Dream Baby. Ann Evans

      “Your brother—the baby’s father—washed his hands of the entire problem.” Letter to Reader Title Page Dedication 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 CHAPTER SIXTEEN Copyright

      “Your brother—the baby’s father—washed his hands of the entire problem.”

      

      Nora’s voice rose slightly. “Are you aware that he even suggested abortion?”

      

      Jake nodded. “I am. Isabel’s phone call threw him for quite a loop. That doesn’t excuse him, but I know he came to regret that suggestion almost immediately after he made it.”

      

      “And yet you’re the one who’s come to her, when it should be him—”

      

      “My brother’s dead, Miss Holloway: He died a few days after he received the phone call.”

      

      “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

      

      “I sat by my brother’s hospital bed for almost two days. He wanted to find Isabel and tell her he’d made a huge mistake, There’s no doubt in my mind he would have married her and given his son a name....” Jake expelled a long sigh. “Toward the end, when he knew... he asked me to make sure she and the baby were okay. Of course, everything’s changed now.”

      

      Nora’s heart cramped suddenly. “What do you mean?”

      

      Jake gave her a hard, level look. ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t let you adopt my brother’s baby.”

      Dear Reader,

      

      It’s hard to believe that the millennium is nearly here.

      When I was a kid, it seemed so far away. I was sure that by the year 2000 we’d be zipping around town in spaceships, our meals would be prepared by robots and we’d all be living in geodesic domes. As a fan of history rather than science, I thought it all sounded pretty scary and undesirable.

      

      But here we are on the eve of a new century, and I’m delighted to see that one aspect of life hasn’t changed much over the years. Falling in love is still unpredictable.It can’t be bottled or scheduled or forced, and it can still sneak up on two unlikely people who think they know exactly what the millennium will bring them.

      

      As I wrote this book, I liked the idea that I was creating two such characters in Nora and Jake—a heroine who sees only loneliness in her future, and a hero struggling to put the past behind him to make a new life. Their expectations don’t include a baby, but what better way for two deserving lovers to kick off a brand-new year!

      

      I hope the millennium brings you happiness and lots of wonderful books that warm and touch your heart. Somehow, the future just looks a little less scary when it’s filled with love. Happy New Year!

      

      Ann Evans

      Dream Baby

      Ann Evans

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      For Evan and Holly Marsh, who gave me the opportunity to

      experience the love, excitement and delight of children firsthand, and who continue to enrich my life today.

      CHAPTER ONE

      New Year’s Eve, 1998

      

      NORA HOLLOWAY WENT to bed early.

      Without waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square, without a thimbleful of alcohol in her system, without making a single resolution.

      She went to bed before the first skyrocket had a chance to arc over Blue Devil Springs’s postage stamp of a town square. Praying for deep, dreamless sleep—and knowing that it was probably a futile wish.

      An hour before 1998 escaped into the record books, she awoke sweaty and breathless in her bed, her head full of familiar images—long dark corridors, the sound of a baby crying, and herself, confused and frightened and unable to change any of it.

      She sat upright, disoriented, but only for a moment or two. She knew why the baby dream had visited her tonight.

      That afternoon she’d sorted through a box of junk she intended to donate to the Memorial Day garage sale. She had expected to find nothing of value, certainly nothing that would cause her heart to miss a beat. But instead it had yielded a treasure trove of mementos. The dried, crumpled remains of the orchid she’d worn to the prom. A clutch of blue ribbons her brother, Trip, had won in crew. Letters she had written to Mom and Dad from college.

      Nothing startling. Nothing dramatic, although it was a little bit of a surprise to find pictures of Peter in the box as well. Peter, looking strong and handsome, with that absurdly charming smile that she’d fallen victim to right from the first. He seemed so achingly young in the photographs.

      The sight of those objects brought no pain. Only regret for what might have been. She’d been smiling when she reached into the box to retrieve those faded images.

      But as she picked them up, her fingers brushed something soft, and when she saw what it was, the smile froze on her lips.

      How stupid to have forgotten what she’d done with the half-finished, cross-stitched birth announcement. The one she’d taken with her to the doctor’s office that rainy day five years ago—five years ago to the day. It was such a small thing—too small to be framed on the nursery wall, Peter had said. But Nora had kept stitching anyway, because the cheery colors and its pattern of childishly simple icons for a little boy made her feel good, made her feel like the mother she couldn’t wait to become in just four short months.

      Seeing the announcement again this afternoon had brought it all back. Soiled, fading, the fabric sat in her lap as though it were a snake that might strike