The Instant Family Man

by Shirley Jump

  From Playboy Days...To Bedtime Lullabies?

  Up till now, Luke Barlow’s biggest dilemma was deciding which debutante to take to which Stone Gap social. Until Peyton Reynolds appeared on his doorstep with a four-year-old blonde moppet and a birth certificate spelling out Luke’s name in black and white. And it’s time for the South’s sexiest bachelor to step up and be the daddy his little girl needs!

  Peyton had sworn she’d keep her cool around her onetime crush, but when Luke begins bonding with little Maddy, Peyton realizes she’s in danger of losing her heart to the small-town heartbreaker. Perhaps this Barlow brother might be inspired to change his footloose ways and become the man Peyton can depend on...for a lifetime!

  “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in you.”

  “And I’d be lying if I said I was interested in you.” Peyton brushed at her skirt as if kissing him had left her dusty, or as if she just wanted to whisk away the memory of his touch. “I’m here so you have a chance to get to know your daughter. Nothing more. And I mean that, Luke. Nothing more.”

  “Then why did you kiss me back?”

  “I...” She opened her mouth, closed it. “I didn’t mean to. I got caught up in the moment and—”

  “Overcome by the heat? Swept away by the romantic atmosphere of a children’s zoo?” He shifted closer. Still, she kept her distance, stood strong and cool, dispassionate. If he hadn’t been there himself, he wouldn’t believe that ten seconds ago this same woman had been leaning into him, letting out soft mews of desire. “Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy that. Don’t pretend it was nothing.”

  * * *

  THE BARLOW BROTHERS:

  Nothing tames a Southern man faster...than true love!

  Dear Reader,

  My favorite kinds of books to read, and write, are connected books. I love, love, love going back to a favorite fictional town populated with much-loved fictional characters. It’s like going to a family reunion, except without all the calories of Aunt Janie’s Sweet Potato Casserole!

  So when I got the opportunity to return to Stone Gap and write Luke Barlow’s story, I was excited to see what the Barlows had been up to since The Homecoming Queen Gets Her Man. Surprising Luke with the news that he was a dad (to sweet and adorable Maddy), was just as much fun for me as I hope it will be for my readers!

  My favorite part of the Barlow Brothers books has to be the family meals. I grew up with brothers and sisters and remember the gentle ribbing at family dinners. There’s just something about passing the mashed potatoes with a little good-natured humor that warms my heart. I may not remember a single thing I ate, but I always remember the love and laughs.

  I hope you enjoy Luke’s story! I always love to hear from readers, so visit me at my website, shirleyjump.com, or on Facebook (ShirleyJump.author), Twitter (@ShirleyJump) or on my blog, where I share my favorite recipes (eating-my-words.com). And look out for Mac Barlow’s story, coming soon!

  Happy reading!

  Shirley

  The Instant Family Man

  Shirley Jump

  New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Shirley Jump spends her days writing romance so she can avoid the towering stack of dirty dishes, eat copious amounts of chocolate and reward herself with trips to the mall. Visit her website at shirleyjump.com for author news and a booklist, and follow her at facebook.com/shirleyjump.author for giveaways and deep discussions about important things like chocolate and shoes.

  Books by Shirley Jump

  Harlequin Special Edition

  The Barlow Brothers

  The Homecoming Queen Gets Her Man

  Harlequin Romance

  The Christmas Baby Surprise

  The Matchmaker’s Happy Ending

  Mistletoe Kisses with the Billionaire

  Return of the Last McKenna

  How the Playboy Got Serious

  One Day to Find a Husband

  Family Christmas in Riverbend

  The Princess Test

  How to Lasso a Cowboy

  Midnight Kiss, New Year Wish

  If the Red Slipper Fits...

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  To my husband, Jeff, because he is amazing—as a dad, as a husband and as a man. He’s the family man I always dreamed of meeting and am blessed to have married.

  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

  Excerpt

  Chapter One

  When Peyton Reynolds was a little girl, tearing through her grandmother’s house on her way to whatever excitement waited outside the front door, her grandma Lucy would reach out, corral her granddaughter in a fresh-baked-bread-scented hug and say, “Goodness gracious, child, you gotta slow down. Life is just gonna pass you by if you don’t learn to take a breath or two.”

  Peyton never had learned to slow down. She’d taken every day of her life ten steps at a time, running from high school to college, graduating in two and a half years instead of four, and putting in more hours at Winston Interior Design than any other designer—earning her four promotions in three years. Then, a month before her twenty-third birthday, her world turned upside down when her older sister Susannah died in a car accident, suddenly leaving forty pounds of cuteness and need in Peyton’s full-time care.

  In that instant, Peyton had put the brakes on her rising career while she figured out how to be a surrogate mom to her niece, Madelyne, and still stay on the fast track in the design industry. She’d been so very close to a promotion to associate, just a step below her goal of partner, but in the past four weeks, everything she had worked for started to fall apart. And it wasn’t just her career self-destructing that had Peyton worried...

  It was the quiet. The words unspoken, the tears unshed.

  Maddy hadn’t grieved, hadn’t asked about her mother, hadn’t wanted to talk about it. She’d gone on playing with her toys and eating her meals and brushing her teeth, but her mood was more somber, her heart more distant. Her laughter dulled, almost silenced.

  That sad quiet was what finally spurred Peyton to go back home from Maryland, arriving yesterday in Stone Gap, North Carolina, one of those small Southern towns where it seemed the world stopped spinning. Where the trees and green landscape seemed to offer peace, and quiet, and healing. And where the last man on earth she wanted to see lived. A man who had no idea she was about to upend his world in a very big way.

  For a very good reason. Peyton could only pray that he would see it that way, too.

  “Auntie P?”

  The soft voice of Madelyne, four years old next week and as beautiful as a ray of sunshine, rose from the space on the carpet between the two double beds in their hotel room. Peyton’s only niece, and the only real family she had left. There were times in the days since her sister had died that Peyton wondered how she could move forward, take a breath, without letting the grief drown her. Then she’d look at Maddy, at her bouncy blond curls and her lopsided, toothy smile, and a blanket of warmth would surround Peyton’s heart. For Maddy, Peyton would do absolutely anything.

  Peyton came around the beds, then bent down and offered her niece a warm smile. “What do you need, kiddo?”

  “Can you play dolls with me? I gots a house set up and everything.” Maddy waved toward an empty suitcase tipped on its side, flanked by a quartet of blond-haired, blue-ey
ed Barbie dolls in various stages of mismatched glamour. The moment Maddy had arrived back in Stone Gap, she had made herself at home in the hotel room, taking over every square inch of space with toys and clothes, a bright explosion among the tired and boring cream-colored decor.

  “Wish I could, but remember I told you I had a meeting this morning? My friend Cassie is coming over to watch you.”

  “I like Cassie,” Maddy said. “She always likes to play dolls.”

  “She sure does, buttercup!” The loud, happy voice of Cassie Bertram boomed into the room, followed immediately by the woman herself—platinum blonde, dressed in a bright pink sundress and flip-flops sporting giant plastic flowers. Cassie had always been larger than life, and that was part of what Peyton loved about her best friend.

  A peacock, Grandma Lucy had dubbed Cassie, for all her sass and snap. Cassie lit up a room when she walked into it and lived her life out loud, in ways that Peyton could only envy. Cassie had traveled all the opposite roads from Peyton—married shortly after high school, settling down in Stone Gap with her husband, and then becoming a mother to five kids while working part-time in the school office. Cassie did the bake sales and cookie walks and all the craziness that came with kids, and more often than not, she sported glitter glue on her arms from the craft project du jour. She’d been Peyton’s first call when Peyton had decided to come back home for a couple of weeks, and her biggest support system in the chaotic weeks since Maddy had become Peyton’s charge. Cassie had visited Peyton often enough over the years that Maddy knew her well and loved her like another aunt.

  “I’ve got a couple hours before I have to pick up the youngest rug rat at preschool,” Cassie said to Peyton. “Is that enough time?”

  “More than enough. It won’t take me long to tell a certain someone that he should...” She glanced down at her motherless niece, then stepped toward the window and motioned for Cassie to follow, saying “Be a grown-up. And do his part. Or walk away for good.”

  Cassie grinned. “I wish I could be a fly on the wall to watch this particular conversation unfold.”

  “It’ll be fine. I’ll make a logical, reasonable argument, and he’ll see the wisdom in my plan.”

  “Logical and reasonable? With that hunk of testosterone?” Cassie grinned. “Good luck, honey.”

  Hunk of testosterone. Definitely three words that described Luke Barlow. Or had when Peyton had been a young, infatuated high school freshman, watching the much older Luke turn his charm on Susannah. Her sister’s old boyfriend—and also Maddy’s irresponsible, never-involved father. According to Susannah, he’d washed his hands of her from the day she told him she was pregnant. She might have let it go, but Peyton sure as hell wasn’t going to let the man get away with shirking his fatherly responsibilities, not for one more second. Especially now, when Peyton was nearly at her wit’s end. Every decision Peyton made right now was driven by the urgent need to make Maddy whole again.

  “How’s the little peanut doing?” Cassie asked softly, as if reading Peyton’s mind.

  “Same. Won’t talk about it. She plays and eats and does what she’s told, but there’s a...wall there. I can’t get past it.”

  Cassie put a hand on Peyton’s shoulder. “It’ll get better.”

  Peyton sighed. That was what she had been telling herself for a month now, and if anything, things were getting worse, not better. “I hope so. And I really hope I’m making the right decision today.”

  “Auntie P?” Maddy rose, peered over the bed at Peyton. “Are you leavin’?”

  “Just for a little bit, sweetie.”

  Maddy’s face flushed, and her right hand curled tight around the hem of her shirt. “Are you comin’ right back?”

  Peyton swung over to Maddy and lowered herself to her niece’s level. “Right back, sweetie. I promise. Cassie will be here the whole time, and she’s going to play dolls with you.”

  Maddy’s lower lip quivered. “How long’s a little bit?”

  Peyton glanced at Cassie. These were the days that made it hard. Explaining to Maddy that just because she walked out the door didn’t mean she was going to disappear forever. “Faster than you can watch Frozen.”

  “And we’ll sing ‘Let it Go’ together, munchkin.” Cassie grinned at Maddy. “I’ll dub you honorary princess for the morning, too.”

  “Okay,” Maddy said, though there wasn’t much enthusiasm in her voice. She dropped back onto her Barbie-riddled carpet space and went back to her dolls. Every couple of seconds, her gaze flicked to Peyton, and her shoulders tensed with worry.

  Cassie and Peyton crossed to the other side of the bed and lowered their voices again. “You’re doing the right thing, Pey. That poor little thing needs family and you need help. And if that foolish man can’t be bothered to spend time with that precious gift from heaven...” Cassie cast a smile in Maddy’s direction. “I’d be glad to keep an eye on that little doll.”

  “Thanks, but you have your hands full with that basketball team you gave birth to and everything else you’re doing. Besides, it’s his responsibility to do the right thing.” And the sooner Peyton got there to make sure Luke did that, the better. Peyton grabbed her purse, then darted over to plant a quick kiss on Maddy’s cheek. “See you in a little bit, sweetie. Be good for Cassie.”

  “I will.” Maddy’s eyes were round and full, but she pressed her lips together and affected a brave front.

  “A little bit,” Peyton said softly, ruffling Maddy’s curls. “I promise.”

  At the door, Cassie drew Peyton into a tight, quick hug. “Good luck. And go easy on Luke. He’s a flirt, for sure, but he’s always been a nice guy and maybe he had a good reason for what he did.”

  “The only good reason is being stuck in a cave for the past four years. Something I can arrange, if need be.” Peyton grinned.

  “I hope you’re only half kidding,” Cassie called after her. Peyton just grinned again and slipped out the door.

  But when she climbed into her car and started the engine, the frustration and worry she’d been feeling for weeks flared anew. Luke Barlow was the town’s most eligible bachelor for as long as anyone could remember—one of those charming, handsome, could-do-no-wrong playboys—but who had never had anything to do with his daughter. A daughter who had lost her mother, and desperately needed a caring father.

  Peyton remembered those tearful conversations with Susannah, who said she told Luke about the baby the minute she’d taken the home pregnancy test. When he’d told her she was on her own, nineteen-year-old Susannah had left town, leaving behind her chaotic childhood home—the Reynolds parental storm mitigated too rarely by visits to grandma’s when they were little—determined to raise her baby alone. Peyton had followed soon after, switching colleges to be near her sister, and working part-time all through school, helping Susannah financially, emotionally—in all the ways Luke should have and never did.

  How could anyone not want to be a part of Maddy’s life? From the second she had held her niece in her arms, Peyton had fallen in love. She’d spent every spare minute with Susannah and Maddy, even moving Susannah into her condo in Baltimore so she could be sure they had a solid roof over their heads and a full refrigerator. It had been odd at first, coming home to the responsibilities of a full house when she was barely a grown-up herself, but Peyton had found she liked having a pseudo-family. And though her relationship with her sister had been rocky at best—the two of them butting heads daily on Susannah’s refusal to give up her partying habits—the blooming bond with Maddy had been the highlight of Peyton’s days.

  How long’s a little bit?

  The heartbreaking words from her niece, so unsure and lost in the wake of her mother’s death, told Peyton that Maddy needed a father, now more than ever, and the days of Luke Barlow running around town, as footloose as a loose kite in the wind, were over.

  Peyton double-checked the address, then drove the few miles across town to Luke’s house, located only a few blocks away from where t
he Barlow boys had grown up. She parked her car, strode up the walk, then pressed the doorbell, reminding herself to try to be calm, logical. To keep emotion out of it.

  Uh, yeah, considering the riot in her gut right now, she had a better chance of being hit by a snowstorm.

  The bell chimed, a dog barked, and then...nothing. Peyton waited in the hot North Carolina air, while the cicadas buzzed in the deep woods to the east side of the house.

  Luke lived in a modest bungalow, which surprised her. A house smacked of dependability. A mortgage or a lease. Permanence. She would have never thought he would buy a house, much less live in one.

  An old wooden swing much like the one Grandma Lucy had hung for Peyton when she was a little girl drifted in the breeze on ropes hanging from an oak tree just down the hill sloping away from the driveway. The painted white mailbox hoisted a bright red mail-to-take flag, while an audience of pansies waved in the shade underneath. The whole property seemed to beckon her back in time, to the days when life had been unfettered, uncomplicated.

  She rang the bell again. Waited some more. The dog kept barking, but there was no movement from inside. A restored Mustang convertible sat in the driveway, like some throwback to the ’80s. Peyton shifted her weight, then pressed the bell one more time. If there was any justice in the world, Luke would have gotten bald and fat in the years since she’d last seen him.

  The dog barked again, then shushed. A clatter of footsteps, and a moment later, the door was opened.

  Luke Barlow stood on the other side, looking sleep-rumpled and scruffy with a five o’clock shadow dusting his chin. Her gut tensed, her breath caught. Definitely not bald or fat. At all. If anything, he looked better than he did when he was in high school, damn him.

  “What can I do for you?” he said.

  There wasn’t a hint of recognition in his eyes. She told herself she wasn’t disappointed. After all, she’d grown up a lot in the past five years, ditched the nerdy glasses and khaki pants for contacts and skirts. She’d let her hair grow long, made workouts a daily item on her to-do list and developed more curves than she’d had at graduation. When she was younger, she’d been the annoying little sister, while outgoing, flamboyant Susannah had always taken center stage. Now, though, she was an adult. A woman.