Falling For The Single Mom

Her Country Boy

Big-city veterinarian Heather Fitzgerald didn’t plan on having kids...until her niece is orphaned one tragic night. Soon she’s trading in her ambitious life for a small-town animal rescue. Heather didn’t expect to fall for tiny Oaks Crossing...or its most charming bachelor farmer. But when Josh Kinley saves her niece from a near-tragic accident, he becomes more than her hero. Josh never thought he’d fall in love again—and most assuredly not with another city woman. But he can’t resist the two adorable Fitzgerald females. Now if Josh can only convince Heather to put down roots and make a home with him...

One thing was missing.

“Hey, you.” As if he’d heard her thoughts, Josh appeared.

“I thought you’d ditched me.”

“Not hardly,” he drawled with a lazy grin. “Been arranging a horse for your niece.”

Heather smiled. “How do you always have a solution to my problems?”

“A knack for being in the right place at the right time, I guess.”

And for stepping up to do more than any girl had a right to expect, she thought.

That’s when she realized she could be in trouble with this country boy. She’d always been too independent to lean on someone, too afraid they’d leave.

Would Josh?

“That’s a serious face,” he teased, ticking her nose. “What’s going on in that pretty head?”

“Just thinking. You know, guys usually tell me I’m too much work. Why don’t you feel that way?”

She held her breath to hear his reply.

“Some things are worth the effort. And—” he pulled down his hat in a rakish pose “—there’s nothing I like more than a good challenge.”

MIA ROSS loves great stories. She enjoys reading about fascinating people, long-ago times and exotic places. But only for a little while, because her reality is pretty sweet. Married to her college sweetheart, she’s the proud mom of two amazing kids, whose schedules keep her hopping. Busy as she is, she can’t imagine trading her life for anyone else’s—and she has a pretty good imagination. You can visit her online at miaross.com.

Falling For The Single Mom

Mia Ross

www.millsandboon.co.uk

We live by believing, not by seeing.

—2 Corinthians 5:7

For all the kind, compassionate people

who care for the animals we love.

Acknowledgments

Grateful to the very talented folks who help me

make my books everything they can be: Melissa Endlich, Giselle Regus and the dedicated staff at Love Inspired.

More thanks to the gang at Seekerville,

www.seekerville.net, a great place to hang out with readers—and writers.

I’ve been blessed with a wonderful network of

supportive, encouraging family and friends. You inspire me every day!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

This was not happening.

Unclenching her teeth, Heather Fitzgerald called up the sweet smile that had gotten her out of so many scrapes in the past. “But you don’t understand. All this—” she motioned at the large moving truck “—wasn’t supposed to be here until Wednesday. This is Monday.”

“Lady, you’re the one who don’t understand,” the driver retorted in a manner that clearly announced he couldn’t have cared any less. “I start in Cincy, then make a loop around four different states before I head back home. Sometimes it takes me a week, sometimes more’n that. This time, it took less, and I’m here now. If you want your load delivered later, I should be coming through here again in two or three weeks. But it’ll cost you to store this stuff at our facility till then, and I can’t make you any promises about when it’ll actually show up.”

After four years in college and four more slaving away day and night to get her veterinary degree, Heather had become adept at scheduling her life to the nth degree and keeping everything on track. It was midway through April, and the past few months had wreaked havoc with her normally precise planning. Somehow, using grit and bullish determination, she’d managed to squeak through with her sanity intact. Most of it, anyway.

So, because she was desperate, she decided it was time to try a different tactic. While she was far from the helpless female he obviously assumed her to be, she figured it couldn’t hurt to appeal to his male pride. Pulling out her phone, she called up her ace in the hole.

“I hate to be a pest about this, but I really can’t let these things be shuttled off to who-knows-where. My niece—” she showed him a picture of five-year-old Bailey “—has been living out of her suitcase since we arrived in town this past weekend. She became an orphan recently, and it’s very important that she feels at home here as soon as possible.”

“I’ve heard every story in the book,” he grumbled, but he gave the screen a cursory glance before frowning. “I think you’re yanking my chain about her being your niece. She looks just like you.”