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Cassidy's Kids
Tara Taylor Quinn
Ellie Maitland was goal-oriented. She operated on five-year plans. Finishing her master's degree by night, serving as chief administrator at her family's renowned clinic by day, she was out to prove herself, big time.Sloan Cassidy had eighteen-month-old twin daughters, and not a clue in the world how to handle them since his wife had left. But he knew who did.No way was Ellie going to let herself be roped into helping to care for Sloan's little girls. Those kids brought out all the maternal instincts she wanted to suppress. And she had no time. And Sloan was way too appealing. And everyone knew the cowboy had broken her heart ten years ago. Except Sloan.
From Megan Maitland’s Diary
Dear Diary,
I’m worried about Ellie. Oh, not as the administrator of Maitland Maternity. No, what I’m worried about is the rest of her life. Mostly because there isn’t one.
Of all my children, Ellie is the one I would have chosen most likely to succeed. Her gifts are so obvious to me. I don’t understand why she can’t see them for herself.
I know it all goes back to that episode with Sloan Cassidy when she was in high school. Ellie’s always taken things so seriously. I'm afraid she took Sloan too seriously. And I did her a terrible disservice. I thought if I didn’t make a big deal of the whole thing, she wouldn’t either. But I was wrong. I should have helped her through that time. As it stands, I fear that the heart Sloan Cassidy broke has never healed.
But I’m not giving up hope. Especially now. I heard Sloan just came by looking for Ellie. I don’t dare hope that Sloan and Ellie can find what Ellie thought they had all those years ago. But if Ellie could see him again, as a mature adult, maybe, just maybe she could get over him and get on with her life. When it comes to Ellie, I care so very much….
Dear Reader,
There’s never a dull moment at Maitland Maternity! This unique and now world-renowned clinic was founded twenty-five years ago by Megan Maitland, widow of William Maitland, of the prominent Austin, Texas, Maitlands. Megan is also matriarch of an impressive family of seven children, many of whom are active participants in the everyday miracles that bring children into the world.
As our series begins, the family is stunned by the unexpected arrival of an unidentified baby at the clinic—unidentified, except for the claim that the child is a Maitland. Who are the parents of this child? Is the claim legitimate? Will the media’s tenacious grip on this news damage the clinic’s reputation? Suddenly, rumors and counterclaims abound. Women claiming to be the child’s mother materialize out of the woodwork! How will Megan get at the truth? And how will the media circus affect the lives and loves of the Maitland children—Abby, the head of gynecology, Ellie, the hospital administrator, her twin sister, Beth, who runs the day care center, Mitchell, the fertility specialist, R.J., the vice president of operations—even Anna, who has nothing to do with the clinic, and Jake, the black sheep of the family?
Please join us each month over the next year as the mystery of the Maitland baby unravels, bit by enticing bit, and book by captivating book!
Marsha Zinberg,
Senior Editor and Editorial Co-ordinator, Special Projects
Cassidy’s Kids
Tara Taylor Quinn
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Tara Taylor Quinn’s first book, Yesterday’s Secrets, was published by Harlequin in October 1993. It received two Reviewers’ Choice nominations, and was a finalist for the RWA RITA Award. After nineteen titles in six years, there are over three million copies of Tara’s books in print. They have been nominated for several awards, and have appeared on many bestseller lists.
Tara Taylor Quinn’s love affair with Harlequin Books began when she was fourteen years old and picked up a free promotional copy of a Harlequin Romance in her hometown grocery store. The relationship was solidified the year she was suspended from her high school typing class for hiding a Harlequin Romance behind the keys of her electric typewriter. Unaware that her instructor loomed close by, Ms. Quinn read blissfully on with one finger resting on the automatically repeating period key. She finished the book in the principal’s office.
When she’s not writing, fulfilling speaking engagements or performing the many duties required by her position as regional director on the National Board of the Romance Writers of America, Ms. Quinn spends her time with her husband, and commutes to Arizona State University with her fourteen-year-old senior psychology major daughter, Rachel.
For Rachel Marie Reames, the heart and soul of my life;
And
Dana Mariah Bodell, my little soul mate:
Without the two of you, your sweet laughter, your company and encouragement, your inspiration and bowls of cottage cheese, this book would not have happened. Thanks, girls!
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 ONE
THE BRIGHT SIDE was that nothing else could go wrong. Everything already had. At breakfast that morning, sitting in the same chair at the same dining room table she’d been sitting at almost since the day she was born, Ellie Maitland had had a panic attack. Out of the blue, she’d suddenly felt suffocated by that sameness, by the inadequacies that had shaped her life and which spelled out an entire future of more of the same. Her hands had started to tingle, and her feet, too, almost as though they’d all fallen asleep at once.
“Hey, El, I saw that you picked up my dry cleaning again—”
Her twin sister’s voice seemed to be coming through a megaphone rather than from across the table.
“—you didn’t have to do that.”
“I knew you’d forgotten, and I had to drive by that way, anyway,” Ellie replied. Focusing on something as mundane as the laundry helped a bit. But only until she looked down again.
Staring at the newspaper in front of her, at yet another article subtly hinting that Eleanor Maitland might not be up to her recently appointed position as administrator at Maitland Maternity Clinic, Ellie had to concentrate to keep the words from blurring. She was losing it. Twenty-five years old and falling apart.
“Ignore them, Ellie.” The soft feminine voice was laced with the steely determination that had seen Megan Maitland through her own lifetime of disappointments and joys.
Grasping the business section of the large Texas newspaper between cold fingers, Ellie finally looked up from the hurtful words. “They’re like vultures, Mom, waiting for me to fail.”
“So?” Megan’s dark blue eyes didn’t waver as they met the troubled look of her second-youngest-by-eleven-minutes daughter.
“They think I only got this job because I’m your daughter.”
“So?”
“Is it true?” Ellie asked, bracing herself.
Beth, her twin, scoffed.
“What do you think?” Megan’s expression was shrewd.
“I have goals, Mom. And a clear sense of our mission.”
Megan nodded and smiled. “I know.”
“No one else would have hired me so young for a position of such stature.”
“Probably not.”
“And certainly not while I’m still a semester away from my master’s degree.”
“You’re going to night school. You’ll have your degree before the fiscal year ends.”
Ellie flushed under her mother’s loving gaze. No matter how often Ellie fell short of being everything a Maitland should be, Megan continued to love her. “I won’t let you down,” she whispered, afraid she was really going to make a fool of herself and cry.
Ellie never cried. At least not where anyone in her family could see.
“I know you won’t,” Megan said.
And that had been that. Ellie, the ugly duckling baby Maitland, might not feel she was an asset to the family, but they were generous enough to love her anyway. And she had just enough Maitland blood running through her veins to make certain that she didn’t let them down. At least not professionally.
Which was why, sitting at her desk later that morning, she refused to back down when the man who serviced their current piping system tried to convince her not to invest in a new, upgraded one. Maitland Maternity, the clinic founded by her mother and late father almost twenty-five years ago, had outgrown its present system, and Ellie would not put the clinic’s patients—or reputation—at risk.
Once the man had left, she turned back to the financial statements Drake Logan, Maitland’s VP of finance, had left her.
“Ellie—?”
At the sound of the voice she froze. She’d been wrong. Things could get worse.
“—I’m sorry to barge in, but the phone just seemed so cold after all this time.”
Heart pounding, Ellie stared at the handsome man standing in her doorway. He wasn’t supposed to just show up at her office. He wasn’t supposed to show up at all. She’d gotten over him years ago. Wasn’t ever going to have to see him again.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” It was the only thought she had.
Forcing herself, she rose, offered her hand, pretended that warm touch of his calloused fingers did nothing to her.
The only plausible reason she could come up with for his sudden appearance was that he and his wife, Marla, needed the clinic’s services.
“You look great!” he said, admiration in his voice and in the steady brown gaze that was taking in every inch of her.
“So do you.” Gorgeous. Incredible. And in her office. Damn him.
“You’re the boss now, huh?” he asked. He looked around her big office, but only briefly, then his eyes focused back on her.
Nodding, Ellie started to sweat. Seeing him after all this time couldn’t mean anything to her. He couldn’t mean anything to her.
“I knew you’d make it to the top quicker than anyone,” he said, his voice full of easy camaraderie.
“Why are you here?” she blurted, feeling the need to get rid of him before she made a fool of herself and hugged him or something. Maybe he’d forgotten their last, devastating conversation, but she hadn’t. It had shaped every day of her life since.
“I need a favor.”
His voice was sexier than she remembered it. Deeper. “What’s it been, ten years?” she asked, trying to smile in spite of the tension. He actually thought that he could waltz in after all this time, and she’d be waiting to do his bidding.
Not that she could blame him completely. Practically every girl in their high school—Ellie included—had done just that. Sloan was definitely one of God’s gifts to the world’s female population, though one with a cruel twist when it had come to Ellie.
“’Bout that,” he said. He didn’t appear to be the least bit contrite about the ten year lapse, though age seemed to have taken the edge off his supreme self-confidence. “I’ve wanted to stop in many times, Ellie, to see you.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“I figured it was best just to leave well enough alone.”
Which was just about the best non-answer she’d ever heard.
“Until now,” she reminded him.
He shrugged. “I’m in trouble, and you’re the only one I know of who can help.”
She wasn’t going to be party to his and Marla’s family problems. No matter how nicely he asked.
Leaning forward, resting her thighs against her desk, Ellie crossed her arms over her chest. “So how’ve you been?” she asked, and then made herself continue, “How’s Marla?”
“I wouldn’t know.” He didn’t take his eyes off her. “She’s in New York.”
She hadn’t heard about that. But then, lately she’d been concerned about the problems in her own family.
“What’s she doing in New York?” Is she still your wife?
“Trying to act, last I heard.” His eyes continued to assess her. “We were divorced six months ago.”
Ellie sat down. Hard. Sloan was divorced. No one had told her.
“Y-you said you had a favor to ask.”
