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was ever going to be free to find love, she had to.

      “Maggie, I didn’t need to leave this town to find what I needed most in life. I got a little screwed up along the way, but when you walked back into my life, you gave me clarity again. You gave me a daughter. You gave me your love. Without wanting anything in return.”

      She held her breath. But she did want something in return. She wanted his love more than she wanted her next breath.

      “I suck at this without PowerPoint.” He smiled as he closed the distance between them, without touching her.

      “I can’t.” Tears welled in her eyes. “I can’t move to New York. If I thought it was the best thing for Amber, I would do it in a heartbeat, but I would die every day, knowing you don’t love me.”

      His thumb caught her tear. “See, I’m making a mess of this. Amber told me the other day about how much fun she had with her friends. How they’d spent the afternoon picking flowers. I can’t imagine taking that away from her. Or from you.”

      Maggie drew in a breath of air, aware of the press of her chest against his. “Then why are you here?”

      He took her hands. “Because this is where I belong, Maggie. You are where I belong. All this time I thought I needed to be number one, but the only one I need to be number one for is you, Maggie Brown.”

      “What?” Tears raced down her cheeks, even as her heart lifted in her chest.

      “I thought that by you moving to New York I would have everything, but I would have fallen into the same patterns. Work too much and not stop to really listen to you and Amber. My whole world there centered on work and getting to the next level.”

      “What are you trying to say?”

      “You sacrificed your college for your mother and Amber. Sam took care of Luke and almost sacrificed the farm to help you out. I’ve done nothing to prove to you that I love you and want to be with you.” He took her hands in his.

      Her heart raced. “How do you know you love me and not just the idea of a family?”

      He smiled and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “I’ve been a fool. Afraid to love, afraid to have a family need me. You are the one who soothed me when things felt out of control. You are the one who gave me strength when I needed it. Before Amber was even in the picture, I needed you. Even before I knew the real Maggie Brown. Something about you has always drawn me.

      “I love you with all my heart. I want us to be a family. I don’t need New York as long as I have you and Amber. I want to show you how much I love you for the rest of my life. Right here in Tawnee Valley. My company is starting a new project and I’ve asked to take lead. We’re building a factory here. If I have to stay at Sam’s and come to your house every day to ask you if you’ll marry me, I will.”

      Tears welled in her eyes and choked her throat. Never in her life had she imagined he would love her.

      “I hope those are tears of happiness. I love you, Maggie Brown. I want to marry you. If I have to beg, I will.” He started to drop to his knee, but she caught his elbow.

      She drew in a deep breath and blinked rapidly to help the tears go away. “All I ever wanted was your love. If I thought you loved me, I would have moved to New York in a heartbeat.”

      “Now you don’t have to.” He kissed her. “Say you’ll marry me, Maggie. That we’ll live here in Tawnee Valley and grow old together.”

      Looking into his beautiful blue eyes, Maggie knew she was lost and found at the same time. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

      Her heart felt as if it was going to burst from happiness as he gathered her in his arms.

       Special Deliveries: A Baby With Her Best Friend

       Rumour Has It

       Maureen Child

       The Secret in His Heart

       Caroline Anderson

       A Baby Between Friends

       Kathie DeNosky

       Rumour Has It

       Maureen Child

       Amanda would not be scared off by a big, gorgeous sheriff with eyes as cold as a winter wind.

      “If you think you’re worrying me, you’re wrong,” she said.

      Nathan stared at her. “I don’t want you worried. I don’t want you at all.”

      Direct hit, she thought as an icy fist slammed into her chest and squeezed her heart. But she wouldn’t let him see it. “I don’t want you, either, Nathan. I’m not that young girl anymore, dazzled because Nathan Battle noticed her—”

      He grabbed her, yanked her close and kissed her with a fierce desperation that was fueled by desire and anger, all twisted up together. She could feel it in him as she felt it in herself. Past and present tangled together and memories as thick as honey on a winter morning.

      But those memories were swamped by all of the new sensations coursing through her.

       To Rosemary Rangel EstradaWe really miss you, neighbour!

      MAUREEN CHILD writes for the Harlequin Desire line and can’t imagine a better job.

      A seven-time fnalist for a prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA^® Award, Maureen is an author of more than one hundred romance novels. Her books regularly appear on bestseller lists and have won several awards, including a Prism Award, a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence and a Golden Quill Award. She is a native Californian but has recently moved to the mountains of Utah.

      To Rosemary Rangel Estrada

      We really miss you, neighbor!

       One

      Amanda Altman’s back in town.

      It was all anyone could talk about and Nathan Battle was getting pretty damn sick of it. Nothing he hated more than being at the center of a gossip tornado. He’d already lived through it once, years ago. Of course, he’d escaped the worst of it by moving to Houston and burying himself in the police academy and then his job.

      Wouldn’t work this time. He’d built his place here. He wasn’t going anywhere. Mostly because Nathan Battle didn’t run. So he’d just have to ride this mess out until the town found something new to chew on.

      But that was life in Royal, Texas. A town too small to mind its own business and too big to have to repeat the same gossip over and over again.

      Even here, he thought, in the hallowed halls of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, Nathan couldn’t escape the talk—or the speculation. Not even from his best friend.

      “So, Nathan,” Chance asked with a knowing grin, “you see Amanda yet?”

      Nathan looked at the man sitting opposite him. Chance McDaniel owned McDaniel’s Acres, a working dude ranch and hotel just south of town. The man had built the place from the ground up on property he’d inherited from his family, and he’d done a hell of a job.

      Chance’s

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