Laurel Greer - A Father For Her Child

She was always his best friend’s girl...

But then their whole lives changed

Widow Cadence Grigg is slowly putting her life back together—and raising her infant son. By her side is her late husband’s best friend, Zach Cardenas, who can’t help his burgeoning feelings for Cadie and her baby boy. Though determined not to fall in love again, Cadie might find that Cupid has other plans for her happily-ever-after...

Raised in a small town on Vancouver Island, LAUREL GREERgrew up skiing and boating by day and reading romances under the covers by flashlight at night. Ever committed to the proper placement of the Canadian eh , she loves to write books with snapping sexual tension and second chances. She lives outside Vancouver with her law-talking husband and two daughters. At least half her diet is made up of tea. Find her at www.laurelgreer.com.

Also By Laurel Greer

Sutter Creek, Montana

From Exes to ExpectingA Father for Her Child

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

A Father for Her Child

Laurel Greer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09133-6

A FATHER FOR HER CHILD

© 2019 Lindsay Macgowan

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, 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.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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Time to accept he’d sound like a fool.

Swallowing in a last-ditch effort to regulate his tone, Zach admitted, “Sam called you Cadie. I wanted to be different.”

A squeak pitched from her throat. “Well, mission accomplished.”

“I didn’t mean it in a way that mattered,” he lied.

“I better check on Ben.” She shot to her feet and grabbed the baby monitor from its perch on top of a novel near the blanket, then hurried toward the house, too fast for him to try to catch her.

“Cadence!” he called.

His last-ditch effort worked, and she halted, turned back halfway to regard him warily. She closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them again—damn, was that a trace of tears? Her knuckles tensed around the baby monitor. “It mattered to me.” And she disappeared into the house.

It had mattered to him, too. But as much as he knew he was special to her, that could never match the craving he had to matter the most.

To completely belong to each other.

* * *

SUTTER CREEK, MONTANA:

Passion and happily-ever-afters in Big Sky Country

Dear Reader,

Welcome back to Sutter Creek! Readers of book one of the series, From Exes to Expecting , might remember Lauren catching a whiff of interest between Zach and Cadie. Well, her radar was accurate! The ski-patrol director has it bad for the single mom. And his on-the-job injury gives Cadie, a physical therapist, the perfect opportunity to solve one of his problems for once.

Touching his ex-Olympian body, though? Too tempting. Still healing from her rocky marriage, widowed Cadie is determined not to fall in love again—not even with the sexy, loyal man who’s been her rock since her husband’s death in an avalanche a year and a half ago.

Zach, who survived the fatal slide, is bound by the promises he made to his dying friend. But following through on his vow to take care of Cadie and her son makes it harder to preserve Sam’s memory, and Zach has to reconcile honoring his friend and his desire to love Cadie and be a father to Ben.

I would love to hear if Cadie and Zach’s journey through grief into love resonates with you. Find me on Facebook, Twitterand at www.laurelgreer.com.

Happy reading!

Laurel

For my parents, who modeled a love of reading

and let me consume books by the light

in the crack of the door—thank you.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Introduction

Dear Reader

Dedication

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

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Prologue

April

Zach Cardenas wrenched his key in the lock on the first-aid shack near Sutter Mountain’s summit and drew another line in his mental tally.

One workday closer to Whistler.

Not to forgiving himself, or Sam.

But he clung to the hope that making another figurative payment on the debt he owed would ease the guilt and grief wedged in his heart.

Or visiting the accident site will be one more reminder of how watching over Cadie means keeping one promise but breaking another.

Jamming his keys in the pocket of his ski patrol jacket, he erased the unwelcome thought. In a week he’d climb on a plane. He wasn’t one for countdowns, but honoring Sam’s final requests had become all-encompassing and couldn’t be realized until he and their buddies went on a memorial backcountry trip to British Columbia.