The Welcoming

The Welcoming is a 1989 romance by Nora Roberts, published by Silhouette.

Roman DeWinter is an investigator working undercover at a coastal inn, and the novel's structure is a standard one for the form: the man assigned to watch a suspect falls for her while the case against her is unresolved. Charity Ford reads him as dangerous and is drawn to him anyway, and both of them are aware that he has not told her who he is. He carries a loaded revolver to a seaside inn, which says what kind of assignment he expects this to be.

The subjects indicate the scale of the criminal operation he is investigating, which is larger than a single suspect and involves forged currency and trafficking as well as robbery. Nora Roberts wrote many of these shorter suspense romances for Silhouette alongside her longer standalone novels, and the length keeps the plot close to the inn and to the two principals. The crimes named in the case include counterfeiting, smuggling and robbery, so the operation he is sent to break is larger than one suspect and one motive.