LITMIR.BIZ

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      To

       Helen with love,

       despite the fact

       that she has now moved

       to a galaxy far, far

       away

       Chapter One

      “Don’t take this the wrong way, Blake,” Wendy Mendoza said to her brother as she tried, and failed, to find a comfortable spot on her bed, “but with all this hovering about you’re doing, I’m beginning to feel like a watched pot.”

      Blake Fortune dragged over the chair he’d brought into his younger sister’s bedroom earlier and straddled it. “Isn’t that actually a good thing?” he pointed out. “Watched pots aren’t supposed to boil, or, in your case, give birth prematurely.”

      Which was, between the terbutaline injections to stop her contractions and the enforced bed rest, exactly what the doctor and she were trying to prevent.

      But that didn’t mean that she had to be happy about this state of affairs, Blake knew. And the longer she lay there, inert, the more restless she grew.

      “Isn’t there something you could be doing?” she pressed, more accustomed to his teasing than his concern. “I mean, I really do appreciate you deciding to drop everything and come running back to Red Rock to hold my hand, but having everyone practically walking on eggshells around me is really making me feel very tense and nervous.”

      Which was, he knew, counterproductive to what they were all really trying to do—keep her pregnant until the baby was strong enough to survive on its own when she emerged.

      “If this keeps up,” Wendy warned, “I’m going to wind up giving birth to a neurotic baby who’s going to go straight from the delivery room to some psychiatrist’s couch.”

      Blake laughed, shaking his head. At least she hadn’t lost her offbeat sense of humor. The whole family had gone through one hell of a trauma when that tornado had hit. And then on top of that, when Wendy had suddenly gone into premature labor, it had put a scare into all of them.

      Thank God for modern medicine, he thought. Now she was back to her feisty self—except for not being able to get out of bed, he amended.

      “Well, obviously the tornado had no effect on your imagination,” he commented. But one look at her expression told him that she was being serious. She wanted him out of her bedroom. He supposed that if he were in her place, he might feel a bit crowded, too. “You’ve already kicked me out of your house to bunk with Scott at his place,” he reminded her. “You want me to go altogether?”

      Reaching out, Wendy caught her brother’s hand and threaded her fingers through his. She loved all her siblings, but, as the baby of the family, Blake was the brother she was closest to. He was the second youngest. Together they were the bottom of the totem pole.

      “No, I don’t want you to go altogether,” she told him with feeling, “but I don’t want you putting your life on hold because of me, either.” He’d been her constant companion for two days now. It was time he got back to his career, to his life. “With computers and teleconferencing, you could work anywhere. Why don’t you set up a temporary office at Scott’s and take care of business before Dad comes, breathing down your neck for dropping the ball, or whatever cliché he favors these days.”

      John Michael Fortune, who she felt certain did love his family in his own, private way, was ultimately responsible for the turn her life had taken. If her father hadn’t insisted on sending her here, to Red Rock, Texas, in hopes of waking up her heretofore sleeping work ethic, she might have never discovered the two ultimate passions of her life: baking and Marcos—not necessarily in that order.

      Her newfound passion for baking and creating desserts had come to light when she had gone to work at the restaurant that Marcos managed for his aunt and uncle, who were friends of her parents. At the time it was clear that Marcos felt he was being saddled with her and that he thought she was a spoiled little rich girl, totally incapable of doing anything right.

      Marcos had been looking to fire her, while she in turn was looking for ways to prove herself. What neither one had been looking for was a life commitment, but they’d found it, in spades. Now she was married to Marcos and expecting his child any day.

      A baby that had almost been born nearly a month ago, thanks to the tornado that had ripped through Red Rock just minutes before her family, who had flown out for her Christmas Eve wedding, were to take off for Atlanta.

      It still left her breathless when she thought about it. One minute, she was saying her goodbyes, the next, they were being all but buried alive in debris as the tornado buzz sawed through the airport, collapsing it all around them.

      The shock of it all, including having Marcos’s badly injured brother, Javier, lapse into a coma, was too much for her. She found herself going into labor way before she was anywhere near her due date. Luckily, her doctor was able to

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