LITMIR.BIZ

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and would show up any minute now.

      Suddenly Faith looked through her moist eyes and noticed it was snowing. She sighed deeply and hugged herself, settling down on a bench to wait. When Worth arrived, their reunion would take place with snowflakes falling all around them. It would be like a scene from an old movie. Lovers reuniting in the town square on a snowy Christmas Eve.

      Time passed, but Faith wasn’t sure how much time. And when she heard Jody’s voice calling her, she tried to open her eyes, but couldn’t. Was she asleep? No, she couldn’t be asleep. She was in the square waiting for Worth. He would be here any minute now.

      Jody began shaking Faith as she repeated her name and said, “Wake up, Faithie, wake up. My God, how long have you been lying here on this bench, out in the snow? Come on, honey, let’s get you up on your feet. I’m taking you to the hospital right now.”

      “The hospital?” Faith managed to speak, but even to her own ears her voice sounded weak. “Why do I need to go to the hospital?”

      “Oh, honey, you’ve been sitting out here in the snow, waiting for that damn man for over four hours.”

      She felt Jody lifting her to her feet, then putting an arm around her and urging her to walk.

      “What—what time is it?” Faith asked.

      Before Jody could reply, the church bells rang out twelve times. Midnight. And Worth hadn’t shown up yet.

      “I can’t leave,” Faith said. “Worth might—”

      “Damn it, Faithie, he’s not coming. The guy’s a no-show.”

      As Jody led Faith to her car, she heard her friend grumbling, “Men! They love you until they’ve had you, then it’s on to the next woman. But don’t you worry, honey, we’ll be all right. You don’t need him. You’ll get by just fine without him.”

      “Worth,” Faith whispered. “Worth, where are you?”

      

      Worth Cordell woke from a drug-induced sleep in the ICU of an Atlanta hospital…or he assumed he was in Atlanta. He glanced around the meticulously sterile room. Pale-green walls. No windows. An array of tubes and wires hooking him to various machines. The quiet hum of nurses as they went about their duties within the intensive care facility.

      What the hell am I doing here? he asked himself.

      His brain was fuzzy. His body ached, but it was a medicated ache that told him his true pain was being masked by some high-powered medicine. Worth felt as if his right leg had been run over by an army tank.

      His right leg! Now he remembered. He’d been shot. He tried to raise himself up enough to look at his leg, to make sure it was still there. During his time in the Rangers he’d seen guys get their legs blown off and later in the hospital say they could feel their missing limb.

      A strong, feminine hand came down over Worth’s chest and gently eased his head down on the pillow. “Lie still, Mr. Cordell. Don’t try to move around. Not yet.”

      “Tell me something.” Worth looked squarely at the brown-eyed, middle-aged nurse.

      She glanced down at him and smiled. “What would you like to know?”

      “Is my leg still there?” he asked.

      “Your leg?” Her smiled widened. “Your leg is very much there and it’s healing nicely. We should be able to transfer you to a private room by this time tomorrow.”

      “Thanks.”

      “You’re welcome. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

      “I’m not sure. I’m a bit crazy-headed right now.”

      “Your mind will clear up once we reduce your medication. Now take it easy and—” she pointed to a series of buttons attached to the railing on his hospital bed “—if you need anything, just punch right here and one of us will check on you.”

      Worth nodded.

      The nurse paused at the doorway, glanced over her shoulder and said, “Merry Christmas, Mr. Cordell.”

      Merry Christmas?

      “Is today Christmas Day?” he asked.

      “Yes, it is.”

      “How long have I been in here?”

      “You were brought into the E.R. three days ago, on the twenty-second, and Dr. Winthrop did emergency surgery. He saved your life and your leg.”

      “I am in Atlanta, aren’t I?”

      “You’re in Piedmont Hospital and you’ve had visitors every day, but you probably don’t remember.”

      “Visitors?”

      “Your co-workers from the Dundee agency. A Mr. Sawyer, a Mr. Shea and a Ms. Evans.”

      “Oh, yeah, my co-workers.”

      Worth tried to remember exactly what had happened to him, but his memory was messed up. He’d been on an assignment, here in Atlanta, providing private security for some rock star in town for a Christmas concert. He could recall that much, but nothing about the particulars. When one of the guys from Dundee’s came back to the hospital, he’d find out the details.

      Lying there, his leg aching and his stomach rumbling—when had he eaten last?—he suddenly remembered that he’d had a very important date on Christmas Eve. Faith! He was supposed to have met her in Whitewood, South Carolina, at eight o’clock in the town square.

      Well, by now, she realized he wasn’t going to show up. She must have been really disappointed. Hell, he’d had every intention of meeting her. He’d owed her that much. After he had rescued her from kidnappers and gotten them back to safety, she’d developed a major crush on him. And he had developed a major case of the hots for her.

      Maybe it was better for her—for both of them—that he hadn’t been able to meet her. Being laid up in the hospital this way, he had saved them both from an unpleasant scene. He had planned to tell Faith that he wasn’t the right man for her, that he wasn’t the settling-down, one-woman-man she needed. He was a man with too many emotional battle scars for a sweet woman like Faith. Plain and simple—he was no damn good for her.

      She might be crying today, but by this time next year, she’d probably barely remember what he looked like. Yeah, maybe fate had done them both a big favor. He could continue his life as it was and she could move on to that fairy tale happily-ever-after she wanted with some other guy.

      Chapter 1

      Faith Sheridan locked the door to Toddle Town Day Care, the business she had opened in February, only a few short weeks after her recovery from hypothermia and pneumonia nearly ten months ago. With a bank loan, cosigned by Margaret Tompkins, and seventy-five percent of her savings, Faith had purchased a downtown building that had once housed a dry goods store that had gone out of business a couple of years ago. Located on Hickory Avenue, a back street in Whitewood, the two-story building was ideal. Her office and nursery were upstairs, where the infants were kept away from the toddlers on the ground level. Out back Faith had cleared off the empty half lot and put in playground equipment.

      Opening a day-care center had seemed the perfect choice for Faith since her background was in child care; plus she had the added bonus of being able to keep Hope with her all the time. But today, her baby daughter was running a fever and she couldn’t risk exposing the other children to what the doctor had said was a twenty-four-hour virus. Luckily Lindsey Dawson had become like a grandmother to Hope, as had Margaret, and today Lindsey was looking after Hope.

      Life wasn’t perfect, but Faith was content. She had a new business that was thriving, good friends all around her in Whitewood and best of all, four-month-old Hope. Her baby was the absolute joy of her life. But despite everything being well with her, she hadn’t forgotten Worth Cordell. How could she, when Hope was a living, breathing reminder

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