The Baby Arrangement. Moyra Tarling

her work. Although he was twenty years her senior, she’d developed a crush on him, and when he asked her to accompany him to an art show in town, she’d eagerly accepted.

      They’d had so many interests in common, or so she’d thought, and she’d felt comfortable and at ease with him. Six months later they’d had a quiet wedding, with only her parents and Glen’s sister in attendance.

      Almost from the moment the ceremony was over he’d changed, and it wasn’t long before she came to the realization that having a wife much younger than himself fed his already overblown ego. He loved to show her off to his friends and colleagues as if she were a trophy, insensitive and uncaring of his wife’s feelings.

      Annoyed at the route her thoughts had taken, Faith closed the door on her memories, and suddenly through a break in the trees she glimpsed an array of twinkling lights.

      The trees at last thinned out to reveal a peaceful little community she guessed must be Grace Harbor. Her gaze slid beyond the lights to what appeared to be ribbons of silver shimmering and undulating in the moonlight.

      The ocean! Of course! She had to be looking at the powerful and magnificent Pacific Ocean.

      “Oh...how beautiful,” she exclaimed.

      Her comment drew Jared’s gaze. “I thought you hated the ocean,” he said dryly.

      Faith silently admonished herself for her lapse. What Jared said was true. Ever since Paula had fallen out of a sailboat during a storm when they were teens, nearly drowning in the process, she’d detested the ocean.

      “Uh...I was just admiring the view,” Faith muttered, reminding herself that while she and her twin were almost identical in appearance, their preferences and personalities had often been in opposing camps.

      “Admiring the view...” Jared repeated, his tone mocking. “I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

      Faith heard the underlying skepticism in his voice and wondered at the animosity and cynicism he continually directed toward her, or more accurately toward Paula, his wife and the mother of his child.

      There had been times throughout the long drive north she’d been tempted to blurt out the truth, to tell Jared she wasn’t Paula. But each time she’d glanced at his unsmiling and forbidding profile, she’d felt her courage evaporate.

      She had to keep reminding herself of Jared’s plan to fight for sole custody of Nicky, and his threat to deprive Paula of her son. These were reasons enough for her to continue with the deception, at least until Paula contacted a lawyer.