The Prodigal Bride
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Table of Contents
Title Page
About the Author
Dedication
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
Epilogue
Copyright
About the Author
BETH CORNELISONSince that first time, Beth has written many more stories of adventure and romantic suspense and has won numerous honours for her work, including a coveted Golden Heart award in romantic suspense from Romance Writers of America. She is active on the board of directors for the North Louisiana Storytellers and Authors of Romance (NOLA STARS) and loves reading, traveling, Peanuts Snoopy and spending downtime with her family.
She writes from her home in Louisiana, where she lives with her husband, one son and two cats who think they are people. Beth loves to hear from her readers. You can write to her at PO Box 5418, Bossier City, LA 71171, USA or visit her website at www.bethcornelison.com.
To Paul, who has been my best friend and my Valentine for twenty-five years.
Thanks to Rani Ogitani for lending her nameagainto the babysitter in this book, a character you first met in Tall Dark Defender. Rani won the auction for this opportunity through Brenda Novaks Diabetes Auction, held each year in May. Keep an eye out at this years auction for your chance to be a character in an upcoming book!
Chapter 1
Zoey Bancroft stared at the pink plus sign on the test stick, and her world tilted. She was going to have Dereks baby.
Leapin lizards, she muttered, her favorite expression since shed starred as Annie in her junior high schools production of the musical. She sank onto the edge of the Las Vegas motel bathtub and pressed a shaky hand to her swirling stomach. So maybe her nausea wasnt from a bad burrito after all. Sucking in a slow deep breath, she tried to wrap her brain around the truth.
Pregnant. Judging by the date of her last period, she had to be two months along. And how do you feel about this? she imagined her sister Holly asking her.
Stunned. Confused. Scared.
And alone. Derek had made a hasty retreat when shed suggested she might be carrying his child. The jerk. Shed believed in him, sacrificed for him, shared herself with him. But when she needed him most, hed left her, unwilling
to take responsibility for his child.
The whoosh of blood filled Zoeys ears. Again her world tipped, until it listed precariously over a black void. A flutter of panic beat its wings in her chest. Shed believed Derek was her future. Shed thought herself in love with him, an illusion that had begun cracking weeks ago. What shed wanted to believe was love, she saw now, had just been a fantasy, just the latest wrong turn in her search for her place in the world. Derek had left her dangling over this fathomless pit of isolation and fear. How could she have been so blind?
Her father had been right about Derek. Shed argued with her father, severed ties with her family and defended Derek and her choice to travel the country with him as he competed in poker tournaments, hoping for his big break. Dejection and regret settled in her chest like a cold rock when she saw how wrong shed been to trust Derek. Hed used her, strung her along, dumped her when her money ran out and the chips were down. Just as her father had predicted.
She frowned as she stared in the mirror on the back of the bathroom door. The green-eyed reflection gazing back at her sought answers she didnt have. Her appearance wasnt substantially different from normal. She didnt look like she thought a mother-to-be should. Instead of a healthy glow, her freckled cheeks seemed pale in the harsh fluorescent light. But wan complexion aside, the auburn-haired woman who stared back at her was the same lost-and-searching soul whod been looking for herself, auditioning different life roles for all of her twenty-four years. She huffed her disgust.
Another screwup. How typical of you.
Okay, this baby wasnt planned, but it didnt have to be a problem. Shaking off the self-censure, Zoey took a deep breath. Babies were good. She liked babies. She could take care of a baby even if she was alone. Wisps of apprehension tickled the back of her neck. Could she do this alone?
She conjured an image of the people she loved most, people shed depended on in the pasther parents, her sisters her best friend, Gage.
Maybe her horrible blindness and subsequent fight with her parents over Derek meant she was estranged from her family, but ever since theyd became friends in junior high, Gage had always been there for her. She didnt know what she was going to do with her life now, but she knew who had her back. She knew who she would call
On the back porch of Gage Powells Lagniappe, Louisiana, home, the cordless phone hed set on the umbrella table trilled in the fading autumn sunshine. Gage propped his rake against the trunk of the large oak and jogged toward the porch.
G-Gage? the female caller rasped when he answered. The womans voice was choked with tears. Tears usually meant the caller was his older sister. But the voice wasnt Elaines.