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Her Soldier's Baby
Tara Taylor Quinn
Will the truth heal him—or tear them apart?The baby she gave up for adoption long ago is a secret Eliza Westin has concealed from her husband. With good reason. Wounded soldier turned police Pierce Westin was Eliza’s high school sweetheart. He’s also her son’s father.Seventeen years ago, Pierce went off to war unaware that he’d fathered a child. Eliza's shot as a contestant on the Family Secrets cooking competition show is her chance to reconnect with the past. But once she finds her long-lost son, she can only hope that Pierce will embrace their newfound family. Or will Eliza lose the love of her life all over again?
Will the truth heal him—or tear them apart?
The baby she gave up for adoption long ago is a secret Eliza Westin has concealed from her husband. With good reason. Wounded soldier turned small town police chief Pierce Westin was Eliza’s high school sweetheart. He’s also her son’s father.
Seventeen years ago, Pierce went off to war unaware that he’d fathered a child. Eliza’s shot as a contestant on the Family Secrets cooking competition show is her chance to reconnect with the past. But once she finds her long-lost son, she can only hope that Pierce will embrace their newfound family. Or will Eliza lose the love of her life all over again?
“I have something to tell you.”
Eliza blurted the words before they could be stifled. Now she was on the front line without a shield.
He studied her. “Okay.”
“I have a secret, Pierce. A big one.” Clasping her hands together in her lap, she swallowed. In spite of all of the hours she’d spent thinking about this moment, preparing for it, she had no idea what to say.
Her heart pounded while her lungs tightened around the air she couldn’t seem to get enough of.
“But before I tell you, I need you to promise me that you won’t shut me out. That you won’t just go away and refuse to discuss it.”
“I’d never do that.”
“You have no idea what you’ll do. You don’t know the secret.”
“I know you. And I know how completely I love you.”
If only life were that easy.
Dear Reader (#ucc7f806e-1278-584b-abdb-3f3f430e767c),
I feel like I should put a warning label on this one. I sent one to my editor when I turned in the book. She wrote back that she understood why when she sent the revision letter. It’s just that kind of book. One I think you wouldn’t want to miss. But my advice is to find a quiet place—and some alone time—to read it.
Her Soldier’s Baby started out as a somewhat typical, exactly-what-you-want romance novel. It has a lot of the elements we most like to read. A soldier. A secret baby. A nurturing woman with a backbone of steel when it comes to protecting her family. A bed-and-breakfast. Add in a little celebrity status when our heroine is chosen to appear on a reality cooking show and it clicks.
This story has all of those elements. It’s what Pierce and Eliza did with them that changed everything. I had no idea what I was getting into when I sat down to tell their story. I am still feeling every aspect of their journey, thinking about their choices, wishing they were real and I could invite them over for dinner. Or to be my best friends. I want to follow them into the future...
Instead, I give them to you.
I love to hear from my readers. Please find me at Facebook.com/tarataylorquinn (https://www.facebook.com/tarataylorquinn) and on Twitter, @tarataylorquinn (https://twitter.com/tarataylorquinn). Or join my open Friendship board on Pinterest, Pinterest.com/tarataylorquinn/friendship (https://www.pinterest.com/tarataylorquinn/friendship)!
All the best,
Tara
www.TaraTaylorQuinn.com (http://www.TaraTaylorQuinn.com)
Her Soldier’s Baby
Tara Taylor Quinn
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Having written over seventy-five novels, TARA TAYLOR QUINN is a USA TODAY bestselling author with more than seven million copies sold. She is known for delivering emotional and psychologically astute novels of suspense and romance. Tara is a past president of Romance Writers of America. She has won a Readers’ Choice Award and is a five-time finalist for an RWA RITA® Award, a finalist for a Reviewers’ Choice Award and a Booksellers’ Best Award. She has also appeared on TV across the country, including CBS Sunday Morning. She supports the National Domestic Violence Hotline. If you or someone you know might be a victim of domestic violence in the United States, please contact 1-800-799-7233.
For my Heartwarming sisters and our readers. Thank you for welcoming me into the family...
Contents
Cover (#u7b943335-63a7-5327-80d2-74f512486baa)
Back Cover Text (#u51bfcb55-e48c-5fc7-ba4e-3caa78b8e181)
Introduction (#u216cfd0c-5696-5abd-b98e-5e3ea60fb10c)
Dear Reader (#u3b0d828d-c9ff-5ec8-9c69-adaed0aece2a)
Title Page (#ub2d2774c-419c-5773-bee0-e1ab3e0acad0)
About the Author (#u3411b791-b44a-5802-8050-082e6f252706)
Dedication (#u5bead8ca-a44e-560b-80b6-f535fd5f2d60)
CHAPTER ONE (#u378a19f0-8069-53ac-9769-f28b67010bd1)
CHAPTER TWO (#u14ad5e00-9dd7-598e-b00c-e946bdceb691)
CHAPTER THREE (#uaaeed7da-422e-5e01-b9df-c92dbf2d7f83)
CHAPTER FOUR (#ub4795cf6-1e08-5b2b-af47-229c2f0c320e)
CHAPTER FIVE (#u6a59e5dc-c0d3-51a8-8d65-75b5fb4ebd80)
CHAPTER SIX (#ubf998591-60c9-5669-b7b4-ed0789f82c1b)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#u68360636-6cb1-5f11-b2c3-0867e3064b95)
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)
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ucc7f806e-1278-584b-abdb-3f3f430e767c)
ELIZA CLUNG TIGHTLY to her husband, Pierce, pressing her body against his, thigh to thigh, chest to chest, her arms around his waist, pulling him in. Charleston International Airport was teeming with comers and goers and waiters that Friday afternoon. Businesspeople arriving home for the weekend, and others, like her, heading out.
Pierce gave her a tight squeeze—more akin to a pat on the head than a desperate hug filled with the emotional angst of having gone through this before, pledging to see each other again and then not.
She savored the contact.
“You’ve got your driver’s license, your boarding pass is on your phone and there will be a car waiting for you in Palm Springs. If your name is not professionally printed on a card, get a cab instead...” He’d started walking the five feet to the security checkpoint line. Once she joined the queue, he’d leave her.
“Remember, don’t make eye contact with men you don’t know, and—”
She shook her head. “I got it, Pierce. I’ve been keeping myself safe for a long time.” Having lived the majority of her adult life alone, she wasn’t worried.
“The world’s changing, Eliza, and California is not Shelby Island. Not everyone you meet is your friend, nor are they all safe for you to bring home.”
She knew that, too. Had a very careful vetting system and security measures in place for the guests she hosted at her successful Shelby Island bed-and-breakfast in an antebellum home just thirty miles down the South Carolina coast from Charleston.
She’d also been doing that alone for the majority of her adult life.
“I promise, I’ll stay alert, babe,” she told her husband—because she knew that these reminders were his way of supporting her choice to go.
“Just watch yourself going to and from the studio. You’re going to be all over national television, and who knows what kind of crackpot could come out of the ozone? You’re a beautiful woman and...”
She wasn’t. At five-five and a hundred thirty-five pounds, she wasn’t as tall and skinny as the California TV beauties. She wasn’t blonde, either. On good days, her brown hair had a bit of a shine to it. Mostly it just fell, all mousy-looking, around her shoulders, wherever gravity took it. But she loved that Pierce found her as good-looking as he had when they’d been an item in high school. Hard to believe that had been nearly eighteen years ago.
They’d reached the end of the line. Which was moving quickly. She stepped to the side to let a family of five pass. Mom, dad and the kids. That would never be her.
She looked up into Pierce’s big blue eyes—the only soft part of her military-trained cop husband—and melted when he met her gaze with all of the depth of his heart. That look...some days it seemed it was all that was left of the sweet, sensitive boy who’d left her just-turned-sixteen self to go off to basic training.
“I love you, babe,” she said.
“I love you, too.”
There. She took a deep breath. Came back to herself.
“I’ll see you in two days,” she told him. A promise. A pledge. A hope.
And a worry.
“Don’t worry about getting your bag when you come back,” he said. “I’ll park and come in.”
She nodded.
He kissed her. Just a peck. She wanted it to be more personal and might have pushed him into it if she hadn’t had a guilty conscience.
And off she went. To join the queue of strangers. To fly across the country to meet more strangers, to appear as one of eight contestants—all strangers—on the nationally syndicated Family Secrets cooking show—and to search for the one stranger who knew her from the inside out.
Literally.
A stranger Pierce Westin knew nothing about.
* * *
FROM A VANTAGE point against the wall, mostly concealed by a pillar, he watched her through security. And for as far as he could see her.
Because Pierce would never get enough of seeing his beautiful wife. It wasn’t just her big brown eyes, soft cheekbones, and lips that set the world on fire that drew him—though he loved all of that, too. No, it was just...her.
And the fact that she was in his life again. Married to him.
Some nights he woke up in a cold sweat and still couldn’t believe that Eliza Maxwell was his wife. He’d lie there, touching her shoulder, looking at her sometimes for more than an hour, to avoid going back to sleep. When he slept, she was, like the rest of his few good childhood memories, completely out of reach.
The fear that rent his gut when she turned a corner and was out of sight would be with him until her return.
