The Christmas Bouquet

When it comes to family and Christmas, #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods always looks to the O’Briens for a little holiday magic

For the very driven medical student Caitlyn Winters, catching the bridal bouquet at a Christmas wedding has set off a chain reaction that she’s sure is more curse than blessing. Not only has she fallen in love with family medicine resident Noah McIlroy, but an unexpected pregnancy threatens her well-laid plans for the future. It doesn’t help that Noah—with a whole lot of help from her O’Brien relatives—is completely on board with the prospect of marriage and happily-ever-after.

It takes a whole lot of patience, love and family persuasion to help Caitlyn realize that she can still have everything she ever wanted, including a home in her beloved Chesapeake Shores and a man who understands all of her dreams.

“Love, marriage, family, and forgiveness all play an important part in Woods’s latest richly nourishing, holiday-spiced novel.”

—Chicago Tribune on A Chesapeake Shores Christmas

Also by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods

SWAN POINT*

THE DEVANEY BROTHERS: DANIEL THE DEVANEY BROTHERS: MICHAEL AND PATRICK THE DEVANEY BROTHERS: RYAN AND SEAN HOME TO SEAVIEW KEY SEAVIEW INN TWILIGHT A SEASIDE CHRISTMAS*** TEMPTATION SEA GLASS ISLAND†† WIND CHIME POINT†† SAND CASTLE BAY†† WHERE AZALEAS BLOOM* CATCHING FIREFLIES* MIDNIGHT PROMISES* THE SUMMER GARDEN*** AN O’BRIEN FAMILY CHRISTMAS*** BEACH LANE*** MOONLIGHT COVE*** DRIFTWOOD COTTAGE*** RETURN TO ROSE COTTAGE† HOME AT ROSE COTTAGE† A CHESAPEAKE SHORES CHRISTMAS*** HONEYSUCKLE SUMMER* SWEET TEA AT SUNRISE* HOME IN CAROLINA* HARBOR LIGHTS*** FLOWERS ON MAIN*** THE INN AT EAGLE POINT*** WELCOME TO SERENITY* MENDING FENCES FEELS LIKE FAMILY* A SLICE OF HEAVEN* STEALING HOME* WAKING UP IN CHARLESTON FLIRTING WITH DISASTER THE BACKUP PLAN DESTINY UNLEASHED FLAMINGO DINER ALONG CAME TROUBLE** ASK ANYONE** ABOUT THAT MAN** ANGEL MINE AFTER TEX

*The Sweet Magnolias

**Trinity Harbor ***Chesapeake Shores †The Rose Cottage Sisters ††Ocean Breeze

Look for Sherryl Woods’s next novel

DOGWOOD HILL available soon from Harlequin MIRA

The Christmas Bouquet

Sherryl

Woods

www.mirabooks.co.uk

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Booklist

Title Page

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

1

It was all because of that blasted bridal bouquet, Caitlyn Winters thought as she stared in dismay at the positive pregnancy test in her hand. From the moment she’d caught the bouquet at Jenny Collins’s Christmas wedding in New York a little over a year ago, she’d been doomed. That instinctive grab of an object flying straight at her had changed her life.

Her twin sister, Carrie, who’d all but shoved her aside to try to snatch the bouquet from the air, was going to laugh herself silly at what had transpired since that night. So were the rest of the O’Briens, for that matter. They loved irony.

Noah McIlroy, the family medicine resident whom she’d met soon after the wedding and with whom she’d been having a serious relationship since last September, tapped on the bathroom door.

“Caitlyn, are you okay?”

A hysterical laugh bubbled up, but she fought to contain it. This was no laughing matter. “Fine,” she managed to squeak out just as the door opened. Noah’s gaze shifted from her face to land on the test strip she was holding. Concern immediately evolved into astonishment.

“You’re pregnant?” he asked, his eyes filled with surprise, but a smile already tugging at his lips.

His wonderful, sensual lips, which had gotten them into this mess, she thought wryly. Of course, she was well aware those lips hadn’t caused her pregnancy. Heck, she’d known about the birds and bees long before that, thanks to all the romances in Chesapeake Shores and among her amorous O’Brien relatives.

But it was her inability to resist Noah’s heated kisses that had led to all the rest. That and an apparently defective condom. Given her cautious nature, she probably should have insisted on at least three methods of birth control, but no, she’d trusted Noah when he’d assured her that the condoms would be sufficient.

The man had cast a spell over her from the minute they’d met, literally one week after she’d caught that blasted romantic bouquet with all its superstition attached like streamers of satin ribbon. The deft catch had earned hoots of laughter from her family and a stunned, disappointed scowl from her twin, who’d been angling for the bouquet all evening.

And now, here she was, barely more than a year later, and pregnant. She hadn’t even accepted Noah’s repeated pleas that they live together, even though he was in her apartment more often than he was in his own. She’d drawn a line at that, knowing that she’d never be able to keep his presence in her life a secret from her nosy family if they were actually living under the same roof.

And she’d wanted to keep this relationship a secret. After all, she was supposed to be the grounded, goal-oriented sister. Carrie was the one everyone had expected to fall madly in love and marry before her college graduation. Instead, Carrie was jetting around the world, leading a completely carefree life, building a career in public relations for a big fashion designer and tossing away men like used tissues while she pined for one unobtainable man. And Caitlyn, thanks to that bouquet, was standing here with a positive pregnancy test in her hand!