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Carol found the trio in the baby’s bedrooainst the wall "A Jenny Lind crib," she e For months, every time she was in the JC Penney store she’d looked at the Jenny Lind crib It was priced far beyond anything she could afford, but she hadn’t seen any har past Carol

She hadn’t been able to afford a new crib and had borrowed one fro weekend

"Lindy, I can’t allow you to do this," Carol protested, although her voice vibrated with excitement

"I didn’t" She looked past Carol and pointed to the other side of the bedroom "Go ahead and put the dresser there"

"Dresser!" Carol whirled around to find the sae box "This is way too ," Lindy told her, and her s?"

One delivery man was back, this time with a mattress and several sacks

Rush followed on thea toolbox in his hand "Have screwdriver, will travel," he explained, grinning

"The stroller, high chair and car seat can go over in that corner," Lindy instructed with all the authority of a company foreman

Carol stood in the middle of the bedroom with her hand pressed over her heart She was so overcome she couldn’t speak

"Are you surprised?" Lindy asked, once the delivery men had completed their task

Carol nodded "This isn’t froave me specific instructions on what he wanted ht down to the model and color Before the Atlantis sailed he wrote out a check and listed the items he wanted me to purchase Rush and I had a heyday in that store"

"Steve had you do this?" Carol pressed her lips tightly together and exhaled slowly through her nose in an effort to hold in the emotion She missed hi he’d left, she’d cried until her eyes burned

He probably wouldn’t be back in time for the baby’s birth But even if he was, it really wouldn’t matter because Steve Kyle was such an idiot, he still hadn’t figured out this child was his own

"And while we’re on the subject ofserious, "I think you should knoas the one who bought you the maternity dress and the rattle, too"

"Steve did?"

Lindy nodded "You tere going through a rough period and he didn’t think you’d accept theht theh period," Carol reported sadly

"I wouldn’t say that Steve is so di up the instructions for asse to make sense out of this instead of han, since you’ll be asse another one in a few months"

The screwdriver hit the floor with a loud clink "Lindy," Rush breathed in a burst of excitement "Does this mean what I think it does?"

Steve wrote a journal addressed to Carol every day It was the only thing that kept hiiveness for being so stupid and so blind It was his insecurities and doubts that had kept hi the truth Now that he’d accepted what had always been right before his eyes, he was astonished No ht about Carol and the baby, which was continually, he would go all soft inside and get weak in the knees Steve didn’t knohat his hs to lower lows and back again All the training he’d received paid off because he did his job without pause, but his mind was several thousand miles away in Seattle, with Carol and his baby

His baby

He repeated that phrase several ti the sound of it roll around in hishi tohe did know – thelicense and a chaplain They were getting married

The last day that Carol was scheduled to work, the girls in the office held a baby shower in her honor She was astonished by their generosity and huood friends she had

Because she couldn’t afford anything more than a three-month leave of absence, she was scheduled to return A temporary had been hired to fill her position and Carol had spent the week training her

"The shower surprised you, didn’t it?" Lindy co lot

"I don’t think I realized I had so many friends"

"This baby is special"

Carol flattened her hands over her abdomen "Teeks, Lindy Can you believe in just two short weeks, I’ll be holding my own baby?"

"Steve’s due home around that time"

Carol didn’t dare to hope that Steve could be with her when her tis on the subject were equally divided She wanted him, needed him, but she would rather endure labor alone than have Steve with her, believing she was delivering another man’s child

"He’ll be here," Lindy said with an unshakable confidence

Carol bit into her lower lip and shook her head "No, he won’t Steve Kyle’s got the worst ti of any man I’ve ever known"

Carol let herself into the house and set her purse down She alimpse of herself in the hallway mirror as she walked toward the baby’s bedrooe that flashed back at her