On Mother's Day (Great Expectations #1)

by Andrea Edwards

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Excerpt

  Dear Reader

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Books by Andrea Edwards

  About the Author

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  Copyright

  “I’m not sure this is wise,” Alex murmured, setting Fiona away from him.

  His breath was coming fast and hard. His eyes were dark with hunger.

  But Fiona was tired of wise. Tired of safe. Tired of watching life from the sidelines and living to regret it. “I want to feel alive,” she pleaded. “Just for tonight. Just for this once.”

  “Tomorrow’s the operation,” Alex said gently. “You’ll be giving your daughter life again. Then you’ll be going home the day after.”

  Fiona let her fingers brush Alex’s cheek. “Then this seems a good way to say goodbye.”

  “Oh, Fiona,” Alex said on a sigh.

  But, as if he no longer had the strength to keep her away, he pulled her back into his arms….

  Dear Reader,

  Weddings, wives, fathers—and, of course, Moms—are in store this May from Silhouette Special Edition!

  As popular author Susan Mallery demonstrates, Jill Bradford may be a Part-Time Wife, but she’s also May’s THAT SPECIAL WOMAN! She has quite a job ahead of her trying to tame a HOMETOWN HEARTBREAKER.

  Also this month Leanne Banks tells a wonderful tale of an Expectant Father. In fact, this hero’s instant fatherhood is anything but expected—as is finding his true love! Two new miniseries get under way this month. First up is the new series by Andrea Edwards, GREAT EXPECTATIONS. Three sisters and three promises of love—and it begins this month with On Mother’s Day. Sweet Hope is the name of the town, and bells are ringing for some SWEET HOPE WEDDINGS in this new series by Amy Frazier. Don’t miss book one, New Bride in Town. Rounding out the month is Rainsinger by Ruth Wind and Allison Hayes’s debut book for Special Edition, Marry Me, Now!

  I know you won’t want to miss a minute of the month of May from Silhouette Special Edition. It’s sure to put a spring in your step this springtime!

  Sincerely,

  Tara Gavin

  Senior Editor

  Please address questions and book requests to:

  Silhouette Reader Service

  U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

  Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

  On Mother’s Day

  Andrea Edwards

  For Megan—At last, an operation! Thanks for healing the heart.

  Books by Andrea Edwards

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Rose in Bloom #363

  Say It With Flowers #428

  Ghost of a Chance #490

  Violets Are Blue #550

  Places in the Heart #591

  Make Room for Daddy #618

  Home Court Advantage #706

  Sweet Knight Times #740

  Father: Unknown #770

  Man of the Family #809

  The Magic of Christmas #856

  Just Hold On Tight! #883

  *A Ring and a Promise #932

  *A Rose and a Wedding Vow #944

  *A Secret and a Bridal Pledge #956

  Kisses and Kids #981

  †On Mother’s Day #1029

  *This Time, Forever

  †Great Expectations

  Silhouette Intimate Moments

  Above Suspicion #291

  Silhouette Desire

  Starting Over #645

  ANDREA EDWARDS

  is the pseudonym of Anne and Ed Kolaczyk, a husband-and-wife writing team that has been spinning romantic yams for more than twenty years. Anne is a former elementary schoolteacher while Ed is a refugee from corporate America. After many years in the Chicago area, they now live in a small town in northern Indiana where they are avid students of local history, family legends and ethnic myths. Recently they have both been bitten by the gardening bug, but only time will tell how serious the affliction is. Their four children are grown; the youngest attends college while the eldest is a college professor. Remaining at home with Anne and Ed are two dogs, four cats and one bird—not the same ones that first walked through their stories but carrying on the same tradition of chaotic rule of the household nonetheless.

  Prologue

  July— Twenty years ago

  “Fiona Fogarty, what are you doing here?” Mrs. Warner asked. “You’re supposed to be down at the kickball tournament.”

  Fiona edged closer to the picnic table covered with art supplies. She was doomed. “I was helping Miss Kerns clean up,” she explained.

  Mrs. Warner wasn’t impressed. “You’re not at camp to clean up after people. Now get down to the athletic field. You’re on Cassie’s team.”

  The girl’s heart sank clear down to her ankles. They might as well throw her off a cliff now—ten years was as old as she was going to get. “I don’t feel good.” And she didn’t. She was allergic to kickball, and to being, on her sister’s teams.

  “Fiona.” Mrs. Warner’s tone said she didn’t care if Fiona threw up or broke out in hives or turned purple.

  Fiona looked at Miss Kerns, but the art teacher just gave her a helpless smile. No one bucked Mrs. Warner. Sighing, Fiona put down the paintbrushes she’d been cleaning and started trudging through the trees, carefully keeping her new white canvas shoes in the middle of the path.

  There was no hurry, in spite of what Mrs. Warner had said. Cassie wouldn’t care if Fiona ever got there.

  It wasn’t fair. Cassie was nine—a year younger than Fiona—but was prettier and thinner and better. She could be really nice when she wanted, but since their parents had died three years ago, she mostly just fought with everybody. And Samantha was so cute everyone loved her. That left Fiona trying to make sure they weren’t too much trouble for anybody.

  Not that Fiona really believed what Mrs. Cochran bad said at their parents’ funeral. Still, the accident had happened in Minnesota, when Mom had said they were going to Milwaukee. Sometimes at night when Fiona couldn’t sleep, she tried to remember things that would prove their parents hadn’t been leaving them, but all she’d get was a stomachache and then nightmares when she finally went to sleep.

  “Fiona. Hey, Fiona.” Cassie was running along the path, with a look in her eyes that meant trouble. She stopped in front of Fiona. “Juliet’s missing.”

  “Missing?” Fiona caught her breath. The pair of tame swans were the only good thing about this place. They were so beautiful, like something out of a fairy tale. “Maybe she and Romeo are on the other side of the lake.”

  “Romeo’s over here. And you know he never leaves her.” Cassie grabbed Fiona’s hand. “Come on, we gotta go look for her.”

  But Fiona’s feet wouldn’t move. The lake was so big and the woods were even bigger. She didn’t have any idea where to look. “We should tell Mrs. Warner,” she said. “She’ll know what to do.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Cassie snapped. “Grown-ups don’t care about birds or kids or anybody small.”

  Fiona hated agreeing with Cassie, but she was right. Sometimes she and Cassie and their little sister Samantha were put in a foster home together, but sometimes th
ey were separated. And no one bothered asking them which they wanted. “Miss Kerns likes kids. She’d help us find Juliet.”

  But Cassie just rolled her eyes. “I’m going to look. You do what you want.”

  Fiona stood there a moment, watching her sister stomp off toward the lake. The trees were thicker around the water and Cassie soon disappeared. From behind her, Fiona heard the kickball game starting.

  Kids always thought Cassie was so cool because she’d just go off and do whatever she wanted. But what people didn’t realize was that she usually got them all in trouble. And trouble was one thing they didn’t need right now, not with the Scotts talking about adopting them. It was probably just talk—they already had three kids of their own—but Fiona couldn’t let Cassie screw up the little chance they had. She hurried down the path to the lake and caught up with Cassie near the narrow beach.

  “Aren’t we supposed to be playing kickball?” Fiona asked.

  “I said I had a stomachache. Jeff told me to go see the nurse.”

  Cassie got the nurse for her stomachache; Fiona got kickball. That figured.

  “Where are you guys going?” a voice behind them called.

  Fiona turned to find their little sister had followed them. “Go back to camp,” Fiona told her. “They’re gonna notice you’re missing and get us all in trouble.”

  “Little kids don’t get in trouble,” Samantha said, circling around Fiona to chase after Cassie. “They only yell at the big kids.”

  “There she is!” Cassie called out, rushing into the weeds at the far end of the beach. “There’s Juliet. And look, Romeo’s with her!”

  Fiona and Samantha followed. Once into the weeds, they could see the swan. She was about five feet from the shore, in among fallen branches at the edge of the water and listlessly struggling. Cassie began to wade out toward her.

  “Cassie, you can’t go in the water!” Fiona cried. “There’s no lifeguard around.”

  Cassie gave her a look and waded in farther, keeping the branch in between her and the swan. The closer she got, the more frantic the swan seemed to be. She flapped her wings but couldn’t rise out of the water.

  “She’s trapped!” Cassie shouted.

  Juliet fell back, exhausted. Her head hung down and her wings drooped. Romeo swam closer, making worried sounds as Cassie continued to peer into the water.

  “Her foot’s caught in one of those plastic ring things from pop cans,” Cassie called out. “All we have to do is cut the plastic and she’ll be okay.”

  Fiona had been down this road with Cassie before. Everything was always easy—until disaster struck. “We need to tell Mrs. Warner.”

  “She won’t do anything,” Cassie said as she came back to the shore. “You know how she went on and on that first day about swans being mean. She won’t let anybody near them. She’ll just call somebody and Juliet will die before they get here.”

  “She might not.”

  “Come on,” Cassie said, pulling on Fiona’s hand. “We can help her. We just need something to cut the plastic.”

  Fiona was scared. She hated having to make these decisions. She never knew what to do. Should she listen to Cassie or to that little voice inside?

  Juliet’s eyes seemed to plead with her. “All right.” Even as Fiona said the words, Cassie was running off. Fiona turned to Samantha. “You stay here and keep Juliet company.”

  “Me?” Samantha cried. “What am I supposed to do?”

  “I don’t know, Sam. Sing to her. Read her a story. Show her what’s in your knapsack. Just stay out of the water.”

  She had a quick glimpse of Samantha slipping her precious knapsack off her shoulders before she hurried off after Cassie. She chased her across the beach, catching up with her at the beginning of the wooded path. Up ahead through the trees, Fiona could see Mrs. Warner and Miss Kerns were still at the arts-and-crafts table.

  “I could ask Miss Kerns for a scissors,” Fiona said.

  “No,” Cassie hissed. “She’ll just ask you what you want them for. I’ll go talk to Mrs. Warner. When they’re looking the other way, you take one.”

  She couldn’t steal something! “Why can’t I talk to them and you get the scissors?”

  “Because you’re not cool,” Cassie replied.

  Fiona just sighed. Cassie was right. She was the most uncool kid in the whole world. She was chubby; her hair always curled wrong; and she couldn’t tell a joke to save her life. She’d never be able to distract anyone. But to steal a pair of scissors!

  “Fiona,” Cassie hissed. They had gotten to the bend in the path. Mrs. Warner and Miss Kerns would notice them in about a second.

  “All right. All right, already.”

  Before Fiona could warn Cassie not to get them caught, her sister was walking over to the counselors. Soon they were laughing like old friends, leaving Fiona to wish she could just find a hole to hide in. But Juliet was in trouble and Samantha was all alone down by the lake. She had to be brave like the Princess Fiona her mother used to tell her about.

  Dropping down to the ground, Fiona crept around the tables and up behind the counselors. She snatched a pair of scissors and crawled toward a clump of bushes over by the dining tent, where she dropped to the ground. She was a thief. She’d thrown away all those years of trying to make everybody like her and had turned to a life of crime. By the time Cassie arrived, Fiona was shaking so hard she hurt.

  “Let’s go,” Cassie said, striding right past her.

  Groaning, Fiona struggled to her feet and hurried after her sister. “What if they call the police?”

  “Why would they do that?” Cassie asked. “They’ve got so many scissors, they’ll never know one is missing.”

  Fiona ran along behind Cassie, not knowing which she should feel worse about—that she was now a common thief, or that her sister had a criminal mind.

  They raced along the path and across the beach, then through the weeds. Samantha was kneeling in the water, reading a story to Juliet through the fallen branch.

  “Samantha!” Fiona shouted. “I told you to stay out of the water.”

  “I had to show her the pictures,” Samantha explained as she tramped out of the water. “You always show me the pictures when you read to me.”

  Fiona just flopped down on the shore. God was punishing her for being a thief by giving her the dopiest sisters in the world. Trying to catch her breath, she watched Cassie wade over toward Juliet. The bird panicked, flapping her wings and trying to pull backward.

  “Stop it, you stupid old bird!” Cassie screamed, tears filling the cracks in her voice. “We’re just trying to help you.”

  She tried again but, even though the branch was between her and the bird, every time Cassie got close, Juliet would set her powerful wings to flapping, trying to lift herself from the water.

  “Fiona,” Cassie finally wailed. “I can’t cut the plastic away unless she holds still. You’ve got to come over here and help.”

  “In there?” Fiona stood, looking down at the new sneakers their foster mother had just bought her and at the muddy lake they had been told never to go in without a lifeguard.

  But then she saw Cassie—who never cried—in tears in the water and Samantha clutching a picture book to her chest. Her heart-shaped paper name-tag was wet and ripping from her shirt, like a heart ready to break in two.

  Suddenly Fiona was so tired of nothing ever going right. She was tired of not having parents to look out for them. She was tired of being good and trying to be liked, only to have the three of them sent on to another home anyway. Keeping her shoes clean wasn’t going to make the Scotts adopt them, and neither was staying out of the lake. They might never be adopted. And she couldn’t do anything about it.

  But she could save Juliet. She could make sure Romeo was never as lonely as she sometimes was.

  Fiona stepped into the lake, walking gingerly through the mud and circling around the branch until nothing was between her and Juliet. “When she’s lookin
g at me, you cut her free,” Fiona told Cassie.

  Juliet did turn to watch Fiona as the girl waded farther out into the water, the bird’s dark eyes pleading somehow. Fiona found a strength in being free of all her hopes.

  “Hi, Juliet,” she said softly. “You remember me. I’m Fiona.”

  Cassie was easing in closer, almost close enough to reach under the branch and get at the plastic, and Juliet flicked a worried glance her way. Fiona took a step farther into the water, dragging Juliet’s gaze back.

  “Did you know there was once a swan named Fiona?” she asked the bird. “My mommy told me about her. She was a regular girl first, a princess with three little brothers. Then an evil old witch got mad at her. She turned Fiona and her brothers into swans.”

  Cassie was right up to the bird and Fiona hurried on: “The four of them flew all over Ireland for hundreds and hundreds of years,” she said. “And the princess always watched out for her brothers and kept them safe. After almost a thousand years, the spell was broken and they became people again, but really, really old people.”

  Cassie’s hands were working under the water, her face scrunched up in concentration. Back onshore, Samantha had both hands over her mouth as if keeping her fear in. Fiona looked back at Juliet.

  “I was named after that Fiona,” she told the bird. “And I try to look out for Cassie and Samantha just like the princess looked out for her brothers. But sometimes it’s hard.”

  The bird’s dark eyes seemed to understand and out here amid the branches and mud, Fiona felt her fears rising to the surface like sticks in the water. “Sometimes I think nobody’ll ever come along and love us again,” she whispered. “I mean, really love us. Like Romeo loves you.”