Page 1 (1/2)

1

Even though she was listening to Christmas carols on her iPod, Mary Jo Wyse could hear her brothers arguing How could she not? Individually, the three of theether they sounded like an entire football stadium full of fans All three worked as mechanics in the family-owned car repair business and stood well over six feet Their size alone was inti Add to that their voices, and they’d put the fear of God into the most hardened cri He was the oldest and, if possible, loudest of the bunch

"Mary Jo said he’d call her before now," Mel said

Ned, her youngest brother, remained suspiciously quiet He was the sensitive one Translated, that ers for getting his little sister pregnant and then abandoning her

"We’ve got to do soave her pause Mary Jo’s situation was co but meddlesome older brothers However, it wasn’t their fault that she was about to have a baby and the father was nowhere in sight

"I say we find David Rhodes and string hiasped She couldn’t help it Knowing Linc, he’d have no qual exactly that

"I think we should, too--if only we knehere he was," she heard Mel say

Unable to sit still any longer, Mary Jo tore off her earphones and burst out of her bedroo room, where her brothers stood around the Christhts blinked cheerfully Ever since their parents had been killed in a car accident five years earlier, her older brothers had considered theuardians Which was ridiculous, since she was over twenty-one Twenty-three, to be precise She hadn’t been legally of age at the tiet she was now an adult

All four of them still lived in the fa women, but neither relationship seemed very serious Mel had recently broken up with so as she did at her brothers’ attempts to decree how she should live her life

Ads; she couldn’t deny it But she was trying to deal with the consequences, to act like the adult she was Yes, she’dfor an attractive olderwhat came all too naturally And no, she didn’t need her brothers’ assistance

"Would you guys mind your own business," she demanded, hands on her hips At five-three she stared up at her brothers, who towered above her

She probably looked a sight, although at the moment her appearance was the least of her probleown, the one with the Christels on it, her belly stretched out so far it looked like she’d sed a giant snow globe Her long dark hair fell in tangles, and her feet were bare

Linc frowned back at her "You’re our sister and that makes you our business"

"We’re worried about you," Ned said, speaking for the first tionna have that baby any day"

"I don’t know nothin’ about birthing no babies," Mel added in a falsetto voice

If he was trying to add hulared at hi my baby This child is my concern and mine alone"

"No, he isn’t"

Fronancy four o, her brothers had decided the baby was a boy For some reason, the alternative never seeested it

"You’re depriving this baby of his father," Linc said stubbornly It was a lament he’d voiced a hundred tiree," Mary Jo told him "However, I haven’t seen David in weeks"

Mel stepped forward, his disapproval obvious "What about Christmas? Didn’t he tell you he’d be in touch before Christmas?"

"He did" But then David Rhodes had made a lot of pro his family in the area"

"Where?" Ned asked

"Cedar Cove," she supplied and wondered if she should’ve told her three hotheaded brothers that o there and find him," Linc said

Mary Jo held up both hands "Don’t be crazy!"

"Crazy," Linc echoed with a snort of indignation "I refuse to let you have this baby alone"

"I’estured toward them "I have the three of you, don’t I?"

Her brothers went pale before her eyes "You…you want us in the delivery room?" Mel asked in weak tones He sed visibly "You’re joking, right?"