Dani Collins | THE BACHELOR'S BABY

In THE BACHELOR'S BABY, my heroine, Meg Canon, is a news anchor in Chicago who moves back to her hometown of Marietta Montana. I thought it would make a fun blog post if she interviewed my hero, Linc Brady. Enjoy: Linc, you’re new to Marietta. Why did you choose to move to small town, Montana?

I was born in Montana to ranch folk. Mom had to sell our spread when Dad died. I
was too young to help her run it, but I wound up moving back to one in high
school. I worked as a hand while Mom did the books. When our employer died, his
nephew inherited and sold off. Mom and I lost both our jobs and our home, so I
set her up near family and went to the rigs. But I always wanted to come back to
ranching and when I saw the Circle H, I knew it had the potential I was looking for.

Speaking of potential, you had to know that you were one of the most eligible bachelors to come along to these parts in a while. When you decided to settle down, were you intending to find a wife, marry, and have a family?

Hell, no. I’ve lived in airports and hotels for years, so yes, I was more than
ready to settle in and grow roots on land that belongs to me. And I like women,
don’t get me wrong. I really like women. But I was never good at long-term
relationships so a wife and family is the last thing I’ve ever had as part of my
grand plan.

What was your expectation from the bachelor auction, then? A date, maybe a hook-up, but not an actual relationship? I didn’t want to do the auction at all. I was conscripted. No, I was set up and you did it, lady. Wipe that smirk off your face. You sicced Lily on me with her story about Molly and Josh. I happen to have a soft spot for single mothers, given how my own mother was left to raise me alone. And I had a kid on one of my first crews who was injured bad enough to wind up in a wheelchair. I know what’s involved in refitting a house. I wanted to help, but damn it, I thought they wanted money or someone to swing a hammer. That’s what I thought I was agreeing to. Holding a bachelor auction to raise money is pure nonsense. And don’t you dare remind me it was a good cause. It was an excellent cause. How was your date?

The real date? Or that night I brought you home after the auction? Both were
pretty damned good, but if you put down that hairbrush and got your butt into
this bed, I’d do my best to make tonight just as memorable.

~Mic drop~

About THE BACHELOR'S BABY

Your date with Bachelor #3 includes champagne and chocolate in the limo that collects you, a helicopter tour of Marietta and the surrounding mountains and valleys, and dinner at a five star restaurant in Great Falls. While oil baron Linc Brady wines and dines you, a maid service will completely clean your home.

Who could resist this tempting offer? Meg Canon plans to do just that. She’s
only home to clean out her childhood bedroom for her brother’s new
step-daughter, then she’s outta her childhood small town and back to her life in
Chicago. Then she meets the sexy, renegade millionaire while she’s stuck in the
snow. Sparks fly and Meg is tempted to stay a little longer.

Linc Brady is new in town and happy to help a kid in need, but a bachelor
auction? Technically he doesn’t owe Meg a damned thing after she sets him up for
the auction, then bids on him, but her high-class city polish is his fatal
weakness and makes her impossible to forget. When she agrees to come home with
him, he makes it clear he’s a confirmed bachelor. This is a one-night thing.

One night that turns into nine months and maybe…a lifetime?

Excerpt

“Not funny,” a male voice growled behind her as Meg reached for a small box off
a shelf in the hardware store.

Linc’s voice really was a turn on, all heavy and faintly abrasive, yet warm and
rounded. Like good scotch, or an heirloom quilt.

He’d still been talking to Lily when Meg had left the grocery store, his neck
red, his scowl a firmly fixed mask.

Meg didn’t know Lily that well, but had met her through Andie Bennet, who was
made of awesome. She trusted Andie’s judgment, even though Lily was rumored to
have been a stripper in another life and had only been in town a few years. Meg
hadn’t lived here full-time since leaving for college and took all such gossip
with a grain of salt.

Besides, despite Lily’s sometimes acerbic sense of humor, she struck Meg as the
biggest heart of gold walking, especially given the fundraiser she was
spearheading for Molly Dekker. Molly was another sweetheart—a kindergarten
teacher and single mom whose only son had been injured last fall. Meg had
genuinely wanted to help once she heard what Lily was trying to do for Molly.

The fact it had allowed her to lob another snowball in Linc’s direction was
icing on the cake.

“What do you mean?” Meg asked with an innocent glance at him that actually made
her heart skip as she took in his folded arms and planted feet. He was genuinely
mad.

She cleared her throat and made herself face him, even though her blood stung a
warning through her veins. At the same time, the worst of her girlish hormones
fluttered, filling her with nervous excitement and giddy warmth.

“Why did you set that woman on me?” he asked.

“Lily? She asked me about Blake. She was disappointed to hear he’s engaged. She
asked if I could think of any other eligible bachelors in town. I said I had
just met a perfect one-date wonder.” Blink. Blink. Blink.

These baby blues had pulled Meg from basement cable interviews of small time
activists to a relief position with a syndicated station. She wasn’t afraid to
use them.

Linc was really tall. And had perfected his glower of intimidation. She
privately admitted he worked that like a hot damn, but she’d made a career for
herself in what was still a world heavily seeded to men. Outwardly, she didn’t
falter.

“Can you tell me if these are self-screwing?” She held up the box in her hand.

His scruffed beard seemed to bristle as his jaw hardened. “Oh, you’ve got a
handful of screw yourself,” he assured her.

She swallowed back a laugh, pretty sure that would get her into more trouble
than she already stood in. Instead, she turned the box over in her hands. She
hadn’t had this much fun in ages. “Maybe one nail would be simpler?”

“Why are you so angry?” he demanded.

“I’m not, I’m really not,” she insisted. “I think it’s funny.”

“You think tricking me into standing on a stage and have women bid on me like a
stud bull is funny?”

“I didn’t think you’d agree,” she defended. “It was an impulse to mention you,
since you walked right by us and you’re, I assume, single?”

He narrowed his eyes.

Seriously? He didn’t see the humor in this?

“Look, I just...” She couldn’t explain it. Not without getting into how she’d
let go of something today. Found herself again. She felt cheerful and sassy. She
wanted to flirt. He drew her.

But she’d made him mad.

“Come on,” she cajoled. “It’s not my fault you didn’t say no. It’s a good
cause,” she tried.

“You don’t even know me.”

She had to look away. Her cheeks began to sting. She suddenly felt very gauche
and juvenile. Rejection was always a tough one for her and all she’d wanted was
to keep playing with him. Now he hated her.

“I’m out of practice,” she allowed quietly, genuinely sorry. “Honestly, I didn’t
mean anything by it.”

“Practice?” he repeated. “Doing what?”

Seriously? She lifted a gaze that let him see how uncomfortable she was, while
scolding him for being obtuse.

He let out a choke of disbelieving laughter. “This is you trying to get a man’s
attention? Are you twelve?”

She looked away, frowning, trying to hide that her eyes began to burn along with
the back of her throat. Pointing Lily at him had been meant in fun, but it was
becoming personal and hurtful. She felt twelve. Hell, she felt seven, realizing
for the first time what it really meant to be adopted: that your ‘real’ mom and
dad hadn’t wanted you.

“Look—” she started to say, ready to apologize, but only saw his back. He was walking away.

About Dani Collins

Canadian Dani Collins spent twenty-five years dreaming of becoming a romance
author, made her first sale in 2012, and promptly won a Reviewer’s Choice Award
from Romantic Times. Best known for her Harlequin Presents, she has also
published a romantic comedy, a medieval fantasy romance, and The Bachelor’s Baby
is the third in her series of novellas for Montana Born. Married to her high
school sweetheart, Dani has two mostly-grown children (one of each) and doesn’t
have any hobbies. She’s too busy writing.

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