Hopelessly Devoted to You Read online

  Meet Ruby’s fiancé, Finn. He’s gorgeous, thoughtful, successful and adoring – pretty much anyone could ever want in a man. In fact, he’s perfect. The catch? He’s just not perfect for her. But when Ruby finally plucks up the courage to come clean, Finn’s so furious that he misses his footing as he runs down the stairs – and suddenly, it’s not just his heart that’s broken!

  When Finn wakes up, he can’t remember a thing. Not that Ruby dumped him – not even that they were ever engaged! It’s on the tip of Ruby’s tongue to come clean, but somehow, it never seems to be the right time… And as the weeks pass, she sees a new side to Finn. Arrogant and a shameless flirt, he’s irresistibly bad, and the chemistry between them is explosive!

  It’s not that Ruby’s lying… she’s just withholding the truth. And seeing as things are going so well, perhaps there’s no need for Finn to have his memory jogged… The trouble is, there’s every chance that Finn might remember for himself!

  Also by Jill Steeples

  Desperately Seeking Heaven

  Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

  Praise for JILL STEEPLES

  ‘Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off by Jill Steeples is a well written and easy to like book. If you are looking for a chick lit with a twist then give this one a read.’ Harlequin Junkie

  **

  ‘So gripping, vivid, enjoyable and fascinating!!!’ Sky's Book Corner on Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

  **

  ‘It was a thoroughly enjoyable read that kept you wanting more.’ A Book and Tea on Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

  **

  ‘Jill is a great writer, she knows how to tell a story. I can’t wait to read more of Jill Steeples.’ Dreaming with Open Eyes

  **

  ‘If I had to sum this book up in three words, they would be Romantic, Marvellous and Amazing.’ 23reviewstreet on Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off *

  **

  ‘A truly magical novel’ – Chick Lit Reviews and News on Desperately Seeking Heaven

  **

  ‘A very cute book! It was fun, funny, and endearing and also heart-wrenching at times.’ Book Binge on Desperately Seeking Heaven

  **

  ‘A cute and easy read’ This Chick Reads on Desperately Seeking Heaven

  *Amazon reader reviews

  Hopelessly Devoted to You

  Jill Steeples

  www.CarinaUK.com

  Jill Steeples lives in a small market town in Bedfordshire with her husband and two children.

  From an early age she fell in love with the fabulously funny romances of Jilly Cooper, and vowed, one day, she would have a go at writing one of her own.

  Jill loves writing short stories, particularly those with a twist in the tail, and her work has appeared in popular women’s magazines around the world and in a number of charity anthologies.

  Hopelessly Devoted to You is her third novel.

  I would like to express my huge thanks to the wonderful Carina team for their continued support and encouragement in helping me bring my books to publication. In particular, I would like to thank Lucy Gilmour and Victoria Oundjian, editors extraordinaire, for their amazing insight and editorial advice. A big thanks too must go to the extremely talented Carina design team for producing such beautiful, eye-catching covers. I still spend a disproportionate amount of time gazing at my covers longingly.

  One unexpected bonus of being published is all the lovely people I’ve met along the way. My fellow Carina authors are a fabulously talented, funny and kind bunch of people - it’s been a pleasure to share this journey with you.

  I’ve been overwhelmed by the huge swell of support I’ve received from the new friends I’ve met - mainly on twitter - book bloggers, reviewers and readers. To each and everyone of you who has taken the time to read my books I give my heartfelt thanks. It goes without saying that this applies to my old friends too!

  Finally, I’d like to thank my lovely family for putting up with me still. One day there will be food in the fridge, clean socks in the drawers and a cheerfully sunny wife/mother in the kitchen, and I know you'll all be there for her when she deigns to put in an appearance.

  For Nick, Tom and Ellie

  With love

  Contents

  Cover

  Blurb

  Book List

  Praise

  Title Page

  Author Bio

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Epilogue

  Extract

  Endpages

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  “Finn, we need to talk.”

  “Finn, there’s something I have to tell you.”

  “The thing is, Finn, I…”

  “Look, Finn, I’m really sorry, but the thing is…the thing is I don’t love you. I wonder if I’ve ever loved you. I’m calling off our wedding.”

  Aargh, no! Ruby dropped her head into her hands, a familiar sense of dread sweeping the length of her body. She couldn’t do it. Every time she thought about telling her fiancé she didn’t want to marry him it sent her into a cold panic. How could she do such a bitchy, despicable thing to the sweetest, loveliest man on earth?

  She’d tried. Lord knew, she’d tried. Thinking about it, she’d been trying ever since he’d proposed to her over eighteen months ago, presenting her with the biggest, shiniest, most beautiful rock she’d ever clapped eyes on. Swept up in the moment, surrounded by her closest family and friends, champagne bubbles fizzing up her nose, there had only ever been one glorious heartfelt answer.

  ‘Yes!’ she’d cried, in a blink of an eye.

  It was only the morning after when she was alone in her flat, a humongous hangover throbbing in her head, which had nothing to do with the amount of champagne she’d drunk but more to do with the enormity of what had occurred the previous evening, that she wondered if she hadn’t actually been a little hasty in her gushing agreement to Finn’s proposal.

  Did she actually want to get married? To Finn, in particular, or to anyone else when she came to think about it? Was she ready for that whole commitment thing? Finn’s unexpected proposal had brought these questions and a hundred and one assorted other ones into startling focus.

  The thing was Finn was the perfect boyfriend. There was no getting away from that. Not when everyone kept reminding her of the fact. She knew she was the envy of a lot of girls because they were forever telling her how lucky she was to have snagged Finn in the first place.

  Everybody loved Finn.

  Everyone except Ruby.

  She liked him though. Did that count, she wondered, on the marriageability factor?

  She liked him an awful lot; the problem was she wasn’t entirely sure whether she actually loved him or not.

  And if she didn’t know how she felt about him then surely that must mean, by a process of elimination, she couldn’t really love him after all.

  Honestly the more she thought about it, the more she tied herself up in complete knots.

  She’d even spent one futile w
eekend drawing up a pros and cons list to see if that would help her make a logical and rational decision about the huge Finn-shaped problem in her life. It was what her mum had always advised her to do when she was struggling with a problem in the past and without her mum around now to give boyfriend advice, she thought the list might be the next best thing. But not this time. Not with the Finn problem. In fact it was no use whatsoever. She knew she was on dodgy ground when within half an hour she’d filled two A4 sheets with a long list of Finn’s glowing attributes. And there was only one piddly item to add under the cons side.

  ‘Doesn’t share my love for James Blunt…’

  Admittedly that was pretty shocking and unbelievable and frankly distasteful, but not so shocking that it was grounds enough to give your boyfriend his marching orders. There were much worse things a girl might have to contend with. Only at the moment she was struggling to come up with anything worse.

  And now the wedding was only three months away! How had that happened? It had been a lifetime away, long enough away not to have to worry about it, but now it was here, almost on top of her, the wedding train was about to roll into town and she was increasingly uncertain about whether she wanted to jump aboard. Ruby’s heart pounded in her chest at the reminder.

  Up until now she’d been able, for the most part, to put it out of her mind and get on with her life; working and socialising and seeing Finn when their busy schedules allowed and that was okay ’cos he was great company and in amongst all the busyness of their day-to-day lives she’d been able to completely forget about the wedding, well, almost…

  Only now she couldn’t get away from the fact that she was running out of time and if she didn’t speak to Finn soon, well, then it would be too late and she would just have to go through with the whole shebang anyway. Which might not be such a bad thing after all. It certainly wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

  What exactly was the problem here…?

  After all, she liked Finn. She really liked Finn. They got on well, but was that reason enough to get married? She hadn’t really given it any consideration until after she’d accepted Finn’s proposal and now she couldn’t think of anything else. It was scant reassurance to know she wasn’t the only person in the world to have struggled with this dilemma. If the future King of England had trouble working out what love was, what chance did she have? Maybe she was making a drama out of a minor crisis of confidence. If her mum were here to talk things through then maybe she wouldn’t be struggling with these doubts.

  Was she looking for something that didn’t even exist? Waiting for something that was never going to turn up? Something ridiculously unattainable? That whole bosom-heaving, heart-swelling, pulse-racing gig was the stuff of soppy romance novels and made-for-TV movies. And what she had with Finn was much more solid and dependable and long-lasting. And the only reason she’d found herself recoiling from his touch these last few weeks and avoiding staying over with him was because of all the pressure she’d been putting herself under just thinking about the wedding. And marrying Finn.

  That would be it.

  Absolutely.

  Only that wasn’t her only problem.

  If agreeing to marry Finn was her biggest mistake, her second big mistake was admitting the tiniest of her doubts to her best friend, Laura, who had no intention of letting Ruby off the hook quite so readily.

  ***

  Ruby didn’t dare count the number of missed calls, unanswered emails and ignored texts she’d had from Laura in the past few weeks. They had been easy-ish enough to ignore, but now that Laura was banging loudly on Ruby’s front door at nine-thirty on a Thursday night, threatening to camp out in the communal hallway if she had to, she knew she couldn’t put off the inevitable moment any longer. She pulled open the front door and plastered a big smile on her face.

  ‘You’ve been avoiding me,’ Laura said, narrowing her eyes in a look of admonishment as she breezed past Ruby and into the kitchen. She deposited the bottle of wine she’d been clutching onto the worktop, pulled open a cupboard, finding two glasses, and proceeded to peel off the foil. Talk about making yourself at home.

  ‘No, I haven’t. It’s just that I’ve been incredibly busy. With work and the restaurant. And…you know, with everything else that has been going on. It’s been manic.’ If she didn’t mention the wedding then perhaps Laura wouldn’t either. Maybe that whole topic would slip their minds this evening.

  ‘Obviously! Too busy even to remember about your best friend in her moment of need. For all you care, I could have been shipped off to the white slave trade tonight or murdered even!’

  ‘Oh, God! I am so sorry. Was it tonight? Your date? How did it go?’

  ‘Terribly! Thanks for asking. I was ready to leave after ten minutes, but it didn’t matter because I thought my friend would come to my rescue and ring me at the prearranged time. How wrong can you be?’

  ‘I am so sorry,’ she said again, groaning. ‘It completely escaped my mind.’ That was the one text she had replied to, the one from Laura asking if she’d call her at eight p.m. to give her an escape clause from her latest date. After a series of bad experiences, Laura had decided she needed a get-out-of-jail-quick card and had enlisted Ruby’s help. Only Ruby had let her friend down big-time. She’d been so preoccupied with her own love life she hadn’t given a second thought to Laura’s, which was struggling to even get off the ground.

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Laura, seeing Ruby’s horrified expression. ‘I told him I was about to throw up—that’s always a good one! He couldn’t get rid of me fast enough after that.’ She sighed, a rueful smile on her lips. ‘I could do with this though.’

  She handed Ruby a glass of the wine she’d just poured and took a sip of her own. Ruby took a much larger mouthful than was probably necessary and wandered into the living room before sinking down onto the sofa. Laura did the same, sitting on the armchair opposite, her pert bum perched on the edge of the seat as though she didn’t actually intend staying. Or as if she was about to fire off a hundred pertinent questions. Ruby sighed, knowing it was probably the latter.

  ‘So, how did things go with Finn? I’m guessing you still haven’t told him?’

  No chance of that slipping their minds, then.

  ‘Huh?’ Ruby developed a sudden fascination with her cuticles.

  ‘Finn! The wedding? Remember? The last conversation we had, you said you were going to tell him the wedding was off. Have you forgotten that? Or are you telling me I just imagined that whole conversation?’

  ‘Oh, right, yes. That conversation! I do remember that.’ She shifted in her seat and took another glug of wine just so as to avoid Laura’s penetrating gaze. A small pathetic laugh escaped her lips and she waved an arm in front of her face in what she hoped was a nonchalant gesture, although she suspected it only made her look as manic as she was beginning to feel. ‘That…that was just a few last-minute nerves. I’m sure that’s perfectly normal. I suspect lots of brides-to-be have a bit of a wobble, some doubts as to whether they’re doing the right thing or not. All perfectly normal.’

  Laura sat back in her chair and dropped her head back onto the cushion, a huge sigh escaping her lips. Ruby felt one of her own rise in her chest.

  ‘Come on, Ruby. This is me you’re talking to. You don’t need to put on an act, pretend everything’s okay, when we both know that it isn’t. Don’t tell me you’re actually going through with the wedding, after all?’

  ‘I am, yes! Why shouldn’t I?’ she said, with a spirited show of defiance. ‘I’m a very lucky girl to be marrying a man like Finn.’

  ‘You know why not! Because you don’t love him. You’ve admitted it yourself. It’s just wrong, very wrong to marry someone you don’t love. It’s not fair on Finn and it’s not fair on you.’

  ‘Well, I’m sure I’ll get to love him.’ Ruby tried hard to ignore the stirring of disquiet in her chest. She shifted in her seat, grabbing the cushion from behind her and clutching it t
o her stomach. ‘Finn is a very lovely man who just so happens to love me. He will make a wonderful husband and father. What’s so wrong about that?’

  ‘Nothing would be wrong with that. If you felt the same way about him too. But you don’t. And you’ve been with Finn for, what is it, a zillion years? If you haven’t fallen in love with him yet, what makes you think you’re ever going to fall in love with him? How long are you prepared to wait, Ruby? Six months? Six years? A lifetime?’

  ‘Does it have to all be about love, Laura? Finn is a great guy, caring, loving and generous. We get on fantastically. He’s got a great career, with a great future ahead of him. We want the same things from life, we’ve had that conversation, the whole marriage and babies thing, and we share the same values. We are a match made in heaven. Some things transcend love, you know? We’re singing off the same song sheet. Isn’t that enough?’

  ‘Well, it might be.’ Laura shrugged, her mouth curling in distaste. ‘I know it wouldn’t be for me because I’d want to know that the person I was marrying loved me just as much as I loved them. Now it may be that Finn would still want to marry you knowing that you don’t love him in the same way, but I do think he has the right to know the truth about your feelings. Don’t you?’

  Ruby felt her skin prickle with shame under Laura’s intense steely-eyed gaze. Tears stung her eyes. Her heart pounded in her chest, reverberating in her ears so loudly she thought her head might explode. If she could just close her eyes and shut it all out. Everything: her own tormented thoughts, Laura’s accusatory words running around her head and Finn, oh, God, the image of Finn’s smiling, unsuspecting face taunting her mind. She clutched her hair in fists, the pain at her temples a welcome distraction.

  What kind of person was she? To go ahead with a wedding just because she was too lily-livered to do the decent thing and tell her fiancé she didn’t know if she loved him. Was that it? Was she prepared to go ahead and marry a man she didn’t love simply because she didn’t want to lose face in front of Finn and all her family and friends? It looked as though she might be.