". . . wonderful chemistry between Seth and Hannah seals Barbara McCauley's latest novel." 
~ Romantic Times, W.I.S.H. award

"Take one big-city, undercover cop.
One hard working, small town, single parent.
Blend.
Result: Passion . . .Oh, those Blackhawks! This is another winner."
~ Roar Reviews

Chapter One

WELCOME TO RIDGEWATER , TEXAS . POPULATION 3,546. HOME OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST FRUITCAKE!

Seth Granger stared at the twenty-foot billboard depicting a smiling family of four standing beside a Godzilla-size fruitcake with bright red cherries on top.

Fruitcake?

After eight years as an Albuquerque undercover cop, Seth thought he'd seen it all. He stared up at the towering depiction of fruits and nuts.

Apparently, he hadn't.

Shaking his head, he down shifted, then slowed his Harley to the respectable speed of twenty-five. The last thing he needed was a ticket in this one-fruitcake town. After six hours on the West Texas highway in the blistering late summer sun, what Seth needed at the moment was a full tank of gas, the biggest, juiciest cheeseburger he could find and a great big glass of ice water. By tonight, he'd be in Sweetwater where he could find a motel, then the closest bar. He'd been itching for an icy mug of Corona all day, and he could already taste the crisp, amber brew sliding down his dust-dry throat.

Throw in a pepperoni pizza, a pretty waitress, and that was about as perfect as life got.

A middle-aged woman walking a little black terrier on the side of the highway stared at him as he approached. The dog yapped and tugged on its leash, then circled the woman's legs, nearly tripping her. Seth glanced at her as he passed. The woman glared back.

So much for small town hospitality, he thought.

But even he had to admit he was looking a little scruffy. He hadn't shaved in a couple of days and his thick, black hair was almost to his shoulders. He'd had to let it grow for his last assignment--infiltrating a meth lab operation--and he hadn't cut it yet. Top that off with a motorcycle and a pair of aviator glasses, and he looked like the front cover of Bad Ass Bikers.

The late-afternoon heat rippled in waves off the asphalt as he turned into the Sitco station and drew stares from the people gassing their cars. He rumbled to a stop in front of a pump and pulled his helmet off. While he filled his tank, Seth scanned the station. Everyone quickly looked away.

He wondered what the good people of Ridgewater would do if he yelled "Boo!" and started waving his arms around. Jump in their cars, most likely, and peal out of the station as if Satan himself was on their tail. The thought made him smile.

But he resisted the temptation to follow through. He had more pressing, important things to give brain space to than what the people of Ridgewater thought of him.

Like the letter in his backpack from Beddingham, Barnes and Stephens' Law Offices.

There'd been a mound of mail when Seth had finally come home after the fiasco of his last assignment. He hadn't intended to read any of the towering bills or advertising brochures that night. All he'd wanted was an ice pack for his aching hand and a bottle of Jose Quervo. But the letter had been on top of the pile, all those lawyers' names staring at him like a neon sign, and Seth had picked it up. No doubt someone intended to sue him. Maybe a disgruntled drug dealer who hadn't appreciated being arrested, Seth figured, or maybe that bastard in apartment 12-C who liked to beat up his wife had resented Seth's interference a few weeks earlier. Jeez, the list could have gone on forever, he supposed and he'd dropped the letter back on the pile.

But as he'd filled a bag with ice, then poured himself a shot of tequila, he'd come back to the letter. That's when he'd noticed the return address was Wolf River County , Texas .

He froze.

Wolf River ?

He'd tossed back the drink in his hand, then reached for the envelope and ripped it open.

And now, standing here in this Ridgewater, Texas , gas station, Seth remembered every word of that letter. But no words more clearly than the second paragraph, third line...

...Rand Zacharias Blackhawk and Elizabeth Marie Blackhawk, son and daughter of Jonathan and Norah Blackhawk of Wolf River County , Texas , were not killed in the car accident that claimed the lives of their parents...

There'd been more, of course. The name of the lawyer to call at the office, a phone number, something about an estate, though from what little Seth remembered of his childhood, the small ranch his parents had owned certainly couldn't have been worth much.

But Seth didn't give a damn about that, anyway. All he could think about was the fact that Rand and Lizzie hadn't died.

That they were alive.

Alive.

His first thought was that it was a mistake, a huge mistake. Or even worse, some kind of sick joke. But no one knew anything about his past. No one knew that for the first seven years of his life, until he'd been adopted by Ben and Susan Granger, Seth's last name had been Blackhawk. Seth himself barely remembered.

Seth stared at the numbers flashing by on the gas pump. He'd only been seven then. Rand, his older brother, had been nine. Elizabeth --Lizzie, they'd all called her--she'd just turned two.

The letter had felt like a two by four slamming against his chest. The air had literally been sucked from his lungs. To find out, after twenty-three years, that the brother and sister he'd thought had died were still alive, was absolutely and completely staggering.

He couldn't remember how long he'd sat there in the dark, on the edge of the sofa in his apartment, and stared at that letter. But when the light had begun to seep through the dusty blinds in his living room, Seth had finally dialed the lawyer's office and left a message. Then he'd sat back down, with the phone in his lap, and waited.

It was true. The lawyer confirmed it when he'd finally called back. Rand and Lizzie hadn't died. Rand had been found, but they were still looking for Lizzie, somewhere back east, or in the south.

Can you come to Wolf River ? the lawyer had asked.

Could he come?

Hell, yes, he'd come, Seth had told the lawyer.

His heart racing, his hand shaking, Seth had hung up the phone, still sat there staring at the receiver for a full fifteen minutes. After that, he'd slept for the next sixteen hours straight.

The fact that he'd been suspended from the force for six weeks had made it easy to throw a few clothes and necessities into a bag and head out. It wasn't as if he had anything to keep him in Albuquerque . No wife. No kids. No commitments.

Which was exactly the way he'd wanted it. He'd tried living with Julie, his last girlfriend, but the life of an undercover cop was hardly what anyone would consider a stable relationship. He never knew when he'd be home, or even if he'd be home. He'd warned Julie about his lifestyle, but she'd sworn she understood and could adjust to his erratic schedules.

So she'd cheerfully moved in, adding those little feminine touches around the apartment: sunflower coasters, a hand-knitted throw on the sofa, scented candles in the bathroom. Framed photos of the two of them everywhere.

But after six months, with more than half that time spent alone, Julie's understanding had been stretched like a rubber band. When she finally snapped, she'd moved out in a dramatic display--a ritualistic burning of every photo of the two of them together, the pictures all tossed into a metal trash can that she'd placed in the middle of his living room. For good measure she'd thrown in the knitted throw, too, which had created so much smoke the fire department had shown up, along with a patrol car.

For weeks after that, he'd been the brunt of countless jokes at the station. A key chain fire extinguisher, smoke detectors, a fireman's hat.

No more live-in's, he'd firmly decided after all that. He didn't want that kind of complication in his life, and he wasn't so foolish not to know that once a woman invaded a man's space, she immediately started thinking rings and weddings and babies. All those things were fine for an eight to five kind of guy, but he simply didn't fit that profile.

He'd seen the agony on his adopted mother's face the night his father's best friends from the force had knocked on the front door, their faces solemn and heads bowed. Al Mott and Bob Davis had been Uncle Al and Uncle Bob to Seth for the past ten years. After the funeral, they'd both told Seth not to join the department. Go to college and be an accountant or an architect, they'd said. Seth's mother cried the day he'd joined the Albuquerque Police Department, but she'd hugged him and given her blessing.

That was ten years ago. Two years as a rookie, then straight to undercover. There were days, too many of late, that Seth thought Al and Bob had been right. Pushing a pencil and sitting in a cushy office chair was sounding more appealing all the time.

Especially after this last job, he thought with a sigh.

When the gas pump clicked off, Seth topped the Harley's tank with another shot from the nozzle, tugged his helmet back on, then climbed back on his motorcycle. At the pump on the other side of the island, a gray-haired woman filling her white Taurus with gas stared at him. Seth slipped his sunglasses down and winked at her. Appalled, the woman quickly turned away.

Smiling to himself, Seth roared out of the gas station, knowing full well that every eye in the place was watching him leave.

He'd be out of this town and back on the road within the hour, he told himself. If he was lucky, sooner.

Tall elm trees and old Victorian homes lined the main road into town. Several of the houses had business signs out front: an antique shop, a law office, a doctor. On the lower left corner of every sign was the painted picture of a fruitcake. Seth shook his head at the absurdity of it, thankful he didn't live here. He couldn't imagine telling people he was from the land of giant fruitcakes.

Correction, fruitcake.

He was nearly at the end of the shady street when he spotted a child inside the white picket fence surrounding the large front yard of one of the homes. The child, a little girl with shiny blonde curls, stood under an elm tree, waving her arms frantically. Seth slowed his motorcycle, then felt his heart stop at the sight of another little girl in the tree, dangling in mid-air ten feet off the ground, her bright blue pants obviously caught on the branch. A look of sheer terror on her face, the child's eyes were squeezed tightly closed.

There were times when a person didn't think, they simply acted.

Seth jumped the curb and crashed through the picket fence. His bike went down on the wet grass as he leapt off, yanking his helmet off as he rushed the tree, then scrambled up the main trunk to the branch where the little girl still held on.

"Hang on, honey," Seth yelled to the youngster.

Eyes wide, the child turned her head toward him as he climbed out on the tree branch. The little girl dropped down another three inches as her pants ripped.

Dammit, dammit, dammit!

"Be still," Seth told the child. "Don't even breathe."

The child obeyed, but kept her eyes on him as he made his way across the branch.

"Maddie!"

Seth ignored the sound of a woman's scream from the ground below. Inching his way out toward the child, he reached down and grabbed her by her waist.

"I've got you," Seth reassured the child as he yanked her up. The woman who'd screamed, a blonde with a mass of wild curls on top of her head, stood in the V of the tree trunk, her arms outstretched as she reached for the child. Seth sat on the branch, then handed the little girl over to the woman.

"Mommy!" the child threw her arms around her mother's neck.

Seth let loose of the breath he'd been holding. That had been close, he thought with a sigh of relief. Too close. That little girl could have been seriously--

The branch underneath him cracked loudly.

Uh-oh.

Seth did his best to scramble backwards, but the branch cracked again and went down, taking him along. The ground rushed up to meet him and everything went black.

Hannah Michaels watched in horror as the man and the tree branch crashed and fell to the ground. With Maddie still clutching her neck, Hannah slid down the tree trunk and rushed to kneel beside the unconscious man. He lay on his back, absolutely still, his long legs sprawled, his arms spread wide. She wasn't even certain he was breathing.

Oh dear Lord, Hannah thought frantically. They'd killed him.

She pressed a hand to his chest, felt the heavy thud of his heart. A wave of relief wash over her. Thank God. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. He was alive. "Madeline Nicole," Hannah said sternly as she unwrapped her daughter's arms from her neck. "You stand beside your sister and don't move one inch. Do you understand me?"

Lip quivering, Maddie joined Missy, who stood several feet away, her eyes wide and fearful. The twins clasped hands and leaned into each other.

"Hannah Michaels, what in tarnation is going on over there?" Mrs. Peterson, Hannah's next door neighbor called out from her front porch. "Is that a motorcycle on your front lawn?"

"Could you please call Dr. Lansky over here?" Hannah said over her shoulder. "Tell him it's an emergency."

"An emergency?" Mrs. Peterson craned her neck. "What kind of emergency?"

"Please, Mrs. Peterson," Hannah said more firmly. "Someone's been hurt."

"Hurt? Dear me, I better call right away then. Though it is Tuesday. He might be at the clinic, or he might have taken that grandson of his fishing over at Brightman Lake . He does that sometimes and--"

"Mrs. Peterson, please."

"Oh, yes, dear. Of course, I'll ring him right away." The elderly woman spun on her orthopedic heels and hurried back into her house.

Hannah touched the man's cheek, thankful that it was warm and not cold or clammy. His long, black hair fell over half his face and Hannah gently brushed it aside with her fingers. His features were sculpted, a rugged display of sharp, masculine angles that suggested to Hannah a native American heritage. A gash over his left eye oozed blood, and a lump was already swelling on his forehead. He moaned again.

"Lie still," she whispered. "The doctor will be here in a minute."

He answered her with another moan. His heavy eyelids fluttered, but did not open. Hannah ran her hands carefully over his shoulders, was amazed at the rock hard feel of muscles under her fingers. His black T-shirt was torn from the collar to the arm, but she didn't see any wounds there other than a deep scratch. She continued her exploration down his arms, praying she wouldn't find anything broken. He seemed just as solid everywhere her hands moved: his chest, his thighs, his legs. Though every ounce of the man appeared to be solid muscle and he certainly appeared fit and in shape, she realized that didn't mean he didn't have internal injuries, a concussion or broken bones.

Moving back up to his face, Hannah winced at the sight of the nasty gash over his eye. She could only imagine the headache this man was going to have when he did finally wake up.

She reached into the pocket of her jeans for a tissue, realized she'd already used it earlier to wipe grape jelly off Maddie's face. She glanced down at the pink T-shirt she had on, then took hold of the hem and leaned over the man to dab at the trail of blood sliding down his face.

Who was he? she wondered. Hannah had been born in this town and lived here twenty-six years. She knew just about everyone in Ridgewater and the surrounding areas, but she'd never seen this man before. She glanced at his motorcycle, lying on its side in the corner of her yard. New Mexico license plates. Just another biker passing through, she supposed.

Hannah still wasn't certain what had happened. Just a few moments ago, Missy and Maddie had been playing with their dolls on the living room floor while Hannah had been arguing on the phone with Aunt Martha, the same argument she and her aunt had been having for the past two years.

"It's not proper, Hannah Louise," her aunt said every time they spoke. "A single woman raising two little girls in a backwoods Texas town. They need culture and family and a respectable upbringing." And the demand that Hannah hated the most: "You absolutely must give up your ridiculous idea of a bed and breakfast. We'll sell the house, then you and the girls can come live with me in Boston ."

No matter how many times Hannah had told her aunt that she and the girls were happy living in Ridgewater, in the house that had first belonged to her grandparents, then her parents, and now Aunt Martha and herself, Hannah couldn't seem to make the woman understand. To make matters worse, after hearing the crash and Missy's cry, Hannah had hung up the phone on her aunt.

But she'd worry about Aunt Martha later, Hannah told herself. At the moment, she had a more pressing, more important matter to deal with in the form of a very tall, two hundred plus pound unconscious biker.

The man moved his head from side to side and groaned again. Hannah laid a hand on his arm and leaned closer. "Try not to move," she said softly.

His eyes sprang open. Hannah opened her mouth to say something, but before anything could come out, the man sat abruptly, an expression of fierce anger on his face as he grabbed her roughly by the arms.

"Where's Vinnie?" he demanded.

"Vinnie?"

"He was behind me, dammit," the man demanded. "Where the hell is he?"

"I--I don't know who--"

"We're under fire, dammit," he yelled at her. "Tell Jarris to hold back."

Hannah placed her palms on the man's chest and attempted to ease him back down on the grass, but she might as well have had her hands on a brick wall. His fingers dug painfully into her arms.

"I'll tell Jarris." She softened her voice. "You just lie back."

He stared at her with dark, narrowed eyes, but Hannah knew that he really didn't see her. Wherever he was at the moment, it was far away from here. And it certainly wasn't a pleasant place, either.

He blinked at her, and Hannah watched the haze clear in his eyes. "What the--" He looked down where her hands were planted firmly on his chest, then back up at her. "Who are you?"

"Hannah Michaels," she said evenly, though her heart was pounding furiously in her chest. "Now would you please be still until the doctor gets here?"

She pushed on his chest again, gently, but he didn't budge. "Please."

He hesitated, then finally his grip loosened and his shoulders relaxed. He laid back on the grass, then suddenly came up again, winced at the effort. "The kid--up in the tree. Is she--"

"She's fine." Hannah held pressure on his chest until he was flat on the ground again. "Thanks to you, she is."

This man, however, was not quite so lucky. Hannah noted the growing lump on his forehead, the blood and scratches, and felt her stomach clench.

"My bike." He lifted his head to stare at the Harley.

That's when he started to swear.

"Maddie and Missy." Hannah glanced at her wide-eyed daughters. They'd never heard such colorful expressions before. "In the house, on the sofa, right now."

Still holding hands, the girls backed toward the house, then turned and ran up the steps. When the screen door slammed behind them, Hannah had to swallow the emotion rising in her. She didn't want to think about what would have happened if this stranger hadn't come along when he had. What she needed to focus on was that Maddie was fine, and the man who'd saved her needed attention.

"I'm sorry about your bike," Hannah said. "I'll cover any expenses for repairs, plus medical bills and any other costs incurred to you."

Of course, she had no idea how she would do that, but she'd deal with that later.

"Forget about it." He started to rise again, then swayed slightly. "I'll be fine."

"You're not fine," Hannah insisted. "Now lie back down."

Seth didn't want to lie back down. He wanted to get on his bike and get the hell out of this town before any more disasters befell him. But he wasn't so stupid not to realize that it was his head spinning, not the ground underneath him.

Dammit, anyway.

He just needed a minute, that was all, he told himself. Maybe two or three, before his equilibrium settled back down again.

He looked at the woman kneeling beside him. She was slender, with a wild mass of blonde curls tumbling around her porcelain-smooth, heart-shaped face. Her eyes were big and blue as the sky overhead, her lashes thick and dark.

His gaze dropped to her mouth. Wide, curved at the corners, inviting.

Damn.

Then his gaze dropped lower, over the pink T-shirt she wore and he saw the blood. He frowned. "Is that mine?"

She glanced down. "Your head is bleeding. You really shouldn't move until the doctor gets here."

"I don't need a doctor." He attempted to stand, hesitated when the ground tilted, then pushed himself up onto his feet.

And immediately felt his legs buckle.

The woman's arms circled him, steadied him even as the world around him swirled. He had to hold on or bring the both of them down. He wrapped his arms around her, blinked several times and sucked in a breath at the rocket of pain shooting up his left leg.

"That's gotta hurt," the woman--Hannah--said impatiently. "Now are you going to lie back down, or do I have to get tough?"

If his leg weren't hurting so badly, Seth might have laughed at Hannah's threat. Since she weighed nearly half what he did and was probably six or seven inches shorter than him, he couldn't imagine this woman getting tough.

But as she held him close against her, as the feel of her soft breasts pressed against his chest registered through the haze of pain, Seth began to imagine other things. His body responded to her closeness and the faint scent of her floral perfume. Though he was certain he didn't need her assistance, he let her hold him for a moment, let himself enjoy her arms circling his chest and the feel of her slender curves pressed against him. He might be injured, but he certainly wasn't dead.

"I really think you should lie down now," she persisted.

In a different scenario, one where they were both naked, those words would have been music to his ears and he would have readily agreed. In this case, unfortunately, he simply wanted to gain his balance back and get the hell out of town.

He stepped away from the woman, wobbled a bit, then looked at his bike. He could see the front rim was twisted. Not good, he thought with a frown.

At the sound of a close, low growl, Seth whipped his head back around, which made the earth spin again.

Definitely not good.

Seth watched helplessly as a German Shepherd the size of a pony came tearing at him.