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"But Paul’s pleased about the baby, isn’t he?"

Jacqueline leaned against the table and nodded "He’s thrilled," she muttered "Or so he says…"

"Then what’s the proble to randmother"

Reese’s eyes narrowed "What did you say to hi terrible now "I couldn’t help it I told hi Ta" She’d assunize his lapse in judge A child made that a whole lot less likely

"You didn’t actually say that to Paul, did you?" Reese sounded furious and that only made Jacqueline more defensive

"I realize I should’ve kept quiet, but really, can you bla used to the fact that our only son eloped with a stranger and then he hits nancy"

"It should be happy news"

"Well, it isn’t"

"It is to our son and Ta," she cried "Why is it every girl from the south has two names? Why can’t we call her Tammie without the Lee?"

"It’s her name, Jacqueline"

"It’s ridiculous"

Reese studied her as if he was really noticing her for the first ti my son" Paul and her close relationship with hiht her little joy Now she’d done so stupid and insulted her son

"Call hiize"

"I intend to," she said

"You could order flowers for Taesture would be for Paul’s sake, not his wife’s

"Why not go to the flower shop on Blosso else, too" She prayed it would be enough She hoped her son realized she was n in theof that new knitting shop I’n says the beginning project is a baby blanket"

Reese so rarely approved of anything she did that the warht not like Tarandmother I can" Someone had to provide the appropriate influences for Paul’s child Otherwise her grandchild h life as Bubba Donovan…

CHAPTER 3

CAROL GIRARD

C arol Girard had never inant could be this difficult Her mother obviously hadn’t had any trouble; Carol and her brother, Rick, were born two years apart

Before they werea fah-powered job with a national brokerage firm, he wanted to be sure she was as interested in a fa to put aside her career for a few years in order to have children The answer had been an unqualified yes Babies were a given with her She’d always pictured herself as awould be a wonderful father and she was deeply, passionately, in love with her husband She wanted to have his children

Heating her lunch in the lanced around the kitchen of her sixteenth-floor condo overlooking Puget Sound She’d quit her job only a o and she already felt restless and ie fir her body to relax, to unwind fro had convinced her that job-related stress was the reason she hadn’t conceived, and her obstetrician conceded that it was possible A barrage of hu had revealed that in addition to her age, thirty-seven, she had to contend with so called ASA or antisperm antibodies