id="u55ac4209-c586-58ef-895c-18e6dbc29df7">
“Have you come looking for safety, Daphne?”
She met his gaze, and then hers fell to his mouth. Wanting her was crazy. A woman had never confused Patrick this way before.
“We’re getting too personal.” She leaned back and stood.
“Wait.” He caught her arm. Though she tried to be tough, she couldn’t hide her fragility. “Do you want me to call Raina?”
Softness returned to Daphne’s eyes. “I really don’t need you to take my first step with my sister.”
“I’d like to help.”
“You might as well know I’m not used to having someone take care of me.”
“Taking care is what small towns do best.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I know you’re trying to make me feel welcome. I appreciate that you care.”
Care? Patrick was trying not to care too much.
Anna Adams wrote her first romance on the beach in wet sand with a stick. The Atlantic Ocean washed that one away, but these days she uses modern tools to write the kind of stories she loves best – romance that involves everyone in the family, and often the whole community. Anna is in the middle of one of those stories with her own hero of twenty-seven years. From Iceland to Hawaii and points in between they’ve shared their lives with children and family and friends who’ve become family. Right now they’re living in a small Southern town, whose square has become the model for the one where much of the action happens in Honesty, Virginia. In fact, Anna wrote much of Her Reason To Stay in a coffee shop looking out at the courthouse that readers of this series must know so well.
Her Reason
to Stay
by
Anna Adams
MILLS & BOON
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To Colin and his Sarah,
who, happily, is another Sarah for us to love.
Buddy, the instant I first looked into your face,
I became a better woman. Have I ever
thanked you for that?
Table of Contents
Chapter One
“I CAN HARDLY LOOK at you. You have my face. And seeing you reminds me that my parents lied to me.”
Those weren’t exactly the words she wanted to hear. Daphne Soder had expected surprise, maybe even shock from her long-lost sister. Instead, the stranger who was also her twin seemed one second away from leaping out the closest window.
Ignoring a strong urge to stop her, Daphne kept still, trying not to frighten Raina Abernathy any further.
Raina sat beside her lawyer, barricaded behind a long maple conference table in the office of Delaney, Brock, Sheffield and Gannon. Her body language screamed, “stay away,” as she moved closer to the dark-haired man whom she clearly considered her protector.
His name was Patrick Gannon, and his glacial expression pierced Daphne as if he expected her to reach across the table and murder Raina in front of him.
So much for a happy reunion. Daphne had arrived at this meeting filled with the crazy hope that she and her sister could finally become a family, that they’d learn to love each other. But Raina obviously didn’t want that, and her rejection hurt.
“I’m sorry. I had no idea you didn’t know about the adoption,” Daphne said. “Still, that doesn’t change why I’m here.”
Patrick