Judith McWilliams - The Summer Proposal

“I have been exceedingly unreasonable,”

Caleb said, closing the distance between them. He reminded himself to think of Julie in an impersonal manner—to pretend she was his best friend’s fiancée.

Julie’s breath caught in her throat as he leaned forward slightly, towering over her. Making her aware of him in a way she had never before been aware of a man. She felt quintessentially feminine and emotionally vulnerable, but the odd thing was she didn’t feel threatened. On the contrary, she felt…invigorated.

He slowly lowered his head and his lips touched hers with the faintest of pressure.

Fiancée, he thought. He was supposed to be treating Julie like his best friend’s fiancée. Caleb struggled to force himself to end the kiss, but it became impossible when she trembled in his arms.

I’ll get a new best friend, he thought foggily.

Dear Reader,

Celebrate the holidays with Silhouette Romance! We strive to deliver emotional, fast-paced stories that suit your every mood—each and every month. Why not give the gift of love this year by sending your best friends and family members one of our heartwarming books?

Sandra Paul’s The Makeover Takeover is the latest page-turner in the popular HAVING THE BOSS’S BABY series. In Teresa Southwick’s If You Don’t Know by Now, the third in the DESTINY, TEXAS series, Maggie Benson is shocked when Jack Riley comes back into her life—and their child’s!

I’m also excited to announce that this month marks the return of two cherished authors to Silhouette Romance. Gifted at weaving intensely dramatic stories, Laurey Bright once again thrills Romance readers with her VIRGIN BRIDES title, Marrying Marcus. Judith McWilliams’s charming tale, The Summer Proposal, will delight her throngs of devoted fans and have us all yearning for more!

As a special treat, we have two fresh and original royalty-themed stories. In The Marine & the Princess, Cathie Linz pits a hardened military man against an impetuous princess. Nicole Burnham’s Going to the Castle tells of a duty-bound prince who escapes his castle walls and ends up with a beautiful refugee-camp worker.

We promise to deliver more exciting new titles in the coming year. Make it your New Year’s resolution to read them all!

Happy reading!

Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Silhouette Romance

Gift of the Gods #479

The Summer Proposal #1562

Silhouette Desire

Reluctant Partners #441

A Perfect Season #545

That’s My Baby #597

Anything’s Possible! #911

The Man from Atlantis #954

Instant Husband #1001

Practice Husband #1062

Another Man’s Baby #1095

The Boss, the Beauty and the Bargain #1122

The Sheik’s Secret #1228

JUDITH McWILLIAMS

began to enjoy romances while in search of the proverbial “happily-ever-after.” But she always found herself rewriting the endings, and eventually the beginnings, of the books she read. Then her husband finally suggested that she write novels of her own, and she’s been doing so ever since. An ex-teacher with four children, Judith has traveled the country extensively with her husband and has been greatly influenced by those experiences. But while not tending the garden or caring for family, Judith does what she enjoys most—writing. She has also written under the name Charlotte Hines.

Jimmy,

It’s me, Will. Remember that teacher I told ya about? The one my dad got to teach me a bunch a junk I don’t wanna know. Julie, she ain’t at all like what we thought. She can make cookies! Good ones full a chocolate chips and nuts. And she ain’t always going on about drinking that disgusting cow juice. And she don’t never yell, and when she smiles her eyes kinda sparkle.

I decided I’s gonna keep her. All I gotta do is figure out how to get Dad to marry her so she’ll have to stay. But I got a couple of great ideas to help Dad along. If’n you got any, write me back right away. I wanta get this settled before someone else grabs her.

Will

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

“Really, Mr. Tarrington! This is most irregular! You should not be here.” The school secretary gave him a quelling look over the top of her bifocals that forty years of dealing with unruly grade-schoolers had perfected. To her annoyance, he didn’t even seem to notice.

“Yesterday was the day for parents to clear up irregularities,” Miss Boulton persisted. “Today is the day that the teachers have to get all the end-of-year records completed and turned in. Miss Raffet is much too busy to see you.”

“I won’t take up much of her time,” Caleb forced a reasonable tone despite the fact that he didn’t feel the least bit reasonable. But venting the turbulent emotions churning through him on a secretary, no matter how aggravating she was being, wouldn’t get him any closer to his goal. Which at the moment hinged on getting in to see Miss Raffet.

“Just see that you don’t!” Miss Boulton’s tone hinted at dire consequences.

She gestured toward the open office door behind him. “Miss Raffet’s room is to the right. Fifth door down. Please stop back here on your way out and let me know that you’re leaving the building. You wouldn’t want to get locked in for the summer, now, would you?”

To her irritation, her attempt at humor didn’t get any more of a response from him than her lecture. He merely nodded his head, gave her a perfunctory “thank you for your help” and left.

Miss Boulton watched him go, wondering what he wanted Julie for. Something personal? Something romantic? A flash of interest flared to life in her thin chest. Highly unlikely, she abandoned the idea almost immediately. Julie’s little students might love her to distraction, but in the four years she’d been teaching at Whittier Elementary, Miss Boulton hadn’t seen the slightest sign that a man might feel the same about her. Especially not one who looked like Caleb Tarrington.

She shook her head, effectively dislodging both Caleb Tarrington’s unwelcome presence and Julie Raffet’s romantic prospects from her busy mind as she reached for the internal phone.

Caleb paused outside the door the secretary had specified and took a deep, steadying breath, trying to organize his scattered thoughts. So much depended on him convincing the unknown Miss Raffet to help. If he couldn’t…

An image of Will’s pale face, his small features, rigid with fear he was desperately trying not to show, flashed through Caleb’s mind, and a fierce surge of love filled him. His son! Even after twenty-four hours, Caleb still expected the words to be accompanied by trumpet fanfare.

If only… Abruptly he sliced off the unprofitable line of thought. The past was dead. Over. All the regrets in the world couldn’t change it. All he could do was to try to shape the future differently. And the first step toward reshaping his son’s future was to enlist the aid of Miss Raffet. Caleb just wished he knew a little more about her. All his old friend, John, had said was that she was the best first-grade teacher he’d ever seen in his career as a school principal. That if anyone could help him, Miss Raffet could. But the question John hadn’t been able to answer was would she?