Made For Each Other

At six foot one, Sophie Wilton has heard every height joke ever created; has had her fill of high school and college coaches nagging her to play basketball. She’s been romanced by modeling agencies since before adolescence. Even her own family won’t let her be; her mother still gets stars in her eyes whenever modeling is mentioned, and her former All-Star dad is still angry at her for refusing to sign with the college coaches who wanted her so badly. All Sophie wants in her life is peace and quiet: a normal life in a little town, a pretty house on some land. If a man enters into the picture, that would be great. But she’s not holding her breath, because she’s also had her fill of boring, egotistical, aggressive men.

Jed Pinkett’s nickname all through school was ‘Beanpole.’ He made his excessive height work for him, playing basketball in school and then going All-State in college, taking that scholarship and running with it. In high school he was Coach Wilton’s darling on the court. And off the court he was Mrs. Wilton’s number-one choice of future son-in-law. Too bad it was hate at first sight between him and Sophie from their first run-in with each other on the kindergarten playground. He’s never been able to stomach the girl, and the feeling, he knows, is mutual.

When Jed comes back to town to take over the family business for his ailing father, no one is more surprised than Sophie to see the man he’s become. ‘Beanpole’ Pinkett’s grown up to be quite a hunk. But she can’t forget the skinny jerk who drove her nuts in school. As for Jed, he’s having trouble reconciling the adult Sophie with the spoiled girl he used to know; the one who never seemed to appreciate what she had.

And neither Sophie nor Jed can forget what it was like to have everyone in town trying to push them into a romance, just because they’re both tall and would ‘compliment’ each other so well. What a stupid reason to date each other, they’re both thinking. It’s the same thing they thought all through school. No one’s going to tell them they’re made for each other.

Except when Jed looks into Sophie’s eyes, he can’t help but wonder if their small-town friends and family weren’t right, all along . . .