A mix-up leads to an unexpected connection in this small town, Silver Creek romance. After spending another family wedding fielding questions about her non-existent love life, Kelsey Noble decides she’s tired of waiting around for things she could go out and get herself. What Kelsey wants is a baby, and she doesn’t see any point waiting for a husband she’s not even sure she wants. But a mix-up at the fertility clinic lands her with a hassle she didn’t count on. A big, muscular hassle in a Stetson and cowboy boots. Cole Mitchell is shocked to discover that a grand gesture from years past has come back to haunt him. Now, thanks to a clerical error, a woman he’s never met is having his baby—and there’s no way he’s going to walk away and forget he has a child. Trying to make nice with the unexpected father of her baby lands Kelsey in Silver Creek, Oregon, dealing with the kind of small town life she left behind years ago. Even worse is dealing with the burning attraction she feels for Cole. She knows adding romance to the mix is a very bad idea, but she’s not sure how long she can resist falling for the last man she ever expected.... Maisey Yates is a N ew York Times bestselling author of over one hundred romance novels. Whether she’s writing strong, hardworking cowboys, dissolute princes, or multigenerational family stories, she loves getting lost in fictional worlds. An avid knitter with a dangerous yarn addiction and an aversion to housework, Maisey lives with her husband and three kids in rural Oregon. Chapter One So, when are you getting married? "So, Kelsey, when are you getting married?" Kelsey fought the urge to stab her own thigh with one of the fancy forks that her sister had selected so carefully for her special day. She could see the question forming in all of her well-meaning relatives' eyes before the words made it from their minds to their lips. Well, Aunt Addy, I've set the date for five years from now. With any luck, I'll have sunk my claws into some unwitting victim in just enough time to pick out china patterns. "Someday," she said, pasting a smile on her face. One she hoped looked happy and not like she was contemplating homicide. It was such an idyllic setting. Her family's eastern Oregon ranch, the field bright with grass and yellow flowers. And she was as miserable as she could ever remember being. She looked back up at her aunt, who was contemplating her a bit too carefully. Don't say "on the shelf." Don't say "on the shelf." "You're nearly on the shelf, dear," her aunt said with a chuckle. Kelsey eyed her fork. "I like the view from up here," she said. She was thirty. Thirty wasn't old. Thirty was just starting to come down from the postcollege, young-professionals club scene. Thirty wasn't even remotely ready to shackle yourself to someone until divorce did you part. Or so she'd heard. She hadn't made it to the divorce. She hadn't made it down the aisle. She'd made it into the bedroom she'd shared with her then fiancé to find him doing some very inappropriate things with another woman-but no one was giving her any credit for that. She'd been too young then anyway. There were a lot of women who married older, and statistics suggested those marriages were likely to be more successful. She knew that. Heck, she clung to that. But something in the water in her rural Oregon town had compelled most of her friends to get married right out of high school. The other stragglers had been caught up sometime before their mid-twenties had hit, and she felt like the odd one out in a big way. Even more now that the last of her younger sisters had just done the deed. At twenty. Bitch. Okay, she didn't really think her sister was a bitch. But she was feeling a little bit bitter as the reception wore on. Plus, the bridesmaid dresses were yellow, and she looked horrible in yellow. Kailey knew that and she'd picked it anyway. "You look . . . I was going to say 'great,' but you actually look really grumpy." Kelsey looked over her shoulder and up at the broad frame of her very best, and last, single friend, Alexa Lambert. "Thanks, Alex," she snarked. "Shouldn't you be over there trying to catch a bouquet?" "Hell no!" Alexa, dressed in black pants and a black top, looking so out of place, sat in the chair beside her. "Avoidance, huh?" "Why do you think I moved across the country? To get away from this kind of thing. Honestly, none of my friends in New York are married yet. Shacking up, maybe. But married, no." "I moved." "To Portland. Glamour central," Alexa said wryly. "I want to be close enough to visit still. All my sisters started having babies, and-" "Yeah, the baby thing doesn't get me gooey like it seems to do for most women. I'm avoiding babies." Kelsey wasn't in baby-avoidance mode. Babies did make her gooey. She wished they didn't. She wished that holding her niece and smelling her baby-soft head didn't make her stomach cramp with the worst