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Tonight, Elise was going to put her plan into action and find a husband. But then she shifted her gaze.
Goodness!
It was a new face. And a nice one at that. He looked to be mid- to late thirties. He was a natural, sun-bleached blonde with one of those bad-boy haircuts. His face was suntanned, but she doubted it came from a bottle or a tanning bed. He had a good build, but she could tell he wasn’t a gym rat. And he was wearing a well-fitted tux.
He turned and made eye contact with Elise. She was surprised to feel the warmth of a blush on her cheeks. The Adonis was looking right at her, a twitch of amusement on his sensuous lips.
She couldn’t take her eyes off him.
Then, suddenly, he was coming her way.
Dear Reader,
April showers are bringing flowers—and a soul-stirring bouquet of dream-come-true stories from Silhouette Romance!
Red Rose needs men! And it’s up to Ellie Donahue to put the town-ladies’ plans into action—even if it means enticing her secret love to return to his former home. Inspired by classic legends, Myrna Mackenzie’s new miniseries, THE BRIDES OF RED ROSE, begins with Ellie’s tale, in The Pied Piper’s Bride (SR #1714).
Bestselling author Judy Christenberry brings you another Wild West story in her FROM THE CIRCLE K miniseries. In The Last Crawford Bachelor (SR #1715), lawyer Michael Crawford—the family’s last single son—meets his match…and is then forced to live with her on the Circle K!
And this lively bunch of spring stories wouldn’t be complete without Teresa Carpenter’s Daddy’s Little Memento (SR #1716). School nurse Samantha Dell reunites her infant nephew with his handsome father, only to learn that if she wants to retain custody then she’s got to say, “I do”! And then there’s Colleen Faulkner’s Barefoot and Pregnant? (SR #1717), in which career-woman Elise Montgomery has everything a girl could want—except the man of her dreams. Will she find a husband where she least expects him?
All the best,
Mavis C. Allen
Associate Senior Editor
Barefoot and Pregnant?
Colleen Faulkner
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Books by Colleen Faulkner
Silhouette Romance
A Shocking Request #1573
Barefoot and Pregnant? #1717
COLLEEN FAULKNER
had romance writing encrypted in her genetic code. Her mother, Judith E. French, is also a bestselling historical romance author. Whether through genes or simply karma, Colleen began her writing career early. She published her first historical romance at the tender age of twenty-four. Since then she has sold twenty-three historical romance novels, five contemporary romances and six novellas.
Colleen resides in southern Delaware with her husband of twenty years, their four children, a Bernese Mountain dog named Duncan and a Siamese cat named Xena. When she’s not writing, Colleen enjoys playing racquetball and volleyball, coaching girls’ softball and coed soccer and, of course, reading.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
Prologue
Elise Montgomery hit the print button on the copy machine in the lounge of Waterfront Realty in Southern Delaware where she worked and perched one hand on her hip to wait. As the machine clicked and whirred, she caught a glimpse of her best friend walking down the hall. “Liz, got a sec?” she called.
Liz backed up, checking her wristwatch. They were dressed similarly in gabardine skirts and jackets with white silk shells beneath. Elise’s “power suit” was a soft salmon; Liz was wearing navy.
“I’ve got ten minutes,” Liz said. “New clients coming in to look at the condos at Mallory Bay.”
Elise grabbed one of the copies the machine had spit out. “Here we go. The checklist I was telling you about that I found in that book.”
“Not another self-help book.” Liz lifted a skeptical eyebrow as she picked up a book from beside the copier and read the spine. “The Husband Finder?”
Elise shrugged. “So it has a bad title, listen to this.” She opened it to the first chapter. “According to the author… ‘Women today spend more time researching the cars they purchase than the men they marry. When an educated, career-oriented woman of the new millennium buys a car, she makes a list of the qualities she is looking for such as good value for the money, gas mileage, aesthetics, etc. Then, she test drives various cars and rates them according to her list of requirements. She purchases the car that best suits her. A woman should seek a husband in the same logical manner.”’
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Liz muttered. “Like buying a car?”
Elise set down the book. “It’s a perfectly valid observation, when you think about it, Liz. Now, I’ve made a copy of the suggested checklist for each of us.” She leaned against the copier as she indicated the high points with a pen. “There are various headings and subheadings. You fill in the qualities you’re looking for—the author makes suggestions—and then you just total up the numbers!”
Liz stared at the photocopy.
“The fact of the matter is,” Elise explained, “we don’t have time for men who aren’t good candidates for long-term relationships.”
“You mean for marriage.” Liz studied the sheet. “Let’s see, type of car—sports car, sport utility, sedan. Bonus for cars costing more than forty K. Good. I love a man who drives a nice car.”
Elise laughed. “Seems a bit much, but I guess that’s important to some people. And it can indicate a man’s education and socioeconomic status.”
“First date,” Liz continued to read. “Check one—dinner, dinner and dancing, movie and dinner. Topics of conversation—talks about you, talks about himself, knows what’s going on in the world. No clue.” She laughed looking up at Elise. “And this book said this would work? You can find a husband with this thing?”
Elise shrugged. “Well, nothing’s guaranteed of course, but this is essentially what dating services do, right? And the book is full of lots of helpful suggestions. I’ve already started highlighting some of them.” She paged through the volume to show where she had used a lavender highlighter.
Liz still looked unconvinced.
Elise poked her in the side. “Come on, where’s your sense of adventure? This’ll be fun.”
Liz groaned and put out her hand. “Lay it on me.”
Elise handed her friend the checklist. “Now be sure to fill out all of your requirements, then make photocopies. Use one set of sheets per date. There’s a place to put his name right at the top.”
Liz was still chuckling as she accepted the checklist. “You’ve had some crazy ideas before, Elise, but this one—”
“Hey, checklists work in the real estate business, don’t they?” She indicated the plush office building with a sweep of her hand. “It’s how things get accomplished around here. We set goals. We check them off and we end up achieving what we set out to do. It’s good time management. The Husband Finder is nothing more than a tool to help us get what we want. To help us be happy, healthy women.”
“Now you sound like that book.” Liz clutched the sheet to her chest. “Okay, I surrender. I’ll try your checklist.” She rolled her eyes. “Nothing else has worked. Blind dates. Dating services. Personal ads. What have I got to lose?”
“That a girl.” Elise smiled as she tapped her on the back with her copies. “Just trust me. This is going to work.”
“Gotta run.” Liz waved. “Talk to you later.”
Elise watched as she disappeared down the hall, her navy pumps tapping on the hardwood floor. “Don’t forget Friday night, that benefit dinner,” she called after her friend.
“Pick you up at six.”
Elise glanced down at the photocopies cradled in her arms. A checklist for potential husbands. It was crazy…wasn’t it?
Desperate was more like it.
After years of casual dating and no long-term relationships that ever led anywhere, Elise realized she was ready to get serious. She had all the things she thought would make her happy: a well-paying job, a great condo, a good retirement plan. But it wasn’t enough.
Her father, Edwin Montgomery of the oil Montgomerys of Dallas had always told her that good hard work was the only thing a person could depend on. He had drilled into her head since she was a child that her career was what was important; personal happiness was inconsequential. So for a long time, Elise lived that life. And for a while, her career was enough. Only, over the past few months…year if she was honest with herself…her job hadn’t been enough. It just hadn’t been fulfilling in the way it once had been; she wasn’t even sure she liked the real estate business. She realized she was lonely and she didn’t want to end up like her father, alone and cantankerous. Elise ached for an intimate relationship with a man. She wanted a partner to love, a man who she could trust, who would love and trust her in return.
She glanced at the checklists cradled in her arms. It was worth a shot, wasn’t it?
Chapter One
Never rely on physical chemistry between yourself and a man. Sexual attraction is fleeting.
Elise lifted her glass to her lips and sipped her tonic water with a twist as she gazed at the hotel’s reception room filled with local hospital employees and benefactors. She’d dressed carefully this evening in her favorite “little black dress” and wore a new shade of lipstick called Seduction. It looked like a soft pink to her, but she supposed that when you paid $35.00 for a tube of lipstick, the manufacturers couldn’t just call it Pink.
Ordinarily, Elise hated these kinds of affairs, but Waterfront Realty had bought her the expensive ticket for the benefit. It was her job to smile, sip tonic water and shmooze, looking for potential clients. She’d been to so many of these events in the past few years that she knew the drill by heart. She would make light conversation with people she didn’t know. Then she would push dry chicken and overcooked green beans around on her plate, listen to a dull speech and then go home to have a bag of popcorn for dinner and watch a late-night talk show.
But tonight was different. She could feel it from the top of her recently foiled head to the tips of her new pumps. Tonight was going to be different. She was going to date men, fill out the form, add the scores and find a husband.
Elise spotted Liz Jefferson coming toward her in a way-too-tight black dress. She was drinking a glass of wine and probably not her first. Elise admired Liz’s ability to hold her liquor. Elise never drank in public, not because she had anything against alcohol, but because it made her act stupid. One drink and she was telling anyone who would listen how she had always wanted a puppy as a child and had never been able to have one because it might soil her father’s white carpet.
At that moment, it occurred to Elise that she had white carpet in her condo.
And no dog.
How had her life gotten so far from what she had wanted it to be? She had always sworn she wouldn’t be like her father. Was that who she was becoming?
“Hey, babe.” Liz glided over. Elise guessed her dress was too tight to allow her to walk.
“Seen anyone with potential?” Liz parked beside Elise and swirled her Chardonnay, gazing over the rim of the glass into the room.
“Same old, same old, so far,” Elise said.
There were men in tuxes everywhere. Elise knew many of them. She had dated quite a few. There was Joe Kanash, who revealed sheepishly to Elise after two dates that he was not quite divorced. Then there was Bobby Rent. He slurped his lobster bisque and whistled through his nose whenever he got nervous, which she discovered was often. Then, of course, there was Alex Bortorf the proctologist, Mark Wrung the department store owner—the list was endless. Some of the men both Elise and Liz had dated, though, thankfully, never at the same time.
Elise sighed. Now that she was here, she was beginning to get cold feet. How was this self-help book better than any other? She ought to just go home now and start popping popcorn for her usual late-night date with Letterman. Besides, her new pumps were hurting her feet.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Liz said lifting her hand to her hip to pose. “A new face at one o’clock. No ring on his finger.”
Liz was better than Elise at recognizing the married ones. Elise shifted her gaze as she raised her glass, but she didn’t drink. Goodness. It was a new face. And a nice one at that. The man taking a canapé from a waiter’s tray looked to be mid-to late-thirties. He was a natural, sun-bleached blonde with one of those bad-boy haircuts. Just a little long at the ears and the nape of the neck. His face was suntanned, but she doubted it came from a bottle or a tanning bed. He was tall, but not overly so. Maybe six foot, six-one. He had a good build, but she could tell he wasn’t a gym rat. His tux fit so well that it had to be his and not one of those rented ones that would have to be back at the dry cleaners by noon tomorrow.
The man turned and made eye contact with Elise. She was surprised to feel the warmth of a blush on her cheeks. She hadn’t realized she still could blush.
Liz elbowed her. “Hey, I had dibs. I spotted him first.”
The Adonis looked right at Elise, a twitch of amusement on his sensuous lips. She wondered if he had caught what Liz said or he was just used to single, desperate women gaping at him.
Elise couldn’t take her eyes off him. Then, suddenly he was coming her way. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to run away or open her arms to him.
The blonde walked right up. “Hi,” he said, halting in front of her.
Elise gripped her glass. She’d met a million men in her life. It seemed as if she’d dated most of them. What was it about this one that suddenly left her speechless? Usually she was so good at causal conversation.
She smiled back and managed a “Hi.”
“Name’s Zane, Zane Keaton.” He offered his hand.
Liz glanced at Elise, at Zane and back at Elise again. “I can see there’s no need for me to even bother to introduce myself,” she said glibly as she glided away. “Later, babe.”
Zane still held Elise’s gaze as she shook his hand. She laughed, unable to help herself. “Okay,” she said. “I’m definitely embarrassed. I usually play a little harder to get than this.”
“Me, too.”
“I didn’t mean to stare. I’m Elise Montgomery.”
“Nice to meet you. Your friends call you Ellie?”
She cocked her head. “Actually, no one ever has.”
It was his turn to laugh. “Well, you look like an Ellie to me.”
Out of any other stranger’s mouth, his words would have sounded ridiculous to Elise. At the very least, a really bad pickup line. But she was oddly flattered. She didn’t feel like an Ellie, but secretly she had always wished she could be one. To Elise, an Ellie was relaxed. Carefree. As the daughter of Edwin Montgomery, she had never felt like she was, either.
“So, you come to this kind of thing often?” Zane stood beside her, gazing out at the room.
“Way too often,” she confessed.
“Me, too. I hate ’em.” He chuckled. “I was supposed to be here with a date, but she bailed on me at the last minute.”
She noted that he said date and not girlfriend. “Flu?”
“That,” he confessed, “or an aversion to bad hors d’oeuvres, long boring speeches and dry chicken.”
Elise tipped back her head and laughed louder than she really should have. A man and a woman, both dressed in black standing nearby glanced their way.
Elise covered her mouth, embarrassed. “Everyone’s going to think I’ve had one too many,” she whispered. “Don’t make me laugh like that.”
He grinned. “What’s the point in living if you can’t have a good belly laugh every once in a while?”
She glanced at him. Was this guy for real? Good-looking, charming and funny? She eyed his left hand. Liz said there was no ring, but she double-checked to be sure there was no white telltale ring of skin where a wedding band normally rested. Negative.
“So if your date bailed, why did you still come?”
He met her gaze, his eyes sparkling. He just seemed like such a happy guy. A guy who was happy with himself. A girl didn’t see that often in the dating world.
“It was my sister, Meagan, who was supposed to come with me. Our grandfather was one of the major contributors when this hospital was being built in the sixties.” He lifted one broad shoulder. “He’s in a nursing home now and can’t get to things like this. I come for him. Bring his donation check. Say hi.”
That was so sweet that for a moment Elise didn’t know what to say. A man with family ties? A man who cared about the previous generations? Elise had never even known any of her grandparents. “It was nice of you to come in his place.”
“Yeah,” Zane sighed. “But I just told Pops I would come, not that I’d stay. I’ve been here an hour, shook hands with everyone on the board. Ate several little balls of what, I have no idea and now I’m bored. Time to hit the road. How about you?” He lifted a brow.
He was just a little cocky, but not obnoxiously so. In a world of mamby-pamby beta males, could this possibly be the last alpha wolf in the pack? She resisted a smile. “There’s still the dry chicken and the boring speech to get through.”
He nodded. “You’re absolutely right. We could go into the dining room and saw on that chicken. We could yawn through the speeches, or…” His tone changed as if he had some secret to share only with her.
“Or?” she murmured, transfixed by his gaze.
“Or, we could slip out the back and take a walk on the beach. If you’re hungry, I’ll buy you a cheeseburger when I take you home. I know a great little dive.”
Elise stared at him in disbelief for a moment. Slip out of here? She’d spent more than an hour getting ready for this affair. She’d bought new shoes and Seduction lipstick. Waterfront Realty had paid five hundred dollars for her to see and be seen here tonight. Elise couldn’t just walk out…could she?
Well, her company hadn’t really paid for the chicken, had they? Their check had been a donation to fund the new maternity wing.
A smile played on her lips. To sneak out would be totally out of character for her. Elise Montgomery always went by the book. She always followed the rules, and the rules were that if your boss paid five hundred dollars for bad chicken, you ate it. But she could already tell that Zane Keaton was not a man who played by the rules.
“Ah, you found her, Zane.” Richard Milton, a prominent local attorney, approached them.
Zane lifted a brow.
“Elise Montgomery, the real estate agent I was telling you about. You want to make a large land purchase in this county, she’s the person to know.”
Elise felt her face grow warm with embarrassment.
“You’re a real estate agent?” Zane asked looking to her, as if he didn’t quite believe the attorney.
She nodded. “That’s right.”
“Well, I’ll leave you two kids alone. Call me if Elise finds what you’re looking for.” Richard walked away.
Elise smiled at Zane. “So you’re looking for land.”
He lifted a broad shoulder. “Maybe. So, you still game?”
“Game?” she asked.
“For getting out of here.” He pointed to the door.
“Come on, Ellie, it’ll be fun,” he whispered when she didn’t answer right away. His breath was warm in her ear. The chemistry was wicked. “And just a little naughty. Tell me you like to be naughty once in a while.”
She looked at him in wide-eyed surprise and he winked.
The man winked…it was like right out of an old black-and-white movie she liked to watch on Sunday afternoons when she should be working.
“Okay,” she exhaled, tantalized by the thought of just walking out. “But I need to tell my friend Liz that I’m going. She gave me a ride here.”
He took her empty glass from her hand and placed it on the tray of a passing waiter. “Tell her you won’t need a ride home.” He pointed at her. “Now I’m giving you two minutes to meet me at the door. Then we make our getaway.”
Elise watched Zane walk away, feeling a little numb. Was this the night she had dreamed of since she was little girl, tucked in at night by a nameless nanny?
She found Liz at the bar. “I won’t need that ride home.”
Liz grinned. “How’s he coming on that checklist of yours?”
“Too early to say,” Elise confided. Inside her chest her heart was pounding. Her pulse fluttered. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had made her feel this way.
Liz nodded with a conspiratory look. “Call you later,” she mouthed.
Elise made a beeline for the door, her black clutch purse tucked under her arm. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. She did feel naughty and she had to admit, the feeling was wonderful.
Zane was waiting for her just outside the hotel’s reception area. He offered her his elbow. His smile made her feel like a million bucks.
“I figure we’ll make a grand exit,” he said as he strode forward, his chin high as if they were royalty.
“We get out on the beach and we throw our shoes into the dunes and make a run for the water.”
Elise laughed. “I can’t really walk on the beach. I’m wearing hose.”
He opened the door that led onto the hotel’s veranda. “Hose, shmose. Take them off.”
Take them off? Elise felt as if her brain was on overload. Stand on one foot and peel her panty hose off on a public beach?
Zane led her across the hotel’s Victorian-style veranda and down the steps that led to the white sand beach. “Okay, twenty questions.”
“What?”
“Let’s play twenty questions. Well, my version.” He walked around to the back of the staircase and kicked off one shoe and then the other. “I ask a question. I give you my answer and then you give me yours.”
She gingerly removed one high-heeled leather shoe and then the other. The feel of the sand through her hose on her feet was deliciously warm. “What kind of questions?” she asked suspiciously. Usually on first dates—and she figured she could classify this as a date—she stuck to safer conversations such as where she went to college and what the NASDAQ was doing.
“Easy stuff,” Zane said. “Like your favorite color. Mine’s black.”
“Black? Black’s not a color.”
“Sorry. It’s my answer. Black is my favorite color. Let’s see, black like a moonless night. Black like the backside of a penguin. Yours?”
She laughed. “Mine’s green.” She paused. “Green like a man’s face after he’s tasted his mother-in-law’s potato salad.”
He laughed. “Now you’re getting the hang of it. Come on.” He opened and closed one hand. “Off with the hose. I swear, I don’t know how you women wear those things.”
She grabbed the rail of the step, then hesitated. Did she put her hands under her skirt, or try to wiggle the waistband down through the material of the dress?
Zane spun around, presenting his back to her. “Go ahead. Do what you have to do get them off. No one’s looking.” He made himself busy rolling up his pant legs.