Impulsively, Jenny reached out and gently touched his upper arm, intending to offer comfort.
What would it be like to have Ty’s strong, capable arms wrapped around her, holding her close, wrapping her in a sense of love and devotion she hadn’t felt in so very long?
“Jenny…” Ty uttered under his breath, her name sounding like a prayer. Her looked at her, his eyes intense and searching.
She desperately wished that he would reach out and pull her close, wanting the feeling of contentment and happiness and utter belonging she always felt when he was near.
Just for one space in time, she wanted her loneliness and pain to disappear.
Dear Reader,
May has to be one of the most beautiful months of the year. Having been trapped indoors for the cold, dark winter, I love taking long walks and discovering new shops and restaurants that have opened in New York. And everywhere I turn, multicolored flowers line street medians; the sidewalks are flooded with baby carriages and the bridal salons lining Madison Avenue feature gowns that would make any woman feel like a princess.
As our special tribute to May, we’ve gathered romances from some of your favorite writers and from some pretty stellar new voices. Raye Morgan’s BOARDROOM BRIDES continues with The Boss’s Special Delivery (SR #1766). In this classic romance, a pregnant heroine finds love with her sworn enemy. Part of the FAIRYTALE BRIDES continuity, Beauty and the Big Bad Wolf (SR #1767) by Carol Grace shows how an ambitious career woman falls for a handsome recluse. The next installment in Holly Jacobs’s PERRY SQUARE miniseries, Once Upon a Princess (SR #1768), features a private investigator who’s decided it’s time a runaway princess came home…to him! Finally, two single parents get a second chance at love, in Lissa Manley’s endearing romance In a Cowboy’s Arms (SR #1769).
And be sure to come back next month when Patricia Thayer and Lilian Darcy return to the line.
Ann Leslie Tuttle
Associate Senior Editor
In a Cowboy’s Arms
Lissa Manley
This book is dedicated to my parents, Jerry and Gloria.
Thanks for being so supportive and enthusiastic about my writing career.
Books by Lissa Manley
Silhouette Romance
The Bachelor Chronicles #1665
The Bridal Chronicles #1689
The Baby Chronicles #1705
Love Chronicles #1749
In a Cowboy’s Arms #1769
LISSA MANLEY
has been an avid reader of romance since her teens and firmly believes that writing romances with happy endings is her dream job. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her college-sweetheart husband of nineteen years, Kevin, two children, Laura and Sean, and two feisty toy poodles named Lexi and Angel, who run the household and get away with it. She has a degree in business from the University of Oregon, having discovered the joys of writing well after her college years. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, crafting, attending her children’s sporting events and relaxing at the family vacation home on the Oregon coast.
Lissa loves to hear from her readers. She can be reached at P.O. Box 91336, Portland, OR 97291-0336, or at www.lissamanley.com.
Wanted: One hard-working, loving caretaker to live at ranch and tend to adorable eighteen-month-old girl. Must have a way with children, and must have some medical training.
Warning: location is isolated—no shopping malls or coffee franchises nearby. Ideal candidate will find happiness in natural beauty of the ranch and helping raise my daughter.
Please contact with references on hand: Ty McCall at Second Chance Ranch
Contents
Chapter One
Jenny Brewster pushed her hair behind one ear, then stepped up to Ty McCall’s front door. “Here we are, Ava,” she said to her eighteen-month-old daughter propped on her hip. “Our new life is about to begin.”
Ava clapped her hands and smiled. “New life! Yay!”
“It’s time to meet my new boss and his family.” Subduing the flutter of nervous apprehension in her tummy, Jenny raised a hand and knocked on the wooden door, noting that the one-level ranch house was freshly painted in an appealing shade of blue, complete with quaint white shutters. This ranch looked like the perfect place for her and Ava to move on with their lives, the least her daughter deserved.
While Jenny waited for someone to answer the door, she cast her interested gaze around, noting an expansive, obviously irrigated lawn stretching out in front of the house like an inviting sea of green. Someone had put a lot of work, and expense, into maintaining that huge lawn in the middle of dry eastern Oregon.
She also noted that the house was surrounded by a chain-link fence, complete with a swinging gate across the driveway. That gate protected the residence from the rest of the ranch outbuildings, situated to the rear of the house.
She let out a breath of sheer relief. Thank heaven Mr. McCall hadn’t exaggerated about the safeness of the ranch when she’d grilled him on that subject over the phone at the time he’d offered her this job as a nanny/nurse to his nineteen-month-old diabetic daughter. This place looked like a relatively protected spot to raise Ava, one of Jenny’s top priorities.
After losing Jack, she would do everything in her power to keep her daughter safe.
A few moments later, a tall man with a full head of gray hair dressed in a plaid shirt and jeans answered the door. “You must be Jenny and Ava,” he said, holding out a hand, a smile creasing his weathered face. His blue eyes sparkled in a friendly way that reminded Jenny of her dad, reassuring her further.
Jenny shook his hand. “Yes, I am.”
“I’m Sam McCall, Ty’s dad.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
He