Muriel Jensen - Jackpot Baby

SHELLY DUPREE’S

TO-DO LIST

(Formerly, in-debt diner owner, now jackpot winner.)

1) Pay off mortgage on The Brimming Cup

2) Open a savings account

3) Get my hair done

4) Buy some quality makeup

5) Purchase a new wardrobe

6) Find myself a man!

Harlequin American Romance proudly launches MILLIONAIRE, MONTANA, where twelve lucky souls have won a multimillion-dollar jackpot.

Six titles in this captivating series—

JACKPOT BABY by Muriel Jensen

(HAR #953)

BIG-BUCKS BACHELOR by Leah Vale

(HAR #957)

SURPRISE INHERITANCE by Charlotte Douglas

(HAR #961)

FOUR-KARAT FIANCÉE by Sharon Swan

(HAR #966)

PRICELESS MARRIAGE by Bonnie Gardner

(HAR #970)

FORTUNE’S TWINS by Kara Lennox

(HAR #974)

Dear Reader,

Happy New Year! January is an exciting month here at Harlequin American Romance. It marks the beginning of a yearlong celebration of our 20th anniversary. Come indulge with us for twelve months of supersatisfying reads by your favorite authors and exciting newcomers, too!

Throughout 2003, we’ll be bringing you some not-to-miss miniseries. This month, bestselling author Muriel Jensen inaugurates MILLIONAIRE, MONTANA, our newest in-line continuity, with Jackpot Baby. This exciting six-book series is set in a small Montana town whose residents win a forty-million-dollar lottery jackpot. But winning a fortune comes with a price and no one’s life will ever be the same again.

Next, Commander’s Little Surprise, the latest book in Mollie Molay’s GROOMS IN UNIFORM series, is a must-read secret-baby and reunion romance with a strong hero you won’t be able to resist. Victoria Chancellor premieres her new A ROYAL TWIST miniseries in which a runaway prince and his horse-wrangling look-alike switch places. Don’t miss The Prince’s Cowboy Double, the first book in this delightful duo. Finally, when a small Alaskan town desperately needs a doctor, there’s only one man who can do the job, in Under Alaskan Skies by Carol Grace.

So come join in the celebrating and start your year off right—by reading all four Harlequin American Romance books!

Melissa Jeglinski

Associate Senior Editor

Harlequin American Romance

Jackpot Baby

Muriel Jensen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Muriel Jensen and her husband, Ron, live in Astoria, Oregon, in an old foursquare Victorian at the mouth of the Columbia River. They share their home with a golden retriever/golden Labrador mix named Amber, and five cats who moved in with them without an invitation. (Muriel insists that a plate of Friskies and a bowl of water are not an invitation!)

They also have three children and their families in their lives—a veritable crowd of the most interesting people and children. They also have irreplaceable friends, wonderful neighbors and “a life they know they don’t deserve, but love desperately anyway.”

HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE

73—WINTER’S BOUNTY

119—LOVERS NEVER LOSE

176—THE MALLORY TOUCH

200—FANTASIES AND MEMORIES

219—LOVE AND LAVENDER

244—THE DUCK SHACK AGREEMENT

267—STRINGS

283—SIDE BY SIDE

321—A CAROL CHRISTMAS

339—EVERYTHING

392—THE MIRACLE

414—RACING WITH THE MOON

425—VALENTINE HEARTS AND FLOWERS

464—MIDDLE OF THE RAINBOW

478—ONE AND ONE MAKES THREE

507—THE UNEXPECTED GROOM

522—NIGHT PRINCE

534—MAKE-BELIEVE MOM

549—THE WEDDING GAMBLE

569—THE COURTSHIP OF DUSTY’S DADDY

603—MOMMY ON BOARD *

606—MAKE WAY FOR MOMMY *

610—MERRY CHRISTMAS, MOMMY! *

654—THE COMEBACK MOM

669—THE PRINCE, THE LADY & THE TOWER

688—KIDS & CO. *

705—CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY

737—DADDY BY DEFAULT **

742—DADDY BY DESIGN **

746—DADDY BY DESTINY **

756—GIFT-WRAPPED DAD

770—THE HUNK & THE VIRGIN

798—COUNTDOWN TO BABY

813—FOUR REASONS FORFATHERHOOD

850—FATHER FEVER **

858—FATHER FORMULA **

866—FATHER FOUND **

882—DADDY TO BE DETERMINED **

953—JACKPOT BABY

MEET THE MAIN STREET MILLIONAIRES

Shelly Dupree—Owner of The Brimming Cup Coffee Shop

Sam & Ruby Cade—Army Officer (him), Mercantile Co-owner (her)

William Devlin—Owner of The Heartbreaker Saloon

Henry Faulkner—Retired Hardware Store Owner

Jack Hartman—Veterinarian

Finn Hollis—Retired Librarian

Dean Kenning—Barber

Honor Lassiter—Mercantile Co-owner

Kyle & Olivia Mason—Farmer (him), High School Teacher (her)

Nathan & Vickie Perkins—Doctor (him), Stay-At-Home Mom (her)

Sylvia Rutledge—Owner of The Crowning Glory Hair Salon

Gwendolyn Tanner—Boardinghouse Owner

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

Epilogue

Shelly Dupree leaned her elbows on the old oak bar that ran the length of the Heartbreaker Saloon and wished she could consume enough alcohol to achieve the rosy glow some of the regular patrons were already sporting at five minutes to seven. But as a chef, she found taste too important to ignore when eating or drinking. And the bite and burn of Scotch or bourbon just didn’t do it for her. She’d been toying with the same glass of gewuürztraminer wine for an hour. Dev Devlin, owner of the saloon, stocked it just for her and served it with a flourish despite the teasing hoots and hollers of their friends.

She stared moodily at her reflection in the mirror hung behind the bar between two paintings of nudes, one reclining on lace, the other playing cards with a gentleman on her bed. Well, Shelly presumed he was a gentleman.

She refocused on her own face and thought she didn’t look like a loser. Serious hazel eyes peered back at her, taking in short dark brown hair parted on the side, and an unexceptional but nicely symmetrical heart-shaped face. A pink turtleneck sweater, all that was visible above the bar, covered breasts that would never earn her a job at Hooters, but didn’t require a push-up bra, either. She looked like an upwardly mobile young woman having a drink with her friends after a successful day at the office.

The truth, however, was that nothing in Jester, Montana, was upwardly mobile, particularly the merchants trying to make a living there. She was almost three months behind on her coffee-shop rent and was now on a cash basis with her suppliers of meat, produce and paper goods.

Several years of drought had decimated Jester, population 1,502, located on the eastern edge of the state near its border with North Dakota. To anyone passing through, the area was just a long expanse of rolling hills and dusty bluffs, and downtown Jester was but a two-block-long collection of charmingly antiquated buildings reminiscent of its pioneer history.