A Ready-Made Family
She' s a day late and a dollar short…Lia Howard Pogue is flat broke and on the run. Her only hope for a new start is to rely on the kindness of strangers. One in particular–the rough and tough ex-Army Ranger who' s all hard muscle and soft heart.Jake Robbin is more than ready to put his wild youth behind him and settle down. If only he could skip the hassle of courtship and babies and messy emotions. What better time for Lia and her three kids to land on his doorstep!Seems marriage would solve both their problems. Until Lia' s ex shows up…and reminds her she could be making the same mistake all over again.NORTH COUNTRY STORIESThis isn' t the end of the earth, but you can see it from here.Welcome back to Alouette, Michigan, the wonderful setting for Carrie Alexander' s RITA© Award-nominated story, A Family Christmas
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Jake knew chemistry when he felt it
Taking on three kids and a single mom was bad enough, but that complication he did not need, unless it led only to a fast, uncomplicated affair. He was betting that a cheap affair was strictly off-limits with Lia.
So back off now, man. You don’t need this.
Of course, that wasn’t what his sister had been saying since Jake’s return, with all her teasing about him finding a good woman and settling down. He’d claimed her brain had turned into romantic mush because of her wedding, but maybe she had a point.
He was thirty-nine and regimented in his ways. If he was ever going to give the marriage-and-family thing a legitimate shot, it should be soon. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined hooking up with a woman with kids, especially when everything about them spelled trouble. Yet there was a certain efficiency about the situation that appealed, regardless of his ingrained habit of detachment.
One stop, no shopping.
A ready-made family.
Dear Reader,
There are times in a writer’s life when fiction and reality intersect. I began the NORTH COUNTRY STORIES miniseries several years ago, using memories of my hometown as a basis for certain aspects of the fictional town of Alouette. Little did I know that I’d soon be moving back.
I purchased a house and acreage on the river that bisects the town. Directly across the bay from me is a magnificent wooded peninsula dotted with a dozen small stone houses—my original inspiration for the cottages that play a prominent role in both this book and A Family Christmas (Harlequin Superromance #1239). Although the real cottages are empty, I often gaze up at them as I swim the river, imagining them populated by my fictional couples. But the only character who has actually visited is the skunk!
Visit www.CarrieAlexander.com for more on the North Country books—both the real and the imaginary.
Warmly,
Carrie
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carrie Alexander began her writing career on a whim. Ten years later, she is the author of more than thirty books and a two-time RITA>® Award finalist. The lifelong Michigander keeps busy working on her storybook cottage, where she paints anything that doesn’t walk away—which explains the lime-green garbage can and floral mailbox.
To Cyndy and Crystalyn
When the going gets tough, the tough get going in the Grudge
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
AFTER TWO DAYS ON THE road, getting lost, breaking down and spending her remaining cash at McDonald’s to quiet the kids during the final stretch of their trip, was it possible that Lia Pogue’s luck could get any worse?
Absolutely.
Her empty stomach gnawed as she watched the ambling approach of her second worst nightmare.
“Mom, you’re crushing the map.” Lia’s ten-year-old son, Howie, tugged the gas station freebie out of her grip and refolded it with a pinched look of concentration. He’d been giving directions from the shotgun seat since they’d crossed the Mackinac bridge into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, taking the job too seriously, as he did most tasks.
The cop circled Lia’s idling car, slowing to study the back end. She didn’t suppose he was admiring the vintage rust on the 1980 Impala they called “the Grudge” or the buckety-buck of a motor misfiring on its ancient pistons. Surreptitiously she rubbed her sweaty palms on her knee-length denim shorts, trying to keep the kids from seeing her nervousness. Was the uniform cop writing down her license plate number? What if it had already shown up on some sort of Most Wanted list?
That’s not possible. Larry doesn’t know we’re gone—yet.
“Mom?” warbled Sam from the backseat as her eyes followed the police officer’s circuit. Because she knew what was at stake, she’d forgotten to act jaded. Her mascara-thickened lashes had widened in alarm.
“Everything’s all right.” Lia had repeated some variation of the phrase for the past few days. Longer, actually, but she didn’t want to go there right now. She said it so often that the words came out even when it was clear that everything was wrong.
Everything except the most important fact: they were free.
Maybe not for long.
The cop tapped on her window.
She exhaled. “Don’t talk,” she told her kids before rolling down the glass. The Grudge had crank windows. For once, she was glad. She had something to do to distract herself from the tight ache wanting to burst out of her chest.
The officer tipped back his cap and peered into the car, taking in the jumble of discarded clothing, children’s toys and fast-food trash that had accumulated during the long drive north. “Everybody okay in there?”
“Yes, sir.” Don’t volunteer information.
“Ya, well.” He smiled, clearly a small-town cop because he didn’t flinch when Lia reached down beside her, toward the seat. He was looking at the map clenched in her son’s lap. “Gotchyerselves lost, eh?”
