Marie Ferrarella - Adding Up To Family

For the Matchmaking Mamas,

1 + 2 = Happily-Ever-After

When widowed rocket scientist Steve Holder needs a housekeeper who can also help with his precocious ten-year-old, The Matchmaking Mamas assign Becky Reynolds. The math whiz turned domestic engineer gently solves the equation of Steve’s daughter, but the moody widower requires more calculation. Love is definitely part of the solution! Becky just needs to find the right algorithm to solve the equation to Steve’s heart.

USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award–winning author MARIE FERRARELLAhas written more than two hundred and seventy-five books for Mills & Boon, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, marieferrarella.com.

Also by Marie Ferrarella

Engagement for Two

Christmastime Courtship

A Second Chance for the Single Dad

Meant to Be Mine

Twice a Hero, Always Her Man

Dr. Forget-Me-Not

Coming Home for Christmas

Her Red-Carpet Romance Diamond

in the Ruff

Dating for Two

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Adding Up to Family

Marie Ferrarella

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07797-2

ADDING UP TO FAMILY

© 2018 Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella

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

To

Patience Smith Bloom,

Congratulations on twenty years

As a fantastic editor.

Here’s to the next twenty.

May we see it together.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

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

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Prologue

“Please, Celia, you’re a mother. You must know what I’m talking about,” Bonnie Reynolds implored, obviously attempting to appeal to her longtime friend’s maternal instincts. “For the first twelve years of that girl’s life, I felt as if I could barely keep up with her. Even her homework assignments were so far beyond my own understanding, I had a headache every time I tried to check it.”

Despite the situation that had brought her to Celia, there was pride echoing in Bonnie’s voice as she added, “Rebecca whizzed through her studies like it was child’s play—at a time when she was little more than a child herself.”

Celia Parnell smiled understandingly at the distraught woman sitting opposite her in her Bedford, California, office.

When Bonnie had come in, looking as if she was at her wit’s end, Celia had closed the door to her small inner office to ensure privacy. Speaking calmly, she had poured them both a cup of vanilla chai tea. She’d urged the trim brunette to take a seat and tell her exactly what was troubling her.

And just like that, the words poured out of Bonnie like a dam whose retaining wall had suddenly cracked in half.

Listening, Celia nodded. It was a story she was more than a little familiar with.

“Rebecca had a wonderful job, Celia. An absolutely wonderful job—for three years. And then one day she decided to just up and leave it. Just like that.” Bonnie snapped her fingers. “Don’t get me wrong. When you first offered Rebecca a job with your company, I was grateful. I thought that this—this wrinkle was something she needed to work out and then she’d be back to herself again. In the interim, she was still earning money. But, Celia, that girl is wasting her potential. You know she is,” Bonnie cried, sitting so close to the edge of her chair, she looked as if she was in danger of falling off it if she so much as took in a big breath.

“Breathe, Bonnie,” Celia counseled.

“I am breathing—and very nearly hyperventilating,” the other woman cried, very close to tears now. “Celia, Rebecca graduated from MIT at eighteen. Eighteen! ” she stressed.

“I remember,” Celia replied calmly.

But Bonnie only grew more agitated. “And she did it on a full scholarship, because her father, that rat, ran out on us, leaving me with nothing but debts and no way to pay for anything without working two jobs! That meant hardly ever seeing Rebecca, and yet she turned out like a gem.”

“I know,” Celia said, doing her best to continue to sound calm.

She had a feeling that she knew where this was going, but she allowed the other woman to say her piece, hoping that Bonnie would find a way to calm herself down and not be so hopeless about her daughter’s current situation. Because if there was anything she’d learned these last few years, it was that no situation was hopeless.

“When she first got that job at the engineering firm—practically the best aerospace firm in the country—I was in seventh heaven. But after three years, the bottom suddenly dropped out for her. Without any warning, Rebecca decided that she was ‘burned out.’ Burned out,” Bonnie repeated, shaking her head. “What does that even mean ?”

“That she worked so hard, exceeding all expectations for so long, that she wound up exhausting herself,” Celia told her friend. “She just needs to recharge her batteries.”

“She’s been recharging now for three years,” Bonnie lamented. “My brilliant daughter has been cleaning houses for three years,” the woman cried, looking at Celia for her understanding.

“I know, Bonnie. I’m the one who writes her paychecks,” she replied with a smile.

As if worried that she might have insulted her, Bonnie quickly apologized. “Look, Celia, I meant no disrespect—”