His Secret Child

His Secret Child
Lee Tobin McClain

A Surprise Father Snowed in at the dog rescue farm where she’s housesitting, Fern Easton can’t turn away the handsome stranger who appears during the blizzard. Who is this mysterious man who’s as capable with stray dogs as he is with her four-year-old foster child?Carlo Camden’s returned to Rescue River to be a father to a daughter he never knew existed. But he doesn't expect to stumble upon little Mercedes right away. Let alone to start caring about the devoted beauty who desperately wants to be her mom. Carlo’s surprise homecoming is all about making amends. But he might just have found the woman of his dreams, too…

A Surprise Father

Snowed in at the dog rescue farm where she’s housesitting, Fern Easton can’t turn away the handsome stranger who appears during the blizzard. Who is this mysterious man who’s as capable with stray dogs as he is with her four-year-old foster child? Carlo Camden’s returned to Rescue River to be a father to a daughter he never knew existed. But he doesn’t expect to stumble upon little Mercedes right away. Let alone to start caring about the devoted beauty who desperately wants to be her mom. Carlo’s surprise homecoming is all about making amends. But he might just have found the woman of his dreams, too…

“You’re hoping to adopt her?”

“I’m planning on it,” Fern said with satisfaction. “As long as the birth father doesn’t show up, I’m golden.”

He cocked his head to one side. “You don’t want her father to find her?”

“It’s not like that. He’s shown no interest in her for four years, so it’s hardly likely he’ll show up now. But we had to publish announcements for a few weeks to make sure he doesn’t want her.”

Carlo’s head spun at her casual dismissal. He wanted to argue that just because a dad wasn’t around, that didn’t mean he was a deadbeat. Some dads didn’t even know they had a child. But there was no need to argue with the woman who’d treated a stranger so kindly. “Mercy’s kind of an old-fashioned name,” he said instead.

She smiled. “Oh, that’s just what I call her sometimes. Her mom did, too. Her full name is actually Mercedes.”

The word slammed into his aching head with the force of a sledgehammer’s blow. He had, indeed, blundered into the home of his own child.

LEE TOBIN McCLAIN read Gone with the Wind in the third grade and has been a hopeless romantic ever since. When she’s not writing angst-filled love stories with happy endings, she’s getting inspiration from her church singles group, her gymnastics-obsessed teenage daughter and her rescue dog and cat. In her day job, Lee gets to encourage aspiring romance writers in Seton Hill University’s low-residency MFA program. Visit her at leetobinmcclain.com (http://www.leetobinmcclain.com).

His Secret Child

Lee Tobin McClain

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

Then He said to them, “Whoever welcomes

this little child in My name welcomes Me;

and whoever welcomes Me welcomes the

one who sent Me. For it is the one who is least

among you all who is the greatest.”

—Luke 9:48

For my daughter, Grace

Contents

Cover (#uf04fd4db-1018-5a99-84cf-c2b16d815c5a)

Back Cover Text (#u8e9092ff-ea5a-5349-bbde-0228f39a46a1)

Introduction (#u9c170c7d-4e93-5ed7-9ace-01accdfd5ab9)

About the Author (#u84364782-a4cf-5aea-8121-07fe229b482d)

Title Page (#u607a1a0e-55c3-532f-b7bd-c6a068f6f500)

Bible Verse (#u2126096a-deaa-57dd-8b1a-a879f1d3c1de)

Dedication (#ue6f0e3b3-dce8-5cf3-aa26-bc43dcd8f3c4)

Chapter One (#ulink_e0733cbf-0389-58ec-bb27-ab49600c0449)

Chapter Two (#ulink_4cd46621-76b7-5d5f-b186-8af25eafe770)

Chapter Three (#ulink_aa0177e1-db33-56ae-bde5-e5c6e9377ecb)

Chapter Four (#ulink_d84f3313-d337-56c1-903b-781a45e480c1)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Dear Reader (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#ulink_777b6867-e36f-5e84-9ce9-07b0d2526846)

Fern Easton looked at the fire she’d just built, then out the window at the driving snow, dim in the late-afternoon light. She shivered, but not because she was cold.