Lynnette Kent - Matt's Family

Two decades of bringing you the very best in romance reading.

To recognize this important milestone, we’ve invited six very special authors—whose names you’re sure to recognize—to tell us how they feel about Superromance. Each title this month has a letter from one of these authors.

In 1992 Karen Young—whose foreword appears in this book—helped celebrate an earlier milestone in Superromance history. Her book, The Silence of Midnight, was the 500th Superromance published and won the RITA Award for Long Contemporary the following year. In her letter prefacing this book, Karen writes, “…Superromance, with its eclectic lineup each month, will not disappoint. I’m proud to be an author in this line.”

Matt’s Family by Lynnette Kent has a well-earned place in Superromance’s “eclectic lineup,” and offers readers a complex and compelling story of family dynamics.

It’s the second of a two-book series—THE BRENNAN BROTHERS—in which the relationship between two brothers is stretched to the limit by their feelings for one woman and their commitment to family and children.

Dear Reader,

I live near one of the largest army posts in the U.S.—Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the 82nd Airborne Division and the Special Operations Forces. My daughters attend school with kids who are here one year and gone the next…to Germany, to Japan, to Kentucky or Kansas or North Dakota. Our community is enhanced by the many talented people who come into the area for just a year or two and yet donate their time and energy to local causes. We always miss them when they get orders to move, and always hope that maybe one day they’ll come back.

As the wife of a career navy officer, I understand the commitment demonstrated by men and women in the armed forces, as well as the devotion required from their families. Military service is not an easy job, but it is an honorable and invaluable one.

The hero of Matt’s Family, Major Matt Brennan, comes from a long line of military men, and he is worthy of his heritage. He’s given five years of his life—and those of his wife and their daughter—to the service of his country. Can he consider his duty done?

More important, can Matt find a way to bond with a little girl he didn’t know he had? And can he convince his wife that their marriage isn’t merely duty, but the heart and soul of his very life?

I hope you enjoy Matt and Kristin’s story, the second of THE BRENNAN BROTHERS books. I love getting letters from readers—please feel free to write me c/o P.O. Box 1795, Fayetteville, NC 28314.

All the best,

Lynnette Kent

Matt’s Family

Lynnette Kent

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Many thoughts come to mind when I consider my experience as a Superromance author. First and foremost is my delight in having the editorial freedom to write the kind of books that appeal to me. I have never underestimated the discernment and sophistication of Superromance readers. Consequently, I have come up with a few plots that featured some pretty strong elements, but they were stories that I felt touched the lives of the women who were reading them. Maybe a sister was married to an abusive husband, or a reader knew of a child who fell through the cracks in our foster care system. Maybe someone’s heart had been broken by an unfaithful husband. I’ve created characters who wrestled with those life crises—and more—and my editors at Superromance were always completely supportive in allowing me that creative freedom.

Also, as a Superromance author, I seem to need the additional length to fully develop a story once I’ve come up with an idea for a book. I have written shorter contemporary books, but I never really hit my stride as a writer until I had a larger “palette,” so to speak, to paint a picture with emotional depth as well as a strong plot. Superromance afforded me that opportunity.

Finally, I believe the women who comprise our audience of readers are far more sophisticated today than when the romance novel first appeared on the scene. Superromance recognized that growth on the part of our readership early on and it was reflected in the quality of the books offered each month. So, whether your taste as a reader runs to a plot that makes you laugh or one that makes you cry or one that makes you think or one that deftly manages to do all of the above, Superromance with its eclectic lineup each month will not disappoint.

I’m proud to be an author in this line.

To the military wives I’ve known, and those I haven’t: Whatever it took, you always held things together somehow.

And to Mary Bacon, the wife and mother of military men: You’ve served your country and your children with honor and love.

Thank you.

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

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

EPILOGUE

Christmas Day, 1996

MATT BRENNAN PARKED on the curb in front of the small, neat house and sat for a minute, trying to relax.

He was finally home. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, U.S.A. Five years late, true. But at least he’d made it. Two of the soldiers captured with him on that covert mission in Africa would never see home again.

And inside this robin’s-egg-blue house was the reason Matt had come back. Sweet brown eyes and an easy laugh. Smooth, tanned skin, sun-streaked hair, gentle hands. A woman willing to listen, to share, to face life beside him wherever it led.

“Kristin.”

Her name had brought light to five years of darkness. Saying it aloud now built up a fierce need inside him. He’d waited so long. But he didn’t have to wait another minute.

Opening the car door, he stepped onto the pavement, once again aware of the unfamiliar sensation of shoes after spending half a decade in a tropical prison, barefoot. A soft, damp breeze blew across his face, and he closed his eyes for a second to appreciate the moisture. His life had been dry for so long.

No more. Grinning like a fool, with his heart pounding in his chest, Matt crossed the spiky grass to the front door of the house. Kristin didn’t know he was coming—none of his family knew, yet, that he was alive. The Army could keep secrets very well, when it wanted to.

His finger shook as he pressed the doorbell button. He closed his fists at his sides as he waited, braced against the wild excitement that kept stealing his breath. After so long…

The door opened. Looking over her shoulder, laughing at something behind her, Kristin didn’t see him for a second. In the time it took her to face him, his world shattered.

She held a baby in the bend of her arm, a little girl in a pink gown with a wisp of silver hair caught up in a pink bow.

If he could have moved, Matt would have left before a word was said. But he was frozen in place. And so the woman he loved—Kristin, his fiancée—turned to see him standing at her door.

Her brown eyes went round, and her lips parted on a gasp. The color left her cheeks in a rush. Staring at him, she didn’t appear to notice when the baby in her arms pulled at a strand of her bright gold hair.

“Matt?” No sound filled in the word. “Oh my God.” This time he heard her whisper. “Matt?”