Practicing Parenthood

When opposing counsels attract!

Assistant DA Collin Baptista has a rule: never sleep with the enemy. He broke it once—with defense attorney Madison Reddy. Now Madison’s pregnant and Collin heads to her North Captiva retreat with a ring, prepared to do the right thing. What he’s not prepared for is her flat-out rejection.

Madison may not think he’s ready to be a father, but Collin’s sure he can convince her otherwise. And when the couple find a lost goldendoodle puppy, they get plenty of opportunity to practice being a family. Maybe a secluded Florida island and a stray puppy can teach these two rivals to be a couple—and parents!

CARA LOCKWOOD is the USA TODAY bestselling author of more than seventeen books, including I Do (But I Don’t), which was made into a Lifetime Original movie. She’s written the Bard Academy series for young adults and has had her work translated into several languages around the world. Born and raised in Dallas, Cara now lives near Chicago with her two wonderful daughters. Find out more about her at caralockwood.com, friend her on Facebook, Facebook.com/authorcaralockwood, or follow her on Twitter, @caralockwood.

Also By Cara Lockwood

Island of Second Chances

Shelter in the Tropics The Big Break Her Hawaiian Homecoming

Boys and Toys

Texting Under the Influence

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Practicing Parenthood

Cara Lockwood

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08290-7

PRACTICING PARENTHOOD

© 2018 Cara Lockwood

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

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“So? It’s mine, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Madison sighed. She braced herself for the lecture.

“That’s what I thought,” Collin said, looking eager...and even...excited? That took her by surprise. She hadn’t expected him to want the baby. He’d been all hands and mouth that one night they spent together, but then the next day, it was as if she didn’t exist. Now he liked the idea of her carrying his baby? Maybe she’d been wrong about him. Maybe he wasn’t the hard-nosed prosecutor without a heart.

He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a black velvet box. He put down his backpack on the terra-cotta stone tiles of the foyer, and then turned to her.

“If it’s mine, then we need to do this.” He flipped open the black box lid, revealing a brilliant solitaire diamond that caught the sunlight and sparkled like fire. Suddenly, all coherent thought fled her mind.

Collin Baptista was asking her to marry him.

Dear Reader,

I’m excited to share with you my new book, Practicing Parenthood, a story about how sometimes the best way to learn how to love is to dive in, headfirst.

After Collin Baptista has a night of fiery passion with opposing counsel Madison Reddy, neither believe it’s a relationship with legs. But then Madison discovers she’s pregnant, and Collin surprises her by proposing. Madison, however, has no intention of getting married just to get married. Instead, she heads to her uncle’s beach house on beautiful North Captiva, Florida.

Collin follows and he and Madison find a stray puppy on the island and adopt him, and in the process discover they have a long way to go to learn to be parents.

I recently adopted a goldendoodle (half poodle, half golden retriever) myself that my daughters named Teddy as well (since he, too, looks like a teddy bear), and so I knew firsthand the difficulties of having a puppy, and it reminded me of how similar puppies and babies can be. You can’t turn your back on either one for a minute!