Weekend Agreement (Entangled Indulgence)

by Barbara Wallace

[Cocktails and Books]

Professor Charlotte Doherty returns from a book tour to find her brother has sold her mother's childhood home to billionaire real estate investor, Daniel Moretti. Hoping to appeal to Daniel's sense of family, Charlotte visits his office, explains her circumstance and hopes he'll agree to sell the property back to her. Unfortunately, Daniel doesn't buy into the idea of history and preserving it. But something about Charlotte intrigues Daniel, so he offers a proposition. She spend the weekend with him at his parents 25th wedding anniversary party and he'll sell her back the property for what he paid. Charlotte agrees to the weekend, after adding in a propriety clause, hopefully ensuring Daniel won't put the moves on her. What they don't realize is they both long for the same thing: to belong to someone, to feel loved, to be home.

This was a fabulous story. Daniel was a man who has been beaten down by someone always wanting something from me, but no one wanting just him. He's turned cynical and built a huge wall around himself to ensure that no one can get close enough to hurt him. But when he meet Charlotte, even after their first meeting, she was able to start chipping away at him.

Charlotte was angry with Daniel for making her agree to this weekend in order to get her mother's home back, but she immediately saw the wounded soul that he was. She saw behind his mask to the man that was a poet and a romantic who wanted to be loved for just being Daniel.

Barbara Wallace did a wonderful job of bringing forth the emotions (or lack thereof) from each of the characters. You craved Daniel vulnerability when he let it out and you felt Charlotte's hurt when Daniel believed the worst in her.

A truly heartwarming story.