Cassidy's Kids

Cassidy's Kids
Tara Taylor Quinn

Ellie Maitland was goal-oriented. She operated on five-year plans. Finishing her master's degree by night, serving as chief administrator at her family's renowned clinic by day, she was out to prove herself, big time.Sloan Cassidy had eighteen-month-old twin daughters, and not a clue in the world how to handle them since his wife had left. But he knew who did.No way was Ellie going to let herself be roped into helping to care for Sloan's little girls. Those kids brought out all the maternal instincts she wanted to suppress. And she had no time. And Sloan was way too appealing. And everyone knew the cowboy had broken her heart ten years ago. Except Sloan.

From Megan Maitland’s Diary

Dear Diary,

I’m worried about Ellie. Oh, not as the administrator of Maitland Maternity. No, what I’m worried about is the rest of her life. Mostly because there isn’t one.

Of all my children, Ellie is the one I would have chosen most likely to succeed. Her gifts are so obvious to me. I don’t understand why she can’t see them for herself.

I know it all goes back to that episode with Sloan Cassidy when she was in high school. Ellie’s always taken things so seriously. I'm afraid she took Sloan too seriously. And I did her a terrible disservice. I thought if I didn’t make a big deal of the whole thing, she wouldn’t either. But I was wrong. I should have helped her through that time. As it stands, I fear that the heart Sloan Cassidy broke has never healed.

But I’m not giving up hope. Especially now. I heard Sloan just came by looking for Ellie. I don’t dare hope that Sloan and Ellie can find what Ellie thought they had all those years ago. But if Ellie could see him again, as a mature adult, maybe, just maybe she could get over him and get on with her life. When it comes to Ellie, I care so very much….

Dear Reader,

There’s never a dull moment at Maitland Maternity! This unique and now world-renowned clinic was founded twenty-five years ago by Megan Maitland, widow of William Maitland, of the prominent Austin, Texas, Maitlands. Megan is also matriarch of an impressive family of seven children, many of whom are active participants in the everyday miracles that bring children into the world.

As our series begins, the family is stunned by the unexpected arrival of an unidentified baby at the clinic—unidentified, except for the claim that the child is a Maitland. Who are the parents of this child? Is the claim legitimate? Will the media’s tenacious grip on this news damage the clinic’s reputation? Suddenly, rumors and counterclaims abound. Women claiming to be the child’s mother materialize out of the woodwork! How will Megan get at the truth? And how will the media circus affect the lives and loves of the Maitland children—Abby, the head of gynecology, Ellie, the hospital administrator, her twin sister, Beth, who runs the day care center, Mitchell, the fertility specialist, R.J., the vice president of operations—even Anna, who has nothing to do with the clinic, and Jake, the black sheep of the family?

Please join us each month over the next year as the mystery of the Maitland baby unravels, bit by enticing bit, and book by captivating book!

Marsha Zinberg,

Senior Editor and Editorial Co-ordinator, Special Projects

Cassidy’s Kids

Tara Taylor Quinn

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

Tara Taylor Quinn’s first book, Yesterday’s Secrets, was published by Harlequin in October 1993. It received two Reviewers’ Choice nominations, and was a finalist for the RWA RITA Award. After nineteen titles in six years, there are over three million copies of Tara’s books in print. They have been nominated for several awards, and have appeared on many bestseller lists.

Tara Taylor Quinn’s love affair with Harlequin Books began when she was fourteen years old and picked up a free promotional copy of a Harlequin Romance in her hometown grocery store. The relationship was solidified the year she was suspended from her high school typing class for hiding a Harlequin Romance behind the keys of her electric typewriter. Unaware that her instructor loomed close by, Ms. Quinn read blissfully on with one finger resting on the automatically repeating period key. She finished the book in the principal’s office.

When she’s not writing, fulfilling speaking engagements or performing the many duties required by her position as regional director on the National Board of the Romance Writers of America, Ms. Quinn spends her time with her husband, and commutes to Arizona State University with her fourteen-year-old senior psychology major daughter, Rachel.

For Rachel Marie Reames, the heart and soul of my life;

And

Dana Mariah Bodell, my little soul mate:

Without the two of you, your sweet laughter, your company and encouragement, your inspiration and bowls of cottage cheese, this book would not have happened. Thanks, girls!

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 SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

THE BRIGHT SIDE was that nothing else could go wrong. Everything already had. At breakfast that morning, sitting in the same chair at the same dining room table she’d been sitting at almost since the day she was born, Ellie Maitland had had a panic attack. Out of the blue, she’d suddenly felt suffocated by that sameness, by the inadequacies that had shaped her life and which spelled out an entire future of more of the same. Her hands had started to tingle, and her feet, too, almost as though they’d all fallen asleep at once.

“Hey, El, I saw that you picked up my dry cleaning again—”

Her twin sister’s voice seemed to be coming through a megaphone rather than from across the table.

“—you didn’t have to do that.”

“I knew you’d forgotten, and I had to drive by that way, anyway,” Ellie replied. Focusing on something as mundane as the laundry helped a bit. But only until she looked down again.

Staring at the newspaper in front of her, at yet another article subtly hinting that Eleanor Maitland might not be up to her recently appointed position as administrator at Maitland Maternity Clinic, Ellie had to concentrate to keep the words from blurring. She was losing it. Twenty-five years old and falling apart.