Harlequin Heartwarming April 2018 Box Set
Page 23
After a quick outfit change, security led them down to the meet-and-greet room, where Gretchen waited with the fans. Being a traveler at heart, she hadn’t been able to resist the temptation to join them on their cross-country trek. She refused to babysit anything other than the candy bar, but Sawyer had caught her making silly faces at John to get a laugh more than once.
As for mother and son, things were actually going better than expected. Sawyer didn’t always like to admit it, but he and Gretchen had quite a bit in common. They had similar taste in music and a love for zombie television shows. They both had contagious laughs and knew how to put together some pretty impressive pranks while on tour together.
Meet and greets were less stressful these days. People were always friendly. Piper and Sawyer didn’t have to hide anything or lie about their feelings. It was all sunshine and rainbows.
During Sawyer’s set, Piper made an appearance to sing “You Don’t Need Me” with him. She sang it like she meant it but was much happier knowing that song didn’t represent who they were to each other anymore. It would be something they’d always have to sing since it was their first hit and it was what had brought them together—and it was part of the reason little John was hanging out backstage with his granddaddy.
The song that Piper would happily sing every show for the rest of her life was the one she and Sawyer had written for John, for each other. That song was how they closed each show. Just her and Sawyer onstage with a slideshow of pictures running behind them on the big screens.
“How y’all doing tonight?” Piper asked the crowd in Dallas, Texas, for the last time that evening. “Did you have a good time?”
The lights shone on the crowd, who responded with their loudest screams.
“Well, we’ve got one more song for you tonight. This song is near and dear to my heart, so I have to bring a little piece of my heart out onstage with me. Can y’all welcome back my handsome husband, Sawyer Stratton?”
The crowd erupted once again. Sawyer walked out with his guitar strapped to his back and his white cowboy hat on his head. There was nothing sexier than that boy and his hat and guitar.
“So, everybody knows this man is the love of my life, but there’s another little man who’s the other half of my heart.” On the screen behind her, they put up a picture of John smiling from ear to ear.
Again, the crowd went wild. Piper could guarantee that if someone needed a stadium of mostly women and young girls to lose their minds, all they had to do was show them cute boys in cowboy hats and babies with dimples. It was a proved fact in Piper’s world.
“I am the luckiest lady in the whole wide world. I have the love of a good man, a sweet baby who calls me Mama, and I have all of you. Thank you for spending the evening with me. Let’s do it again real soon. This song is called ‘For the Love of a Boy.’”
* * * * *
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Heartwarming title.
You’ve got to have heart…. Harlequin Heartwarming celebrates wholesome, heartfelt relationships imbued with the traditional values so important to you: home, family, community and love.
Enjoy four new stories from Harlequin Heartwarming every month!
Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!
Other ways to keep in touch:
Harlequin.com/newsletters
Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
HarlequinBlog.com
Join Harlequin My Rewards and reward the book lover in you!
Earn points for every Harlequin print and ebook you buy, wherever and whenever you shop.
Turn your points into FREE BOOKS of your choice
OR
EXCLUSIVE GIFTS from your favorite authors or series.
Click here to join for FREE
Or visit us online to register at
www.HarlequinMyRewards.com
Harlequin My Rewards is a free program (no fees) without any commitments or obligations.
ISBN-13: 9781488085000
Love Songs and Lullabies
Copyright © 2018 by Amy Vastine
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 22 Adelaide St. West, 40th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com
She’s the most unconventional woman he’ll ever meet…
and the cure for a perennial bachelor?
Raised by her healer grandfather, former army medic Ally Mowak knows her alternative approach to traditional medicine puts her at odds with most of her Alaskan town. That includes Tag James, the rugged transport pilot with the sprawling family and political ambitions. Ally couldn’t be more wrong for the aspiring senator. Then why does everything feel so right when they’re together?
“Tell me how you really feel,” she asked.
It took a moment for Ally’s words to compute. Bees were swarming through his thoughts. Slowly, Tag tuned out the buzzing and focused on her lazy-lidded eyes and swollen lips.
Ally. So, so beautiful.
Wayward strands of her silky black hair stirred in the breeze. She looked thoroughly…kissed. What had he done? A sick feeling rushed in, dousing the heat that had been muddling his brain only seconds before.
“Ally, we…” We what? Not we, I. What had he done here? What could he do? Apologize? She’d kissed him, yes, but he’d let her. He’d more than let her; he’d kissed her back without even an ounce of restraint and precious little self-control. And that wasn’t like him. He’d never lost his mind quite like this before…
And she made him feel things he’d never felt before.
Dear Reader,
First of all, thank you for reading my books and reaching out in emails, on social media and through your reviews to let me know how much you enjoy them. I also love when you contact me asking if and when a certain character might be getting his or her own happy-ever-after.
I never imagined when I began this writing journey in Rankins, Alaska, that Tag James’s story would become the most requested. But with each book, I fell a little more in love with him right along with so many of you. So I knew when it was time to tell Tag’s story that he was going to have to fall for someone really special. I also knew that he was going to have to be knocked off his feet. Because he’s awesome, of course. But also because he’s a thirty-eight-year-old bachelor who’s a bit set in his ways. Bachelorhood is beginning to feel like an affliction for him. I think Ally Mowak is the perfect remedy. I hope you do, too.
You can reach me by visiting my website, carolrossauthor.com. Or email me at carol@carolrossauthor.com. Or find me on Facebook, Facebook.com/carolrossauthor, Twitter, @_carolross, and Instagram, carolross_.
Carol
Bachelor Remedy
Carol Ross
Carol Ross lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two dogs.
She is a graduate of Washington State University. When not writing, or thinking about writing, she enjoys reading, running, hiking, skiing, traveling and making plans for the next adventure to subject her sometimes-reluctant but always fun-loving family to. Carol can be contacted at carolrossauthor.com.
Books by Carol Ross
Harlequin Heartwarming
Summer at the Shore
Christmas at the Cove
Seasons of Alaska
A Family Like Hannah’s
If Not for a Bee
A Case for Forgiveness
Mountains Apart
Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!
Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards
http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010002
For Janet.
Thank you. Without you, no one would even know it was me who’d written this book.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER ONE
“HOW DOES IT feel to be dirt free?”
“Honestly?” Tag James gave his cousin Bering a sober look and whooshed out a breath. “I totally lucked out. Can’t believe that private investigator didn’t find out about the insider trading or the body buried in my backyard. What an amateur.”
Bering laughed. “I know. The background check seems a little over the top to me, too, but you know Jack.”
“Jack” was United States Senator Marsh, longtime client and friend of Bering’s, who was helping them prepare for Tag’s future political run.
“Yes, I do. ‘Find the dirt and clean it up before your opponent finds it first and smears it all over you.’ I believe that’s the quote?”
“That’s it,” Bering agreed. “Senator James…” the snap of the metal tape measure retracting in his hand was like a loud punctuation mark “…has such a nice ring to it.” Wielding a pencil in his other hand, he drew a tiny line on the freshly painted lavender-colored wall in his daughter’s bedroom.
“It certainly does,” Tag agreed. Despite his outward nonchalance, the topic always caused a twinge of nerves. Plenty of time, he reminded himself, before he needed to start worrying about it. Lots of time to prepare.
Wordlessly, they each took an end of a bookcase and adjusted it to line up with the pencil marks and the units they’d already installed. Tag wound the screws through the brackets, securing the shelving against the wall. Neither earthquake nor climbing toddler would bring it down now. “Violet proofing,” Bering’s wife, Emily, called it, although with baby Brady walking now, Tag figured she would soon have to broaden the term.
He stepped back and eyed his cousin. “And you’re sure you don’t want that senator title for yourself?”
“Ha. Positive. We’ve had this conversation, my friend, and you and I both know I’d be no good as a politician.”
Tag couldn’t dispute that fact. His cousin and best friend wasn’t exactly the most diplomatic person in the world. Besides, it was Tag’s turn. Bering had saved the town of Rankins once from a proposed massive oil-development project. He’d formed and led the coalition against Cam-Field Oil & Mineral, and with the backing of Senator Marsh, they’d prevailed.
Bering had scored the bonus of a lifetime by meeting his now-wife, Emily, during the antidevelopment campaign. As relieved as they’d all been at the project’s outcome, the experience had shown just how vulnerable Rankins was. Tag, Bering, their family and friends, virtually the entire area relied on the pristine natural beauty of the Opal River Valley in some respect for their livelihoods. His winning a seat in the state senate would provide long-term security for them all. And they’d agreed, Tag was more suited to political life.
“Anyway,” Bering said, bracing his big hands on a shelf to test its sturdiness. “Jack says you’re on the right track, doing everything you need to be doing. Just stay the course, keep your nose clean and we’ll be ready.”
“Got it. Stay out of the dirt.”
“Although he did mention one small thing.”
“What’s that?”
Bering let out a chuckle and began stacking kids’ books on the bottom shelf. “He said it could be helpful if Rankins’s most eligible bachelor was to find a wife and maybe start a family.”
Tag felt a familiar invisible hand reach inside his rib cage and give his heart a painful squeeze. This chest pinch had been happening more and more lately when the subject of parenthood came up, which was all too frequently now that Shay and Hannah, two of his four sisters, were married, as were his two closest cousins, Bering and his sister Janie. There were eight cousins in his generation on the James side of the family, and at thirty-eight, he was the oldest of them all.
The family bachelor. Everybody’s cool and fun uncle, cousin, brother, friend. The childless bachelor. The one everyone could count on. And, somehow, somewhere along the way, he’d earned the moniker of the town’s most eligible bachelor. Lately this unintentional status had begun to bother him. Tag loved kids. He’d always wanted a family, had just assumed it would happen one day. He’d meet someone and settle down and have kids. That’s the way it was done.
He’d met plenty of someones, all right. Problem was, either they weren’t quite right, or he wasn’t, or logistics like work schedules and geography made a relationship too difficult. Or a combination of these resulted in the woman cheating on him. Okay, maybe that one was just Kendall, his last girlfriend.
“I’ll get right on that,” he replied drily.
Bering shot him a hopeful glance. “If you mean it, Jack has someone he’d like to fix you up with.”
“No, thanks. No way.”
“Why not?”
“Seriously? You have no recollection of life pre-Emily, do you? Dating is bad enough. Blind dating is…brutal. I try not to be offended by the matches you people think will work out for me. Being single should not be the only criterion involved. A couple of weeks ago, Shay set me up with this uptight mortgage broker from Glacier City who hates sports and is afraid to fly.”
Bering grimaced. “I see your point. But until you start blind dating in the women’s professional basketball league you aren’t going to find a woman who can beat you at basketball. You do know that, right? You might need to cross that off your list.”
Tag laughed. “Hey, I’ll settle for a fan at this point. She doesn’t even have to play.”
“Tag!” Smashed, half-eaten sandwich in hand, Violet skipped into the room, her tousled blond curls and peanut butter–smeared cheeks the cutest thing he’d seen since his last visit three days ago.
“Violet, my flower, you woke up for me!” Tag picked her up and swooped her high into the air. Wild giggling ensued. Planting a kiss on her cheek, he asked, “You want to take a walk on the ceiling?”
She thrust the sandwich at her dad. “Daddy, can you hold this? Don’t eat it!”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Bering grinned and took the sandwich.
Holding Violet securely at the waist, Tag flipped her upside down until her bootie-clad feet touched the ceiling. Still giggling, she carefully placed one foot in front of the other as Tag strode across the floor while she “walked” on the ceiling. When she’d crossed about half the room,
he lowered her and turned her in his arms.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, eyes nearly the color of her name fixed firmly on him, she said, “I love walking on the ceiling. And I love you, too.”
A chest pinch of mega proportions nearly made him wince. “I love you, too, flower.” Tag wondered if men had biological clocks. A prick of sadness followed as he thought about his sister Shay and how desperately she wanted a child. She and her husband, Jonah, had recently suffered yet another adoption disappointment, and Tag was worried about the long-term repercussions on her. She seemed to be having a hard time recovering from this one emotionally.
“I think you’re her favorite person, Tag.” Emily stood in the doorway, eleven-month-old Brady on her hip. She followed that up with a quick “Don’t tell your sisters I said that.” Wearing black leggings and a long flannel shirt, her blond hair bunched into a cute, messy pile on top of her head, Emily didn’t look anything like the corporate executive she used to be. Although by all accounts she was a wizard in her current job as head of the Rankins Tourism Bureau.
“Are you guys wrapping it up? Lunch is ready.” Stepping inside, she surveyed the shelving they’d constructed and installed across one entire wall. “This looks incredible. It’s even better than I imagined. Thank you so much for helping, Tag.”
“Of course. Anytime. You know that.”
A buzz in his pocket followed by a distinct-sounding chime indicated a text from his business, Copper Crossing Air Transport. This particular alert had his paramedic’s pulse thumping because it told him that an emergency required medical evacuation.
“You need that sandwich to go?” Emily asked. His family members and most of his friends were familiar with the sound. And they all understood when plans were interrupted; there was no such thing as an inconvenience if it meant a life could be saved.
“That would be great, Em. Thanks.” Tag frowned as he read the brief message. A tap on his phone sent a return text letting his crew know they needed to get the float plane ready.