If the Stick Turns Pink...

If the Stick Turns Pink...
Carla Cassidy

It was the perfect plan. Melanie Watters wanted a baby badly, so she proposed marriage to the most confirmed bachelor in town–her best friend, Bailey Jenkins.In return for getting Melanie pregnant, frustrated pageant-judge Bailey could escape the clutches of the town's tiara-hungry single women. Surely their friendship could survive this marriage of convenience unscathed?They had agreed to divorce after Melanie became pregnant, but playing house with Bailey soon stirred deep passions in her, and things quickly got complicated. Melanie found herself torn between her desire for a child and her growing feelings for her husband. Would having the baby she'd dreamed of ruin their perfect marriage?

“Well, we did it.”

“We did half of it,” Melanie replied, and to her surprise felt the warmth of a blush stealing over her cheeks. “I have now officially saved you from the claws of the crown-crazed single women of Foxrun. Now all you have to do is fulfill your end of our bargain.”

“You want me to get you pregnant right here? Right now?” Bailey said.

Although he was teasing her, she saw the slight tension in his eyes, felt it radiating from him. Or was it that she was feeling tense about the wedding night to come?

It was all a game of pretend, Melanie once again reminded herself. That was all it could ever be.

Dear Reader,

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we have some wonderful stories for you this February from Silhouette Romance to guarantee that every day is filled with love and tenderness.

DeAnna Talcott puts a fresh spin on the tale of Cupid, who finally meets her match in Cupid Jones Gets Married (#1646), the latest in the popular SOULMATES series. And Carla Cassidy has been working overtime with her incredibly innovative, incredibly fun duo, What if I’m Pregnant…? (#1644) and If the Stick Turns Pink… (#1645), about the promise of love a baby could bring to two special couples!

Then Elizabeth Harbison takes us on a fairy-tale adventure in Princess Takes a Holiday (#1643). A glamour-weary royal who hides her identity meets the man of her dreams when her car breaks down in a small North Carolina town. In Dude Ranch Bride (#1642), Madeline Baker brings us strong, sexy Lakota Ethan Stormwalker, whose ex-flame shows up at his ranch in a wedding gown—without a groom! And in Donna Clayton’s Thunder in the Night (#1647), the third in THE THUNDER CLAN family saga, a single act of kindness changes Conner Thunder’s life forever….

Be sure to come back next month for more emotion-filled love stories from Silhouette Romance. Happy reading!

Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor

If the Stick Turns Pink…

Carla Cassidy

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

To Darlene, the daughter of my heart.

Thank you for the joy you bring to my life.

CARLA CASSIDY

is an award-winning author who has written over fifty books for Silhouette. In 1995, she won Best Silhouette Romance from Romantic Times for Anything for Danny. In 1998, she also won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from Romantic Times.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Prologue

Be careful what you wish for…it just might come true. The old adage whirled through Melanie Jenkins’s mind as, with trembling fingers, she removed the pregnancy test from the drugstore sack.

Six weeks ago she had made a wish and prayed that she’d get pregnant and have a baby. With no romance in her life and no Mr. Right on the horizon, she’d come up with a plan to ensure that she would attain her wish.

Once she took the home-pregnancy test, she’d know within three minutes if her wish had been granted. The only problem was that she was no longer certain she wanted her wish to come true.

If she was pregnant, then she lost the man she loved. If she wasn’t pregnant, she got to continue to live with the man she loved but wouldn’t have her dream of a baby.

She took the test instrument out of the package, wishing she could go back and change all the rules. But she couldn’t. She was the one who had set the rules, and it wasn’t fair to change them now, after the fact.

So, what did she wish now? It didn’t seem to matter. No matter what the results of the test revealed, ultimately she’d lose something.

“Well,” she muttered to herself, “let’s see if the stick turns pink….”

Chapter One

Melanie Watters would never have thought about it had she not seen him naked. “Him” was Bailey Jenkins, her very best friend and confidant.

Every day for the past few weeks she and Bailey had met at his pond after work for a late-afternoon swim. Today she was earlier than usual. There had been no school that day. Instead, the day had been scheduled for parent-teacher appointments. By two o’ clock Melanie had met with all her little students’ parents, and her work was finished until later in the evening.

She’d changed into her bathing suit in the school rest room, then had driven directly to Bailey’s.

His familiar maroon pickup truck was parked in front of his attractive white ranch house, but instead of going to the house, she headed for his office in the barn.

As the only veterinarian in the small town of Foxrun, Bailey could usually be found in the barn either sitting at his computer doing paperwork or caring for an animal who’d been brought in to him.

He wasn’t there, nor was he in the house, so she headed down the lane toward the pasture and the pond that had for the past several weeks provided cool relief against the unusual heat of early summer.

As she drew closer to the pond, she heard the sound of splashing, but the thick blackberry bushes directly in front of her obscured her view of the water.