Carolyne Aarsen - A Father in the Making

Family At Last

Nate Lyster and Mia Verbeek are in perfect agreement—letting someone new into your life is much too risky. Mom to four kids, Mia can’t let just anyone get close, while wandering cowboy Nate learned young that trusting another means chancing heartbreak. But when a fire turns Mia’s life upside down, Nate is the only one who can get through to her traumatized son. Nate fits into Mia’s family perfectly, and they soon realize that a loving family is what they both want. Can they put the hurts of their pasts behind them…for a chance at a perfect love?

Hearts of Hartley Creek: In this small town, love is just around the corner

“Nice to meet you, Mia,” he said.

Mia let Nate take her hand. When he let go, she felt an unexpected moment of loss.

“Nice to meet you, too,” she replied as his smile deepened.

“So you own the flower store,” he said, dropping his cowboy hat back on his head. “That’s ambitious,” he continued.

“It definitely keeps me busy.”

For this brief moment, Mia didn’t feel like a mommy weighed down with obligations. She returned his smile.

Just then her friend Sophie arrived, pushing the buggy, wails emanating from it. “I think one of your little girls is hungry,” she said to Mia.

Mia caught Nate frowning at her.

“Those are your kids?” he asked. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were—”

“A mom?” Mia couldn’t stop the hint of annoyance entering her voice. “It gets worse. There’s two more of these at home,” she said.

Nate wasn’t the first man put off by her brood.

He was, however, the first man she’d felt any attraction to in a long, long time.

CAROLYNE AARSEN

and her husband, Richard, live on a small ranch in northern Alberta, where they have raised four children and numerous foster children, and are still raising cattle. Carolyne crafts her stories in an office with a large west-facing window, through which she can watch the changing seasons while struggling to make her words obey.

A Father in the Making

Carolyne Aarsen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

—Isaiah 43:18

For Lorna Strydhorst, faithful reader and friend.

Contents

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

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Extract

Chapter One

“Go to sleep. Please go back to sleep,” Mia pleaded as she dragged the stroller holding her twin toddlers backward into the bookstore. Jennifer had been fussing for the past twenty minutes. She couldn’t be hungry. Mia had given both baby girls and her two sons a good supper before heading out the door into the cool of the late-fall evening. A better supper than she managed to wolf down before her babysitter, Angie, showed up. Though Angie wasn’t her regular babysitter, she had offered to take the two boys and the twins. Mia took care of four children all the time, but she didn’t feel right doing that to a temporary babysitter so she had taken the twins with her.

Fatigue dragged at her, and for a moment Mia entertained the idea of skipping the bookstore. However, she had promised Josh and Nico she would get the books. And ever since her husband had left her pregnant with twins and two preschool sons, Mia was firm on keeping promises to Josh and Nico.

As Jennifer’s whimpers turned into a cry of protest, Mia fished a pacifier out of the overstuffed diaper bag dangling from the handles of the stroller. She wiped the lint off and eased the pacifier into Jennifer’s mouth. Her daughter resisted a moment and then the pacifier began bouncing as the baby eagerly sucked on it.

Really? Shouldn’t one-year-olds be weaned off pacifiers by now?

Mia closed off the scolding voice in her head—Other Mother, the annoying amalgamation of every parenting article she had ever read, with a pinch of her perfect sister thrown in.

“Hey, my dear girl, shall I take the twins around the store while you shop?”

Sophie Brouwer smiled at Mia over the top of the stroller, her bright blue eyes surrounded by a network of friendly wrinkles. She wore her usual velour jogging suit today in a shade of bubblegum-pink that no female over ten should wear. And Sophie was easily six decades past that.

“I’ll be okay,” was Mia’s automatic reply.

Sophie shook her head and nudged Mia aside. “Don’t be so independent.” Sophie grasped the handles of the stroller. “You go talk to your friend.”

Then she pushed the stroller behind a shelf of books, leaving Mia no choice but to go to Evangeline.

Her friend was crouched down on the floor behind the counter, her long skirt puddling around her as she sorted through a box of books. Evangeline straightened as she saw Mia and pushed her long hair back from her face with a smile. “Hey, girl. Where’re the kids?”

“Angie is taking care of the boys and Sophie just kidnapped the twins.”

“You want a cup of coffee before I get your books?” Evangeline asked, waving a delicate hand toward the back of the store, her diamond engagement ring refracting the overhead light.

Mia’s mouth watered, and for a moment she allowed a “maybe” to test her resolve.

“Only if it’s quick,” she said, keeping her voice firm as if to convince herself as much as her friend. “I have to catch Mr. Truscott before he closes up his law office for the night.”

“What about?”

Mia sighed. “The usual. Support payments from Al, who’s disappeared off the radar again. And after that I have to get groceries and pick up my van from the mechanic.” She fought down the usual panic that hovered over her every day. Too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. “Hey, have you heard from Renee and Zach today? My phone’s been wonky.”

“I got a note from Renee this morning. I can’t believe she’s texting us on her honeymoon,” Evangeline said as she walked to the room in the back that doubled as a storage room and meeting place for the book club that Evangeline hosted every other week. “And why is Angie babysitting for you? What happened to Blythe, your usual babysitter?”

“Blythe had some hot date tonight. Lucky her.” Mia leaned against the doorway as Evangeline sorted through the books she had ordered for other customers.

“Hey, someday your prince will come,” Evangeline said.

“I can’t afford to let a prince into my children’s lives and I have no energy or time for romance. This morning I was so tired I punched my passcode for my bank account into my microwave.”

Evangeline gave her a sympathetic look as the jangling of the bell above the entrance announced more customers.

Then Mia heard the murmur of male voices in the store behind them. “I think Denny’s here,” Evangeline said, looking past Mia with such pleasure Mia couldn’t stop a faint twinge of envy.

They walked out of the room just as Sophie Brouwer walked past them, pushing the stroller toward the two men standing by the till. One Mia recognized as Denny, Evangeline’s fiancé. The other man was unfamiliar. He wore a cowboy hat like Denny, but his had a feather in the band. His twill shirt was torn at the elbow and accompanied by worn blue jeans and scuffed cowboy boots. As Sophie passed them, the unfamiliar man crouched down, reached out and took Jennifer’s finger.

“Hey, you two cuties,” Mia heard him say with a laugh as Jennifer gurgled and Grace, awake now, batted at his cowboy hat. “Easy on the hat,” he said, letting Grace grab his other hand. “It’s been through enough.”