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She sat propped up aht blond hair was pulled deftly to one side, where it cascaded over her shoulder like a length of moon-spun silk and puddled on the red and white quilt

She didn't look up ih What wasn't normal hy she didn't look up It wasn't the usual calculated snub

She appeared, quite simply, to be too captivated by the baby in her araze away

But that couldn't be She'd never bothered to look twice at her other children Why would she start now? He eyed her suspiciously, wondering what new ga

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She looked up all of a sudden and smiled at him Smiled

"God, he's so tiny, isn't he?"

Jack stared at her inon here?

"Come see your son," she said in a quiet, almost hesitant voice

The butter-soft tone of her voice hit him hard in the midsection It had been years since he'd heard her voice without the brittle edge of conte back in time to the early years, when they'd been so desperately in love God, how he'd loved her

He forced the tiredthe tray down on the table beside the bed, he said, "I brought you so to eat"

She patted the bed beside her "Sit"

He stared at the indentation left by her hand in the thick coh his body The desire to sit beside her was like a dull ache in his soul

But he knew better The years had given hi his weakness and his need for love against hier than he Of that, there had never been a doubt And these gaet back at hi her drea her into a poor, cowardly sheep rancher's wife