It was just her. He was attracted to her.

  And, if he was being honest about this, Josie was being almost annoyingly distant around him. Even though they had just been literally thrown together—and not for the first time—Josie had made absolutely no attempt to move in on him.

  She hadn’t even flirted with him.

  Declan definitely wasn’t accustomed to being discounted in this manner. On the contrary, the women who approached him for riding lessons would, at some point or other, make advances on him, attempting to stir him up in some fashion.

  He had always taken it as a challenge not to react in any way to any of these women. The reason for that was because he didn’t want the lines between his riding student and him to blur.

  For the very first time in his life, Declan found that he was willing to allow those lines to get blurry. To his surprise, it was Josie who was the one who seemed determined that they should each stay in their separate lanes and not mix pleasure with business.

  Dear Reader,

  When I was a kid growing up in New York City, I desperately wanted to have a pet. A cute little dog that would follow me around and do my bidding. But when I asked for a pet, my loving parents could only afford to give me two brothers, who did follow me around but would never do my bidding unless I threatened them with bodily harm. Consequently, I had to wait until I had children of my own before a pet finally became part of our household.

  The first one, Rocky (whom my son named because that was his Rocky stage—Rocky, by the way, was a female), came from a breeder. Rocky’s father was a guard dog imported from Germany. By the age of one, Rocky turned out to behave like a junkyard dog and was extremely fussy when it came to food. She also only liked a very small circle of people she knew. The rest were known to run for the hills.

  Our second dog came from the German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County. Once she stopped shaking (she had been abused), she became the most docile, loving dog I’ve ever had the good fortune to know. She was the embodiment of mellow, and I loved her very much.

  Our latest addition is Lucy (also from the rescue society), who loves my husband dearly, on occasion will guard him if I try to come near him and is pure energy in a fur coat. After a year and a half, she still can’t be calmly walked (she wants to catch every rabbit who dares to cross her path), but we have high hopes...

  As always, I thank you for taking the time to pick up one of my books and from the bottom of my heart, I wish you someone to love who loves you back (and while you’re waiting, get a dog).

  All the best,

  Marie

  More Than a Temporary Family

  Marie Ferrarella

  USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award–winning author Marie Ferrarella has written more than three hundred books for Harlequin, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, marieferrarella.com.

  Books by Marie Ferrarella

  Harlequin Special Edition

  Forever, Texas

  The Cowboy’s Lesson in Love

  The Lawman’s Romance Lesson

  Her Right Hand Cowboy

  Secrets of Forever

  Matchmaking Mamas

  Coming Home for Christmas

  Dr. Forget-Me-Not

  Twice a Hero, Always Her Man

  Meant to Be Mine

  A Second Chance for the Single Dad

  Christmastime Courtship

  An Engagement for Two

  Adding Up to Family

  Bridesmaid for Hire

  Coming to a Crossroads

  The Late Bloomer’s Road to Love

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  To Rocky, Audrey and Lucy

  Three German Shepherds

  Who Left Their Paw Prints

  All Over My

  Heart

  (Lucy Is Still Leaving Them)

  Contents

  Prologue

  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 Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Last Chance on Moonlight Ridge by Catherine Mann

  Prologue

  Josie Whitaker carefully tiptoed into the nursery, although, she thought wryly, one of the twins was making enough noise to wake the dead while the other, for some mysterious reason, was sound asleep.

  However, it wasn’t six-month-old Lucas or his sister, Lily, who Josie was thinking about. She was trying not to startle her sister-in-law, Rebekah, who looked as if she was beyond exhausted and on her way to becoming a complete zombie of the old-school variety. The ones who weren’t aware of going through the paces of doing things while they were doing them.

  The exceedingly frazzled Rebekah was in the small nursery, sitting in the rocking chair Grant, Josie’s younger brother, had bought for his wife. The young mother was rocking Lily, trying to get the infant to finally fall asleep before her jarring cries wound up waking her twin brother.

  Moving as carefully as a seasoned cat burglar, Josie very slowly placed her hands on Rebekah’s shoulders.

  The latter did appear to be startled although not with any display of energy. Rebekah looked far too tired for that. Josie had overheard her talking to Grant, saying she viewed her as nothing short of a blessed lifesaver, who, if not endowed with the ability to walk on water, was at least able to restore much needed order in the household, which, right now, was a totally priceless commodity.

  “Josie,” Rebekah whispered as if the other woman’s name said everything there was to be said.

  “Why don’t you let me take over?” Josie suggested gently.

  It wasn’t really a question since the older woman was already slipping her very capable hands beneath the baby’s bottom, picking Lily up and summarily taking over the baby’s care.

  “You heard her crying,” Rebekah murmured needlessly as she surrendered the tearful tiny burden to her sister-in-law.

  “The entire state of North Carolina heard Lily crying,” Josie told her with a smile.

  Since she had moved from Florida to Spring Forest, North Carolina, and been installed in her brother’s garage apartment, she had been doing all she could to help the beleaguered couple juggle everything entailed in being first-time parents. Not only that, but she was helping Rebekah manage her work at an animal rescue shelter as well.

  Remembering what it was like when she had been a new mother, Josie had done her best to help the young couple find their footing in this brand-new chaotic world of parenthood that they were trying so hard to navigate.

  Josie glanced over her shoulder toward Lucas’s crib. Miraculously, the twin still appeared to be sound asleep. She watched the baby’s chest to make sure it was moving. It was. He was just, blessedly, a very sound sleeper.

  “Lucas seems to be the only one who hasn’t heard his sister’s cries,” his aunt commented with an amused smile.

  Rebekah’s look of exhaustion melted into one of concern as she regarded her baby. “Why doesn’t he hear Lily? Why doesn’t her crying wake him up? You don’t think there’s something wrong with his hearing, do you?”

  Josie thought of the way the baby had responded to the lullaby she had sung to him last night. He had giggled when she’d made her voice go up extra high. If he could differentiate between sounds, then he could definitely hear.

  “No, I don’t,” Josie answered confidently, continuing to rock Lily. “I think you should just be grateful for the mysterious respite. Now go to bed, ‘Mama’ before Lucas decides to wake up and join in the ‘fun.’ Shoo,” she added, waving Rebekah off with one hand.

  Rebekah’s face softened. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

  “You can thank me by going to bed,” Josie told her, nodding toward the bedroom door.

  Rebekah’s feet were already moving in that direction. Whether the young woman was actually conscious of it or not was another story, Josie thought with a smile. Her sister-in-law desperately needed to get some sleep before she wound up collapsing.

  “Go,” Josie mouthed, knowing they were on borrowed time and that Lucas could wake up at any moment.

  Josie sighed softly as her sister-in-law left the room.

  “Alone at last,” she murmured to the bundle in her arms. For her part, Lily was finally settling down. She was awfully cute when she wasn’t screaming her lungs out.

  Rebekah and Grant were still thanking her almost daily for uprooting her life and coming to stay with them. But quite honestly, she was as grateful to them as they were to her. She enjoyed looking after the babies. And helping them out gave her a purpose.

  After a life
that had been nothing but nonstop work as she’d focused on putting her husband through medical school—even after their daughter, Hannah, had been born—her whirlwind existence had come to an almost abrupt, screeching halt in the last four years. Her less than grateful husband had opened up his practice and the rest of it had turned into a cliché when he’d had an affair with his nurse.

  Ultimately, he’d chosen his nurse over Josie, turning his back on both her and their daughter, leaving them behind.

  For some reason, perhaps to win over her father, Hannah had decided to become a doctor just like him and, after high school graduation, had gone off to a premed college program in another state. She’d then elected to double up on courses so she could expedite getting her degree.

  While she was supportive of her daughter’s choices, that had suddenly left Josie’s once extremely busy life extremely empty.

  Oh sure, back in Florida she’d had her catering business, but now that she was in Spring Forest that did little to fill her life. More than anything, Josie liked being needed. So when she’d learned about her brother and sister-in-law’s situation, she was more than eager to volunteer to help them out. Josie had firsthand knowledge what it was like, trying to raise a baby while holding down a job.

  In a way, she felt like this was déjà vu—except that she got to hold the babies in her arms instead of leaving that up to friends who were able to pitch in.

  In another way, she thought, she was now living that part of her life she had sorely missed out on. Even though she had never complained to her husband during those years, she would have much rather just been a stay-at-home mom and raised Hannah rather than working to pay the bills.

  “You’re my second chance,” she whispered to Lily.

  Lily responded by finally falling asleep.

  Josie went on rocking to ensure that the twin was really asleep. Besides, it felt wonderful holding a baby in her arms.

  She went on rocking a long time.

  Chapter One

  Declan Hoyt had never entertained any delusions of grandeur. He had never wanted to be famous or even have an inordinate amount of money in his bank account. All he’d ever wanted was to be a successful horse breeder. It had been a dream of his as far back as he could remember. In his heart, he didn’t think he’d been asking for that much.

  But, he had learned, the funny thing about plans was that no matter how simple they seemed to be on the outset, they had a way of either getting complicated or going sideways.

  His certainly had.

  It wasn’t all that long after he began pursuing his career that Declan discovered being a small-time horse breeder didn’t begin to bring in enough money to pay the bills. So he’d begun to board horses for other people. When that still hadn’t brought in enough money, he’d branched out and started giving riding lessons as well.

  Normally a very frugal man, Declan had found himself in need of even more extra money after his father died unexpectedly a year ago and his mother, Ruth, just fell to pieces over the loss. Distraught, it had taken his mother practically the whole year to pull herself together.

  Not about to abandon his mother, Declan had come to her rescue by taking her in to live with him.

  That simple act had helped Ruth come around. Slowly but surely, she’d found that she was able to cope with the unending sea of loneliness that had threatened to completely engulf her in the beginning. Wanting to show her gratitude—as well as remain useful—Ruth had taken over the cooking as well as the maintenance of the farmhouse for Declan.

  It had taken almost a year, but things were beginning to look as if they were finally settling down for Declan and his mother.

  But fate had a way of throwing the proverbial monkey wrench into the works—or at least it felt that way to Declan. In his particular case, the monkey wrench came in the form of his younger sister Peggy. Even at her best, Peggy had never been very emotionally stable and, as luck would have it, his sister hadn’t married the model of stability either. The problems had come for both of them when Peggy’d started self-medicating her depression and anxiety with a variety of substances that had only made things worse. Two years and one baby girl later, Peggy’s husband had decided that he’d had enough of his wife’s drinking as well as her doing drugs, so he’d taken off.

  Unfortunately, it seemed that the stress brought upon by her husband’s abandonment had only made Peggy’s issues that much more pronounced. Despite her family’s offers to help, her answer had been to soothe her pain with more alcohol and harder drugs.

  Periodically, Peggy would declare her desire to be a better mother to her little one. To that end, she would dutifully check herself into some rehab center or other. During those times—and there were more than a few—Peggy would leave her daughter, Shannon, in her parents’ care.

  That was all well and good when there’d been two of them to share the burden of watching over and taking care of Shannon. But after Ruth’s husband died, Ruth had found she didn’t have the wherewithal to put up with a now fourteen-year-old distressed teenager.

  Besides, Ruth no longer had a home where the girl could go. She was now living in Declan’s house, which meant that Shannon had to go there.

  And just like that, Declan found his once very simple life become extremely complicated. Between caring for his mother and his teenaged niece as well as all the extra jobs he took on the side, the six-foot-two, thirty-eight-year-old horse breeder/farmer had his hands more than full.

  To say the least, he did not take the news of this latest invasion of his home front very well.

  “There’s nobody else she can stay with?” Declan wanted to know when his mother had dropped this latest bombshell into his life. That was when he discovered that, in trouble again, his sister’d had a choice of going into a ninety-day rehab program or serving actual jail time.

  Peggy had naturally chosen the rehab program, which meant that Shannon had to come stay with her grandmother—and that meant with him.

  “You know there isn’t,” Ruth told her son in an apologetic tone. “Shannon either stays here with you—with us,” his mother amended, “or Children’s Services will take her to live at one of their facilities. You don’t want that, do you?” Ruth asked, looking at her son for confirmation. The idea of something like that happening to her granddaughter was clearly unbearable.

  “No,” Declan reluctantly agreed with a sigh, knowing his mother wouldn’t give up pressing him until she heard the answer she wanted to hear, “we don’t.” For now, he kept his concern that he wouldn’t be able to support his niece financially or emotionally to himself. His mother didn’t need any more on her shoulders. Somehow, he’d find a way to deal with it.

  * * *

  A couple of days later, Declan began to feel that maybe he had given his mother the wrong answer. He found that the fourteen-year-old was less than exactly a ray of sunshine when he had to put up with the teenager on a regular, full-time basis.

  “What’s wrong with your internet reception?” Shannon wanted to know when he walked into the living room that morning. Her fingers were all but pounding out her irritation on her less than receptive cell phone. She had had her face buried in the electronic device since she’d arrived.

  “Good morning to you too,” Declan replied sardonically. Then, seeing that his displeasure had completely gone over his niece’s head, he said, “The internet seems to have a mind of its own,” he told her, giving her an annoyed look. “You should know what that’s like.” Truth be told, Declan wasn’t very proficient with the internet himself, and paid someone in town to maintain only the most basic website for his business because he had to. He was doing his best to learn how, because, at bottom, he believed in being a hands-on person.

  Shannon’s brows drew together as she scowled at him. “A mind of its own,” she echoed. “Does that mean I don’t have to do those dumb chores you gave me?” the teenager wanted to know, referring to the list her uncle had given her last night.

  “No, it does not,” he informed her evenly. He found that she made him lose his temper even faster than Peggy had when she was that age—but, as with Peggy, he knew that she was taunting him deliberately to get a reaction. He refused to rise to the bait—or back down. Declan had given his niece a week to settle in, but enough was enough. As far as he was concerned, the vacation was over. Besides, she got moodier every day she sat around with nothing to do. She needed to get out of her head, get some fresh air, and spend a few minutes being productive. It would be good for her, whether she’d admit it or not. “Everyone has to pull their own weight around here.”