Karen Smith - The Daddy Dilemma

“I have to protect Kyle.”

Nathan ran a hand across his forehead.

“What are you protecting him from? If I am Kyle’s mother, I’m going to want to spend more time with him. I want him to know who I am. How will you handle that? Will you try to shut me out of his life or include me in it?”

The more he studied Sara’s features, the more Nathan saw Kyle’s. “I don’t have the answer, Sara, not now, not yet. There’s no point jumping ahead of ourselves.”

“I’d like to know where my life is going and what I can expect next.”

He recognised that desire. “There’s no way to plan for the unexpected and you know it.”

He saw the uncertainty of the situation was shaking her world. There was nothing he could do about that.

He just hoped it didn’t shake his, too.

KAREN ROSE SMITH

Award-winning and bestselling author Karen Rose Smith has seen over sixty novels published since 1991. Living in Pennsylvania with her husband – who was her college sweetheart – and their two cats, she has been writing full-time since the start of her career. Lately, in addition to writing, she has been crafting jewellery with her husband. She finds designing necklaces and bracelets relaxing enough to let her mind weave plots while she’s beading! Readers can receive updates on Karen’s latest releases and write to her through her website at www.karenrosesmith.com or at PO Box 1545, Hanover, PA 17331, USA.

Dear Reader,

When I develop a hero, I create the type of man I would choose as a life partner. My three heroes in this series – the Barclay brothers – have many qualities in common. They feel deeply, although they don’t always show it. They will not hesitate to go out of their way to protect the people they love. They long to be fathers so they can share their view of the world as well as the love their family has given them.

But Nathan, Sam and Ben Barclay also have individual personalities. Once a financial analyst, now an innkeeper, Nathan takes life and fatherhood seriously. A veterinarian, Sam loves animals as well as kids and uses his sense of humour to make a point. Ben, a district attorney, although cynical at times, wants good to prevail.

Which hero do you prefer? After you read the series, I’d like to know.

Readers can e-mail me through my website at www.karenrosesmith.com or write to me at PO Box 1545, Hanover, PA 17331, USA.

I hope you enjoy reading my mini-series as much as I enjoyed writing it.

All my best,

Karen Rose Smith

KAREN ROSE SMITH

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To my aunt Rose Marie, who has made

Minnesota her home. Love, Karen.

She was going to save her mother’s life.

As Sara Hobart lay on the surgical center gurney, she knew she’d done the right thing. She’d had no choice.

Her friend Joanne, who worked at the fertility clinic, sat by her bed, her black ringlets tumbling around her face as she declared vehemently, “No one should be denied treatment because they can’t afford to pay. With the ten thousand for donating your eggs, you’ll have enough to give the hospital to go through with your mother’s transplant. Right?”

“Along with the fund-raising money, we’ll have enough. We can tell her doctor to begin treatment. Thank you so much for helping me. For being here today. I never thought I’d do anything like this—” Emotion tightened Sara’s throat. Her mom deserved every chance to prolong her life, and Sara would do anything in her power to make it happen.

Joanne patted Sara’s hand. “You’re not only helping your mom, you’re giving a childless couple a chance to conceive. Your eggs are going to a worthy recipient.”

Of course her friend couldn’t divulge the names of the people she’d be helping. The couple’s criteria had been simple: eggs from a healthy woman, twenty-eight or younger, with a 1300+ SAT score. A law student, Sara had fit the bill. When Joanne had given her the idea, it had been a godsend.

“The couple you’re donating to already had two in vitro attempts that failed,” Joanne further explained.

Sara never would have considered going through this procedure if her mother hadn’t gotten ill. But bone marrow transplant treatment was considered experimental with her mom’s rare blood disorder, and was more expensive than they had ever realized. Although Sara had written appeal letter after appeal letter, the insurance company had denied coverage. Because her mother didn’t have time to wait any longer, Sara had decided the only thing to do was to raise the money herself. Joanne as well as other friends had helped with the fund-raisers in their small town ten miles outside of Minneapolis, but they’d come up thousands short, even for the down payment.

When Sara had been accepted as a donor by the clinic, she’d told her mom, and they’d both cried tears of relief…and of hope. Sara couldn’t imagine a world without her mother in it. She’d never had a father, never had uncles or aunts or cousins. She and her mom only had each other, and were best friends. But Joanne was a very good friend, too. In fact, she was taking the afternoon off to drive her to her apartment.

Sara pushed her blond hair from her temple, ready to take the next step to make her mom well. “When I get home, I can make the call to the financial services director at Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital. Mom can start treatment as soon as they can fit her in.”

Although Sarah was hopeful, fear still gripped her…the same fear that had gnawed at her ever since her mother received her diagnosis. Would the transplant work?

Underneath worry for her mom, Sara thought about the procedure she’d just experienced. She had lots of eggs. Giving away a few wouldn’t affect her life at all. In spite of her career, she did want children some day. After she became a partner in a law firm, she would consider it.

Some day.

Would her mother see someday with her?

Sarah could only pray she would.

Chapter One

Six Years Later

Sara opened the heavy oak door into Pine Grove Lodge, anxiety tightening her chest, her heart pounding hard. She wasn’t sure she should be here, but she had to find out if Nathan Barclay’s son was her son. He might not be. Her eggs might not have been instrumental in giving the Barclays a child. But the dates lined up—her donation and Kyle’s birth. She had to know for sure. Her accident and hysterectomy in June had devastated her…until during her recuperation, Joanne, who’d left the fertility clinic a few years ago to take a more lucrative position elsewhere, had revealed Nathan Barclay’s name.

Moving into the great room, Sara found no one standing at the long mahogany counter.

A door opened at the rear of the room and a tall, broad-shouldered man carrying an armful of logs came in and kicked the door shut with one booted foot. As he passed the floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace and caught sight of her, he smiled. But it was a forced smile that didn’t light up his eyes, which were the same color as the gray November sky outside.

Sara recognized Nathan Barclay from the photograph she’d found in an article about him and his dad restoring this resort in their hometown of Rapid Creek, Minnesota. Still reeling from her mom’s death from cancer a year ago, as well as the accident that had taken away Sara’s ability to have children, she’d looked him up on the Internet, and she’d found more than she’d ever imagined. Most important, she’d learned he was a widower and had a son who was five.

She hadn’t made an impulsive decision that could affect several lives. After her recuperation, she’d returned to her law firm, working seventy to eighty hours a week. But after two months, she’d decided to use vacation time, and had packed a suitcase, grabbed her laptop and headed to the Wisconsin Dells to think. Two days into her getaway, she’d found herself driving to Rapid Creek, searching for answers.