For the Love of Pete

"You're obviously willing to play with fire"Pete said.

Was she? Ten minutes ago Jo would have sworn that the opposite was true, that she never wanted to take another emotional risk in her life. But that kiss had changed everything.

"Is that a problem?"

Pete stared at her for a very long time before a grin spread across his face. "Not for me."

"Okay, then, let me get started on dinner."

He hesitated then. "This is just about dinner, right?"

She wanted to throw caution completely to the wind and say no, that it was about seduction, but some lingering shred of common sense crept in. This was the man who'd almost destroyed her, after all.

"It's just about dinner:' she confirmed.

Pete nodded. "Good to know."

Because he looked so sweet trying to hide his disappointment, she couldn't resist adding, "I'll let you know about dessert later."

2

June, the ideal month for weddings, is the perfect time to celebrate true love. And we are doing it in style here at Silhouette Special Edition as we celebrate the conclusion of several wonderful series. With For the Love of Pete, Sherryl Woods happily marries off the last of her ROSE COTTAGE SISTERS. It's Jo's turn this time?and she'd thought she'd gotten Pete Catlett out of her system for good. But at her childhood haven, anything can happen! Next, MONTANA MAVERICKS: GOLD RUSH GROOMS concludes with Cheryl St John's Million-Dollar Makeover. We finally learn the identity of the true heir to the Queen of Hearts Mine?and no one is more shocked than the owner herself, the plain-Jane town... dog walker. When she finds herself in need of financial advice, she consults devastatingly handsome Riley Douglas?but she soon finds his influence exceeds the business sphere....

And speaking of conclusions, Judy Duarte finishes off her BAYSIDE BACHELORS miniseries with The Matchmakers' Daddy, in which a wrongly imprisoned ex-con finds all kinds of second chances with a beautiful single mother and her adorable little girls. Next up in GOING HOME, Christine Flynn's heartwarming miniseries, is The Sugar House, in which a man who comes home to right a wrong finds himself falling for the woman who's always seen him as her adversary. Patricia McLinn's next book in her SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW... miniseries, Baby Blues and Wedding Bells, tells the story of a man who suddenly learns that his niece is really.. .his daughter. And in The Secrets Between Them by Nikki Benjamin, a divorced woman who's falling hard for her gardener learns that he is in reality an investigator hired by her ex-father-in-law to try to prove her an unfit mother.

So enjoy all those beautiful weddings, and be sure to come back next month! Here's hoping you catch the bouquet....

Gail Chasan Senior Editor

Please address questions and book requests to: Silhouette Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269 Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

3 SHERRYL

WOODS

Special edition'

Published by Silhouette Books America's Publisher of Contemporary Romance

4 If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."

SILHOUETTE BOOKS

ISBN 0-373-24687-0

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE

Copyright � 2005 by Sherryl Woods

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the aumor, and all incidents are pure invention.

This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

� and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with � are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

Visit Silhouette Books at www.eHarlequin.com

Printed in U.S.A.

5 Books by Sherry! Woods

Silhouette Special Edition

Vows

Love #769 Honor #775 Cherish #781 Kate's Vow #823 A Daring Vow #855 A Vow To Love #885

And Baby Makes Three

A Christmas Blessing #1001 Natural Bom Daddy #1007 Vie Cowboy and His Baby #1009 The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter #1016

The Bridal Path

A Ranch for Sara #1083 Ashley's Rebel #1087 Danielle's Daddy Factor #1094

And Baby Makes Three: The Next Generation

The Littlest Angel #1142 Natural Bom Trouble #1156 Unexpected Mommy #1171 The Cowgirl and the Unexpected

Wedding #1208 Natural Bom Lawman #1216 The Cowboy and His Wayward

Bride #1234 Suddenly, Annie's Father #1268

The Calamity Janes

Do You Take This Rebel? #1394 Courting the Enemy #1411 To Catch a Thief #1418 Wrangling the Redhead #1429

And Baby Makes Three: The Delacourts of Texas

The Cowboy and the New Year's

Baby #1291 Dylan and the Baby Doctor #1309 The Pint-Sized Secret #1333 Marrying a Delacourt #1352 The Delacourt Scandal #1363

The Devaneys

Ryan's Place #1489 Sean's Reckoning #1495 Michael's Discovery #1513 Patrick's Destiny #1549 Daniel's Desire #1555

Million Dollar Destinies

Isn'tltRich? #1597 Priceless #1603 Treasured #1609

The Rose Cottage Sisters

Three Down the Aisle #1663 What's Cooking? #1675 The Laws of Attraction #1681 For the Love of Pete #1687

Silhouette Books

Silhouette Summer Sizzlers 1990 "A Bridge to Dreams"

Maternity Leave 1998 "The Paternity Test"

So This Is Christmas 2002 "The Perfect Holiday"

The Unclaimed Baby The Calamity Janes

SHERRYL WOODS

has written more than seventy-five novels. She also operates her own bookstore, Potomac Sunrise, in Colonial Beach, Virginia. If you can't visit Sherryl at her store, then be sure to drop her a note at P.O. Box 490326, Key Biscayne, FL 33149 or check out her Web site at www.sherrylwoods.com.

6

Of all the D'Angelo sisters, the youngest?Jo?is by far the most reluctant to run to Rose Cottage when her life falls apart. Jo knows firsthand just how powerful a pull this place by the Chesapeake Bay can have when it comes to love. She met her first love there.. .and had her heart broken.

But the D'Angelo women are a force to be reckoned with when they go into protective big-sister mode, and they want Jo where they can look out for her and help her to heal. And then they inadvertently deliver up the one man most likely to remind her of just how devastating love can be.

But this is Rose Cottage, after all, and it definitely has enough magic left to mend one more heart. In its cozy rooms, Jo remembers why she fell in love with Pete Catlett the first time, and he does everything in his power to see that she doesn't get away a second time.

I hope you've enjoyed sharing the enchantment of Rose Cottage and its effect on the D'Angelo sisters. The truth is, wherever we find love will forever be touched with magic in our memories.

All best,

7

r ack your bags and come to Virginia," Ashley commanded the morning after Jo's life had been turned upside down by her lying, cheating ex-fiance.

Jo sighed. She'd planned to spend the whole day in bed, licking her wounds in private, maybe eating the entire pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream she had stashed in the freezer. Her funk had been interrupted before it could even get going by this call from all three of her sisters. She knew they we're all on the line, even though Ashley was the only one who'd spoken so far. She could hear them breathing, while they left the coaxing to their big sister.

"How did you find out?" She thought she'd made it absolutely clear to their folks that her broken engagement was something she'd wanted to announce to her

8

sisters herself...maybe next June, when the shock had worn off.

Unfortunately Max and Colleen D'Angelo weren't great at keeping quiet. They thought families should stick together in times of crisis. Her sisters had learned the lesson well. Until now, Jo had always found that comforting.

"Nothing stays secret in this family for long," Ashley responded, stating the obvious. "What I don't understand is why you didn't say something yourself. You should have called us the minute you caught James cheating."

"Why?" Jo grumbled. "So you could come up here and personally rip his heart out?" The image gave her a certain amount of bloodthirsty satisfaction, which she found deeply troubling. She liked to think of herself as kindhearted.

"That or some other part of hi s anatomy," Ashley said.

"That's precisely the reason I didn't call," Jo explained, shaking off the chill that had run down her spine at her sister's words. Ashley was perfectly capable of making good on such a threat. She had the protective big sister thing down pat. "I handled it in my own way. Besides, 1 didn't want all this sympathy, and I definitely don't want to run away. The humiliation of discovering James in bed with another woman was bad enough. I won't let him chase me off. My life is here in Boston. I'm not budging because of that scumbag."

In fact, this whole mess had reminded her of just how determined she was to make a life for herself in Boston. It had brought back way too many memories of another man she'd loved, another man who had cheated

9

9

on her and forever ruined the love she'd once felt for Rose Cottage, her grandmother's home in Virginia. Even now, fresh as this was, she was having a hard time deciding which betrayal had been more devastating.

Worse, even though they'd never known about that earlier disaster, Jo had anticipated exactly how her sisters would react to this one. Though she sometimes thought of herself as the odd man out?the only one whose name wasn't somehow tied to Gone With the Wind, her Southern mother's favorite book?she'd known they would rally around her and insist that she come to Virginia, where they could fuss over her. The scene of that heart-breaking first betrayal was the last place on Earth she wanted to be?not that her sisters had any way of knowing that. She'd kept her own counsel back then and dealt with the anguish in private. Only her beloved grandmother had known the details, and she'd honored Jo's wishes never to discuss what had happened.

"You may as well give in and do this gracefully," Maggie chimed in on another extension, dismissing Jo's protests.

"Yes," Melanie added. "Don't make us come up to Boston to get you."

Jo's chuckle turned into a sob. It was too late to regret her part in insisting that each of her sisters go to Rose Cottage after their lives had fallen apart. How could she explain that it was different for her without divulging the secret she'd kept from them all these years? Then the fussing would really begin in earnest.

"I can't," she whispered. It was one thing for Ashley, Maggie and Melanie to make new lives for themselves in Virginia, but Rose Cottage was where Jo's heart had

10

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE

been broken the first time. How could she go there to heal now, when there were so many ghosts from the past to be faced in that place? Visiting for a day or two had been difficult enough. Staying any longer, risking a chance encounter with the man she'd once loved so deeply, would be torment.

"I'd like to know why not," Ashley demanded. "If you can't take the time off work, quit."

"Work's not the issue," Jo said miserably, though it didn't surprise her that it was the first thing her big sister had thought of. Even now, with her workaholic tendencies held in check by her new husband, Ashley was still driven.

"Then what is?" Ashley asked.

"I'm better off here," Jo said, knowing it was a weak response but unwilling to admit the truth. None of them knew how crazy in love she'd been during that last summer she'd spent at Rose Cottage. They'd all been busy with summer jobs back in Boston that year. She'd spent the entire summer alone with her grandmother...and with Pete.

She'd been so sure Pete Catlett was the one. She'd believed him when he said he loved her, believed it enough to make love with him, believed it well enough when he'd promised to be waiting when she returned the following year.

But even before the last of the autumn leaves had fallen, her grandmother had casually mentioned that Pete had gotten married. A few months later, there had been mention of a baby, too. A boy.

She and her grandmother had both maintained the pretense that Cornelia Lindsay was doing little more

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11

than passing along local gossip about an acquaintance, but Jo had heard the compassion underlying the words, the awareness that what she was telling Jo would devastate her.