RaeAnne Thayne Hope's Crossings Series Volume One: Blackberry Summer\Woodrose Mountain\Sweet Laurel Falls (111 page)

She was about to snap at him—the best she could manage under
the circumstances—when Harry rose, still a commanding figure. “I can't believe
none of you have figured this out yet. For hell's sake, the answer is obvious,
isn't it?”

“What haven't we figured out, Gramps?” Sage asked, her voice
small and forlorn. Harry shook his head, his eyes softening as he looked at
her.

“You two—” he gestured to Jack and Maura “—should just get
married already, and then you can raise the baby. You're both still young. Hell,
you're young enough to pop another one out yourselves, aren't you?”

Maura gaped at him, aware of Jack's features going taut beside
her. Sage stopped sniffling and pulled out of her arms to stare at her
grandfather.

Suddenly Maura's whole life seemed to rearrange itself in her
head. Everything she thought was right for her and for Jack seemed to shift and
settle into a new picture.

A son.

She and Jack could be parents again. At last he would have the
chance she had taken from him—to be a father, from the beginning. For sticky
toddler kisses and coaching soccer games and helping with math homework, all the
things he'd never had the chance to do with Sage.

Her mind started racing with possibilities, but just as
suddenly she forced them to a screeching halt. As much as that picture suddenly
seemed perfect to her, it wouldn't be fair to Jack. Surely he wouldn't want to
start the rest of their lives together changing diapers and fixing bottles and
rocking a colicky baby....

“I couldn't ask that of you,” Sage finally said into the gaping
maw of silence that stretched out between the four of them.

“Why not?” Jack asked, his voice a little ragged.

Maura stared at him. “Do you… Are you saying you would…actually
consider it?”

“I want to marry you, Maura. You know that. I want to have
forever with you. I hadn't expected an instant family to be part of that
picture, but that's what we would have had twenty years ago if things had worked
out differently. We're older now. More mature. Certainly we're both better
equipped to deal with a child.”

He smiled broadly. “Besides. This wouldn't be the first time I
suddenly and unexpectedly became a father.”

She gave a rough laugh at that, thinking of the strange and
twisting journey their lives together had taken so far. This was a crazy idea,
adopting a child before they were even officially married, but somehow it seemed
exactly right.

Sage sank back down onto one of the sofas, gazing at them both
with a raw, almost painful hope. “I don't want you to feel pressured or
anything, but this would be beyond perfect. Maybe that's the reason I couldn't
make a decision. Maybe in my heart, something like this is what I wanted all
along but was afraid to ask—or even let myself think about.”

Maura gripped Jack's fingers. He squeezed tightly, out of
nerves or anticipation or simply love, she couldn't tell.

“You have to be sure, darling,” she said. “And you'll have to
be very clear in your own head that if we do this, we wouldn't just be
babysitting for you until you're in a better place to be a parent. This would be
our child. We would be the mother and father.”

“I can't imagine two better parents for my baby, Mom.” Sage
gave a watery smile and Harry wrapped an arm around her. “I was a really good
big sister to Layla. I think I can be a great big sister to your son too. It
would be super cool to have a little brother.”

Without releasing her hand, Jack reached for a tissue from a
box on the table and passed it to her. That was the first moment she realized
she was crying, tears of joy and anticipation and no small amount of fear.

A baby.

Dear heavens. They were going to have a baby.

She didn't have time to fully adjust to that before the chipper
nurse from out front bustled into the room.

“Okay. We've finally got your birthing room ready. If you'll
come with me, Sage, we'll get you settled first, and then your family can come
in.”

“Okay.” Sage gave a nervous smile and followed the nurse. She
seemed lighter somehow, freed of the fear and uncertainty she had been carrying
along with her baby.

After she left, Harry stood up, a look of sublime
self-satisfaction on his weathered features. “I parked in one of the
emergency-room spots. I should probably go move my car, even though they
wouldn't dare ticket me.”

He headed out, leaving the two of them in the waiting room
alone.

Maura was nervous suddenly, still unable to believe the
enormity of the decision they had just made. “Are you sure about this, Jack?
It's not too late to change your mind. We can figure something else out. I don't
want you to feel obligated to something you didn't want.”

He wrapped his arms around her, and she felt some of the
tension seep away. “Do you want to know a secret? The idea of adding to our
family isn't completely foreign to me. I'm embarrassed to admit that adopting
Sage's baby never even occurred to me, but lately I've caught myself wondering
what it would be like to have another child with you. Harry's right. We're both
young. Young enough, anyway. Plenty of couples don't even get started until
their late-thirties. I guess I was waiting to see if you might be thinking along
the same lines, or if you figured you had done your time raising young
children.”

“I love being a mother. If things had gone differently in my
life, I would have wanted at least one or two more.”

After her divorce, she had just accepted that part of her life
was gone. The idea of shopping now for a crib and buying baby clothes and having
to rearrange her work demands to accommodate a new life was both overwhelming
and intoxicating.

“I never would have pressured you,” Jack assured her. “But I
can think of nothing more beautiful and
right
than
raising a son together.”

She caught her breath, dizzy at how quickly the pathway of her
life had suddenly veered off in a completely different direction than she'd
started on that very morning. Outside the window, the rest of the world was
carrying on as usual, the citizens of Hope's Crossing busy helping each other,
while in here a new life was about to enter the world and a family was shifting
and changing to welcome it.

She looked out the window at a beautiful June afternoon, rich
with promise. A lush, wild rosebush bloomed there, its flowers a vivid pink in
the sunlight. Somehow she wasn't at all surprised to see a flicker of orange
amid the pink as a monarch butterfly flitted from flower to flower.

Another message from Layla? Maybe. She had seen butterflies
everywhere these past few months, but perhaps that was only because she was
finally ready to notice them again.

She reached for Jack's hand, this wonderful man she had once
loved and lost, then found again.

She smiled at him, her heart nearly bursting with happiness.
“Let's go have a baby.”

* * * * *

New York Times
Bestselling Author

welcomes you to Haven Point,
a small town full of big surprises that are both merry and bright.

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eISBN-13: 978-1-4603-6443-7

RaeAnne Thayne Hope's Crossings Series Vol 1

Copyright © 2014 by Harlequin Books S.A.

The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of the individual works as follows:

Blackberry Summer
Copyright © 2011 by RaeAnne Thayne

Woodrose Mountain
Copyright © 2012 by RaeAnne Thayne

Sweet Laurel Falls
Copyright © 2012 by RaeAnne Thayne

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