Lilian Darcy - Their Baby Miracle

He hadn’t sat down.

He’d asked if there were information booklets he could read, Internet sites he could look up, doctors he could talk to—as if their baby’s health and survival depended on him knowing everything there was to know about state-of-the-art preemie treatment, the way his business success depended on him knowing everything about a particular company or market.

It grated on Reba’s red raw nerves, and she wanted to yell at Lucas, “How is this going to help? Is this what our daughter really needs from you?”

But nobody yelled at the NICU, and she wouldn’t yell at the father of her baby, who was here, when she hadn’t had a clue, eight hours ago, just how much she would need him.

And just how close to him she would feel.

Dear Reader,

Get ready to counter the unpredictable weather outside with a lot of reading inside. And at Silhouette Special Edition we’re happy to start you off with Prescription: Love by Pamela Toth, the next in our MONTANA MAVERICKS: GOLD RUSH GROOMS continuity. When a visiting medical resident—a gorgeous California girl—winds up assigned to Thunder Canyon General Hospital, she thinks of it as a temporary detour—until she meets the town’s most eligible doctor! He soon has her thinking about settling down—permanently….

Crystal Green’s A Tycoon in Texas, the next in THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: REUNION continuity, features a workaholic businesswoman whose concentration is suddenly shaken by her devastatingly handsome new boss. Reader favorite Marie Ferrarella begins a new miniseries, THE CAMEO—about a necklace with special romantic powers—with Because a Husband Is Forever, in which a talk show hostess is coerced into taking on a bodyguard. Only, she had no idea he’d take his job title literally! In Their Baby Miracle by Lilian Darcy, a couple who’d called it quits months ago is brought back together by the premature birth of their child. Patricia Kay’s You’ve Got Game, next in her miniseries THE HATHAWAYS OF MORGAN CREEK, gives us a couple who are constantly at each other’s throats in real life—but their online relationship is another story altogether. And in Picking Up the Pieces by Barbara Gale, a world-famous journalist and a former top model risk scandal by following their hearts instead of their heads….

Enjoy them all, and please come back next month for six sensational romances, all from Silhouette Special Edition!

All the best,

Gail Chasan

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

has written over fifty books for Silhouette Romance, Special Edition and Harlequin Medical Romance (Prescription Romance). Her first book for Silhouette appeared on the Waldenbooks Series Romance Bestsellers list, and she’s hoping readers go on responding strongly to her work. Happily married with four active children and a very patient cat, she enjoys keeping busy and could probably fill several more lifetimes with the things she likes to do—including cooking, gardening, quilting, drawing and traveling. She currently lives in Australia but travels to the United States as often as possible to visit family. Lilian loves to hear from readers. You can write to her at P.O. Box 381, Hackensack NJ 07602 or e-mail her at lildarcy@austarmetro.com.au.

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

M arch in Biggins, Wyoming was cold.

Lucas could feel the threat of snow hanging in the air as he climbed out of the top-of-the-range SUV his father had bought late last year for tooling around the Halliday Corporation’s newest ranch. Across the street, the Longhorn Steakhouse beckoned warm and bright, and he ignored his uncharacteristic hesitation about going in.

Reba Grant would probably be there, working the big grill in the kitchen, behind the swing doors. He’d come here in the hope of seeing her—needing to see her, somehow—but that didn’t mean he looked forward to it. He knew it was likely to be a prickly and emotional meeting, uncomfortable for both of them.

Pushing open the door, he was greeted by warm air that smelled of good food and fresh coffee, and by Friday night crowds that might camouflage his arrival for a little longer, if he wanted more time. A red-haired waitress showed him to a small table in the corner. She moved with harried efficiency, snapping a menu in front of him, and asking if he wanted something to drink.

“Just water, thanks.”

“Coming right up.”

Her smile was short and small and landed somewhere over his left shoulder because she’d already turned away, which was just the way Reba had smiled at him the last time they’d met face to face, just before Christmas. They’d only had a short conversation, and it had felt awkward. He’d sensed her hostility. About a week after that, he’d seen her here in town and he was ninety-five percent sure that she’d seen him, too, but she’d quickly crossed the street and disappeared into the hardware store and they hadn’t talked.

No, he didn’t want more time.

They needed to talk tonight.

Having spent most of the past two and a half months at his home base in New York working fifteen-hour days on Halliday corporate business, Lucas had been slow to reach this decision, but he was right on top of it now.

They definitely needed to talk.

Reba had no right to feel hostile, but apparently she did, and that could surely only mean one thing. She had no idea how much Lucas had shared her own grief for what they’d lost in November.

He needed to tell her about his grief, here on her own territory, and they both needed to achieve some kind of closure and a way to handle the casual dealings they might occasionally need to have with each other in the future, now that he planned to spend more time at Seven Mile Ranch.

Hang on, casual dealings?

He questioned this word choice as soon as it flipped into his mind.

There had never been anything casual about Reba Grant, and it wasn’t a word people often applied to Lucas himself, either. There certainly hadn’t been anything casual about the way they’d first connected six months ago, back in September. Just because neither of them had wanted or envisaged—or had had the courage and imagination to consider, was that it?—a future to their immediate attraction, that didn’t mean it had been casual.

He looked at the waitress again, at her full tables and her waiting clientele. She had a strong, compact build, must only be in her late twenties—around Reba’s age—and seemed to have no trouble handling the workload. Just before the smile, she had thrown him a curious glance that suggested she knew exactly who he was, but still she would probably be a while getting back to him, the Halliday name notwithstanding.

If Reba was working tonight, she would be run off her feet, too. Maybe he should wait before seeking her out, but he didn’t want to. He’d only flown in from New York this afternoon, and he wanted to get this issue tabled and dealt with as soon as possible.

He mentally decided on his order and watched the waitress disappear through the swing door to the kitchen, taking another table’s empty plates. With one elbow, she held it open for a second waitress, heading in the opposite direction. He glimpsed the choreographed chaos centered around the grill and the fryer, and yes, there was Reba’s back view. He recognized it easily—the odd combination of grace and toughness in the way she held herself, the glossy mass of her dark hair.