Behind the Shadows (41 page)

Authors: Patricia; Potter

Then there was the trust. Kira said she would not contest her grandfather's will. She had been the lucky one, not Leigh.

Max turned over control of the trust to Leigh, but she asked him to stay on and manage the funds as well as the stock. He'd concurred with her plans for the ranch and even joined enthusiastically in the planning. He'd suggested that they also save several weeks for inner-city kids.

It was also time for him to leave the Westerfield compound. With Kira's enthusiastic approval, he'd donated his house to the project. Leigh and Chris would live there, while the big house would lodge Katy and the campers. Kira wanted Leigh to have time with their mother, and their mother was ecstatic about working with kids. She was always a natural-born caretaker.

And Kira and Max? He'd purchased land not far away, and the contractor was finishing a stone-and-glass home they'd designed together. A house of light and warmth. He had lived in the Westerfields' pocket too long. He would continue to be Leigh's attorney, but he would accept other clients as well.

He stood again. “Another toast,” he said, his eyes twinkling. They had been doing a lot of that lately.

Everyone looked toward him. He clasped Kira's hand and drew her up next to him. He put his arm around her and pulled her close.

“We're going to have a baby in exactly six months.”

Katy Douglas stood. Tears rolled down her face. “I never thought â¦ to see â¦”

Kira bit her lip to stop her own tears. She hadn't thought her mother would see a grandchild, either.

But as she looked at Leigh's delighted face, and the way Chris pulled her to him, she knew it wouldn't be long before there was another child in the family â¦

“To the family,” Chris said. “To our complicated, confused, and altogether wonderful family.”

And they all raised their glasses.

About the Author

Patricia Potter is a
USA Today
âbestselling author of more than fifty romantic novels. A seven-time RITA Award finalist and three-time Maggie Award winner, she was named Storyteller of the Year by
Romantic Times
and received the magazine's Career Achievement Award for Western Romance. Potter is a past board member and president of Romance Writers of America. Prior to becoming a fiction author, she was a reporter for the
Atlanta Journal
and the president of a public relations firm in Atlanta. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Mimi Bark

ISBN: 978-1-5040-0417-6

This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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