Harlequin Heartwarming May 2016 Box Set: Through the StormHome for KeepsThe Firefighter's RefrainTo Catch a Wife
Page 72
Leaning forward, she read aloud, “I. Only. Want. You.”
“Nothing puzzling about it,” Finn said. She met his eyes and whispered, “It’s what I want, too.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
SAM GAVE THE Sunday paper a flap and folded it in half. “Will you look at this headline!”
Finn leaned closer. “New Prospects Opens Sixth Facility. Wow. Who would have predicted it would catch on so quickly, and go national!”
“Thanks to your dad.”
Finn glanced across the lawn, where Connor and Ciara were playing croquet.
“He’s come a long, long way.”
Sam followed her gaze and nodded. “You can say that again.”
“You know, he tried to straighten out a whole bunch of times. I sometimes wonder—if Mom had tried, too, could they have helped one another, maybe saved their marriage?”
“Wait. What did you just call her?”
Finn smiled to herself. “Ciara once asked me how I’d refer to her if I ever had kids.” She shrugged. “Mom just seems right and proper, you know?”
He went back to reading the paper. “Well, I think that’s great. Ciara will be happy about it, too.”
She helped herself to the real estate section. “Take a look at this headline...”
“Market Prices Expected to Rise.” Frowning, he met her eyes. “You aren’t thinking of becoming an agent, I hope.”
“No, and it makes me sad.”
“Why? If it’s something you want, go for it. I’ll support you in anything you do.”
“Sam...” Finn shoved the paper from his knees, let it fall to the porch floor and climbed into his lap. “You know it’s Mother’s Day, right?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry, I left a message for my mom.”
“You’re a good son.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “But I’m still a little sad.”
“Aw, really? What’s got you down in the dumps?”
“Well, I’m not sure I can compete with your planning and plotting skills.”
“My...” He laughed, held her close and kissed her. “Sweetheart, what in the world are you talking about?”
“Think how much fun I could have had if only I’d figured out how to draw your attention to a headline.”
“Headline...” He shook his head. “All I can say is, it’s a good thing you’re gorgeous, because...”
“Hand me the Arts and Entertainment section, will you?”
“Feel like catching a movie today, huh? What’s playing?” He started to hand it to her but stopped when something caught his eye.
“Denver’s Marshall Clan Still Growing,” he read. “Wait. That doesn’t make a lick of sense. This is a picture of David Beckham and—”
Finn pressed a palm to each of his cheeks. “I did a pretty good job of making my own headline font, don’t you think?”
“You... What?”
“I can’t wait until your folks get back from California—it’s so cute the way they’ve turned into globe-trotters, isn’t it?—because I’ve already planned a huge welcome-home barbecue for the entire family. The ranch hands, the neighbors...”
“A barbecue...”
“So I can watch while you announce to everyone that you found out you were going to be a father...on Mother’s Day.”
Eyes wide, Sam said, “Finn...you’re...you’re pregnant?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“Man. Wow. Really?”
“Really.”
“Aw, sweetheart.” He hugged her tight.
He seemed happy, but then, he was such an easygoing, big-hearted guy. Would she know if he wasn’t?
“Sam?”
“What...li’l mama?”
“It’s been over a year now, Sam. You still don’t regret walking away from your Nashville dreams?”
“Are you kiddin’?” His lips were touching hers when he said, “I. Only. Want. You. Remember?”
How many hours had she spent worrying that he’d regret that decision?
“Well, that isn’t entirely true. I don’t just want you.”
The words chilled her to the core. Not already, she thought. Not so soon!
Sam pressed a palm to her stomach. “I want this, too.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from TO CATCH A WIFE by Lee McKenzie.
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ISBN-13: 9781488009068
The Firefighter’s Refrain
Copyright © 2016 by Loree Lough
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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www.Harlequin.com
He’ll prove he’s back for good
Detective Jack Evans will keep proposing as many times as it takes. He never expected to come home to Riverton, Wisconsin, let alone to find himself lost in a night of passion with reporter Emily Finnegan—and he gets an even bigger surprise when he finds out she’s pregnant. Now he’s determined to marry the beautiful brunette. It took a world-shaking surprise to make him realize what was missing in his life. But Emily has been hurt before and isn’t convinced his desire to marry her is about love. He’ll do whatever it takes to prove his heart is hers...for as long as they
both shall live.
“We’ll get married,” he blurted. “Right away, as soon as you want.”
The declaration caught him completely off guard and he added, “You can move to Chicago. I’ll take care of you and the baby and...”
Horrified didn’t come close to describing her expression.
“What?” he asked.
“Oh, gee, Jack. We hardly even know one another, for one thing.”
“Emily, we’ve known each other for years.”
“All right, then,” she said. “What’s my favorite color?”
He looked her up and down, as though her wardrobe might offer up a clue. “Yellow?”
“Wrong. What’s my middle name? When’s my birthday?” she asked, relentlessly hammering her point home.
Again, he had no idea, none whatsoever.
“See? You don’t know anything about me, but you think getting married is a good idea. You think I should walk away from my family and my job and everything I’ve ever known, follow you to Chicago, waiting for you to get unbusy enough to be a husband and a father?”
“I don’t know, Emily. We’re going to be parents, and I’m trying to do the right thing.”
Dear Reader,
Welcome to Riverton, Wisconsin! This (fictional) small town, steeped in the culture of America’s Heartland, is home to the Finnegan sisters—Emily, Annie and CJ—and I’m delighted to introduce them to you.
I grew up in a close-knit family, always knowing there was someone there to celebrate the good times and to offer support when the going got tough. I cherish all the memories of afternoon picnics and Sunday dinners, so it’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that those are the things I love to write about.
To Catch a Wife is about coming to terms with the past, learning to cope with an uncertain future and discovering that love is all about the compromise. This is middle sister Emily’s story, and I hope you enjoy it. I love to hear from readers and invite you to visit my website at leemckenzie.com, where you can send me an email, sign up for my (mostly) monthly newsletter and find out about my other books, including future books in this series. Happy reading!
Warmest,
Lee
To Catch a Wife
Lee McKenzie
From the time she was ten years old and read Anne of Green Gables and Little Women, Lee McKenzie knew she wanted to be a writer, just like Anne and Jo. In the intervening years, she has written everything from advertising copy to an honors thesis in paleontology, but becoming a four-time Golden Heart® Award finalist and a Harlequin author are among her proudest accomplishments. Lee and her artist/teacher husband live on an island along Canada’s west coast, and she loves to spend time with two of her best friends—her grown-up children.
Books by Lee McKenzie
Harlequin Heartwarming
The Parent Trap
Harlequin American Romance
The Man for Maggie
With This Ring
Firefighter Daddy
The Wedding Bargain
The Christmas Secret
The Daddy Project
Daddy, Unexpectedly
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For Johanna Raisanen, editor extraordinaire
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Melanie Backus for entering my Name This Furry Friend contest and suggesting the name Tadpole for Emily’s hamster. It was a hands-down favorite with the judges.
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 NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
EMILY FINNEGAN SETTLED onto the middle stool at the big kitchen island, sliding comfortably into her place as the middle sister. No matter what was wrong with the world—floods, famines, personal freak-outs—here in the heart of the Finnegan family farmhouse, everything felt right.
Her younger sister, CJ—Cassie Jo as their father affectionately called her—sat on the stool to Emily’s right. CJ was dressed for the stables in dark jeans and a faded denim work shirt, her long blond hair pulled back in a high ponytail.
Across the gleaming white Formica countertop, Annie, eldest of the three sisters, stood with carafe in hand. “Coffee?” She angled the pot over Emily’s mug. If the kitchen was the heart of the home, then Annie was the life force that kept it beating.
“Sure. Oh, wait. No.” Emily hastily withdrew her cup. “Only if it’s decaf.”
CJ clapped a hand to Emily’s forehead.
Emily ducked away from it. “What are you doing?”
“Checking to see if you’re running a fever. Since when do you drink decaf?”
A good question for which Emily didn’t have a good answer. Yet. “I haven’t been sleeping well, so I thought I’d cut back on caffeine, see if that makes a difference.” Only partly true, but at least it wasn’t a lie.
“It’s ten-thirty in the morning,” CJ said.
Emily shrugged.
“Not a problem,” Annie said. “I’ll make a fresh pot of decaf. It’ll be ready in a few minutes.” She looked amazing in a slouchy yellow pullover and crisp white slacks. Given everything she would have accomplished since getting up before sunrise—gathering eggs from the chicken coop, making breakfast, vacuuming, laundry—Emily had no idea how Annie kept herself looking fresh as a summer daisy.
While her older sister turned to the coffeemaker, Emily tried to ignore her younger sister’s scrutiny. Ever since CJ had been little, she’d had a talent for sniffing secrets and wheedling information out of the secret keeper.
“You’re being weird,” CJ said.
“I’m always weird.”
“Weirder than usual.”
“Don’t bug your sister.” Annie, ever the mom, filled CJ’s mug, then her own.
The coffee smelled like a little piece of heaven to Emily. How would she make it through nine whole months without coffee? Although, if the secret thing that had been keeping her up at night turned out to be true, it was now closer to seven months.
Annie set the carafe on the counter next to a basket of muffins. “These are blueberry,” she said. “They should still be warm. I baked the oatmeal-raisin cookies yesterday. I had to send something for the school bake sale, so I made extra.”
“Mmm. Yummy,” CJ said, biting into a cookie. “What are you raising money for this time?”
“A field trip to the geology museum in Madison. Isaac is over-the-moon excited because they’re going to see ‘real’ dinosaurs.”
“He knows they’re just a bunch of bones, right?”
“He does. He also knows the scientific name of almost every dinosaur that ever existed, how big it was, whether it ate meat or plants. Thanks to the set of books you gave him for Christmas, Em, dinosaurs are a very big deal for my little boy.”
“Pun intended?” CJ quipped.
Annie grinned. “Of course.” She poured Emily a mug of decaf coffee. “You seem awfully quiet this morning.”
“I’m always quiet.”
“Okay, quieter than usual.”
Emily shrugged. She didn’t like to keep things from her sisters—hated it, actually—but there was no point in saying anything about this particular thing until she knew for sure. If it turned out to be a false alarm, then they’d be none the wiser.
Time to change the subject. “Where is my favorite dinosaur-obsessed nephew this morning?”
“Dad drove him into town to shop for a birthday present for his friend Matthew. The party’s this afternoon. They’ll be home for lunch, and then Dad will run him back to town for the party. I’d take him myself, but I have a guest checking into the B & B this afternoon, and I need to be here when she arrives.”
“Where’s she coming from?” CJ asked.
“Chicago.”
“Will she want a trail ride? Maybe a riding lesson or two?”
“I don’t know. She booked online and didn’t request it, but I’ll be sure to ask when she checks in.”
While her sisters discussed the anticipated guest and what her needs might be, Emily’s thoughts drifted, as they often did when the three of them were together in the kitchen, in search of one of her few and fleeting memories of their mother. Few because Emily had barely been four years old the last time they’d seen Scarlett Finnegan, and fleeting because that’s what twenty-five-year-old memories tended to be.
What came to mind was an image of her four-year-old self sitting on the lap of a gaunt-looking woman with dark, soulful eyes and long chestnut hair the same color as Emily’s. Her sisters were blue-eyed blondes like their father, but she had taken after their mother. As always, the memory was tinged bittersweet. Was it real? Or was she simply conjuring the moment that had been captured in the framed photograph on her dresser? She would never be sure. The picture had been taken in this kitchen on Emily’s fourth birthday, only a few weeks before her mother had gone away.