Granted: A Family for Baby Read online

  “I’m going out on a date,” Suzy said.

  Letter to Reader

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Books by Carol Grace

  About the Author

  Suzy’s Wish List

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  Copyright

  “I’m going out on a date,” Suzy said.

  Brady grasped Suzy’s arm. “Who with?”

  “No one you know. Does it matter?”

  “Of course it matters,” Brady said. “You deserve the best.”

  Suzy took a deep breath and pulled her arm away. He was not going to try to talk her out of her husband hunt again. “You said you’d baby-sit for me. Are you a man of your word?” she asked.

  “Yes, I’m a man of my word. Just tell me what time I have to be there,” he said, feeling a glow of satisfaction at his plan. All he had to do to keep Suzy working for him was help her with Travis. One night of baby-sitting was a small price to pay for her skills, her loyalty.

  After all, how hard could it be to take care of a one-year-old baby for a few hours?

  Dear Reader,

  Silhouette Romance is proud to usher in the year with two exciting new promotions! LOVING THE BOSS is a six-book series, launching this month and ending in June, about office romances leading to happily-ever-afters. In the premiere title, The Boss and the Beauty, by award-winning author Donna Clayton, a prim personal assistant wows her jaded, workaholic boss when she has a Cinderella makeovec...

  You’ve asked for more family-centered stories, so we created FAMILY MATTER, an ongoing promotion with a special flash. The launch title, Family by the Bunch from popular Special Edition author Amy Frazier, pairs a rancher in want of a family with a spirited social worker...and five adorable orphans.

  Also available are more of the authors you love, and the miniseries you’ve come to cherish. Kia Cochrane’s emotional Romance debut, A Rugged Ranchin’ Dad, beautifully captures the essence of FABULOUS FATHERS. Star author Judy Christenberry unveils her sibling-connected miniseries LUCKY CHARM SISTERS with Marry Me, Kate, an unforgettable marriage-of-convenience tale. Granted: A Family for Baby is the latest of Carol Grace’s BEST-KEPT SWISHES miniseries. And COWBOYS TO THE RESCUE, the heartwarming Western saga by rising star Martha Shields, continues with The Million-Dollar Cowboy.

  Enjoy this month’s offerings, and look forward to more spectacular stories coming each month from Silhouette Romance!

  Happy New Year!

  Mary-Theresa Hussey

  Senior Editor, Silhouette Romance

  Please address questions and book requests to:

  Silhouette Reader Service

  U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

  Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

  GRANTED: A FAMILY FOR BABY

  Carol Grace

  For my nephew, David Michael Warme, the little boy

  who came from China as a baby to find a family of

  his own.

  Books by Carol Grace

  Silhouette Romance

  Make Room for Nanny #690

  A Taste Heaven #751

  Home Is Where the Heart Is #882

  Mail-Order Male #955

  The Lady Wore Spurs #1010

  *Lonely Millionaire #1057

  *Almost a Husband #1105

  *Almost Married #1142

  The Rancher and the Lost Bride #1153

  †Granted: Big Sky Groom #1277

  †Granted: Wild West Bride #1303

  †Granted: A Family for Baby #1345

  *Miramar Inn

  †Best-Kept Wishes

  Silhouette Desire

  Wife for a Night #1118

  The Heiress Inherits a Cowboy #1145

  CAROL GRACE

  has always been interested in travel and living abroad. She spent her junior year in college in France and toured the world working on the hospital ship Hope. She and her husband spent the first year and a half of their marriage in Iran, where they both taught English. Then, with their toddler daughter, they lived in Algeria for two years.

  Carol says that writing is another way of making her life exciting. Her office is her mountaintop home, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean and which she shares with her inventor husband, their daughter and son.

  Suzy’s Wish List

  1. A daddy for my son, Travis. A nice, normal guy who wants to get married, settle down and have a family. Don’t tell me they don’t exist in this town. My best friend, Tally, found one, and so did Bridget. Right here in my home town of Harmony, Nevada.

  2.To quit my job as sexy sheriff Brady Wilson’s assistant. How am I supposed to go husband hunting with his handsome face in front of me all day lony?

  3.To slay at home and care for Travis, and cook up delicious meals for Brady—I mean, my husband!

  4.To fall in love with anyone other than my irresistible boss, Brady!

  Chapter One

  Suzy Fenton went to the sheriffs office in Harmony, Nevada, at eight o’clock in the morning. Rain pelted the windows of the cement building and splashed off the gutter. Shoulders squared, heart hammering, she stood in front of the lawman’s large, old-fashioned oak desk, which was flanked by an American flag, while water dripped from the hem of her trench coat and made a puddle on the old, worn floorboards. What she was going to say was not easy. And it was liable to shock and anger the usually affable sheriff. But it had. to be said. The time had come. She’d waited long enough.

  “Sheriff,” she said, “I quit.” She held up her hand, palm forward so she could continue uninterrupted. “I know what you’re going to say. You need me. I’m indispensable. But nobody’s indispensable. And there are certain circumstances beyond my control. I have to think of my future. Now more than ever. So I’m tendering my resignation.” With a flourish, she pulled a damp sheet of paper from the plastic folder under her arm and laid it on his desk. Then she collapsed into the vinyl chair that faced the desk, heaved a huge sigh of relief and closed her eyes.

  Now, if only she could get up the nerve to make that speech when her boss, Sheriff Brady Wilson, was sitting behind the desk, she could be on her way. After he’d found a replacement, of course. She’d never leave him high and dry. But it wouldn’t be that hard to find somebody to take her place. Under his bluff and bluster, he was the perfect boss. Understanding, appreciative, goodnatured and downright charming when he chose to be.

  Except when he was in the middle of a difficult case. Which wasn’t very often. The most dastardly crimes he ever came across were poaching on nearby ranchland, brawls in the saloon and boundary disputes.

  A few minutes later Brady came storming into the office, shaking his thick brown hair like a wet terrier and tossing his raincoat in the direction of the coatrack.

  “Good.” he said, dispensing with a formal greeting. “You’re here early. Get your coat off. We’ve got work to do.”

  Slowly she got to her feet, and slowly hung her coat next to his, watching him out of the corner of her eye as his brow furrowed and he dropped like a stone into his swivel chair. The loud snap as he unlatched his briefcase split the air like the crack of a bullet. Was this the right time? she asked herself. Or was there no such thing as the right time to tell him? Just when she got her courage up, he was in some kind of black mood.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “This. This is what’s wrong,” he said shoving a paper across t
he desk in her direction. “Somebody’s running against me. Now—a month before the election. Can he do that?”

  “He can do it under Nevada law, if the election is previously uncontested and he files within thirty days.”

  “How do you know these things?”

  Suzy pointed to a thick black book of statutes on the top shelf behind his desk. “It’s all in there.”

  Brady nodded, trusting her as he always did for her knowledge of the rules and regulations. She reached for the flyer, printed on,slick paper, and gazed into the earnest eyes of the young man pictured there. When she’d scanned his list of credentials, she realized Brady was going to have to fight for his job for the first time in his law enforcement career.

  “Darryl Staples. Is this the guy who bought the Car-stairs Ranch? Who made a fortune in discount furniture stores? Who’s got more money than he knows what to do with? What does he want to be sheriff for?”

  “Some kind of ego trip, probably. The damned carpetbagger. He’s not even from Nevada.”

  “Neither are you,” she pointed out.

  He raised his eyebrows and glared at her. “I’ll remind you I’ve lived here for five years. That I didn’t inflate property values by buying a huge working ranch so I could play at being a cowboy. And I didn’t set out to buy myself a job so I could play at being sheriff.”

  “You did buy property, though.”

  “A barn on five acres. You call that property?”

  “It’s a beautiful barn,” she said. He’d turned the barn into a living space with a loft and huge windows that showed a view of the jagged mountains in the distance.

  “And it’s all mine. I thought the job was mine, too. For as long as I wanted it. There’s never been a runoff for sheriff in the history of Harmony, has there?” he asked.

  “Not that I can remember.” She picked up the flyer and studied the face of Brady’s rival. “Not bad looking,” she said. “Is he married?”

  “I don’t know. Who cares?” Brady said yanking the paper from Suzy’s hands. “Do you?”

  “As a matter of fact...” This was her chance. The perfect opportunity to explain her situation. Anyone else, whose mind wasn’t always on his job, would have realized why she asked. And why she couldn’t stay any longer. Anyone else would have guessed she was going to quit one of these days. But just as she was about to give her speech, the phone rang and Brady answered it.

  “Yeah, I know about it. But he doesn’t have a chance. Nobody knows him... Yeah... He does...? He is...? Yeah, okay, I will. Now, today. Thanks.”

  Brady slammed the receiver down, stood and paced back and forth in front of the window while Suzy waited for him to speak.

  “That was Hal,” he said. “He says Staples is planning to win this election. He wants to make a contribution to his new hometown. He couldn’t contribute to the new library fund or build a community center? He has to have my job?” Before Suzy could respond, Brady continued. “He’s married, for your information. So now I have to compete against somebody with a wife who’s no doubt raising kids and baking cookies.” The scorn dripping from his voice told her what he thought about that kind of wife. The very kind of wife Suzy would love to be. He shifted his gaze back to her.

  “Well, don’t just stand there, get busy,” he said. “Order brochures and signs. Call the radio station, price TV ads.”

  “How are you going to pay for TV ads?” she asked. “You have about $250 in your campaign fund. Enough for some signs and mailers.”

  “Fund-raisers. Set up some fund-raisers, you know, spaghetti dinners and coffees. People pay $100,000 to have dinner with the president. How much would they pay to have dinner with the sheriff?”

  “At least $5.00,” she suggested. “Maybe $7.50.”

  He grinned at her in spite of his bad mood. “That much? I was afraid I’d have to pay them. In the meantime I’ve got a stack of Wanted posters that came in off the fax last night. How do they expect me to be sheriff and run for sheriff at the same time?” He shook his head. “Thank God I’ve got you, Suzy. Whatever fortune Staples has I wouldn’t trade it for a secretary like you. You’re worth your weight in gold. What is your weight anyway—115, 120?” He let his gaze roam over all 128 pounds of her generous curves and her steely resolve to quit melted like the snow in the Sierra Nevadas.

  Whatever fortune Staples had, he didn’t have a chance with the voters, especially the female voters, when Brady turned on the charm. She knew it, she recognized it and, fortunately, she was immune to it. Because Brady Wilson was a confirmed bachelor. Divorced once, he had no intention of ever marrying again. He’d made it clear to everybody, especially the women who’d initially set their caps for him when he first came to town.

  “Save it for the voters,” she said, referring to the appreciative gleam in his dark eyes. Ignoring his question about her weight, she quickly walked into the small office adjoining his before she found herself offering to empty her pockets to bankroll his reelection. That’s how persuasive he could be. That’s why she dreaded telling him she was going to quit.

  She sat at her desk at stared at the walls. Unlike Brady’s, which were hung with official pictures of the president and the attorney general, awards and presentations, Suzy’s walls were covered with pictures of her small son Travis. Travis, with his happy grin, his blond tousled hair. Travis, whose father had deserted them before he was even born, needed a stay-at-home mom. Looking at the, pictures of her and Travis at his birthday party, Travis in a Halloween costume, Travis with his teddy bear, made her heart swell with love and gave her courage. She’d do it. She’d tell Brady today.

  Right after she ordered the signs and posters saying Brady Wilson, the People’s Friend. A Man of His Word. She picked up the telephone just as a howl of outrage filled the entire building. Dropping the receiver, she skidded across the floor and opened the door to Brady’s office. He was standing behind his desk, holding her letter of resignation in front of him.

  “What does this mean?” he demanded. Only minutes ago he’d looked at her with warmth and appreciation, now there was anger, indignation and disbelief in those same mahogany eyes.

  “I can explain,” she began. Here it was, her opportunity to tell him. She couldn’t back down now. “I...I can’t work for you anymore.” Her mind went blank. She couldn’t remember the rest of her speech, something about the future, and circumstances...what else?

  “What do you need, a vacation? After the election you can take all the time you need. A raise? I’ll go to the town council and get you one,” he said.

  “No...I—”

  “Then what?”

  “I need a husband.”

  “A husband? What the hell for?” he asked, rocking back on his heels.

  “So I can stay home with Travis. My mother’s leaving Harmony. Going to live with her sister in Vegas. I’ll be left with no one to baby-sit for me.”

  “Find somebody else.”

  “I don’t want somebody else taking care of my baby. I want to take care of him myself.”

  “Bring him to work with you.”

  Suzy grimaced. Now she remembered why she dreaded telling Brady. When he wanted something, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. She didn’t know why she was worried about his losing the race for sheriff. In the face of this kind of determination, the furniture king didn’t have a chance.

  “Brady...I can’t bring a one-year-old toddler to this office. He’s just learning to walk now and into everything. He wouldn’t be happy here, and I couldn’t get any work done and neither could you.”

  “Okay, okay. We’ll think of something else.” His forehead was knotted into a frown as he paced back and forth in front of his desk. Suddenly he looked at Suzy. “Who are you going to marry?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. That’s why I’m quitting,” she said earnestly. Finally he was listening. “I have to find a job where I’ll meet eligible men.”

  Brady grabbed Suzy by the shoulders and pinned her with his
dark eyes. “Let me get this straight. You want to stay home and take care of the kid. So you’re quitting your job to get married. Am I right so far?”

  She nodded.

  “But you don’t have anyone to marry, so you’re getting another job.”

  “One where I’ll meet eligible men instead of drunks, scofflaws and deadbeats.”

  “And what might that be?”

  “Well, I thought I’d waitress at the diner,” she said, watching his face turn red and his jaw fall open.

  “The diner? You’d quit a responsible, well-paying job working for me to be a waitress? I don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “I can explain if you’ll just listen to me. You eat at the diner, don’t you?” she asked.

  “Sure.”

  “And so does every other bachelor for miles around. If they don’t come in for dinner, they come in on the weekends. Not only them, but every tourist and every—”

  “Ax murderer, psychopath and gunslinger. What are you looking for, anyway?” Brady asked.

  “Just a decent guy for once. One who will stay around. Somebody who likes kids, obviously. Is that too much to ask for?”

  “Of course not. Not for you. You deserve all that and more. You deserve the best. After the campaign’s over you can take time off whenever you need it. In fact, I’ll even baby-sit for you while you go out on dates. How’s that?” he said with a satisfied smile.

  “Thank you. That’s great. But I’m not going to have any dates, because I don’t know any eligible men. That’s why I need to quit.”