CHAPTER ONE

      “IS THIS the Rawlins’s residence?”

      Cal Rawlins looped the bath towel around his neck, ready to put down the receiver in case it was a telemarketer. Seven-thirty in the morning was a little early to start listening to their unsolicited spiel.

      If making love to his beautiful wife hadn’t put him in such a good mood before he’d reluctantly let her out of bed on this beautiful June morning, he might have said he wasn’t interested and then hung up.

      “Yes, it is.”

      “This is the Bonneville Regional Hospital emergency room calling. Please don’t be alarmed. The situation is not life threatening, but we have a Diana Rawlins here. Except for being disoriented from a fall, she appears to be all right. An initial examination reveals that the baby is jaundiced, but unharmed. A staff pediatrician has taken charge of his care. If you could come over—”

      The mention of a baby filled Cal with unmitigated relief. “My wife’s at work and we don’t have any children.” Not yet anyway. “I’m afraid you have the wrong Rawlins. Sorry.”

      He clicked off the phone and went back to the bathroom to finish shaving. His thoughts turned to their childless marriage, the only cloud threatening their happiness because she wanted to give him a baby so badly.

      In the four years since their wedding, Diana had suffered three miscarriages, generally losing them at eight weeks. The last one had been devastating to both of them because she’d lost it after carrying it almost four months. A long enough time for them to decorate a nursery.

      It had been a boy. They would have called him Tyler, after her grandfather.

      When in future she conceived again, she would have to take it very easy and the doctor would perform a surgical procedure on the uterus to prevent the same problem from recurring. But so far, Diana hadn’t conceived and she was frantic that she might never have a child.

      Their obstetrician suggested that she was trying too hard, that she needed to relax and give her body a chance to rest before they tried to get pregnant again. Cal recognized the wisdom of the doctor’s sound advice, but getting Diana to take it was a different story.

      Cal had brought up the idea of adoption, but she’d adamantly refused to entertain it as a viable alternative. Still, he’d discussed the problem with Roman Lufka. Cal’s best friend and Diana’s boss at the LFK Associates International.

      Both Roman and Cal agreed that if a baby were suddenly to become available, she might reconsider adoption. Oftentimes after obtaining a first child through legal means, a woman unexpectedly conceived. If time proved that Diana couldn’t carry a baby full term, then the adoption idea was worth pursuing. Roman had his sources and said he would look into them.

      Naturally Cal would have loved a baby of his own body and hers, but if that wasn’t possible, then he welcomed the idea of adoption. Diana’s happiness meant more to him than anything else. They had an exceptional marriage. He would do whatever it took to preserve the great love they shared. She was his life!

      While Cal finished getting dressed for work, he decided to call his friend and suggest that they get together for lunch later in the day. Maybe Roman had new information on the subject.

      His hand no sooner reached for the phone to call Roman than it rang again. When he picked up the receiver and said hello, he learned it was the hospital disturbing him for the second time. His brows formed a dark frown line.

      “Mr. Rawlins? You do live at 18 Haxton Place here in Salt Lake?”

      “Yes? But as I told you before, we don’t have a baby.”

      “Nevertheless this woman says she’s the baby’s mother. We checked her driver’s license. The address is listed as 18 Haxton Place, the same as yours.” An odd chill passed through his body. “She’s five feet six inches, long blond hair, green eyes, one hundred and twenty-four pounds.”

      Tightening his grip on the receiver he said, “That’s my wife. Would it be possible to speak to her?”

      “Not right now. As I told you a few minutes ago, the fall dazed her.”

      When did she fall? Where?

      “I’ll be right there.”

      Feeling like he’d been kicked in the gut, he raced out of the house. Disobeying the speed limit, he drove his Saab to the hospital in record time.

      He swallowed hard when he spotted her white Buick parked halfway up the block. Its presence confirmed that she had indeed driven to the hospital earlier that morning. She’d only been gone from the house a little more than an hour.

      What in the hell had happened in that amount of time?