Babies in the Bargain

Babies in the Bargain
Victoria Pade

HER SISTER'S FAMILYA newspaper article had brought Kira Wentworth to Northbridge, Montana, in the hopes of reuniting with her long-lost sister. But it was Cutty Grant and the tragic news he delivered that first dashed her dreams but quickly compelled her to stay.With the strength of Hercules, Kira overlooked her own needs and saw that Cutty required a kind heart and a helping hand. For with a broken ankle and no day care, his eighteen-month-old twins were running circles around the sexy single dad. So, in Kira stepped and put her own spin on nannyhood…and made a permanent impression on her boss's fragile soul.

Kira opened the manila folder and took out the newspaper article from the Denver Post.

It was a small piece about two Montana men—one an off-duty police officer and the other a Northbridge business owner—who had rushed into a burning house to rescue a family trapped inside. The two men had saved the family and then had gone back in for the pets only to have a beam knock Addison Walker unconscious and break Cutler Grant’s ankle. Still, Officer Grant had managed to drag the unconscious businessman to safety.

The name Addison Walker meant nothing to Kira.

But Cutler Grant—that was something else. Kira knew a Cutty Grant.

Could it be the same man who held the truth about her long-lost sister? Whether this would turn out to be a wild-goose chase or she was about to embark on an adventure with destiny, Kira had to find the injured cop. She owed it to her family and to herself.

Bottom line: this man was her only hope.

Dear Reader,

We’re smack in the middle of summer, which can only mean long, lazy days at the beach. And do we have some fantastic books for you to bring along! We begin this month with a new continuity, only in Special Edition, called THE PARKS EMPIRE, a tale of secrets and lies, love and revenge. And Laurie Paige opens the series with Romancing the Enemy. A schoolteacher who wants to avenge herself against the man who ruined her family decides to move next door to the man’s son. But things don’t go exactly as planned, as she finds herself falling…for the enemy.

Stella Bagwell continues her MEN OF THE WEST miniseries with Her Texas Ranger, in which an officer who’s come home to investigate a murder fins complications in the form of the girl he loved in high school. Victoria Pade begins her NORTHBRIDGE NUPTIALS miniseries, revolving around a town famed for its weddings, with Babies in the Bargain. When a woman hoping to reunite with her estranged sister finds instead her widowed husband and her children, she winds up playing nanny to the whole crew. Can wife and mother be far behind? THE KENDRICKS OF CAMELOT by Christine Flynn concludes with Prodigal Prince Charming, in which a wealthy playboy tries to help a struggling caterer with her business and becomes much more than just her business partner in the process. Brand-new author Mary J. Forbes debuts with A Forever Family, featuring a single doctor dad and the woman he hires to work for him. And the men of the CHEROKEE ROSE miniseries by Janis Reams Hudson continues with The Other Brother, in which a woman who always contend her handsome neighbor as one of her best friends suddenly finds herself looking at him in a new light.

Happy reading! And come back next month for six new fabulous books, all from Silhouette Special Edition.

Gail Chasan

Senior Editor

Babies in the Bargain

Victoria Pade

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

VICTORIA PADE

is a bestselling author of both historical and contemporary romance fiction, and mother of two energetic daughters, Cori and Erin. Although she enjoys her chosen career as a novelist, she occasionally laments that she has never traveled farther from her Colorado home than Disneyland, instead spending all her spare time plugging away at her computer. She takes breaks from writing by indulging in her favorite hobby—eating chocolate.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter One

Darkness hadn’t completely fallen when Kira Wentworth drove from farm-and-ranch land into the city proper of Northbridge, Montana, on Wednesday night. Still, most of the stores and shops that lined the small college town’s main thoroughfare were closed. Even the gas station was being locked up as she pulled into the lot.

“Excuse me,” Kira said from the window of her rental car to the attendant as he removed the key from the door and pocketed it. “Can I bother you for directions?”

“Nothin’s hard to find in Northbridge,” the teenage boy informed her as if she was asking a dumb question.

He did come to the side of her car, though.

“I’m looking for one-o-four Jellison Street,” she informed him.

The freckle-faced teenager didn’t have to think about it before he said, “That’s the Grant place. Officer Grant is laid up with a broken ankle so he should be there.”

The teenager gave her brief instructions. Then, without another word, he rounded her car to go to the single island and padlock the nozzle on the only gas pump.

“Thank you,” Kira called after him.

“Sure,” he answered, taking off on foot and leaving her behind without a second glance.

Kira rolled up the car window again and turned the air conditioner higher. Just the thought that she was within three blocks of her destination increased her stress level and made her hotter than even the mid-July temperature warranted.

Hoping the heat and the drive through the open countryside hadn’t made her look too much the worse for wear, she glanced at herself in the rearview mirror before heading out of the gas station.

Her mascara hadn’t left smudges around her blue eyes, and light mauve lipstick still stained lips that weren’t too thin or too thick. But despite the fact that she’d reapplied blush in the Billings Airport when she’d landed, her skin looked pale again.

“It might not even be the same guy,” she reminded her reflection. “This could still be a wild-goose chase.”

But the reminder didn’t help much. She continued to feel as if she had butterflies in the pit of her stomach, and if the pallor of her skin wasn’t enough, there was further proof of her nervousness in the fact that somewhere during the drive from Billings she’d tucked her hair behind her ears—a habit her father had detested.

She hurriedly took a comb from her purse—as if Tom Wentworth might appear at any moment to punish her for the infraction—running it through the precision-cut, shoulder-length, straight honey-blond hair until every strand was right where it belonged.

Then she replaced the comb, reapplied blush to her high cheekbones, tugged at the collar of her white blouse to make sure it was exactly centered at her throat and plucked a single string from the right leg of her navy-blue slacks.

Not perfect, she judged as she took another look at herself in the mirror, but at least she was presentable and it was the best she could do under the circumstances.

She noticed then that the clock on the dashboard read five minutes after nine and it occurred to her that she probably shouldn’t waste any more time. She didn’t know much about small-town life, but if even the gas station was closed already, maybe everyone went to bed early, too. And she didn’t want to risk having to wait another day to find out what she’d come to find out.

She put the sedan back into gear and pulled out of the station, taking a right at the only stoplight, and then a quick left after that onto Jellison.

What she found there was a nice neighborhood shaded with tall elm, oak and maple trees lining the street on both sides. Beyond the trees at the curb were medium-size frame houses that looked as if they’d all been pressed through the same cookie cutter in 1950.