LITMIR.BIZ

      Excuse Me? Whose Baby?

      Jacqueline Diamond

      “So, what’s going on?”

      Jim asked, leaning back in his chair.

      Dex wished she were anywhere but here. The law office was decorated in such intense black and white that humanity seemed like an intrusion. Then, from a back office, she heard a baby cry. If it went with the decor, it must be a baby penguin.

      “Well,” Burt Page said, folding his hands atop his desk, “this is an odd situation. I have Dr. Saldivar’s will here. You’re both named.”

      “But why?” Dex couldn’t imagine that Dr. Saldivar would leave her so much as a test tube.

      Jim shook his head. “I don’t understand, either.”

      “It has to do with Ayoka,” said the attorney.

      “Who?” Dex asked.

      Burt cleared his throat. “She’s the, er, baby.”

      “What baby?” Jim glanced at Dex. “If Dr. Saldivar adopted a child, what could that possibly have to do with either of us?”

      “Ayoka isn’t adopted. She’s yours. Uh…both of yours.”

      Dear Reader,

      Small colleges are delightfully offbeat places where eccentric personalities can bloom. Perpetual students like my heroine, Dex, live in a world apart from the rest of us, so for her I dreamed up Clair De Lune, California, and De Lune University for Excuse Me? Whose Baby?

      I practically grew up on a college campus. My school in Nashville, Tennessee, was affiliated with Peabody College for Teachers, where my mother was an art professor. I later attended Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

      My hero, Jim Bonderoff, needed a different brand of individuality from Dex, so I created a household of ex-marines with literally no holds barred! I enjoyed seeing how these two different realms meshed in my new book and I hope you will, too.

      Please write me at P.O. Box 1315, Brea, CA 92822!

      Sincerely,