Three Kids And A Cowboy

Three Kids And A Cowboy
Natalie Patrick

SECOND CHANCE AT MARRIAGESECOND CHANCE AT MARRIAGEThree little orphans had one big, brawny cowboy wrapped around their fingers! Miranda Sykes was so happy that her estranged husband's dreams to be a daddy had finally come true. But her own dream to be a mother–and Brodie's beloved wife–was only temporarily hers….Miranda knew Brodie had only welcomed her home to his Texas ranch so that they'd look like one big happy family to social services. But one big happy family they were! And now all she needed was for Brodie to welcome her home in his heart for a bright, new beginning….

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u41c382f2-8c90-5dbc-a482-a44571a7e5f3)

Excerpt (#u76176c7f-c64f-5ade-862f-c07753977f3d)

Dear Reader (#u45fafcee-9663-50e8-a683-f1fdb33471a8)

Title Page (#u5d3e2a9d-ddf8-5561-bca4-0202e49684c4)

About the Author (#u3ceac7d1-bb4a-5e4b-b244-d4c3eadcc31d)

Prologue (#u23a4fed0-971b-5609-90f8-15d0a22268c0)

Chapter 1 (#u869e598c-e355-587b-823b-5a2c71d1f90e)

Chapter 2 (#u7198cf1d-ead2-598b-a02a-91e430727e8b)

Chapter 3 (#u63f3c047-76bd-5e66-a357-d30b968ae679)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“Mrs. Beetle, I’d like you to meet my wife.”

His what? Miranda froze. She’d stolen away for a few minutes—and what had happened in her absence?

Brodie’s long fingers massaged her shoulders as he manipulated her under the mantle of his muscular arm. “Darlin’, come in and say howdy to Mrs. Beetle…you know, the social worker. Once she heard you were going to stay and be a mom to these kids, her whole attitude about my keeping them changed.”

Be a mom to these kids. Longing waged in Miranda’s chest. To be a mom, to make a family with Brodie—how could that not move her? And to know that very dream relied on promising the impossible?

Dear Reader (#ulink_2bd511c8-a4bf-5071-9c27-46d8d926a4c8),

This July, Silhouette Romance cordially invites you to a month of marriage stories, based upon your favorite themes. There’s no need to RSVP; just pick up a book, start reading…and be swept away by romance.

The month kicks off with our Fabulous Fathers title, And Baby Makes Six, by talented author Pamela Dalton. Two single parents many for convenience’ sake, only to be surprised to learn they’re expecting a baby of their own!

In Natalie Patrick’s Three Kids and a Cowboy, a woman agrees to stay married to her husband just until he adopts three adorable orphans, but soon finds herself longing to make the arrangement permanent And the romance continues when a beautiful wedding consultant asks her sexy neighbor to pose as her fiancé in Just Say I Do by RITA Award-winning author Lauryn Chandler.

The reasons for weddings keep coming, with a warmly humorous story of amnesia in Vivian Leiber’s The Bewildered Wife; a new take on the runaway bride theme in Have Honeymoon, Need Husband by Robin Wells; and a green card wedding from debut author Elizabeth Harbison in A Groom for Maggie.

Here’s to your reading enjoyment!

Melissa Senate Senior Editor Silhouette Romance

Please address questions and book requests to:

Silhouette Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

Three Kids and a Cowboy

Natalie Patrick

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

NATALIE PATRICK

believes in romance and has firsthand experience to back up that belief. She met her husband in January and married him in April of that same year—they would have eloped sooner but friends persuaded them to have a real wedding. Ten years and two children later she knows she’s found her real romantic hero.

Amid the clutter in her work space, she swears that her headstone will probably read She Left This World A Brighter Place But Not Necessarily A Cleaner One. She certainly hopes her books brighten her readers’ days.

Prologue (#ulink_2e1d8368-5e5f-5ca5-bae6-404792570513)

Just where are you headed to, Brodie Sykes?”

“Hell—if I don’t change my ways.” Brodie checked the bit in his horse’s mouth as he answered his ranch house cook, Curtis “Crispy” Holloman.

“As if they’d have you,” the scrappy older man muttered. “Besides, it ain’t your ways that need changin’—”

“It’s the company I keep,” Brodie said. He hoped getting the first jab in would avert a lecture from the only man alive who’d dare to give him one.

Brodie Sykes ran a tight operation. He commanded the respect of every man jack who rode for his Circle S brand—every man but that damned ol’ ornery Crispy. Somehow, in the month since he hired the cantankerous cook, Crispy had gotten under Brodie’s barbed-wire disposition to befriend him.

Brodie drew in the smells of horse and saddle leather. “Right now what I could really use is a change of scenery."