Last-Minute Proposal

© 2008

Tilly’s diary:

Okay, here I am, halfway up a Scottish mountain, with a man I’d never met before this morning. It’s funny to think that this time last night I’d never even heard of Campbell, and now it seems as if I’ve known him forever. And tonight we’re going to sleep together…well, not sleep together-except, of course, we will be sleeping. Oh, you know what I mean.

Where was I? Oh, yes, Campbell…You should have seen him making me abseil down that cliff-two cliffs! Talk about competitive! And he’s not exactly chatty. I’ve never met a man who talks so little about himself. Still, he’s got that steely eyed thing going that’s quite exciting when he’s not pushing you down a cliff. Anyway, he wasn’t so bad this afternoon. In fact, he was really quite nice-especially the last few miles. And now he’s making me supper. I ought to offer to help, but I really don’t think I’ve got the energy to get out of the tent. Perhaps if I just close my eyes for a moment, and then I’ll go and give him a hand…

Dear Reader,

It’s hard to believe this is my fiftieth book! It seems hardly any time since the excitement of seeing my first book in print. The thrill is still there with every book, but Last-Minute Proposal will always be a special one for me, especially coinciding as it does with my fiftieth birthday-and, yes, there will be a party! Looking back at fifty heroes and fifty heroines, I realize they were all favorites when I was writing them, but some have stayed with me more than others, so that even nearly twenty years since I was writing their story I’m thinking about where they are now and what they’re doing.

I’ve got a feeling Tilly and Campbell will long be favorites, too, perhaps because I could identify so much with Tilly-with her love of food, her insecurity about her figure and her fear of abseiling. The opening scene was written entirely from my own experience. I, too, have hung off a cliff whimpering, “Don’t let me go!”-although I’m ashamed to admit that Tilly is a lot braver than I was! Campbell has his own challenge to face, and that’s just as difficult for him. But we all learn by stepping outside our comfort zones, and Tilly and Campbell both discover that having to do something they really don’t want to do ends up being the best thing that ever happened to them.

I hope you’ll enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Jessica