Chapter One

      Becca Flannigan wasn’t a gambler. For as far back as she could remember, she usually leaned toward the tried and true. She’d choose dependable, low-risk options over games of chance any day.

      That’s 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 she’d heard it said when you’re uncertain about something, you should flip a coin. Even before the result turns up, you’ll know what you want.

      It was true.

      The trip to Celebration Memorial Hospital’s emergency room had been Becca Flannigan’s 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 wanted—no, she needed—her 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.

      She’d 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 couldn’t 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