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Cowboy Seal Daddy
Laura Marie Altom
THE ENGAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTAfter his divorce, cowboy-turned-Navy SEAL Wayne Brustanovitch swore he’d never remarry. Now he needs a wife–and fast–in order to fulfill his ailing father’s final wishes. Wayne has a plan, but for it to work, he’ll need his pregnant friend Paisley to agree to……A make-believe marriage! Paisley Carter knows her hunky neighbor’s idea is a bad one, even if it’s for a good reason. Then again, after her ex left her pregnant and alone, a no-risk relationship is the only kind Paisley wants. But as she and Wayne play pretend at his parents' Arizona ranch, the line between the ruse and reality begins to blur. Can Wayne and Paisley resist falling for each other for real?
THE ENGAGEMENT ARRANGEMENT
After his divorce, cowboy turned Navy SEAL Wayne Brustanovitch swore he’d never remarry. Now he needs a wife—and fast—in order to fulfill his ailing father’s final wishes. Wayne has a plan, but for it to work, he’ll need his pregnant friend Paisley to agree to...
A make-believe marriage! Paisley Carter knows her hunky neighbor’s idea is a bad one, even if it’s for a good reason. Then again, after her ex left her pregnant and alone, a no-risk relationship is the only kind Paisley wants. But as she and Wayne play pretend at his parents’ Arizona ranch, the line between the ruse and reality begins to blur. Can Wayne and Paisley resist falling for each other for real?
LAURA MARIE ALTOM is a bestselling and award-winning author who has penned nearly fifty books. After college (go, Hogs!), Laura Marie did a brief stint as an interior designer before becoming a stay-at-home mom to boy-girl twins and a bonus son. Always an avid romance reader, she knew it was time to try her hand at writing when she found herself replotting the afternoon soaps.
When not immersed in her next story, Laura plays video games, tackles Mount Laundry and, of course, reads romance!
Laura loves hearing from readers at either PO Box 2074, Tulsa, OK 74101, or by email, balipalm@aol.com.
Love winning fun stuff? Check out lauramariealtom.com (http://lauramariealtom.com).
Also By Laura Marie Altom (#ub3821314-c271-5fae-bcf3-c6cbac9742b7)
Cowboy SEALs
The SEAL’s Miracle Baby
The Baby and the Cowboy SEAL
The SEAL’s Second Chance Baby
The Cowboy SEAL’s Jingle Bell Baby
The Cowboy SEAL’s Christmas Baby
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Cowboy SEAL Daddy
Laura Marie Altom
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08375-1
COWBOY SEAL DADDY
© 2018 Laura Marie Altom
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, 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 hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
“It really is a half-baked plan, but...”
Wayne worked past the knot in his throat that hardened every time he thought of a world without his father. “If we can pull this off and bring my dad comfort in the last weeks of his life, it could be worth it.”
“When you put it that way...” Paisley wiped her tears with the backs of her hands. “Maybe we should throw caution to the wind and go for it?”
“You think?” Relief and the thought of doing something—anything—proactive toward helping his dad made his pulse race.
“For the record, you have to know this could end in disaster.”
“True.”
“Just give me a couple days to wrap my head around the logistics.”
“Deal.” He stood, then crossed the short distance between them to shake her hand. When their hands touched, was it his imagination, or was there a spark that had never been there before?
Not cool. Sparks were the last thing he needed.
Dear Reader (#ub3821314-c271-5fae-bcf3-c6cbac9742b7),
At the time I’m writing this, the US has just witnessed the heartbreaking devastation of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. What an awful pair, right? In Oklahoma, we’ve had a lovely start to our autumn. Warm, sunny days and cool nights—pleasant enough to make it inconceivable how much damage is taking place in other parts of the country.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all who were affected by these terrible storms. Hope your lives soon get back to normal. In a few weeks, I’m traveling to Florida for a long-planned conference and I dread seeing homes and businesses that didn’t fare so well.
In Wayne and Paisley’s story, they’re both dealing with the kind of pain that can’t be fixed with a hammer and nails or fresh coat of paint. Wayne has learned his father is dying of cancer, and oddly enough, his best friend and very pregnant neighbor, Paisley, is the only one who can help. To find out how, you’ll have to dive into their story.
Happy reading!
Laura Marie
For my mom, Louise. I love you. xoxo
Contents
Cover (#u12f8a6d5-68ff-5f3e-bd4f-e81aa2f20680)
Back Cover Text (#u172bd648-023a-5eec-b364-bf2c68e072a0)
About the Author (#uaaeac0a5-6362-545b-8aeb-a15d4ae96445)
Booklist (#u87dfbd12-1c2f-5605-b5a8-f30b90c4ea15)
Title Page (#uc6754aad-c4b2-54c2-a76c-f9f6006f0b96)
Copyright (#u616a04c5-175d-542b-b34a-4081cd45ebe7)
Introduction (#u5f1b383c-2cc0-573e-9109-6d80a46d73ac)
Dear Reader (#u4f81b48a-dca9-5992-815c-662c0ab62fd0)
Dedication (#u82eed45d-66ce-5e57-94f2-d43ca54d1b02)
Chapter One (#udabaf6c9-87cf-565b-bcfc-cb462a6a37c9)
Chapter Two (#u5f997820-a525-5ac1-8d42-3347d5893230)
Chapter Three (#u3b39961a-c61a-5614-a5ac-79a7362b38f3)
Chapter Four (#ub2a3503b-c7e3-593b-bcc0-a1d8d4d99e04)
Chapter Five (#u44073038-9457-5474-af7a-6ac3ae3bfbcb)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#ub3821314-c271-5fae-bcf3-c6cbac9742b7)
“This team sucks! You look more like rubber ducks than SEALs. If it was up to me, I’d strip your Tridents and replace them with flight attendant wings!”
Navy SEAL Wayne Brustanovitch sat alongside the rest of his twelve-man team on the Mark V Special Operations Craft jetting past the Coronado coast at forty-five knots while their pissed-off CO handed them their asses on a platter. It was 0300, and they’d been running beach landing drills for the past eight hours.
It was late March. Cold, wet, tired and hungry, Wayne needed a beer, burger and bed. Hell—at this point, he wasn’t even choosy about the order.
Twelve hours later, they’d finally achieved an insertion time their CO deemed acceptable—at least good enough to earn a meal and hot shower.
“How’s your dad doing?” Logan Crenshaw served as the closest thing Wayne had to a brother. While they dressed before heading for the chow hall, Wayne welcomed the chance to run a predicament by his roommate and friend.
“Bad. Our last call, he said the doctor had basically given him a death sentence.”
“Damn...” Logan whistled. “That’s rough. Sorry, man.”
“Thanks. But that’s not the half of it.” He pulled on boxers, then gray sweats. “He told me that it’s his dying wish to see me married and to hold his grandchild in his arms.”
“Ouch. Way to pour on the parental guilt.”
“No kidding, right?” Wayne added deodorant, then a white T-shirt with Navy written on the front.
“Too bad you can’t rent a wife and kid, huh?”
“I wish. That’s the only way I’d take vows again.”
“Got nothing but love for you, brother. That sorry SOB can rot in hell.”
A fist bump relayed Wayne’s similar sentiment.
But the SEAL brother who’d broken ranks to cheat with Wayne’s ex wasn’t solely to blame. Like the old saying goes, “It takes two to tango,” and Chelsea had lied and schemed right up to their marriage’s official end.
Dressed, the two men joined the rest of their exhausted team in line for mystery meat and mashed potatoes. It wouldn’t have mattered what was served. Wayne was hungry enough to eat cardboard—a good thing, considering the potatoes’ dried consistency.
After another verbal lashing during their meal, the CO declared them officially dismissed until 0200 the next morning.
Since Logan was in an on-off relationship with a Hooters waitress who had apparently decided to be back on, they’d driven separately to base.
Most of the single guys drove Mustangs or Chargers, but Wayne stayed true to his country roots by maintaining his red 1976 Ford F-150 Ranger truck. Of course, he’d souped up the engine and cab, but the original body was pristine.
He might be a SEAL, but he was also a cowboy through and through. Next to him on the custom red leather seat was his trusty straw cowboy hat. The thing looked like it had been trampled by a herd of mustangs, but he never felt truly dressed without it. As soon as he put in his twenty years until retirement, he’d move back to the family ranch. Wayne knew his dad wanted him there now, but with eighteen months remaining on his current enlistment, even if he opted for early retirement, he couldn’t just tell his CO he was leaving.
Traffic was hell on I-5 and it took forty minutes to reach his apartment complex.
As he pulled into the lot, his neighbor Paisley Carter struggled to roll out of her friend Monica’s low-slung Jaguar convertible. The two of them owned an interior design business located in a trendy part of town. Monica, who was hot as hell, once had a thing with Logan, which made her off-limits to anyone else on their team. Whereas Monica was pure sex in her tight black dress and the red-soled shoes every woman on the planet seemed to go nuts for, Paisley was more the take-home-to-Mom type in weird pink pants and a white blouse big enough to be a painter’s smock.
She was adorable—even more so pregnant.
She was also a good girl who’d fallen prey to a two-timing bastard. The guy who’d knocked her up didn’t seem to be in the picture, which made Wayne want to punch him into the next county for leaving Paisley in such a rough spot—especially with her crap car apparently in the shop again.
