The Reluctant Beauty — Laurie LeClair

Tall, quirky Peg Newbury needs a date for a day, or two tops, when her strikingly beautiful and perfectly coiffed family comes for a visit. They worry about their ugly duckling daughter and long for her to meet a prince, settle down, start a family and live a perfect life just like them. However, Peg loves her job as the executive assistant at King's Department Store and accepts she's a career woman, far from pretty, and not likely to end up a happily ever after. She can't convince her family, though. At her wit's end, she resorts to drastic steps and thinks her best solution is to get a guy to pose as her beau. She hopes that a pretend boyfriend will get them to stop worrying and let her be. Yet as much as she protests against a relationship her heart is in for a surprise when she hires a rent-a-date who prefers her just the way she is. Rocker Austin Rhoades, fresh off a two year around-the-world gig, wants out of the spotlight. He's in Dallas to see his half-sister before he hightails it out of town and heads for his much-needed R&R. When he meets and becomes fascinated with adorable Peg and her funny sayings, he ends up extending his visit. He realizes that his cover is sure to be blown the longer he stays and the more time he spends with her. But, Austin thinks he has escaped notice until her family, assuming they're engaged, blabs to the press and starts planning the non-existent wedding. The more Peg and Austin try to keep the status quo the more difficult it is to keep their growing attraction under wraps. Can a reluctant beauty who's never considered herself a love interest accept that she's the perfect catch?