An Accidental Family. Ami Weaver

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       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      For the Wicked Muses: Chelle, Jodie, Marcy and Rae.

       Thank you for all your help. I love you all. And for Dale, who believed. xo

      CHAPTER ONE

      THE STICK WAS pink.

      Lainey Keeler squeezed her eyes shut, lifted the test with one trembling hand, then peeked with her right eye only.

      Yup. Definitely a pink line. Maybe she needed to check the instructions to be sure….

       Oh, God. How had this happened?

      Okay, so she knew the technicalities of the how. In fact, she knew the when. Lord help her, that was the kicker.

      Her eyes swam and her stomach rolled as she reached for the test box anyway, knowing what she’d see there. Knowing the result would read the same as the four other sticks—all different brands—in the garbage.

      Knowing she’d been screwed in more ways than one.

      So this was the price she paid for one night of lust infused with a heavy dose of stupidity. She slumped on the cold tile of the bathroom floor and let her head thunk on the vanity door. Hysterical laughter bubbled in her throat and she pressed her fingertips to her temples. Did it count, fifteen years after graduation, that she’d finally bedded the star quarterback? The same one she’d nurtured a killer crush on all through high school?

      And managed to conceive his baby?

      “And here I thought I had the flu,” she said to her calico cat, who observed her from the doorway. Panda’s squinty blink in response could have meant anything. “Why didn’t being pregnant occur to me?”

      Single and pregnant. Right when she was starting a new business and her life couldn’t be more unstable.

      What would her parents say? She winced at the thought. At thirty-three, she was supposed to be burning up the career ladder. Instead, much to her family’s chagrin, she burned through careers.

      Chewing her lower lip, she took a last look at the pink line, then tossed the test stick in the trash with the others. Five pregnancy tests couldn’t be wrong, no matter how much she wished it. She needed a plan.

      “A plan is good,” she said to the cat in the doorway. Panda meowed in response. Shoot, what was she going to do? She stepped over the cat and hurried into the small hallway, facing straight into her pocket-sized bedroom. Panic kicked up a two-step in her belly. She’d need a bigger place. The cozy one-bedroom apartment above her shop, The Lily Pad, worked beautifully for one person and an overweight cat. But adding a baby to the mix …? Babies needed so much stuff. She laid her hand on her still-flat belly. A baby.

      Good God, she was going to be a mother.

      She clenched her eyes shut and willed the tears away. What kind of mother would she be? Her ex and her family told her over and over she tended to be flighty and irresponsible. A baby meant responsibility, stability.

      What if it turned out they were right? She certainly hadn’t demonstrated good judgment on the night of her reunion.

      The thought sliced her to the core and she took a deep breath. No time to cry. Not when she had a shop to open in a few minutes. Beth Gatica, her friend and employee, was already downstairs. She swiped at her eyes, tried to think.

      “Where do I start?” she wondered aloud, trying to get her head clear enough to think.

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