Family At Last
Nate Lyster and Mia Verbeek are in perfect agreementâletting someone new into your life is much too risky. Mom to four kids, Mia canât let just anyone get close, while wandering cowboy Nate learned young that trusting another means chancing heartbreak. But when a fire turns Miaâs life upside down, Nate is the only one who can get through to her traumatized son. Nate fits into Miaâs family perfectly, and they soon realize that a loving family is what they both want. Can they put the hurts of their pasts behind themâ¦for a chance at a perfect love?
Hearts of Hartley Creek: In this small town, love is just around the corner
âNice to meet you, Mia,â he said.
Mia let Nate take her hand. When he let go, she felt an unexpected moment of loss.
âNice to meet you, too,â she replied as his smile deepened.
âSo you own the flower store,â he said, dropping his cowboy hat back on his head. âThatâs ambitious,â he continued.
âIt definitely keeps me busy.â
For this brief moment, Mia didnât feel like a mommy weighed down with obligations. She returned his smile.
Just then her friend Sophie arrived, pushing the buggy, wails emanating from it. âI think one of your little girls is hungry,â she said to Mia.
Mia caught Nate frowning at her.
âThose are your kids?â he asked. âSorry, I didnât know you wereââ
âA mom?â Mia couldnât stop the hint of annoyance entering her voice. âIt gets worse. Thereâs two more of these at home,â she said.
Nate wasnât the first man put off by her brood.
He was, however, the first man sheâd felt any attraction to in a long, long time.
CAROLYNE AARSEN
and her husband, Richard, live on a small ranch in northern Alberta, where they have raised four children and numerous foster children, and are still raising cattle. Carolyne crafts her stories in an office with a large west-facing window, through which she can watch the changing seasons while struggling to make her words obey.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
âIsaiah 43:18
For Lorna Strydhorst, faithful reader and friend.
Chapter One
âGo to sleep. Please go back to sleep,â Mia pleaded as she dragged the stroller holding her twin toddlers backward into the bookstore. Jennifer had been fussing for the past twenty minutes. She couldnât be hungry. Mia had given both baby girls and her two sons a good supper before heading out the door into the cool of the late-fall evening. A better supper than she managed to wolf down before her babysitter, Angie, showed up. Though Angie wasnât her regular babysitter, she had offered to take the two boys and the twins. Mia took care of four children all the time, but she didnât feel right doing that to a temporary babysitter so she had taken the twins with her.
Fatigue dragged at her, and for a moment Mia entertained the idea of skipping the bookstore. However, she had promised Josh and Nico she would get the books. And ever since her husband had left her pregnant with twins and two preschool sons, Mia was firm on keeping promises to Josh and Nico.
As Jenniferâs whimpers turned into a cry of protest, Mia fished a pacifier out of the overstuffed diaper bag dangling from the handles of the stroller. She wiped the lint off and eased the pacifier into Jenniferâs mouth. Her daughter resisted a moment and then the pacifier began bouncing as the baby eagerly sucked on it.
Really? Shouldnât one-year-olds be weaned off pacifiers by now?
Mia closed off the scolding voice in her headâOther Mother, the annoying amalgamation of every parenting article she had ever read, with a pinch of her perfect sister thrown in.
âHey, my dear girl, shall I take the twins around the store while you shop?â
Sophie Brouwer smiled at Mia over the top of the stroller, her bright blue eyes surrounded by a network of friendly wrinkles. She wore her usual velour jogging suit today in a shade of bubblegum-pink that no female over ten should wear. And Sophie was easily six decades past that.
âIâll be okay,â was Miaâs automatic reply.
Sophie shook her head and nudged Mia aside. âDonât be so independent.â Sophie grasped the handles of the stroller. âYou go talk to your friend.â
Then she pushed the stroller behind a shelf of books, leaving Mia no choice but to go to Evangeline.
Her friend was crouched down on the floor behind the counter, her long skirt puddling around her as she sorted through a box of books. Evangeline straightened as she saw Mia and pushed her long hair back from her face with a smile. âHey, girl. Whereâre the kids?â
âAngie is taking care of the boys and Sophie just kidnapped the twins.â
âYou want a cup of coffee before I get your books?â Evangeline asked, waving a delicate hand toward the back of the store, her diamond engagement ring refracting the overhead light.