LITMIR.BIZ

      “The problem is…”

      He stopped.

      Rachel waited for him to gather his thoughts. No hurry. Besides, she was enjoying the electricity in the air and the guy’s low-key yet unmistakable masculinity—a refreshing change from the macho specimens she knew.

      “Lauren’s mother insists that she belongs in a family,” Russ explained. “She remembers me the way I was five years ago, not remotely ready for parenting.”

      “How did you change her mind?” This ought to be interesting.

      He cleared his throat. “I told her I was engaged.”

      That was weird. “To who?”

      “Well…you.”

      Dear Reader,

      The story of Russ and Rachel launches a new series about police officers and children. It actually began as two separate ideas.

      First I pictured a woman who had survived a terrible car crash and was finally getting her life on track ten years later. She and her two closest friends volunteered at a homework center and became involved in the lives of needy children. At age thirty, they’d almost given up on love.

      The second idea concerned three police officers (originally all male) who were reassessing their lives after narrowly escaping death. Each had to tackle an issue concerning children—perhaps a child given up for adoption, or a desire to have a child—now that life had given him a second chance.

      These two ideas mingled in my mind until I realized that they belonged together. In the course of working out the stories, one of the officers became a woman—Rachel—and the man who’d given up a child for adoption became a doctor.

      Subsequent stories concern Rachel’s friend Connie and her next-door nemesis, Hale; and Marta—the accident survivor—and the department’s Romeo, Derek. I hope you enjoy them!

      Best,

      Jacqueline Diamond

      The Doctor’s Little Secret

      Jacqueline Diamond