Falling for Owen (41 page)
Authors: Jennifer Ryan
“So, what’s the newest McBride’s name?” Brody asked.
Claire looked up at him and smiled, letting him say it.
“He’s our Sean Brody McBride.”
“Oh, I love it,” Rain said, tears glistening in her eyes. The girls shared her sentiment. Owen stared at his brother and they exchanged a silent moment of connection. He’d repaid Brody for doing the same. David Owen McBride wiggled at the end of the bed, trying to grab his cousin Will’s fingers.
This is what they’d wanted. Family.
The door opened again and Claire’s parents came in with balloons and flowers. Owen stood to take them and add them to the rest Brody and Dylan had sent earlier. He greeted his in-laws and everyone settled around the room, carrying on conversations and fussing over the babies and Claire. He settled next to her again on the bed, this time placing his sleeping son on his chest. He held him there with one hand, Claire tucked against his side.
A nurse came in to check on her. “Mrs. McBride, can I get you anything?”
Claire glanced around the room at everyone gathered to see her and the baby. She settled back into his side and hugged him and Sean close.
“No. I have everything I need.”
Can’t get enough of Jennifer Ryan’s McBride men?
Good news, the sheriff of Fallbrook gets his turn next in
DYLAN’S REDEMPTION
Book Three: The McBrides
Coming August 2014
A
FTER A HEATED
fight with her father, Jessie Thompson fled Fallbrook, vowing never to return. But when her father dies, she reluctantly returns home for the funeral, only to find herself face-to-face with the man who shattered her heart. A man who, for eight years, believed she was dead.
Dylan McBride accepted the position as the new sheriff of Fallbrook, looking for a fresh start. He didn’t expect it to include the woman he’d once loved and thought he’d lost forever.
Even though Dylan’s heart has already grieved for Jessie, he can’t deny the passion that still smolders between them. Can they heal their past and find a second chance at first love?
JENNIFER RYAN writes romantic suspense and contemporary small-town romances featuring strong men and equally resilient women. Her stories are filled with love, friendship, and the happily-ever-after we all hope to find. Jennifer lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children. When she isn’t writing a book, she’s reading one.
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Short Stories
“Waiting For You”
(appears in
Confessions of a Secret Admirer
)
“Can’t Wait”
(appears in
All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy
)
Give in to your impulses . . .
Read on for a sneak peek at two brand-new
e-book original tales of romance from Avon Books.
Available now wherever e-books are sold.
B
OOK
O
NE:
T
HE
M
C
B
RIDES
By Jennifer Ryan
THE CUPCAKE DIARIES: SPRINKLED WITH KISSES
By Darlene Panzera
An Excerpt from
Book One: The McBrides
by Jennifer Ryan
From
New York Times
bestselling author Jennifer Ryan comes an unforgettable new series about the sexy McBride men of Fallbrook, Colorado. Brody McBride left devastation in his wake when he ran away years ago. Can he return and win back the heart of Rain?
B
rody woke with a start and gasped for breath, his hands pressed to his heaving chest, where the bullet had slammed into his bulletproof vest months ago, severely bruising his ribs. Used to sleeping in some of the most hostile places in the world, he took in his surroundings with a quick sweep of his gaze. All safe. Adrenaline racing through his veins, he checked his first instinct and stilled his hand, already reaching beneath the pillow for his gun. He wished he could shake off the nightmare and memories as quickly as he had sleep.
Alert, he now remembered arriving at the old cabin late last night. Clear Water Ranch. He and Owen should rename the place Mud. Nothing pristine about the blood running through his veins. His father had sullied it, along with the McBride name.
Just the thought of being on the ranch again set off a barrage of memories, most of him and Owen running wild. He couldn’t pick one out, or grasp the prevailing feeling that went with them. A mixture of happy and sad times, frightening things better left forgotten but relived in Technicolor nightmares, and anger stored up over years, like a river cutting its path until a deep gorge separated the banks. Instead of spending the last eight years rebuilding bridges, he’d let the gap grow wider.
His stellar military career came with its own kind of horrors—right up until a roadside bomb took out three of his friends and left him wounded, ending his third tour in Afghanistan and his stint with the Army Rangers. He’d stowed them away with the other bad memories.
Two months of rehab under his belt, he’d returned home to pull the tattered pieces of his life together and mend them into something of a happy future. Hell, he’d settle for dull and normal.
He’d have exceptional if he won Rain back.
He’d blown it with her and let love slip through his fingers. Back then, he’d had nothing to offer her. Now, he was a different man, the man she’d always seen inside of him.
Her trail might be cold, but he’d track her, and before she knew it, he’d be hot on her tail. That was exactly where he planned to stay until he convinced her his days as a selfish prick were over. He wanted to put the past behind him, prove to himself and everyone else that he could be a different kind of man than his father was, and find that all-American dream he’d spent years protecting for others. So long as Rain was part of it, he’d find that elusive happiness.
Judging by the sunlight streaming in the windows, early morning was greeting him. A soft breeze filtered up to the loft from what could only be the open door downstairs. Papers rustled, then everything went quiet. Company. His brother had come calling. Time to face his past.
An Excerpt from
THE CUPCAKE DIARIES: SPRINKLED WITH KISSES
by Darlene Panzera
Fans of Debbie Macomber will adore the fifth installment in Darlene Panzera’s sweet Cupcake Diaries series . . . a tale of sand, sun, and summer love!
“H
ow much for the ice cream scoop?” the man beside her asked.
His voice was rich, smooth, with a deep timbre that struck a chord within her, and she cast a reflexive glance in his direction to see if he looked as attractive as he sounded.
Yes,
oh yes
. The man dressed in bathing trunks and a t-shirt standing less than an arm’s reach away was definitely heart breaker material. His six-foot-four-inch height made her Amazonian five-foot-eleven feel normal. His sandy blond hair and aqua eyes replicated a Ken doll, while his muscular frame exuded the masculinity of a sculpted G.I. Joe.
Did he wear a wedding ring? Her gaze darted toward his left hand.
Nope!
She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. This guy could be a prime candidate to ask to accompany her to Kim’s wedding if only she could summon the courage to ask him.
Wait, a minute. Not so fast.
She needed to get to know him better first. She needed him to ask her on a date.
The handsome guy paid the yard sale owner the amount requested and turned toward her as if sensing her gaze. “The vintage scoop my grandfather gave me broke, and the new ones they make these days just aren’t the same. See how the sides of this scoop dip down to form an elongated oval?”
Her skin prickled with self-awareness, and she wished she’d taken the time to brush her mousy rust-brown hair into at least an attempted semblance of order. Too late now. Her appearance was what it was. She’d just have to try to dazzle him with her personality instead.
No, she feared that wouldn’t work either. But what if she tried to be smart like Andi?
“You must really love ice cream.”
Oh no.
Did she really just say that?
Lame!
Incredibly
lame.
“I do love ice cream,” he replied. “My grandfather’s homemade blackberry sherbet could make an ice cream enthusiast out of a heat-lovin’ gecko.”
Flirt like Rachel.
She smiled—hopefully with nothing stuck in her teeth. “Now you’re making
me
hungry.”
“For ice cream or lizard?” he teased.
“I was referring to the ice cream. Lizard isn’t on my favorite foods list.”
Okay, good job.
Would he take the hint and ask her to accompany him to an ice cream shop? Or a beach picnic? Anywhere but a formal restaurant. She hadn’t dated much in the past but for some reason dinner dates at restaurants never fared well.
A handsome guy like him undoubtedly had a girlfriend. Or several. Maybe that was why he hadn’t responded to her last comment. Maybe taking her out for food was off limits.
A pro when it came to taking precautions, she decided a backup plan was in order and grabbed the half-dozen peanut butter–and-cracker MREs she spotted in a box on the table beside them. The military surplus snack was a perfect fit for both her budget and her backpack.
In addition to the Meal, Ready-to-Eat find, she picked up a multi-tool knife, which also included folding mini scissors—as well as a screwdriver, bottle opener, file, and corkscrew.
“Great tool for camping,” the ice cream lover said, still beside her.
She nodded. “A must-have for my backpack.”
“I’m Dave Wright,” he said, smiling.
“Stacey McIntyre.”
“How many miles do you average?”
“Excuse me?”
“Hiking with your backpack,” he clarified.
Did Dave think she was a nature lover like Kim? Or an adventurer like
Kate Jones
, the kick-butt heroine from the treasured action-adventure novels on her bookshelf? A surge of warm, wishful thinking filled her. If
only.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from
The Return of Brody McBride
copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Ryan.
Excerpt from
The Cupcake Diaries: Sprinkled with Kisses
copyright © 2014 by Darlene Panzera.
FALLING FOR OWEN. Copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Ryan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, 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 hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition APRIL 2014 ISBN: 9780062306081
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062306104
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