Baby, Baby, Baby

Baby, Baby, Baby
Mary McBride

Drop-dead-gorgeous cop Sonny Randle had enough charm and raw sex appeal to turn a woman inside out.Melanie Spears should know - in the few months of their marriage, he'd blasted her perfectly planned life into chaos. Even with her dreams of white picket fences and two point five kids shattered, Melanie had never gotten over Sonny - but she had wised up. In fact, the newly organized Ms. Spears had a hot date - with a sperm bank!Her baby plan seemed perfect. Then she got an eyeful of her new neighbor. All six feet two heartbreaking inches of Sonny Randle, right next door - with his own plan to do things the old-fashioned way!

Melanie’s To-Do List

1 Buy the perfect house.

2 Make appointment with sperm bank at perfect time of the month.

3 Paint nursery the perfect baby-duck yellow.

4 Bring newest neighbor perfect housewarming gift.

5 Admire new neighbor’s perfect rear view.

6 Flee in horror. New neighbor is perfectly disastrous ex-husband!

7 DO NOT GIVE IN TO DANGEROUS ATTRACTION!

8 Give in to dangerous attraction.

9 Panic!

Sonny’s To-Do List

1 Forget list. Launch perfect, take-no-prisoners siege on wife and show her I’m the perfect daddy for the baby she’s always wanted!

Dear Reader,

Happy (almost) New Year! The year is indeed ending, but here at Intimate Moments it’s going out with just the kind of bang you’d expect from a line where excitement is the order of the day. Maggie Shayne continues her newest miniseries, THE OKLAHOMA ALL-GIRL BRANDS, with Brand-New Heartache. This is prodigal daughter Edie’s story. She’s home from L.A. with a stalker on her trail, and only local one-time bad boy Wade Armstrong can keep her safe. Except for her heart, which is definitely at risk in his presence.

Our wonderful FIRSTBORN SONS continuity concludes with Born Royal. This is a sheik story from Alexandra Sellers, who’s made quite a name for herself writing about desert heroes, and this book will show you why. It’s a terrific marriage-of-convenience story, and it’s also a springboard for our twelve-book ROMANCING THE CROWN continuity, which starts next month. Kylie Brant’s Hard To Resist is the next in her CHARMED AND DANGEROUS miniseries, and this steamy writer never disappoints with her tales of irresistible attraction. Honky-Tonk Cinderella is the second in Karen Templeton’s HOW TO MARRY A MONARCH miniseries, and it’s enough to make any woman want to run away and be a waitress, seeing as this waitress gets to serve a real live prince. Finish the month with Mary McBride’s newest, Baby, Baby, Baby, a “No way am I letting my ex-wife go to a sperm bank” book, and reader favorite Lorna Michaels’s first Intimate Moments novel, The Truth About Elyssa.

See you again next year!

Leslie J. Wainger

Executive Senior Editor

Baby, Baby, Baby

Mary McBride

MARY MCBRIDE

When it comes to writing romance, historical or contemporary, Mary McBride is a natural. What else would anyone expect from someone whose parents met on a blind date on Valentine’s Day, and who met her own husband—whose middle name just happens to be Valentine!—on February 14, as well?

She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband and two sons. Mary loves to hear from readers. You can write to her c/o P.O. Box 411202, Saint Louis, MO 63141, or contact her online at McBride101@aol.com.

For Pete and Mary Pancella,

who make such lovely music together

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Epilogue

Chapter 1

Melanie Sears couldn’t help but grin. Not only was it her last day at work, but her boss, the mayor, an elegant if not arrogant man who was addicted to hundred-dollar haircuts and thousand-dollar suits, was down on his pin-striped Armani knees, begging her to stay.

“I’ll be back in eighteen months, Sam.”

“Things are falling apart already.” While he whined, His Honor gestured through his office door toward the reception area. “Look how badly your surprise party turned out.”

Melanie didn’t disagree, but then, even with her own amazing organizational skills, she would have been hard-pressed to bring off the perfect celebratory combination of congratulations on a job well done, happy semi-retirement and baby shower. She knew for a fact, however, that if she had been in charge of her own party, the paper plates and napkins wouldn’t have said Bon Voyage, that she wouldn’t in a million years have served a punch whose main ingredient was Tang, and that she would never, ever, even at gun-point, have hired a mime.

“What the devil was in that punch?” Mayor Venneman stood and began to pick carpet lint from his trousers. “Motor oil?”

She told him about the powdered orange drink and then laughed as she watched his pinstripes shiver. “I’m sure it won’t happen again with Cleo in charge. I gave her a list of preferred caterers, but maybe I should make another copy, just in case.”