Jennifer Greene - Tender Loving Care

“Of course I meant it. Who else would be insane enough to take them on?” He said quietly, “I think it might help them to know we’ll be there through thick and thin. And after that, we can adopt ten more if you want an even dozen. And after that we can change careers and run an orphanage or two.”

“Thanks, but no.”

He chuckled, but abruptly he grew serious. “We’re not going to be separated, Zoe.”

“No,” she murmured.

“I will have to go back to Montana next week to clear things up, but I’ll give them two weeks’ notice.”

“No, you won’t,” she said immediately. “I can give up my job just as easily.”

“Don’t tell me you’re suddenly going to seriously turn selfish on me?” he scolded. “Look-I’m looking forward to being unemployed and supported by a woman for a while.”

“And dogs have wings. You’re just saying that so I won’t have to give up my job, but you can forget it. Rafe, I love my whales, but the kids are already four. They’re going to be in school soon enough as it is. For too long, I thought there’d be no children in my life. Now that I have the twins, I want to be home with them.”

“Not forever?”

“No, not forever. But Alaska has both fault lines and whales, doesn’t it? And so does California. And several universities sponsor projects in both our fields. We’ve got a little time before they’re in school to look and plan.”

His hands slid down her spine to her bottom. “We could maybe worry about the details of all that tomorrow.”

“We could.” She leaned closer.

“We could even talk weddings if you want to.”

“We could.” She let her hands glide down his sides to his hips, and returned deliberately teasing pressure for deliberately teasing pressure. “We could also steam up the bathroom.”

He cocked his head with the devil’s own grin. “Every time I’ve seen that look in your eyes, it’s meant bad news for my sanity.”

“That’s what I had in mind.”

“We have two children and a mother in the house,” he reminded her.

“Rafe,” Zoe said firmly, “lock the door.”

Jennifer sold her first book in 1980, and since then she has sold more than eighty books in the contemporary romance genre. Her first professional writing award came from RWA-a Silver Medallion in l984-followed by more than twenty nominations and awards, including being honored in RWA’s Hall of Fame and presented with the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. Jennifer has been on numerous bestseller lists, has written for Harlequin Books, Avon, Berkley and Dell, and has sold over the world in more than twenty languages. She has written under a number of pseudonyms, most recognizably Jennifer Greene, but also Jeanne Grant and Jessica Massey.

She was born in Michigan, started writing in high school, and graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in English and psychology. The university honored her with their “Lantern Night Award,” a tradition developed to honor fifty outstanding women graduates each year. Exploring issues and concerns for women today is what first motivated her to write, and she has long been an enthusiastic and active supporter of women’s fiction, which she believes is an “unbeatable way to reach out and support other women.” Jennifer lives in the country around Benton Harbor, Michigan, with her husband, Lar.