One last chance
Unemployed and with no place to live, Stephanie Cartwright answers an online classified ad. The nanny job in small-town Serendipity, Texas, will give her a chance to start over. And sheâll be helping out teacher Drew Spencer, who desperately needs someone to watch his three-year-old twin boys. He knows better than anyone that his boys can be a handfulâso he makes the offer on a short-term basis. Soon this big-city girl is charming both troublesome twinsâand their handsome country dad. But can this temporary bond turn into a permanent promise?
âNice to have a woman in the house,â Drewâs father commented, loud enough for the neighbors in the next county to hear.
Drew cringed. Did the old man even think about how Stephanie might feel when he put her on the spot that way?
She didnât seem to have a problem with it. She chuckled and flipped the last pancake onto a plate. âIâm certainly outnumbered here, girls to boys,â she said, setting the platter of pancakes in the middle of the circular oak table and tickling Matty on the ear.
The boy squealed and wiggled.
âMe, too,â Jamey insisted.
Stephanie moved around the table and leaned around Drew so she could tickle both boys at once. âItâs a good thing I have two hands.â
Drew closed his eyes, trying not to breathe, because if he did, the oriental scent of her perfume was going to get to him. He was sure of it. Heâd always been a sucker for orchids and jasmineâ¦and now, beautiful Stephanie, whom his boys liked as much as he did.
DEB KASTNER
lives and writes in colorful Colorado with the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains for inspiration. She loves writing for Love Inspired Books, where she can write about her two favorite thingsâfaith and love. Her characters range from upbeat and humorous to (her favorite) dark and broody heroes. Her plots fall anywhere in between, from a playful romp to the deeply emotional. Debâs books have been twice nominated for the RT Book Reviews Reviewersâ Choice Award for Best Book of the Year for Love Inspired. Deb and her husband share their home with their two youngest daughters. Deb is thrilled about the newest member of the familyâher first granddaughter, Isabella. What fun to be a granny! Deb loves to hear from her readers. You can contact her by email at [email protected], or on her MySpace or Facebook pages.
âFor I know the plans I have for you,â declares the Lord, âplans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.â
âJeremiah 29:11
As always, to my familyâ
Joe, Annie, Kimberly, Katie, Isabella and Anthony. Without your support, there wouldnât be a book.
Prologue
PARENTS OF PRESCHOOLERS ONLINE COMMUNITY
CLASSIFIED ADS
WANTED: Nanny for three-year-old twin boys. Two-month temporary live-in position includes stipend, room and board. Assistance in relocation to Serendipity, Texas, provided. Mandatory two yearsâ experience with references. Please respond with resume and salary requirements.
Chapter One
Stephanie Cartwright would have described the Texas prairie in early spring in two words: dry and barren. Endless miles of dirt, rolling hills of dry grass and dark, skeletal weeds, stretching out as far as the eye could see.
The land was a mirror of her heart. Or maybe it was her frame of mind that was coloring the landscape in dreary shades of gray. As if that wasnât enough, she exited her subcompact rental car to find her nostrils angrily assaulted by a strange, pungent odorâno doubt the scent of cows or horses or other livestock.
Did it smell like this all the time? She hoped it was just the direction of the wind adding to the eye-watering stench in the air, because for better or for worse, Serendipity, Texas, was where sheâd be living for the next couple of months. As far away from the east coastâand her ex-boyfriendâas she could get. Hidden from the world in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.
And way, way out of her comfort zone.
But it wasnât as if she could turn around and go back home. There was no home to go back to. Trying not to breathe too deeply, she clenched her fists and fought for control as her feelings once again vacillated between devastation and anger. At any given moment since sheâd boarded the plane for Texas, she had struggled with one of those emotions, sometimes both at the same time.
Her eyes widened as a large, square-headed and very intimidating dog wandered up and situated himself on the wood-planked porch steps to the house where her new employer, Drew Spencer, presumably waited.
Peachy. Another obstacle. Just what she needed⦠.
Stephanie was a nanny. Sheâd expected to be greeted by children, not canines. She had little experience with animals and had never even owned a pet.