Baily's Irish Dream: Baily's Irish Dream / Czech Mate

Duets™

Two brand-new stories in every volume…twice a month!

Duets Vol. #87

You met the first of the two HOMETOWN HEARTTHROBS in Double Duets #71, Catching Chase and Nabbing Nathan. Popular Liz Jarrett finishes the delightful miniseries this month with two more of the single Barrett siblings—in Meant for Trent and Leigh’s for Me—who won’t remain single for long! All these tales are “full of Texas charm and wit and a wonderful small-town feeling,” asserts Rendezvous.

Duets Vol. #88

Talented Stephanie Doyle returns with a quirky story about a cross-country drive that quickly becomes a cross-country romance with unexpected results! “Ms. Doyle displays bountiful creativity in both her plot and appealing characters,” says Romantic Times. Joining her is Kate Thomas, who delivers a hero with all the right moves in Czech Mate. This author pens “an original story with gregarious characters, warm scenes and an amusing tone,” notes Romantic Times.

Be sure to pick up both Duets volumes today!

Baily’s Irish Dream

Stephanie Doyle

Czech Mate

Kate Thomas

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Contents

Baily’s Irish Dream

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Czech Mate

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Baily’s Irish Dream

“So you’re engaged?”

Daniel frowned. “Where’s your ring?”

Shifting in her seat, Baily said, “Technically…I’m not…we really haven’t quite…he hasn’t actually…”

“He hasn’t proposed yet.” Ha! Daniel felt triumphant, although he had no idea why.

“He hasn’t proposed, but he will. He’s waiting for me to come home.”

“How long’s he been waiting?”

“Uh, seven years,” she muttered under her breath.

Daniel started to laugh. “You’re telling me your soon-to-be fiancé has been waiting for you for seven years. What on earth have you been doing, picking out bridesmaids’ dresses?”

His question was met with stony silence. “I’m sorry for laughing. Hey, I’m not even married.”

“Big shock there,” Baily retorted.

“See, I won’t even rise to your bait. Now, tell me about this guy.”

“Harry? He’s the supportive, sensitive type.”

Daniel groaned. “Oh please, spare me the sensitive man stories.”

Inwardly he fumed. The thought of Baily in a lifeless marriage didn’t sit well with him. She was the throw-everything-off-the-table, toss-her-skirt-over-her-head-and-take-her-hard-and-long type. Oh, hell! Where had that thought come from?

Dear Reader,

This book was inspired by so many things: my thirtieth (cough, cough) twenty-ninth birthday; my very Irish mother, who is determined to see me married; but most of all the best vacation I ever had—a five-day drive across this huge and magnificent country.

I’ll never forget what it was like to see so much beauty, so much vastness and so much commonality between American towns all over the country. It was a trip that I will never forget, and then I realized it would be the perfect backdrop for Daniel and Baily’s story.

It’s amazing what these two seemingly different people discover they have in common when trapped inside a Volkswagen Bug for three days with a cat who thinks she’s a former president!

So sit back and enjoy this story as you would a long, leisurely car trip. Just don’t ask if you’re there yet. You’ll know you’ve reached the end of the trip when you get to the happy ending.

I love to hear from readers! You can e-mail me at [e-mail].

Have fun!

Stephanie Doyle

Books by Stephanie Doyle

HARLEQUIN DUETS

65—DOWN-HOME DIVA

Charlie, we’ll always have Chugwater.

Good luck to you and Glynn in your life together.

1

“DONE. END. FINISHED. Gone. Goodbye. Get out of my way. No more. No way. Not me. Adiós. Au revoir. Hasta la vista. See you. So long. Sayonara.”

“So what you’re saying is that you’re leaving.”

“Yep.” Baily looked up from her task of trying to fit too many articles of clothing into a too small suitcase. Her friend Janice looked utterly confused.

“You could always tell your parents no. You are an adult, after all.”

That was questionable. Regardless, Baily had given her word. And if her parents’ persistence wasn’t enough to make her return home then her own honor was.

“Don’t you think I’ve tried to reason with them? Don’t you think I’ve explained that I’m a real, live grown-up? It simply doesn’t work. Besides, Harry is a really nice guy.” Any anger that Baily had over the situation quickly melted away. No one could ever be angry with Harry. Baily dropped the lid on the overpacked suitcase and threw, as she would term it, her nicely rounded bottom on top to give it extra incentive to close.

Janice sat atop the second suitcase and sighed with frustration. “It’s barbaric, I tell you. Forcing you to come home to marry the chosen suitor. Why did you ever agree to that kind of deal in the first place?”

“I wanted adventure, and it was the only way they would let me come to Seattle.” Snap. Baily felt the locks catch under her weight. She didn’t know whether to be glad that the suitcase shut or mournful that it shut so easily.

Janice debated that last point. “They couldn’t have stopped you.”

“Obviously you’ve never seen the size of my brothers. Trust me, they could have stopped me.” Baily glanced around the empty apartment, checking to see that the movers had gotten everything. All that was left were her two suitcases and Miss Roosevelt.

“Barbaric,” Janice muttered as she shifted her weight on the second suitcase, trying to close it.

“You said that already,” Baily returned, smiling at her friend’s irritation and knowing how illogical it must seem to a person who wasn’t raised a Monohan.

“Medieval! Did I say that yet? What about your job? The school is really going to miss you.”

“I’ll get another teaching job when I get back to New Jersey. There is always a job for a teacher who doesn’t mind middle school kids.”

“It’s still wrong.”

With a sigh, Baily moved to sit on the suitcase with Janice, both of their nicely rounded rumps filling the tiny space and then some. Snap. Apparently, it was diet time again. “Listen, my parents only wanted to secure my future. They gave me seven years to explore the west. And I had a glorious time. But the more I think about it, the more I agree with them. I miss my family.”

“You’re going to marry a man just because you miss your family?” Janice was incredulous.

No, of course not! Okay, maybe a little. How did Baily explain all that to Janice? Janice would tell her to hold out for true love and other such ridiculous romantic notions. Baily, once a devoted romantic, had simply given up on the idea that true love existed for her in the cosmos. She had met too many men, had dated several of them, and not once had Cupid struck a blow.

“Harry will make an excellent husband. He’ll be loyal, faithful, loving…”

“And he’ll come on command, sit when you tell him, and he won’t make puddles on the rug,” Janice said sarcastically, moving off the suitcase to stand in the middle of the empty room.

“Hey. Don’t knock it. Housebreaking a man is harder than it looks.” Okay, so Harry had all the qualities of a fine dog. There were worse things in life. Harry would give Baily children. Something a dog certainly couldn’t do. Just think of the children, Baily reminded herself. Unfortunately, that meant that she had to think about how she was going to get those children with Harry. Ugh-hh.

“You’re not taking this seriously. This is your life, Baily Monohan. You’re about to throw it all away,” Janice fairly shrieked.

“Not throw it all away. More like start it all over…again.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Baily announced with a firmness that surprised her. She was making the right choice. In her mind she knew that. It was just her heart that was doing little anxious flip-flops every time she thought about spending the rest of her life with Harry.

With a determination she knew she was faking, Baily stood and lifted her two suitcases.

“Theodora! Let’s go, Miss Roosevelt. We’re leaving!”

“Miss Roosevelt” peeked out from her perch on one of the kitchen shelves. “Meow.”

“Now, Theodora,” Baily coaxed, “we talked about this. You agreed. So stop being so stubborn and move your tail.”

Reluctantly the cat joined her. An indignant mew at Baily’s feet let her know it wasn’t without complaint. It was obvious Theodora wasn’t at all happy about moving, but she apparently knew she wasn’t going to have any say in the matter.

Janice shook her head in wonder. “You treat that animal like a human. It’s not natural, you know.”

“Shh. Do you want her to hear you? You know how she gets when someone reminds her that she wasn’t the president of the United States. I know I’m encouraging her delusions, but it’s less crying this way.” Baily gazed down upon the black ball of fluff with loving adoration. “Are you ready, Madam President?”

“Meow.” Theodora practically sighed, as if she realized she had no choice.

“Tell me again which of you is the delusional one?” Janice asked under her breath, not exactly sure she wanted an answer.

The two friends made their way out of the apartment with the President in tow. Baily popped the trunk of her antique yellow Volkswagen Bug and shoved the suitcases in place. There was a litter box already set up in the back seat and a six-pack of Diet Pepsi on ice in the passenger’s seat. Baily was ready.

“Are you sure you are okay driving across the country by yourself? What about the maniacs that prey on helpless women?” Janice wondered out loud.

“Way to put me at ease.” Baily had driven out to Seattle with her brother, Nick, the first time. At the time, Seattle had seemed as far away from New Jersey as she could get. Nick, a Philadelphia police officer, had insisted that she be accompanied. Currently he was rebounding from a nasty divorce and was unfit company for fish. No way Baily wanted to put up with his ex-wife bashing for three thousand miles. Which meant that this was a solo trip. She wasn’t exactly thrilled about that, but she also had to be practical. Besides, how dangerous could it be?

Okay, so maybe she was a little nervous. But she was tough. One had to be to be a Monohan. Just in case, she’d packed a can of Mace.

“Be careful. And whatever you do, don’t pick up hitchhikers.” Janice threw her arms around Baily and clung tight. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too.”

Baily situated herself in her car and drove off. Through semi-watery eyes, she watched as Janice became smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. The next time Baily looked up, Janice was gone.

“Well, Theodora, it’s just you and me. Are you ready to go home?”

“Meow.”

“Me, too.”

DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! Damn! Daniel Blake simply refused to believe his ears. It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be happening. Not to him. Not now. Not Sarah. With an impatience born of fury, he stabbed the rewind button on his answering machine then hit the play button once again. Maybe during the process of rewinding, the tape would somehow alter itself and a new message would play. One that did not cause his pulse to leap and his blood pressure to soar.

Beeeep. “Hi, Danny! It’s me, Sarah. I’ve got wonderful news. You’re never going to believe it. Well, I mean you’ll believe it because I’m telling you it’s the truth, and you know I don’t lie….”

Daniel closed his eyes. It was his sister’s habit to explain every exaggeration she ever made. He used to find the quality endearing. It declared her honesty. Now it was just time-consuming, and he was in a hurry to get to the punch line. Again.

“So what I really mean is that you’ll probably be stunned. Oh, here it goes…I’m getting married! Can you believe it? Me, married. It’s Pierce, of course. I know you have your reservations about him, but trust me he’s really a doll, and sweet, and funny. I could go on forever. I mean not really forever because I would run out of words, but…well, you know what I mean. He says he can’t wait. So we’re doing it on August 3.”

Seven days! Actually six, since the message was a day old.

“I know what you’re thinking…I always wanted a big wedding with all the trimmings, but with Mom and Dad gone and Pierce not having any family, either, we decided to keep it small. Just you and a friend of Pierce’s. Oh, and I know that’s only seven days away, but it should only take you three or four to get here if you drive all day. That’s probably faster than the train what with all the schedule juggling you’d have to do. So I’ll expect to see you at the end of the week. Can’t wait!” Beeeeeep.

His sister’s voice seemed to echo throughout the house. She was going to marry that sleazy, two-bit fortune hunter, and he only had six days to stop the wedding. Six days. It simply wasn’t enough time. For a moment he considered flying, but the idea was gone as soon as it had entered his head. He had given his word to Sarah that he would never fly, and his word was his bond. She was right about the train schedules being a hassle, too. There was no point in trying to reason with her on the phone, either. She may be flaky, but she could also be very stubborn. The only way to handle this was face to face. Which meant getting in his car and driving.

Without wasting any time, he opened the suitcase that was still filled with his clothes from the trip he had just returned from late last night. He had driven down to San Francisco to meet with a potential client interested in his unique software package. Daniel’s product was one of a few that the large timber company had shown an interest in, and he had a hunch that his trip had all but sealed the deal. Still, nothing was concrete, and the last thing he needed was something to distract him from winning the bid.

Family, however annoying, came first. His only choice was to do what Sarah suggested: drive to Philadelphia. Not to attend her wedding, but to stop it. His vice president, Bruce, could handle the California bid while he was away.

Decision made, Daniel’s next step was to find some clean clothes to replace the ones he’d just dumped in the hamper. Thankfully his maid had taken care of the laundry in his absence. Neatly laundered jeans and crisply ironed cotton polo shirts hung in his closest. Barely taking the time to fold them, he shoved them into the suitcase. A quick check to see that he had his wallet, and he was ready. He practically sprinted down the stairs of his Seattle, Washington, home and out the door, only to climb back into the car he had recently vacated.

After a tiresome drive back from California he’d had visions of unwinding for the day before getting back to work. Now he was going to have to make a marathon drive across the country to where his incredibly naive sister was about to make the biggest mistake of his life. Her life, he corrected himself.

At least she had given him six days. It could have been worse. Daniel figured he could make it to Philadelphia in three if he really pushed it. That would give him plenty of time to scare off the would-be husband and to lock Sarah in a convent. In that order.

Armed with a plan, he secured his seat belt and checked his rearview mirror. He spotted a beige Ford sedan parked too close to his driveway. The driver was still in the car. Daniel hit his horn to let the man know he was about to leave the driveway. As Daniel backed up, he shot the man a look to let him know he didn’t appreciate him blocking his driveway. The man in the car averted his eyes.

“Damn tourist,” Daniel muttered under his breath. Was there anyone on the planet who knew how to drive other than him? He doubted it.

Just stick to the plan, Daniel told himself, and this nightmare would soon be over.

2

“WILL THIS NIGHTMARE ever be over?” Daniel asked himself after being forced to put his foot on the brake yet again. It was only day two of his trip, but at this rate he would never reach his sister’s wedding in time. Not when the vehicles in front of him insisted on driving as slow as his late great-grandmother. A Volkswagen Bug and a semi both conspired against him by only driving sixty miles per hour each in their own lane. For a brief moment Daniel considered passing the truck on the shoulder of the road, but it would be just his luck to get caught in a rut and end up with a flat tire. What he needed to do was to get the attention of the woman in the car in front of him.

He knew it was a woman because it was hard to miss the mass of red hair that spilled over the headrest of her seat. However, she clearly wasn’t aware of his presence behind her. Daniel hunched forward over the steering wheel in the hope that by bringing his body inches closer to the lady in front of him she might sense his desire to pass. Since she remained at a constant speed, he had to assume she hadn’t picked up on his mental vibe.

He tried another ploy and flipped on his headlights. A reflection of bright light bounced off her silver bumper. He could see his high beams clearly. No such luck from Red.

The woman was obviously too distracted to check her rearview mirror. The curls that he’d noticed before were bouncing around her head. She was bobbing and weaving and thrusting an occasional finger at the passenger in the seat next to her. If Daniel had to guess, she was either having a seizure or singing to a very short companion. It must have been his imagination that conjured up the image of pointy ears peeking around the front seat. She wasn’t actually singing to a cat?

“HOW WAS I?” Baily asked, slightly out of breath from sining along with the radio. Baily was no Aretha Franklin, but Miss Roosevelt didn’t seem to mind. Madam President had soul.

Baily waited anxiously for the next song. In the interim she took stock of where she was. A glance in her rearview mirror revealed an ominous black Mercedes practically sitting on her back bumper.

“Jeesh. Sorry, buddy,” Baily muttered a little sheepishly. “I didn’t realize you were back there.” After all, Aretha demanded full concentration. She hit the gas and attempted to accelerate enough so that she could pull ahead of the semi next to her. Her Bug had other ideas.

The car sputtered a bit and sped up a mere five miles per hour on the decline. Since the truck was also picking up speed, there was no way Baily would be able to pass it let alone pull in front of it. Poor car, she thought. She’d pushed it too hard, and it let her know that it didn’t appreciate it. Her only recourse was to slow down and pull in behind the semi.

SHE WAS SLOWING DOWN! There was only one option left. Daniel laid his hand on the horn and left it there out of sheer frustration. Frustration at the woman in front of him for driving too slow. Frustration at his sister for marrying the wrong man. Frustration at having to walk away from his business at a crucial time. It was undignified to shout at the top of his lungs, but there was nothing in the rule books about using a car horn to let off a little steam. The noise was an awful wonderful sound that made his ears ache joyously. The blare filled the car, zoomed out around him, and echoed against the vast Montana landscape.

MISS ROOSEVELT SHRIEKED and dove for cover under the seat. “Oh!” Baily shouted with indignation. The big bully. She’d been trying to move over to do him a favor and he had gone and scared her baby. The semi passed, and she immediately swung into the lane behind it. The truck picked up speed and was soon out of sight. Baily, meanwhile, couldn’t help but stare at the man in the Mercedes as he pulled even with her.

WITH ONE LAST FINAL PUSH, Daniel released his horn. A dreamy sort of peace invaded him. Damn that had felt good. If he smoked he would have had a cigarette. Nothing like a good blow of the horn to relieve a little stress. Heck, now that the car in front of him had moved, Daniel no longer felt the sudden rush to get ahead. He pulled up slowly alongside the yellow Volkswagen Bug. Belatedly he turned to get a better look at the driver, wondering if she was as pretty as her hair.

“BIG…JERK!” Baily shouted, rolling down her window in an effort to make herself heard. Unfortunately it was doubtful that he heard her because his car window was still rolled up. Not that he would be overly offended by such a comment. Baily really needed to work on the whole swearing thing. She had lived too long with her mother’s words ringing in her head. A lady simply doesn’t swear. Obviously her mother never had to put up with jerks that drove Mercedes.

WHAT WAS HER PROBLEM? Daniel thought. He hadn’t heard her, but it didn’t take a genius to understand that she was furious. After all, she was the one who wouldn’t pull ahead of the truck. When Daniel had tried to encourage her forward, she’d had the nerve to slow down. Of course now Daniel realized that she had only slowed down so that she could get behind the truck. More than likely the little car didn’t have the acceleration required for a high-speed pass. It was Daniel’s turn to feel a bit sheepish.

The only thing to do was to apologize. No chance she would hear him through two car widths. Daniel improvised with a shrug of his shoulders and a harmless smile that said, “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to honk so loud.”

BAILY GASPED. “The nerve of that man! He’s smirking and shrugging at me like he doesn’t even care that he turned five of my hairs gray with that blasted horn of his.”

The meanest action she could think to do popped into her head. Without a second’s hesitation she did it.

SHE STUCK HER TONGUE OUT at him! Here he was trying to apologize, and she was showing him tongue. Obviously she was disturbed. Probably an escapee from some kind of mental facility. The best thing to do would be to hightail it out of there before she did something really crazy.

Like the pig face. Daniel hated the pig face. The one where the person pushed his nose up on his face and slanted his eyes back toward his ears. It chilled him just thinking about it. With one last glare to show her that he didn’t appreciate her driving etiquette, Daniel hit the gas pedal with the full weight of his foot.

A mistake, considering he hadn’t taken his eyes off the redheaded driver. Daniel never saw the cow that had slowly made its way through the opening in the fence along the side of the road until it was actually on the road itself. He knew it was too late the minute he saw the big bovine. Completely oblivious to the damage the dumb animal was about to cause, the cow mooed at the oncoming car.

Daniel slammed on his brakes so hard he feared he would push the pedal through the floor of the car. The vehicle swerved then spun out of control. He tried to steer into the skid, but the car didn’t respond in time. Before he was aware of what was happening, he’d skidded off the road and crashed into a fence post. The air bag inflated, and Daniel was thrown back against the seat.

It all took exactly two seconds.

“Moooo.”