Free A Perfect Forever (Leap of Love Series, Book 1) by Paige Powers Page B

Smith and his mother had to go and infiltrate her life.
    Things were already stressful enough. In the past year, she graduated from school, and came home to discover that her parents had been killed in an accident. On top of that, she’d moved across the country to fulfill her father's wish that she take over his gold mine in San Francisco and get married.
    And here she was, living in California, wanting to follow her father's wishes, as well as following her own dreams of opening a finishing school. The finishing school was turning out to be everything she wanted it to be. In the few months she had been living in San Francisco, she thought that she had found the man she would marry. Alfred was going to be the man she would wed, but somewhere in their courtship, it felt like things had hit a snag.
    Nothing had ever been comfortable between Amelia and Mrs. Sharp, but that was something she could deal with. Dealing with the distance between herself and Alfred was a different story. He had not been the same since bringing up the idea that he should be the accountant for her finishing school. Besides the fact that she did not trust any business handling to anyone other than the insiders who had run her parents' businesses her entire life, Amelia did not want to mix business with pleasure.
    Alfred did not understand. Or at least he did not want to agree. Whatever the answer, it was causing a riff between the two of them and creating a certain level of discomfort. Amelia wanted to make it work, but partly because she did not want to end their relationship and feel like she was starting over again. There was not time to start over. She was not sure what would happen if she did not marry within the time constraint her father set.
    It was an idea that seemed a bit controlling at first, but she came to realize that it was her father's way of making sure that she would be looked after. The key was to marry a man that would love her for herself, and not be overly concerned with her money. At first, she thought that was Alfred. Now she was not so sure.
    When Mr. McGill had come to check in on her, he did his best to explain to her that from this point on, men would think that she was unprotected and they would begin to circle her like vultures. They would want to tap into all that her money provided – status, networking connections, a life of luxury. Fortunately, her father had built a safeguard into Amelia's trust, so that she would continue to own property and her inheritance, and no man could come along and wipe her out of everything that her parents had spent their lives building.
    Once Mr. McGill explained that, Amelia felt better knowing she would not be taken by any greedy man looking to marry her only to gain access to her money and property. She had not been thinking about marriage. When Mr. McGill read the will, it was the first time that Amelia even thought about being married or being attached to any man in that manner.
    Her original plan on coming back to Boston was to settle into life in America for a moment and get reacclimated. She did not want to rush into anything as far as life was concerned. And she certainly had not been thinking about weddings or anything of that sort.
    Especially not for herself. She had always been a bit of a rebel, the kind of girl who thought outside of what society wanted for her. The problem was that she never truly thought that women were happy in these marriages. She had not seen an example of women being satisfied and fulfilled. They seemed to just be making the best of the situation they were in. Most marriages were practically arranged and made to link families together for the purpose of status. Amelia had not actually heard of anyone who was married for love or married because they wanted to be with their spouse.
    In her mind, she wanted to find the man who would romance her, the man who would confess his undying love for her. The man who would treat her as a princess and come home to