If the Stick Turns Pink.... Carla Cassidy

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      “Well, we did it.”

      “We did half of it,” Melanie replied, and to her surprise felt the warmth of a blush stealing over her cheeks. “I have now officially saved you from the claws of the crown-crazed single women of Foxrun. Now all you have to do is fulfill your end of our bargain.”

      “You want me to get you pregnant right here? Right now?” Bailey said.

      Although he was teasing her, she saw the slight tension in his eyes, felt it radiating from him. Or was it that she was feeling tense about the wedding night to come?

      It was all a game of pretend, Melanie once again reminded herself. That was all it could ever be.

      Dear Reader,

      In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we have some wonderful stories for you this February from Silhouette Romance to guarantee that every day is filled with love and tenderness.

      DeAnna Talcott puts a fresh spin on the tale of Cupid, who finally meets her match in Cupid Jones Gets Married (#1646), the latest in the popular SOULMATES series. And Carla Cassidy has been working overtime with her incredibly innovative, incredibly fun duo, What if I’m Pregnant…? (#1644) and If the Stick Turns Pink… (#1645), about the promise of love a baby could bring to two special couples!

      Then Elizabeth Harbison takes us on a fairy-tale adventure in Princess Takes a Holiday (#1643). A glamour-weary royal who hides her identity meets the man of her dreams when her car breaks down in a small North Carolina town. In Dude Ranch Bride (#1642), Madeline Baker brings us strong, sexy Lakota Ethan Stormwalker, whose ex-flame shows up at his ranch in a wedding gown—without a groom! And in Donna Clayton’s Thunder in the Night (#1647), the third in THE THUNDER CLAN family saga, a single act of kindness changes Conner Thunder’s life forever….

      Be sure to come back next month for more emotion-filled love stories from Silhouette Romance. Happy reading!

      Mary-Theresa Hussey

      Senior Editor

      If the Stick Turns Pink…

      Carla Cassidy

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

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      To Darlene, the daughter of my heart.

      Thank you for the joy you bring to my life.

      CARLA CASSIDY

      is an award-winning author who has written over fifty books for Silhouette. In 1995, she won Best Silhouette Romance from Romantic Times for Anything for Danny. In 1998, she also won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from Romantic Times.

      Contents

      Prologue

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Prologue

      Be careful what you wish for…it just might come true. The old adage whirled through Melanie Jenkins’s mind as, with trembling fingers, she removed the pregnancy test from the drugstore sack.

      Six weeks ago she had made a wish and prayed that she’d get pregnant and have a baby. With no romance in her life and no Mr. Right on the horizon, she’d come up with a plan to ensure that she would attain her wish.

      Once she took the home-pregnancy test, she’d know within three minutes if her wish had been granted. The only problem was that she was no longer certain she wanted her wish to come true.

      If she was pregnant, then she lost the man she loved. If she wasn’t pregnant, she got to continue to live with the man she loved but wouldn’t have her dream of a baby.

      She took the test instrument out of the package, wishing she could go back and change all the rules. But she couldn’t. She was the one who had set the rules, and it wasn’t fair to change them now, after the fact.

      So, what did she wish now? It didn’t seem to matter. No matter what the results of the test revealed, ultimately she’d lose something.

      “Well,” she muttered to herself, “let’s see if the stick turns pink….”

      Chapter One

      Melanie Watters would never have thought about it had she not seen him naked. “Him” was Bailey Jenkins, her very best friend and confidant.

      Every day for the past few weeks she and Bailey had met at his pond after work for a late-afternoon swim. Today she was earlier than usual. There had been no school that day. Instead, the day had been scheduled for parent-teacher appointments. By two o’ clock Melanie had met with all her little students’ parents, and her work was finished until later in the evening.

      She’d changed into her bathing suit in the school rest room, then had driven directly to Bailey’s.

      His familiar maroon pickup truck was parked in front of his attractive white ranch house, but instead of going to the house, she headed for his office in the barn.

      As the only veterinarian in the small town of Foxrun, Bailey could usually be found in the barn either sitting at his computer doing paperwork or caring for an animal who’d been brought in to him.

      He wasn’t there, nor was he in the house, so she headed down the lane toward the pasture and the pond that had for the past several weeks provided cool relief against the unusual heat of early summer.

      As she drew closer to the pond, she heard the sound of splashing, but the thick blackberry bushes directly in front of her obscured her view of the water.

      She worked her way around the blackberry bushes and froze as Bailey came into view. He stood on the end of a small, wooden pier. His back was to her and it was obvious he’d been skinny-dipping.

      The late-afternoon sun played on his broad, tanned shoulders and slim waist and emphasized the musculature of his buttocks and legs. Melanie gasped and ducked back behind the bushes, her heart pounding a strange rhythm in her chest.

      She’d always known, someplace in the back of her mind, that Bailey had a decent physique, but she’d never realized quite how utterly fine it was.

      “Stop it,” she commanded