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The Summer Proposal
Judith McWilliams
A IS FOR ASTONISHED AND AGOGWhich were Julie Raffet's reactions when Caleb Tarrington, a most eligible–and wealthy–bachelor made his proposal! Caleb wanted a tutor for his newfound son–but was Julie interested in a temporary position?B IS FOR BOLD AND BREATHLESSCaleb's determination was hard to refuse. Yet the sophisticated single dad shied away from women dedicated to their jobs–and still he wanted Julie! Could he forget the past long enough to see the caring heart behind Julie's prim facade?C IS FOR CALEB!And for the charm that was nearly irresistible. Once the summer was over, would he offer Julie a permanent position–in his arms?
“I have been exceedingly unreasonable,”
Caleb said, closing the distance between them. He reminded himself to think of Julie in an impersonal manner—to pretend she was his best friend’s fiancée.
Julie’s breath caught in her throat as he leaned forward slightly, towering over her. Making her aware of him in a way she had never before been aware of a man. She felt quintessentially feminine and emotionally vulnerable, but the odd thing was she didn’t feel threatened. On the contrary, she felt…invigorated.
He slowly lowered his head and his lips touched hers with the faintest of pressure.
Fiancée, he thought. He was supposed to be treating Julie like his best friend’s fiancée. Caleb struggled to force himself to end the kiss, but it became impossible when she trembled in his arms.
I’ll get a new best friend, he thought foggily.
Dear Reader,
Celebrate the holidays with Silhouette Romance! We strive to deliver emotional, fast-paced stories that suit your every mood—each and every month. Why not give the gift of love this year by sending your best friends and family members one of our heartwarming books?
Sandra Paul’s The Makeover Takeover is the latest page-turner in the popular HAVING THE BOSS’S BABY series. In Teresa Southwick’s If You Don’t Know by Now, the third in the DESTINY, TEXAS series, Maggie Benson is shocked when Jack Riley comes back into her life—and their child’s!
I’m also excited to announce that this month marks the return of two cherished authors to Silhouette Romance. Gifted at weaving intensely dramatic stories, Laurey Bright once again thrills Romance readers with her VIRGIN BRIDES title, Marrying Marcus. Judith McWilliams’s charming tale, The Summer Proposal, will delight her throngs of devoted fans and have us all yearning for more!
As a special treat, we have two fresh and original royalty-themed stories. In The Marine & the Princess, Cathie Linz pits a hardened military man against an impetuous princess. Nicole Burnham’s Going to the Castle tells of a duty-bound prince who escapes his castle walls and ends up with a beautiful refugee-camp worker.
We promise to deliver more exciting new titles in the coming year. Make it your New Year’s resolution to read them all!
Happy reading!
Mary-Theresa Hussey
Senior Editor
The Summer Proposal
Judith McWilliams
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Books by Judith McWilliams
Silhouette Romance
Gift of the Gods #479
The Summer Proposal #1562
Silhouette Desire
Reluctant Partners #441
A Perfect Season #545
That’s My Baby #597
Anything’s Possible! #911
The Man from Atlantis #954
Instant Husband #1001
Practice Husband #1062
Another Man’s Baby #1095
The Boss, the Beauty and the Bargain #1122
The Sheik’s Secret #1228
JUDITH McWILLIAMS
began to enjoy romances while in search of the proverbial “happily-ever-after.” But she always found herself rewriting the endings, and eventually the beginnings, of the books she read. Then her husband finally suggested that she write novels of her own, and she’s been doing so ever since. An ex-teacher with four children, Judith has traveled the country extensively with her husband and has been greatly influenced by those experiences. But while not tending the garden or caring for family, Judith does what she enjoys most—writing. She has also written under the name Charlotte Hines.
Jimmy,
It’s me, Will. Remember that teacher I told ya about? The one my dad got to teach me a bunch a junk I don’t wanna know. Julie, she ain’t at all like what we thought. She can make cookies! Good ones full a chocolate chips and nuts. And she ain’t always going on about drinking that disgusting cow juice. And she don’t never yell, and when she smiles her eyes kinda sparkle.
I decided I’s gonna keep her. All I gotta do is figure out how to get Dad to marry her so she’ll have to stay. But I got a couple of great ideas to help Dad along. If’n you got any, write me back right away. I wanta get this settled before someone else grabs her.
Will
Contents
Chapter One (#ue0fe7313-7ca4-527b-a25c-a4300bc58eba)
Chapter Two (#ufbf1d80d-b6cd-5527-b2eb-2dca22f68166)
Chapter Three (#ucb85975b-4460-5d18-a1c9-302fad335451)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
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 One
“Really, Mr. Tarrington! This is most irregular! You should not be here.” The school secretary gave him a quelling look over the top of her bifocals that forty years of dealing with unruly grade-schoolers had perfected. To her annoyance, he didn’t even seem to notice.
“Yesterday was the day for parents to clear up irregularities,” Miss Boulton persisted. “Today is the day that the teachers have to get all the end-of-year records completed and turned in. Miss Raffet is much too busy to see you.”
“I won’t take up much of her time,” Caleb forced a reasonable tone despite the fact that he didn’t feel the least bit reasonable. But venting the turbulent emotions churning through him on a secretary, no matter how aggravating she was being, wouldn’t get him any closer to his goal. Which at the moment hinged on getting in to see Miss Raffet.
“Just see that you don’t!” Miss Boulton’s tone hinted at dire consequences.
She gestured toward the open office door behind him. “Miss Raffet’s room is to the right. Fifth door down. Please stop back here on your way out and let me know that you’re leaving the building. You wouldn’t want to get locked in for the summer, now, would you?”
To her irritation, her attempt at humor didn’t get any more of a response from him than her lecture. He merely nodded his head, gave her a perfunctory “thank you for your help” and left.
Miss Boulton watched him go, wondering what he wanted Julie for. Something personal? Something romantic? A flash of interest flared to life in her thin chest. Highly unlikely, she abandoned the idea almost immediately. Julie’s little students might love her to distraction, but in the four years she’d been teaching at Whittier Elementary, Miss Boulton hadn’t seen the slightest sign that a man might feel the same about her. Especially not one who looked like Caleb Tarrington.
She shook her head, effectively dislodging both Caleb Tarrington’s unwelcome presence and Julie Raffet’s romantic prospects from her busy mind as she reached for the internal phone.
Caleb paused outside the door the secretary had specified and took a deep, steadying breath, trying to organize his scattered thoughts. So much depended on him convincing the unknown Miss Raffet to help. If he couldn’t…
An image of Will’s pale face, his small features, rigid with fear he was desperately trying not to show, flashed through Caleb’s mind, and a fierce surge of love filled him. His son! Even after twenty-four hours, Caleb still expected the words to be accompanied by trumpet fanfare.
If only… Abruptly he sliced off the unprofitable line of thought. The past was dead. Over. All the regrets in the world couldn’t change it. All he could do was to try to shape the future differently. And the first step toward reshaping his son’s future was to enlist the aid of Miss Raffet. Caleb just wished he knew a little more about her. All his old friend, John, had said was that she was the best first-grade teacher he’d ever seen in his career as a school principal. That if anyone could help him, Miss Raffet could. But the question John hadn’t been able to answer was would she?
He’d soon find out.
Squaring his shoulders, Caleb marched through the door of Miss Raffet’s classroom. He paused just inside the large, sunny room, his eyes instinctively going to the battered oak teacher’s desk in front of the chalkboard. No one was seated there. His gaze quickly swept the room. The walls were stripped bare, and all the children’s desks had been removed. The space looked abandoned.
He walked farther into the room, not sure what to do. Sit down at the desk and wait for Miss Raffet to return? Or go back to the office and ask the elderly dragon masquerading as a school secretary if she might have any idea where Miss Raffet could be?
Wait, he decided. Facing the disapproving Miss Boulton again definitely qualified as a last resort. Besides…
He turned at the sudden thump to his left. The noise had come from behind a half-open door. A supply closet? he wondered. Could the elusive Miss Raffet be in it?
He watched as a woman slowly backed out of the closet. Appreciatively, Caleb eyed her trim hips, which were tightly encased in a pair of well-worn jeans. With obvious impatience, she shoved the door back and reached for something above her head.
Her action tightened the gray T-shirt covering her small breasts, outlining their perfection. Caleb swallowed, trying to ignore the unwelcome spark of sexual interest he felt.
Completely oblivious to his presence, she braced her slender legs and gave a hard jerk on whatever it was she was trying to get.
The thing she was yanking on suddenly came free causing her to lose her balance and land on her rear on the floor. A microsecond later, what appeared to be the entire contents of the shelf followed. Colored construction paper, yards of dusty white netting and some faded-looking plastic flowers bounced off her head and shoulders. Last to fall was a bag of gold glitter that broke as it hit her, sending gold dust everywhere.
It enveloped the woman, coating her light-brown hair and dusting her small, straight nose with golden freckles. Caleb blinked as the sun pouring in through the wall of windows behind her turned her petite figure into a radiant pillar of gold. For a heart-stopping second, long-forgotten Sunday-school images of angels welled out of Caleb’s subconscious. Then she sneezed, and the explosive sound snapped him free of his memories.
“Drat!” she muttered in exasperation as she ineffectively brushed at the gold dust coating her.
“Are you all right?” The deep velvety sound of a man’s voice poured over Julie, instantly smothering her annoyance. She instinctively turned toward him, squinting as she tried to focus through the glitter, which scattered at her abrupt movement.
Julie found herself staring at a large pair of black shoes. Not new, but immaculately clean and well shined. A part of her instinctively approved. Slowly, her gaze moved upward over long legs encased in suit trousers with a crease so crisp they must have just come from the dry cleaners. But this suit sure hadn’t come from the local department store. She studied the way the jacket molded his broad shoulders. Obviously hand-tailored by an expert. Although she had the feeling he’d look every bit as good in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Or even better, dressed like an Italian courtier from the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent. All in velvets and silks and…
“Can you get up?” The worried note in the man’s voice pulled her out of her daydream.
Julie winced, embarrassed at being caught in such an unprofessional position by such a gorgeous specimen of masculinity. She studied his leanly chiseled features with a purely feminine appreciation, wondering who he was. Certainly not someone she knew. Or anyone she’d ever met. She definitely wouldn’t have forgotten a man who looked like the physical embodiment of every romantic fantasy she’d ever had. And a few she had yet to dream up.
“Did you hurt yourself?” he demanded, worried at her continued silence.
The concern in his bright blue eyes sent a shiver of response through Julie. If none of the normal, garden-variety men she knew saw her as a sexy, desirable woman, then one who looked like this guy sure wouldn’t, she reminded herself of a hard-learned lesson.
“I’m fine,” she muttered, taking the helping hand he held out even though she was oddly reluctant to touch him. But not only would it be rude to pointedly ignore his gesture, but he wouldn’t understand her hesitation. Any more than she understood it herself.
Even less did she understand her instantaneous reaction as his large hand closed around her much smaller one. Tiny pinpricks of sensation raced over her skin raising goose bumps as it traveled. Hastily, she pulled her hand back, breaking the disconcerting contact.
“You seem to be covered in this stuff.” He gently brushed her hair, dislodging both a cloud of gold sparkles and her remaining composure.
Hoping he hadn’t heard her quickly suppressed gasp, Julie hurriedly stepped back and made a production of dusting the glitter off herself as she struggled to recapture her teacher persona.
“May I help you?” Julie winced at the breathless sound of her voice. What was wrong with her? she wondered in confusion. She was acting as if she’d landed on her head not her rear.
“Not unless you happen to know where I can find Miss Raffet,” he said. “This is her room, isn’t it?”
“I’m Julie Raffet,” she said, watching with a combination of annoyance and dismay as his eyes widened in shock at her announcement.
“You were expecting a little old lady wearing a shapeless dress and orthopedic shoes?” she asked dryly.
“Not really, but on the other hand, I was expecting someone who looked old enough to have graduated from college. And John did say that you’d been teaching for years.”
“John?” Julie ignored her frustration at the proof that she hadn’t even registered as an attractive woman with this man and, instead, grabbed the thread of his conversation that sounded the most promising.
“John Warchinski. He was principal here a few years back.”
“Yes, I remember him. Although I’m at a loss to understand why he should be discussing me with you, Mr….?” Her voice rose, questioning.
“Tarrington. Caleb Tarrington.” He stared at her for a long moment trying to decide where to start. He hated revealing the abject failure of his marriage. An older woman, such as that blasted John had led him to believe Miss Raffet was, might have understood how a normally levelheaded man could have gotten himself into such a mess. But this woman…
“Why don’t you start at the beginning?” Julie suggested with her normal practicality.
Caleb grimaced, knowing that the beginning had been an acute attack of plain old lust on his part, but he could hardly tell Julie Raffet that. She looked as if she’d never even heard of lust, let alone experienced it firsthand. She’d probably be disgusted at his admission. Or even worse, think he was in the habit of letting his sexual appetites overrule his common sense and refuse to have anything to do with him. And he needed her far too much to risk scaring her off.
He decided to gloss over the beginning and concentrate on the present.
“The beginning started with a youthful marriage that didn’t—” Caleb made a gesture with his hand that conveyed a helpless sense of frustration “—work out.”
Julie searched his face, looking for signs of pain at the memory of his failed marriage. She couldn’t find any. Outwardly, at least, it appeared that he had recovered emotionally. But if that were true, then why was he finding it so hard to talk about it?
“I’m not doing this well,” Caleb muttered, caught between embarrassment at being forced to reveal what he preferred to keep hidden, and the knowledge that if he wanted to enlist Julie Raffet’s aid, he had to tell her enough to make her understand how desperate his need was.
