“If I kiss you again, I’m not going to stop there.”

“Promises, promises,” she murmured.

There was a sense of danger here that he didn’t encounter on the street. On the street, he knew the odds, knew the chances he was taking. “I’m not kidding, Kelsey.”

She could feel her heart beginning to race. Her voice was husky with anticipation as she said, “I certainly hope not.”

Kelsey’s lips were only inches from his. So close he could all but taste them against his own.

His body throbbed. How long could he resist something he wanted so badly?

“Whatever happens here is on your head.”

“I accept full responsibility,” she whispered. As she spoke, her lips lightly grazed his.

Dear Reader,

I didn’t want to write this book. As long as I didn’t tell Kelsey’s story, I had one more book in the Marlowes’ saga. But it wasn’t fair to Kelsey so, here we are, watching the last of Kate Marlowe’s children find her soul mate.

Kelsey Marlowe has a tough time finding love. She’s feisty, independent and has four brothers eager to interrogate and dismiss every suitor. But now the Marlowe boys are all married, and Kelsey has become her own worst enemy in the pursuit of love. When she does find an irresistible man, she discovers that he comes with not just baggage, but scars. Despite the chemistry, the romance seems doomed before it ever takes off. Only Kate can see through the smoke screens between her daughter and the fine young police officer. How can a mother help bring them together?

I hope you enjoy this last installment of KATE’S BOYS…and daughter, too. As ever, I thank you for reading and wish you someone to love who loves you back.

All the best,

Marie Ferrarella

A Lawman for Christmas
Marie Ferrarella

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MARIE FERRARELLA

This USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award-winning author has written more than 200 novels for Silhouette Books, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her Web site at www.marieferrarella.com.

To

Pat Teal

with thanks

for opening the door.

Here’s to another

twenty-eight years.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue

Chapter One

Omigod, omigod, omigod.

The single word repeated through her brain like an old-fashioned vinyl record spinning on a record player, its needle stuck in a groove.

“Calm down, Kelsey. It’s going to be fine. It’s all going to be fine.”

The latter words Kelsey Marlowe said out loud, as if hearing the reassuring echo about the car while she tore out of the school parking lot would somehow help her gather herself together.

It didn’t.

She was having trouble focusing, both on the road and on the thoughts firing through her brain like pellets from a shotgun.

Her mother’s phone call a few minutes ago had really rattled her.

Kelsey had been more than halfway down the hall on her way to the exit before she remembered that she had to get someone to cover her class for her. She’d left twenty-eight highly charged eight-and nine-year-olds in the hands of the school secretary. She’d had to come running back, wasting precious minutes, to make the request.

Clutching the steering wheel, she roared down the freeway.

C’mon, Kelse, get a grip!

In all her twenty-six years, she couldn’t remember ever being this scared, this nervous. Especially because her mother had begged her not to call any of her brothers and definitely not her father. Kate Marlowe didn’t want any of them knowing that she was in the E.R. at Blair Memorial.

Her soft-spoken mother was her rock. Rocks didn’t get sick. They didn’t call from a hospital emergency room. Rocks were supposed to be just that: rocks, meant to go on forever until the end of time.

Dragging her hand through her wayward blond hair, Kelsey took in another deep breath, this time holding it to the count of fifteen before she released it. It didn’t help.

Despite Kelsey’s urgings, her mother told her that she didn’t want to go into any kind of detail over the telephone. Instead, she just repeated her initial request for her to come to the hospital as quickly as possible.

That in and of itself made her extremely nervous. Her mother never asked for help. Petite, blonde and as quietly stubborn as all her Irish forbearers put together, Kate Llewellyn Marlowe believed in always handling her own emergencies. Not only that, but she insisted on taking on any and all emergencies that any family member or friend was going through.

As far back as Kelsey could remember, her mother had always been a dynamo who absolutely nothing, no matter how large, could rattle, sidetrack or damage. The woman had put multitasking on the map, doing it long before it ever had a label affixed to it.

Something was really, really wrong.

“I’m going to stay calm. I’m going to stay calm,” Kelsey said over and over again under her breath as if it were some sort of soothing mantra.

Glancing at the speedometer, Kelsey realized that she was going fifteen miles over the speed limit. Instead of slowing down, she looked in her rearview mirror, searching for police. As far as she could see, not a single police car or motorcycle was in sight.

Thank God for small favors, she thought.

“Now if you only grant me one big one, I promise never to ask You for anything else again. Ever,” she underscored. “And this time, I’ll make it stick,” Kelsey swore, remembering the short-lived duration of her last deal with God.

This was different.

She’d been younger then. And besides, ultimately, what she’d prayed for—begged for—hadn’t been granted. Back then, the so-called “favor” she’d begged God for involved the man, a policeman, she’d fallen in love with. A man who hadn’t made her his wife the way he’d promised because he already had one of those. He’d just failed to mention that little fact to her.

Why was she thinking about that now?

“C’mon, Kelse, slow down and focus.” A minute later, she realized Blair Memorial was only two miles away now. Her heart continued hammering as she drove.

Getting there seemed to take forever.

When she finally reached the hospital, Kelsey made a right turn onto the street and went straight to the six-story parking structure. Once parked, Kelsey hurried out of the parking structure. She wove her way through the compound, impatiently darting around several slow-moving vehicles. Finally reaching the emergency-room entrance, she blew out a long breath. She still couldn’t calm down.

The electronic doors sprang open the instant she approached them. Kelsey searched the immediate area for someone official who could point her in the direction of the emergency area.

She settled on an older, white-haired woman in a pink smock sitting behind a desk. Short, plump, pleasant and round-faced, at first glance the woman could have easily doubled as Cinderella’s fairy godmother.

“You have my mother here.” Kelsey quickly realized that the statement had come out like an accusation. Nerves again, she thought. “I mean, my mother called me to say she was in the emergency room here.” Words were colliding on her tongue. Was she even making any sense? “Please, I need to see her. She’s in the emergency room,” Kelsey prodded, surprised she wasn’t shouting. “My guess is that she’s still there. Otherwise, she would have called me again to say she was leaving. Her name is Kate Marlowe,” Kelsey said.

The slightly perplexed look on the older woman’s face dissolved into a smile. “And you’d be right. There she is, right there.” The woman tapped the screen triumphantly. “She’s in the emergency room all right.” Turning from her desk, the woman pointed to the left. “You need to speak to that young lady sitting over there. She’ll be able to help you.”

Kelsey managed a “Thank you” before making her way over to the woman indicated.

“Maybe you can help me,” Kelsey began. The nurse didn’t look up from the keyboard. Her fingers flew across the keys. Kelsey suppressed the urge to grab the nurse’s hands and still them. “My mother called me from your emergency room—”

Only the nurse’s perfectly shaped eyebrows rose in a silent query. Her eyes remained on the screen as she continued typing.

“Name?”

“Kate Marlowe. My mother’s name is Kate Marlowe,” Kelsey elaborated, in case the nurse thought she was giving her own name.

“Marlowe,” the nurse murmured under her breath, typing. “She’s still here in the E.R.,” the nurse confirmed. “Bed number fifteen.” For the first time, the woman looked up. Kelsey noted that the nurse had kind eyes. “If you want to see her, I’ll buzz you in,” she offered.

“Bless you,” Kelsey exhaled.

The nurse flashed her an understanding smile. The moment the buzzer sounded, Kelsey raced through the door.

Once inside the E.R., she stopped dead. There was a sea of beds in front of her. They ran along on both sides of the wall. Some were hidden behind white curtains that hung from the ceiling, and others were out in the open—and, for the most part, empty.

“Can I help you?” an orderly asked, coming up on Kelsey’s right.

“I’m looking for bed number fifteen,” she told him. “Which way would I go?”

He pointed to the rear of the wing. “Bed number fifteen’s on the left. In the back,” he added.

“Thank you.” Kelsey was off and moving before the orderly finished speaking.

Please let her be all right, please let her be all right, she silently repeated, making a beeline for the bed the orderly had pointed out.

As she approached, Kelsey thought she saw someone standing by the bed. The next second she realized that it was a uniformed policeman.

The bed couldn’t belong to her mother, she thought. There was no reason for a policeman to be talking to her mother.

Was there?

It was her mother’s bed. Kelsey recognized the form before she had a clear view of the woman’s face. Her mother had a way of tilting her head when she was listening to someone talk. It had always created a feeling of comfort and well-being for her, Kelsey thought.

Only her mother, lying flat on her back in a hospital emergency room, would be trying to be comfort another person.

Her stomach tied itself into a tight knot.

Keeping her eyes on bed number fifteen, Kelsey made her way around several of the hospital staff. She felt her shoulders stiffen and tension coursed through her body the way it always did whenever she saw a policeman these days.

Who was this man?

From the expression on her mother’s face, it appeared that she knew the officer. Knew him and liked him. But then again, she’d never known her mother to meet anyone she didn’t like. Kate Marlowe always looked for the good in a person and she had a huge heart.

But that still didn’t answer her question, Kelsey thought.

What was a policeman doing here, talking to her mother? Granted, Kate Marlowe had always had the kind of face that drew words out of virtual strangers, but it would have been a far more likely scenario if her mother were on the receiving end of an orderly’s life history. Or if one of the nurses was standing there, baring her soul to her mother. Not a policeman.

Oh God, was this worse than she thought?

Chapter Two

The next moment, Kelsey felt the kind of surge that coursed through the veins of a lioness when she perceived that one of her cubs was being threatened. Kelsey might have been the youngest in the family, but she had always been fiercely protective, even though not a single one of her four brothers or her parents ever needed protecting.

Until now.

“Excuse me,” she said, addressing the back of the police officer’s head. “Is there a problem here?”

Whatever answer Officer Morgan Donnelly had at the ready vanished the moment he glimpsed the woman who belonged to the angry voice. His smile was slow, appreciative as he looked her over from head to toe. It occurred to him that she resembled the woman he was talking to. A kid sister perhaps?

“No, no problem at all,” he told her.

Giving the sandy-haired patrolman with the X-ray eyes and unreadable expression a cold glare, Kelsey drew herself up to her full, rather unimposing five-foot-four height. The next second, she was Kate’s shaken daughter, trying to hide just how upset she really was.

“Mom,” she cried, “you scared me half to death.” There didn’t seem to be any bruises that she could see. Why was her mother here? And what did it have to do with the cop with the X-ray eyes? “Are you all right?”

“I am now,” Kate told her, “thanks to Officer Donnelly.” Smiling, her mother nodded at the young policeman.

“Oh.”

Well, that snuffed out a good deal of Kelsey’s animosity toward the officer. Because of her experience with Dan, her view of policemen in general was tainted. She’d just assumed that the young officer at her mother’s bedside was somehow responsible. Maybe he’d cut her mother off and caused her to have an accident.

Still, her mother was grateful to him. Drawing herself up again, Kelsey nodded at him. “Thank you,” she said stiffly.

Reaching up, Kate wove her fingers through her daughter’s and squeezed her hand. “Honey, I didn’t want to call and upset you, but the doctor said I had to call someone to take me home and I just couldn’t call your father or your brothers.”

“I offered to take your mother home,” the officer said, his voice solemn but kind as he nodded at Kate, “but she refused.”

“I couldn’t impose on you any further,” Kate protested. “You’ve already done enough for me.”

Just what did her mother mean by “enough”? Kelsey bit back the urge to ask her. “Not that I mind being the one you turn to, Mom, but why couldn’t you call any of them?”

Kate didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she raised her eyes to her daughter’s face. “If I told you it’s because they’re all busy working, would you believe me?”

This was a tough one, Kelsey thought. Her gut told her something was going on. “Well, I’ve never known you to lie about anything, so I guess I’d have to.” She paused, studying her mother. Kate Marlowe looked tired and worn. Tired she’d seen before, but in her experience, her mother had never looked worn. Something was wrong. “But you are lying, aren’t you?”

To Kelsey’s surprise, a hint of embarrassment colored her mother’s cheeks. Another first. One that made her uneasy.

“I didn’t want to upset them,” her mother told her.

“But you’re okay with upsetting me?”

Still dazed by what the doctor had told her, Kate chose her words carefully. “No, but I know I can count on you. You’re a woman, too.”

Kelsey stared at her, stunned. She’d fought most of her life to be thought of as anything other than “a little girl” or “the baby of the family.” She would have taken pride in the breakthrough moment if it wasn’t for the nagging feeling that something was really wrong.

Kelsey glanced toward the patrolman standing at the foot of her mother’s hospital bed. Why was he still here? Had he given out his quota of tickets for the day and now had nothing to do? It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him. She had never fully mastered tact. That was her mother’s domain.

For her mother’s sake, she did her best to sound polite. She succeeded. Moderately. “Just how do you figure into all this?”

“Kelsey.” Dismayed, Kate chided her only daughter with the tone of her voice.

The officer raised a hand in her mother’s direction, indicating that he didn’t mind being questioned. “That’s okay, Kate.”

“Kate?” Kelsey echoed, her mercurial temper flaring. She hated figures of authority who patronized those they felt were beneath their station. “That’s Mrs. Marlowe to you.”

“Kelsey.” This time the reprimand was a little more obvious. Her tone was sharper. “I’m sorry, Morgan. My daughter tends to be a little hotheaded.”

“Daughter,” Morgan repeated, impressed. “When she first came in, I thought she was your kid sister.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes. Just what did this cop hope to gain by flattering her mother? Granted the woman had a youthful aura about her, she always had, and she really didn’t look near her age, but that didn’t change the fact that she thought the man was up to no good. She felt it in her bones. Whatever it was, he wasn’t going to get away with it. Not while she was around.

“Thank you for the compliment,” Kate said, “but I still want to apologize for her.” Again she linked her fingers with her daughter’s. “She doesn’t mean to sound rude. She’s just upset.”

Morgan dismissed the need for an apology. “That’s all right. I run up against that all the time.” He turned to look at Kelsey. “Just not usually from someone as pretty as your daughter.”

Kelsey heard a little bit of a twang in his voice. A transplant, Kelsey thought with the pinch of snobbery reserved for those who were California natives.

“Flattery’s not going to get you anywhere,” Kelsey informed him flatly. Her hands were on her hips as she turned toward him. “Now, once and for all, why are you here?”

His eyes shifted over to Kate. The mother was far less combative than her daughter. “I’m just making sure your mother’s all right, that’s all.”

Kelsey turned to look at her mother. “Then something did happen.” Kelsey ignored the policeman’s presence as she took both her mother’s hands in hers. Her mother’s fingers felt cold. “Mom, what’s going on? Talk to me,” she pleaded. “What happened and why is he hovering over you like some tarnished guardian angel?” Her eyes narrowed, hoping to get at the truth quickly. “Were you in an accident?”

Kate reached up to cup her daughter’s cheek. “Almost,” she confessed. “But I’m all right now.”

Kelsey glared at the officer expectantly. He didn’t disappoint her.

“Your mother ran into a hedge right off University Drive.”

Her mother was an excellent driver. She, not her father, had taught all five of them how to drive. This didn’t make any sense. “On purpose?”

Kate searched for a way to explain without upsetting Kelsey any further. But there just wasn’t any other way. “I fainted.”

Fear rose up like a huge black shadow, blotting out everything else. It gripped her heart. Her imagination instantly envisioned all sorts of awful scenarios.

“Mom!”

Her eyes quickly swept over her mother, searching for telltale signs of the injuries her mother must have sustained. But except for her unnaturally pale color, Kate Marlowe looked as lovely as ever. Just shaken.

“It’s all over, honey,” Kate soothed. “Officer Donnelly was kind enough to come to my rescue. He insisted on bringing me to the hospital instead of making me wait for the paramedics to arrive.”

The last remnants of Kelsey’s anger and protectiveness faded. Instead, she felt vulnerable and unarmed. To make matters worse, she knew that she needed to apologize.

“Thank you,” she said as warmly as she could manage. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions. It’s just when I saw you looming over my mother—I mean, standing over her like that—I just—”

Morgan waved away her halting apology. Kate’s daughter appeared far too uncomfortable. “No need to apologize. If it makes you feel any better, I was following her to give her a ticket. When I noticed her ahead, she was weaving erratically on the road. My first thought was that she was driving under the influence.”

Kelsey’s temper was back, flaring before she could rein it in. “At ten o’clock in the morning?”

“Oh, you’d be surprised,” he told her. “It’s always five o’clock somewhere.”

Kelsey didn’t bother acknowledging his statement. Instead, she asked her mother, “You’re not taking any new medication, are you?” Kelsey had moved out of the house three months ago and had been busy setting up her new life. That meant she was no longer privy to her parents’ day-to-day lives. She felt a sudden pang at that. Maybe if she were still living at home—

Kate laughed softly. “Now you sound like the attending physician.” She went over the same thing she’d said to the E.R. doctor. “No, no meds, no fever, no explanation. I only fainted once in my life and that was when I was first pregnant with you.”

“Well, then—”

Kelsey stopped abruptly, her mind brought to a skidding halt by the thought. Her mother wasn’t—No, she couldn’t be.

The next moment, she banished the very idea as being far too ridiculous to voice out loud. “Maybe it was something you ate.”

Kate pressed her lips together, nodding. “Maybe.” There was no conviction in her voice.

Kelsey took a deep breath. “So, can I spring you now?” The sooner she got her mother out of here, the better they would both feel.

Kate was anxious to leave herself. She looked out toward the aisle. “Just as soon as the doctor discharges me.”

Kelsey glanced around, but the only hospital personnel she saw in the general vicinity were nurses. “And what’s the doctor waiting for?”

“He said he wanted to examine the results of a few lab tests and the X-ray he had me take,” Kate said.

Was it her imagination, or did her mother sound evasive? Kelsey thought.

Across from her, the stony-faced policeman seemed to come to life. “Well, there’s no point in my hanging around any longer. I’m still on duty,” Morgan told Kate. “Be careful out there, Mrs. Marlowe,” he said politely. Casting a side glance at Kelsey, he looked down at her left hand before adding, “You, too, Ms. Marlowe.”

Turning on his heel, Morgan was about to leave when the E.R. physician on call, Dr. Samuel David, came to join them. Seeing the doctor, Morgan decided to linger a moment longer. Closure was something he was ever striving for.

Dr. David smiled at his patient. If he was remotely curious as to the identity of the woman beside her, he didn’t show it. “Mrs. Marlowe, I’ve just confirmed our suspicions.”

“Suspicions?” Kelsey echoed.

“About why she fainted.” As if suddenly becoming aware of her, the doctor paused, looking from the woman in the bed to the one standing beside her. “My God, you look just like her.”

“I take that as a compliment,” both Kate and Kelsey said together then laughed. For just the briefest of moments, the tension they both felt eased.

“And well you should,” Dr. David agreed, his tone not sure which of them he was speaking to. And then he cleared his throat. “Well, back to the diagnosis—”

Kelsey felt her heartbeat quickening. Oh God, please don’t make it anything bad. Out loud, she whispered, “Is it serious?” as she looked at the doctor.

“Depends on how you view this kind of thing,” Dr. David said. “Personally, I think it’s very serious.”

Kelsey reached for her mother’s hand again. She willed her mother her strength, but in reality Kate Marlowe was always the strong one. Her mother was the foundation of her family.

She held her breath, waiting to hear the doctor tell them something that could quite possibly change their lives forever.

“Bringing a child into the world is a very serious business,” Dr. David continued, his black eyes sweeping from mother to daughter and then back again.

“A child?” Kelsey cried, stunned, confused. “What child? Where?”

Without realizing it, she tightened her grasp on her mother’s hand, squeezing it so tight that her own fingers began to ache.

“Your mother’s child,” the E.R. physician said, and then he chuckled. “And I would think the ‘where’ is self-explanatory.”

Feeling as if the floor had just melted away beneath her feet, Kelsey stared at her mother. “You’re pregnant?” she cried. Before her mother could say anything, Kelsey shifted her eyes to the doctor. “She’s pregnant?” she cried incredulously.

Dr. David smiled kindly and nodded. “It would seem so.”

Kelsey felt as if she’d just leaned against the mirror and fallen through the looking glass. “But that’s not possible.”

“Why not?” the policeman asked.

Kelsey didn’t know what stunned her more: the fact that her mother was pregnant at fifty or that the muscle-bound cop with the X-ray vision had the audacity to question her reaction.

Her eyes flashed as she said, “Because—because she’s my mother and she’s already got five kids and this part of her life was supposed to be over.” Pushing past the policeman, she rounded the foot of the bed to get closer to the doctor. “Doctor, I don’t mean to doubt you, but are you sure there’s been no mistake? Lab results get switched all the time. Maybe you got my mother’s tests mixed up with someone else’s.”

“Granted there are mix-ups on occasion,” the doctor allowed, “but I’m happy to say, we have a low incidence of that. Blair Memorial has been ranked one of the leading hospitals in the country for the last ten years in a row now.” He turned to face Kate. “You are pregnant, Mrs. Marlowe,” he said with finality. “You’ll need to start right away with pre-natal care. I could give you the name of an excellent doctor—”

“I already have one,” Kate replied, her words coming out slowly, impeded by the half dozen scattered thoughts racing through her mind. Taking a deep breath didn’t help steady her nerves. She looked at Kelsey. “Your father’s going to be stunned.”

“He’s not the only one,” Kelsey replied. Try as she might, she couldn’t visualize her mother “in the family way.” There were photographs in the family albums of her being pregnant, but that was a long time ago. And, at the time, her mother had been younger than she was.

Breaking the tension, Morgan leaned forward and took Kate’s hand in his. “Congratulations, Mrs. Marlowe. A baby is a wonderful thing,” he told her with feeling.

Kelsey laughed shortly. “Spoken like a man who’s never had one.” Where did he get off, anyway, voicing an opinion? He was a stranger.

To Kelsey surprise, Morgan looked as if he was about to say something in response, then obviously changed his mind. Instead, he merely nodded at Kate. “Good luck to you,” he said as he began to withdraw.

Sensing that the E.R. physician wanted to go over a few more things with her mother before she was signed out, Kelsey stepped to the side.

The policeman had turned around to leave. Kelsey suddenly remembered something.

“Wait,” she called after the departing policeman, then hurried to catch up to him. “Officer Donnelly, was it?”

Morgan stopped and turned around. “Morgan,” he corrected. He liked things to be professional and formal, but in her case, something prompted him to be more familiar.

“Morgan,” Kelsey repeated, inclining her head. “Where’s my mother’s car now? You didn’t have it towed away, did you?” If it had been towed away, there would be a mountain of paperwork and red tape before she could get the car back, not to mention that there would be a hefty fine.

“No, it’s still where she left it. Just a little past the intersection of University Drive and Campus Road.” Morgan paused, debating.

It had been a slow morning. No reason to believe the afternoon wasn’t going to be the same. Bedford was deemed one of the safest cities in the country. Helping out a citizen came under the heading of good public relations. The chief was always after them to work with the citizens and promote goodwill.

“I could take you over there if you like,” he volunteered, “and then you could drive it to your mother’s house.”

“Then what would I do with the car I drove here?”

“Right.” Morgan had forgotten about that. He thought for a moment. The solution was simple. “Tell you what, you bring your mother home first, and I’ll follow you in the squad car. After you get her settled, I’ll take you to your mother’s car.”

That was really going out of his way, she thought. Once upon a time, she would have taken his offer at face value. But that was before Dan. “And why would you do that?” she asked suspiciously.

“The Bedford police department aims to please,” he told her simply. And then he looked at her for a long moment. She felt as if he were peering right into her. “Are you always this suspicious?”

“Only when things seem to be out of sync.” And then she considered her mother. Talk about out of sync. “A baby,” she murmured, shaking her head.

He was still scrutinizing her, still looking into her soul. Kelsey bristled at the thought.

“Why does that bother you so much?” he asked, and then guessed at the reason. “You’re the youngest, aren’t you?”

Kelsey squared her shoulders. “That has nothing to do with it.”

In his opinion, that had a great deal to do with it. But he had no desire to get into any sort of a discussion with her about it. He had a feeling she did not give up easily. “If you say so.”

Kelsey caught her lower lip between her teeth. “It’s just that…”

Morgan anticipated her words. “Don’t say she’s too old,” he cautioned. “Your mother looks like a young, vital woman.”

That was only half the picture. “Who already has a life and five children.”

“Now she’ll have six.”

Kelsey stared up at Morgan. He certainly didn’t sound like a typical male his age. She placed him in his late twenties. Most men in that age bracket fiercely resisted anything that seemed remotely close to domestication.

“You like babies?” she asked, studying him as she waited for an answer.

She had a long wait ahead of her. Rather than answer, he nodded toward her mother’s bed. “The E.R. doctor’s leaving. Better help your mother get ready. I’ll wait for you at the E.R.’s registration desk.” He pointed toward doors that led outside the emergency room.

Without waiting for a response, Morgan walked away, heading toward the doors. Leaving her with a basketful of questions.

Chapter Three

“He seems like a very nice man,” Kate commented to Kelsey.

Morgan had helped Kate out of the wheelchair that the hospital’s insurance policy required for all inpatients leaving the premises, then gently eased her into her daughter’s car. True to his word, the young policeman followed behind them as Kelsey drove her home.

Kelsey lifted one shoulder in a dismissive half shrug. “He’s okay for a policeman.”

She glanced up into her rearview mirror. If she was hoping that he’d taken off instead of following them, she was disappointed. In true law enforcement style, Donnelly drove a sensible distance behind them.

Kelsey sped up.

So did he.

She had a gut feeling that Officer Morgan Donnelly was not an easy man to shake.

She couldn’t really put into words why, but the fact that he trailed behind them annoyed her. Kelsey knew she was unreasonable, that the policeman had been extremely accommodating and made things easy for her. She should be grateful.

But policemen as a species were not really high on her approval list right now. Not since she’d broken up with Dan. Moreover, she wasn’t exactly in the best of moods. For one thing, she was still shaken up by having to rush to the hospital, not knowing what to expect when she got there. For another, the news of her mother’s current delicate condition had completely thrown her for a loop.

If one of her brothers had told her that they were expecting, she would have been instantly overjoyed. This was something else again. It would take getting used to.

Kelsey could feel her mother’s gaze.

Glancing briefly to her right, Kelsey asked, “What?”

“Since when do you have something against policemen?” Kate asked.

Ordinarily, her life was an open book. She and her mother were more than family—they were friends and she valued her mother’s insight and judgment. But this had been a very personal hurt. Because she hadn’t wanted to endure her brothers’ teasing, not to mention their questions, no one had even known she was seeing Dan at the time. And afterward, when she’d felt like an idiot because Dan had been stringing her along, well, she didn’t feel like sharing that, either.

It definitely wasn’t a topic she wanted to raise now.

Kelsey shook her head. “Mom, I don’t want to waste time talking about policemen.”

Kate smiled. “What do you want to waste time talking about?”

“I don’t want to waste time at all—” Kelsey realized that her voice was tense. But then, this wasn’t an everyday situation. Stopping at a stoplight at an intersection, she slanted another look at her mother. “Mom, what are you going to do?”

Clearly puzzled by the question, Kate asked, “About?”

“World peace,” Kelsey retorted, her tension getting the best of her. And then she flushed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to be so flip. About the baby, Mom. What are you going to do about the baby?”

Her mother never hesitated. “Start eating healthier, exercising more. And giving up that glass of wine I always have with your father at dinner.” The light turned green and Kelsey pressed down on the gas pedal. There was just the slightest shift in her mother’s voice as she asked, “What else would I do?”

How in heaven’s name do you ask your mother if she was considering an alternative to giving birth? For one of the few times in her life, Kelsey felt tongue-tied. Taking a breath, she forced herself to forge ahead.

The words came out haltingly. “Well, I thought maybe, because you’re not twenty-four anymore…”

Reading between the lines, Kate took pity on her. “I know how old I am, Kelsey. And the doctor says I’m definitely healthy enough to go the distance.”

Yes, her mother was healthy and energetic and all those good things. But having a baby was a life-altering decision. Her mother had to know that. “What about after the distance? This doesn’t just end with delivery.”

Kate made no attempt to hide her amusement. “Are you under the impression that you’re telling me something I don’t know, Kelsey? I don’t have that short a memory, sweetheart.”

Kelsey hadn’t meant to sound insulting. Because her mother was with her, she slowed down rather than raced through a yellow light. “No, of course not, it’s just that—that I’m worried.”

Kate patted her hand just as the light turned green again. “Don’t be. This baby thing threw me for a loop, too, but I’m already getting used to it. It’ll mean changes, but it’ll also mean that I get to hear a sweet little voice say ‘Mama’ again.”

“I can call you Mama again if you want,” Kelsey volunteered as she took the on-ramp to the northbound freeway. “What about the diapers and the sleepless nights and the cost?”

In Kate’s mind, the reward was a great deal more than the sacrifice. “What about the love?” she countered.

Kelsey spared her mother a quizzical glance. “Five of us loving you—not counting Dad—isn’t enough?”

Her mother’s laugh was warm, reassuring, as if she sensed the ambivalent feelings Kelsey was going through.

“There’s always room for more, Kelsey. Always room for more. A mother’s love is infinite. It’s not a pie with only so much to go around so that if you slice it seven ways instead of six, there’ll be less for everyone.” Kate shifted in her seat for a better view of her daughter. “I’ll still love everyone the same way, Kelsey. There’ll just be one more at the table, that’s all.”

She was grateful to her mother for not saying that this was ultimately not her business to meddle in. But then, both her parents had made all of them feel that they were a unit, not parents and children or worse, individual strangers. In her family’s case, although individuality was encouraged, at bottom it was a case of one for all, all for one.

And she needed to get behind this newest phase, Kelsey told herself sternly.

There was sympathy in Kelsey’s voice as she asked, “Then you’re okay with this, Mom? With being pregnant, I mean?”

“I am wonderful with this,” her mother assured her. Her eyes danced as she said, “Children keep you young.”

For the first time since she’d rushed out of the school, Kelsey laughed. “I thought you said that children give you gray hair.”

“That, too,” Kate acknowledged. “But gray hair happens at any age. I had an aunt who started going gray at twenty-five. And the dividends are so wonderful. Look at you,” she added to make her point.

“You’re not afraid?” Kelsey asked, thinking of how she would have reacted if she were in her mother’s shoes.

Kate let out a long breath. A great many emotions shifted through her. Joy was foremost, but other emotions, as well. “I’m terrified.”

“Terrified?” Kelsey looked at her, then back at the road. How could her mother be happy and terrified at the same time? “You certainly don’t act it.”

Kate was nothing if not honest. It was the cornerstone of her relationship with everyone in her family. That and love.

“Doesn’t mean I’m not. The prospect of bringing a new life into the world is always terrifying. Will he or she be healthy? Will I do a good job raising him or her—”

Kelsey stopped her. “Seriously?” she asked incredulously.

“Seriously,” Kate responded.

How could her mother possibly even spend half a second wondering? “Mom, you’ve got to be the world’s greatest mother. You know that.”

“What I might know and what the baby thinks are two very different things.” Kate closed her eyes, momentarily slipping back into the past. “Remember when you packed up your storybooks and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, determined to run away from home because you were so angry at me?”

Kelsey had forgotten all about that until just now. The memory evoked a nostalgic laugh.

“I remember,” she said with feeling. “You took Trevor’s side against mine.” She recalled how hurt she’d felt. Running away had been her only way to retaliate. She was convinced her mother would come searching for her, tears streaming down her face. After a sufficient amount of time, she would have forgiven her mother’s transgression and returned.

God, had she ever been that young? Kelsey wondered.

“I mediated, I didn’t take sides,” Kate corrected. “And you were a little bully,” she added with great affection. “You kept hitting him because you knew he wouldn’t hit you back.”

Kelsey shook her head. If anyone should have run away from home, it was her mother. “How did you put up with all that?”

The answer was simple. “Love makes everything easier to deal with.”

“I guess,” Kelsey murmured.

She’d never had that in her own life. Oh, she loved her parents and her brothers dearly, and she was even getting there with her new sisters-in-law. But as far as eventually having her own life partner, someone who would be there at her side until the end of time, Kelsey sincerely doubted that would ever happen.

At the moment, she was still working on trying to be okay with that scenario. So far she wasn’t having all that much luck. But eventually, she’d get used to it, she promised herself.

Kate took a deep breath as Kelsey pulled the car up into the driveway. In a way, she was mentally bracing herself for what lay ahead. She turned to her daughter. “I’m counting on you to be there for me when I tell your father about the baby, you know.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Kelsey assured her, turning off the ignition. “I’ll bring the smelling salts.” She saw her mother looking at her, arching one very expressive eyebrow. “You’ve got to admit this is going to hit him like a bombshell.”

“Not a bombshell,” Kate protested, softening the description. “Maybe a little like getting caught in an unexpected summer downpour.”

“If you say so. Hey, wait, let me help you,” Kelsey cried as her mother opened the passenger door and began to get out.

“Kelsey, I’m perfectly able to—”

Her mother didn’t get a chance to finish. Morgan had pulled his car up behind them and was now at the passenger side of Kelsey’s vehicle. Placing his hand beneath her elbow, he was gently helping Kate out of the vehicle.

Kate smiled her gratitude as she gained her feet. “Thank you, Morgan.”

“My pleasure, Kate.”

He said it as if he meant it. What was the man’s angle? Kelsey couldn’t help wondering. Why was he being so accommodating?

“Once you’re settled in,” Morgan continued, “your daughter and I will get your car.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Kelsey protested. She couldn’t ask her brothers for help, but there were other people she could summon. “I’ve got friends I can call—”

“I’m sure you do,” he said, cutting her off. “But I like seeing things through. It won’t take long,” he promised, addressing Kate again. “Besides, I’ll be off duty soon.”

Kelsey eyed him a little uncertainly. “I don’t know much about being a cop,” Kelsey admitted, “but don’t you have to sign out or something?”

“Don’t worry about ‘or something,’” he told her. “I’ve got it covered. For all intents and purposes, I’m all yours.”

Kelsey was about to quip “Lucky me” but stopped herself at the last minute when she realized that Morgan was no longer talking to her. Her mother was the recipient of the “I’m all yours” comment.

“This is all very nice of you,” Kate protested, “but don’t you have something else you should be doing?”

Morgan shook his head. “Not at the moment. This all comes under the heading of ‘protect and serve.’” He slanted a look in her direction.

The man was obviously anxious to get going, Kelsey surmised. “Do you need anything before we go, Mom? Maybe you should lie down. I can take you up—”

Kate placed her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “I’m pregnant, Kelsey, not fragile. I’ll be fine, trust me.” Dropping her hands, Kate fished out a set of keys from her purse and held them out to her. “Here, you’ll be needing these.”

Kelsey merely smiled and accepted the keys. This wasn’t the time to tell her mother that she knew how to hotwire a car, having learned how from one of the boys she’d dated while in high school. A boy who, once her brothers got wind of him and his reputation, never showed up at the house again. When it came to outsiders, her brothers had been fiercely protective of her. They still were.

“I’ll be back soon, Mom,” she promised, brushing a kiss against her mother’s cheek.

“Don’t forget, Kelsey, you’re having dinner here tonight,” Kate reminded her.

“Wild horses couldn’t keep me away,” Kelsey promised.

Kate turned toward the departing policeman. “You’re invited, too, Morgan.”

Kelsey stared at her mother, speechless.

The invitation took Morgan by surprise, as well. It was a couple of moments before he found his tongue. “Thanks, but I’ve got plans.”

He hadn’t, but in his judgment, this evening would be tough enough for the woman without making her husband share it with some total stranger.

Kate inclined her head, accepting his answer. “Some other time then, perhaps.”

“Some other time,” he echoed.

Morgan understood the worth of a line like that. It might have actually been uttered in the belief that “some other time” would happen, but he knew it wouldn’t. The woman’s gratitude, which had prompted her to tender the invitation in the first place, would quickly fade as she returned to her routine and the need to make the invitation a reality would fade along with it.

Still, it was a nice gesture, Morgan thought, following the attractive woman’s equally attractive daughter outside.

“She’s a nice woman, your mother,” Morgan said, finally breaking the silence that had followed them into his squad car. The silence had spilled out throughout the vehicle and accompanied them for the first five minutes of the trip. It threatened to continue indefinitely.

“She is,” Kelsey agreed. “Mom is one of a kind.” She shifted in her seat, curious. “How long were you following her?”

Morgan glanced at her before looking back at the road. “Excuse me?”

“You said you saw her weaving erratically in the lane. How long were you following her? A minute? Two? Three?”

Morgan shrugged. “A minute, maybe two. I turned on Harvard where it intersected University Drive. Your mother had just driven by.”

“And when you turned on your siren, she crashed into the bushes?” Kelsey asked.

Morgan knew where the young woman was going with this. She probably thought that his following her mother had made her nervous and that she’d hit the bushes because of him, not because she’d fainted. But Kelsey was wrong.

“I hadn’t turned on my siren—or my lights yet,” he added. He’d witnessed other accidents that hadn’t turned out nearly as well. “All in all, your mother’s a very lucky woman.”

“Mom likes to call it the luck of the Irish,” she told him.

His father’s father had emigrated from Ireland when he was a boy. “Is your mother from there?”

“Why?” Kelsey asked guardedly.

“No reason. I just thought I detected a slight accent.”

Periodically her mother tried to lose her accent, but her father always protested, saying he really loved the slight Irish lilt in her voice.

“The same could be said about you,” Kelsey pointed out. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“No,” he deadpanned, “I live in Tustin,” he said, mentioning the name of the city next to Bedford.

She frowned. He was deliberately being obtuse. “That’s not what I meant.”

Morgan dropped the act. “I know what you meant, Ms. Marlowe. I’m from Georgia originally. Now do I get to ask a question?”

“As long as you understand that I don’t have to answer if I don’t want to.” Her eyes met his. The ground rules were accepted. “Go ahead.”

“Is this chip on your shoulder something recent,” he asked amicably, “or is it some congenital thing?”

She opened her mouth to retort that it was none of his business what she had on her shoulder, but then she closed it again. She could almost hear her mother reprimanding her. And she’d be right. She was taking out her tension—and Dan’s behavior—on Donnelly. Because he’d come to her mother’s aid, he didn’t deserve this.

“I’m sorry if I’m coming across a little testy—”

He laughed shortly. “Little being a relative term here,” he interjected.

“Okay,” Kelsey backtracked, “a lot testy,” she admitted. “But nothing like this has ever happened to me before.”

He glanced at her thoughtfully. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Ms. Marlowe, but ‘this’ didn’t happen to you. It happened to your mother. She’s the one you should be thinking about, not yourself.”

“I am thinking about her. About how awful it would have been if she’d been hurt.” She drew herself up, taking offense. “And just where do you get off lecturing me, Donnelly?”

“Not lecturing,” he countered mildly, “just pointing the obvious out. Your mother’s okay. A bit shaken up, but okay. That makes her one of the lucky ones.”

Something in his voice caught her attention. Donnelly wasn’t just spouting rhetoric, he was speaking from firsthand experience. Undoubtedly, as a policeman he’d seen things the average person hadn’t, and they’d left a lasting impression. He was right. She had to take a page out of her mother’s book and just focus on the positive.

Kelsey took a deep breath. She stared down at her hands. They were folded and clenched in her lap. She willed herself to relax as she tried to banish the tension gripping her.

“Yes, it does,” she acknowledged. Kelsey knew she owed this policeman a debt for being so nice to her mother. A debt she didn’t take lightly. “Listen, I’m sorry. I didn’t even thank you for taking my mother to the hospital. You could have just called for an ambulance and gone on your way.”

“No, I couldn’t,” he answered too quickly. When he caught the confused expression on her face, he tried to shrug away his near slip. “It’s all part of that protect and serve thing I was telling you about. It’s the job,” he emphasized. Gratitude always made him feel awkward. He didn’t know how to accept it or give it.

“Protect and serve,” she repeated. “And which was this?”

A smile crept over his lips. A smile, she thought, that made him look more approachable. Not to mention sexy. She banished the last part from her mind. Policemen weren’t sexy. If anything, they were trouble.

“A little of both,” he answered.

With that, he turned the squad car onto University Drive. That was when she got her first glimpse of her mother’s vehicle. From the rear, the car looked to be all right. But then they drew closer. And Kelsey saw the front of the vehicle. It definitely wasn’t what she expected to find.

“Oh God,” she cried without fully realizing it as Morgan got closer to the car.

It was not a pretty sight.

Chapter Four

The closer they came, the further Kelsey felt her heart sink. Although the back of her mother’s car was untouched, the front was bruised, scratched and badly dented. If human, it would have easily been deemed the loser in a fight. She could just imagine what it was like under the hood.

Her mother’s car held a very special place in her heart. She’d learned how to drive in it.

Kelsey could remember her mother sitting beside her while she practiced early in the morning in a deserted parking lot. She’d felt as if she was flying when in reality she was only going eleven miles an hour.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad?” she cried, staring at the vehicle.

Waiting until the road was clear, Morgan made a U-turn and guided the squad car directly behind the badly battered sedan. Kate’s car had spun out before crashing into the bushes that ran along the perimeter of the college’s athletic field.

By the time he opened his door, Kelsey had already left his squad car and was examining the damage to her mother’s vehicle.

“To be honest, I didn’t focus on the vehicle,” he told her. “I was focused on making sure your mother was all right.”

He had his priorities straight. And she was being waspish, Kelsey upbraided herself. Contrite, she nodded at him.

“Sorry. You’re right. My mother definitely matters more than a mashed-up grill,” she murmured, then circled around again to the front. The hood was pushed in, proving that the bushes were tougher than they looked. It was a miracle that her mother didn’t sustain any bad cuts or bruises.

The driver’s-side door creaked and groaned like an arthritic eighty-year-old man when she opened it. The door made even louder noises when she attempted to shut it again. It resisted complete closure.

Morgan nodded at the door. “Doesn’t sound promising,” he commented.

Sitting behind the wheel, Kelsey put her mother’s key into the ignition and turned. The engine wheezed, then coughed and sputtered before finally giving up the ghost. With an exasperated sigh, Kelsey tried again. This time, the engine remained silent. There wasn’t even a weak sputter. The third attempt was no better. Kelsey got out again.

“I’m going to have to call a tow truck,” she sighed, resigned. She looked at him. “You have any recommendations?”

“Pop the hood.”

He caught her by surprise. “What?”

“Pop the hood.” He nodded toward the driver’s side. “There should be a release right under—”

“I know where the release is,” she told him. His assumption of her ignorance annoyed her. She wasn’t one of those women whose entire knowledge about cars stopped at putting the key into the ignition.

Reaching into the car, Kelsey pulled the lever. The hood made a strange noise in response. It took Morgan a couple of minutes to free it from its latch.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

Morgan didn’t answer her right away. He was busy assessing the damage and testing various connections, estimating what might be wrong with the car from the noises it had made—and some it conspicuously hadn’t—when Kelsey had turned the key.

“Checking out the engine,” he finally said just before she repeated her question. He dropped the hood back into place. “I know someone who’s pretty much of a wizard when it comes to working on cars. I can get the car towed to his place.”

“How much does this Mr.Wizard charge?” she asked.

Reaching inside the car, he removed the keys and handed them back to Kelsey. “He’s reasonable.”

“One man’s reasonable is another man’s steep,” she pointed out, moving in front of him and getting into his face.

His eyes met hers. “Trust me, your mother will be all right with it.”

Kelsey paused for a long moment, debating. Ordinarily, she would have given her mother the details and asked her what she wanted to do. But the woman had enough to deal with right now. And she supposed that a mechanic with a recommendation was better than trusting the fate of her mother’s car’s to the luck of the draw.

“Okay, give Mr. Wizard a call and ask him if he can come down to take a look at this.”

There was just the smallest hint of a smile on the patrolman’s lips. “Not necessary.”

“What, you communicate with him by telepathy?” When he didn’t answer, it suddenly hit her. “It’s you?” she asked in surprise.

“My father ran a garage. I used to help out after school,” he told her. “Turns out I had a knack for fixing things.”

“So why did you become a policeman?”

Telling her that he didn’t want to be like his father was far too intimate a revelation. Morgan merely looked at her for a long moment, then said, “Not all things that need fixing are cars.”

From the way he said it, she had a feeling that Donnelly wasn’t going to elaborate on the enigmatic statement even if she asked him to.

Her curiosity was instantly aroused.

Kelsey hated not knowing things, like the answer to a question, the end of a story or the proper response to a riddle. She really needed to know. Once she found out the answer, the almost rabid desire to obtain a response vanished.

But for the moment, her curiosity had to take a backseat to getting her mother’s car repaired. The sooner she finished up here, the sooner she could get back to the house. Her mother needed her. Needed moral support before breaking this news to the rest of the family.

Kelsey eyed the dormant vehicle. Did he intend to call a tow truck or attempt to levitate it? “So where do we go from here?”

Morgan thought for a moment, then said, “I’ve got an idea.”

It was starting to feel like she had to drag everything out of him. “Which is?”

Instead of answering her he sat down behind the steering wheel and felt around on the left side of the steering column for the hood release. Pulling it, he got out and opened the hood again. This time, it sagged immediately, refusing to remain up long enough for him to test his theory.

“I need you,” he said to Kelsey.

“Why, Officer Donnelly, we hardly know each other,” Kelsey quipped, deliberately batting her eyelashes at him.

“Cute,” he commented. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Come here.”

Man’s interpersonal skills left something to be desired, Kelsey thought. “Do I goose-step over,” she asked, “or just shuffle?”

“Point taken.” He hadn’t meant to sound as if he was ordering her around. “Come here, please. I need you to hold up the hood while I try to get your mother’s car going long enough to drive it over to my place.”

Joining him, she put her hands under the hood and held it up for him. “Assuming that you can accomplish this mystifying feat, where will I be while you’re driving the car?”

“You’ll be the one who’s driving the car,” he corrected. “I’ll follow in the squad car.”

From where she stood, that didn’t sound too promising. Kelsey stared down at the engine. “Is it safe?”

“To follow you?” he guessed, his expression unreadable. “I don’t know yet.”

“I was referring to driving the car.”

“Well, we’ll find out, won’t we?” he quipped. And then he laughed at her surprised expression. “Don’t worry, Kelsey. I won’t put you in a car that’s about to blow up.” He went back to adjusting wires. “Too much paperwork to fill out if that happens.”

She wasn’t sure if he was pulling her leg or not. His expression certainly didn’t enlighten her any. “Nice to know you have your priorities straight.”

“I’ll do just about anything to get out of doing paperwork,” he told her absently as he experimented with another connection. Whatever he did seemed to please him. “Okay,” he said, putting his hand up next to hers beneath the hood. “Put the key into the ignition again. See if it starts now.”

Kelsey had grave doubts, but she did as he told her. Turning the key, she began tapping on the accelerator, giving the car gas. The newer models were supposed to start up without that, but her mother’s car had always been a bit temperamental.

On the third tap, the engine responded with a rumble that increased in strength.

“It’s alive,” she pronounced, imitating Dr. Frankenstein in the classic horror movie.

Instead of letting the hood fall the way he had last time, Morgan eased it down gently. “Whatever you do, don’t turn it off. I want you to drive it over to my house,” he reminded her.

“Not until you give me the address,” she answered.

He’d forgotten about that. Morgan rattled off the address. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Kelsey hesitated. “Got a better idea. You lead the way, I’ll follow. If the car dies, I’ll honk the horn to let you know.”

It made no difference to him which way they did it. He just thought she’d prefer to be out front, but her way would still allow him to call in without fear of losing sight of her. He needed to let dispatch know why he was going to be late getting the squad car back to the precinct.

“Okay,” he nodded. “Give me a second.”

Crossing back to the squad car, Morgan started the vehicle and then swung it around in front of her. It was time for her to play follow the leader, he thought, a smile curving his mouth.

“Where were you?” Kate asked when her daughter finally walked into the house.

“Busy playing musical cars with Officer Donnelly,” Kelsey quipped. “First he took me to your car—it doesn’t look happy,” she confided. “Then I followed him to his house—”

“His house?” Kate did her best not to look pleased. Nothing put Kelsey off faster than when she believed she was being manipulated. Still, Kelsey could do a lot worse than the young officer.

Kelsey tossed down her purse and straddled the arm of the sofa. “Turns out he’s a closet mechanic and will fix the car for you. He almost insisted on it. You created quite an impression on him, Mom,” she said with a grin. “Anyway, then he brought me back here.” Kelsey shrugged. “Not much of a story really.” Her voice grew more serious as she appraised her mother. “How are you feeling?”

Kate ran her hand along her extremely flat stomach, trying to smooth down the unsettling churning.

“Like I’m going to throw up.” She pressed her lips together, trying to think of other things.

Kelsey wondered if she should bring over a pail or the wastepaper basket from the kitchen. “I thought that only happened with first babies.”

Kate took in a long, cleansing breath. She longed for some tea to settle her stomach. “Seeing as how it’s been twenty-six years between pregnancies, this is practically like having a first baby.”

“For the second time around,” Kelsey commented. This whole thing was crazy, as if the world was somehow out of whack. And yet, there was this small, solid starburst of joy smack in the center of her being.

There was no denying it. She loved children almost as much as her mother did.

“But that’s not why I feel like I’m going to throw up,” Kate confided in a lowered voice, despite the fact that only the two of them were in the house.

“Oh?” And then Kelsey guessed what caused her mother’s unease. “You’re afraid of what Dad’s going to say.”

“Not say so much as feel,” Kate admitted. She twisted her fingers together. “This is a lot to spring on him.”

Kelsey had always been honest with her mother. She saw no reason to change now, even if this wasn’t the easiest of subjects for a daughter to discuss with her mother.

“This is a lot to spring on all of us, Mom.” Her mother looked a bit distressed. Kelsey quickly continued. “I mean, I know you guys love each other and all that, but I guess at this point in your married lives, I thought that your expressions of love were more or less restricted to holding hands and occasionally indulging in deep, soulful kisses.”

Shaking her head in amusement, Kate ran her hands through the girl’s hair. “Someday, my darling daughter, when your skin isn’t quite as flawless as it is today, you’ll come to realize the true meaning in that poem.”

That had come completely out of left field. “What poem?”

“‘Come grow old along with me, the best is yet to be,’” Kate said, reciting her favorite line out of a poem by Robert Browning. And then she patted Kelsey’s hand. “Shouldn’t you be getting back to school? I don’t need a babysitter, honey.”

“I’m not babysitting,” she protested a bit too quickly. “I told them at the school I didn’t know if I was going to be back today.” And then she backtracked a little. “At least I think I did. Everything after talking to you on the phone is still a little hazy. Besides,” she staked out a place on the sofa, “I thought I’d hang around here today, see if you need anything, need someone to catch you in case you faint again, things like that.”

Kate took her daughter’s hand and drew her up to her feet. “I’m fine, really. Go back to work.”

Well, she had left them in a bad way. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to get rid of me, Mom.”

Kate grinned. She was gently guiding her daughter to the front door. “I am. I’ve changed my mind. I can handle this. Thank you for coming as quickly as you did—now go.”

Kelsey paused in the doorway. She didn’t want her mother to think she was hovering, but she didn’t feel good about just leaving her. “You sure you don’t need anything?”

Kate smiled. When she spoke, her accent was particularly strong. “Oh, a shot of my da’s liquid courage, maybe.” She reconsidered her words and gave Kelsey a rueful expression. “But then, I can’t have that for the next nine months.”

“Speaking of ‘da,’ when are you going to tell Dad?” Kelsey asked.

“Today,” Kate answered. She’d already made up her mind. But suddenly weary, she took a deep breath. “I just have to find the right words.”

“How about ‘Hi, honey, I’ve got a new tax deduction for you’?”

Kate shook her head. “Very funny, Kelsey.”

“I wasn’t trying to be funny,” Kelsey told her mother. “I was trying to temper the shock with a positive piece of information.”

“He’s not going to be in shock,” Kate protested. But then her words echoed back to her. “He’s going to be in shock, isn’t he?”

“Can’t really blame him, Mom. You were in shock when you found out,” Kelsey reminded.

But that was different. “It was for just a few seconds.”

“With luck,” Kelsey deadpanned, “Dad’ll come out of his shock just before he has to rush you into the delivery room.” Kelsey leaned over and pressed a kiss to her mother’s temple. “Just kidding, Mom. After he realizes you haven’t just developed a weird sense of humor, he’ll be thrilled.”

Thrilled was a rather powerful word. “I don’t know if I’d go that far…”

Kelsey gave her a vague little shrug. “Might as well keep a positive attitude about this.” Reaching for the doorknob, she paused as a thought hit her. “Just make me a promise.”

Raising five children had taught Kate never to make a promise until she heard all the details. “Yes?”

“Don’t tell the guys without me there. I want to see their reaction. You can tell Dad,” she realized they needed their privacy for this, “but not Mike and the others unless I’m there. Please,” she added in case her mother didn’t think she was serious.

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