Expecting a Christmas Miracle. Laura Iding
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Jadon glanced at Alyssa, and in that moment they shared a special intimacy, a bond that shook him to the soles of his feet.
Together they’d created these baby girls.
Looking at Alyssa holding Grace, and the way Gretchen slept so peacefully in his arms, he realized what he’d told her earlier was true. There was no turning back. He was a father now.
This new, precious family was a part of his future. His and Alyssa’s future.
If only he knew how in the world he was going to make it work…
Dear Reader
Welcome to Cedar Bluff Hospital, located in a small Wisconsin town overlooking the beautiful rocky shores of Lake Michigan. EXPECTING A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE is the second book in my new mini-series. I really hope you enjoy reading about Alyssa and Jadon as much as I enjoyed writing about them.
Alyssa and Jadon had a hot, brief affair that ended when Jadon left without a word. When Alyssa discovered she was pregnant with twins, she tried to reach Jadon—but couldn’t. Resigned to raising her babies alone, she is shocked and surprised when Jadon unexpectedly returns to his job as one of the emergency department doctors on staff. Alyssa is determined to remain independent, but she soon realises she needs Jadon’s help. When the babies arrive prematurely, Alyssa and Jadon are drawn together as they fight for their tiny babies to survive. Somehow they must find a way to heal the wounds of the past in order to save their new family.
I hope you enjoy EXPECTING A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE, and look for the third book in my Cedar Bluff Hospital series, to come next month with a New Year’s story.
Happy Reading!
Laura
Laura Iding loved reading as a child, and when she ran out of books she readily made up her own, completing a little detective mini-series when she was twelve. But, despite her aspirations for being an author, her parents insisted she look into a ‘real’ career. So the summer after she turned thirteen she volunteered as a Candy Striper, and fell in love with nursing. Now, after twenty years of experience in trauma/critical care, she’s thrilled to combine her career and her hobby into one—writing Medical Romances for Mills & Boon. Laura lives in the northern part of the United States, and spends all her spare time with her two teenage kids (help!)—a daughter and a son—and her husband.
EXPECTING
A CHRISTMAS
MIRACLE
BY
LAURA IDING
Recent titles by the same author:
MARRYING THE PLAYBOY DOCTOR* EMERGENCY: SINGLE DAD, MOTHER NEEDED THE SURGEON’S SECRET BABY WISH THE FIREFIGHTER AND THE SINGLE MUM
* Cedar Bluff Hospital
This book is dedicated to my editor Meg Lewis.
Thanks for everything.
I always enjoy working with you.
CHAPTER ONE
“SLOW down, Ben,” Alyssa Knight called, tightening the red wool scarf around her neck and pulling her black jacket over her pregnant belly in an effort to block the chilly wind as she followed her charge down the path toward the Lake Michigan shoreline. “I can’t move that fast.”
“But I want to see if the water is frozen,” Ben protested, with six-year-old logic.
“The lake is too large to freeze. Ben, I mean it. Stop right there and wait for me,” Alyssa said in a firm, you’d-better-listen tone.
Ben let out a heavy sigh and stopped in the middle of the path. She smiled and shook her head. Ben was Kylie Germaine’s active son, and she’d agreed to watch him for a few hours. Kylie was spending this Saturday afternoon doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, along with a final fitting for her wedding dress, in preparation for her New Year’s Eve wedding to Seth Taylor, one of Cedar Bluff’s Emergency Department physicians.
Kylie would make a beautiful bride, she thought with a pang of envy. The couple radiated happiness. When Alyssa had been young, she’d always wished for a big family. Kylie and Seth were planning to have more kids, and Seth already treated Ben like his own son.
She was glad to help out, even for a couple of hours.
There was an inch of snow covering the ground and she was looking forward to a white Christmas. In spite of the chill in the cold December air, she’d thought a trip to Cedar Bluff Park would be a good way to keep Ben occupied. Much better than sitting around in her small apartment.
An apartment too small for her expanding family.
The dark, heavy clouds overhead indicated more snow might be on the way. She picked up her pace, more so to keep warm than to catch up with Ben.
“When are your babies going to be born?” Ben asked as she met up with him on the path. There was an upper path leading to the top of the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, but they’d taken the lower path leading directly to the lakeshore. Climbing the upper path in her current condition had been too daunting.
“Not for another eight weeks,” she told him, smoothing her hand down over her stomach. At least she hoped she wouldn’t have them too early. With twins, nothing was certain. Not only was she facing the fact she was pregnant with twins, but that she’d need to raise them alone, since their father, an emergency department physician named Jadon Reichert, had vanished in a disappearing act over four months ago.
She’d tried to call him, to let him know she was pregnant, but after the first couple of messages his cell phone had announced the number was out of service. According to Seth, Jadon was on an extended personal leave of absence from Cedar Bluff Hospital. In her opinion, a personal leave of absence was nothing more than a euphemism for gone and never coming back.
Which meant she was on her own. Exactly how she would manage to raise two kids alone was something she hadn’t quite figured out yet. But, no matter what, she was determined to succeed in providing her babies with a secure, loving home.
“Mom says you’re gonna need our help when the babies are born,” Ben said, skipping up the path. He picked up a large stick and poked it into the snow.
She was going to need help all right. And lots of it. Luckily the close-knit, family-like atmosphere of Cedar Bluff, the town and the hospital where she worked as an ED/trauma nurse, meant she was surrounded by friends. People like Kylie and Seth had already offered their support.
Alyssa knew she wasn’t alone. Not really. But having friends who were willing to chip in and help wasn’t exactly the same as having a full-time father for her babies.
Wishing for the impossible was a waste of time, so she quickly pushed thoughts of Jadon aside. She’d gone into the affair knowing it wasn’t going to last, so it was her own fault if her heart had gotten bruised when he’d left. If he didn’t want to be a part of her life, fine. Her focus needed to be on taking care of herself and the babies.
Besides, her favorite holiday of all, Christmas, was only a few weeks away.
The path opened into a small clearing near the lakefront. Ben dashed forward, heading straight for the rocky shore.
“Don’t go near the water,” she warned.
“I won’t,” he hollered over his shoulder.
She told herself not to worry