LITMIR.BIZ

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the company owner and CEO impressed Jolyn, then this piece of information should send her over the moon.

      “You’ve got to be kidding! When was that? I thought the Townsends have been married for years and years. I heard they have three children!”

      “Tessa, Junior and Emma Jane.” When she left the office this afternoon, Michelle would be heading over to her aunt and uncle’s home on Lake Washington to babysit. She didn’t think it would be good form to mention that, however. She figured interns for Windy Day Toys didn’t usually babysit on the side.

      “You were responsible for introducing your aunt and uncle?” Jolyn repeated, sounding even more incredulous. “When?” she asked again.

      “I was young at the time,” Michelle answered evasively.

      “You must have been.”

      Michelle grinned and gave in to Jolyn’s obvious curiosity. Might as well tell the truth, which was bound to emerge anyway. “I think that might be why Uncle Nate agreed to let me intern here.” He loved to tease her about her—admittedly inadvertent—role as matchmaker, but Michelle knew he was grateful. So was her aunt Susannah.

      Michelle planned to major in marketing when she enrolled in college next September, and doing an internship this winter and during the summer holidays was the perfect opportunity to find out whether she liked the job. It was only her second day, but already Michelle could see that she was going to love it.

      A couple of the other workers had apparently been listening in on the conversation and rolled their chairs toward her cubicle, as well. “You can’t stop the story there,” Karen said.

      Originally Michelle had hoped to avoid this kind of attention, but she accepted that it was inevitable. “When my aunt was almost thirty, she was absolutely sure she’d never marry or have a family.”

      “Susannah Townsend?”

      This news astonished the small gathering, as Michelle had guessed it would. Besides working with Nate, her mother and aunt had started their own company, Motherhood, Inc., about ten years ago and they’d done incredibly well. It seemed that everything the Townsend name touched turned to gold.

      “I know it sounds crazy, considering everything that’s happened since.”

      “Exactly,” Jolyn murmured.

      “Aunt Susannah’s a great mother. But,” Michelle added, “at one time, she couldn’t even figure out how to change a diaper.” Little did the others know that the diaper Susannah had such difficulty changing had been Michelle’s.

      “This is a joke, right?”

      “I swear it’s true. Hardly anyone knows the whole story.”

      “What really happened?” the third woman, whom Michelle didn’t know, asked.

      Michelle shrugged. “Actually, I happened.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “My mother was desperate for a babysitter and asked her sister, my aunt Susannah, to look after me.”

      “How old were you?”

      “About nine months,” she admitted.

      “So how did everything turn out the way it did?” Jolyn asked.

      “I’d love to hear, too,” Karen said, and the third woman nodded vigorously.

      Michelle leaned back in her chair. “Make yourselves comfortable, my friends, because I have a story to tell,” she began dramatically. “A story in which I play a crucial part.”

      The three women scooted their chairs closer.

      “It all started seventeen years ago…”

       CHAPTER 1

      Susannah Simmons blamed her sister, Emily, for this. As far as she was concerned, her weekend was going to be the nightmare on Western Avenue. Emily, a nineties version of the “earth mother,” had asked Susannah, the dedicated career woman, to babysit nine-month-old Michelle.

      “Emily, I don’t think so.” Susannah had balked when her sister first phoned. What did she, a twenty-eight-year-old business executive, know about babies? The answer was simple—not much.

      “I’m desperate.”

      Her sister must have been to ask her. Everyone knew what Susannah was like around babies—not only Michelle, but infants in general. She just wasn’t the motherly type. Interest rates, negotiations, troubleshooting, staff motivation, these were her strong points. Not formula, teething and diapers.

      It was nothing short of astonishing that the same two parents could have produced such completely different daughters. Emily baked her own oat-bran muffins, subscribed to Organic Gardening and hung her wash to dry on a clothesline—even in winter.

      Susannah, on the other hand, wasn’t the least bit domestic and had no intention of ever cultivating the trait. She was too busy with her career to let such tedious tasks disrupt her corporate lifestyle. She was currently a director in charge of marketing for H&J Lima, the nation’s largest sporting goods company. The position occupied almost every minute of her time.

      Susannah Simmons was a woman on the rise. Her name appeared regularly in trade journals as an up-and-coming achiever. None of that mattered to Emily, however, who needed a babysitter.

      “You know I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t an emergency,” Emily had pleaded.

      Susannah felt herself weakening. Emily was, after all, her younger sister. “Surely, there’s got to be someone better qualified.”

      Emily had hesitated, then tearfully blurted, “I don’t know what I’ll do if you won’t take Michelle.” She began to sob pitifully. “Robert’s left me.”

      “What?” If Emily hadn’t gained her full attention earlier, she did now. If her sister was an earth mother, then her brother-in-law, Robert Davidson, was Abraham Lincoln, as solid and upright as a thirty-foot oak. “I don’t believe it.”

      “It’s true,” Emily wailed. “He…he claims I give Michelle all my attention and that I never have enough energy left to be a decent wife.” She paused to draw in a quavery breath. “I know he’s right…but being a good mother demands so much time and effort.”

      “I thought Robert wanted six children.”

      “He does…or did.” Emily’s sobbing began anew.

      “Oh, Emily, it can’t be that bad,” Susannah had murmured in a soothing voice, thinking as fast as she could. “I’m sure you misunderstood Robert. He loves you and Michelle, and I’m positive he has no intention of leaving you.”

      “He does,” Emily went on to explain between hiccuping sobs. “He asked me to find someone to look after Michelle for a while. He says we have to have some time to ourselves, or our marriage is dead.”

      That sounded pretty drastic to Susannah.

      “I swear to you, Susannah, I’ve called everyone who’s ever babysat Michelle before, but no one’s available. No one—not even for one night. When I told Robert I hadn’t found a sitter, he got so angry…and that’s not like Robert.”

      Susannah agreed. The man was the salt of the earth. Not once in the five years she’d known him could she recall him even raising his voice.

      “He told me that if I didn’t take this weekend trip to San Francisco with him he was going alone. I tried to find someone to watch Michelle,” Emily said. “I honestly tried, but there’s no one else, and now Robert’s home and he’s loading up the car and, Susannah, he’s serious. He’s going to leave without me and from the amount of luggage he’s taking, I don’t think he plans to come back.”

      The

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