Victoria Chancellor - Daddy Lessons

I’m all she’s got, and really, I’m glad. I want to claim her as my daughter.”

Kate thought that was admirable. Many men would have tried their best to get out of the responsibility of raising an eight-year-old. “This will really change your life.”

“Exactly!” Travis said, straightening and, in the process, moving a little closer. “I’ve never thought about children much. I’ve never been around them, since I’m an only child and most of my friends are single. So I’m going to need some help. Your help.”

Kate knew her surprise showed on her face. “My help? What are you talking about?”

Dear Reader,

With mixed emotions I have written the last Harlequin American Romance novel set in Ranger Springs, Texas. I really love these characters and wanted to tell the story of two people who start over in the Hill Country, finding more than they anticipated. I also love the town of Ranger Springs, the people who “live” there, and other stories I have written about them. So although there won’t be new stories, I hope you will revisit the friends and families who found their perfect match and began a new life in this friendly town. The Fourth of July committee, which has been planning throughout seven books, finally got their parade!

Kate Wooten, sister of Travis Whitaker from Coming Home to Texas, is now divorced and starting over with her six-year-old son. She’s a schoolteacher and former soccer mom—not the kind of woman “retired” stuntman and animal trainer Luke Simon is interested in. That is, until he needs someone to give him lessons on how to be a daddy to his newly discovered eight-year-old daughter. Kate is the perfect teacher for this job, but he soon realizes he can’t keep their relationship professional. Kate must decide if she will risk her heart one more time for the right man, to create a new family.

As you read Daddy Lessons, I hope you will consider the plight of unwanted animals, whether they are the retired performance animals that Luke cares for or the thousands of pets in shelters or on the streets. I give special thanks to D. J. Schubert of the Black Beauty Ranch, run by The Fund for Animals in Murchison, Texas. What a wonderful sanctuary and what a giving man, who answered all my questions.

Best wishes to everyone, and happy reading.

Victoria Chancellor

Daddy Lessons

Victoria Chancellor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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In loving memory of my mother-in-law, Lillian Huffstutler, 1919-2005, who supported and loved me like a daughter. We miss you so much, Sudie.

HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE

844—THE BACHELOR PROJECT

884—THE BEST BLIND DATE IN TEXAS

955—THE PRINCE’S COWBOY DOUBLE

959—THE PRINCE’S TEXAS BRIDE

992—THE C.E.O. & THE COOKIE QUEEN

1035—COMING HOME TO TEXAS

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

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

Kate loved sharing a meal with her son Eddie, her brother Travis and his family at the Four Square Café. The decor was a little outdated, even by the current retro standards, the menu a bit heavy on carbs, sugar and fats, and the service not nearly as speedy as the fast-food place on the highway. But the waitresses were friendly, the food delicious and the company the best she’d had in years.

Since about six months into her marriage with her lying, cheating ex-husband Ed, to be exact.

“Here you go,” Charlene Jacks said as she delivered a tray of burgers and fries to the table.

“Thanks, Charlene,” Travis said. He handed a plate to his wife Jodie, which she immediately passed to Eddie.

“Thank you, Aunt Jodie.”

Kate smiled at her six-year-old son, the light of her life, who’d thankfully remembered his manners. Her divorce and Ed’s subsequent desertion had been especially hard on their son—not that Ed had ever been an involved parent. He’d never been the kind of father that Travis was already with his infant daughter, Marsha.

“Earth to Kate,” Travis said, interrupting her thoughts in the same way he had when they were children. He held out her plate. “If you’re not hungry…”

“Oh, no you don’t. I’ll take that right now.” When she’d lived the suburban lifestyle, she’d enjoyed all the trendy chain restaurants. Now she was happy with simpler fare…even if she did sometimes miss a good grilled chicken caesar salad.

“You folks need anything else?” Charlene asked.

“We’re great, thanks,” Travis said, and Kate smiled up at her while Jodie adjusted Marsha’s pacifier.

As Charlene moved away from the table, the sunlight flooding through the front window of the café made Kate squint. And then she noticed something that made her eyes open wide. Something she hadn’t seen in Ranger Springs in the two months she’d lived here.

The heavy blub-blub-blub of the motorcycle engine died as the bike came to a stop across the street, facing the gazebo in the middle of the town square. With the rider’s back to her, she worked her gaze up from his heavy boots to his faded, tight jeans, past the black leather jacket to the dark, too-long hair that blew in the cool breeze.

He threw his muscular leg over the seat and stepped away from the bike. Kate caught her breath. Wow.

“Kate! Do you want your lunch or not?”

She blinked, moving her focus from the scene outside the window to Travis. “Yes, I want…lunch,” she said in a slightly shaky voice. She absolutely did not want to stare at the bona-fide bad boy on the big motorcycle.

“Are you okay?” Jodie asked, placing a hand on Kate’s forearm.

“I’m fine. I just saw…I wonder who that is. He doesn’t exactly look like a local.”

“Who?”

Jodie and Travis both turned toward the window. Travis narrowed his eyes, a sure sign he was getting all protective. “No, he’s not local.”

“Like I would have missed him,” Jodie added, then smiled at Travis’s deepening frown.

Kate grinned. She loved the way her brother and sister-in-law teased each other, argued in a good-natured way and made up with lots of love. She and Ed—the lying, cheating rat—had never developed that type of relationship.

“Who, Mommy?” Eddie asked.

“Just some man on a motorcycle,” Kate replied casually, then looked back out the window. The man who’d just breezed into town didn’t resemble the local guys at all. They wore snap-front Western shirts, the softer, looser jeans made for riding horses, not Harleys, and cowboy or work boots. They definitely didn’t look like…that.

The man was walking toward the restaurant, as though he’d sensed her ogling him. Not that she was exactly ogling. She was a thirty-two-year-old divorced mother without a steady job or a permanent place to live. She owned a few pieces of furniture, a couple of suitcases of clothes and a few boxes of personal belongings. Until she found a job, hopefully teaching school, she was officially unemployed, although she did substitute teach whenever possible. She didn’t have the luxury of ogling strange men.