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First Came Baby
Kris Fletcher
The perfect reason to stay?Kate Hebert's fling with Jackson Boone wasn't supposed to be anything more than good fun. When she got pregnant, they married to please her dying grandmother, and Boone headed home to Peru. Now he's in Comeback Cove to arrange their divorce and meet his baby son. But when Kate injures her ankle, Boone is forced to stick around – and step up his dad game.A little hands-on healing makes Kate realize how great a real marriage with Boone could be. But family had never been Boone's priority, and as far as he's concerned, Kate deserves the life she's always dreamed of. Seems they've done everything backward, and now Boone faces the toughest choice he's ever made…
The perfect reason to stay?
Kate Hebert’s fling with Jackson Boone wasn’t supposed to be anything more than good fun. When she got pregnant, they married to please her dying grandmother, and Boone headed home to Peru. Now he’s in Comeback Cove to arrange their divorce and meet his baby son. But when Kate injures her ankle, Boone is forced to stick around—and step up his dad game.
A little hands-on healing makes Kate realize how great a real marriage with Boone could be. But family had never been Boone’s priority, and as far as he’s concerned, Kate deserves the life she’s always dreamed of. Seems they’ve done everything backward, and now Boone faces the toughest choice he’s ever made...
KRIS FLETCHER would like you to believe that her children’s science-fair volcanoes were all perfectly sculpted from papier-mâché, but the truth is that the mashed-potato episode of this book just might have a basis in fact. Ahem.
Kris grew up in Southern Ontario, went to school in Nova Scotia, married a man from Maine and now lives in central New York. She shares her very messy home with her husband, some of their many kids, two Facebook-fodder cats and a growing population of dust bunnies.
Books by Kris Fletcher
Comeback Cove, Canada
A Better Father
Now You See Me
Dating a Single Dad
A Family Come True
Picket Fence Surprise
Other titles by this author available in ebook format.
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
First Came Baby
Kris Fletcher
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08110-8
FIRST CAME BABY
© 2018 Christine Fletcher
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For Piya Campana. For five years, you soothed my nerves, calmed my fears and guided my thoughts and words to the place where I became proud to share them with the world. Most of all, you made me laugh, always in the very best of ways. I was truly blessed to begin my career with such a gifted and compassionate editor, and will forever raise my Iced Capp in your honor.
“I wasn’t trying to get away from you.”
It took Boone a second. It wasn’t until he let that slightly emphasized you sink in that he got the message. And even then, he didn’t want to believe it.
Kate shifted on the sofa, digging into her pocket. “Jamie’s sleeping longer than I thought,” she said, pulling out her phone. “Why don’t you peek on him. I’ll see if Allie can come...”
Her voice trailed off.
He reached for her phone and plucked it from her fingers. She made a sound of protest, but her grip didn’t tighten.
“Boone,” she whispered. “This isn’t a good idea.”
She was right. Totally and completely right.
But that didn’t stop him from sliding off the footstool and onto the sofa. Once he was at her side, hip bumping against hip, he wondered why the hell he had resisted before. Because nothing felt as right as being close to Kate.
Except, maybe, being closer.
Dear Reader (#u501f34a8-1366-570b-9d30-9244941f88a2),
Building a family is always a challenge. Imagine, though, trying to build one when the baby was a surprise...and Daddy isn’t sure he can be the kind of parent his child deserves...and by the way, Mommy and Daddy live on separate continents. That’s the situation Kate and Boone find themselves facing in this story. Believe me, it was a challenge and then, ultimately, the greatest treat to be able to face this dilemma with them!
By the way, if you missed the story of Kate’s younger sister Allie, Best Man Takes a Bride, you can find it on www.Harlequin.com (http://www.Harlequin.com). I do hope you’ll have the chance to check it out.
It’s been a privilege to spend the last five years visiting Comeback Cove with you. Whenever I visit the real-world town of Morrisburg, Ontario, which was the inspiration for Comeback Cove, I half expect to turn the corner and find myself at the Flip Flop Fudge Shop, or to walk into a store and buy ice cream made by the Northstar Dairy. If you should ever find yourself there—perhaps to visit Upper Canada Village—I hope that you will feel the same way.
Yours,
Kris
Contents
Cover (#u79dacb80-4299-5aa0-a2ea-cdb7987cab1d)
Back Cover Text (#uba7c40fc-8617-53b1-abde-fcb56be7d714)
About the Author (#ub2aa6ad7-2676-5218-ad4f-2f3da6b30700)
Booklist (#u597df8c1-3f05-5175-8ee7-de719244f4e0)
Title Page (#u517459a9-b200-50e5-8b6b-3a157a75aa8c)
Copyright (#uff760cb1-e4ec-58b6-8f94-3e2a7f71b46b)
Dedication (#u9e3cf51c-2056-5803-89bc-67f62e973c58)
Introduction (#u6da88ec7-f298-58ee-beb5-f21ddc512bcf)
Dear Reader (#u8e12217d-dc2c-5188-9990-d79bed67ffa6)
CHAPTER ONE (#uf3e8ff29-d77a-5202-97c5-d6cacf4457aa)
CHAPTER TWO (#u040a887a-fb6b-5622-8d72-a659d1b0e69e)
CHAPTER THREE (#uf31f34a0-227b-5207-836b-175a1e2a5228)
CHAPTER FOUR (#ud414c251-73b2-52a7-b212-3292f3431b0e)
CHAPTER FIVE (#u55b74f2f-7c41-5901-bd94-48a664caac9f)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u501f34a8-1366-570b-9d30-9244941f88a2)
KATE HEBERT HAD always prided herself on being able to multitask. But even she was amazed when she realized she was painting a wall with her right hand while cradling her five-month-old in her left arm—and that she was doing both while breastfeeding.
“Check it out,” she said to her sister, Allie. She raised the paint roller and wiggled little Jamie. “Call me vain, but I’m feeling seriously badass at this moment.”
Allie started laughing. “Wonder Woman has nothing on you.”
“We should write our own comic book. Super Mom. Instead of bracelets that can deflect bullets, she would have a nursing bra that bounces insults back at rude people.”
Allie snickered. “Didn’t Wonder Woman have a fancy lasso for making bad guys tell the truth? Maybe instead of that, Super Mom could shoot guilt trips with her eyes.” She pitched her voice slightly lower in an imitation of their mother. “You want to tell me exactly what you’re doing? And don’t bother saying it’s nothing, because I can see by the look in your eyes that it’s definitely something.”
Kate laughed hard enough that she had to put the paint roller into the tray or risk ending up with a polka-dot floor. Probably the wisest course, since the purpose of this work was to make the place marketable, not marked up.
“Good idea.” Allie nodded toward the dormant roller. “In fact, you should sit down for a few minutes.”
“I’m fine.”
“I know you are. Now. But in about two or three minutes you’re going to realize that you haven’t had anything to drink in a couple of hours, and you’re going to get suddenly and horribly overcome with thirst and exhaustion. Then I’m going to remember that I promised Mom I wouldn’t let you overdo it, and I’m going to feel guilty and run off to get you some water. And when I come back you’re going to be half-asleep in the chair. So then I’ll have to burp Jamie, which means I have to get him off your boob, which kind of grosses me out. And then, he’ll probably spit up on the clothes I have to wear until this room is done. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather bypass the drama. So. Sit.” She pointed at the ancient wingback Kate had dragged into the room. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Kate had a fleeting notion to argue, then decided it would be easier to go along. Because though she hated to admit it, she did feel a little thirsty. “Okay.” She lowered herself into the chair slowly, so as not to interrupt mealtime—though these days Jamie was more likely to be distracted by new sights and sounds than by movement—and settled in.
Oh. That felt good.
“Bring me a cheese stick, too, will you?” she called in the direction of the footsteps echoing down the stairs. Allie’s answer came not in words but in a snort of laughter that Kate easily recognized as code for told you so.
As alone as it was possible to be with someone doing the vacuum cleaner thing at her breast, Kate closed her eyes and breathed out tension. Not that she had been working too hard. Far from it. She was still new-mama tired, but she hadn’t made it to the ripe old age of thirty without learning how to pace herself. Nor did the tightness in her shoulders have anything to do with painting. She’d been doing plenty of that over the past months as she brought Nana’s house back to life. Well, as much as she could do on her own.
No, it wasn’t exhaustion or painting that had her wound so tight. It was the reason behind them.
Jamie was slowing down a little, the space between his swallows growing longer. Time for a burp. She broke the suction, raised him to her shoulder and patted his back while rocking in the chair and talking over his wails.
“I know, I know. You don’t like to stop. But we do this every time, buddy. You might want to learn that pattern.”
His little head smashed against her shoulder. Hard.
“Ow! Don’t get violent, okay? You’ll get more in a minute. But then you have to give me time to really paint, because the room has to be done this afternoon. We need to get it ready for—” she lowered her voice “—for your daddy.”
So much for relaxation.
She patted some more, focusing on the April-fresh air coming through the window she’d cracked open, trying to soothe the anxiety that gripped her every time she thought of Boone coming home. Not that he had ever lived here, in either this house or Comeback Cove. Not that he even thought of Canada as home anymore.
But in two days, he would be here, whether she was ready or not. And painting was the least of her worries.
Allie bounded up the stairs, her footsteps eliciting the usual symphony of creaks and protests from the aging stairs. Jamie’s loud burp was just one more note in the song. By the time Allie sailed in, Kate had Jamie settled on the other side, leaving her free to cross her legs, sit back and gratefully accept her sister’s offerings.
“Ooh. That’s not a cheese stick.” Kate drank deeply before tucking the bottle of water at her side and diving into the plate of cheddar, crackers and apple slices with gusto.
