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Authors: Catherine Spencer
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injured in a farming accident.”
“Oh…!” Dismay and embarrassment eclipsed her brief elation like storm clouds chasing away the sun. “Oh, Edmund, I’m so sorry! Is she…?”
“She’s going to be fine, but it’s been a tough haul. That’s what’s kept me away so long. I wanted to stay close until she was over the worst.”
“Well, of course! Any parent would.” Not wishing her next question to sound indelicate, she phrased her words carefully. “Will there be any permanent…consequences?”
“The doctors say not, though whether they’re right remains to be seen. But it’s the emotional trauma she’s suffered that concerns me. And her future safety.”
Every self-protective instinct Jenna possessed urged her not to get any more involved with this man than she already had. Her life was complicated enough. But when she’d hit rock bottom, he was the one she’d run to and he hadn’t turned her away.
He’d made her laugh when she’d thought she’d never laugh again. He dried her tears. And he’d loved her, if only for one night.
No laughter curved his mouth now, though. No wicked amusement lurked in his eyes. His face, his posture, the way he ran his finger inside the collar of his sport shirt as if it were strangling him, the heavy sigh he couldn’t quite disguise, spoke of a man—a parent —beset by worry. And that changed everything.
It brought home in a very real way her own impending role in a child’s life. She’d never expected to fall pregnant, least of all by a man she barely knew. But now that it had happened, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it.
Despite the gossip and speculation she knew lay ahead, not to mention the unsought advice, she wanted this baby more than anything she’d ever wanted in her life. She loved it with all the fierce, protective passion of a tigress guarding her cub. How she would survive if something happened to her child, if tragedy were to strike him or her, she couldn’t begin to imagine. It would kill her!
As if what had befallen Edmund’s daughter might somehow communicate itself to her own little one, Jenna found herself unconsciously shielding her womb with her hand. “Why do you think she isn’t safe, Edmund?”
“She’s playing where she shouldn’t be, wandering around unsupervised. And her mother’s too busy trying to be the perfect country man’s wife to remember that her first responsibility is to the child left over from a marriage gone sour.”
“Are you saying you blame your ex-wife for the accident?”
“I blame her and her husband! He should have been more careful! A four-year-old needs to be watched constantly, not left to run free wherever she pleases, especially not when there’s heavy machinery around. She damn near lost both her legs because no one was looking out for her!”
The tea Jenna had consumed lurched unpleasantly in her stomach and threatened to rise up in her throat. Horrified, she clapped a hand to her mouth.
“Hey, sweet pea, don’t get all choked up,” Edmund said, his tone gentling. “It didn’t happen. Molly’s making a good recovery, and I’m going to see to it she isn’t put at risk like that again. Just because I’m not married to her mother doesn’t change the fact that I’ll always be her father, and I’m not about to settle for a secondary role in my child’s life. I intend to assert my parental rights to the full.”
So possessively passionate a declaration made Jenna’s blood run a little cold. How would he react if he found out he’d fathered more than one child? Would he insist on his full parental rights regarding that child, too? Perhaps even try to relegate her to a less prominent role in her baby’s life, to compensate for what he’d already lost?
The mere idea made her feel ill all over again. On the surface, he came across as a man eminently reasonable and just, yet she sensed that, if stirred to anger, he would make a formidable opponent.
But what she knew
“Oh…!” Dismay and embarrassment eclipsed her brief elation like storm clouds chasing away the sun. “Oh, Edmund, I’m so sorry! Is she…?”
“She’s going to be fine, but it’s been a tough haul. That’s what’s kept me away so long. I wanted to stay close until she was over the worst.”
“Well, of course! Any parent would.” Not wishing her next question to sound indelicate, she phrased her words carefully. “Will there be any permanent…consequences?”
“The doctors say not, though whether they’re right remains to be seen. But it’s the emotional trauma she’s suffered that concerns me. And her future safety.”
Every self-protective instinct Jenna possessed urged her not to get any more involved with this man than she already had. Her life was complicated enough. But when she’d hit rock bottom, he was the one she’d run to and he hadn’t turned her away.
He’d made her laugh when she’d thought she’d never laugh again. He dried her tears. And he’d loved her, if only for one night.
No laughter curved his mouth now, though. No wicked amusement lurked in his eyes. His face, his posture, the way he ran his finger inside the collar of his sport shirt as if it were strangling him, the heavy sigh he couldn’t quite disguise, spoke of a man—a parent —beset by worry. And that changed everything.
It brought home in a very real way her own impending role in a child’s life. She’d never expected to fall pregnant, least of all by a man she barely knew. But now that it had happened, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it.
Despite the gossip and speculation she knew lay ahead, not to mention the unsought advice, she wanted this baby more than anything she’d ever wanted in her life. She loved it with all the fierce, protective passion of a tigress guarding her cub. How she would survive if something happened to her child, if tragedy were to strike him or her, she couldn’t begin to imagine. It would kill her!
As if what had befallen Edmund’s daughter might somehow communicate itself to her own little one, Jenna found herself unconsciously shielding her womb with her hand. “Why do you think she isn’t safe, Edmund?”
“She’s playing where she shouldn’t be, wandering around unsupervised. And her mother’s too busy trying to be the perfect country man’s wife to remember that her first responsibility is to the child left over from a marriage gone sour.”
“Are you saying you blame your ex-wife for the accident?”
“I blame her and her husband! He should have been more careful! A four-year-old needs to be watched constantly, not left to run free wherever she pleases, especially not when there’s heavy machinery around. She damn near lost both her legs because no one was looking out for her!”
The tea Jenna had consumed lurched unpleasantly in her stomach and threatened to rise up in her throat. Horrified, she clapped a hand to her mouth.
“Hey, sweet pea, don’t get all choked up,” Edmund said, his tone gentling. “It didn’t happen. Molly’s making a good recovery, and I’m going to see to it she isn’t put at risk like that again. Just because I’m not married to her mother doesn’t change the fact that I’ll always be her father, and I’m not about to settle for a secondary role in my child’s life. I intend to assert my parental rights to the full.”
So possessively passionate a declaration made Jenna’s blood run a little cold. How would he react if he found out he’d fathered more than one child? Would he insist on his full parental rights regarding that child, too? Perhaps even try to relegate her to a less prominent role in her baby’s life, to compensate for what he’d already lost?
The mere idea made her feel ill all over again. On the surface, he came across as a man eminently reasonable and just, yet she sensed that, if stirred to anger, he would make a formidable opponent.
But what she knew
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