The Secret Agent's Surprises (Harlequin American Romance) by Tina Leonard Read Free Book Online Page B

family, I promise. The rest of the tree is pretty sane.”
    “It’s all right.” She sighed. “Listen, let’s try to put our heads together and think of a practical solution for the children.”
    “Okay,” Josiah said, “but I would think Pete’s million dollars is practical enough.”
    “Oh, am I up for that now?” Pete asked.
    “If you can drag her to the altar,” his father told him, “I’ll throw in fifty thousand for her business.”
    “My business,” Priscilla pointed out, “is in Fort Wylie.”
    “Yes,” Josiah said, his gaze turning devious again, “but I think it’s time you start a franchise.”
    Pete and Priscilla stared at the oldest Morgan.
    “Franchise what?” Priscilla asked.
    “Your tea shop. We need one here,” Josiah said. “And I have land. For that matter, I own a building in Union Junction where your tea shop could be located. Wouldn’t the ladies love a tea shop in town?”
    “Josiah, I think I’d be too busy raising four children to run two shops,” Priscilla said. “That is, if I fell in with your plan, which I most certainly will not.”
    “Woman!” Josiah thundered. “Don’t you have a price?”
    Pete admired Priscilla’s insistence that she could not be bought. He laughed. “Pop, you’ve met your match.”
    Josiah shook his head. “Something’s not right here. Something’s hanging you up,” he told Priscilla. “He’s not that ugly, you know. Wasn’t that bad a kid. Guess he could have been worse.” He leaned back in his desk chair. “Either he or Jack might have taken that prize, I suppose.”
    Pete perked up at that faint praise. “Weren’t you going to say that Jack was your worst? Your letter seemed to indicate that.”
    “Not being competitive, are you?” Josiah demanded.
    “It’s sort of what you alluded to in your letter to him,” Pete said.
    Josiah frowned. “No one was supposed to read Jack’s letter but Jack.”
    “You left his and mine unsealed, Pop. Suzy, Priscilla and Cricket found them. That’s how Jack and I received ours. What were they doing in a kitchen drawer, anyway?”
    “I wasn’t finished writing them,” Josiah said with a sheepish glance at Priscilla. “Maybe I wasn’t certain I’d said exactly what I’d wanted to say.”
    “Oh,” Pete said, “so maybe my letter was supposed to be an ode to a young man who’d made his father proud?”
    “Probably not,” Josiah said, unfazed by his son’s needling. “However, you shouldn’t have read Jack’s.” He swung his gaze to Priscilla. “I suppose you read Jack’s, too,” he said.
    “I most certainly did not!” Priscilla tapped his arm. “You should know better than that.”
    “I never did understand why you didn’t assign me a woman, Pop—not that I was looking. Or am looking,” he said to reassure Priscilla. “You hand-picked women for both Gabe and Dane, sent them letters about the women, so you can understand my curiosity.” It really bothered him that his letter had solely been one of condemnation. “All I got was criticism.”
    “You’re the second oldest,” Josiah said. “I don’t have to look out for you as much as your younger brothers.”
    Hope rose inside Pete. Maybe Pop really was being honest. “Is that true?”
    “If you want it to be. However, notice that as soon as I found a good woman for you, I introduced you.” He smiled sweetly at Priscilla. “And anyway, a father shows his love by disciplining his children. That’s what’s wrong with the world today—kids aren’t disciplined. Parents are too busy being cool to be parents. Well, I never worried about being a cool friend to you boys—I was a parent, by golly.”
    Pete shook his head. Priscilla glanced out the window.
    “Oh, look! Suzy and Laura are coming to see you, Josiah!”
    Josiah sat up, trying to peer out the window. “And they’ve brought their families. Good. We’ll order pizza.”
    “I invited them,” Pete said, opting for honesty. “I think we need