Mother by Design

by Susan Mallery

  SUSAN MALLERY

  “If you haven’t read Susan Mallery, you must!”

  —USA TODAY bestselling author Suzanne Forster

  “Susan Mallery is warmth and wit personified. Always a fabulous read.”

  —New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd

  CHRISTINE RIMMER

  “Ms. Rimmer has developed into a major, major talent.”

  —Romantic Times

  “Appealing characters, comfortable pacing and plenty of passion demonstrate just why Christine Rimmer is such a fan favorite.”

  —Romantic Times

  LAURIE PAIGE

  “Laurie Paige doesn’t miss…”

  —Bestselling author Catherine Coulter

  “Consummate craftsman Laurie Paige entertains with exquisite stories. It is always a joy to savor the consistent excellence of this outstanding author.”

  —Romantic Times

  SUSAN MALLERY

  Susan Mallery is the bestselling and award-winning author of over sixty-five books. Even after all those stories, she swears that writing romance novels is the best job in the world! After all, there’s always a happy ending in the making. She makes her home in sunny Southern California with her handsome prince of a husband and her two adorable-but-not-bright cats.

  CHRISTINE RIMMER

  A reader favorite whose books consistently top the Waldenbooks romance bestseller list, Christine Rimmer has written fifty novels for Silhouette Books. Her stories have been nominated for numerous awards, including Romance Writers of America’s RITA® and Romantic Times’ Series Storyteller of the Year Award. Christine has written for a number of Silhouette imprints including Silhouette Special Edition, Silhouette Desire and Silhouette Single Title. Her latest Silhouette Single Title novel, The Man Behind the Mask, will also be out this month.

  LAURIE PAIGE

  When not writing or reading or viewing landscaping shows on TV, Laurie Paige is avidly learning to create rock gardens in the volcanic soil of her Northern California home. She recently joined a hiking group that goes on excursions into the mountains once a week, winter and summer. Having reached the top of Black Butte, she is now eyeing Mount Shasta’s fourteen-thousand-foot spire. Well, maybe not…

  SUSAN MALLERY

  CHRISTINE RIMMER

  LAURIE PAIGE

  MOTHER BY DESIGN

  Contents

  LILY’S EXPECTING

  Susan Mallery

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Epilogue

  RACHEL’S BUNDLE OF JOY

  Christine Rimmer

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  JENNA’S HAVING A BABY

  Laurie Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  LILY’S EXPECTING

  Susan Mallery

  Chapter 1

  Any woman who’d been left at the altar had the perfect right—maybe even an obligation—to go a little crazy. Who wouldn’t understand a wild weekend in the Caribbean or an inappropriate relationship with a much younger man? Lily Tyler chose to handle her public humiliation by getting pregnant and then buying a house.

  “What do you think?” she asked eagerly. As she spoke, she tucked her right hand behind her back and crossed her fingers. Jake Stone was many things: best friend, all-around great guy and honest to a fault. The closest he came to lying was not saying anything. If he thought the house was a disaster, he would tell her—even if the news broke her heart.

  He glanced around the dining room, taking in the hardwood floors, the crown molding and the bay window that offered a view of the Willamette River.

  “Good-sized rooms,” he said slowly. “You had the roof inspected?”

  She nodded, trying not to bounce with excitement. “Uh-huh. And the wiring and the pipes. I know the place is old, but the owner before the last one did a lot of refurbishing.” Unfortunately the previous owner had done squat, except apply some incredibly ugly paint and even worse wallpaper.

  “The building inspector gave me a big thumbs-up,” she added hopefully.

  Jake turned his attention from the window to her. His dark gaze didn’t give anything away—not a surprise, and one of his more annoying habits, she thought affectionately.

  “Tell me the truth,” she said, then winced.

  He grinned. “Say it like you mean it.”

  “I do mean it. I’m just nervous.”

  “You want the house.”

  “More than chocolate.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t know there was anything you wanted more than chocolate.”

  “I mean it, Jake,” she told him. “Am I crazy?”

  He looped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “Lil, you’ve always been crazy. Lately, though, your impulses have gotten a lot more expensive.”

  She stepped back and socked his arm. “I’m serious.”

  “So am I. If you love the house that much, buy it.”

  She grabbed his hand. “Really? But it needs a lot of work.”

  “All cosmetic. You’ve had the inspections, you know it’s sound. From my experience, you don’t have any structural issues. So go for it. You can afford it.” His eyes narrowed. “Can’t you?”

  “Of course.” She flung herself at him. “I’m so glad you approve. Not that I need your approval.”

  He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “Of course not. That’s why you were crossing your fingers behind your back.”

  She laughed. “You saw that?”

  “I see everything.”

  “Oh, right.” Lily stepped back and sighed. “Okay, I’m going ahead with the deal. Which means I have three months to get the place all fixed up.”

  Jake shook his head. “That’s not gonna happen.”

  “Of course it is.” She touched her stomach. “I’m not going to wait until after the baby’s born.”

  “You’re six months pregnant.”

  “Actually, I’m aware of that.”

  “You know what I mean, Lily. Have you checked with your doctor? Is it safe for you to be stripping wallpaper and painting?”

  “The stripping is fine. I’ll be using a steamer. As for painting…” She let her voice trail off and looked at him from under her lashes. “It could be difficult.”

  Jake groaned. “Let me guess. You thought I could pitch in and help.”

  She blinked. “If it’s not too much trouble.”

  “Great. So you expect me to paint the place.”

  “Just the inside. I’m hiring a crew to do the outside.”

  “Gee, thanks,” he grumbled. “What else?”

  “I want to put down tile in the master bath. You’ve done that before, right? Maybe you could give me a few pointers.”

  “Anything else?”

  She beamed. “Not right now.”

  Jake gave the sigh of the long-suffering. “I need to get my tape measure from the truck. I’ll be right back.”

  While he was gone, Lily crossed to the bay window and stared out at the trees at the edge of her property and the way the yard sloped down to the river.

  After four years of small apartments and student loan payments, she was finally buying her first-ever house. The fact tha
t it was the old O’Malley place—a house she’d loved since she’d been a teenager—made the moment even more special. The pain of the past had finally faded. She could think about Michael Carson—wormy weasel dog—and not even flinch. She still had a little trouble when she remembered being all dressed up in her white wedding gown with no groom, but even that humiliation had faded a lot. She’d gotten on with her life, which made this a very good day.

  She heard footsteps. Before she could turn around, she felt Jake’s hand on the small of her back.

  “You okay?” he asked, his voice low and concerned.

  “Of course. I’m excited about the house.”

  “And Sam?”

  She reached for his hand and brought it around to rest on the mound of her stomach. “I am not naming the baby Sam.”

  “Why not?” he asked. “It’s the perfect name. Samantha if it’s a girl and Samuel if it’s a boy.”

  “I see.” She smiled. “And I should listen to you why?”

  “Because I’m always right.”

  “I can think of several occasions when your judgment was called into question. There was your entire six-month relationship with a girl named Buffy, and she did not come close to living up to her television namesake.”

  “She liked kickboxing.”

  “There’s a recommendation.”

  “You could solve the problem by letting them tell you the gender at your next ultrasound,” he reminded her.

  “I know and I’m really tempted, but I want the surprise.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Jake rubbed her back for a couple more seconds, then stepped away. “I need to measure the rooms.”

  “Have at it.”

  Lily watched him walk into the living room and unclip the tape measure from his belt. In his worn jeans and work boots he looked like a sexy carpenter. The kind women fantasize about showing up at their door. He was tall, lean and good-looking enough to turn heads when he went out in public. He was also her rock.

  “I owe you,” she called to him.

  “Sure. You say that now but do you ever pay up?”

  “I’m waiting for the right moment.”

  Not that she could repay him. Not for the past eight months. When Michael had left her at the altar, Jake had been there to pick up the pieces. He’d held her while she’d cried, offered to beat up the guy, gone out at midnight to buy her double chocolate chunk fudge brownie ice cream and had promised it would eventually stop hurting so bad. He’d put his own impressive social life on hold to hang out with her, even after she’d told him she’d gone ahead with artificial insemination and was pregnant.

  She glanced down at her stomach. “You were a bit of a surprise,” she told her baby. “Everyone told me it was unlikely to happen the very first time, but they were wrong, huh?”

  Not that Lily minded. She’d always wanted a ton of kids and had assumed there would be a husband to go along with her fantasy. Unfortunately she hadn’t found anyone she loved enough to stay with forever, until Michael. Then he’d turned out to be a class-A jerk. Which had left her with a limited amount of time in which to start her family.

  She and her girlfriends Rachel and Jenna had always joked about getting artificial insemination for their thirty-fourth birthdays if there were no men in their pictures. Lily had actually gone ahead with it. There might not be a Mr. Right hanging around, but she had everything else she’d ever wanted. It was enough, she told herself. She was content.

  She walked out of the dining room and headed upstairs where she found Jake standing in the middle of the master bath. As always, the sight of the gold foil bamboo-and-palm-frond wallpaper made her wince.

  “What were they thinking?” she asked.

  “Maybe it was some kind of punishment.”

  “What scares me is that someone at the wallpaper company presented this design as one that would sell, and the committee or whoever decides what goes in the books agreed it was a good idea. Then someone bought it.” She shuddered. “It has to go.”

  Jake leaned against the Formica-covered counter. “Lil, you have to prioritize for both time and money. You have three months until the baby comes. What do you want done before then and what can wait? I agree with the painting, even though I’m going to be the one doing it. You’ll get a lot of bang for your buck. The tile will be pretty easy, too. Just a lot of cutting to make it all fit.”

  She smiled. “How convenient that your work schedule gives you a lot of time off.”

  “Yeah. Lucky me.”

  Jake was a firefighter. His schedule required him to work twenty-four hours at a time, but there was plenty of non-work time in compensation.

  “You’re right about the list,” she said. “Let me look around and come up with the most important items. We can do them first.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “We? I don’t think so, Lil. I’ve agreed to the painting and tile, but that’s it.”

  She pretended to pout. “We’re friends and you adore me, right? So pleasing me is the most important part of your day?”

  Jake stared into Lily’s green eyes and knew this was one time he was going to have to keep his mouth shut. Adore her? That didn’t begin to describe his feelings.

  “You’re okay,” he said. “Make me a list and we’ll talk. Also, I need you to pick out paint and tile. And no, I’m not coming to the paint store with you. I remember when you wanted to paint your apartment bathroom. It took you four hours to pick out a single gallon of paint.”

  She planted her hands on her hips. “That is so not fair. The yellows were all either too bright or had too much green in them. I wanted a pale yellow with a hint of…”

  He shook his head as he backed up a step. “This would be my point. You choose it and I’ll cart it over here. Fair enough?”

  “Absolutely.” Her humor faded. “Seriously, Jake, you’re being amazing. I owe you big time. Just tell me what you want and it’s yours.”

  What he wanted? That was a whole different conversation.

  “Don’t sweat it, Lil. You’ve been there for me in the past. Consider this a chance to even the score.”

  “I don’t think so. You’ve needed me for advice about women—which you never take—and a couple of shopping trips. You’re watching over me like this baby is yours, and now you’re signing on to help me with the house.”

  He noticed they were getting into dangerous territory and decided to sidestep the potential trouble.

  “You forget you also get free access to my wit and charm,” he said. “There are a lot of women who would gladly trade places with you.”

  “I know. They send me daily e-mails. Come on. You ready to get out of here?”

  “Sure.”

  He followed her through the old house to the front door, where she looked around one last time before fishing the key out of her purse and pulling the door shut behind her.

  “You don’t have to buy this house right now,” he told her. “You could wait.”

  She smiled at him. “As usual, you’re reading my mind. But I’m going to keep telling myself to feel the fear and do it anyway. I want this, Jake. I’m done putting my life on hold waiting for Mr. Right to show up. I’ve proven time and time again that I have lousy taste when it comes to men.” She turned the lock. “Present company excluded.”

  “We’re not romantically involved.”

  “Exactly. You’re the only decent guy I know and we’ve never gone out. Why is that?”

  Before he could answer, she laughed. “Oh, yeah. I remember. Because you only date girls under the age of twenty-five who used to be either cheerleaders or beauty contestants. Mind telling me why?”

  “Because they say yes when I ask them out.”

  “Gee, how about asking out someone with a brain or a little ambition?”

  “Maybe. For a change.”

  Someone like her? he wondered. Was that the solution to his problem? To find a woman exactly like Lily? Was that possible? Or would he just spend his ti
me comparing her to Lily and watching her fall short of what he really wanted?

  “I’m a mess,” Lily said cheerfully. “A mess whose days of seeing her feet are numbered.”

  “But a homeowner,” he reminded her.

  “Soon.”

  They walked to his truck.

  Jake gave her a hand up into the seat and did his best not to react when her fingers closed around his. Heat flashed through him, making him want to pull her close and brush his mouth against hers. Telling himself she was pregnant didn’t seem to decrease his libido, so he settled on the cold hard truth that she wasn’t interested in him. Not that way.

  “Did I tell you I had loan approval?” she asked as he slid behind the wheel.

  “No. That’s a big step.”

  “About the final one. Apparently I’m the first lottery winner the mortgage company has had to deal with.” Humor brightened her green eyes. “If we’d won millions I wouldn’t have needed the loan at all. As it is I had to send them a letter explaining where the down-payment money came from. There were many questions.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  He put the truck in reverse. As he glanced behind him to check for oncoming traffic, he saw her shoulders slump. He had a feeling he knew the reason.

  After years of playing the lottery, Lily, Rachel and Jenna had finally scored a five-hundred-thousand dollar jackpot. It had come on the heels of Lily being left at the altar by that jerk she’d nearly married. The money hadn’t mended her broken heart, but it had provided a distraction. Unfortunately, the three friends had had a falling out and hadn’t spoken in months.

  “Rachel and Jenna?” he asked gently.

  She swatted his arm. “Stop knowing what I’m thinking.”

  “I can’t help it.”

  She sighed. “I know. Sorry. Yes, it’s them. I miss them.”