It was well into the night, but Amanda was still curled up in her bathrobe on one end of her sofa watching yet another tearjerker on late night television. It was her punishment for not having the courage to acknowledge her feelings for Sam. One of her all-time favorite movies, The Way We Were, was about to come on. She had her box of tissues right next to her and was ready for a good cry. By golly, she deserved one.
Suddenly, her doorbell rang. A moment later, before she could even rise from the sofa, she heard a man yell out, “Amanda, open up. It’s me—Sam.” Then he hit her doorbell again. Of course, she knew it was Sam. She would recognize his voice anywhere.
But then, her next thought was that something was wrong. Why else would he come banging on her door at this hour? With pulse racing to an all-time high, she was off the sofa in nothing flat. With only seconds passing, she had the door opened.
“What? What’s wrong?” she asked, standing face-to-face with him. Then she got the faintest whiff of alcohol on his breath. She gaped at him. “Have you been drinking?”
“I had a couple beers,” he said.
“What do you want?” she asked anxiously. “Are the girls all right?”
“Yeah, they’re fine. They’re with Mrs. Cunningham right now.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” she breathed.
Sam stepped inside her house and closed her door. “I need to talk to you, Amanda. Right now.”
“At one o’clock in the morning?” she said. “I don’t think so.”
“Well, I do,” he stated forcefully. “You happen to be the woman I love and want to marry. Therefore, I have my rights.”
Amanda’s heart felt heavy in her chest. “Sam, please, don’t start that again. Not tonight.” By now, her insides were in complete shambles.
Sam walked up to her, lifted her hand and placed it against his forehead. “Can you feel that I have a fever, Doc? Well, I do. I have one for you. And it’s burning me up inside.”
He brought her hand down and placed it over his heart. “Do you hear that?” he asked. “It’s beating for you.”
“Sam, you don’t know what you’re saying.”
He placed his hand under her chin and lifted her head until she was looking directly into his eyes. “Tell me you don’t feel the same about me.”
“That’s not the point, and you know it,” she said, her voice trembling.
“It is the point, and it’s the only point that matters. Sooner or later, Amanda, you’re going to have to trust someone to love you. All I’m asking is for you to let that person be me. Me and my girls.”
Amanda began shaking her head. “It’s not that simple for me.”
“But it is that simple. Can’t you see how crazy in love I am with you? I left here the other night saying I would never return. And yet here I am. And I will always be here for you, Amanda.”
“You say that,” she replied. “But how do I know that it’s true?”
“You’ve got to trust me, Amanda. There’s no other way.”
“But what if you decide at some point in your life that you would like to have more children? I won’t be able to give them to you.”
“We’ll adopt. There are plenty of kids out there who need good, loving homes. I know you have your career, but since I’m retired from the navy, I like being home with the kids. Who knows what the future will bring? Sure, there’ll be plenty of disappointments. That’s life. But we’ll have each other to help us get through them. But you’ve got to give us a chance first.”
It was all so sudden. Amanda wanted to believe him. She really did.
Actually, she did believe him, and maybe that was what was scaring her the most. Tears gathered in her eyes.
Sam pulled her into his arms. “You want to trust me, don’t you?”
“I do trust you. Otherwise I would’ve never told you what I did the other night,” she said.
“Oh, Amanda, you’re really something else,” he said, gazing deep into her eyes. “No matter what I do, I can’t seem to stop thinking about you.”
“I can’t stop thinking about you, either.”
“It’s crazy, isn’t it, the way it happened just like that?”
Amanda gave him a tentative smile. “It was sort of mind-boggling, all right.”
Suddenly, growing serious, Sam cupped the sides of her face. “Amanda, I want you to marry me and be a mother to my two children. Will you?”
She was speechless. Finally, she whispered, “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes, dammit,” Sam replied, laughing.
Amanda took a deep, steadying breath. As a doctor—as a human being—she knew this was a give-and-take world. Fate had deemed it necessary to take away something very precious from her, her ability to have children of her own. Only now Fate was giving her something back in return. Something very, very precious. It was giving her Sam and his two little girls to love. All she needed was the courage to reach out and embrace the gift.
Amanda braced herself and then slipped her hands over his. “It would be the dream of my life to marry you.”
Sam brought her face forward and kissed her thoroughly—passionately—on the lips. Then, pulling away, he said, “Let’s get married now—as soon as possible. I want us together as a family on Thanksgiving Day. You, me and the girls. I love you, Doc, more than you’ll ever know. I want you home with us where you belong.”
“I love you, too,” Amanda replied. “And, yes, let’s get married right away.”
Sam pulled Amanda back into his arms and kissed her longingly.
“By the way,” he said. “Did I happen to mention to you that Josie Wentworth came by my place the other night? She and her family have put out an APB on Sabrina Jensen. I heard from her yesterday and they’ve already gotten a possible lead down in Wallace Canyon. The sheriff, Riley Hunter, is going to check it out for them.”
“That’s great news,” Amanda said. “I’m so glad to hear that someone’s finally seen her.”
“Well, it’s not for certain yet. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, but it sure does sound hopeful.”
“You know what?” Amanda said, her eyes shining with tears as she cupped the sides of his face. “How easy it is for me to see now that you’re the one I’ve been waiting for all my life. You make me feel whole again. I love you.”
Sam grinned. “I love you, too. Come on, let’s sit on the sofa and smooch like I’ve been wanting to do with you since the moment I saw you.”
“That’s ridiculous. You didn’t feel that way the moment you met me.”
“Well, I darn sure did. The moment you opened your mouth, I fell madly in love with your voice.”
“My voice?” Amanda said, laughing. Then she hurried to the sofa, motioning for him to follow.
He did.
“We can make plans later,” she said. “Let’s smooch first.”
For all it was worth—and for Amanda, it was worth the world—Sam sealed their future with a kiss.
Epilogue
Three days later Amanda and Sam were married by a Justice of the Peace in the presence of Caroline, Sara, Mrs. Cunningham and Tom Foreman. They took a brief honeymoon to the mountains and returned home two days before Thanksgiving.
On the day set aside for giving thanks, Amanda and her new family gathered around the dinner table to count their many blessings.
“Daddy, can I have dessert first?” Sara asked. She was wearing the dress Amanda had given her for her birthday. Caroline was wearing a new dress, too. She wanted her girls to look their best.
“No, pumpkin. You have to eat your meal, then you can have dessert,” Sam said. Wearing a pair of navy dress slacks, a white shirt and tie, he began carving the turkey Amanda had prepared.
“Can Sugar have some turkey, too?” Caroline asked.
“Of course,” Sam replied, halting his task just long enough to look at Amanda and wink. “He’s part of the family, too.”
Amanda smiled. She felt like the luckiest woman alive.
>
After all, she had everything she could ever want.
She had Sam’s love. And his girls to keep her busy. At last, her lifelong dream was complete. She was a wife and a mother. It was the most precious gift Sam could have given her. And she felt like a whole woman again.
And, in turn, she planned to cherish her husband, her children, always.
FOLLOW THAT BABY
into Silhouette Desire
in December 1998
when award-winning author
Elizabeth Bevarly
tells the scintillating story of
THE SHERIFF AND THE IMPOSTOR BRIDE.
THE DADDY AND THE BABY DOCTOR
And in future months, look for
these fabulous titles:
THE MILLIONAIRE AND THE
PREGNANT PAUPER
by Christie Ridgway.
Yours Truly, January 1999
THE MERCENARY AND THE NEW MOM
by Merline Lovelace,
Intimate Moments, February 1999.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-6649-0
THE DADDY AND THE BABY DOCTOR
Copyright © 1998 by Harlequin Books S.A.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Letter to Reader
Acknowledgments
Books by Kristin Morgan
About the Author
Letter to Reader
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Epilogue
Copyright
The Daddy And The Baby Doctor Page 12
