LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter Four

      Paige Summers couldn’t wait to get to her parents’ home on Juniper Lane, a neat two-story frame they’d bought shortly after her father’s retirement. She’d show her mother the sonogram pictures before dinner, and then afterward, they’d watch the video. Accepting the fact that his unmarried daughter was pregnant was difficult for her father, but he loved her and she knew she could count on his support during the months and years ahead. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to bring herself to tell him that she’d gotten pregnant by a stranger the night of the horrible June rainstorm when she’d been trapped in the Wellman Building elevator. Walt Summers was far too old-fashioned. If he had any idea about the identity of the man who had fathered Paige’s child, he’d go after the guy with a shotgun.

      Paige giggled when she pictured her father holding a shotgun on L. J. Montgomery and demanding the man marry his daughter. But the image of her walking down the aisle with Jared quickly wiped the smile off her face. Nothing short of a wedding would satisfy her father or Jared.

      If circumstances were different, if Paige thought there was a chance Jared might learn to love her and accept her for the woman she was, she’d willingly marry her baby’s father. If they loved each other, they could find a way to overcome their many differences. But any man who could map out his personal life the way he planned his business ventures wasn’t capable of real love. If Jared loved her, he wouldn’t be so concerned about her being such an unsuitable mate.

      And even if she loved Jared—and that was a big if—her romantic heart would wither and die without having her love returned in full measure. Her soul needed a soul mate. Although she couldn’t deny that she was physically attracted to Jared, that she found him downright irresistible, she wasn’t sure whether what she felt for him was just infatuation or real love.

      Perhaps she had been trying to convince herself that she’d fallen in love with Jared at first sight because loving him would justify her pregnancy. After all, what woman would want to admit that she’d done something so monumentally foolish for any other reason than love?

      Maybe she had fallen for the cowboy stranger she’d made love with in the elevator, but L. J. Montgomery was a different man. He was her boss! How could she possibly love someone so domineering and arrogant?

      She turned her white Chevy Malibu into her parents’ drive, directly behind her brother Austen’s mud-splattered Chevy pickup. The front porch light shone brightly, casting a creamy glow over the wide front yard filled with neatly trimmed shrubs and barren flower beds. Paige dropped her keys into her shoulder bag, double-checked the zippered side pouch to make sure the sonogram pictures and video were still there and got out of the car.

      The moment she opened the door, the cool October wind chilled her to the bone. Adjusting her shoulder bag, Paige buttoned her wool jacket before she hurried up the drive and onto the porch.

      Apparently her mother had been watching for her. Dora Summers flung open the front door, reached out and pulled Paige inside, then closed the door quietly.

      “Mama—”

      “Shh!” Dora put a finger to her lips, then yanked Paige into a corner of the foyer. “He’s here!”

      “Who’s here?” Paige asked.

      “Him.”

      “Mama, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who’s here?”

      “Your fiancé, of course.”

      “My what?”

      “L. J. Montgomery,” Dora replied, her brown eyes huge as saucers. “Your daddy was fit to be tied when he told us that he was your baby’s father—”

      “He did what?”

      “But

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