Nicola Marsh - Found - His Family

“Aimee, will you marry me?

I want us to be the kind of family

that Toby deserves.”

This couldn’t be happening….

Five years ago she would’ve jumped up and down on the spot and flung her arms around his neck, screaming yes from the top of the tallest peak on Dunk Island.

Five years ago she’d dreamed of a proposal, and soon learned that life didn’t live up to expectations.

And as the fog of shock cleared at his spontaneous gesture, reality intruded, sharpening previously blurred edges till she wondered how she could’ve been so blind.

Jed didn’t want her; he wanted Toby.

He’d said as much. His proposal was talking about family, not about love. Yet for one brief, heart-stopping moment she’d almost believed in dreams again.

has always had a passion for writing and reading.

As a youngster, she devoured books when she should have been sleeping, and later kept a diary whose content could be an epic in itself!

These days, when she’s not enjoying life with her husband and son in her home city of Melbourne, she’s at her computer, creating the romances she loves in her dream job. Visit Nicola’s Web site at www.nicolamarsh.comfor the latest news of her books.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Silhouette Romance® has the pleasure of introducing you to new, young Australian author…

Nicola Marsh

Nicola will entertain you with her chatty and lively style.

Don’t miss her next book,

Inherited: Baby #3926

Coming in December from Mills & Boon Romance®

Maya Edison is doing just fine on her own. She doesn’t need a man to hold her hand…or a part-time father for her son. But single businessman Riley Bourke is starting to nudge his way into their hearts.

So Maya gives him an ultimatum: either he’s properly part of their lives…or there’s no place for him at all! Riley’s about to discover how it feels to have a family of his own!

Special thanks to two people who helped make this

book happen: Ola, for her medical input, and

my editor, Emily, for her enthusiasm and patience

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

EPILOGUE

AIMEE PAYET loved chocolate.

She loved savouring the melt-in-your-mouth texture on her tongue, drinking its delicious sweetness and kneading the sticky bits of heaven with her nimble fingers as she produced yet another masterpiece for Payet’s Patisserie, the cake shop she’d successfully managed for the last two years since her parents’ death.

Today, however, even chocolate couldn’t ease the deep sense of impending doom that hung over her like a storm cloud about to dump its deluge in a catastrophic downpour.

She glanced at her watch, the same action she’d done every few minutes for the last hour, her stomach churning as closing time grew nearer. Jed had left a message saying he’d be here at six, and if he hadn’t changed since she’d last seen him, he’d be here on the dot.

And her world would come crashing down around her.

‘Aimee?’

The moment he said her name, the last five years rolled away, his deep voice washing over her in a familiarity which took her breath away.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She’d dealt with her feelings, moved on, created a life for her and Toby. A life that didn’t included Jed Sanderson, her first love, her past love. A life where they didn’t need him. Until now.

Pasting a forced smile on her face while her insides churned with dread at what she had to tell him, she turned to face him. ‘Hi, Jed. Thanks for coming.’

The words sounded small, soft, as if she were hearing them through the wall of thick fog that occasionally rolled off Port Phillip Bay and shrouded Melbourne in its pea-soup density.

‘Are you all right?’

No, she wanted to scream. Nothing’s all right and, after I tell you the truth, nothing ever will be again.

Focusing her attention with effort, she saw the concern in his light brown eyes.

Eyes the colour of warm caramel.

Eyes that had captivated her from the first minute she’d seen them all those years ago.

Eyes that would soon fill with anger and pain when she told him about Toby. And what she wanted from him.

‘I’ve been better,’ she finally admitted, fiddling with the cash register, dropping her gaze to her fingernails, which were chewed to the quick courtesy of the earth-shattering news she’d received about Toby two days ago.

‘Look, why don’t you sit down and I’ll get you a drink?’

Before she could blink, he had scouted around the counter, taken gentle hold of her arm and was leading her to a corner table.

‘You don’t understand…’she started to say, shrugging off his hold while biting down on her lower lip to stop herself from crying. ‘I need to close up before we talk.’

‘Let me.’

He strode to the door, flipped the sign to ‘closed’ and turned the lock. The soft clunk of metal on metal resounded in her head as she suddenly realised her predicament: she was locked in her shop with Jed, the guy who’d broken her heart. The guy she’d never wanted to see again as long as she lived. The guy who’d fathered her son.

People streamed past the floor-to-ceiling glass windows as they bustled along Acland Street, St Kilda’s busiest thoroughfare any time of day or night, and she stared at them in anger, wishing she could be like them, without a care in the world. Jed had been her past and now, thanks to a cruel twist of fate, he could become her present.

‘I was surprised to hear from you after all this time,’ he said, leaning against the counter and looking way too handsome in his pinstripe designer suit, pale green shirt and matching tie, his dark hair curling around his collar the way it used to. ‘An Express Post letter seemed a bit formal. You could’ve called if it was that urgent.’

No, she couldn’t. Holding herself together following the doctor’s appointment had been hard enough without hearing Jed’s voice, hearing the judgement and censure when she told him the truth, a truth that would blow him away.

‘No, I needed to see you. The phone wouldn’t cut it for this.’

‘I’m intrigued.’

He smiled, a simple action which illuminated his eyes with warmth. Similar to the reaction his light grip had on her as he guided her to the table, infusing her with a reassuring heat she hadn’t felt since she’d last hugged her dad.

Dad…Mum…I wish you were here. I need you so much; Toby needs you so much.

How many times had she sent this silent plea heavenward over the last two years since her parents had unexpectedly died in a freak storm? Too many times to count and, once again, it went unheralded.

If her parents were around, she wouldn’t be about to have this conversation with a man she’d never intended to see again. They could’ve been tested as donors, the odds in favour that one of them would’ve been compatible and everything would’ve been OK.