Charlotte Maclay - Only Bachelors Need Apply

Cover Page

Excerpt “I’m a man, Joanna. A guy who’d someday like to have a wife and family of his own.” His lips brushed hers in a heated caress, as if to emphasize his point. She leaned into his kiss. Dimly she realized she shouldn’t be doing this. They had no future together. To encourage him was wrong. For the past ten years she’d tried to remain resolute in accepting the cards fate had dealt her. Now was not the time to weaken. “I’ve got to go,” she whispered against his lips. “Sure. I understand.” He released her slowly, and she ached with the futile desire that he never would do so…

Dear Reader Dear Reader , This month, Silhouette Romance has six irresistible, emotional and heartwarming love stories for you, starting with our FABULOUS FATHERS title, Wanted: One Son by Laurie Paige. Deputy sheriff Nick Dorelli had watched the woman he loved marry another and have that man’s child. But now, mother and child need Nick. Next is The Bride Price by bestselling author Suzanne Carey. Kyra Martin has fuzzy memories of having just married her Navajo ex-fiancd in a traditional wedding ceremony. And when she discovers she’s expecting his child, she knows her dream was not only real…but had mysteriously come true! We also have two not-to-be missed new miniseries starting this month, beginning with Miss Prim’s Untamable Cowboy, book I of THE BRUBAKER BRIDES by Carolyn Zane. A prim image consultant tries to tame a very masculine working-class wrangler into the true Texas millionaire tycoon he really is. Good luck, Miss Prim! In Only Bachelors Need Apply by Charlotte Maclay, a manshy woman’s handsome new neighbor has some secrets that will make her the happiest woman in the world, and in The Tycoon and the Townie by Elizabeth Lane, a struggling waitress from the wrong side of the tracks is romanced by a handsome, wealthy bachelor. Finally, our other new miniseries, ROYAL WEDDINGS by Lisa Kaye Laurel. The lovely caretaker of a royal castle finds herself a prince’s bride-to-be during a ball…with high hopes for happily ever after in The Prince’s Bride. I hope you enjoy all six of Silhouette Romance’s terrific novels this month…and every month. Regards, Melissa Senate, Senior Editor Please address questions and book requests to: Silhouette Reader Service U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269 Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

Title Page Only Bachelors Need Apply Charlotte Maclay www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dedication Special thanks to Tom, for his mountain biking expertise, and to Chuck, as always, for his technical advice.

About the Author CHARLOTTE MACLAY has always enjoyed putting words on paper. Until recently, most of these words have been nonfiction, including a weekly newspaper column, which has recruited nearly twenty thousand volunteers in the past twenty years for some four hundred different local nonprofit organizations. When she is not urging people to get involved in their community, Charlotte divides her time among writing, volunteering for her favorite organizations (including Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America), trying not to mother two married daughters and sharing her life in Southern California with her own special hero, Chuck.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

Copyright

His lips brushed hers in a heated caress, as if to emphasize his point.

She leaned into his kiss. Dimly she realized she shouldn’t be doing this. They had no future together. To encourage him was wrong.

For the past ten years she’d tried to remain resolute in accepting the cards fate had dealt her. Now was not the time to weaken.

“I’ve got to go,” she whispered against his lips.

“Sure. I understand.”

He released her slowly, and she ached with the futile desire that he never would do so…

Dear Reader,

This month, Silhouette Romance has six irresistible, emotional and heartwarming love stories for you, starting with our FABULOUS FATHERS title, Wanted: One Son by Laurie Paige. Deputy sheriff Nick Dorelli had watched the woman he loved marry another and have that man’s child. But now, mother and child need Nick. Next is The Bride Price by bestselling author Suzanne Carey. Kyra Martin has fuzzy memories of having just married her Navajo ex-fiancd in a traditional wedding ceremony. And when she discovers she’s expecting his child, she knows her dream was not only real…but had mysteriously come true! We also have two not-to-be missed new miniseries starting this month, beginning with Miss Prim’s Untamable Cowboy, book I of THE BRUBAKER BRIDES by Carolyn Zane. A prim image consultant tries to tame a very masculine working-class wrangler into the true Texas millionaire tycoon he really is. Good luck, Miss Prim!

In Only Bachelors Need Apply by Charlotte Maclay, a manshy woman’s handsome new neighbor has some secrets that will make her the happiest woman in the world, and in The Tycoon and the Townie by Elizabeth Lane, a struggling waitress from the wrong side of the tracks is romanced by a handsome, wealthy bachelor. Finally, our other new miniseries, ROYAL WEDDINGS by Lisa Kaye Laurel. The lovely caretaker of a royal castle finds herself a prince’s bride-to-be during a ball…with high hopes for happily ever after in The Prince’s Bride.

I hope you enjoy all six of Silhouette Romance’s terrific novels this month…and every month.

Regards,

Melissa Senate,

Senior Editor

Please address questions and book requests to:

Silhouette Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Special thanks to Tom, for his mountain biking

expertise, and to Chuck, as always, for his

technical advice.

CHARLOTTE MACLAY

has always enjoyed putting words on paper. Until recently, most of these words have been nonfiction, including a weekly newspaper column, which has recruited nearly twenty thousand volunteers in the past twenty years for some four hundred different local nonprofit organizations.

When she is not urging people to get involved in their community, Charlotte divides her time among writing, volunteering for her favorite organizations (including Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America), trying not to mother two married daughters and sharing her life in Southern California with her own special hero, Chuck.

“He had the nerve, the absolute gall, to tell me I need a husband!” With a sense of utter frustration, Joanna Greer tossed her purse onto the kitchen table.

Turning from her task of watering the jungle of plants on the windowsill, Agnes Greer asked her daughter, “Who told you that, dear?” She smiled benignly as the water continued to pour out of the copper watering can…onto the floor.

Joanna lifted the spout. “The bank manager when he turned down my loan request, that’s who.”

“Oh, my, that is too bad.”

Tearing off a string of paper towels, Joanna knelt to mop up the spilled water. Given her mother’s tendency to be easily distracted, this was a minor accident. “Too bad? It’s disastrous. It’s already the middle of September. The rains will start in November, and the rental property I thought would turn Dad’s insurance money into a decent income for us has got roof rot. The first good storm and it’s likely to fall in.” Leaving her with a huge mortgage on a small office building that she wouldn’t be able to rent.

“Maybe if you talk with the bank again, they’ll change their mind. Wally Petersen has always seemed like such a nice man.”

“The bank manager you’re so fond of is a leftover from the eighteenth century. They can’t make marriage a criteria for getting a bank loan. It’s got to be against the law.”

Agnes brightened considerably. “But marriage would be a lovely idea, don’t you think?”

“Mother, I don’t need a husband. And certainly not a husband for the sole reason of qualifying for a loan.”

“Husbands are nice for other reasons, dear. You really should find yourself a good man who could be a father to Tyler—”

“It seems to me we’ve had this conversation before, Mother. Tyler is getting along just fine, thank you. And so am I.” Joanna certainly didn’t want to saddle any man with the responsibility for her admittedly eccentric mother, or with the burden of raising a ten-year-old son he hadn’t fathered.

Not that there were many eligible men in the small Sierra-foothills town of Twain Harte. And most of those who were unmarried wore big belt buckles, hadn’t read a book or newspaper since they dropped out of high school and drove pickups with gun racks across the back window. Hardly Joanna’s idea of the perfect companion. She’d worked too hard getting her teaching credentials to ignore the importance of an education.

She dropped the soggy paper towels into a plastic wastebasket under the sink. “I was going to run an ad for the rental space this weekend but I’ve got to go to a teachers-training session in Sacramento on Monday and Tuesday. I’d hate not being here if we get any calls.”

“I could take care of them, dear.”

Joanna gauged her mother’s lucidity. Today was one of her purple days—she wore a purple blouse, purple flowered skirt and a matching purple turban. The gray hair peeking out from beneath the turban had a distinctly purple tinge. Joanna sighed. Her mother seemed quite within her normal range.

“If you’re sure,” Joanna agreed hesitantly. In order to have any bargaining power at all with the bank, she needed to get the three empty offices and oversize garage rented and producing income. Then she would have another talk with Wally Petersen in the hope of getting the loan she so desperately needed.

Placing the watering can on the counter, Agnes said reassuringly, “Leave it to me, dear. Of course I’ll let you handle the final negotiations when the time comes. Meanwhile, I can answer their questions over the phone and tell them what a fine building it is. Right on the highway. A prime business location.”

Handy to the landlord, too, since it was only a half block from Joanna’s house.

She glanced at her watch. As usual, she was running late to pick up Tyler from Pop Warner football practice. “Okay, if you’re sure.” From her purse she retrieved a piece of paper. “Here’s the ad I want to run. Could you call the paper for me?”

“I’d be happy to, dear. I may even add a few words of my own—a little something to encourage more interest in the property.”

“No, Mother. Please don’t. Just the way I’ve written it will be fine.”

Joanna didn’t at all care for the Cheshire-cat grin that stole over her mother’s face. But Tyler was waiting. The husband and wife co-coaching her son’s team got very upset with parents who weren’t prompt, and they took their irritation out on the boys. Or maybe it was just another excuse for the couple to argue. Too bad no other parents had volunteered to help out the team.