Her Very Own Family Read online

  Joe planned to distance himself from Brynn, to decide what it was about her that kept her on his mind.

  Letter to Reader

  Title Page

  Books by Gina Wilkins

  About the Author

  Letter to Reader

  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

  Teaser chapter

  Copyright

  FAMILY FOUND: SONS & DAUGHTERS:

  A new generation finds its way home

  and discovers the unbreakable bonds of

  family and love.

  Joe planned to distance himself from Brynn, to decide what it was about her that kept her on his mind.

  So as he approached his brother’s home, he told himself it was simply to visit his family and make sure all was going well with Brynn as the new nanny. After all, he felt responsible for her being there. He’d asked his huge, boisterous family to watch out for Brynn after her accident.

  But when Joe entered the house, all his careful planning fell apart.

  Brynn stood there, cradling his infant nephew in her arms, cooing to him with a look of utter infatuation on her face.

  Joe’s tongue went numb. He couldn’t have spoken if he’d tried.

  Suddenly Brynn looked up; her eyes met Joe’s, then widened.

  And something very special arced between them. Something neither could deny....

  Dear Reader,

  This month, Silhouette Special Edition presents an exciting selection of stories about forever love, fanciful weddings—and the warm bonds of family.

  Longtime author Gina Wilkins returns to Special Edition with Her Very Own Family,. which is part of her FAMILY FOUND: SONS & DAUGHTERS series. The Walker and D’Alessandro clans first captivated readers when they were introduced in the author’s original Special Edition series, FAMILY FOUND. In this new story, THAT SPECIAL WOMAN! Brynn Larkin’s life is about to change when she finds herself being wooed by a drop-dead gorgeous surgeon....

  The heroines in these next three books are destined for happiness—or are they? First, Susan Mallery concludes her enchanting series duet, BRIDES OF BRADLEY HOUSE, with a story about a hometown nanny who becomes infatuated with her very own Dream Groom Then the rocky road to love continues with The Long Way Home by RITA Award-winning author Cheryl Reavis—a poignant tale about a street-smart gal who finds acceptance where she least expects it. And you won’t want to miss the passionate reunion romance in If I Only Had a.. Husband by Andrea Edwards. This book launches the fun-filled new series, THE BRIDAL CIRCLE, about four long-term friends who discover there’s no place like home—to find romance!

  Rounding off the month, we have Accidental Parents by Jane Toombs—an emotional story about an orphan who draws his new parents together. And a no-strings-attached arrangement goes awry when a newlywed couple becomes truly smitten in Their Marriage Contract by Val Daniels.

  I hope you enjoy all our selections this month!

  Sincerely,

  Karen Taylor Richman

  Senior Editor

  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

  GINA WILKINS

  HER VERY OWN FAMILY

  Books by Gina Wilkins

  Silhouette Special Edition

  The Father Next Door #1082

  *It Could Happen To You #1119

  Valentine Baby #1153

  †Her Very Own Family #1243

  *From Bud to Blossom

  †Family Found: Sons & Daughters

  Previously published as Gina Ferris

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Healing Sympathy #496

  Lady Beware #549

  In From the Rain #677

  Prodigal Father #711

  §Full of Grace #793

  §Hardworkmg Man #806

  §Fair and Wise #819

  §Far To Go #862

  §Loving and Giving #879

  Babies on Board #913

  §Family Found

  Previously published as

  Gina Ferris Wilkins

  Silhouette Special Edition

  ‡A Man for Mom #955

  ‡A Match for Celia #967

  ‡A Home for Adam #980

  ‡Cody’s Fiancée #1006

  ‡The Family Way

  Silhouette Books

  Mother’s Day Collection 1995

  Three Mothers and a Cradle “Beginnings”

  GINA WILKINS

  declares that she is Southern by birth and by choice, and she has chosen to set many of her books in the South, where she finds a rich treasury of characters and settings. She particularly loves the Ozark mountain region of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, and the proudly unique people who reside there. She and her husband, John, live in Arkansas with their three children, Courtney, Kerry and David.

  Dear Reader,

  Several years ago, I wrote the FAMILY FOUND series about siblings separated as small children who find each other again as adults—and discover romance during the journey. I fell hard for the Walker and D’Alessandro families, and I have wanted to visit them again ever since. It always pleased me when readers wrote to make the same request. I’d left behind the younger son of the D’Alessandro family, and I’ve always known that Joe would someday want a romance of his own. But I knew it would take a very special woman to suit this dashing doctor....

  When Brynn Larkin’s personality began to form in my mind, I knew I’d found someone who desperately needed a family of her own. Her unsettled childhood has left her wondering if she can ever belong to a family, though it is something she has always dreamed of. She literally crashes into Dr. Joe D’Alessandro’s path—and neither his life nor hers will ever be the same.

  For those who are familiar with the FAMILY FOUND series, I hope you enjoy revisiting them as much as I have. And for those who have yet to be introduced to the Walker and D’Alessandro clans, I hope they become as special to you as they are to me. I will be visiting them again with That First Special Kiss—coming to Silhouette Special Edition in September 1999!

  Chapter One

  Dr. Joe D’Alessandro had been at the hospital for hours. He was tired and hungry, eager to get home after a long, eventful day that had begun, for him, at 5 a.m. It was after 6 p.m. now, and he hadn’t even had a chance to eat lunch. But when a speeding pickup truck entered the highway, going the wrong way on an exit ramp, and rammed into the passenger side of a compact car just ahead of Joe’s vehicle, he never even considered driving on, leaving someone else to deal with the mess. Almost before the sound of the horrendous crash had completely faded, Joe was out of his car and running to help.

  His brother Michael, who’d been riding with Joe home from the hospital where they’d just welcomed a new addition to the D’Alessandro family, was close on Joe’s heels. “I’ll check the truck,” he shouted. “You look after the other car.”

  Joe nodded and sprinted toward the driver’s side of the car that had taken the impact. The older model, preairbag car, had been built more for economy than safety. The passenger door was crushed against the front of the truck. Joe hoped no one had been riding in the passenger seat, but it took only a glance inside the vehicle to see that both front seats we
re occupied.

  Two young women were in the car, and they were both ominously still. Boxes and suitcases were tumbled throughout the interior of the small, crumpled vehicle, taking even more of the available space.

  Other people were beginning to gather, shouting questions and suggestions.

  “I called 911. Should we try to get them out of the car?” a burly, breathless young man asked Joe as he joined him beside the car door.

  “Not yet.” Joe opened the driver’s door of the compact and knelt inside to check the driver. “I’m a doctor,” he said over his shoulder. “Unless there’s someone else with medical training out there, have everyone stand back out of the way.”

  The young man took Joe’s words seriously, turning immediately to hold out his arms and motion the gathering onlookers off. “Stand back, everyone,” he shouted. “We’ve got a doctor here.”

  The car’s driver moaned when Joe pressed his fingers to her neck to check her pulse. Her eyes fluttered, opened, then squinted in the yellow glare of the interior lighting. She was young, Joe noted objectively. Pretty. And terrified when she came to full consciousness and realized what had happened.

  Gasping, she surged forward, would have toppled right out of the car if her seat belt hadn’t restrained her. Joe caught her shoulders, steadying her. “It’s all right,” he said firmly. “I’m a doctor. I’m here to help you.”

  “What...?”

  She blinked, looking confused. Joe didn’t think she’d been knocked unconscious, but she was badly shaken.

  “Can you tell me your name?”

  “Brynn Larkin. I...” Lifting a hand to her head, she frowned, then jerked around to look at her passenger. Her gasp was anguished. “Kelly!”

  “Help is on the way,” Joe promised, reaching out to take her shoulders. “I’m a doctor,” he repeated firmly, when he saw panic begin to suffuse her face. “Are you in pain?”

  Still looking at the other woman, Brynn shook her head. “I’m fine. Please, help my friend. She’s hurt.”

  “I can’t get to her,” Joe said. “The truck that hit you is completely blocking the other side of your car.”

  Brynn fumbled desperately for the latch of her seat belt. She winced with the movements, showing discomfort but no evidence of serious injuries. A swelling lump on her temple was the only damage Joe could see, probably from where the side of her head had hit the driver’s window. She seemed coherent enough; he thought she’d be all right. Her friend, however, was a different matter. Even from where he knelt, Joe could tell that the other woman had not been as fortunate.

  He took Brynn’s arm, steadying her as she slid out from behind the wheel to give him better access to her friend. “Please help her,” she begged.

  Michael appeared at Joe’s side. “Lean on me, ma’am,” he said, taking the driver’s arm as she rose shakily to her feet. “My brother will see what he can do for your friend while you and I wait right here for the ambulance.”

  She refused to move more than a step from the open car door. Joe slid quickly into the seat she’d vacated. A big, leather purse was in his way; he scooped it up and tossed it backward, aware that Brynn caught it and clutched it in her arms. A glance over his shoulder told Joe that Michael was hovering protectively beside her, and then Joe turned his attention to the more seriously injured young woman.

  Her head was slumped over the seat belt, which now rested across her throat. Very carefully, Joe moved her head to ease the pressure on her airway. Mentally cursing the fading daylight, he rapidly assessed her visible injuries.

  There were too many of them.

  The driver leaned into the doorway behind him, her voice frantic. “Is she breathing? Please, how is she?”

  Hearing imminent hysteria, Joe spoke soothingly over his shoulder, the majority of his attention still focused on the injured woman. “She’s breathing. I’m taking care of her, Brynn. Stand back, now, so the emergency teams can get to us.”

  Already the sound of approaching sirens was growing louder, to Joe’s relief. Kelly needed help, and quickly, but there was little he could do as long as she was all but enfolded in the buckled metal of the car. “Michael?”

  “Yes?”

  Joe glanced through the jagged-edged opening of the broken passenger window toward the smashed truck. “Is someone taking care of the other driver?”

  “He’s all right. Drunk as a skunk, but he’s sobering fast. I’ve got a few guys keeping an eye on him until the police get here.” Michael’s tone held pure disgust when he talked about the negligent driver.

  Joe grimaced and returned his full concentration to the unconscious woman in front of him. If it were up to him, he thought, the drunk would pay dearly for what he’d done to this young woman.

  Brynn’s head hurt, but she ignored the pain, her full concentration centered in that horribly mangled car with Kelly. She was dimly aware of the man who stood so close to her side, his hand resting supportively on her shoulder, but she didn’t bother to look at him. She was more concerned with the man in the car with Kelly, the one who’d identified himself as a doctor.

  Let him help her. Please.

  Something about him reassured her, gave her hope. Maybe it was his deep, calm voice, or the kindness she’d seen in his brown eyes when he’d leaned over her and asked if she was in pain.

  An ambulance pulled up among the people who had stopped to help or gawk. A patrol car arrived almost simultaneously, and an officer jumped out to send the onlookers away and clear access for emergency crews. Two EMTs rushed to the interlocked vehicles.

  The man with Brynn stepped forward to brief the medics. “This woman was driving the car that took the impact. Her friend is trapped inside. The man in the car with her is my brother, Dr. Joe D’Alessandro.”

  The medics nodded and went to work. Brynn could hear Joe D’Alessandro updating them on Kelly’s condition in frightening terms she couldn’t understand and then barking orders which the EMTs efficiently followed.

  Another ambulance pulled in behind the first. A tall, coffee-skinned woman in a crisp white uniform shirt with dark uniform slacks stepped in front of Brynn. “You were driving this car?”

  Brynn nodded, feeling unspecified guilt flood through her. She had been driving the car. So why was she standing here now, relatively uninjured, while Kelly was...?

  She swallowed painfully, feeling the threat of tears burn behind her eyes.

  The medic brushed Brynn’s hair away from the lump at her left temple. “I’m Gail. What’s your name?”

  “Brynn Larkin,” Brynn answered mechanically.

  “Come with me, Ms. Larkin, and let me have a look at you. And there’s a very nice police officer who wants to take a statement from you about the accident.”

  “My friend...”

  “Your friend is being cared for by professionals.” Gail took Brynn’s arm in a firm, yet gentle grip. “Let’s get out of the way and let them work, shall we?”

  Tears trickled down Brynn’s cheeks. Clutching her purse, she nodded and allowed the woman to lead her to one of the waiting ambulances.

  It took almost an hour for Kelly to be extricated from the wreckage. She regained consciousness soon after the ambulance teams arrived. Pain and fear made her words nearly incoherent, though she repeatedly said Brynn’s name. Joe stayed with her the entire time, holding her hand, calling her by name, repeating that he was a doctor, reassuring her that Brynn was fine and that Kelly herself would receive the very best of care.

  “Don’t leave me,” Kelly begged, clinging weakly to his hand and sobbing.

  “I won’t leave you,” he promised. “You’re going to be fine, Kelly.”

  He hoped he was telling her the truth.

  It was an enormous relief to everyone when Kelly was finally lifted gently out of the wreckage and strapped to a waiting gurney.

  Brynn had refused to be transported to the hospital until she knew her friend was out of the car. She rushed to the gurney, stumbling a little w
hen she reached it.

  Joe steadied her, then kept his hands on her shoulders, since her pale skin and wild eyes worried him. She hardly seemed to notice he was there. Her eyes were fixed on Kelly’s bloody, mangled legs. The blood gushing from her right arm. The blood on her face.

  “Kelly?” Brynn’s voice was little more than a choked whisper.

  Kelly moaned and groped weakly for her friend’s hand. “Brynn. I hurt so bad.”

  A sob broke from Brynn’s throat. “I know, sweetie,” she murmured the words, barely audible. “I’m so sorry.”

  “We need to load her into the ambulance, ma’am,” one of the medics said, his voice quietly sympathetic.

  Joe pulled Brynn gently back from the gurney. “Let them get her to the hospital, Brynn. It would be best if you followed in the other ambulance. You’ll only be a minute or two behind her, all right?”

  She turned her tear-streaked face toward him, as though noticing for the first time how closely he stood to her. “Please,” she said. “Ride with her, Dr. D’Alessandro. Take care of her.”

  Unexpectedly shaken by the appeal, and the blind faith it implied, Joe nodded. “I will. Michael...”

  His brother stepped quickly forward. “I’ll wait here until the cars are towed away. And then I’ll join you at the hospital.”