LITMIR.BIZ

       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

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