Adding to the Family Read online

  “Miss Martin? Miranda Martin?”

  Both Mark and Miranda froze.

  “My name is Jack Parsons. I’m an acquaintance of your sister’s.”

  “Lisa?” Miranda felt her heart jump. “Has something happened to her?”

  “No, she’s okay. She wanted me to give you this.” The man held out an envelope. “And I have a delivery for you in my car.”

  She was looking down at the envelope in her hand, when she heard Mark say in a rather odd voice, “Um, Miranda? I think I know what the delivery is.”

  She looked up at him, then turned to see what he was staring at so intently. Her own jaw dropped. “Oh, no.”

  Jack Parsons was on his way back to her, dragging two large, wheeled suitcases behind him. And tagging behind those suitcases like little ducklings were a couple of sandy-haired boys with rumpled clothes and identical faces….

  Dear Reader,

  Most of us look forward to October for the end-of-the-month treats, but we here at Silhouette Special Edition want you to experience those treats all month long—beginning, this time around, with the next book in our MOST LIKELY TO…series. In The Pregnancy Project by Victoria Pade, a woman who’s used to getting what she wants, wants a baby. And the man she’s earmarked to help her is her arrogant ex-classmate, now a brilliant, if brash, fertility expert.

  Popular author Gina Wilkins brings back her acclaimed FAMILY FOUND series with Adding to the Family, in which a party girl turned single mother of twins needs help—and her handsome accountant (accountant?), a single father himself, is just the one to give it. In She’s Having a Baby, bestselling author Marie Ferrarella continues her miniseries, THE CAMEO, with this story of a vivacious, single, pregnant woman and her devastatingly handsome—if reserved—next-door neighbor. Special Edition welcomes author Brenda Harlen and her poignant novel Once and Again, a heartwarming story of homecoming and second chances. About the Boy by Sharon DeVita is the story of a beautiful single mother, a widowed chief of police…and a matchmaking little boy. And Silhouette is thrilled to have Blindsided by talented author Leslie LaFoy in our lineup. When a woman who’s inherited a hockey team decides that they need the best coach in the business, she applies to a man who thought he’d put his hockey days behind him. But he’s been…blindsided!

  So enjoy, be safe and come back in November for more. This is my favorite time of year (well, the beginning of it, anyway).

  Regards,

  Gail Chasan

  Senior Editor

  ADDING TO THE FAMILY

  GINA WILKINS

  As always, to my own loving and supportive family—

  John, Courtney, Kerry and David.

  Love you all.

  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

  †That First Special Kiss #1269

  Surprise Partners #1318

  **The Stranger in Room 205 #1399

  **Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? #1413

  **Dateline Matrimony #1424

  The Groom’s Stand-In #1460

  The Best Man’s Plan #1479

  *The Family Plan #1525

  *Conflict of Interest #1531

  *Faith, Hope and Family #1538

  Make-Believe Mistletoe #1583

  Countdown to Baby #1592

  The Homecoming #1652

  Adding to the Family #1712

  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

  §Hardworking Man #806

  §Fair and Wise #819

  §Far To Go #862

  §Loving and Giving #879

  Babies on Board #913

  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

  Silhouette Books

  Mother’s Day Collection 1995

  Three Mothers and a Cradle

  “Beginnings”

  Logan’s Legacy

  The Secret Heir

  Silhouette Books

  World’s Most Eligible Bachelors

  Doctor in Disguise

  GINA WILKINS

  is a bestselling and award-winning author who has written more than seventy books for Harlequin and Silhouette. She credits her successful career in romance to her long, happy marriage and her three “extraordinary” children.

  A lifelong resident of central Arkansas, Ms. Wilkins sold her first book to Harlequin in 1987 and has been writing full-time since. She has appeared on the Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and USA TODAY bestseller lists. She is a three-time recipient of the Maggie Award for Excellence, sponsored by Georgia Romance Writers, and has won several awards from the reviewers of Romantic Times.

  It’s Jared and Cassie Walker’s twenty-fifth

  wedding anniversary and you are cordially

  invited to the biggest bash in Texas!

  After decades of caring and support

  for their friends and family,

  we want to honor these two lovebirds.

  So, come one, come all to celebrate on the

  Walker Ranch, Saturday, October 15th!

  RSVP with Molly and Shane Walker

  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

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Molly Walker appeared in the barn door with the early April afternoon sunlight behind her, making her long, red-streaked hair shine almost as brightly as her smile. “I have the most spectacular idea!”

  Her half brother, Shane, and the horse he had been grooming looked around with almost identically wary expressions. “It always gives me a headache when you say that,” Shane muttered.

  Undaunted, Molly came all the way inside the barn to stand in front of him. “Trust me, this is a really good plan, and you barely have to do anything. I can take care of most of it myself.”

  The lanky cowboy dropped the curry brush on a shelf and seemed to brace himself before asking, “Just what is it I barely have to do?”

  Molly’s dark green eyes held an expression of reproof when she shook a finger at him. “Stop overdramatizing. It isn’t as if I’ve ever asked you to do anything that complicated.”

  Shane shared a comical look of disbelief with his beloved mare. “Riiight.”

  Molly slapped his arm playfully. “Anyway, you know Mom and Dad’s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary is coming up in October.”

  “I remember their wedding. I was a teenager, after all. Just as I remember you being born a year and a couple of weeks later.”

  Shane and his father, Jared Walker, had been a couple of footloose bachelors before they’d encountered Cassie Browning and had both fallen head over heels in love with her. Nearly twenty-five years later, they were still a close and happy family, even though Shane had been married for almost ten years now and had two daughters of his own.

  It was th
at loving family relationship that Molly wanted to commemorate in a big way. “We should plan a surprise anniversary party for them.”

  “Okay—that sounds normal enough. What’s the catch?”

  “No catch. They’re planning that trip to Europe in early October, right? So while they’re gone, we can get everything in place and we’ll welcome them back with a big silver anniversary barbecue.”

  Shane looked almost relieved. “Yeah, we can do something like that. Kelly and I will help you plan it. I’m sure Aunt Layla and Aunt Michelle would be thrilled to help with the arrangements. Not to mention the assorted other aunts, uncles and cousins who jump at any chance to get together for a party.”

  Since Jared had five siblings, all married with offspring, any party the Walker clan put together was a big one. But Molly didn’t intend to limit this bash merely to family. “We’ll invite the D’Alessandros, of course.”

  Jared’s sister, Michelle, had married private investigator Tony D’Alessandro not long before Jared and Cassie had married. Tony’s large and boisterous family had been a part of Molly’s life from the beginning. Her cousin Brynn, the daughter of Jared’s deceased younger brother, Miles, had married another D’Alessandro, drawing the bond between the two families even tighter.

  “And I want to invite the foster sons Mom and Dad took in during the earlier years—back before the ranch became a youth facility. Won’t they love seeing them all together again for this special occasion?”

  “We can definitely invite the ones we’ve kept in touch with. There’s no way we can assume they’ll all be here, of course.”

  “No, I want as many as possible here,” she insisted. “Even the ones we haven’t heard from in a while. I’m hoping to have at least a dozen of them.”

  “There are several we haven’t heard from in years—Mark and Daniel and Kyle, for example. They were special to Dad and Cassie, but we don’t even know where they are now.”

  “We’ll find them.” She flashed another confident smile. “We have uncles who own a private investigation agency, remember? With Uncle Tony, Uncle Joe, and Uncle Ryan helping us, I bet we’ll have all the guys located within a few weeks.”

  “Maybe,” Shane agreed, as confident as she was in their uncle’s abilities, “but finding them doesn’t guarantee they’ll want to return here. Not everyone has fond memories of the past, you know, especially when that past includes a stint in foster care—as you could ask Dad or most of his siblings.”

  Molly tossed her head, making her mane of red-and-gold streaked hair swirl around her determined face. “Once the uncles find them, I’ll talk them into being here.”

  “If anyone can, I suppose it would be you.”

  “Absolutely. Trust me, Shane, this is going to be the best anniversary party ever. Mom and Dad are going to be so surprised.”

  “I hope you aren’t too disappointed if everything isn’t perfect, Molly. You just might be in for a few surprises yourself, trying to plan something this big.”

  Waving a dismissive hand, Molly turned to head toward the main house on the sprawling Walker ranch not far from Dallas, Texas. She had lists to make, and a million things to do to pull off the perfect twenty-fifth anniversary party by October.

  Chapter One

  There was something about a man with a calculator that Miranda Martin found oddly sexy. A man whose fingers flew over a number pad, adding up columns of dollar amounts as he talked about bonds and investments and tax-deferred annuities—just the mental image could make her shiver with exhilaration.

  Other women were attracted to cowboys or cops or bikers or baseball players; Miranda was a sucker for accountants. One accountant, in particular. Her own.

  Her chin cupped in both hands, she rested her elbows on his desk and gazed across the glossy surface at him. It didn’t hurt that he was so very nice to look at. Mark Wallace had clear gray eyes, disheveled brown hair with a tendency to curl into loose waves, and the most perfect teeth she’d ever seen. Had he not chosen to work with numbers, he could probably have made a living as a model.

  “What’s this deduction you’re claiming for comfortable shoes?” he asked, frowning at the paperwork in front of him.

  “I had to buy them on a business trip last month. The shoes I took with me were killing me, and you know you can’t really concentrate on business when your feet hurt. I was much more effective after I bought those nice, comfy shoes—which, I might add, were obscenely expensive.”

  He had been her accountant for just over a year, and he always gave her exactly the same look when she said something he considered outrageous. He was giving her that look now, and she enjoyed it immensely. She had anticipated that expression when she had listed the deduction she had known very well his sharp eyes would not overlook.

  He stared at her with his head cocked slightly to one side, as if he weren’t quite sure if she was joking, and then he shook his head and marked through the item with a decisive stroke of his mechanical pencil.

  She just loved it when he did that.

  “Other than the shoes, everything looks to be in order,” he remarked, closing the file folder. “I’ll have the tax forms ready for your signature by the end of the week. Next time, though, you might not want to wait until the last minute to bring your information to me. You didn’t allow either of us much room for error.”

  “As if you ever make any errors,” she teased.

  He shrugged, a smile playing at one corner of his firm mouth. “It’s been known to happen—on very rare occasions.”

  Sometimes she couldn’t resist touching him. She reached out to stroke a fingertip across the top of his right hand—the one that had just been calculating her money. “I find it hard to believe you aren’t completely perfect.”

  Maybe after a year of working with her, he was finally getting accustomed to her flirting. He had been amusingly disconcerted the first couple of times, but during their meetings since, he’d seemed to accept it as part of the package. Especially since she had teasingly informed him that talking about money always gave her goose bumps.

  In response to her stroking his hand, he shot her a look that was so direct, so male—and so uncharacteristically predatory—that her mouth suddenly went dry. “Someday I might just take you up on one of those come-hither looks,” he murmured. “And then what are you going to do?”

  For just a moment, Miranda Martin—who always had a witty put-down in response to even the most insistent advance—couldn’t think of anything to say. She found herself lost in Mark Wallace’s gleaming gray eyes, her mind filled with unsummoned and decidedly erotic images rather than cleverly cutting retorts.

  Fine, take me up on it, she would have liked to say. Heck, just take me.

  But she didn’t say it, and the primary reason for her reticence burst into Mark’s home-based office only a moment later.

  “Daddy, I’m home from preschool and guess what? We’re going on a field trip to the Museum of Discovery and I—”

  “Payton,” Mark cut in firmly, raising his voice a bit to be heard over the little blond girl’s excited chattering. “I’m with a client. You know better than to come into my office when I’m working. Where’s Mrs. McSwaim?”

  Only slightly chastened, the blue-eyed, curly haired moppet pointed behind her while studying Miranda from the other side of the room. “She took Madison to the bathroom.”

  “Then go entertain yourself for a little while and I’ll hear all about your field trip when I’ve finished with my work.”

  “Okay, Daddy.” Heaving a dramatic sigh, Payton turned toward the doorway at the back of the office through which she had entered so precipitously.

  Mark waited until the door closed behind his daughter, then swiveled his leather chair around to face Miranda again. “Sorry about that. Most of the time a home office has its advantages, but occasional interruptions come with the territory.”

  Miranda had her brightly impersonal smile firmly in place again. She reached down to t
he floor beside her chair, picked up her purse and slung it over her shoulder as she stood. “I’ve got to be going, anyway. I’ve got a few more work-related things to do before I make it to the concert at Juanita’s tonight.”

  He nodded. “I’ll call when the forms are ready.”

  She fluttered her lashes at him. “You do that.”

  “Have a good time at the concert.”

  “Darlin’, I always have a good time.” She made sure the smile that accompanied her huskily drawled reply held a touch of wickedness.

  Just because there was no way she and Mark would ever have even a passing fling, it wouldn’t hurt to leave him—like herself—wishing just a little that things could be different between them.

  Of all Mark’s clients, there was only one who left his head spinning after every meeting, no matter how briskly professional he tried to keep things between them.

  Miranda Martin.

  He thought of her as “the golden girl.” Her almost shoulder-length, layered chestnut hair was shot through with artfully applied golden highlights. Her flawless skin was deepened either by tanning booths or bronzers. Even her eyes were a pure amber—and those he suspected were her natural color.

  She had a smooth forehead, a perfect nose, high cheekbones and a rounded chin dotted with a shallow dimple just below the right corner of her mouth. Of medium height, she had legs that went on forever, nicely proportioned breasts, a slim waist and gently curving hips—adding up to a package that would make any red-blooded man stop in his tracks and think, Whoa, buddy!

  If he were a man who was interested in fleeting affairs, he would have taken her up on the invitation her habitual flirting seemed to imply long ago. But he was the full-time single father of two little girls. He didn’t have the time nor the luxury to indulge in affairs.