A Baby for Easter (Willow Park)

by Noelle Adams

  “I’m hoping it’s the same thing as I was thinking of.” He rubbed his groin against hers suggestively.

  She giggled again. “That’s not what I was talking about.”

  With an exaggerated sigh, he said, “So what were you thinking of?”

  “I was thinking about when I first moved back to town and you were all mean and standoffish with me.”

  “What?” he demanded, raising his head to gaze down at her. “I wasn’t mean to you.”

  “Well, no, not mean. But you never smiled or anything. I was sure you didn’t like me. I thought maybe you thought I was interested in you and you were trying to discourage me.”

  “What?” This time, the word was hoarse with disbelief. “You couldn’t possibly have thought that. I was crazy about you. Absolutely crazy about you.”

  Her lips parted. “Then why weren’t you nice or friendly with me?”

  “Because I was out-of-my-mind terrified! Every time I tried to talk to you, I’d completely clam up. It was horrible. I wanted so much to be close to you again, but you kept acting like you didn’t care about me at all, and I had absolutely no idea what to say to get you to like me again.”

  “Really?” she squeaked, her hands stroking the smooth skin on his back.

  “How could you not have known that until now? You really thought I didn’t like you?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t think you hated me or anything. I just thought you were wary or something. You never smiled at me.”

  He sighed and his eyes were incredibly deep and soft as he admitted, “I was trying to be a different man. A man who deserved you.”

  She made a choked sound and pulled him into a hug.

  He hugged her back, the embrace full of naked feeling.

  “I want you for who you are,” she said at last. “I love you for who you are. So don’t you dare stop smiling at me again.”

  He kissed her gently and murmured against her lips. “I promise I won’t.”

  Then she again remembered what today was and gave a little squeal of excitement.

  “What was that for?” he asked, laughing under his breath. “I know I’m quite impressive in bed, but I haven’t done anything to make you squeal yet.”

  She swatted him on the chest lightly and explained, “You know what happens today, don’t you?”

  His expression changed, softened. “Yes, I know what today is.”

  “I’m so excited,” Alice admitted, emotion rising up at the thought. “I’m so happy. I want so much to be her mother for real. I can’t wait for her to be legally mine.”

  “She’s already yours,” Micah murmured.

  “I know. But today we sign the papers officially, and I’m so excited about it.”

  He made a rough sound and pulled her into another hug, this one tighter than before. She hugged him back, closing her eyes, amazed by everything she’d been given in the last year, when she’d thought she had nothing at all.

  After another minute, though, Micah pulled out of the hug and kissed her again. Soon, the kiss became deeper, more intentional, and she could feel her body respond.

  They’d gotten pretty far along, and Alice was getting excited in an entirely different way when a piercing wail broke through the house.

  Cara had evidently woken up unhappy.

  They lay for a minute in silence, waiting to see if the crying would die out of its own. It didn’t. Finally, Micah rolled off her with a long groan. “I’ll check on her.”

  Deciding he was in a worse condition than she was at the moment, Alice climbed out of bed. “No. I’ll go.”

  “Thanks.” Micah smiled at her, even as he added, “But don’t start playing with her and forget about me lying here in my desperate state.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh. “It could never happen. I’ll be back soon.”

  Alice went to the room across the hall and, on her entrance, Cara’s cries were broken with the word, “Mama,” and outstretched arms that went straight to Alice’s heart.

  So she cuddled with Cara for a while, loving this little girl more than she’d known was possible less than a year ago.

  But she didn’t forget her promise to Micah. Once Cara drifted back to sleep, Alice returned to the bedroom to cuddle with him too.

  ***

  Thank you for reading! Please consider leaving an honest review for A Baby for Easter. I appreciate reviews of any length or rating—long or short, positive or negative. If you enjoyed this book, please consider letting others know about it, and check out the following excerpt from Married for Christmas, which is Jessica and Daniel’s book. The third Willow Park book, about Lydia Morgan, will be out later this year.

  Excerpt from Married for Christmas

  To focus on something else, Jessica opened the dishwasher and pulled put two clean plates. Daniel never put his clean dishes in the cabinets. Sometimes, she did it for him, but usually the clean dishes stayed in the dishwasher until it was empty—then he filled it up again with the dirty ones.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked, taking little cartons of rice, curry, and seafood out of the bag she’d brought.

  “Nothing. What do you mean?”

  “You look upset or nervous about something.”

  “I’m not upset or nervous.” It wasn’t exactly true, but this was hardly the time to blurt out the marriage proposal. She had it all planned out. After dinner, they would naturally start to talk about his job situation. Then, very smoothly, she would offer her well-reasoned suggestion, exactly as she’d planned it out in her mind as she lay awake all last night.

  “Did you talk to your mom today?” Daniel asked, shamelessly pinching a stray piece of shrimp from her carton and putting it in his mouth.

  She narrowed her eyes, to make sure he knew she’d seen the shrimp-snatching. “Yeah. She sounded all right. She knew who I was.”

  “That’s good. So what’s the problem?”

  “No problem. I told you. I’m just hungry.”

  “It looks like there’s a problem.” He didn’t look annoyed or displeased. In fact, his brown eyes were still warm and laidback. But he was always like this—somehow knowing what she was feeling and not leaving it alone until he found out the whole story.

  “There’s no problem,” she said, trying to sound as relaxed as he was.

  “You sure?”

  Her attempt at staying relaxed failed miserably. “Listen to what I’m telling you. There. Is. Not. A. Problem.”

  “All right. Fine. Weren’t you just complaining that I was grumpy? No reason to be in a bad mood about it.”

  “I’m not in a bad mood.” She tried to moderate her tone, but sometimes it was really exasperating that she couldn’t hide anything from him. “Why don’t you ever believe what I tell you?”

  He looked like he was hiding a smile as he picked up the two plates he’d prepared. “Because you don’t always tell me the truth.” When she opened her mouth to object to this statement, he spoke over her to continue, “Okay, that’s an exaggeration. But you don’t always tell me the whole story.”

  “You don’t always need the whole story,” she grumbled, grabbing two bottles of water and following him out to the living room to settle on the couch.

  “Well, I want the whole story, whether I need it or not. So why are you so stubborn about giving it to me?”

  “Because some things are none of your business.”

  He chuckled at her bad-tempered tone, and she couldn’t help but smile too. It was nearly impossible to stay annoyed with him for very long. No matter how infuriating he was, he always had her best interests at heart.

  Plus, he was just so adorable, even when he was being stubborn.

  He took a long sip of water and leaned back on the couch, his plate in his lap. He offered brief, silent thanks for the food and then gazed at her with brown eyes that suddenly looked soft.

  Her breath hitched at the fond expression.

  She’d been going to wait until after they a
te, but now might be a good time to work in the marriage proposal.

  “Daniel,” she began.

  Bear had planted herself next to the couch, sitting upright and staring fixedly at the food. After being ignored for longer than she was willing to tolerate, she raised one paw.

  “No, you’re not getting any food,” Daniel told the dog.

  “Don’t be rude.” Jessica frowned at him and then said to Bear, “I’ll give you a snack later.”

  When she turned back, the soft expression and her nerve were both gone.

  “But, seriously, Jessica,” Daniel began, after swallowing over another bite, “you don’t have to tell me everything if you don’t want, but I don’t like that you’re so isolated.”

  This shift in tone and the unexpected topic made her stiffen her shoulders. “I’m not isolated. What are you talking about?”

  “You work from home. You don’t have any family but your mom. You don’t hang out with friends much.”

  “I hang out plenty,” she replied, immediately defensive. “I talk to my neighbors. I do things at church whenever I can. I hang out with you enough to drive me crazy. You know I did more before my mom… I have to leave every weekend to go see her.”

  “I know.”

  “I’m never going to be a social butterfly, but that doesn’t mean I’m isolated.”

  “Okay.” He was watching her as he chewed, and he looked concerned, thoughtful, observant.

  She wasn’t comfortable with any of those things. “I don’t need you to be worrying about me.”

  “Okay.” His expression changed, and he gave her a lopsided grin. “I’ll remind you of that the next time you worry about me.”

  “Wait. That’s different. Of course, I’ll worry about you.”

  He arched his eyebrows, and she returned the expression with nothing but a cool glare. Eventually, he chuckled and returned to his food.

  She ate for a minute too, barely tasting the food, although Thai was one of her favorites. As she chewed, she glanced around the comfortable living room. It had been decorated by Lila, Daniel’s wife, and he hadn’t changed a single thing in the room since she’d died almost two years ago.

  Without conscious volition, Jessica’s eye rested on the framed picture of Lila on the console table. The woman in the photo was dark-haired, small, and achingly pretty.

  Daniel must have noticed the direction of her gaze because he said, his voice softer, “I know you worried about me after Lila died, but I’m really okay now.”

  “I know. I think you’ve done great.” Her chest still hurt at the memory of his sweet wife of seven years, who’d died far too young in a car accident.

  For a couple of months after her death, Daniel had been a wreck. She could barely stand the thought of how torn up he’d been at losing his wife. She wasn’t entirely convinced he had healed the way he should have—every once in a while, something he did or said would prompt a thread of worry—but he was definitely better now than he’d been before, and he seemed to have returned to his friendly, considerate, and articulate self.

  That line of thought reminded her of her mission this evening. She gulped down some water and tried to recall the details of her plan. In an attempt to get closer to the relevant topic, she asked, “Have you heard anything more from Micah?”

  Daniel was already done with his food, so he put his plate on the coffee table. “Yeah. He called again today. He said the pulpit committee wants me, but the Session is still hesitating.”

  Micah was Daniel’s brother, who still lived in Willow Park, the town in the mountains of North Carolina where both Jessica and Daniel had grown up. Micah had recently started again attending their hometown church, the church where Daniel had spent the last month candidating to become the pastor.

  “It’s still because you’re not married?”

  ***

  You can find out more about Married for Christmas here.

  About the Author

  Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.

  She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances. For more information, please check out her website: noelle-adams.com.

  Other Books by Noelle Adams

  One Hot Night: Three Contemporary Romance Novellas

  A Negotiated Marriage

  Listed

  Bittersweet

  Missing

  Revival

  Seducing the Enemy

  Playing the Playboy

  Holiday Heat

  Married for Christmas

  Salvation

  Engaging the Boss

  Excavated

  Duty Bound