Second-Time Lucky

Second-Time Lucky
Laurie Paige

A CASE STUDY–IN LOVE?For as long as foster dad Jeff Aquilon could remember, he' d viewed state social workers as one thing: the enemy. But that was before he' d met Caileen Hall, a woman who truly seemed to have his family' s best interests at heart. Jeff had to admit that something about the pretty, passionate Caileen stirred his interest, too.Though single mom Caileen desperately wanted to help the Aquilons succeed, much to her daughter' s chagrin, Caileen' s strictly professional concern for Jeff soon mingled with feelings she hadn' t encountered in years. But to make peace with her own family, would Caileen have to give up the love of her lifetime?

“How do you see me?”

Jeff swished a carrot into the pepper dip and tasted it. “Spicy and delicious,” he murmured. He was pretty sure he was playing with fire. Ask him if he cared.

For months—years—he’d been cautious about involvement. Suddenly he wanted closeness…intimacy…touching…

“Don’t,” Caileen said hoarsely.

“Don’t what?”

“Look at me like I’m Red Riding Hood and you’re the wolf.”

Her husky laughter was shaky, and he was pretty sure she knew exactly what he was thinking. He took a long drink of sangria. It didn’t cool his fevered thoughts one degree.

“That’s what I feel,” he admitted, then laughed again. If he could joke about it, he could control the impulse.

Maybe.

When she looked directly into his eyes, he was pretty sure he couldn’t….

Dear Reader,

My family jokes that they can always tell where I’ve been because my next books are located there. Okay, I confess—I went to the Grand Canyon last year, also Monument Valley, Four Corners, Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon and the high desert region. My husband, two grandsons, Shasta, our dog, and I camped along the way, sleeping in a tent and cooking over a campfire, feeling like real pioneers. When I wrote the Seven Devils series I knew I had to do the stories of the three runaways in Trevor and Lyric’s book. The stories of those orphans, all grown up, the wounded vet who took them in (and whose heart is as big as the western sky) and the awesome landscape of our western deserts came together for me during that trip.

Best,

Laurie Paige

Second-Time Lucky

Laurie Paige

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

LAURIE PAIGE

“One of the nicest things about writing romances is researching locales, careers and ideas. In the interest of authenticity, most writers will try anything…once.” Along with her writing adventures, Laurie has been a NASA engineer, a past president of the Romance Writers of America, a mother and a grandmother. She was twice a Romance Writers of America RITA

Award finalist for Best Traditional Romance and has won awards from Romantic Times BOOKclub for Best Silhouette Special Edition and Best Silhouette in addition to appearing on the USA TODAY bestseller list. Recently resettled in Northern California, Laurie is looking forward to whatever experiences her next novel will send her on.

This book is for Ryan, Kevin and Shasta, three great

traveling companions. Thanks for the s’mores when

dinner over the campfire turned into a disaster.

Contents

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 One

Jefferson Aquilon manhandled the crate into place beside the cabinet, took a deep breath and wondered, for the hundredth time in the past hour, if he was doing the right thing.

Actually, it was a bit late to be thinking like that. Everything he owned had been moved—lock, stock, barrels and sculptures—from Boise to this small ranch near the county seat of Council, Idaho. All his hopes and plans hinged on making it in this new place.

Worry hit him like a sluice of icy water from a mountain spring. He’d made the move for the orphans in his care. Eighteen-year-old Jeremy, who’d taken on a man’s responsibility while still a boy, was his nephew. Thirteen-year-old Tony, who’d almost forgotten how to laugh, and Krista, who was ten going on thirty, weren’t blood relatives, but they were his second brother’s stepchildren, and Jeff was their only surviving relative.

Both his brothers had died young. Lincoln, father of Jeremy and the oldest of the three Aquilon boys, had had a heart attack at thirty-nine. That had been a shocker.

Six months before that, Washington, the middle son, had rolled his truck on an icy road one night and was dead by the time he was found and brought to the hospital. He’d married Tony’s and Krista’s mom when the kids were still toddlers. Although no adoption records had been found, the two children had taken his last name.

Jeff grimaced. Around the same time, he’d lost his left foot to a land mine while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Life had continued to hand the Aquilons a raw deal. Nearly two years ago, the do-gooders at the Family Services Agency had taken the younger children away from him, saying his two-bedroom trailer wasn’t big enough, and put them in foster care.

The foster father had beaten the children until they’d come to Jeremy for help. The three had run away and hidden in the Lost Valley area until found last fall by the Dalton family, who had a ranch there.

Jeff clenched his hands into fists as anger buzzed through every nerve. He forced himself to relax and unpack the crate of woodworking tools.

Things were working out, he assured himself. While his family name may not have been enough to convince the juvenile court judge that the orphans would be fine in his care, the Dalton name had. A First Family of Idaho and all that, they’d come through for him and the kids and for that he was grateful.