âI know you feel like itâs your baby, Greg. But the truth isââ
âNo.â His interruption was harsh, like a slap intended to wake her up. âThe truth is, I am this babyâs father, not Chad.â
She swallowed and put her spoon down with a shaky hand.
âI love you, Greg, and I know what you are trying to do.â She tried again in a low voice. âAnd that is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. But you know very well where this baby comes from. And you know very well that this is not your baby. We donât have to pretend otherwise. Weâre both grown-ups here.â
âYouâre not hearing me.â He swiveled his chair toward her, with his legs spread wide, forming a V around the chair where she sat. He grabbed her hands, and the seriousness in his deep gray eyes scared her. âThis is my baby.â
Dear Reader,
You are holding in your hands the first book in an exciting new series set inside the Enchanted Circle north of Taos, New Mexico.
When I first visited that remote setting, I had to agree with Francis X. Aubry, an early explorer on the Santa Fe Trial in the 1850s: âThere is something in the air of New Mexico that makes the blood red, the heart beat high and the eyesâ¦look upward. Folks donât come here to dieâthey come here to live, and they get what they come for.â
Greg Glazier and Ashleigh Logan have both fled to New Mexico for the sake of a new lifeâliterally. As they struggle to protect the unborn baby they both cherish so dearly, they find an unexpected gift along the way: each other. True love between a man and a woman is as mysterious as the Enchanted Circle itself. And as you will see in this story, its power cannot be denied.
I joked with my editor that creating this series felt a bit like a long gestation that led to the birth of a beautiful baby. Or rather, six beautiful babies. Writing this series with six other wonderful authors was a blast. I thank each of them for their creativity, insights and most of all, friendship. Each of the books in THE BIRTH PLACE series stands alone, of course, but I think once you visit Enchantment, you will be drawn there again and again.
So join me now in the enchanting world of THE BIRTH PLACE.
My best to you,
Darlene Graham
I treasure your letters! Contact me at P.O. Box 720224, Norman, OK 73070. And visit my Web site at www.superauthors.com/Graham.
For Devyn, who endured so much to give us the precious gift of Ava Rose.
And for Damon, the most devoted and protective Daddy I have ever seen.
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE NAME OF THE PLACE, Enchantment, struck Greg Glazier as slightly ironic. After all, hadnât he driven to this remote town as if under some kind of spell, chasing the illusion that he was going to find and bond with the woman carrying his babyâa baby that was nothing more, at this point, than an enchanting fantasy?
And what about the woman? What was she to him? A cutesy television personality? A pretty face on the screen? Another illusion.
On her weekly TV show, Ashleigh Logan came across as intelligent and charming, but God only knew what she would be like in person.
The town lay in the valley ahead like a scene from a picture postcard. From his vantage point on the winding highway, Greg could see a desert vista to the south, grassy ranchland to the east, and to the north and west, the vast aspen-rimmed pine forests that rose to the mystical snow-capped peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Greg might have attributed the breathless sensation in his chest to the stunning view if he hadnât known it was actually altitude sickness, mixed with a walloping dose of anxiety and fatigue. Battling a killer headache and an unslakble thirst, he took a deep pull on his water bottle, then gritted his teeth as he steered his Lincoln Navigator around another curve as the highway snaked into the valley ahead.
He should have had more sense than to travel over the mountains straight off the eastern Colorado ranching plains. Heâd lived in the shadow of the Rockies all of his life, but every time he went up into the thinner air, as soon as he ascended those steep, winding roads, he got sick.
But he didnât have time to lay low now. Ashleigh Logan already had a two-day head start on him.
When Gregâs efforts to contact Ashleigh at the TV station and then at her home failed, heâd tried her sisterâs house, but the woman had acted spooked when she answered the door.
âMs. Miller?â he inquired while she peered at him with the privacy chain still fastened. âIâm sorry to bother you, but Iâm looking for your sister. Ashleigh Logan?â
The one eye he could see grew wide with surpriseâ¦or was it fear? âWait hereâ was all the sister said. Then she slammed the door.