Protecting Her Child Read Online Free PDF Page A

and step ontothe pavement. Hopefully, he wouldn’t see her hiding in the shadows.
    He studied the surrounding area of tall pines, then locked his car and headed for his room.
    Meredith waited ten minutes. The quiet fishing town folded up by nine o’clock this early in spring. The hum of a car engine would announce someone’s arrival along the two-lane road that led to the Lodge. All she heard were waves slapping against the beach.
    Cautiously, she edged around the side of the building and picked her way down a path through the sea oats that led to the beach. Once her shoes sank into the soft sand, she stopped and looked back at the motel. A long common deck area and pool stretched in front of the row of rooms. Most sat empty.
    A light glowed in Pete’s window. She’d left the lamp on, as she’d found it earlier when she’d searched the room, being careful to put everything back in its place. Not that he had brought much with him to Refuge Bay, only a change of clothes and some toilet articles stuck in a zippered case marked with the Magnolia Medical logo.
    A phone call to the lab confirmed that he worked there, although the receptionist had declined to provide any additional information, and Meredithhadn’t left a message when she’d been connected to his voice mail.
    At least she knew that part of his story was true. He worked at Magnolia Medical.
    She glanced once again at the weathered facade of the old Lodge. The sliding-glass door that led to the deck was open, and Pete stood in the doorway. Peering at him from the shadows, Meredith wondered why this man had stumbled into her life, especially so close on the heels of her recent middle-of-the-night encounter with the two guys in the pickup.
    Was Pete just a nice guy trying to right her birth mother’s past wrong? Or was his lab persona a ruse to trick her into letting down her guard?
    Her first priority was her baby. She needed the information Pete promised to provide about a disease that could threaten the fragile life growing within her.
    With a heavy sigh, Meredith pulled her cell from her purse, tapped in the number from Pete’s business card and pushed the green button.
    â€œMeet me on the beach,” she said when he answered her call.
    God willing, in the next few minutes, she’d find out about the mother she’d never known and the disease they both might carry.
    Most important, she would learn if that legacy had been passed on to her child.

FOUR
    P ete’s heart lurched as Meredith emerged from the darkness. Light from the Lodge spilled over the sand and caught her in its path. The wind tugged at her hair. She raised her hand to pull the wayward strands into some type of order, exposing the heavy ring of sadness that surrounded her like a shroud.
    No woman, especially one just a few months short of delivery, should have to carry such a heavy burden, let alone something as palpable as what he saw staring back at him.
    He hopped down from the deck, but continued to keep his distance. Hopefully, she wouldn’t run. He pointed to a row of wooden beach chairs lined up on the sand. “We’ll be able to talk there.”
    She nodded and followed him. He brushed off one of the seats and motioned for her to sit as he hunkered down on the bench directly opposite.
    â€œI called your lab,” she said. “The receptionist confirmed that you work at Magnolia Medical.”
    â€œLooks like you rummaged around in my motel room as well. Do you believe me now?”
    â€œI’m willing to listen to what you have to say.”
    â€œFair enough.” Pete hoped what he said wouldn’t alter the rather tenuous truce they’d just reached. “Your mother’s name is Eve Townsend. She’s a good woman with a big heart. Evidently, she was rather obstinate as a teen and balked against her restrictive parents. There was a boy, a little older than she was. They were in love.” Pete