look––and she had her doubts––she expected this date would tank, just like all the others. Getting asked out wasn’t a problem. Surviving a date without managing to bore, offend, or anger a man had proved tricky. She loathed sports with a passion, so she couldn’t talk teams or scores. Lifelong allergies prevented her from contact with anything with fur, so dog lovers and fans of felines were out. Her lactose intolerance made dining out difficult. More than once she’d ordered something seemingly innocuous, which actually included dairy. Stomach cramps strong enough to make her double over tended to put a damper on a date.

Although warned never to talk religion or politics, some men brought up the topics and when she expressed her honest opinion, the guys responded with harsh arguments or called her an idiot––or something worse. Carisa’s musical tastes ran to ragtime and big band music, vintage stuff, so she couldn’t speak with any authority about rap or rock or even current country. She didn’t watch much television and her movie preferences leaned toward classics, especially black and white films. Nor did Carisa hunt, fish, or hike. She loved to read, but most men she met never opened a book.

Her unique tastes left just a few conversation topics: boring things like weather, books, and gardening. So far, she’d never met a man interested in any of those. Besides, at just twenty-five years old