by Anna Adams
“You’re begging?”
She loved his smiling face so much she wanted to kiss him. She prayed she wasn’t too late. That he wouldn’t be content to make a friendship out of the marriage she’d taken for granted. “I would beg if it would change your mind.”
“I don’t want you to beg. I just want you to believe in me the way I believed in you.”
“I do.” She twisted her hands together. “You delivered our baby. You stuck by me.”
“I wanted to run.”
“I meant you stuck by me when I made impossible demands on you.” She hoped her quiet tone expressed an apology, but then she smiled. “Any sane human being who’s never delivered a baby wants to run when he’s the only nontrained medical help available.”
“What about my job, Sophie?”
The old panic punched her right in the stomach, but she was smart enough to learn from her mistakes. Eventually. “You know how I feel, but I’ll stand by your decision.”
He clearly doubted her sincerity.
“I didn’t pass the test?” She didn’t know how else to prove she could share the reins in their marriage.
He hesitated, but then Chloe made a noise that drew both their gazes. Sophie was already going through her mental checklist—diaper, sustenance, rattly toys that Chloe didn’t even seem to notice yet.
“I don’t think either of us has room to pass or fail the other on any test.” Ian smoothed Chloe’s forehead as she settled down again. “But you knew it was a test, and you didn’t argue.”
Hope flickered, but she understood his attachment to their child already, and Chloe had distracted them just in time to add her input to the argument. “I don’t want you to stay because of the baby. And I can’t promise I’ll always be able to keep my mouth shut if you feel like testing me.”
“I love you, Sophie. I guess I’ve learned most of your weaknesses.”
Tears filled her eyes and the back of her throat. “Unconditional love. It’s my favorite kind.”
He laughed, but gently, to avoid disturbing Chloe. “Kiss me and convince me you mean it.”
An easy test this time. She took his mouth with the possessiveness of a wife who loved deeply and knew she was loved in return. When she retreated, shaking, Ian cupped the back of her head and kissed her again, a sweet sampling of her lips.
“It is different.” Wonder filled her husband’s voice.
She laughed, putting her arms around both him and Chloe. “That’s because we don’t have anything left between us except our baby girl.”
EPILOGUE
AT A MONTH OLD, Chloe had stopped almost sleeping around the clock. She awoke from her nap with a yelp and Sophie scooted from behind the kitchen table where she and Gran were sorting résumés.
“I’ll get her,” Nita called, ensconced with a book in front of the blaring television.
“Got her.” Ian had been going over blueprints with Ethan and Seth in the far corner of the living room. He and Sophie were building a home of their own.
He bounded up the stairs, and Ethan and Seth brought the blueprints to the kitchen counter where they poured mugs of the coffee Ian always had brewing.
“Have you found OBs you could share the baby farm with?” Grandpa asked.
“I like several.” Sophie pushed her stack toward Gran. “What do you think?”
“I’ll arrange interviews.” She faced her husband. “But this is my legacy we’re talking about. I know Sophie wants more time with Chloe, but I have to be sure…”
“Greta.” Grandpa only said her name, but it came out as a warning, and she gave in.
“I’ll interview them.”
“And you won’t mark the best off your list beforehand?”
Gran looked frustrated. “Sophie wouldn’t let me.”
“You got that right.” Sophie’s priorities hadn’t wavered since the day Ian had come home again.
“Look, honey, what do you think of Ian’s office?” Sophie’s dad pushed the blueprint in front of her, pointing with a finger whose nail had recently had a too-close encounter with a piece of sandpaper.
“Across the hall from the nursery? He’ll never get any peace.”
“That’s the point,” Ian said from the kitchen door, holding Chloe, who gnawed on his pinkie as she searched for her food source. “I get to spend more time at home with Chloe than you do, but I still have to work. All the better if she has her stuff close at hand while I’m in my office.”
“What about when she’s sleeping?”
He shook his head. “I want her close. She’ll probably evict me to the basement when she’s a teenager.” He jolted forward as Nita eased him through the doorway so she could join them, looping her arm though Ethan’s. Her ex-husband smiled.
Sophie tried for a look that didn’t scream her anxiety for her father—even as she longed to believe her parents could truly love each other. Everyone else spoke at once about nothing in particular, all trying to pretend it was easy to trust Nita again.
“I think our child will be used to sleeping through a lot of noise,” Ian said.
“He’s talking about our family.” Nita gazed into Ethan’s eyes with real affection.
Sophie nearly choked.
“I like all your racket,” Ian said. “I always wanted a big, noisy family. You’re a dream come true.” At a collective “Awww,” he added, “for my daughter.”
The Calverts present laughed at him, but he didn’t seem to care. He passed the baby to Sophie, and Chloe shrieked with delight, already opening her mouth like a little fish. Sophie reached for the hem of her shirt, but then stopped to eye her family.
“I could use a little privacy.”
The others headed for the door, and Ian made his way between them to join her. Sophie beamed at him. She loved the quiet times they shared, talking together while Sophie nursed. They had so much to say these days, with no secrets dividing them. He took the chair next to her and pulled her against his side where all the warmth in the world surrounded her.
Ethan turned back at the door. “That ‘dream come true’ crack, Ian.”
They both looked up.
Ethan laughed. “I’ve always admired your gumption, son.”
Ian kissed the top of Sophie’s head. “I needed gumption to take this wife.”
Sophie decided to let him get away with that. She loved him after all.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-3664-6
THE BRIDE RAN AWAY
Copyright © 2003 by Anna Adams.
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*The Calvert Cousins
Table of Contents
LETTER TO READER
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
BOOKS BY ANNA ADAMS
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TE
N
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EPILOGUE
COPYRIGHT
