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Somebody's Baby
Tara Taylor Quinn
Caroline Prater: A lost twin. A widow. A pregnant woman.When she discovers she has a twin living in an Arizona town called Shelter Valley, Caroline Prater decides to go there. Pregnant and a widow, she leaves her Kentucky hometown and drives west. She'll try to connect with her twin sister, Phyllis Sheffield. And she'll seek out John Strickland, the father of her baby–if only to let him know.John is a well-known architect, a still-grieving widower who's settled in Shelter Valley. He and Caroline met six weeks earlier when he traveled to Kentucky….Caroline's waiting for the right moment to approach Phyllis, unsure whether her unsuspecting twin will welcome her presence. And she develops a deeper relationship with John–but that's just for the baby's sake. Or is it?
“John, I’m pregnant.”
He sat back and looked at the bare wall opposite him. He was mistakenly caught in someone else’s life. He had to be.
“Did you hear me?” Caroline Prater’s voice, though soft, seemed to grate.
“I’m sorry.” He turned to look at her. “What did you say?”
“I said I’m pregnant.”
Uh-huh. Well. What did he do now? “I, uh, I’m sorry,” he told her. “I don’t really know what to say.”
“I had to tell you. You have a right to know.”
This was a right?
“Aren’t you going to ask if it’s yours?”
His eyes met hers. Their brown depths were as luminous as he remembered them. Her slim, strong, perfectly curved body was pretty impressive, but it was those eyes that had captivated him that cold December night in Kentucky. What, six weeks ago?
“I’m assuming you wouldn't be here if it wasn’t.”
Dear Reader,
Whether you’ve been to Shelter Valley before or find yourself here for a first visit—welcome! It’s never too late to join us in this town—a home away from home for many readers around the world. Shelter Valley has become a place of refuge, of hope and happiness, of new beginnings, of strength through adversity, of life.
If you’re here for the first time, don’t worry. So is Caroline Prater. Join this intelligent but uneducated farm girl as she comes to town with a big heart…and some shocking secrets. You’ll travel with her from her home in Kentucky, find a boardinghouse, meet the residents of Caroline’s new town. And if you’ve been here before, I think you’ll enjoy seeing the world of Shelter Valley through her eyes. You’ll meet old friends and find out what they’re up to, how they’ve fared since you saw them last. Pretty much everyone you’ve met in Shelter Valley appears in Somebody’s Baby.
Don’t let me give you the impression that this is going to be a lighthearted romp through town. It’s not. Caroline and John and the rest of the Shelter Valley residents are living life—real life—with its ups and downs, its fears and hardships. They ask questions of themselves and each other, the same questions we all ask. Hard questions that don’t always have answers. Certainly not easy answers…
So come to Shelter Valley! We’re waiting. With refuge and hope, the promise of happiness, the possibility of new beginnings and—most of all—with the belief that love truly is the greatest thing of all.
Tara Taylor Quinn
I love to hear from my readers. You can reach me at P.O. Box 13584, Mesa, Arizona 85216 or through my Web site at www.tarataylorquinn.com.
Somebody’s Baby
Tara Taylor Quinn
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For all the members of my family, blood and otherwise, who manage to hang on through all my life’s changes and love me, regardless. Who accept my love for them, regardless. You’ve shown me the real life strength of love—a knowledge I now share with the world.
THE RESIDENTS OF SHELTER VALLEY
Will Parsons: Dean of Montford University.
Becca Parsons: Mayor of Shelter Valley, wife of Will.
Bethany Parsons: Daughter of Becca and Will.
Ben Sanders: Husband of Tory, cousin of Sam Montford.
Tory Sanders: Wife of Ben.
Alex Sanders: Daughter of Ben, stepdaughter of Tory.
Phyllis Christine Sanders: Daughter of Ben and Tory.
Randi Foster: Sister of Will Parsons, married to Zack Foster. Manages women’s athletic department at Montford.
Zack Foster: Veterinarian. Husband of Randi.
Cassie Montford: Veterinarian. Married to Sam Montford.
Sam Montford: Descended from the founder of the town. Married to Cassie.
James Montford: Father of Sam, married to Carol.
Mariah Montford: Adopted daughter of Sam and Cassie.
Phyllis Sheffield: Psychologist. Prominent in psychology department at Montford. Married to Matt Sheffield.
Matt Sheffield: Married to Phyllis. Works in theater at Montford University.
Calvin and Clarissa Sheffield: Twin children of Phyllis and Matt.
Beth Richards: Found refuge for herself and her son after escaping abusive ex-husband. Married to Greg Richards.
Greg Richards: Sheriff of Shelter Valley. Married to Beth.
Bonnie Neilson: Sister of Greg. Runs local day care. Married to Keith Neilson.
Katie Neilson: Daughter of Bonnie and Keith.
Martha Moore: Friend of Becca Parsons. Married to David Cole Marks, minister.
Ellen Moore Hanaran: Martha’s daughter, married to Aaron.
John Strickland: Architect. Widower. Originally from Chicago.
Caroline Prater: New to Shelter Valley…
CONTENTS
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
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
“ARE YOU CRAZY, Ma? You’ve lived in Grainville your whole life!” Caroline Prater could hear her son clearly, even with the phone held at arm’s length. “You can’t just pack up and move across the country all by yourself! And where is Shelter Valley, anyway? I’ve never even heard of the place. This is nuts! I knew I should never have left home….”
“It’s in Arizona, Jess.” She moved the phone close enough to speak into the mouthpiece, but kept the earpiece as far from her head as she could.
Sitting on the front porch of the little white farmhouse she’d lived in for almost eighteen years, Caroline snuggled more deeply into her old winter coat and pushed gently against the ground with one booted foot, setting the aged rocker in motion—and waited for Jesse to slow down enough to be able to listen to her. At not quite thirty-five, she was far too young to have a son who was a freshman at Harvard.
And way too old to be in her current predicament.
“What about Gram and Papa? And Grandma and Grandpa? You can’t just leave them….” Her parents. And Randy’s. She shored up her defenses against the twinge of guilt as Jesse’s words hit their mark. Randy’s parents had taken his death hard. He’d been their only son. Seeing her seemed to make things worse. And they had four daughters in Grainville—four sons-in-law. They’d be fine.
But her parents… Caroline looked out over the slush-covered two-acre yard in front of the house. She was going to have to get out the plow to smooth the potholes in the two dirt paths that served as a driveway or she’d never get her little and embarrassingly old pickup out of the gate.
She was going to miss her parents terribly, especially her mother, but there were things about her parents—about her father—that Jesse didn’t know. And something about her that no one knew.
“Why didn’t you say anything when I was home at Christmas, Ma?”
“Because I hadn’t made up my mind then.”
“It was only a week ago!”
Their first Christmas without Randy had been hard on all of them. It was harder on Caroline than anyone knew. Not only had she just lost the man she’d loved since childhood, but she’d suddenly become far too aware that, other than Jesse, none of the family with whom she’d been surrounded all her life were actually related to her. That had never been an issue before.
Jesse went on for another five minutes, reminding her about her responsibilities to the small cattle farm she and Randy had worked for the nearly eighteen years they’d been married.
He was right about that.
And he talked about her friends. All women who were resigned, most of them happily, to living out the lives that had been mapped for them in Grainville since the day they were born. The girls she’d gone to school with who’d stayed in town after graduation were married, with high-school-aged children.
Her son reminded her how unsafe it was for a woman to travel alone these days. Since Randy was killed when the tractor he was riding had exploded last summer, Jesse had taken to warning her about everything. Mostly she only half listened—just in case he said something she needed to hear, although that wasn’t usually the case. Who did he think had been taking care of her—and him—all his life?
“I can’t believe you aren’t listening to me!”
Taking off a mitten, she glanced at her nails. They’d need to be fixed before she dared leave this town. “I’m listening, Jess.”
“No, you aren’t.” His tone was filled with disgust. “I’m just gonna have to come home.”
“No, you aren’t.” She didn’t raise her voice as she repeated his words back to him. She didn’t need to; Jesse knew the tone.
At seventeen, Jesse Randall Prater, one of the youngest freshmen at Harvard, was intelligent beyond his years, and also emotionally young. She’d been living with his outbursts of frustration most of his life. And giving them the credibility they deserved—which was none.
He huffed. And then again.
As she stared down at the peeling wood floor of the porch, a strand of auburn hair fell forward over her shoulder. It was clean. And that was about all she could say for it. Panic filtered down from her throat to her stomach. She couldn’t afford some fancy hair salon.
And she was never going to pass for anything other than what she was—an uneducated country bumpkin—if she showed up in Shelter Valley looking like this. Her clothes were all wrong. Old jeans. Homemade shirts. Her makeup, which she’d worn maybe three times in the past year, had come from the grocery store in town. And she didn’t own a single pair of shoes that hadn’t, at some time or other, been in contact with cow manure.
“I don’t get it, Ma. There’s something you aren’t telling me, isn’t there?”
Caroline tensed. Her smart boy was back. It was the moment she’d been waiting for. And dreading.
I’m prepared, she reminded herself. Just do it like you practiced it last night. And the night before that. And the night before…
“Yes, my new cell number, for one.” She rattled it off. “If you need me for anything in the next week, until I get settled and perhaps have a more permanent number, you can reach me on that.”
He repeated the number. “I’m glad you got a cell,” he added. “You’re there all by yourself, driving back and forth to town with no one at home to know if you made it okay. You need a cell phone. And with the extra field we planted last year, you can afford it.”
“Jess, I’m moving.”
