Gina Wilkins - Adding to the Family

Both Mark and Miranda froze.

“My name is Jack Parsons. I’m an acquaintance of your sister’s.”

“Lisa?” Miranda felt her heart jump. “Has something happened to her?”

“No, she’s okay. She wanted me to give you this.” The man held out an envelope. “And I have a delivery for you in my car.”

She was looking down at the envelope in her hand, when she heard Mark say in a rather odd voice, “Um, Miranda? I think I know what the delivery is.”

She looked up at him, then turned to see what he was staring at so intently. Her own jaw dropped. “Oh, no.”

Jack Parsons was on his way back to her, dragging two large, wheeled suitcases behind him. And tagging behind those suitcases like little ducklings were a couple of sandy-haired boys with rumpled clothes and identical faces….

Dear Reader,

Most of us look forward to October for the end-of-the-month treats, but we here at Silhouette Special Edition want you to experience those treats all month long—beginning, this time around, with the next book in our MOST LIKELY TO…series. In The Pregnancy Project by Victoria Pade, a woman who’s used to getting what she wants, wants a baby. And the man she’s earmarked to help her is her arrogant ex-classmate, now a brilliant, if brash, fertility expert.

Popular author Gina Wilkins brings back her acclaimed FAMILY FOUND series with Adding to the Family, in which a party girl turned single mother of twins needs help—and her handsome accountant (accountant?), a single father himself, is just the one to give it. In She’s Having a Baby, bestselling author Marie Ferrarella continues her miniseries, THE CAMEO, with this story of a vivacious, single, pregnant woman and her devastatingly handsome—if reserved—next-door neighbor. Special Edition welcomes author Brenda Harlen and her poignant novel Once and Again, a heartwarming story of homecoming and second chances. About the Boy by Sharon DeVita is the story of a beautiful single mother, a widowed chief of police…and a matchmaking little boy. And Silhouette is thrilled to have Blindsided by talented author Leslie LaFoy in our lineup. When a woman who’s inherited a hockey team decides that they need the best coach in the business, she applies to a man who thought he’d put his hockey days behind him. But he’s been…blindsided!

So enjoy, be safe and come back in November for more. This is my favorite time of year (well, the beginning of it, anyway).

Regards,

Gail Chasan

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

As always, to my own loving and supportive family—

John, Courtney, Kerry and David.

Love you all.

is a bestselling and award-winning author who has written more than seventy books for Harlequin and Silhouette. She credits her successful career in romance to her long, happy marriage and her three “extraordinary” children.

A lifelong resident of central Arkansas, Ms. Wilkins sold her first book to Harlequin in 1987 and has been writing full-time since. She has appeared on the Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and USA TODAY bestseller lists. She is a three-time recipient of the Maggie Award for Excellence, sponsored by Georgia Romance Writers, and has won several awards from the reviewers of Romantic Times.

It’s Jared and Cassie Walker’s twenty-fifth

wedding anniversary and you are cordially

invited to the biggest bash in Texas!

After decades of caring and support

for their friends and family,

we want to honor these two lovebirds.

So, come one, come all to celebrate on the

Walker Ranch, Saturday, October 15 th!

RSVP with Molly and Shane Walker

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

Molly Walker appeared in the barn door with the early April afternoon sunlight behind her, making her long, red-streaked hair shine almost as brightly as her smile. “I have the most spectacular idea!”

Her half brother, Shane, and the horse he had been grooming looked around with almost identically wary expressions. “It always gives me a headache when you say that,” Shane muttered.

Undaunted, Molly came all the way inside the barn to stand in front of him. “Trust me, this is a really good plan, and you barely have to do anything. I can take care of most of it myself.”

The lanky cowboy dropped the curry brush on a shelf and seemed to brace himself before asking, “Just what is it I barely have to do?”

Molly’s dark green eyes held an expression of reproof when she shook a finger at him. “Stop overdramatizing. It isn’t as if I’ve ever asked you to do anything that complicated.”

Shane shared a comical look of disbelief with his beloved mare. “Riiight.”

Molly slapped his arm playfully. “Anyway, you know Mom and Dad’s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary is coming up in October.”

“I remember their wedding. I was a teenager, after all. Just as I remember you being born a year and a couple of weeks later.”

Shane and his father, Jared Walker, had been a couple of footloose bachelors before they’d encountered Cassie Browning and had both fallen head over heels in love with her. Nearly twenty-five years later, they were still a close and happy family, even though Shane had been married for almost ten years now and had two daughters of his own.

It was that loving family relationship that Molly wanted to commemorate in a big way. “We should plan a surprise anniversary party for them.”

“Okay—that sounds normal enough. What’s the catch?”

“No catch. They’re planning that trip to Europe in early October, right? So while they’re gone, we can get everything in place and we’ll welcome them back with a big silver anniversary barbecue.”

Shane looked almost relieved. “Yeah, we can do something like that. Kelly and I will help you plan it. I’m sure Aunt Layla and Aunt Michelle would be thrilled to help with the arrangements. Not to mention the assorted other aunts, uncles and cousins who jump at any chance to get together for a party.”

Since Jared had five siblings, all married with offspring, any party the Walker clan put together was a big one. But Molly didn’t intend to limit this bash merely to family. “We’ll invite the D’Alessandros, of course.”

Jared’s sister, Michelle, had married private investigator Tony D’Alessandro not long before Jared and Cassie had married. Tony’s large and boisterous family had been a part of Molly’s life from the beginning. Her cousin Brynn, the daughter of Jared’s deceased younger brother, Miles, had married another D’Alessandro, drawing the bond between the two families even tighter.

“And I want to invite the foster sons Mom and Dad took in during the earlier years—back before the ranch became a youth facility. Won’t they love seeing them all together again for this special occasion?”

“We can definitely invite the ones we’ve kept in touch with. There’s no way we can assume they’ll all be here, of course.”

“No, I want as many as possible here,” she insisted. “Even the ones we haven’t heard from in a while. I’m hoping to have at least a dozen of them.”