Cara Lockwood - Practicing Parenthood

When opposing counsels attract!

Assistant DA Collin Baptista has a rule: never sleep with the enemy. He broke it once—with defense attorney Madison Reddy. Now Madison’s pregnant and Collin heads to her North Captiva retreat with a ring, prepared to do the right thing. What he’s not prepared for is her flat-out rejection.

Madison may not think he’s ready to be a father, but Collin’s sure he can convince her otherwise. And when the couple find a lost goldendoodle puppy, they get plenty of opportunity to practice being a family. Maybe a secluded Florida island and a stray puppy can teach these two rivals to be a couple—and parents!

CARA LOCKWOOD is the USA TODAY bestselling author of more than seventeen books, including I Do (But I Don’t), which was made into a Lifetime Original movie. She’s written the Bard Academy series for young adults and has had her work translated into several languages around the world. Born and raised in Dallas, Cara now lives near Chicago with her two wonderful daughters. Find out more about her at caralockwood.com, friend her on Facebook, Facebook.com/authorcaralockwood, or follow her on Twitter, @caralockwood.

Also By Cara Lockwood

Island of Second Chances

Shelter in the Tropics

The Big Break

Her Hawaiian Homecoming

Boys and Toys

Texting Under the Influence

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Practicing Parenthood

Cara Lockwood

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08290-7

PRACTICING PARENTHOOD

© 2018 Cara Lockwood

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

“So? It’s mine, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Madison sighed. She braced herself for the lecture.

“That’s what I thought,” Collin said, looking eager...and even...excited? That took her by surprise. She hadn’t expected him to want the baby. He’d been all hands and mouth that one night they spent together, but then the next day, it was as if she didn’t exist. Now he liked the idea of her carrying his baby? Maybe she’d been wrong about him. Maybe he wasn’t the hard-nosed prosecutor without a heart.

He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a black velvet box. He put down his backpack on the terra-cotta stone tiles of the foyer, and then turned to her.

“If it’s mine, then we need to do this.” He flipped open the black box lid, revealing a brilliant solitaire diamond that caught the sunlight and sparkled like fire. Suddenly, all coherent thought fled her mind.

Collin Baptista was asking her to marry him.

Dear Reader,

I’m excited to share with you my new book, Practicing Parenthood, a story about how sometimes the best way to learn how to love is to dive in, headfirst.

After Collin Baptista has a night of fiery passion with opposing counsel Madison Reddy, neither believe it’s a relationship with legs. But then Madison discovers she’s pregnant, and Collin surprises her by proposing. Madison, however, has no intention of getting married just to get married. Instead, she heads to her uncle’s beach house on beautiful North Captiva, Florida.

Collin follows and he and Madison find a stray puppy on the island and adopt him, and in the process discover they have a long way to go to learn to be parents.

I recently adopted a goldendoodle (half poodle, half golden retriever) myself that my daughters named Teddy as well (since he, too, looks like a teddy bear), and so I knew firsthand the difficulties of having a puppy, and it reminded me of how similar puppies and babies can be. You can’t turn your back on either one for a minute!

I loved the idea of a couple at odds coming together and learning to be parents while fostering a puppy and realizing that they are stronger together as a team. Sometimes, the biggest obstacles to love are the ones we put in our own path.

Because this is my last Harlequin Superromance title, I also wanted to thank you, the reader. It’s been an honor and a privilege to write for you. I hope you enjoy Practicing Parenthood as much as I enjoyed writing it.

All my best,

Cara

For Hana, Miya, Sophia, Pete and Sarina, the true joys in my life who let me practice parenthood every day.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Dedication

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

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Extract

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

COLLIN BAPTISTA SLID through the metal detectors at the Lee County courthouse, grateful for the cool air-conditioning that fought off the humid air of southwest Florida. He grabbed his keys and wallet from the conveyor belt and nodded at Joyce, the armed guard who wore her hair in tight braids. She was a regular, like all the staff he saw almost daily at the courthouse.