Kathryn Springer - The Bachelor's Perfect Match

He loves adventures...

She only reads them...until now!

Maddie Montgomery, Castle Falls’ shy librarian, has always played it safe. Enter Aiden Kane, the town’s resident adventurer, on the mend from an accident and in need of Maddie’s help. As Maddie assists Aiden with his search for a long-lost relative, the handsome outdoorsman coaxes Maddie out of her safety zone. But can Maddie take the biggest risk of all—giving in to love?

KATHRYN SPRINGER is a lifelong Wisconsin resident. Growing up in a “newspaper” family, she spent long hours as a child plunking out stories on her mother’s typewriter and hasn’t stopped writing since. She loves to write inspirational romance because it allows her to combine her faith in God with her love of a happy ending.

Also By Kathryn Springer

Castle Falls

The Bachelor Next Door

The Bachelor’s Twins

The Bachelor’s Perfect Match

Mirror Lake

A Place to Call Home

Love Finds a Home

The Prodigal Comes Home

Longing for Home

The Promise of Home

Making His Way Home

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

The Bachelor’s Perfect Match

Kathryn Springer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08248-8

THE BACHELOR’S PERFECT MATCH

© 2018 Kathryn Springer

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

“Is there something else you need?” Aiden asked.

“As a matter of fact, there is” came Maddie’s bright response. “We’ll need a canoe.”

“Sure—”

“And a coach.”

Aiden stared at Maddie. She didn’t mean him. But the adorable dimple in her cheek clearly said that yes, she did.

“It would be a conflict of interest,” Aiden argued. “I designed the course.”

“You’d be the boys’ instructor.” Maddie smiled. “You don’t have to go out on the river with them.”

Except that Aiden never stood on the shoreline. He used the clipboard to check off names, and the rest of the lesson took place on the river.

He glanced at the teenagers.

They needed a coach...and he needed one more chance to change everyone’s minds about him.

“All right, then. Come back tomorrow at eight.

In the morning.”

“They’ll be here,” Maddie promised.

Aiden unleashed a slow smile. “And so will you.”

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed your latest visit to Castle Falls! Like for Maddie, books were a constant companion while I was growing up and I spent hours in my hometown library. The librarian’s three-book rule never applied to me—she knew that I would read all of them on the walk home and always let me check out more!

When I was a teenager, that same librarian introduced me to an author named Grace Livingston Hill, who wrote sweet, faith-filled romances. Those books touched my heart and sparked a lifelong love for happily-ever-after endings that continues in the stories that I write.

Sunni Mason, Aiden’s adoptive mom, plays matchmaker to her three sons, but I think that librarians do a little matchmaking, too! They bring books and the people who love them together. The next time you visit your local library, be sure to thank them!

I would love to hear from you! Please visit my website at kathrynspringer.comand drop me a note or check out my Facebook page at kathrynspringerauthor.

Walk in joy!

Kathryn Springer

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good:

for his mercy endureth for ever.

—Psalms 107:1

To Kayla

For being a wonderful first reader and friend!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Bible Verse

Dedication

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

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

At nine o’clock on Monday morning, Maddie Montgomery brewed a cup of Earl Gray tea and opened the Castle Falls Library, ready for another quiet, ordinary day.

And then someone dropped a pirate off at her door.

A slightly disheveled pirate in flannel and faded denim, wearing a rakish patch over one eye and brandishing an aluminum crutch instead of a cutlass.

Although Aiden Kane, the youngest of the three Kane brothers, somehow managed to make the slightly disheveled part look good.

Through the narrow, two-inch gap that separated the poetry section from the biographies, Maddie watched Aiden limp past the circulation desk, each strike of his crutch against the hardwood floor fracturing the peaceful silence in the room. He lurched to a stop a few feet from where she stood and lifted his head to look around.

Fortunately, the bookcases that shielded Maddie from view also muffled the gasp that slipped from her lips.

Mottled bruises ranging in color from pale ochre to deep mauve bloomed on his jaw, reminding Maddie of the abstract painting above the fireplace in the conference room. A sling cradled the cast on Aiden’s left arm, and the bulky outline of a bandage distorted one leg of his jeans, making his knee appear double its normal size.

Maddie knew he’d been injured in an accident, but she hadn’t actually seen the extent of those injuries until now.

In a community the size of Castle Falls, which didn’t bother with a Neighborhood Watch program because everyone kept a close watch on their neighbors anyway, Aiden had been the main topic of conversation over the past week. According to the rumors, his pickup truck had left the road, sailed over the ditch and rolled several times before landing upside down—a hair’s breadth away from a towering white pine that had planted its roots in the soil of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula long before the town founders.