146. Remember When (Judith McNaught)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Set in present day Texas, this book features an irresistible plotline with sympathetic characters that quickly work their way straight to your heart. Though completely forbidden, Diana Foster has had a mad crush on Cole Harrison for as long as she can remember. Dashing and ruggedly handsome, Cole was, at one time, the lowly stablekeep for one of Diana's high society schoolmates while he paid his way through college. They'd spent hours talking and revealing their dreams for the future and Diana never had a doubt that Cole would one day accomplish everything he'd set out to do. Years later, Diana is CEO of her family's business which includes a popular home living magazine. She's poured every ounce of energy into the business and it has prospered beyond her wildest expectations. The only contact she's had with the object of her girlhood fantasies is an article she reads about him in Newsweek, naming him one of the richest, most eligible bachelors of the year. Cole Harrison has brilliantly spearheaded his nationally recognized electronics corporation into a billion dollar enterprise. On what she believes to be the worst night of her life, Diana has just learned of her fiancé's impromptu marriage in the Italian Riviera to a much younger woman by reading about it in a cheap drugstore tabloid. That evening, she is scheduled to model an expensive piece of jewelry at the social event of the year and doesn't dare cancel as it would only fan the flames of gossip that are already roaring out of control. In a graceful entrance, masquerading courage she doesn't feel, Diana feels the heat of curious stares and the sting of vicious innuendo that quickly circulates the ballroom. Seeking a brief escape from the inanity, she steps out onto a shadowed balcony to gather her nerve. In the next instant, she realizes that someone has followed her. As he draws closer, she recognizes Cole and feelings she'd thought long forgotten flood over her. Before she knows what is happening, he pulls her to himself for a tender kiss which she later discovers is for the benefit of a spying photographer. Cole has come to offer himself as her escort in order to help her save what little dignity she has left and Diana is most grateful of the gesture. Before evening's end, Cole submits an unconventional proposal that sounds more like a business arrangement than an offer of marriage. Yet, after too much champagne and the giddiness of being with him again, Diana agrees and leaves tomorrow in the hands of fate. She stands to lose everything to the tall, handsome man that has haunted her dreams -- including her heart.

My rating: 3 stars