Should Have Been Her Child

Should Have Been Her Child
Stella Bagwell

FIVE YEARS TOO LATE….She should have been mine, Victoria Ketchum thought as she cradled Jess Hasting's daughter. Instead, Victoria had turned from Jess, and he'd married another. Now a widowed single father, the lean, rugged deputy sheriff could still make her passion rise–but the bitterness of their breakup kept them apart.Until now.Now Jess saw Victoria strictly as his daughter's doctor. And Victoria needed Jess's lawman skills when a body was found on her family's ranch. Yet, working together to care for his sick little girl, and to investigate the murder, made them remember just how good it had been between them.And how good it could still be…

“Something happens to a man when he’s rejected by the woman he loves,”

Jess said. “It makes him keep wondering why.”

Victoria turned to him and drew in a ragged breath that seared her lungs. “We both know you never loved me, Jess. So don’t try to act like the injured soul.”

A tense moment passed. “You don’t know anything about me,” he said softly. “You never did.”

She swallowed, struggling to push down the tears that continued to scald her throat. “I know enough. I know that if you’d really wanted me, you wouldn’t have let me go. You wouldn’t have walked away. And you wouldn’t have waited four years to come back.”

“Maybe I was waiting for you to come to me.”

Dear Reader,

As you take a break from raking those autumn leaves, you’ll want to check out our latest Silhouette Special Edition novels! This month, we’re thrilled to feature Stella Bagwell’s Should Have Been Her Child (#1570), the first book in her new miniseries, MEN OF THE WEST. Stella writes that this series is full of “rough, tough cowboys, the strong bond of sibling love and the wide-open skies of the west. Mix those elements with a dash of intrigue, mayhem and a whole lot of romance and you get the Ketchum family!” And we can’t wait to read their stories!

Next, Christine Rimmer brings us The Marriage Medallion (#1567), the third book in her VIKING BRIDES series, which is all about matrimonial destiny and solving secrets of the past. In Jodi O’Donnell’s The Rancher’s Daughter (#1568), part of popular series MONTANA MAVERICKS: THE KINGSLEYS, two unlikely soul mates are trapped in a cave…and find a way to stay warm. Practice Makes Pregnant (#1569) by Lois Faye Dyer, the fourth book in the MANHATTAN MULTIPLES series, tells the story of a night of passion and a very unexpected development between a handsome attorney and a bashful assistant. Will their marriage of convenience turn to everlasting love?

Patricia Kay will hook readers into an intricate family dynamic and heart-thumping romance in Secrets of a Small Town (#1571). And Karen Sandler’s Counting on a Cowboy (#1572) is an engaging tale about a good-hearted teacher who finds love with a rancher and his young daughter. You won’t want to miss this touching story!

Stay warm in this crisp weather with six complex and satisfying romances. And be sure to return next month for more emotional storytelling from Silhouette Special Edition!

Happy reading!

Gail Chasan

Senior Editor

Should Have Been Her Child

Stella Bagwell

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

To my editor, Mary-Theresa Hussey,

an angel who keeps me on the right course.

And to all the editors I work with at Silhouette.

I love you all.

STELLA BAGWELL

Recently, Stella and her husband of thirty years moved from the hills of Oklahoma to Seadrift, Texas, a sleepy little fishing town located on the coastal bend. Stella says it is a lovely place to let her imagination soar and to put the stories in her head down on paper. She and her husband have one son, Jason, who lives and teaches high school math in nearby Port Lavaca.

Dear Reader,

This new miniseries—MEN OF THE WEST—is something I’ve wanted to write for a long time, but other stories kept popping up for my immediate attention. Now, as I approach my fiftieth book for Silhouette, I’m finally getting to write about the Ketchum family and all of their friends. What a joy! There’s nothing sexier than a man in a pair of cowboy boots and hat. And when he’s a lawman, too, well, he’s pretty nigh irresistible to me.

There is an old saying that everything changes. But thankfully, in my case, I can say that isn’t entirely true. Well, okay, I’ve aged a little. Yet as an author, the excitement and love I have for writing romance is still just as great as it was eighteen years ago when I sold my first story to Silhouette.

Being part of the Silhouette family has been a wonderful honor for me and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the editors I’ve worked with down through the years. You’ve made my job a pure pleasure! And last, but certainly not least, I’d like to thank you, all my loyal readers for buying my books. Without you, this job of mine wouldn’t mean anything and I sincerely hope that I’ve given you as much pleasure reading my stories as I’ve gotten from creating them. And it’s my fervent wish that you’re as eager to read my next fifty books as I am to write them!

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

God bless,

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

“Victoria, something has happened out at the T Bar K!”

The woman with dark hair sitting behind the large desk didn’t bother lifting her head from the notes she was studying. “Something is always happening at the ranch. If he’s bleeding, put him in exam room one. If he thinks something might be broken, take him on down to X-ray and I’ll be there in just a moment.”