âYou can leave your car here for us,â Wendy said.
âMy car?â
âYes, your car.â She chuckled at the look on Lukeâs face. âThis way Iâll have something to do the grocery shopping inâ¦.â
âYouâll use my car to do the shopping?â Luke was practically gibbering.
âAnd then I know youâll come back,â Wendy ended serenely. âThat isâif you still want me to look after your baby?â
She raised her eyebrows and waited. He glared at her.
âWhat kind of a bargain is this?â His voice was rising through the roof.
âItâs a baby bargain,â she told him.
Families in the making!
In the orphanage of a small Australian seaside town called Bay Beach, there are little children desperately in need of love. Some of them have no parents, some are simply unwantedâbut each child dreams about having their own family somedayâ¦.
The answer to their dreams can also be found in Bay Beach! Couples who are destined for each otherâeven if they donât know it yetâare brought together by love for these tiny children. Can they find true love themselvesâand finally become a real family?
Look out for the next PARENTS WANTED story
by Marion Lennox coming soon in Harlequin Romance>®.
PEOPLE didnât arrive at Bay Beach Orphanage driving fortunes on wheels. At least, they didnât until now.
Wendy Maher cared for orphans, or for young children from broken homes with no money. Foster-parents tended to spend more on kids than on cars, and orphanage staff did the same.
Therefore Wendy shouldnât even recognise this sports carâa gorgeous deep green Aston Martin DB7 Vantage Volanteâmuch less know its worth. She watched the low-slung car purr into her driveway, and the fact that she could guess almost exactly what it cost was enough to make her blood boil.
Just as it always had at such wasteâ¦
She rose stiffly to her feet. A flutter of childâs clothes tumbled around her feet, but her attention was no longer on packing. Adam would have killed for a car like this, she thought bleakly. Adamâwhose love for expensive cars and fast driving had destroyed more than just himselfâ¦
Good grief! What was she doing? She hauled herself back to the present with a jagged wrench. Thinking of Adam still led to heartbreak. She had better things to be thinking of than him.
Likeâwhat on earth was this car doing here? Her Homeâone of a series of Homes making up Bay Beach Orphanageâwas on a dead-end road. Maybe the driver had turned in by mistake.
âItâll be someone asking for directions,â she told Gabbie. Wendyâs five-year-old foster-daughter was also distracted from packing and was now staring out the window at the amazing car. Woman and child gazed at the car together. Then, as he emerged, they gazed at the driver.
The driver was certainly worth a good, long look. He seemed three or four years older than Wendyâs twenty-eight yearsâand he was drop-dead gorgeous! His blond-brown hair was attractively tousled and nicely sun-bleached. He was six feet tall, or maybe a little more. His skin was nicely tanned; he was expensively but casually dressed in cream moleskin trousers and an open-necked, quality linen shirt, and he was wearing the most superb leather jacket.
Orâ¦it was superb if you were into statements of wealth, Wendy thought crossly. Which she wasnât! This man and his car looked like something out of Vogue magazine. The cost of the jacket alone would pay more than a month of Wendyâs future rent, and the thought made her glower as he strode toward her front door.
Maybe she could charge him to tell him where to go?
The idea made her smile for the first time that day. She touched Gabrielleâs flaming curls in a gesture of reassurance, and then crossed to the hall.
âHello,â she said, swinging the door wide and pinning a smile of greeting on her face that she didnât feel like giving. âWhat can I do for you?â
âI hope you can relieve me of a responsibility,â he answered. âIs this the place where you leave babies?â
Silence.
Wendy stared. The man was smiling like a cover model, he was asking if he could leave a baby and he was talking as if he was delivering a parcel! His deep green eyes were twinkling engagingly, and his wide mouth was curved into a matching grin. He looked like a man used to getting his own way, Wendy thought. He had a wonderful smileâa smile to make you do things you had no intention of doingâand it made Wendy back a couple of steps in immediate mistrust.
âI beg your pardon?â she said blankly.
âThey told me this was an orphanage,â His smile slipped a little, unsure. âThe sign outsideâ¦it says Bay Beach Childrenâs Home.â
He was right. As if to emphasise his point, Gabbie now appeared at Wendyâs side. The little girl clung silently to Wendyâs skirt, put her thumb firmly in her mouth and stared.