Shelley Cooper - Promises, Promises

Marco knew Gretchen meant the car, but he couldn’t help but think of the far different, exceedingly intimate kind of ride he would like to take with her. “I don’t know how to drive a stick shift,” he said.

She maneuvered her long legs into the driver’s seat. Looking at him expectantly, she replied, “That’s okay. I do.”

When he hesitated, she patted the leather of the passenger seat with bright red fingernails. “Don’t worry, Dr. Garibaldi. I promise I won’t bite.”

She might not, but he was afraid if he was cooped up in close quarters with her for too long, he might.

“Marco,” he said. “The name’s Marco.”

“Call me Gretchen.”

“Very well, Gretchen.” Swinging the passenger door open, he sank with a sigh onto the soft leather seat. Inhaling a heady breath of new-car aroma, he said, “Take me away from all my troubles.”

“My pleasure.”

Dear Reader,

Once again, Silhouette Intimate Moments brings you six exciting romances, a perfect excuse to take a break and read to your heart’s content. Start off with Heart of a Hero, the latest in award-winning Marie Ferrarella’s CHILDFINDERS, INC. miniseries. You’ll be on the edge of your seat as you root for the heroine to find her missing son—and discover true love along the way. Then check out the newest of our FIRSTBORN SONS, Born Brave, by Ruth Wind, another of the award winners who make Intimate Moments so great every month. In Officer Hawk Stone you’ll discover a hero any woman—and that includes our heroine!—would fall in love with.

Cassidy and the Princess, the latest from Patricia Potter, is a gripping story of a true princess of the ice and the hero who lures her in from the cold. With Hard To Handle, mistress of sensuality Kylie Brant begins CHARMED AND DANGEROUS, a trilogy about three irresistible heroes and the heroines lucky enough to land them. Be sure to look for her again next month, when she takes a different tack and contributes our FIRSTBORN SONS title. Round out the month with new titles from up-and-comers Shelley Cooper, whose Promises, Promises offers a new twist on the pregnant-heroine plot, and Wendy Rosnau, who tells a terrific amnesia story in The Right Side of the Law.

And, of course, come back again next month, when the romantic roller-coaster ride continues with six more of the most exciting romances around.

Enjoy!

Leslie J. Wainger

Executive Senior Editor

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first experienced the power of words when she was in the eighth grade and wrote a paragraph about the circus for a class assignment. Her teacher returned it with an “A” and seven pluses scrawled across the top of the paper, along with a note thanking her for rekindling so vividly some cherished childhood memories. Since Shelley had never been to the circus, and had relied solely on her imagination to compose the paragraph, the teacher’s remarks were a revelation. Since then, Shelley has relied on her imagination to help her sell dozens of short stories and to write her first novel, Major Dad, a 1997 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist in Best Long Contemporary, and all those that have come after. She hopes her books will be as moving to her readers as her circus paragraph was to that long-ago English teacher.

To Charles and Joan Cooper

for raising an incredible son, and for treating me, a daughter by law, like one of their original eight.

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Eyes stinging and heart pounding, Gretchen Montgomery sat motionless at her desk, staring at the items scattered across the blotter. An empty padded manila envelope. A letter from an attorney named Martin Sanders. A portable tape player. A cassette.

The cassette was what had her thoughts in turmoil. It was labeled “Jill Barnes—Tape for Gretchen Montgomery” and dated eight days prior to Jill’s death three months earlier. The letter, stating that the tape was an addendum to her best friend’s bequest to her, was from the executor of Jill’s estate.

Gretchen reached for the tape with trembling fingers. A minute, then two, passed before she found the resolve to insert it into the tape recorder. After drawing a deep breath and letting it out slowly, she pushed the play button.

“Surprise!” Jill’s voice trilled, weak but full of the humor and vivacity that had been Jill all over. “I bet you weren’t expecting to hear from me again.”

Though Gretchen had steeled herself for it, the sound of her best friend’s voice had emotion swelling her throat.

“I was going to videotape this,” Jill’s voice echoed in the silent room, “but let’s face it, I look like death.”

Gretchen choked out a laugh. Even at the end, when Jill’s pain had been great, she hadn’t lost her sense of humor.

“Are you smiling, Gretch?” the tape continued. “You’d better be, ’cause if you’re sitting there boo-hooing over me, I’m going to be highly pissed.”

“I’m smiling,” Gretchen said softly, her lips turning up as she brushed away a tear.

“Good. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, videotaping. Since that was out, and since I’ve never been much of a letter writer, I chose this method of communicating with you. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind.”

Gretchen knew she was talking to the air, that Jill couldn’t actually hear her, and that anyone chancing upon her would think she’d lost it. She didn’t care. She’d been so lonely these past months with Jill gone. It was wonderful to hear her friend’s voice again, even if it was just a recording and not the real thing.

“We’ve been through a lot together,” Jill said. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

An understatement, if ever there was one. Best friends since kindergarten, and the only family each had had after the deaths of their parents, it had taken the marauding power of cancer to part them.

“More than the average bear,” Gretchen murmured.

“Matter of fact,” Jill stated, “I can’t think of a single area of our lives we haven’t shared. Training bras and braces. Pimples and periods. The hard times your family went through. Unrequited crushes and failed romances. The struggle to build a successful career. Regrets and unfulfilled dreams.”

There was a pause. “It’s the regrets and unfulfilled dreams I want to talk about today. I can’t tell you how many regrets I have for some of the things I’ve done during my life. But they pale in comparison with the regrets I have for the things I didn’t do. The things I won’t get to do now.