Beccaâs voice cracked. âIâd just gotten used to the idea of one child. And now there are two babies. The rules keep changing on me here. Or should I say the reality keeps changing. And multiplying.â
Nick smiled at her. The smile reached his eyes, making them crinkle at the edges. Ooh, those incredible hypnotizing brown eyes that looked darker and more soulful than ever right now.
âObviously Iâm no expert, but I hear change is par for the course with children. Just when you think you have it all figured out, everything changes.â
He shrugged.
âFor someone who claims to know nothing about children, you sound pretty wise. But are you sure youâre ready to do this?â
What a dumb question. They didnât really have any choice now. Or at least she didnât. She was still bracing herself, preparing for the moment that he changed his mind. And if learning that there was not one but two babies didnât send him running ⦠She couldnât quite let down her guard and let herself go there yet.
* * *
Celebrations Inc.: Letâs get this party started!
Chapter One
Becca Flannigan wasnât a gambler. For as far back as she could remember, she usually leaned toward the tried and true. Sheâd choose dependable, low-risk options over games of chance any day.
Thatâs why it was particularly baffling when she discovered peace and the meaning of unconditional love with the simple flip of a coin.
Figuratively, of course. But sheâd heard it said when youâre uncertain about something, you should flip a coin. Even before the result turns up, youâll know what you want.
It was true.
The trip to Celebration Memorial Hospitalâs emergency room had been Becca Flanniganâs bright, shiny quarter spinning in the air.
As she lay on the emergency room bed, one hand curled into the sheet and the other splayed protectively over her belly, she knew exactly what she wanted: she wantedâno, she neededâher unborn baby to be safe and healthy and unharmed by the bout of food poisoning that had landed her here in the hospital.
So, this was unconditional love, Becca thought as she tried to make sense of the foreign emotions that had commandeered her heart.
Sheâd never known a conviction like the one that had rooted itself deep in her soul; a certainty that she would die for the little being growing inside of her. But in this case, she couldnât die, because now there was something so much more important than herself to live for.
A few hours ago, the stabbing pain from the food poisoning had been so bad that death might have seemed preferable. But the terrifying realization that being this sick might cause her to lose the baby transcended the discomfort and became all consuming.
At barely three months pregnant, she hadnât been sure how she felt about her situation. Single and alone, sheâd called it a predicament, a dilemma, a mess, a pickleâa gamble sheâd taken and lost. Sheâd called it all those things, but she hadnât called it love until sheâd faced the very real possibility of losing her child.
Here, under the harsh lights of the ER, something had cracked open inside her, and her previously muddied feelings had spilled away and everything important had crystallized.
Despite the fact that she didnât know how to find her childâs father. She hadnât told her parents. Kate Thayer, her boss and best friend, was the only one who knew. The only reason Kate knew was because sheâd been there with her in the ER when Becca had told the doctor.
Now the only thing that mattered was that the child growing inside her was safe and healthy.
This child was her everything.
At twelve weeks, she wasnât showing yetâalthough her body had started changing, a subtle transformation, adapting itself for the nine-month journey. She was thicker and her clothes fit snugly. People probably thought sheâd gained weight. Just last week, her mother had made a snide comment about Becca spending too much time with Ben & Jerryâs. Little did she know.
As Becca lay there with IV tubes in her arm and various machines beeping and humming, a restrained orchestration to accompany the chorus of emergency room sounds and voices on the other side of the cubicle curtain, she took back every negative or uncertain thought that had ever crossed her mind about this unplanned pregnancy.