Unexpected Babies. Anna Adams

      

      Her foot twitched beneath the blanket

      Alan went back to her bed. “Cate?”

      Her eyelids fluttered. For a horrified moment, he was afraid she couldn’t open her eyes. “Cate,” he said again, “wake up. Uncle Ford, why didn’t you shout at her before?”

      “Shall I try again?” Uncle Ford struggled to his feet, maybe to lean closer to Cate’s ear. He might have yelled at his niece, except Dan appeared at his side to help him—or maybe to hold him back.

      Alan flashed his son a grateful smile and took Cate’s hand. “Wake up. Please, Cate.” Asking for things didn’t come naturally, and that had been a sore spot between them. But he’d beg freely if he had to. Finally Cate opened her eyes and held them open. He didn’t dare look away. Something different in her expression bothered him—some level of detachment.

      She studied each person around her bed. Nothing that made her the Cate he loved was in her gaze. She eyed her aunt, uncle, niece and son with the same strange, dreamy look until she focused on Alan again.

      “Who are you?” she asked.

      Dear Reader,

      Imagine this: You open your eyes and find yourself in a hospital bed, surrounded by strangers who look like a close-knit family. You don’t know your aunt or uncle, your niece or even your twin sister. Worse, you don’t recognize your own son, and when the man who seems to be in charge claims he’s your husband, you realize your own name is a mystery.

      This is only the start of Cate Talbot Palmer’s dilemma. Soon she discovers she’s pregnant with twins, but that she hasn’t told her husband, Alan—and she can’t remember why. Add to that the tales people recount of the wild Talbot clan she hails from, and you have the kind of family story I love. Cate must figure out who she really is and learn the truth about her marriage. No longer the “good” twin, or the woman who never rocked anyone’s boat, she wants to live life fully. Her struggle to recover her identity brings upheaval to her family and her marriage.

      I hope you enjoy this story of learning to trust a loving stranger.

      If you’d like to share your thoughts on this story, please write to me at [email protected].

      Sincerely,

      Anna Addams

      Unexpected Babies

      Anna Adams

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      To Sarah Greengas, Sharon Lavoie,

       Jennifer LaBrecque, Amy Lanz, Carmen Green,

       Wendy Etherington, Jenni Grizzle, Karen Bishop,

       Theresa Goldman and Michele Flinn—

      thank you for reading my unpolished pages.

      And to Paula Eykelhof and Laura Shin. Thank you

       for the chance and for all I’ve already learned from you.

      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

       CHAPTER SIXTEEN

       EPILOGUE

      CHAPTER ONE

      CATE TALBOT PALMER opened her car door and stepped into the sand-blown street that paralleled the beach. Above the small, stucco building in front of her a metal sign rattled like faint thunder in the wind off the ocean. The sign read Palmer Construction, Leith, Georgia.

      Her husband, Alan, was inside at his desk. Nearly two hours late for the burned five-course dinner she’d abandoned on their dining room table.

      Cate ran one hand across her stomach. The stench of dry, overcooked lamb mingled with ocean salt. She swallowed, her throat almost clenching she felt so nauseous. She’d suggested a special dinner tonight because she’d finally decided to tell Alan the secret she’d been keeping. Thank God she hadn’t told him before.

      She’d waited for him, staring at a bottle of sparkling grape juice she’d set on the table between their plates as a hint. She’d memorized that bottle while she’d opened her eyes to the facts. She and Alan had both kept secrets for the past sixteen weeks, only she’d been desperate enough to pretend she didn’t see what Alan was doing.

      Late nights at the office, fierce silences at home, see-through excuses for the cell phone he’d practically strapped to his hand. Most women would suspect an affair, but Alan Palmer had a different problem.

      His mother had left him and his father when he was ten because his dad couldn’t give her the material things she’d wanted. As a result of that longago abandonment and the way his father had used him as a confidant during the divorce, Alan tied his worth to his success with Palmer Construction.

      He’d do anything to provide for Cate and Dan, their eighteen-year-old son, but he kept his emotional distance, afraid to risk the kind of pain he and his father had barely survived. His need to protect Cate had pushed her away, because she wanted a husband who would let her help him solve his problems, not pull away when troubles came.

      She sprang from a long line of Talbots who’d failed at marriage or any relationship close to that kind of commitment. She and Alan had tried to create the family they’d both craved in their childhoods. Instead, they’d created an emotional divide.

      She felt as if she’d already raised Dan on her own. She’d made up excuses for Alan’s absences, for his distraction when he showed up late at one family gathering after another. She couldn’t start that over again. This time, if she raised a child alone, it would be because she no longer lived with her baby’s father.

      A car passed her. She knew the driver. Another mom whose son was about to graduate from high school. Cate pasted a smile on her