Marie Ferrarella - Expecting...in Texas

THE TEXAS TATTLER

All the news that’s barely fit to print!

“Wrong” Baby Rescued

Will the Real Father Please Stand Up?

A sigh of relief turned into hysteria earlier this week when a child recovered by the FBI and thought to be the abducted Bryan Fortune was actually an unidentified boy of roughly the same age. Blood tests and the distinctive crown-shaped birthmark confirm that the child is, however, a Fortune. Scandalous! Kidnappers remain at large.

The mystery child, “Taylor,” is being cared for at the jaw-drop-ping 500,000-acre Fortune “Western paradise,” but no word yet on the identity of the child’s father. Looks like one Fortune boy’s past just caught up to him—and is wearing a diaper.

Now, is this any time for company at the Double Crown Ranch? Insider sources verify that unwed Savannah Clark, college chum to Vanessa Fortune, arrived on the mansion doorstep yesterday hefting luggage and carrying a secret…in her belly. Better make that room for two more! Is there another undisclosed daddy in the house?

About the Author

MARIE FERRARELLA

is a RITA® Award winner and USA TODAY bestselling author with over 140 titles for Silhouette Books.

Marie was born in Germany, raised in New York City and currently lives in Southern California with her husband, their two children and a German shepherd named Rocky. She holds a Masters of Arts with a concentration in Shakespearean comedy from Queens College. Her interests include old movies, old songs and musical theater, and her motto is Always Be Prepared. (She sewed her own wedding dress and made it wash-and-wear “just in case”!)

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Meet the Fortunes of Texas

Cruz Perez: The carefree cowboy has never imagined himself as the baby-powder-and-diaper type, but honor demands he propose to the mother of his unborn child. Trouble is, the expectant beauty insists she doesn’t want to become a wife….

Savannah Clark: The mom-to-be isn’t eager to build a marriage for her baby’s sake. She wants love—and is determined to show her cowboy how passion can lead to the promise of forever.

Rosita Perez: Everyone knows the Fortunes’ housekeeper has a penchant for seeing the future. But when she envisions a connection between Maria Cassidy and the mysterious recovered baby, will anyone heed her premonition?

Maggie Perez Randall: The single mother has finally returned home to the bosom of her Texas family. Will the Double Crown Ranch be the place to make a new life for herself and her son?

To Melissa Jeglinski,

With love and appreciation

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

Her baby’s father was here, somewhere, amid the throng of people who had turned out at the Double Crown Ranch to see Vanessa Fortune pledge her hand and her heart to the tall, good-looking FBI special agent Devin Kincaid.

Would there be a wedding like this for her someday? Savannah Clark wondered as she came to the end of her short journey down the aisle and stepped to the side. Would there be a man waiting for her someday, looking the way Devin did right at this moment? A little dazed, a little dazzled, and very much in love?

God, but she hoped so.

Just as Savannah turned and the Wedding March swelled, she saw him.

Cruz Perez had been looking at her. Their eyes met, touched, and she saw his smile. Felt his smile. That wide, sexy, scintillating smile that had made her lose her head, and perhaps her heart, for the space of a night three months ago at baby Bryan’s christening party.

And perhaps, for even more than that.

Just as before, Cruz made her feel as if she were the only one there besides him. A very neat trick, considering just how many people had arrived at the ranch northwest of San Antonio to be crowded in neat rows of folding chairs set up before the altar. They were there to see the wedding of one of Ryan Fortune’s twin daughters.

With a supreme effort, Savannah looked away from Cruz and toward the bride—her best friend from college. But she could still feel his intense gaze upon her. Color rose to her cheeks, but she kept her eyes riveted to the back of the house, where Vanessa was making her entrance.

Looking like a dapper, proud lion Ryan Fortune solemnly walked down the aisle with his daughter on his arm. But it was Vanessa who immediately stole everyone’s attention, in her beautiful, formfitting long white lace gown with its delicate Spanish lace veil that eloquently trailed after her. The handmade veil represented something borrowed as well as something old. Cruz’s mother Rosita, the Fortune’s housekeeper had worn it herself forty years ago, when she had married Ruben. It had been a gift to her from Vanessa’s own mother, Janine Fortune— Ryan’s late first wife.

Now it was a tradition, Savannah mused. A lovely tradition. Vanessa would probably pass it on to her daughters when the time came.

And what would she pass on to her child? What sort of tradition could she give to a baby who was starting out life with only one parent, its very identity a secret that couldn’t be shared?

Not now Savannah ordered herself sternly.

This wasn’t the time for sad thoughts, only happy ones. She wished her hormones would stop swinging back and forth like a pendulum running amok, and just settle down to an even tempo. Pregnancy was making her lose her bearings; she wasn’t accustomed to being like this.

Savannah stepped a little further to the side as Vanessa reached the altar that Cruz and his father had finished erecting only hours earlier. Vanessa gave up her bouquet to Savannah, a look filled with friendship and memories passing between them. Savannah was surprised to discover that Vanessa’s fingertips were icy. She couldn’t picture Vanessa afraid of anything.