Social Graces
by Dixie Browning

John MacBride would do anything to keep his stepbrother from being thrown into jail for a crime he didn't commit. Which is how he ended up in the Outer Banks, posing as a handyman for the young socialite who could clear his stepbrother's name. As a marine archaeologist, Mac was used to digging deep for clues, but nothing had prepared him for the gorgeous woman he suspected of wrongdoing. Only Val Bonnard wasn't the spoiled heiress he'd been expecting. She seemed gentle and caring — and one look at the dazzling beauty had Mac regretting his promise to play detective, especially when it involved being her live-in Mr. Fix It! Because one way or another he'd get what he wanted — until he realized that what he wanted more than anything was the woman herself....

Dixie Browning's Bio

What can I tell you? Age? Weight? No way! What about the fact that I recently celebrated my fiftieth anniversary, so I have some experience when it comes to romance. Will that do? I'm a native Outer Banker. For those of you who think that's a detached ATM machine, look at a map of North Carolina (conveniently pictured above) It's that skinny little elbow of sand jutting out into the Atlantic. Which means I grew up swimming, fishing, sailing, crabbing, clamming, surfing, cleaning up after hurricanes ? whatever you can do on water, I did it.

Mama taught me early that the natural position for womankind is prone, with a supply of good books, ice tea and whatever snacks are available. It still works for me.

I was a painter before I was a writer. Studied art, taught art, wrote a newspaper column on art ? works in a lot of permanent collections, ribbons and a shelf full of tarnished silver trophies, etc. Don't have time to paint, but I'm a co-owner of a wonderful fine crafts gallery here on the island called Browning Artworks.

Writing struck like a midlife crisis. It occurred to me to do it, and so I did it. Been doing it ever since. That was some eighty-five books ago. With a 90 year old mother who's a natural-born story-teller, a father who was a big-league baseball player, and a grandfather who was a seacaptain back in the days of sail, I've got more material than I'll ever be able to use. It comes out gradually, though, in both my contemporaries and the historicals I write with my sister, Mary Williams, as Bronwyn Williams.

Let's see ... where was I? Well, look, enough about me, okay? Read my books. No glitz or glamour ? I wouldn't know glitz if it jumped up and smacked me on the head. Not a lot of suspense, either, because I don't have the required attention span. But warmth, and laughter and that wonderful, sizzling, tingling feeling of falling head over heels in love...

Yeah. That.