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Every woman needs a backup plan...

And no one knows that better than foreign correspondent Dinah Davis, who's spent years wriggling out of international hot spots. Now she's come home to South Carolina's Low Country to hook up with the dependable man who long ago promised his devotion. But instead of finding the safety she's seeking, she winds up in the arms of his black sheep brother.

Cordell Beaufort would go after Dinah himself if the opinionated debutante weren't so much trouble. But when Dinah lets down her guard long enough for Cord to see the real woman, he starts to wonder if his judgment wasn't just a little too harsh. Maybe there's a reason he can't stand the thought of Dinah traipsing down the aisle with his brother.

Cord was the last man on earth Dinah would choose, but it seems fate has other ideas. Turns out even the very best backup plan can take an unexpected twist.

Rescuing Allie Matthews from the rubble of her home should have been all in a day's work for Ricky Wilder. But her quiet intensity sparked his protective instincts, and unexpectedly, the feisty beauty soon had Ricky rethinking his bachelor ways.

But vulnerable Allie preferred things predictable and risk-free--until Ricky stormed her life and coaxed her out of her cautious world. Could she trust her heart to a man who had always lived on the edge?

Oh, God! She's in love with her preacher.

But it's not as if Amanda O'Leary set out to fall for the most gorgeous (and unattainable) man this side of South Carolina Low Country. It's just that he organized building a cozy home for her and her children at a time when the future looked darker than blackstrap molasses. Not even her own father, the arrogant and wealthy Big Max, would have done as much for her. But that's a whole other kettle of fish.

Caleb can count on fingers and toes why his attraction to widowed Amanda is plain wrong. How can he objectively counsel this chin-up spitfire without letting his emotions--and imagination--run wild? And now that Big Max has burdened him with not one secret, but two, he knows his priorities should be mending fences between father and daughter--but he can't help trying to build a place for himself in her heart first....