Count the Roses

Fearing love, she was afraid to count the roses.

The residents of Bayou Lafourche yearned for love -- not least among them Adrien Merril. He wanted someone to fill his days with laughter, his nights with passion, his house with children. He wanted a wife. And so he arranged to bring Jennifer DeWitt to Lafourche as hostess.

But Jennifer had traveled across the country to escape love's expectations, confinements, and disappointments. She had her dream job as a catering manager in a New Orleans hotel; her days were hectic, her nights peacefully solitary. She was her own woman -- and was determined to remain so....