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      This book is dedicated to Pat Rosen—for all those wonderful reviews, but especially for being my friend.

       Chapter One

      Chloe Patterson couldn’t stop smiling as she put the finishing touches on her makeup. She kept thinking she should pinch herself, make sure everything that had happened to her in the past six months wasn’t a dream. First her engagement to Todd Hopewell, one of the most sought-after bachelors in Riverton, New York, then the incredible news she had confirmed only this week.

      But neither was a dream. The magnificent two-carat sparkler on the ring finger of her left hand was certainly very real. Moving her hand closer to the rays of late afternoon sunlight streaming through her bedroom window, she watched, mesmerized, as the jewel-like colors burst into the air.

      Oh, she was so excited and happy! Life was going so well, so incredibly well. There was so much to look forward to. From now on, there would only be light in her life. The dark days were all in the distant past, and they could no longer affect her.

      Shivering with anticipation at the thought of seeing her fiancé again, she spritzed herself with the light fragrance she favored, then rummaged in her jewelry box for her favorite gold hoop earrings.

      Almost a month was too long for her and Todd to be apart, she thought yet again, especially when their wedding day was less than six weeks away. She knew he must feel the same way. Just because he’d seemed a little distant lately and hadn’t called or texted much since he’d been in California didn’t mean a thing.

      He wasn’t neglecting her. It was just that he was so busy. She knew how important the assignment in San Francisco was to him. To them and their future. He’d explained that he needed to prove something to his family—that this was the first time he’d been entrusted with an existing project and potential future business this important to the company. That the harder he worked, the sooner he could come home. And now … in just a few short minutes he would be there.

       Back to me.

      Back to us.

      Gently, she touched her stomach—still flat, still concealing her delicious secret. Of course, she was only about a month along—she figured she’d conceived the night before Todd left for the coast—and it was way too soon to be showing. In fact, she hadn’t even seen a doctor yet, but she’d used two pregnancy tests. And both were positive.

      Besides, her breasts were tender, and she’d even felt a bit nauseous once or twice. She was definitely pregnant. For the past couple of days—ever since she’d confirmed to herself that she was going to have a baby—she’d almost been afraid to be too happy. It was hard not to, though. She’d wanted a baby since she was old enough to think about such things. She still found it hard to believe that all her dreams would soon come true—that she’d have a husband and a child—a family and a home all her own.

      Would Todd be as happy about the baby as she was? She hoped he wouldn’t think it was too soon. After all, she was almost thirty, and he was thirty-two. They were hardly children. Surely he would be happy.

      Biting her lip, she wondered what his mother would say when she realized Chloe was pregnant. At the thought of the coolly elegant Larissa Lenore Hopewell and that assessing way she had of looking at Chloe as if she didn’t quite measure up to the Hopewell standards, some of Chloe’s happiness faded.

      What was it about Todd’s mother that was so intimidating? Why was it that Chloe, who was so confident in her professional life, who had been independent and pretty much self-supporting since she was eighteen, could be reduced to a babbling idiot by one of Larissa’s just-short-of-openly-critical comments?

      “Oh, stop thinking about her,” she muttered to herself. Still, she couldn’t help but remember how Todd had never once contradicted her when she said she didn’t think his mother liked her. Then again, Todd never contradicted anything his mother said, did he?

      Chloe pushed aside the disloyal thought. Of course he was solicitous of his mother and her opinions. They were important to him and his future—their future—which was so closely aligned with his family. Things would be different when they were married. She would just have to be patient with him, that’s all.

      Still, it was important what Larissa Hopewell thought. Every woman wanted her future mother-in-law to approve of her. After all, Todd’s mother would be their child’s grandmother—the only grandmother he or she would have, since Chloe’s mother was long gone. Most important, this baby would be the first Hopewell grandchild because neither of Todd’s two older brothers had children yet. Surely … surely that would be important to Larissa.

      Chloe sighed. She would just have to work harder to win Todd’s mother over. The thought had barely formed when the doorbell rang.

      Chloe’s heart skidded. Todd!

      Rushing from the bedroom, she hurried down the stairs and across the entryway. She nearly tripped on the stack of boxes leaning against the wall—boxes she’d been meaning to begin using to pack up her belongings for the move to Todd’s place. “Todd!” she cried, flinging open the front door of the rented townhome.

      But it wasn’t Todd.