“How about a dance? You look too good to be hiding behind this table.”

A dance.

With Chase Mackey.

That took Hadley by surprise.

“Really?” she said before she knew she was going to, the question coming from days long gone by when she’d been alone in her room at home, knowing a school dance was going on without her, only imagining herself there with Chase, dancing …

“Sure, why not?” he answered as if it were nothing—which, to him, she knew was the case.

Then he stood and pulled her chair out for her.

In her fantasies he would take her by the hand and lead her onto the dance floor.

In reality he just barely touched the back of her arm to urge her in that direction.

But it was enough to give her goose bumps that she hoped he didn’t notice.

And then they reached the dance floor.

And there she was, dancing with Chase Mackey …

Dear Reader,

Young fantasies and crushes—I had them and so did Hadley McKendrick. Hadley had it rough growing up overweight. But she’d found solace in the crush she’d had on her older brother’s best friend, Chase Mackey.

Of course, that was long ago and is now behind her. She’s turned her life around, lived in Europe and has come back home to Northbridge to begin a new phase.

Part of that new phase just happens to include working with and living very near Chase Mackey. But Hadley isn’t worried about it. The crush is over. Chase is still her brother’s best friend and now also his business partner, and there is no way Hadley will let anything develop between her and Chase to put so much for her brother in jeopardy.

Except that what inspired that old crush in the first place has only improved with time. Chase himself has only improved with time. And if Hadley had thought he was irresistible years ago, it’s nothing compared to the current Chase.

Welcome home to Northbridge!

Victoria Pade

About the Author

VICTORIA PADE is a USA TODAY bestselling author of numerous romance novels. She has two beautiful and talented daughters—Cori and Erin—and is a native of Colorado, where she lives and writes. A devoted chocolate lover, she’s in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. For information about her latest and upcoming releases, and to find recipes for some of the decadent desserts her characters enjoy, log on to www.vikkipade.com.

The Bachelor,

the Baby and

the Beauty

Victoria Pade

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Chapter One

“He’ll be right here. He was on his way into town when the moving truck he was driving broke down. My brother went to get him,” Hadley McKendrick explained.

Hadley didn’t have a clue as to why Neily Pratt-Grayson had dropped in on this September Saturday morning looking for Chase Mackey, her brother Logan’s best friend and business partner. And the social worker wasn’t giving anything away.

Instead she said, “I’m sorry to show up now, with the wedding tomorrow and all.”

Definitely and all, Hadley thought as her stomach churned in anticipation of Chase’s return to Northbridge, Montana.

Neily was talking about Logan’s wedding tomorrow. But to Hadley and all meant more than the wedding. Because on top of that, not only would Chase Mackey’s arrival be the first time he’d set eyes on her since they were teenagers and Hadley had been a hundred pounds heavier, to Hadley there was also a little matter of an old crush she’d secretly had on Chase.

“Chase isn’t only coming for the wedding now, right?” Neily said then. “He’s coming for good, isn’t he?”

Hadley’s stomach took another turn. “This is it,” she confirmed. “He’ll be here to stay from today on. His place is a huge loft in the top half of the old barn, above what we’re using as the workroom and the showroom.”

For Mackey and McKendrick Furniture Designs—the business that Logan and Chase owned together, the business that Hadley was now working for. With her brother and Chase …

She just could not stay still another minute!

“Are you sure I can’t get you a cup of coffee or a soda or even a glass of water?” Hadley asked hospitably, hoping desperately for the chance to get up from where she was sitting in the living room with Neily and do something to work off a little of the nervous energy that was making her edgy.

“No, thanks, I’m fine,” Neily said. “I’m actually here on business or I really wouldn’t be bothering you today.”

It had been obvious that this wasn’t a social call, but Hadley had no idea what business the Northbridge social worker could have with Chase Mackey. He hadn’t lived here in over seventeen years. And even when he and Logan had decided to move back, to relocate Mackey and McKendrick Furniture Designs this past spring, Chase had stayed in New York to deal with that end of the move while Logan had handled this end. According to Logan, Chase had been in town only a few times before Hadley had come back to Northbridge in June, and he hadn’t been there even once since then.

But he was on his way now and Hadley really couldn’t keep herself contained for a minute longer.

“I need just a quick run to the bathroom,” she announced to Neily, nearly leaping to her feet.

“Go ahead,” Neily encouraged. “Don’t worry about me.”

Hadley made a beeline for the downstairs bathroom in her brother’s house for no reason other than to check on her appearance.

Of course she’d taken extra-special pains with it today, knowing that Chase was coming. She was wearing her tightest jeans and a body-hugging camisole that outlined every inch of her reduced body. After years in the fashion industry, she’d picked up more than one hair and makeup trick and she’d used them all today. Her smoky green eyes were accentuated to their best effect and the high cheekbones that had emerged from beneath the extra weight were highlighted. Not a single pore marred her skin. Her mauve lipgloss looked perfectly natural and her russet-brown, chin-length hair glistened as it fell around her face and showed off her new highlights.

No one who remembered her from her youth in Northbridge hadn’t dropped a jaw when they’d seen the transformation in her. She’d taken it in stride—she’d lost the weight so long ago that, to her, it had stopped being the most monumental part of her life. But knowing that this would be the first time Chase Mackey would see her this way? Okay, yes, she wanted his jaw to drop.

It was just human nature to want the object of an old crush to notice a thing like that. It didn’t mean that the old crush was still in effect in any way, she assured herself.

The muted sound of a car coming nearer on the road that led to the house alerted Hadley. There were only two possibilities for who it could be: Logan’s fiancée Meg, with his three-year-old daughter, Tia, or Logan bringing Chase back from the stalled moving truck.

It was that second possibility that gave Hadley jitters and made her feel as if she was sixteen again.

But she wasn’t sixteen, she lectured herself. She was thirty-three. She’d been married. Divorced. She’d lived in Europe for the past ten years. It was ridiculous to be nervous about seeing someone who, ultimately, had only been a fringe part of her youth.

Even if she’d used that fringe part to fuel fantasies galore and an adoration that most teenage girls had reserved for rock stars.

But that was ancient history. She and Logan and Chase were going to work together and live in close proximity. She was going to behave the same way she would with anyone else who might be a friend of her brother’s and a business associate of them both. Friendly. Professional. Detached.

So there was no cause for her to be nervous or jittery or uncomfortable. Logan had said that Chase had never given any indication that he had the slightest clue as to how she’d felt about him. Which meant that she didn’t have to worry.

Hadley took a deep, cleansing breath, feeling better. It shouldn’t be so hard to face him. It should be fine.

Then she heard the sound of deep male voices coming in the back door and she knew it wasn’t Meg and Tia who were home. It was Logan and Chase.

“He never knew,” she whispered to herself to bolster her courage. “He doesn’t ever need to know.”

Another deep breath—this one to give her strength—and Hadley opened the bathroom door, stepping out into the hallway just as Chase Mackey appeared at the other end near the kitchen.

His sharply-edged jaw didn’t drop when he saw her. But his eyebrows arched over sky-blue eyes that were more remarkable than she remembered.

“Had-Had-Hadley? Is that you?” he asked in enough shock and awe to please her, using the silly version of her name that he’d made up when they were kids. That only he had ever used.

“It’s me,” she confirmed, wondering how it was possible for him to have gotten even better looking.

But he had.

Not that he was picture-perfect the way the male models she’d worked with were. Chase had a less refined, rugged, masculine handsomeness built around those eyes. His nose was slightly long, his lower lip was fuller than his upper, and his forehead was probably wider than a photographer would have wanted.

But he also had wavy, golden-brown hair cut short on the sides and left just a touch longer on top. There was a slight crease in the very center of his chin that added to his appeal. Over six feet tall, he had a lean, muscular body lurking behind his jeans and T-shirt. There was no denying that Chase Mackey was still a jaw-dropper himself.

“You look amazing,” he exclaimed—saying to her what she was thinking about him. “I don’t think I would have known you if we’d met on the street.”

“I’m half the woman I was,” Hadley joked.

“It’s more than the weight—”

But years of carrying the weight had caused her to be very self-conscious, and while she was thrilled with his reaction, she couldn’t be comfortable under his scrutiny for long. And Neily was a built-in way out. So before he could go on with what he was about to say, Hadley interrupted him.

“We can catch up later. I don’t know if you remember Neily Pratt or not, but she’s waiting in the living room to see you.”

“Neily is here?” Logan said, stepping up behind Chase just then.

“I remember the Pratt family,” Chase said, “but not specifically Neily… .”

“She needs to see you,” Hadley repeated.

“Hi,” Neily said, suddenly appearing from the living room to join them.

Logan greeted Neily warmly and after some further back-and-forth that helped Chase place who she was, she said, “I apologize for being here the minute you walk in the door, Chase, and on the day before your wedding, Logan, but I’m afraid I’m here on business that couldn’t wait.”

“Furniture business?” Logan asked.

“Social-worker business. With Chase.”

Chase and Logan looked as confused by that as Hadley was.

“Maybe you and Chase should talk alone,” Hadley suggested out of courtesy, despite her own curiosity.

“That’s okay,” Chase said. “I can’t imagine what business I could have with a social worker, but I’m probably gonna end up talking about it with you after the fact anyway, so we might as well skip a step.”

Neily pointed over her shoulder in the direction from which she’d just come. “I have a file …”

“Let’s all go in the living room, then,” Logan suggested.

They did, with Neily returning to her spot on the sofa and Hadley taking the easy chair again while Chase and Logan remained standing, facing them.

“I don’t know how much of your background you know, Chase,” Neily began.

“I was orphaned at three when my folks were killed in a car accident—about six months after we moved to Northbridge,” Chase supplied.

“And did you know that you had siblings? “

That was not anything Hadley had ever heard, and from the look on Chase’s face, it was news to him, too.

“There was just me,” he claimed.

“Actually, there was also an older half sister, a younger sister and two younger brothers—twins,” Neily said, opening the file that she’d taken onto her lap.

Chase focused on Logan. “Is this a welcome-home prank?”

Logan seemed dumbfounded himself as he shook his head. “Like I don’t have enough going on with the wedding?”

“It isn’t a prank,” Neily assured them.

“I don’t remember any brothers or sisters,” Chase said.

“According to the file, you were barely three—in fact you were a month short,” Neily said patiently. “We don’t actually begin to retain memory until about four unless it’s something traumatic. But by the same token, a traumatic event—like losing your family, being taken out of your home—could wipe out some memories, too. What do you recall?”

“My earliest memory is of the boys’ home. There were some dreams … But that’s all they were—dreams.”

“If they involved sisters and brothers, they weren’t just dreams. They must have been your brain’s way of reminding you. What about your parents—do you remember them?”

Chase shook his head. “Not really. I have an old wedding picture of them that I’ve stared at enough to know their faces and I think that’s sort of become my memory of them. But to say that I actually remember anything about them—the way they looked other than that picture, or the sound of their voices or ever being with them? No, I don’t. Still, it seems like if I’d ever had brothers and sisters I would have remembered that,” he said.

“But you don’t,” Neily concluded. “And you do have them. Your older sister—her name was Angie Cragen—”

“Was?” Logan interjected.

“Was,” Neily confirmed. “She was actually your half sister, Chase. Your mother had her when she was seventeen and never married her father. But Angie Cragen was born with a congenital heart problem and she died last week.”

Hadley could see that this was one shock piled on another for Chase and to allow him a moment, she said, “How do you know this stuff, Neily?”

“There’s a lawyer in Billings who’s involved and now so is Human Services there—a social worker contacted me and I’ve spoken to the lawyer, too. Knowing she didn’t have long to live, Angie Cragen hired the lawyer before her death. Since Angie was eight when the accident happened, she remembered you, Chase, and the other kids. After the accident, because she had a birth father, she went to live with him while the rest of you went into foster care.”

Hadley wasn’t sure if it was the mention of foster care or something else that brought a dark frown to Chase’s handsome face.

“The other three kids were adopted,” Neily continued. “But because you weren’t, Chase, you retained the Mackey name and that’s why your half sister was able to locate you.”

“It’s a little late, isn’t it?”

“I only know what I was told, and according to the lawyer, once Angie Cragen began to search for her siblings, it took until just before her death to track you down. She would have liked to contact you herself but she was getting sicker and sicker and—”

“Hold on,” Chase said.

His hands went to his narrow hips as he switched his weight from one foot to the other. It took Hadley a moment to realize she was looking at those hips. Appreciating the sight.

She yanked her eyes upward and forced herself to concentrate on what he was saying.

“Some sick and dying woman who hadn’t put the effort into looking me up for thirty-two years decided to do it now? Why?”

“There’s a child,” Neily said quietly. “Angie Cragen had an eleven-month-old son and no one to raise him after her death. I’m not sure of the details. She made a recording that I’ve been told explains the whole thing; it’s here in the file.” Neily patted the folder she had on her lap. “But what I do know is that she wanted her son to go one of her half siblings because you are the only family she had left. She wanted him raised by a blood relation. And since you’re the only one of the siblings she managed to locate—”

“A stranger left me her kid?” Chase said. “Now I know this has to be some kind of joke.”

“It’s no joke,” Neily said. “Your half sister hoped that even though she didn’t have the chance to meet you or speak to you, you would still step up and raise your nephew. Or at least take him while you go on to find your other sister and brothers to see if one of them might want him… .”

Chase glanced at Logan, again. “Tell me now if this is some hoax.”

With an expression as perplexed as Chase’s, Logan shrugged, shook his head and said, “Honest to God, Chase, I don’t have anything to do with this.”

Frowning deeply, Chase looked back to Neily but before he said anything else, she said, “I know this is a shock and I want to make it clear that you are in no way obligated to take this child. When Angie died, Human Services stepped in and he’s been placed in foster care—”

“The kid is in foster care?” Chase demanded as if that was a bigger deal than Neily had made it sound.

“He’s with a foster family in Billings. But they can’t keep him more than a few days because they’re already overloaded—that’s why I’m here now. Before finding him another home, the lawyer insisted that you be presented with all of this so that—if you were willing to take the baby the way Angie Cragen hoped you would—he could come here rather than be handed off to another temporary placement.”

Chase closed his eyes and once more shook his head in what looked to be utter disbelief.

Then he opened them, scowled at Neily and said, “You’re sure this kid is related to me? You’re absolutely, without-a-doubt positive?”

“Everything tracks,” Neily confirmed. “But again, Chase, you’re under no obligation—”

“I’ll take him. For now,” Chase said, abruptly cutting off more of Neily’s words.

Chase Mackey, player of all time—according to what Logan had said about him over the years—wasn’t hesitating to take on an eleven-month-old baby out of the blue?

That surprised Hadley more than the way she looked had surprised Chase when he’d first seen her.

“A baby is a lot of work and responsibility,” Neily warned as if she wasn’t altogether comfortable with his hasty decision. “We’re talking about an infant—diapers, bottles, nighttime feedings … Do you have any experience at all with—”

“Doesn’t matter,” Chase decreed. “Logan did that stuff with Tia—if he could do it, I can do it. He can show me how. If the kid is related to me, I won’t see him get sucked any further into the system than he already has been.”

There was decisiveness and determination behind his words that Hadley didn’t quite understand. But she assumed it had something to do with the fact that Chase had avoided his own foster home in favor of spending a lot of time at the McKendrick house.

“I’m not saying I’ll keep him,” Chase went on as if he didn’t want Neily to believe he was making more of a commitment than he was. “I’m just saying that I’ll take him and go on looking for … What was it? Another sister and two brothers? Then if one of them is better suited to raise the kid, I’ll probably turn him over to them. But for now …” Chase suddenly switched his focus to Logan again and spoke to him, “I’m gonna need some help …”

“Sure. Whatever. You know that,” Logan assured.

Chase glanced back at Neily. “Then, yeah, I guess you can bring it on.”

Hadley thought Neily seemed uneasy with this. Then she confirmed it by saying, “If you change your mind either before the baby gets here—”

“Which will be when? Do you have him out in your car or something?” Chase asked.

Neily flinched slightly at that notion.

“The baby is in Billings. It will be Monday before I’ll be able to make the transfer. But if you change your mind before then or at any time after that, you just have to call me and I’ll come for him.”

“And stick him back in a foster home,” Chase muttered under his breath. But to Neily he said, “I’ll keep that in mind.” Then, obviously thinking ahead, he said, “These other people—are they all Angie Cragen’s half brothers and half sister, but my full siblings?”

“They are your full brothers and sister, yes.”

“And do you know if the half sister was at least close to finding any of them?”

“I don’t know that, no. I only know that you are the only one the lawyer could actually give us enough information about to make contact.” Neily held up the file. “There’s the DVD—it might have more information on the others. And there’s a picture of the baby here among the paperwork if you’d like to see him. I’ll leave it all for you.”

Hadley saw Neily’s hesitation when she stood to hand the file to Chase.

“Does he have a name?” Chase asked then, not opening the file to even glance at the baby’s picture the way Hadley would have.

“Cody. The baby’s name is Cody,” Neily informed him.

“Cody,” Chase repeated.

“Well, if you’re sure …” Neily said, pausing to offer Chase a second chance to say no.

When he didn’t, she said, “If you’re sure, I’ll go and make the arrangements now, and then I’ll see you all tomorrow at the wedding and again on Monday with the baby.”

Chase merely nodded as Hadley stood up to walk Neily out.

It wasn’t until the front door was closed behind the social worker and Hadley had turned back to the two men that she heard Chase mutter to Logan, “What the hell just happened? I have family?”

“Including an eleven-month-old nephew who you just agreed to take on …” Logan said with some disbelief of his own.

“Oh, man, I did, didn’t I?” Chase said as if it were just sinking in.

“Come on, let’s get your stuff out to the loft,” Logan suggested. “Then maybe you can watch that DVD.”

Chase nodded, still looking stunned. He headed for the kitchen, catching sight of Hadley as he did and coming up short all over again.

“Wow, and you, Hadley … You’ve blown me away, too.”

Hadley laughed. “It’s still just me. With a little less packaging.”

“Yeah, I can see that it’s still you,” he assured. “But that’s good, too—it’s good to see … you,” he added.

Hadley merely smiled at him, at his confusion over her transformation. But she was pleased that he recognized that not everything about her had changed.

“Later, I guess,” he added with a sigh as he again aimed for the kitchen.

“Sure. I’ll see you later,” she confirmed, watching him go and trying not to register that his backside was almost as impressive as his front.

Then her brother distracted her by whispering as he went by, “I’m gonna need your help big-time!”

Hadley wasn’t quite sure what her brother was going to need her help with, but that wasn’t uppermost in her mind.

Chase was.

Chase and the news that had just been sprung on him and his instant agreement to accept the responsibility of his half nephew.

But then Hadley heard the back door open and close and it struck her just like that—her first encounter with Chase Mackey in seventeen years was over …

She’d successfully jumped that hurdle.

And she breathed a sigh of relief.

Granted, their reunion had taken a backseat to Neily’s news, but still, Hadley thought she’d done okay before that. No, she hadn’t been smooth or glib or clever—the way she’d imagined herself in one of the many scenarios she’d played out in anticipation of this—but she hadn’t embarrassed herself, either. She was relatively sure she’d hidden her tension, that she’d appeared reasonably normal.

And the first hurdle was the highest, she told herself. From here on every time she saw Chase it would get easier. She would feel less awkward, she would be able to relax more. Eventually she would forget all about that crush she’d had on him so many years ago and forge a plain and simple working relationship with him.

And that was all she was looking forward to, she told herself.

Even if the image of those blue eyes of his was mysteriously lingering in her mind and making it seem as if she might be looking forward to something more than that …

Chapter Two

“You want me to stick around?”

Chase couldn’t help smiling at his friend’s offer. He knew Logan was swamped with last-minute wedding details.

“Do you think I need a babysitter?”

“That is one of the things you’ll need after Monday,” Logan goaded wryly.

“Or maybe a pretty little nanny …” Chase volleyed good-naturedly, referring to the fact that Logan was about to marry his daughter’s caregiver.

“Knowing you, I’m sure you’ll run through plenty of those,” Logan countered with a laugh.

All kidding aside, Chase let his friend off the hook. “It’s weird to find out I might have brothers and a sister, and that in a day and a half I’ll be taking on a kid who’s supposed to be my nephew. But the earth hasn’t stopped turning because of any of it. Get going on that honey-do list you told me you have in your pocket. I’m fine.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, go on.”

It didn’t take more than that for Logan to head for the door. “Meg stocked a few groceries in your fridge, but for anything other than snacking you can hit ours. Come over whenever you’re ready,”

“Thanks,” Chase said to his partner’s back as Logan left him alone in the loft Chase had designed and Logan had built.

With all Chase had had to do back in New York, he hadn’t made it to Northbridge since late May. At that point the space he’d taken for himself in the top half of what had formerly been a barn had been in the final stages of construction.

A quick glance around at the large, open area and Chase knew that Logan had made sure the contractor met his specifications.

His furniture had been sent ahead last week. He’d trusted his own belongings to professional movers while he’d manned the truck—that was now stalled just outside of town—filled with the Mackey and McKendrick Designs pieces that were slated for the Northbridge showroom. The movers had set his things around the place haphazardly—the furniture was usable but still needed to be arranged the way he wanted it.

But Chase had more important things on his mind. Despite what he’d led his friend to think, he was a little shaken to suddenly find out he hadn’t been an only child.

How the hell could he have blanked on something like brothers and sisters? he asked himself as he went to the chrome-and-glass kitchen table and tossed the social worker’s file folder onto it.

Okay, yes, he had been barely more than a baby when his parents were killed—six months younger than Tia was now, and she was just a tiny, tiny kid.

And yes, there had been dreams. Disjointed dreams that had never seemed like anything but dreams—that he had a family, that his parents were alive. But he’d always figured it was just wishful thinking. It had never felt real enough to be anything else, or been clear enough to make him believe there had ever actually been other kids, especially when he honestly had no waking memory of them.

But apparently there had been. Older and younger kids …

Trying now to think back as far as he could, Chase still couldn’t recall anything that led up to his going to the boys’ home where his first memories began—and even those were vague. He just remembered being at the boys’ home, being scared and lonely most of the time there.

Nowhere in that could he remember the slightest indication that there were siblings he’d been separated from.

Not that he recalled ever asking.

He did remember asking about his parents—though he didn’t remember exactly when. He only knew that the answer to his question had been, “They’re no longer with us …” He’d thought that that meant they’d gone off somewhere and just left him behind for some reason, maybe because he had done something wrong.

The fact that his parents had died hadn’t been openly discussed with him until he’d gone from the boys’ home to his foster home.

He’d been eight then. When Alma Pritick had taken the time to talk to him about his mother and father, about what had happened to them.

Alma Pritick had been one of the few positive aspects of his childhood.

It had been Alma who had located an old newspaper clipping of his parents’ wedding picture for him and framed it. Alma who had finally given him the sense that at one point he had belonged to someone who cared about him.

But nowhere in any of what Alma had said, either, had there been a mention of other kids who had been orphaned alongside him.

He had never had a clue.

But now that he knew it, he had other things to deal with.

Things like an eleven-month-old nephew …

That still didn’t seem real.

But with that baby in mind, he sat on one of the director’s chairs that went with the table and opened the file.

The DVD and some paperwork were inside. Along with the photograph of the baby.

Cute enough, as kids went, he thought as he studied the picture. Big brown eyes. Chunky cheeks. Some feathery, light-colored hair that stood up on the top of the kid’s head like spikes.

“Okay …” he said as if he’d successfully taken the first step on the detour he’d just made into unknown territory.

And a kid was pretty unknown territory for him. The only one he’d ever had contact with was Tia, and that had been more in the role of sort-of uncle. Initially, when Logan’s wife had left Logan with their two-month-old daughter, Chase had gone to Connecticut to help out. But his help had actually just been moral support for Logan—it wasn’t as if he’d done much hands-on with Tia.

Diaper changes, feedings, baths—those things had been his friend’s purview. He’d held Tia a few times, but that was about it. And in the three years since then? A sort-of uncle—that was what Chase’s relationship with Tia had consisted of. There definitely hadn’t been anything that would have prepared him for taking care of a kid himself, that was for sure.

But when Neily Pratt had said this new kid was in foster care? That had struck a nerve.

No, his experience in foster care hadn’t been a horror story. But he did know the good and the not-so-good sides of it.

Alma Pritick had been the good side.

But there had also been Alma’s husband, Homer. And while Homer might not have been abusive, he had definitely been on the not-so-good side of foster care. Homer Pritick and the boys’ home before him—those were the memories that had spurred Chase to take the kid. Because the bottom line was that if the child was related to him in any way, he didn’t want him in that same system.

“So you’re gonna be mine,” he said as if he were talking to the baby rather than the baby’s picture. “At least for a while …”

Then he set down the photograph and picked up the DVD.

The DVD his older sister had made.

Sisters and brothers …

It just didn’t seem possible.

It was Logan who had sisters and brothers, not him.

Sisters like Hadley.

Hadley …

“I couldn’t believe my eyes, Had-Had-Hadley,” he said to himself as set down the DVD, got up and went to unpack his laptop computer so he could play it.

Sure, over the years Logan had told him that Hadley had slimmed down, but he hadn’t given it much thought. Hadley was just Hadley: Logan’s sister. Logan had told him things about Tessa and Issa and Zeli—Logan’s half sisters—and about his half brothers, too. None of it had meant anything to Chase beyond being Logan’s news from home.

But wow, seeing Hadley for himself? She hadn’t just lost weight, she’d grown up into a knockout.

Her previously bad skin was porcelain-perfect now. He’d never known she had high cheekbones or that what had just looked like dents in bread dough were actually damn adorable dimples in her cheeks. Her hair wasn’t stringy anymore; it was bouncy and smooth and silky and begged to be touched. The rest of her face had been so plump that until today, he’d never known what full, sweet lips she had. And even her eyes somehow seemed more remarkable—green but with a sort of topaz glimmer to them.

And the body! No one would ever guess that that firm, curvy little figure could have been whittled out of what she’d been as a girl.

Man, she was a beauty! A country-girl kind of beauty that made him think of Northbridge and clean air and fresh fields of hay, clear blue skies and snowcapped mountains.

A country-girl kind of beauty that—if things were different—he would have gone after with full force.

But even the new Hadley was still the little sister of his best friend and business partner, he reminded himself as he took the laptop back to the table. That alone was reason enough to keep his hands off of her, but add to it the fact that Hadley had also come back to Northbridge to be their upholsterer, the fact that they’d be working together, too, and there was no clear sailing for him on waters like that.

At least not with his philosophy on relationships. He never mixed the long-term with the short-term. His friendship and partnership with Logan were definitely long-term. Potentially, Hadley working with them could also be long-term. But a personal relationship with Hadley? A personal relationship with any woman was always short-term for him.

Besides, after the fiasco of his last relationship, he needed a breather from the opposite sex.

And topped off with this family and nephew thing, there was no room for romance even if being with Hadley wasn’t outside of his own self-set limits.

But damn if Hadley McKendrick hadn’t turned herself into someone who was going to make it tough on him to stick to his limits, he thought as he turned on the computer and waited for it to boot up.

He was going to stick to them, though.

When it came to Hadley, he knew without a doubt that he had to adopt a strict look-but-don’t-touch policy.

No matter how good she looked.

And damn, did she look good …

“It’s a lot to ask and I wouldn’t, except that this is our honeymoon and you know how excited Tia is to go to Disneyland—I just can’t cancel.”

“I wouldn’t want you to,” Hadley assured her brother. “And you’re right, Chase is going to need help with that baby—”

“Not just help. He’s going to need his hand held from beginning to end—babies aren’t his thing. He doesn’t know the first thing about them.”

Hadley certainly didn’t want to think about holding Chase Mackey’s hand.

“I’m sure he’ll be a fast learner,” she said, putting her own hope into words.

Logan had come back from Chase’s loft and immediately sought out Hadley in the living room of the main house, where she was hemming Tia’s flower-girl dress.

She’d been so lost in thinking about Chase and their first meeting that she hadn’t given a second thought to what her brother had said about needing her help—big-time. But now that Logan had asked her to stand in for him, to teach his friend how to care for the nephew Chase had agreed to take on, she was playing it cool. She was acting as if Logan’s request hadn’t surprised her, as if she wasn’t thrown by the idea of being Chase Mackey’s companion-in-childcare. But she was hardly as unruffled by the idea as she was pretending to be.

Working with Chase, living near him, seeing a lot of him—those were things she’d known were coming. Things she’d planned for. Things she’d decided she could handle in a purely friendly acquaintance sort of way that would ease them into this new phase in their lives.

But what her brother was asking of her was something else entirely. She wouldn’t have the benefit of Logan being around, or Meg or even Tia. She and Chase would be on their own together. Alone. In his loft a lot of the time, putting a nursery together, caring for an infant, with her holding his hand through it all.

And that was a little unnerving for her.

Still she said, “Whether he learns fast or not, you can’t miss your honeymoon to do something that I can easily do.”

“Are you sure it’s no problem?” Logan asked. “At least the vet is going to neuter the dogs and keep them until we get back, so you won’t have Max and Harry to take care of, too, but—”

“I’m sure there’s no problem. It’ll be fine,” she assured her brother, hiding her own misgivings.

Maybe not too well, because Logan’s expression was doubtful. “So you didn’t have any pangs of the old crush when you saw Chase again?”

“I told you I wouldn’t and I didn’t,” she said. Which was basically true. But she also hadn’t been able to ignore the fact that time had only improved Chase’s appeal.

She wasn’t going to confess that to her brother, though, so she said, “Since we’ve been back in Northbridge you’ve met up with a few girls you dated in high school without having any effect, right? So when it comes to Chase, it’s no different for me,” she reasoned.

“Okay. I’m not sure why I keep worrying about it.” Maybe because he had some awareness that to the overweight, unattractive young girl she’d been, this crush had been more important in its own way than any of his own casual high-school dating.

Maybe because he had an inkling that her daydreams of Chase had gotten her through some very rough times when teasing at school had been downright mean, and at home when she’d had their malicious stepmother to contend with.

But that was all in the very distant past. She honestly felt sure that she’d left her crush behind with the extra hundred pounds she’d carried around then.

“I guess I just wouldn’t want you to try to live out some fantasy,” Logan said. “You and Chase aren’t on the same wavelength when it comes to—”

“I know—Chase is a so-many-women-so-little-time kind of guy. Don’t worry, I’ve gotten the picture from the things you’ve told me about him over the years. He plays around. He’s like Garth—”

The mention of her ex-husband’s name brought a frown edged with anger to her brother’s face.

“Chase is nothing like Garth,” Logan retorted. “Chase doesn’t break commitments to women because he doesn’t make commitments to women. Because what Chase is committed to is his belief that that’s the best way for him.”

Whatever that meant …

“But ultimately he runs through women like other people run through shoes.”

“I just think that, for you, relationships are different than what they are for Chase,” Logan said. “And I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. But for the record, I’ve never said Chase runs through women.”

“There’s been a different one every time I’ve talked to you over the years. That seems to me like running through women. And after Garth, the last thing I would go anywhere near is a man who’s commitment-impaired. So I’m telling you, I might have had some illusions about Chase being the perfect guy nearly twenty years ago, but I don’t have any now. I guarantee you, I can show him how to change a diaper without fainting from infatuation.”

And she thought that was true. No, she didn’t especially want to spend concentrated time alone with Chase, and it would certainly have helped if he looked more like a warthog than the heartthrob leading man in a Western movie. But after eleven years in the European fashion industry, she’d learned to take good looks with a grain of salt, and that was what she intended to do with Chase.

“No matter what you say, you know I’ve been worried about you being around Chase again and this … well, this really makes me worry,” her brother fretted.

“That’s because you and I haven’t had a lot of time with each other since you left Northbridge. You might have missed it, but I’m not the innocent, naive, dreamy-eyed girl I was before,” Hadley said patiently. “And what I believe is that trying to make a one-woman man out of Chase Mackey—or any other man who doesn’t want to be a one-woman man—is something only a fool would undertake. And I’m nobody’s fool.”

“Got it—you’re all grown up, you’re a woman of the world and you can take care of yourself,” Logan said.

“Yes,” she confirmed. “And it’s really not a big deal for me to help Chase. I’m happy to do it until you get back from your honeymoon.”

Okay, happy was not exactly true. But she’d still do it.

“I appreciate it,” Logan said.

“It’s nothing. Now go do what Meg needed you to do today so you can get to the rehearsal on time tonight.”

“Yeah, I better. And thanks—I owe you for this.”

Hadley waved him away.

All this talk about gratitude suddenly made her realize that to some extent, helping Chase out now would repay the debt she’d had to him since they were kids.

Growing up, Chase had been unfailingly kind to her, and that wasn’t something she could say about everyone, especially not about the boys she’d known back then. In fact, that kindness he’d shown her had probably contributed to why she’d had such a crush on him.

And not only had he been kind to her, but there also had been a time when he’d come to her rescue, when he’d defended her against people who hadn’t been so kind.

For that, she owed him.

Besides, so far she’d managed not to act like a silly schoolgirl with a crush in Chase’s presence. What harm could come in helping him out next week while Logan was gone?

None, she told herself.

And if she wasn’t going to be able to ease into being around Chase again, then maybe taking the plunge—so to speak—was the next best thing. Maybe the more time she spent with him right off the bat, the quicker she’d be able to overlook his attributes, completely conquer feeling awkward around him and just get on with things.

That didn’t seem altogether unfeasible, she decided.

And ultimately, it would all be fine.

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