One Big Happy Family

by Andrea Edwards

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Excerpt

  Dear Reader

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Books by Andrea Edwards

  About the Author

  Once upon a time

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  Copyright

  “It’s not painted on.”

  Sam jerked her hand away from his temple.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The gray,” Kevin replied. “It’s not painted on, so you can’t rub it off. No matter how hard you try.”

  “Talk like that makes you sound like an old poop.”

  “Maybe I am.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake. You weren’t old the other night. You were a man. Not an old man. Just a plain, wonderful man…”

  Dear Reader,

  What better cure for a hectic holiday season than settling in with romantic stories from Special Edition? And this month, we’ve got just what you’ve been searching for.

  THE JONES GANG is back, with bestselling author Christine Rimmer’s latest title, Honeymoon Hotline. Nevada Jones is November’s THAT SPECIAL WOMAN!, and this adviser to the lovelorn is about to discover love firsthand!

  Andrea Edwards’s latest miniseries, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, continues this month with One Big Happy Family. If Big Sky Country is your kind of place, you won’t want to miss Montana Lovers, the next book in Jackie Merritt’s newest series, MADE IN MONTANA.

  And the passion doesn’t end there—for her first title in Special Edition, Helen R. Myers has a tantalizing tale of reunited lovers in After That Night…Rounding out the month are a spellbinding amnesia story from Ann Howard White, Making Memories, and a second chance for two lovers in Kayla Daniels’s heart-warming Marriage Minded.

  I hope you enjoy all that we have in store for you this November. Happy Thanksgiving Day—all of us at Silhouette would like to wish you a happy holiday season!

  Sincerely,

  Tara Gavin

  Senior Editor

  Please address questions and book requests to:

  Silhouette Reader Service

  U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

  Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

  One Big Happy Family

  Andrea Edwards

  For Zeke, the most recent addition to our happy family.

  Isn’t it awful what we youngest siblings

  have to put up with?

  Books by Andrea Edwards

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Rose in Bloom #363

  Say It With Flowers #428

  Ghost of a Chance #490

  Violets Are Blue #550

  Places in the Heart #591

  Make Room for Daddy #618

  Home Court Advantage #706

  Sweet Knight Times #740

  Father: Unknown #770

  Man of the Family #809

  The Magic of Christmas #856

  Just Hold On Tight! #883

  †A Ring and a Promise #932

  †A Rose and a Wedding Vow #944

  †A Secret and a Bridal Pledge #956

  Kisses and Kids #981

  *On Mother’s Day #1029

  *A Father’s Gift #1046

  *One Big Happy Family #1064

  Silhouette Intimate Moments

  Above Suspicion #291

  Silhouette Desire

  Starting Over #645

  †This Time, Forever

  *Great Expectations

  ANDREA EDWARDS

  is the pseudonym of Anne and Ed Kolaczyk, a husband-and-wife writing team who have been telling their stories for more than fifteen years. Anne is a former elementary school teacher while Ed is a refugee from corporate America. After many years in the Chicago area, they now live in a small town in northern Indiana where they are avid students of local history, family legends and ethnic myths. Recently they have both been bitten by the gardening bug, but only time will tell how serious the affliction is. Their four children are grown; the youngest attends college while the eldest is a college professor. Remaining at home with Anne and Ed are two dogs, four cats and one bird—not the same ones that first walked through their stories, but carrying on the same tradition of chaotic rule of the household nonetheless.

  Once upon a time, a mother duck hatched her eggs. All her babies were small and golden, except for one. He was big and gray. The other mothers said he was too big; he was too ugly. The other ducklings liked playing with him, but they all heard the comments about his size and his ugliness.

  Little by little, the ugly duckling began to swim by himself and keep away from even the little bucklings who still wanted to be his friend. Then one day, new birds came to the pond—big beautiful birds that called themselves swans. They said the ugly duckling was one of them and that he should come live with them. The big duckling went with the swans, happy to find a place where he belonged…

  Prologue

  July, twenty years ago

  “Samantha!” the counselor called out. “Aren’t you supposed to be swimming?”

  Samantha got to her feet, looking at the teenager striding down the path toward her. It was Jenny Rizzo, the bossiest counselor in the whole camp. Jenny didn’t listen to anybody. She would never let Sam stay here and wait for the big kids to go to lunch.

  “Come on,” Jenny said as she-got closer. “I’ll walk you over to the beach.”

  “I can’t go,” Sam said and pointed to her knee. “I gotta show Fiona I scraped my knee.”

  “You don’t have to show your sister now,” Jenny replied. “She’s busy having fun with her friends.”

  Sam pulled her backpack into her arms. She wished she was a squirrel. Then she could climb really high and run around to the other side of the tree trunk where Jenny couldn’t catch her. Or she could run all over camp and make sure Fiona and Cassie were still here and that the social worker hadn’t come to take them to a new home and forgotten all about her.

  But Sam wasn’t a squirrel. She wasn’t even a frog. She was just a little six-year-old kid. The littlest kid in her family. And, except for Billy Sherman, the littlest kid in her kindergarten class. If it wasn’t for Billy, she would be the littlest kid in the whole world. That was why people were always bossing her around.

  “Fiona said I gotta tell her if I hurt myself,” Samantha said.

  Jenny stopped right in front of her, smiling down with a mean kind of smile that meant she was going to make Sam do something she didn’t want. “You can tell her when you get home,” Jenny said, reaching out for Sam’s backpack. “Come on. I’ll take care of your—”

  “No. You can’t have my backpack.” The words came out so tough-sounding that Samantha almost fell over in surprise. Jenny looked like she was surprised, too. “I’m gonna go find Fiona,” Samantha said and, pushing past Jenny, quickly ran down the path.

  “Samantha, stop being silly!” Jenny called after her. “No one wants to steal your backpack.”

  But Samantha didn’t slow down. Not even the teeniesttiniest bit. You never knew what other people might take. And everything important that she had was in her bag. Stuff like her fuzzy puppy slippers, a monster eraser, a little doll with blue eyes that closed and brown hair that you could comb, and the picture book
Mommy had given to her before she and Daddy went away.

  Samantha dodged among the bushes and branches, running until she was sure that Jenny wasn’t following her. Then she stopped, put the bag on her back, and continued walking down the trail.

  She just wanted to talk to Fiona, that was all. It was mean of Jenny to try to stop her. Sam and her sisters had been living with a bunch of different people for a long time now. Ever since Mommy and Daddy went away and got dead. Fiona and Cassie were all the family Samantha had, and sometimes Sam just had to talk to Fiona.

  Though not so much anymore. Sam swallowed the lump in her throat. Now she and her sisters were living with the Scotts and they were the nicest people in the whole world. Except for her real mommy and daddy, that is.

  The social worker had brought Sam and Cassie and Fiona to the house and then left, just like she always had before. Samantha had been carrying her old brown paper bag with all her stuff in it.

  When Mrs. Scott had asked her what she had in the bag, Samantha had told her it was stuff that was hers and no one else’s. And how she always carried the bag with her so when they had to move, she wouldn’t leave anything behind.

  A blue jay perched on a branch above Sam and hollered down. Samantha looked up at it. “You’re just like Cassie,” she told him. “Always yelling about something.” She watched the bird fly off. Then, once it was out of sight, she started walking faster again.

  Mrs. Scott didn’t do anything about Samantha’s bag. She didn’t try to take it away like some people did. She just helped Cassie and Fiona put their stuff away. Then she took all of them to this big store and bought Samantha her very own backpack. After they paid for everything, Mrs. Scott took her into the ladies’ room and they put her stuff into her backpack. Sam put the brown paper bag in it, too, in case she needed it again later.

  A rabbit dashed across Sam’s path and into the bushes. “Hi, bunny, bunny,” Samantha called after him. He didn’t answer back but she wasn’t bothered. Rabbits didn’t like to stand and let other people see them; they might get hurt. Sometimes she wished she could be a bunny and run away where no one could see her.

  Suddenly Sam heard voices. Down by the big trees where the path bended a whole lot. Mad voices. Familiar voices. Fiona was there. Sam hurried ahead.

  As she rounded the bend her feet slowed and she sighed. Both her sisters were up ahead, walking along and arguing. Cassie and Fiona were always arguing. They hollered at each other more than they hollered at anyone else in the whole world.

  “Where are you guys going?” Samantha shouted, hoping her yelling would make them quit arguing.

  It did make them stop. But instead of being glad to see her, they looked all frowny and mad.

  “Go back to camp,” Cassie told her.

  Fiona would have said it nicer, but Samantha could see that her oldest sister didn’t want her around, either. Well, tough. Sam stood and glared at them. They didn’t even notice her skinned knee, but went stomping off toward the lake. For a moment Sam was so surprised, she just stood there. When she realized they were going to ignore her, she ran after them.

  “There she is.” Cassie was running toward the lake. “There’s Juliet.”

  Samantha looked to where her sister was pointing and her hands flew to her mouth. Oh, no. Something was wrong with the mommy swan. Juliet was in some branches in the water and her wings were all droopy. Samantha held her breath and watched Cassie wade into the lake.

  “Cassie, you can’t go in the water!” Fiona cried. “There’s no lifeguard around.”

  Fiona was right, but Juliet was in trouble. Samantha wondered whether she should run and get help. Why couldn’t her sisters stop arguing and tell her what to do? She could run really fast if she had to. Not as fast as Cassie, but faster than Fiona.

  Now clutching her hands together, Samantha watched Cassie splash out toward Juliet. Suddenly, the bird flapped its huge wings and Samantha gasped. Cassie could get dead, too, just like Mommy and Daddy. The counselors had told them how really, really strong the swans’ wings were.

  “She’s trapped!” Cassie shouted.

  Samantha’s stomach jumped. She hoped Cassie would be able to rescue Juliet. She had to. But she didn’t want Cassie to get hurt, either.

  “Her foot’s caught in one of those plastic-ring things from pop cans!” Cassie was shouting.

  “We need to tell Mrs. Warner!” Fiona shouted back.

  “She won’t do anything. You know how she went on and on that first day about swans being mean.” Cassie was flapping her arms like they were wings as she splashed back to shore. “She won’t let anybody near them. She’ll just call somebody and Juliet will die before they get here.”

  “She might not,” Fiona said.

  Samantha wanted to punch them both. Juliet needed their help and those two were fighting like they did over who was going to get the last piece of cake. Big kids always thought they were so smart.

  “Come on.” Cassie yanked on Fiona’s arm. “We can help her. We just need something to cut the plastic.”

  But Fiona didn’t budge. Cassie jerked harder and Fiona had to move. Breathing a sigh of relief, Samantha followed after her sisters. They would help Juliet. But then Cassie turned to frown at Sam.

  “You stay here,” Cassie told her. “Keep Juliet company.”

  “Me?” Samantha stopped, her feet suddenly glued to the ground. “What am I supposed to do?”

  “I don’t know, Sam.” Fiona sounded just as mad as Cassie. Why was the whole world mad at her? She didn’t do anything. “Sing to her. Read her a story. Show her all that junk in your bag. Just stay out of the water.”

  Why did she have to stay? Why not one of them? Samantha wanted to shout. Fiona should stay; she was the slowest. Samantha and Cassie could be back before Fiona was halfway there.

  But her sisters were already gone, disappearing through the bushes before Samantha could get the words out of her mouth. She felt tears sliding down her cheeks.

  That was the way it always was. She would have some really good stuff to say and nobody would listen. Nobody ever listened to a little kid. Nobody.

  Suddenly a squawky sound came from the lake. Samantha quickly turned. Romeo was swimming around Juliet, telling her everything was going to be all right. But Juliet looked like she was really tired.

  “Juliet!” Samantha called. “Hold your head up. You gotta. If you don’t, you’ll—”

  As she was talking, Samantha was walking toward the birds. Suddenly she found herself in the mud at the edge of the lake. And her shoes were dirty. Now she really felt like crying. The Scotts would never adopt them now. Mommies and daddies didn’t like kids who got their shoes dirty.

  Maybe if she wiped them off, everything would be okay. She could always hide behind Cassie and Fiona. Or she could go barefoot. And when it snowed, she would always wear boots. With six kids—the Scotts already had three boys—they couldn’t notice everything anyway.

  Romeo called out again, making Samantha forget about her dirty shoes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “What do you want me to do?”

  The daddy bird didn’t answer. He just swam around Juliet. Samantha clenched her fists. Romeo was acting just like a big kid. He wanted her to do something but he wasn’t saying what.

  “You want me to sing you a song?”

  Her ankles felt wet and Samantha noticed that she’d gone farther into the lake. Fiona had said not to go in the water, but Sam couldn’t just stand here and holler at the swans.

  “I don’t sing very good. That’s what Fiona and Cassie say.”

  She moved closer to the birds. Juliet was still hanging her head but Romeo was looking at Samantha.

  “Fiona and Cassie are my big sisters. They’re the two big mouths that just left.” She noticed that Romeo looked really scared. “But don’t worry. They’ll be back. They just went to get something to cut with.”

  Neither of the swans seemed impressed. Samantha went farther into the water. It was up to he
r knees now.

  “You want me to read you a story?”

  Juliet lifted her head to look at her. Samantha smiled. She’d finally found something the big bird was interested in.

  “I read pretty good. I mean, for a kindergarten kid.”

  Both birds squawked. And Romeo put his wings out.

  “You don’t want me any closer?” Samantha asked. “But you won’t be able to see the pictures. Pictures are what really make a book good.”

  They squawked again. It sounded like a definite no.

  “Okay. Maybe you got good eyes.” Samantha reached around into her backpack and pulled out her book. Then she squatted down because she never liked to stand and read. The cold water washed over the seat of her pants.

  “Oh, swell. Now my butt’s all wet. I bet I have to stand on the bus all the way home.”

  The swans didn’t say anything. Boy, even birds didn’t care what happened to a little kid.

  “Okay,” Samantha said. “This is a story about a baby swan who lives with a duck family. It’s really, really good.”

  The birds sat there and stared at her.

  “You really could see the pictures better if I got closer.” They didn’t even blink. “Oh, all right.”

  ”‘Once upon a time…’”

  Samantha shifted the book to one hand. She didn’t need the book to tell the story. She’d heard it so many times, she knew it by heart, but she was trying to match the words in her head with the ones on the page, so she followed the string of words with her finger. Fiona said that first graders weren’t allowed to do that. But Sam wasn’t in first grade yet—not until September.