Vermont Valentine

Vermont Valentine
Kristin Hardy

IN EVERY GENERATION OF TRASKS LIVES ONE MAN BORN TO BE ALONE….And Jacob was clearly his generation's representative. Because while his brothers sought their livelihoods–and loves–elsewhere, he knew he had to stay where he belonged. Where he was needed. And where eligible women were as rare as an eighty-degree day in January…And then came a possible danger to his beloved family farm. The bearer of bad news? A petite, gorgeous, non-stop talker named Celie Favreau. And though captivated by Jacob's rugged good looks and piercing blue eyes, she had to stay on track. She'd come to warn of a threat to his trees.The threat to his heart was merely incidental….

“I’m impressed.”

“Well, then, I must be doing well,” Celie said. “From what I hear, impressing you isn’t easy.”

“Sounds like people have been doing way too much talking altogether,” was Jacob’s comment.

“Don’t worry. I’m a scientist. I prefer to collect data on my own.”

“Are you planning to collect data on me?” Jacob asked.

Celie glanced laughingly back over her shoulder at him. “I don’t know. Do you mind?” She reached over to shut off the lights.

Their hands landed on the switch at the same time.

It was just a touch, hand to hand, but the effects ricocheted through his system. Her eyes were shadowed as she looked back at him. He could see her profile, her generous mouth. “Time to go,” she said softly.

It might, Jacob thought uneasily, be long past time.

Dear Reader,

Well, if there were ever a month that screamed for a good love story—make that six!—February would be it. So here are our Valentine’s Day gifts to you from Silhouette Special Edition. Let’s start with The Road to Reunion by Gina Wilkins, next up in her FAMILY FOUND series. When the beautiful daughter of the couple who raised him tries to get a taciturn cowboy to come home for a family reunion, Kyle Reeves is determined to turn her down. But try getting Molly Walker to take no for an answer! In Marie Ferrarella’s Husbands and Other Strangers, a woman in a boating accident finds her head injury left her with no permanent effects—except for the fact that she can’t seem to recall her husband. In the next installment of our FAMILY BUSINESS continuity, The Boss and Miss Baxter by Wendy Warren, an unemployed single mother is offered a job—not to mention a place to live for her and her children—with the grumpy, if gorgeous, man who fired her!

“Who’s Your Daddy?” is a question that takes on new meaning when a young woman learns that a rock star is her biological father, that her mother is really in love with his brother—and that she herself can’t resist her new father’s protégé. Read all about it in It Runs in the Family by Patricia Kay, the second in her CALLIE’S CORNER CAFÉ miniseries. Vermont Valentine, the conclusion to Kristin Hardy’s HOLIDAY HEARTS miniseries, tells the story of the last single Trask brother, Jacob—he’s been alone for thirty-six years. But that’s about to change, courtesy of the beautiful scientist now doing research on his property. And in Teresa Hill’s A Little Bit Engaged, a woman who’s been a bride-to-be for five years yet never saw fit to actually set a wedding date finds true love where she least expects it—with a pastor.

So keep warm, stay romantic, and we’ll see you next month….

Gail Chasan

Senior Editor

Vermont Valentine

Kristin Hardy

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

KRISTIN HARDY

has always wanted to write, starting her first novel while still in grade school. Although she became a laser engineer by training, she never gave up her dream of being an author. In 2002, her first completed manuscript, My Sexiest Mistake, debuted in Harlequin’s Blaze line; it was subsequently made into a movie by the Oxygen network. The author of twelve books to date, Kristin lives in New Hampshire with her husband and collaborator. Check out her Web site at www.kristinhardy.com.

Thanks go to Dennis Souto, Mark Twery and

Kathleen Shields, of the USDA Forest Service;

George Cook of the University of Vermont; Joe Doccola

of Arborjet Inc.; and to Doug and Barbara Bragg of the

Bragg Farm (www.braggfarm.com), the inspiration

for the Trask Family Farm.

And as always, to Stephen,

a fine ambassador for the human race.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen