Read Online Second Chance Ranch by Audra Harders - Free Book Online

idea having a dad and grandparents could be so much fun. And now, he’s about to have siblings. ”
    Her smile faded as she looked across the yard toward the mountain peaks. “Jason never knew his father. He’d abandoned us when I got pregnant. We weren’t married - hadn’t even discussed the option. My parents and I didn’t see eye to eye on how I should handle the situation. I kept my final decision from them for years. Jason didn’t meet my parents until a couple of years ago.”
    The conversation hit close to home. Same circumstances; different ending. “Why did you do it then? Keep the baby, I mean?”
    At her silence, Zac realized he’d stepped over some serious privacy bounds. “Sorry, Melanie, I didn’t mean to pry. Forget I asked. Please forget I asked.”
    “It’s okay, Zac. Really.” She shifted on the settee and stuffed a throw pillow behind her. “It wasn’t an easy decision to make. I knew I wasn’t going to terminate the pregnancy like Paul wanted me to do. My parents decided adoption was the only course I could consider. No one asked me what I wanted to do. Good thing too, because I didn’t have a clue. So, I prayed.”
    The sounds of the night closed in around them and the wind blew just hard enough to keep the mosquitoes away. Zac leaned toward her, not wanting to miss a word. Never before had he thought about unplanned pregnancies or what women did about them. Now all of a sudden, the information and circumstances were coming at him from every angle. Voices sounded from the kitchen along with cabinet doors closing and footsteps crossing back and forth. The dishes were almost done. Please, Lord, I want to hear the end of the story.
    “I didn’t think God heard my prayer for the longest time. I didn’t gain any great wisdom or see a path to follow. I prayed throughout my pregnancy for direction and all I got was help, support and assistance from everyone I knew. I didn’t recognize it at the time, but God had answered my prayers all along. I went into labor and delivery thinking I’d talk to someone at the hospital about giving up my baby.” Her voice trailed as she smiled at him, a smiling full of joy and compassion. Zac stared, too engrossed to realize how close he’d leaned toward her until she sat forward practically nose to nose with him.
    “When they placed him in my arms, I knew I was never going to let him go.”
    Her whispered words seemed to draw him into her secret circle of understanding. She’d shared her deepest maternal instincts with him and they touched his very soul.
    “If I had made arrangements for an agency to take him away before I ever got to hold him, my life would be completely different right now. I wouldn’t have a terrific son, or a wonderful husband, or about to be blessed with the gift of twins.” She rubbed her palm over her enormous belly and leaned back against the pillow again. “I might have had an easier life, but then, I would have missed out on this one.”
    An easier life . The light of understanding clicked on in Zac’s brain. Jen had always like things stacked neatly, all her options in a row. When they were kids, she’d hated anyone messing up her plans. A child was definitely a messy thing. He glanced at Melanie as she rocked gently on the glider, her hand rubbing her enormous belly. Zac frowned and leaned back into his chair, focusing across the corral at the shadows of the mountain peaks. But neat and tidy were nothing compared to rigors of life. And, if the pregnancy had inconvenienced her, why did she go full term?
    That thought almost caused him to roll off his chair. Jen would never have considered abortion. No matter how the circumstances were spun, he’d never think of Jen as being heartless. If anything, she cared too much.
    Still, the thought rolled around in his brain. She’d practiced for years as a pediatric oncology nurse. She’d nurtured and cared for children on the brink of death. So, she could care for children as