LITMIR.BIZ

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decided eight months ago.”

      “Who decided it?”

      “The father does, Joey.”

      “Then Uncle Scott would’ve picked a boy!”

      “Your dad didn’t mean the father really decides. Remember in that book we all read together? When the sperm and the egg unite to make a baby, there’s something in the man’s sperm that’ll make it a boy or a girl.”

      “But what if we don’t want our sperm to make a girl?” Joey blurted.

      Laurel bit her lip to keep from laughing. Like Julie, she felt it was important to teach children the truth using correct terms. However she could see that honesty didn’t necessarily answer all the questions.

      “That’s why God’s in charge,” his mother explained.

      “You always say that.”

      “That’s because it’s true, Mike,” their father said.

      “I guess He didn’t want our family to have girls, then.”

      “Oh, I don’t know.”

      Before Laurel had time to react to Julie’s mysterious comment, Brent had already pulled over to the side of the highway. He turned in the seat to stare at his wife.

      “Did you just say what I think you said?” Laurel heard incredulity and excitement in his voice.

      Julie’s low chuckle gave her away. “I was going to wait until tonight to tell you.”

      “Tell Dad what, Mom?” Mike asked.

      Laurel couldn’t resist interjecting. “It sounds like you’re going to be getting a new little brother or sister later on in the year.”

      How wonderful, wonderful.

      Her sister’s pregnancy had just settled something that had been a big question in Laurel’s mind. After her own baby was born, she’d love to buy a small house in Aurora, so they could all still be close and she could help her sister when the time came for her delivery. They could raise their children together.

      But only if Brent felt right about it. He’d put up with her for months now. Maybe he was counting the days until she left their house and Denver for good. No one could have been as terrific to her as he’d been since Scott’s death. To expect more might be assuming too much.

      During the rest of the drive home, Laurel remained silent. For the moment she was content to put her head back and listen to the happy flow of conversation from her favorite people.

      Every once in a while, she’d sneak a glance at Brent. She wondered if Scott had beamed like that after he’d heard the news about his baby.

      Their child was almost here. It moved constantly in the womb, preventing her from finding a comfortable position. Since her seventh month she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep. Yet she reveled in every stage of her pregnancy because she no longer felt alone.

      NATE HAD BEEN SKIING in the Alps many times with different friends, but none of them could keep up. Only Rick exceeded him in speed and technique. If his brother hadn’t learned to love car-racing at such an early age, he could have trained for the Olympics, too. He was that good. But then, he was good at everything, just like their parents.

      This afternoon, his brother had given him a real workout on Eagles’ Nest.

      “That’s our pizza,” Rick said when the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it.”

      Following an afternoon of hard skiing, pizza normally sounded good to Nate, but not today. He pulled on his sweats and went to get a couple of Cokes from the fridge.

      When he saw a rumpled envelope with the name Hawk written on it stuck to the door with a magnet, he forgot why he’d come into the kitchen.

      Hell.

      He yanked the refrigerator door open to get the drinks. When he slammed it shut, he did it so hard the magnet and letter fell to the floor.

      Much as he wanted to leave it there, he realized he was behaving like an immature child. How could a thirty-year-old man—a man who’d experienced everything he had, including the deaths of family let one insignificant woman’s actions rule his emotions like this?

      As if operating in slow motion, he put the cans on the counter, then reached for the letter and magnet. After attaching the souvenir magnet to the door again, he turned the envelope over and opened it. She’d confined her remarks to one page.

      Dear Hawk,

      I should probably address you as Major Hawkins, but Scott always called you Hawk. That’s the way I’ve thought of you over the years.

      My husband admired you greatly. If he did something to ruin your relationship, he wasn’t aware of it or he would have told me.

      Since last night I’ve been thinking hard about the way you treated me on the dance floor. No matter how many times I’ve gone over it in my mind, I can’t imagine why you were so cruel, unless you wanted me to know Scott had committed some unpardonable offense.

      He’s gone now, so he can’t ask your forgiveness or make amends. I would do both if I knew what was wrong.

      It hurts to think that someone Scott loved like a brother still harbors so much bitterness toward him. Whatever it was must have been very serious to wipe out nine years of friendship.

      To be frank, I’m still asking myself how you could’ve written such a beautiful letter at Scott’s death, only to show me a completely different side of you last night.

      I’m assuming that when your leave is over, you’ll be returning to Holland. The last I heard about you, Duce said you were stationed at Leeuwarden, where you were testing the MLU jet with some other pilots from Norway and Belgium.

      If ever the day comes when your anger subsides enough to tell me what went wrong, you can reach me by phone in Denver where I live.

      He saw the phone number she’d written.

      I guess I’m human enough to want life to be perfect. But as I found out years ago, life takes you down roads you hadn’t planned on traveling.

      Wherever your road takes you, Hawk, I wish you luck. I mean that sincerely. Scott’s career in the Air Force wouldn’t have provided the same thrill for him if you hadn’t been a big part of it from the very beginning.

      Fly high and watch your tail.

      Laurel.

      Nate stood there in shock.

      If he’d expected anything, it would’ve been defensiveness on her part or an attempt to hide her culpability. Instead, nothing he’d read, either in her words or between the lines, suggested she felt an ounce of guilt.

      His eyes closed. Laurel Pierce was a beautiful woman. Even in the last stage of pregnancy she looked as stunning as ever.

      Had she always been this amoral?

      Scott had married her out of high school. Two years younger than he was, she’d been plucked from her home at an early age. Perhaps it was the long separations from Scott while they were stationed overseas that had made her vulnerable to other men’s attention. One of them had given her a child….

      As Nate’s father had once told him, being a hotshot pilot came at a price. If he was determined to have a career in the Air Force, he needed to keep that in mind if he wanted a family too.

      At the time Nate had half listened to the warning. Not until now did he grasp the full essence of what his father had been trying to tell him. Though Scott hadn’t let it show, there’d obviously been trouble in the Pierce marriage.

      “The pizza’s getting cold.”

      His gaze flicked to his brother who’d just entered the kitchen.

      “You took so long getting the drinks, I figured

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