Kate Hoffmann - Daddy Wanted

Isabella Trueblood made histor reuniting people torn apart by war and an epidemic. Now, generations later, Lily and Dylan Garrett carry on her work with their agency, Finders Keepers. Circumstances may have changed, but the goal remains the same.

Lost

Her reputation. P.I. Jennifer Rodriguez was pregnant. And no way could she tell her traditional family there was no daddy in sight for her child. But Jen herself wasn’t born yesterday. She knew when to call in a favor.

Found

A phony fiancé. After Jennifer had successfully tracked down Ryan Madison, he’d said to call if he could ever help her out. And now was the time. He just had to show up with her at her parents’ place and pretend they were about to be married. Then he could disappear. It was no big deal. Except to lovestruck Ryan.

Finders Keepers: bringing families together

“Jennifer has a bun in her oven,”

Teresa piped up, a gap-toothed smile splitting her eager face, her brown eyes sparkling.

Jennifer’s heart stopped and her jaw dropped. Orange juice, halfway down her throat, came back up with a cough and she pressed her napkin to her mouth, her eyes watering.

“Niña, we all know Jennifer is not so good in the kitchen,” Carmen said, ruffling her daughter’s hair.

“No, she is,” Teresa insisted. “I think she’s taking cooking lessons.”

“Teresa, shh!” Jennifer hissed, watching as the rest of the guests began to turn their attention toward her youngest sister.

Ryan handed the little girl a sweet roll, waving it in front of her face. “Have something to eat, Teresa. Aren’t you hungry?”

Teresa took the roll. “Jenny and Ryan were in the garden last night and she told him she had a bun in her oven. I was listening from my tree house.”

Carmen’s eyes were wide. “And what else did Jenny say?”

“She said she’s knocked up, too. And she’s going to have a baby.”

“Oh, God,” Jennifer murmured.

Dear Reader,

I’ve always welcomed the chance to add a little variety into my writing life, so when my editor at Harlequin asked me to contribute a book to the TRUEBLOOD, TEXAS series, I couldn’t refuse. In the nearly thirty books I’ve written for them, I’ve never set a book in Texas. And the chance to learn more about Mexican-American culture was an added bonus!

A chance inquiry at my local library put me in touch with Cristina Capatillo-Fischer. She graciously agreed to help me “get it right,” and we spent many mornings at the library discussing Mexican wedding traditions, quinceañera celebrations and dinner menus. It wasn’t long before this Wisconsin girl knew the proper time to serve corn tortillas versus flour.

I hope you enjoy the next installment of TRUEBLOOD, TEXAS. The story of Jennifer Rodriguez, Ryan Madison and the baby between them was so much fun to write. I hope it’s as much fun to read!

Happy reading,

Kate Hoffmann

www.millsandboon.co.uk

The Trueblood Legacy

THE YEAR WAS 1918, and the Great War in Europe still raged, but Esau Porter was heading home to Texas.

The young sergeant arrived at his parents’ ranch northwest of San Antonio on a Sunday night, only the celebration didn’t go off as planned. Most of the townsfolk of Carmelita had come out to welcome Esau home, but when they saw the sorry condition of the boy, they gave their respects quickly and left.

The fever got so bad so fast that Mrs. Porter hardly knew what to do. By Monday night, before the doctor from San Antonio made it into town, Esau was dead.

The Porter family grieved. How could their son have survived the German peril, only to burn up and die in his own bed? It wasn’t much of a surprise when Mrs. Porter took to her bed on Wednesday. But it was a hell of a shock when half the residents of Carmelita came down with the horrible illness. House after house was hit by death, and all the townspeople could do was pray for salvation.

None came. By the end of the year, over one hundred souls had perished. The influenza virus took those in the prime of life, leaving behind an unprece-

dented number of orphans. And the virus knew no boundaries. By the time the threat had passed, more than thirty-seven million people had succumbed worldwide.

But in one house, there was still hope.

Isabella Trueblood had come to Carmelita in the late 1800s with her father, blacksmith Saul Trueblood, and her mother, Teresa Collier Trueblood. The family had traveled from Indiana, leaving their Quaker roots behind.

Young Isabella grew up to be an intelligent woman who had a gift for healing and storytelling. Her dreams centered on the boy next door, Foster Carter, the son of Chester and Grace.

Just before the bad times came in 1918, Foster asked Isabella to be his wife, and the future of the Carter spread was secured. It was a happy union, and the future looked bright for the young couple.

Two years later, not one of their relatives was alive. How the young couple had survived was a miracle. And during the epidemic, Isabella and Foster had

taken in more than twenty-two orphaned children from all over the county. They fed them, clothed them, taught them as if they were blood kin.

Then Isabella became pregnant, but there were complications. Love for her handsome son, Josiah, born in 1920, wasn’t enough to stop her from grow-ing weaker by the day. Knowing she couldn’t leave her husband to tend to all the children if she died, she set out to find families for each one of her orphaned charges.

And so the Trueblood Foundation was born. Named in memory of Isabella’s parents, it would become famous all over Texas. Some of the orphaned children went to strangers, but many were reunited with their families. After reading notices in newspapers and church bulletins, aunts, uncles, cousins and grand-parents rushed to Carmelita to find the young ones they’d given up for dead.

Toward the end of Isabella’s life, she’d brought together more than thirty families, and not just her orphans. Many others, old and young, made their way to her doorstep, and Isabella turned no one away.

At her death, the town’s name was changed to Trueblood, in her honor. For years to come, her simple grave was adorned with flowers on the anniversary of her death, grateful tokens of appreciation from the families she had brought together.

Isabella’s son, Josiah, grew into a fine rancher and married Rebecca Montgomery in 1938. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Trueblood Carter, in 1940. Elizabeth married her neighbor William Garrett in 1965, and gave birth to twins Lily and Dylan in 1971, and daughter Ashley a few years later. Home was the Double G ranch, about ten miles from Trueblood proper, and the Garrett children grew up listening to stories of their famous great-grandmother, Isabella. Because they were Truebloods, they knew that they, too, had a sacred duty to carry on the tradition passed down to them: finding lost souls and reuniting loved ones.

Kate Hoffmann is acknowledged

as the author of this work.

For Cristina, with thanks for your friendship

and all those mornings at Mead.

Contents

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

PROLOGUE

“MR. MADISON? Are you all right?”

Ryan Madison heard her words, even registered the concern in her voice, but the strange buzzing in his head made it impossible to form a reply.

Was he all right? This morning, when he’d walked into the trailer at Number 59, he hadn’t really bothered to consider the question. On the whole, his life was going pretty damn well. He was almost twenty-seven years old, considered a decent-looking guy without any major dental problems or personality disorders. He owned a very successful business in Midland, Texas—Madison Drilling and Oil—and made a good living. They’d just opened their fifty-ninth well. And though he wasn’t happily married with two point four children and a dog, he came from what he thought was a loving, supportive family—until now.