The Package Deal
Nine Months to Change His Life
Marion Lennox
From Neighbours to Newlyweds?
Brenda Harlen
The Bonus Mum
Jennifer Greene
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Nine Months to Change His Life
About the Author
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
From Neighbours to Newlyweds?
About the Author
Dedication
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
Epilogue
The Bonus Mum
Back Cover Text
About the Author
Dedication
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
Copyright
Nine Months to Change His Life
Marion Lennox
MARION LENNOX is a country girl, born on an Australian dairy farm. She moved onmostly because the cows just werent interested in her stories! Married to a very special doctor', Marion writes for the Mills & Boon Medical Romance and Mills & Boon Cherish lines. (She used a different name for each category for a whilereaders looking for her past romance titles should search for author Trisha David as well). Shes now had more than seventy-five romance novels accepted for publication.
In her non-writing life Marion cares for kids, cats, dogs, chooks and goldfish. She travels, she fights her rampant garden (shes losing) and her house dust (shes lost). Having spun in circles for the first part of her life, shes now stepped back from her other career, which was teaching statistics at her local university. Finally shes reprioritised her life, figured out whats important and discovered the joys of deep baths, romance and chocolate. Preferably all at the same time!
CHAPTER ONE
FROM THE MOMENT they were born, the Logan boys were trouble.
They were dark-haired, dark-eyed and full of mischief. Usually ignored by their wealthy, emotionally distant parents, they ran their nannies ragged and they ran themselves ragged. There wasnt a lot they wouldnt dare each other to do.
As they grew to men, tall, tough and ripped, their risks escalated. Some of those risks turned out to be foolish, Ben conceded. Joining the army and going to Afghanistan had been foolish. Back in civvies, attempting to get on with their careers, the trauma was still with them.
Sailing round the world to distract Jake from his failed marriage had also turned out to be stupid. Especially now, as Cyclone Lila bore down on their frail life raft, as one harness hung free from the chopper overhead.
Take Ben first, Jake yelled to the paramedic whod been lowered with the harness, but Ben wasnt buying it.
Im the eldest, Ben snapped. He was only older by twenty minutes but the responsibility of that twenty minutes had weighed on him all his life. Go.
Jake refused, but the woman swinging from the chopper was risking all to save them. The weather was crazyno one should be on the sea in such conditions. Arguing had to be done hard and fast.
He did what he had to do. The things he said to get Jake to go first were unforgivablebut he got the harness on.
The choppers full, the paramedic yelled at Ben as she signalled for the chopper to pull them free. Well come back for you as soon as we can.
Or not. They all knew how unlikely another rescue was. The cyclone had veered erratically from its predicted path, catching the whole yachting fleet unprepared. The speed at which it was travelling was breathtaking, and there was no escape. Massive waves had smashed their boat, and they were still on the edge of the cyclone. The worst was yet to come.
At least Jake was safehe hoped. The wind was making the rope from the chopper swing wildly, hurling Jake and the paramedic through the cresting waves. Get up there, he pleaded silently. Move.
Then the next wave bore down, a monster of breaking foam. He saw it coming, slammed down the hatch of the life raft and held on for dear life as the sea tossed his flimsy craft like a beach ball in surf.
Well come back for you as soon as we can.
When the cyclone was over?
The wave passed and he dared open the hatch a little. The chopper was higher, but Jake and his rescuer were still swinging.
Stay safe, brother, he whispered. Stay safe until I see you again.
A cyclone was heading straight for him. Until I see you again... What a bitter joke.
* * *
This was no mere storm. This was a cyclone, and in a cyclone there could surely be few worse places to be than on Hideaway Island.
Hideaway Island was tiny, a dot on the outer edge of the Bay of Islands off New Zealands north coast. Two of Marys friends, a surgeon and his lawyer wife, had bought it for a song years ago. Theyd built a hut in the centre of the island and bought a serviceable boat to ferry themselves back and forth to the mainland. Theyd decided it was paradise.
But Henry and Barbara now had impressive professional lives and three children. They hardly ever made it out here. Itd been on the market for a year, but with the global financial crisis no one was buying.
Right now, Henry and Barbara were in New York, but before theyd left, Henry had tossed Mary the keys to the hut and boat.
You might use some solitude until this fuss dies down, Henry told her with rough kindness. Could you check on the place while were away? Stay if you like; wed be grateful. It might be what you need.
It was what she needed. Henry was one of the few who didnt blame her. Hideaway had seemed a reasonable place to run.
Until today. Heinz, her terrier-size, fifty-seven-or-more-variety dog, was looking at her as if he was worried, and his worry was justified. The wind was escalating by the minute. Outside the trees were bending and groaning with its force, and the roughly built hut felt distinctly unstable.
We could end up in Texas, Mary muttered, shaking her useless radio. Had a transmission tower fallen in the wind? Her phone was dead and there was no radio reception.
At six this morning the radio had said Cyclone Lila was five hundred miles off the coast, veering north-east instead of in its predicted northern trajectory. There was concern for a major international yacht race, but thered been no hint that it might turn south and hit the Bay of Islands. Residents of New Zealands north had merely been advised that the outside edges could cause heavy winds.
Tie down outside furniture, the broadcast had said. Dont park under trees.
That was a normal storm warningnothing to worry about. Mary had thought briefly of taking the boat and heading for the mainland, but the wind was rising and the usually placid sea around the islands was rough. Itd be safer to sit it out.
Or it had seemed safer, until about an hour ago.
Another gust slammed into the hut. A sheet of iron ripped from the roof and sleet swept inside.
The foundations creaked and the pictures on the wall swayed.
Uh-oh.
I think we might head for the cave, she told Heinz uneasily. You want a walk?
The little terrier-cum-beagle-cum-a-lot-of-other-things cocked his head and looked even more worried. Right now a walk didnt appeal even to Heinz.
But the cave was appealing. Mary and Heinz had explored it a couple of days ago. It was wide and deep, set in the cliffs above the only beach where swimming was possible. Best of all, it faced west. Itd protect them from the worst of the gale.
Now that the roof was open, there didnt seem to be a choice. She had to go, and go now before it got worse. But what to take? The cave was only two or three hundred yards away. There was a flattish track and she had a trolley, the one Barbara and Henry used to lug supplies from boat to hut.
The boat. There was a sickening thought. The tiny natural harbour on the east of the island should protect the boat in all but the worst conditionsbut these were the worst conditions.
She had no communications. No boat. She was on her own.
So what else was new? Shed been on her own now for as long as she could remember. Like it or not, shed learned to depend entirely on herself, and she could do it now.
Concentrate on practicalities.
She grabbed plastic garbage bags and started stuffing things inside. Provisions, dog food, firestarters, kindling, bedding. Her manuscript. That was a joke, but she was taking it anyway.
Water containers. What else? What would Barbara and Henry want her to save?
Barbaras patchwork quilt? The lovely cushions embroidered by Barbaras grandmother? They went into plastic bags, too.