The Instant Family Man. Shirley Jump

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       “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in you.”

      “And I’d be lying if I said I was interested in you.” Peyton brushed at her skirt as if kissing him had left her dusty, or as if she just wanted to whisk away the memory of his touch. “I'm here so you have a chance to get to know your daughter. Nothing more. And I mean that, Luke. Nothing more.

      “Then why did you kiss me back?”

      “I …” She opened her mouth, closed it. “I didn't mean to. I got caught up in the moment and—”

      “Overcome by the heat? Swept away by the romantic atmosphere of a children's zoo?” He shifted closer. Still, she kept her distance, stood strong and cool, dispassionate. If he hadn't been there himself, he wouldn't believe that ten seconds ago this same woman had been leaning into him, letting out soft mews of desire. “Don't pretend you didn't enjoy that. Don't pretend it was nothing.”

      * * *

      The Barlow Brothers: Nothing tames a Southern man faster … than true love!

      The Instant Family Man

      Shirley Jump

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author SHIRLEY JUMP spends her days writing romance so she can avoid the towering stack of dirty dishes, eat copious amounts of chocolate and reward herself with trips to the mall. Visit her website at www.shirleyjump.com for author news and a booklist, and follow her at facebook.com/shirleyjump.author for giveaways and deep discussions about important things like chocolate and shoes.

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      To my husband, Jeff, because he is amazing—as a dad, as a husband and as a man.

       He’s the family man I always dreamed of meeting and am blessed to have married.

      Contents

       Cover

       Excerpt

       Title Page

       About the Author

       Dedication

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Extract

       Copyright

      When Peyton Reynolds was a little girl, tearing through her grandmother’s house on her way to whatever excitement waited outside the front door, her grandma Lucy would reach out, corral her granddaughter in a fresh-baked-bread-scented hug and say, “Goodness gracious, child, you gotta slow down. Life is just gonna pass you by if you don’t learn to take a breath or two.”

      Peyton never had learned to slow down. She’d taken every day of her life ten steps at a time, running from high school to college, graduating in two and a half years instead of four, and putting in more hours at Winston Interior Design than any other designer—earning her four promotions in three years. Then, a month before her twenty-third birthday, her world turned upside down when her older sister Susannah died in a car accident, suddenly leaving forty pounds of cuteness and need in Peyton’s full-time care.

      In that instant, Peyton had put the brakes on her rising career while she figured out how to be a surrogate mom to her niece, Madelyne, and still stay on the fast track in the design industry. She’d been so very close to a promotion to associate, just a step below her goal of partner, but in the past four weeks, everything she had worked for started to fall apart. And it wasn’t just her career self-destructing that had Peyton worried...

      It was the quiet. The words unspoken, the tears unshed.

      Maddy hadn’t grieved, hadn’t asked about her mother, hadn’t wanted to talk about it. She’d gone on playing with her toys and eating her meals and brushing her teeth, but her mood was more somber, her heart more distant. Her laughter dulled, almost silenced.

      That sad quiet was what finally spurred Peyton to go back home from Maryland, arriving yesterday in Stone Gap, North Carolina,

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