Victoria Pade - The Bachelor, the Baby and the Beauty

“How about a dance? You look too good to be hiding behind this table.”

A dance.

With Chase Mackey.

That took Hadley by surprise.

“Really?” she said before she knew she was going to, the question coming from days long gone by when she’d been alone in her room at home, knowing a school dance was going on without her, only imagining herself there with Chase, dancing …

“Sure, why not?” he answered as if it were nothing—which, to him, she knew was the case.

Then he stood and pulled her chair out for her.

In her fantasies he would take her by the hand and lead her onto the dance floor.

In reality he just barely touched the back of her arm to urge her in that direction.

But it was enough to give her goose bumps that she hoped he didn’t notice.

And then they reached the dance floor.

And there she was, dancing with Chase Mackey …

Dear Reader,

Young fantasies and crushes—I had them and so did Hadley McKendrick. Hadley had it rough growing up overweight. But she’d found solace in the crush she’d had on her older brother’s best friend, Chase Mackey.

Of course, that was long ago and is now behind her. She’s turned her life around, lived in Europe and has come back home to Northbridge to begin a new phase.

Part of that new phase just happens to include working with and living very near Chase Mackey. But Hadley isn’t worried about it. The crush is over. Chase is still her brother’s best friend and now also his business partner, and there is no way Hadley will let anything develop between her and Chase to put so much for her brother in jeopardy.

Except that what inspired that old crush in the first place has only improved with time. Chase himself has only improved with time. And if Hadley had thought he was irresistible years ago, it’s nothing compared to the current Chase.

Welcome home to Northbridge!

Victoria Pade

VICTORIA PADEis a USA TODAY bestselling author of numerous romance novels. She has two beautiful and talented daughters—Cori and Erin—and is a native of Colorado, where she lives and writes. A devoted chocolate lover, she’s in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. For information about her latest and upcoming releases, and to find recipes for some of the decadent desserts her characters enjoy, log on to www.vikkipade.com.

The Bachelor,

the Baby and

the Beauty

Victoria Pade

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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“He’ll be right here. He was on his way into town when the moving truck he was driving broke down. My brother went to get him,” Hadley McKendrick explained.

Hadley didn’t have a clue as to why Neily Pratt-Grayson had dropped in on this September Saturday morning looking for Chase Mackey, her brother Logan’s best friend and business partner. And the social worker wasn’t giving anything away.

Instead she said, “I’m sorry to show up now, with the wedding tomorrow and all.”

Definitely and all, Hadley thought as her stomach churned in anticipation of Chase’s return to Northbridge, Montana.

Neily was talking about Logan’s wedding tomorrow. But to Hadley and all meant more than the wedding. Because on top of that, not only would Chase Mackey’s arrival be the first time he’d set eyes on her since they were teenagers and Hadley had been a hundred pounds heavier, to Hadley there was also a little matter of an old crush she’d secretly had on Chase.

“Chase isn’t only coming for the wedding now, right?” Neily said then. “He’s coming for good, isn’t he?”

Hadley’s stomach took another turn. “This is it,” she confirmed. “He’ll be here to stay from today on. His place is a huge loft in the top half of the old barn, above what we’re using as the workroom and the showroom.”

For Mackey and McKendrick Furniture Designs—the business that Logan and Chase owned together, the business that Hadley was now working for. With her brother and Chase …

She just could not stay still another minute!

“Are you sure I can’t get you a cup of coffee or a soda or even a glass of water?” Hadley asked hospitably, hoping desperately for the chance to get up from where she was sitting in the living room with Neily and do something to work off a little of the nervous energy that was making her edgy.

“No, thanks, I’m fine,” Neily said. “I’m actually here on business or I really wouldn’t be bothering you today.”

It had been obvious that this wasn’t a social call, but Hadley had no idea what business the Northbridge social worker could have with Chase Mackey. He hadn’t lived here in over seventeen years. And even when he and Logan had decided to move back, to relocate Mackey and McKendrick Furniture Designs this past spring, Chase had stayed in New York to deal with that end of the move while Logan had handled this end. According to Logan, Chase had been in town only a few times before Hadley had come back to Northbridge in June, and he hadn’t been there even once since then.

But he was on his way now and Hadley really couldn’t keep herself contained for a minute longer.

“I need just a quick run to the bathroom,” she announced to Neily, nearly leaping to her feet.

“Go ahead,” Neily encouraged. “Don’t worry about me.”

Hadley made a beeline for the downstairs bathroom in her brother’s house for no reason other than to check on her appearance.

Of course she’d taken extra-special pains with it today, knowing that Chase was coming. She was wearing her tightest jeans and a body-hugging camisole that outlined every inch of her reduced body. After years in the fashion industry, she’d picked up more than one hair and makeup trick and she’d used them all today. Her smoky green eyes were accentuated to their best effect and the high cheekbones that had emerged from beneath the extra weight were highlighted. Not a single pore marred her skin. Her mauve lipgloss looked perfectly natural and her russet-brown, chin-length hair glistened as it fell around her face and showed off her new highlights.

No one who remembered her from her youth in Northbridge hadn’t dropped a jaw when they’d seen the transformation in her. She’d taken it in stride—she’d lost the weight so long ago that, to her, it had stopped being the most monumental part of her life. But knowing that this would be the first time Chase Mackey would see her this way? Okay, yes, she wanted his jaw to drop.

It was just human nature to want the object of an old crush to notice a thing like that. It didn’t mean that the old crush was still in effect in any way, she assured herself.

The muted sound of a car coming nearer on the road that led to the house alerted Hadley. There were only two possibilities for who it could be: Logan’s fiancée Meg, with his three-year-old daughter, Tia, or Logan bringing Chase back from the stalled moving truck.