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Prologue

W ho would have thought that a baby—cute and gurgly when hislittle devil? Victoria Sutton sank down onto the couch in the living roo baby in the traveling cot eary disbelief

Dylan looked utterly angelic as stubby eyelashes rested in dusky crescents against chubby baby cheeks and his ently up and down

Oh, for a shot of caffeine

Strong, hot Starbucks coffee Hard to believe the whole weekend had passed without finding tih herself silly tomorrohen Victoria recounted the events of the past two days

Had it only been two days?

Propping her elbows on her knees, Victoria rested her chin in her palroaned Two days, but also two prettywhich Dylan had turned her noranized life upside down Heavens, it seemed like she hadn’t drawn a breath since her best friend Suzy had gabbled her last bits of advice on Friday evening as Michael had tugged his wife out the front door, eager to get away for a brief ro anniversary

Never again would she iine that babies slept all the time!

Lifting her head from her cupped pal room and took in the chaotic disarray of toys, diapers and other baby paraphernalia Another groan escaped She knew her bedrooet the mess packed up before Dylan’s parents arrived to collect him

Victoria glanced ruefully at the apple puree smears on the winter-white fabric of the couch And that stain on the carpet hadn’t been there before Friday, either What had possessed her to feed Dylan in the all-white living roo over the past two days?

Toet the marks cleaned

Tomorrow Oh, heavens Victoria’s hands shot to her mouth in dismay

The weekly Monday-…

Good grief, she hadn’t done any preparation She thought wildly of how she’d delusionally planned to hile Dylan napped over the weekend

A glance at the wall clock showed her it was still early Michael and Suzy would be here within the next two hours to pick up Dylan The whole evening lay ahead