LITMIR.BIZ

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leaving. Better help your mother get ready. I’ll wait for you at the E.R.’s registration desk.” He pointed toward doors that led outside the emergency room.

      Without waiting for a response, Morgan walked away, heading toward the doors. Leaving her with a basketful of questions.

      Chapter Three

      “He seems like a very nice man,” Kate commented to Kelsey.

      Morgan had helped Kate out of the wheelchair that the hospital’s insurance policy required for all inpatients leaving the premises, then gently eased her into her daughter’s car. True to his word, the young policeman followed behind them as Kelsey drove her home.

      Kelsey lifted one shoulder in a dismissive half shrug. “He’s okay for a policeman.”

      She glanced up into her rearview mirror. If she was hoping that he’d taken off instead of following them, she was disappointed. In true law enforcement style, Donnelly drove a sensible distance behind them.

      Kelsey sped up.

      So did he.

      She had a gut feeling that Officer Morgan Donnelly was not an easy man to shake.

      She couldn’t really put into words why, but the fact that he trailed behind them annoyed her. Kelsey knew she was unreasonable, that the policeman had been extremely accommodating and made things easy for her. She should be grateful.

      But policemen as a species were not really high on her approval list right now. Not since she’d broken up with Dan. Moreover, she wasn’t exactly in the best of moods. For one thing, she was still shaken up by having to rush to the hospital, not knowing what to expect when she got there. For another, the news of her mother’s current delicate condition had completely thrown her for a loop.

      If one of her brothers had told her that they were expecting, she would have been instantly overjoyed. This was something else again. It would take getting used to.

      Kelsey could feel her mother’s gaze.

      Glancing briefly to her right, Kelsey asked, “What?”

      “Since when do you have something against policemen?” Kate asked.

      Ordinarily, her life was an open book. She and her mother were more than family—they were friends and she valued her mother’s insight and judgment. But this had been a very personal hurt. Because she hadn’t wanted to endure her brothers’ teasing, not to mention their questions, no one had even known she was seeing Dan at the time. And afterward, when she’d felt like an idiot because Dan had been stringing her along, well, she didn’t feel like sharing that, either.

      It definitely wasn’t a topic she wanted to raise now.

      Kelsey shook her head. “Mom, I don’t want to waste time talking about policemen.”

      Kate smiled. “What do you want to waste time talking about?”

      “I don’t want to waste time at all—” Kelsey realized that her voice was tense. But then, this wasn’t an everyday situation. Stopping at a stoplight at an intersection, she slanted another look at her mother. “Mom, what are you going to do?”

      Clearly puzzled by the question, Kate asked, “About?”

      “World peace,” Kelsey retorted, her tension getting the best of her. And then she flushed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to be so flip. About the baby, Mom. What are you going to do about the baby?”

      Her mother never hesitated. “Start eating healthier, exercising more. And giving up that glass of wine I always have with your father at dinner.” The light turned green and Kelsey pressed down on the gas pedal. There was just the slightest shift in her mother’s voice as she asked, “What else would I do?”

      How in heaven’s name do you ask your mother if she was considering an alternative to giving birth? For one of the few times in her life, Kelsey felt tongue-tied. Taking a breath, she forced herself to forge ahead.

      The words came out haltingly. “Well, I thought maybe, because you’re not twenty-four anymore…”

      Reading between the lines, Kate took pity on her. “I know how old I am, Kelsey. And the doctor says I’m definitely healthy enough to go the distance.”

      Yes, her mother was healthy and energetic and all those good things. But having a baby was a life-altering decision. Her mother had to know that. “What about after the distance? This doesn’t just end with delivery.”

      Kate made no attempt to hide her amusement. “Are you under the impression that you’re telling me something I don’t know, Kelsey? I don’t have that short a memory, sweetheart.”

      Kelsey hadn’t meant to sound insulting. Because her mother was with her, she slowed down rather than raced through a yellow light. “No, of course not, it’s just that—that I’m worried.”

      Kate patted her hand just as the light turned green again. “Don’t be. This baby thing threw me for a loop, too, but I’m already getting used to it. It’ll mean changes, but it’ll also mean that I get to hear a sweet little voice say ‘Mama’ again.”

      “I can call you Mama again if you want,” Kelsey volunteered as she took the on-ramp to the northbound freeway. “What about the diapers and the sleepless nights and the cost?”

      In Kate’s mind, the reward was a great deal more than the sacrifice. “What about the love?” she countered.

      Kelsey spared her mother a quizzical glance. “Five of us loving you—not counting Dad—isn’t enough?”

      Her mother’s laugh was warm, reassuring, as if she sensed the ambivalent feelings Kelsey was going through.

      “There’s always room for more, Kelsey. Always room for more. A mother’s love is infinite. It’s not a pie with only so much to go around so that if you slice it seven ways instead of six, there’ll be less for everyone.” Kate shifted in her seat for a better view of her daughter. “I’ll still love everyone the same way, Kelsey. There’ll just be one more at the table, that’s all.”

      She was grateful to her mother for not saying that this was ultimately not her business to meddle in. But then, both her parents had made all of them feel that they were a unit, not parents and children or worse, individual strangers. In her family’s case, although individuality was encouraged, at bottom it was a case of one for all, all for one.

      And she needed to get behind this newest phase, Kelsey told herself sternly.

      There was sympathy in Kelsey’s voice as she asked, “Then you’re okay with this, Mom? With being pregnant, I mean?”

      “I am wonderful with this,” her mother assured her. Her eyes danced as she said, “Children keep you young.”

      For the first time since she’d rushed out of the school, Kelsey laughed. “I thought you said that children give you gray hair.”

      “That, too,” Kate acknowledged. “But gray hair happens at any age. I had an aunt who started going gray at twenty-five. And the dividends are so wonderful. Look at you,” she added to make her point.

      “You’re not afraid?” Kelsey asked, thinking of how she would have reacted if she were in her mother’s shoes.

      Kate let out a long breath. A great many emotions shifted through her. Joy was foremost, but other emotions, as well. “I’m terrified.”

      “Terrified?” Kelsey looked at her, then back at the road. How could her mother be happy and terrified at the same time? “You certainly don’t act it.”

      Kate was nothing if not honest. It was the cornerstone of her relationship with everyone in her family. That and love.

      “Doesn’t mean I’m not. The prospect of bringing a new life into the world is always terrifying. Will he or she be healthy? Will I do a good job raising him or her—”

      Kelsey

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