Falling For Grace

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The Bridal Bargain #1414

Falling for Grace #1456

Silhouette Special Edition

Found: One Runaway Bride #1049

† (#litres_trial_promo)Penny Parker’s Pregnant! #1258

Silhouette Books

A Bouquet of Babies

† (#litres_trial_promo)“Baby on Her Doorstep”

STELLA BAGWELL

sold her first book to Silhouette in November 1985. Now, nearly forty novels later, she is still thrilled to see her books in print and can’t imagine having any other job than that of writing about two people falling in love.

She lives in a small town in southeastern Oklahoma with her husband of nearly thirty years. She has one son.

Contents

Chapter One (#u85a18feb-4bbf-5a6c-881d-699946c87094)

Chapter Two (#u32f6b6c7-7cf2-592f-a527-f75bdecbc737)

Chapter Three (#u173bcbfb-48da-5760-a176-970fe2a746f9)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

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 One

He was back! Her prayers had been answered!

Heedless of the late hour, Grace Holliday whirled away from the living room window and hurriedly searched the floor for her sandals.

Since they were nowhere in sight, she quickly decided she didn’t need shoes and flew out the door to scurry across the dark lawn toward the bungalow next door. Part of the structure was hidden by pines and magnolia trees, but she hadn’t dreamed the light shining in the kitchen. She could see it plainly now.

The yellow shafts filtering through the pine boughs were like a beacon to her weary heart and in spite of her growing girth, she felt as light as air as she skimmed up the wooden steps and across the planked porch.

The solid wooden door was open to the ocean breeze, and through the screen she could see the small living room was dark. No sound stirred from within the house, making her wonder if he’d fallen asleep.

Rapping her knuckles on the jamb, she called out, “Trent! Trent, it’s me, Grace. Are you in there?”

Seconds dragged into a minute as she stood in the muggy darkness, anxiously awaiting his answer.

To her left, parked beneath the small carport next to the porch was a late-model sedan of an indistinguishable dark color. It wasn’t the vehicle Trent drove while he’d stayed here in the bungalow, but he could have easily changed cars since she’d last seen him.

“Trent! Answer the door!”

Another long minute passed without any sort of response and she decided to enter the house and make herself known to him. Surely he hadn’t heard her knock. He wouldn’t just ignore her. After all, he’d come back to Biloxi. That had to mean something.

Inside the shadow-filled living room, she called again, “Trent! Where are you?”

Moving toward the light in the kitchen, she entered a short hallway. Suddenly the floor creaked behind her, and then a male voice lifted the hair on the back of her neck.

“Who the hell are you?”

Her heart hammering, she whirled around, then unconsciously inched backward toward the light and away from the dark bulky image of a man looming in front of her.

“I—I’m Grace Holliday. Who—are you?”

“Obviously not who you were looking for.”

His deep voice was full of sarcasm and just a hint of warning. Unwittingly she moved several more steps behind her, until she was completely illuminated by the dim overhead light in the kitchen.

“I thought—I was looking for Trent,” she said haltingly.

“I know. I heard.”

Her brows lifted with skepticism. If he’d heard, why hadn’t he answered her knock? she wondered. Slightly irked, she asked, “Is Trent here?”

The man suddenly moved into the light and it was all Grace could do to keep her hand from flying to her mouth as he stopped within inches of her.

“Why do you want to know?”