Sun-Kissed Baby

Sun-Kissed Baby
Patricia Hagan

ARE YOU THE DADDY?Tragedy had left Carlee Denton to raise her best friend's baby, and her search for the little boy's father had led straight to Nick Starke. But she couldn't risk telling the handsome, wealthy orange grove owner that her new baby was his, too, until she knew what he wanted….And everything, from the soulful way he touched her–kissed her–to the way he played with little Scotty, told her that this man wanted her. He wanted them. But was he really Scotty's dad? Carlee wondered if she'd found–fallen for–the wrong man. Whatever the truth was, Carlee knew it was too late to turn back from the one man who could open her heart….

“That’s my boy,” Nick cried, holding out his arms to the child and hugging him tight.

Carlee winced. She did not want that. Heaven help her, she did not want Scotty crazy about Nick, and that was wrong. She had no right to feel that way.

“Carlee, listen to me….”

She had turned her back on him and stood wooden and silent.

“I want to be your friend. I want to spend time with you and your son, because I’m crazy about him. And I promise that what happened the other night will never happen again unless you want it, too. But the way you’ve hardened your heart to romance…to love…it won’t.”

Tell him now, a voice within commanded. Tell him and get it over with.

It was what she should do. But what she could not do.

Dear Reader,

Do I have a sweet lineup for you—just in time for Valentine’s Day! What’s more enticing than a box of chocolates? The answer lies in the next story, Cordina’s Crown Jewel, from New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts’s CORDINA’S ROYAL FAMILY series. This gem features a princess who runs away from royal responsibility and straight into the arms of the most unlikely man of her dreams!

Another Valentine treat is Jackie Merritt’s Marked for Marriage, which is part of the popular MONTANA MAVERICKS series. Here, a feisty bronco-busting beauty must sit still so that a handsome doctor can give her a healthy dose of love. And if it’s heart-thumping emotion you want, Peggy Webb continues THE WESTMORELAND DIARIES series with Bittersweet Passion, a heavenly opposites-attract romance between a singing sensation and a very handsome minister hero.

In With Family in Mind, Sharon De Vita launches her gripping SADDLE FALLS miniseries. One Valentine’s Day, this newlywed author admits, she wrote a heartwarming love poem to her husband about their first year together! Our next family tale is Sun-Kissed Baby, by Patricia Hagan—a darling tale of a new single mom who falls for the man she thinks is her little boy’s father. This talented author shares her Valentine’s Day dinner tradition with us—making “a heart-shaped meatloaf” and at the end of the pink meal, “a heart-shaped ice cream cake, frosted with strawberry whipped cream.” The icing on the cake this month is Leigh Greenwood’s Undercover Honeymoon, a passionate tale of two reunited lovers who join forces to stay ahead of a deadly enemy and care for an orphaned little girl.

Make sure that you sample every Special Edition delight this month has to offer. I wish you and your loved ones a warm and rose-filled Valentine’s Day (and that box of chocolates, too)!

Best,

Karen Taylor Richman

Senior Editor

Sun-Kissed Baby

Patricia Hagan

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

For Barb Ralph, one of my favorite Floridians.

PATRICIA HAGAN

New York Times bestselling author Patricia Hagan had written and published over 2,500 short stories before selling her first book in 1971. With a background in English and Journalism from the University of Alabama, Pat has won awards for radio, television, newspaper and magazine writing. Her hobbies include reading, painting and cooking. The author and her Norwegian husband, Erik, divide their time between their Florida retreat in Boca Raton and their home in Bergen, Norway.

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 Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter One

Carlee held Alicia’s thirteen-month-old baby in her arms as she stared through her tears at the grave.

She still found it hard to believe that Alicia was gone. It had happened so fast. One minute they were having their Sunday-morning treat of Danish pastry with their coffee and looking forward to taking Scotty to the beach that afternoon, and the next Alicia gasped, clutched her chest and collapsed. Carlee had instantly dialed 911. After a frantic ambulance ride, Alicia was whisked into the trauma unit, and a little while later a doctor came out to say she had died.

He said it was her heart. Probably a congenital condition she’d had since birth. He asked Carlee if she knew about any heart problems in Alicia’s family. She told him that Alicia had experienced a difficult labor and delivery when Scotty was born and afterward was told a heart murmur had been detected. Alicia had been advised to undergo cardiac evaluation, but she had no insurance and couldn’t afford it. She didn’t think the murmur was anything to worry about, anyway. She’d always been healthy. Besides, she was too excited about Scotty and wasn’t thinking of anything else.

Too bad, the ER doctor had said. Had she been tested, there was a good chance the problem would have been diagnosed and corrected.

Alicia was dead, and Carlee suddenly found herself a mom, because after the paramedics had revived Alicia before loading her into the ambulance, she had asked Carlee to promise she would take care of Scotty if anything happened. Carlee hadn’t hesitated and told Alicia not to worry. Then, while she was standing in the hallway of the emergency room, clutching little Scotty in a daze, the doctor had handed her a slip of paper. Alicia had asked a nurse to write a note declaring Carlee to be Scotty’s guardian and managed to sign it before she slipped away.

The doctor had asked if they were sisters. “Best friends,” she had whispered, not about to confide how their friendship had been forged by the worthless, cheating men in their lives, or how they’d clung together and vowed never again to be so foolish.

Carlee’s parents had divorced when she was only ten. The court had awarded her mother custody, but her father had never paid the court-ordered child-support, and she’d refused to make him. She’d said that was begging and vowed she’d rather die. So times had been hard, and Carlee blamed her mother for her spinelessness and her father for shirking his responsibilities. The year she graduated from high school, her mother remarried and moved to the West Coast, leaving Carlee on her own in Florida. Carlee fell in love, married before she was twenty, and five years later her husband had driven them into bankruptcy and left her for an older woman who could support his extravagant lifestyle.

It was at the time of her divorce that she had met Alicia. They lived in the same apartment complex. Alicia was going to school during the day to study computers while working as a waitress at the Blue Moon Lounge on Cocoa Beach at night. She was also pregnant but didn’t want to talk about the father, and Carlee didn’t pry.

Carlee had been working in the gift shop at Jupiter Orange Groves since high school, but the work was seasonal. Still, she enjoyed it so much that during the rest of the year she took what jobs she could find so she’d be free to return. After her divorce, however, she needed more financial security, and Ben Burns, owner of the groves, had said he would give her a raise and put her to work year-round in the office if she would take a bookkeeping course and learn some computer programs. So when the season ended, she had enrolled in night school and worked at the cosmetics counter of a department store at a local mall.

Times were tough, and Carlee and Alicia decided to share an apartment to cut expenses. They became closer than sisters. Carlee went to Lamaze classes as Alicia’s coach, and she was there for Scotty’s birth. Later she helped with his care and came to love him as though he were her own. Alicia traded baby-sitting with another working mom in the complex, and life seemed to be going according to plan.