Breakfast In Bed

Breakfast In Bed
Ruth Jean Dale

He bet breakfast in bed that he was irresistible! As soon as Brooke met Garrett she knew he was a charmer. Women probably just rolled over when he petted them, much the same way her cats, traitors all, had responded to him. The best thing for Brooke was to keep out of his way, but she just couldn't now that Garrett's five-year-old daughter, Molly, was without a mother or a nanny and so much in need of her love and affection.Well, so be it, and if Garrett Jackson did start his seduction routine on her he would soon discover that she wasn't about to offer him breakfast in her bed!

“What’s with you and bets?” Brooke stared at him, perplexed. “Are you a compulsive gambler or something?” (#u68a7441d-c33a-5ef9-a933-086ea2a7c70c)Letter to Reader (#ud85403fb-3910-5f6b-ac02-1af4c053bd6c)Title Page (#u9537acff-f463-5718-b131-b9e57976198e)Dedication (#uc365790f-c6c7-5e0a-9ae2-2fd3755e22bc)CHAPTER ONE (#u00d5c8b2-d84b-5246-9f3d-d09616e4d1a2)CHAPTER TWO (#ubd617dd2-a96e-5626-9522-9195d4cf5032)CHAPTER THREE (#u57cd8b66-7ba2-5e18-bf69-2b1fd180a034)CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“What’s with you and bets?” Brooke stared at him, perplexed. “Are you a compulsive gambler or something?”

Garrett raised his brows. “Or something. I’m not afraid to take chances once in a while, if that’s what you mean. How about this—I’ll bet I can get cozy with your cats before you can make friends with my dogs. Name your own stakes. Make it easy on yourself.” He gave her a knowing wink.

She recoiled in horror. “No way!”

He ignored her protest. “So, what are the stakes? Hey, I’ve got it! This is a B and B, right? How about the winner gets breakfast in bed?”

Dear Reader.

Welcome to our exciting showcase series for 19971

Authors you’ll treasure, books you’ll want to keep!

Harlequin Romance books just keep getting better—and we enjoy bringing you the best choice of wonderful romances each month. Now, for the whole year, we’ll be highlighting a particular author in our monthly selections—a specially chosen story we know you’re going to enjoy, again and again....

This month’s recommended reading is Ruth Jean Dale’s Breakfast in Bed, a charming book full of fun and humor. Our SIMPLY THE BEST title for August will be Wild at Heart (#3468) by Susan Fox.

Happy reading!

The Editors

Breakfast In Bed

Ruth Jean Dale

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

For my daughter, Valerie Duran,

a world-class reader of romance—

and everything else she can get her hands on!

CHAPTER ONE

OH, CLARENCE, our love can never be, for you are promised to another....

Brooke had to blink away tears so she could read the elaborate script of the silent movie title card flickering on the enormous television screen. Not that she actually needed to read the words; she’d seen the film so many times that she knew it, and them, by heart.

Forbidden Love, filmed in 1925, had been the first movie to star the sixteen-year-old Cora Jackson. Decades later, her luminous celluloid beauty still transfixed twenty-five-year-old Brooke Hamilton, companion of the former movie star’s old age.

The glorious child-woman wafted gracefully across the shadowy screen. Brooke’s hand stilled on the back of the sleek orange cat draped across her lap—Miss Cora’s cat, one of two left in Brooke’s care under the terms of the will. Watching the woman’s first film on the VCR two months after her death, Brooke still found it impossible to believe that her friend and mentor was really gone. Even well into her eighties, Miss Cora had remained a vital and captivating woman.

The cat stirred, casting Brooke a disapproving glance over one furry shoulder. “Sorry, Gable,” she apologized, resuming a slow stroking. “I know I get carried away, but I miss her so much. I’ll bet you do, too.” She swallowed hard and read the next title card.

For honor’s sake, you must marry another upon the morrow. But you will always be my only love—no, don’t look at me so!

The on-screen Cora, the one who would remain forever young and beautiful, pressed the back of a slender wrist against her mouth dramatically, tears sparkling like diamonds on her lashes. Many times Miss Cora had explained to the enraptured Brooke that in those days of silent films, cameramen had moved heaven and earth to photograph stars in the best possible light.

“It took onions to get those tears to come and a genius with a camera to make them look sincere,” Cora insisted. “Goodness, what did I know about acting? Talent didn’t even enter into it. I was just a little girl from Illinois who found herself in Hollywood.”

That fortuitous circumstance had changed Cora’s life, and more than a half century later, Brooke’s life, as well. “Go figure,” she mused to Gable, tickling his ear with a gentle fingertip.

He responded with something that sounded vaguely like “Arough-ooo!” Brooke glanced down at him in surprise to find him staring at the door as if he expected something dreadful to spring through at any second and attack him.

The door, like everything in Glennhaven, Miss Cora’s magnificent Victorian mansion on a mountain-side overlooking Boulder, Colorado, was dark and elaborate and reminiscent of days gone by. Brooke had come here today ostensibly to “sort and organize,” but had found the prospect so depressing that she’d slipped a tape into the VCR instead.

She should have known that it would turn out to be a mistake. This house had been a second home to her, but she’d tried to avoid it since the death of the woman who’d been more family to her than her own family had ever pretended.

Cora Jackson Browne—Brooke’s beloved Miss Cora—had been like a mother to her. Or perhaps the proper term was grandmother, since the woman had been at least sixty years older than her young companion. Her death was even more shocking because it had been completely unanticipated. She’d simply gone to bed one night and never awakened. Although it was a gentle end to a memorable life, Brooke had been devastated.

And more so when she realized that Miss Cora herself had somehow seemed to sense that her time was near. In a long and detailed letter written only a few weeks earlier but not found until after her death, she’d laid out her plans and expectations.

A simple burial; no members of her family to be notified of her death until just before the reading of her will; and custody of her cats to Brooke, along with an acre of land and the guest house.

In typical Miss Cora fashion, she’d been specific in every detail. Although not all of it made sense to Brooke, she was prepared to move heaven and earth to accommodate her beloved patron.

Thus she had steeled herself to come today to Glennhaven to begin the bittersweet task of organizing Cora’s possessions, pending the eventual arrival of the new owner of this magnificent aberration. Miss Cora had entrusted Brooke with this chore, along with many others. She was glad to do these final insignificant tasks but it was hard—

Gable stiffened and sat up on Brooke’s lap. His ears pointed toward the door, which was slightly ajar, then slicked back flat against his broad head. Flexing his claws into the tough fabric of her jeans, he arched up on tiptoe.

“What is it, boy?” She tried to distract him by rubbing his tummy, which usually worked but this time fell flat. “Do you hear something?” She couldn’t imagine how, over the swelling strings of the musical accompaniment to the sad tale of love and sacrifice unreeling on the television screen.

Every bright hair on the cat’s body stood on end. Brooke, more curious than alarmed, followed the path of his hostile glare.

“What is it, Gable?” She tried again to soothe him. “There’s nobody in the house but you and me—”

The door flew open with a resounding crash and Brooke stared at the creature standing there—a dog! A small, black-and-white, terrier-looking creature who seemed to be all fangs and claws. What in the world was a dog doing inside Glennhaven, the refuge of all creatures feline?

Gable, for one, wasn’t interested in hanging around to find out. With an awful screech, he bolted from Brooke’s lap. The sudden movement startled the little dog and he let out a yelp of alarm, quickly followed by a staccato yapping that scared the woman almost as much as the cat.

With a shriek of alarm, Brooke leapt to her feet. The terrier didn’t even seem to notice her, too intent upon poor Gable, hotfooting it across the room. The straightest path between dog and cat, unfortunately, led through Brooke. Without hesitation, the dog took it.

Brooke panicked. In her haste to escape, she leapt in the wrong direction and one of her feet came down on the dog’s paw. He let out a howl, which further unnerved her.

So did the deep and unfamiliar voice coming from the hall outside. “Larry? Larry, where are you, you miserable hound?”

The cat made it to the fireplace and, without pausing, leapt to the top of the broad mantelpiece. Once there, he turned to face his attacker. Gable’s normally placid face wore a savage expression and he arched his back like a Halloween cat.

The dog, Larry, gave one final indignant yelp and threw himself at the fireplace, plowing into the elaborate stained-glass screen. It tottered, then fell, shattering on the hearth. The dog took no notice, too busy flinging himself into the air, trying—and failing—to reach his furry orange target.

And he yipped, and he yapped, making so much racket that Brooke wanted to scream. Instead, she turned and ran toward the door. She needed a weapon: a broom, a mop, anything to drive off that horrible creature threatening Cora’s beloved Clark Gable.