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The Gentrys: Cal
By Linda Conrad Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 2003 Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. All right reserved. ISBN: 0-373-76524-X
Chapter One
News Flash: Local Celebrity Involved in Fatal Accident
Gentry Wells native, Callan A. Gentry, suffered critical injuries last week when a pickup trying to evade Fort Worth police sideswiped his van. Gentry's wife, Jasmine, and the driver of the pickup were killed in the accident. Gentry's daughter, four-month-old Kaydie Ann, escaped injury.
A world-renowned stock-car racer and winner of several titles, Gentry inherited a partial ownership in the family ranch twelve years ago after his parents disappeared at sea and were presumed drowned. Gentry graduated from Gentry Wells High School and went on to attend the University of Texas in Austin.
Gentry's condition continues to be listed as serious. A spokesperson for Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth declined to confirm or deny rumors that he will face permanent disability. Speculation from sports media sources has centered on the possibility that Gentry may be forced to abandon plans of returning to the racing circuit next season.
* * *
Two months later: Gentry Ranch, Texas
No doubt about it. Cal Gentry had finally found something he couldn't handle. He was in way over his head.
He cringed once again at the baby's wail and wondered why on earth his daughter wouldn't stop crying? Holding her loosely in one arm, Calcontemplated his options. With his movements restricted by having to use a crutch for a bum knee, the choices were quickly disintegrating.
Cal jiggled the tiny screaming bundle once more and limped back and forth across the front room of the cabin they were temporarily calling home. The solution to quieting his child seemed more elusive than ever, and his head hurt from worrying about her. Soon he would probably drown in her tears.
He cursed his rotten luck. First, at losing the baby's new nanny this morning - as she'd been the one person who seemed able to settle the child down when she was fretting. And second, because the family's attorney in Gentry Wells, Ray Adler, had been sympathetic but didn't offer much hope for a quick fix. And Cal needed a solution - now.
A loud knock suddenly came from the front door and Cal grimaced. It had to be one of his family come to check on their welfare. Dang, but he hated to look so incompetent and foolish in front of them, almost as much as he hated to go to the main ranch house and face the sad memories and his own glaring lack of independence.
The knocking grew more insistent and a bright new thought occurred to him. What if Ray had been wrong and it had only taken a few hours to locate a replacement for Mrs. Garcia?
Cal inched toward the front door as fast as his useless leg would let him. When he got there, it took a minute to lean the crutch against the wall, shift his weight so he could stand alone, and rearrange the baby to ensure she wouldn't squirm out of his grip. As he accomplished it all, the thought that the person knocking must be someone sent to be the baby's nanny became more and more plausible in his mind. He eagerly threw open the door.
Before him stood one of the most exotic and beautiful women he'd ever beheld. Cal couldn't help the gasp that escaped his lips.
After he'd swallowed a couple of times and managed a second look, he realized that the gorgeous Mexican-American woman on the doorstep also appeared somewhat haggard. In her mid-twenties, she appeared to be a little older than his sister. The worse-for-the-wear clothes she wore hung loosely on her ultra-thin frame. Her shoes were filthy, dust and mud clung to them like she'd walked both through shallow puddles and the deep Texas dirt.
Aside from her weary-traveler appearance, she was downright spectacular. Warm-chocolate eyes with golden highlights stared out of a perfect heart-shaped face. Her expression was laced with a kind of soul-searching starkness.
But her skin, the color of golden honey, looked as smooth as a brand-new fiberglass paint job. She'd pulled back her long, shiny black hair into an untidy ponytail. The strands resembled spun silk where they flew loose around her face.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Gentrys: Cal by Linda Conrad
Copyright © 2003 by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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