Anna Adams - Unexpected Babies

Her foot twitched beneath the blanket

Alan went back to her bed. “Cate?”

Her eyelids fluttered. For a horrified moment, he was afraid she couldn’t open her eyes. “Cate,” he said again, “wake up. Uncle Ford, why didn’t you shout at her before?”

“Shall I try again?” Uncle Ford struggled to his feet, maybe to lean closer to Cate’s ear. He might have yelled at his niece, except Dan appeared at his side to help him—or maybe to hold him back.

Alan flashed his son a grateful smile and took Cate’s hand. “Wake up. Please, Cate.” Asking for things didn’t come naturally, and that had been a sore spot between them. But he’d beg freely if he had to. Finally Cate opened her eyes and held them open. He didn’t dare look away. Something different in her expression bothered him—some level of detachment.

She studied each person around her bed. Nothing that made her the Cate he loved was in her gaze. She eyed her aunt, uncle, niece and son with the same strange, dreamy look until she focused on Alan again.

“Who are you?” she asked.

Dear Reader,

Imagine this: You open your eyes and find yourself in a hospital bed, surrounded by strangers who look like a close-knit family. You don’t know your aunt or uncle, your niece or even your twin sister. Worse, you don’t recognize your own son, and when the man who seems to be in charge claims he’s your husband, you realize your own name is a mystery.

This is only the start of Cate Talbot Palmer’s dilemma. Soon she discovers she’s pregnant with twins, but that she hasn’t told her husband, Alan—and she can’t remember why. Add to that the tales people recount of the wild Talbot clan she hails from, and you have the kind of family story I love. Cate must figure out who she really is and learn the truth about her marriage. No longer the “good” twin, or the woman who never rocked anyone’s boat, she wants to live life fully. Her struggle to recover her identity brings upheaval to her family and her marriage.

I hope you enjoy this story of learning to trust a loving stranger.

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this story, please write to me at annaadams@superauthors.com.

Sincerely,

Anna Addams

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Sarah Greengas, Sharon Lavoie,

Jennifer LaBrecque, Amy Lanz, Carmen Green,

Wendy Etherington, Jenni Grizzle, Karen Bishop,

Theresa Goldman and Michele Flinn—

thank you for reading my unpolished pages.

And to Paula Eykelhof and Laura Shin. Thank you

for the chance and for all I’ve already learned from you.

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

EPILOGUE

CATE TALBOT PALMER opened her car door and stepped into the sand-blown street that paralleled the beach. Above the small, stucco building in front of her a metal sign rattled like faint thunder in the wind off the ocean. The sign read Palmer Construction, Leith, Georgia.

Her husband, Alan, was inside at his desk. Nearly two hours late for the burned five-course dinner she’d abandoned on their dining room table.

Cate ran one hand across her stomach. The stench of dry, overcooked lamb mingled with ocean salt. She swallowed, her throat almost clenching she felt so nauseous. She’d suggested a special dinner tonight because she’d finally decided to tell Alan the secret she’d been keeping. Thank God she hadn’t told him before.

She’d waited for him, staring at a bottle of sparkling grape juice she’d set on the table between their plates as a hint. She’d memorized that bottle while she’d opened her eyes to the facts. She and Alan had both kept secrets for the past sixteen weeks, only she’d been desperate enough to pretend she didn’t see what Alan was doing.

Late nights at the office, fierce silences at home, see-through excuses for the cell phone he’d practically strapped to his hand. Most women would suspect an affair, but Alan Palmer had a different problem.

His mother had left him and his father when he was ten because his dad couldn’t give her the material things she’d wanted. As a result of that longago abandonment and the way his father had used him as a confidant during the divorce, Alan tied his worth to his success with Palmer Construction.

He’d do anything to provide for Cate and Dan, their eighteen-year-old son, but he kept his emotional distance, afraid to risk the kind of pain he and his father had barely survived. His need to protect Cate had pushed her away, because she wanted a husband who would let her help him solve his problems, not pull away when troubles came.

She sprang from a long line of Talbots who’d failed at marriage or any relationship close to that kind of commitment. She and Alan had tried to create the family they’d both craved in their childhoods. Instead, they’d created an emotional divide.

She felt as if she’d already raised Dan on her own. She’d made up excuses for Alan’s absences, for his distraction when he showed up late at one family gathering after another. She couldn’t start that over again. This time, if she raised a child alone, it would be because she no longer lived with her baby’s father.

A car passed her. She knew the driver. Another mom whose son was about to graduate from high school. Cate pasted a smile on her face. After today she wouldn’t have to pretend everything was normal.

Wind from the car blew her hair across her face, and Cate brushed the strands out of her eyes. She refused to wait for Alan to tell her what was wrong with the business. Hurting from the pain of another betrayal cost her more than knowing the truth. She’d make him tell her.

Squaring her shoulders, she marched across the street to the office. Her legs felt like jelly. She opened the frosted glass doors that were engraved with the company’s name.

The moment she stepped inside, the temperature dropped. Even in mid-May, the South Georgia heat made air-conditioning a requirement. Cate swiped at perspiration on her forehead. Her hand trembled in front of her eyes.

She’d offer Alan a chance to explain because she still didn’t want to leave him. When they were good, they were very, very good.

Alan’s voice murmured from the office area. For a moment she hoped he had a late appointment with a client. Then she recognized a tone she always dreaded hearing. She couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he was in trouble.

Her anger simmered as every excuse Alan had given her in the past few weeks repeated in her head. She wouldn’t have kept her own secret if she’d trusted him.

Not that she could give him all the blame. She’d stayed. She hated feeling dependent, and her relationship with Alan made her feel dependent rather than stronger. When they were bad, they were unbearable.

Striding past models of the buildings and homes the company was contracted to build or renovate, Cate tried to imagine why her husband had decided his success here meant more than their marriage.

She passed empty offices. Her twin sister, Caroline, who worked as an interior designer for the company, had already gone home.

Alan’s office lay at the end of the hall. The air conditioning’s whisper cushioned the sound of Cate’s feet on the Berber carpet. Suddenly, John Mabry, Leith’s chief of police, leaned into Cate’s view, his bulk bending the frame of his chair as he crossed his arms behind his head.