Marie Ferrarella - A Baby Changes Everything

“Ferrarella has penned a guaranteed page-turner!”

—Romantic Times on Internal Affair

“Time and again, Marie Ferrarella demonstrates her gift for storytelling in the romantic suspense genre, and Crime and Passion is no exception.”

—Romantic Times on Crime and Passion

“…the saucy quips will draw a laugh, and the chemistry will make you shiver. Marie Ferrarella does it again!”

—Romantic Times on Mac’s Bedside Manner

“Great romance, excellent plot, grabs you from page one.”

—Affaire de Coeur on In Graywolf’s Hands

“…the pleasure of this journey is in the getting there. Reading about warm, caring people and watching relationships mature under stressful situations is a pleasurable way to spend an afternoon. As usual, Ferrarella’s dialogue is in voice, crisp, and moves the story along without ever bogging down in the emotional angst each brings to the relationship. Once a Father is a hearty recommend for a skilled writer.”

—The Romance Reader on Once a Father

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dear Reader,

It isn’t often that we get a chance to see if happily ever after is all it’s cracked up to be. When I was invited to do the second book in THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: REUNION continuity, I discovered that I was being reunited with two characters I had brought together in Expecting in Texas and they were having problems. Although they still loved each other as much as ever, life and reality had found a way to put a wedge between them. Cruz worked too hard to create the kind of life he felt his family deserved and Savannah felt as if she was being taken for granted. (Sound familiar? Yeah, me, too.) Juggling as fast as they could, they had no energy left to devote to the marriage they had created. And let’s face it, marriage takes work. Constant work. Changes were going to have to be made. But I’m betting that Savannah and Cruz are up to it. How about you?

I wish you love,

To Stella Bagwell, who no longer has a brain, because I’ve picked it clean.

Many thanks, Stella, for all your help.

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

Bonus Features

“H ey, I’d given up on you two.”

Vanessa Fortune Kincaid threw open the door on the first ring and immediately hugged her dearest friend in the world as the latter began to cross the threshold. Stepping back, Vanessa took a closer look at Savannah Perez and decided that she didn’t like what she saw. Savannah’s bright, sunny smile was conspicuously absent.

Ushering her five-year-old son, Luke, in front of her, Savannah sighed. Luke hadn’t stopped talking or moving since he’d opened his eyes this morning. The word lively, she had come to believe, had been created expressly to describe her son.

Savannah forced her lips into a weak smile. It was the best she could offer her friend. “You wouldn’t be the first one.”

Vanessa had dropped down to one knee to give her godson a huge embrace. The boy smelled faintly of raspberry jam and peanut butter, his sandwich of choice. “How’s the handsomest man in three states?”

Luke beamed. “Fine, Aunt ’Nessa.”

He shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans, just like his father, and cocked his head, his dark eyes huge as he asked, “Got something for me?”

“Luke!” Embarrassment brought the only visible color to Savannah’s pale cheeks. “You don’t ask someone to give you a present.”

“I’m not ‘someone,’” Vanessa said, winking at the boy. “I’m Aunt ’Nessa.” Rising to her feet, Vanessa waved her hand at Savannah’s protest. They’d been friends far too long to leave any room for embarrassment over imagined neglected niceties.

Vanessa walked to a credenza and opened one small door. “And, as a matter of fact, I do have something for Luke.”

Taking out an object, she tucked it behind her back as she turned to face the boy.

Luke was dancing from one foot to the other, his dark eyes shining.

With a pleasure-filled laugh, Vanessa handed her godson the very latest in action figures. The buffed character breaking out of his painted-on shirt was from a new movie that was yet to be released but was already a hit among the under-twelve set.

Luke gave a loud whoop of joy. “Wow, it’s Big Jake, the monster killer.”

“And he even comes with his own monster to kill.” Vanessa pointed to a lesser figure that was included, easily overshadowed by the hero.

“Wow,” Luke echoed. He tugged at the packaging, eager to get at his prize. Vanessa helped him. Freed of their plastic prison, the two figures popped up into the air.

Savannah shook her head. “You’re spoiling him, Vanessa.”

Luke sat down and was soon happily immersed in a fantasy reenactment of a battle royal between the hero and the monster, apparently oblivious to his mother and her friend.

Watching him, Vanessa smiled broadly. “Hey, I like roaming through toy stores. Shopping for Luke gives me an excuse to be there.” After her miscarriage, she wanted a baby more than ever. Now that her husband, Devin’s, desk job at the FBI only took him away occasionally, there was a better chance to make that happen.

She ruffled the boy’s jet-black hair, then walked over to Savannah, taking a seat beside her on the wide, cream-colored leather sofa. Savannah was huddled to one side, leaning against the upholstered arm as if she intended to use it to help keep her up.

Concern flitted through Vanessa as she sat down. Savannah hadn’t sounded quite like herself on the telephone when she’d asked to come over.

Seeing her didn’t alter that impression.

Vanessa grew serious. “What did you mean when you said I wouldn’t be the first?”

Savannah looked from her son to her friend. “What?”

Vanessa had a pitcher of iced tea standing at the ready on a tray on the coffee table. Without bothering to extend an invitation, she poured a tall glass for Savannah and one for herself. Two bottles of chilled soda waited on Luke’s pleasure.

“When you walked in,” she reminded Savannah, handing her a glass. “I said I’d given up on you two, and you said I wouldn’t be the first. What did you mean by that?”

Wrapping her hands around the glass, Savannah shrugged carelessly. It was a subject she’d just as soon dismiss. But she knew better. Vanessa had a way of hanging on to something once she’d gotten her teeth into it.

Savannah took a long sip of the cool liquid before offering a vague answer. “Just me, feeling sorry for myself, that’s all.”

Vanessa gave her a long, penetrating look. This wasn’t just a passing mood, she thought. This was something more. Was there trouble on Paradise Island? “Want to talk about it?”

Savannah stared at the amber liquid. In the background, Luke’s monster gave a bloodcurdling yell as Jake killed him. “No.”

Vanessa glanced in Luke’s direction to make sure everything was all right. The boy had started a new scenario. She looked back at Savannah.

“Yes, you do,” Vanessa said firmly. Savannah began to protest, but the words never left her mouth, halted by Vanessa’s knowing look. “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. You know I won’t leave it alone until you tell me. When you walk in here—” she gestured around the house with her free hand “—or anywhere near me, you do not have the right to remain silent.” She leaned closer, lowering her voice even though she doubted that Luke could hear. He was too busy being Jake and the monster. “Now, what’s wrong?”