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    newlywed chaos, and had been trying to have a baby for almost two years now.
    Jana had confided that the strain of infertility was wreaking havoc on their relationship. Still,
    Winnie would never have imagined that Eddie would abandon fidelity and betray Jana’s trust
    like that.
    That was one of the benefits to being single, Winnie thought with a sad smile. She never had to
    worry about anyone cheating on her.
    She paused, giving the thought more consideration, then shook her head. If she were ever to win
    Adam’s heart, she knew he’d be faithful. She couldn’t imagine Adam ever saying ‘I do’ and then
    reneging on those vows. It would totally go against his character, completely out of the realm of
    his abilities.
    General Jack McPherson had taught both of his boys that a man was only as good as his word
    and they’d taken the lesson to heart. Don’t say it unless you mean it, don’t commit unless you’re
    prepared to follow through. How many times had she heard those words come out of Adam’s
    mouth? She laughed softly. Too many to count.
    No, the woman who finally landed Adam McPherson would never have to worry about being
    lied to or agonize over when or if he was coming home. Adam was a rock, solid and immovable
    in his beliefs. Whoever eventually ended up with him would have a guy she could genuinely
    depend on.
    If only that it could be her, Winnie thought morosely. If only he’d choose her, then decide to
    stay in Bethel Bay and build a life with her. Make love and babies and institute movie nights,
    hold hands and snuggle on the couch. Unbidden an image of a bronze-haired baby boy with
    heavily-lashed blue-green eyes suddenly materialized in her mind’s eye, startling a soft gasp out
    of her lungs. Her insides twisted with sharp longing and her arms suddenly ached for that child.
    Stop it, Winnie told herself, slamming the door on that line of thinking before it could do more
    damage. Just stop. This baby—their baby—was never meant to be.
    Frankly, Adam had never intimated that he even wanted a family.
    It was career first. Everything
    else was secondary.
    But God, how she wanted that life. How she wanted Adam…and knew that she would always
    want him. He was the disease and the cure, the poison and the antidote. Changing how she felt
    about him was out of the question. She’d tried many, many times over the years, but the end
    result was always the same.
    She was incapable of not loving him…and therefore incapable of doing anything that would
    result in his overall unhappiness.
    That didn’t mean she didn’t occasionally want to throttle him, Winnie thought, smiling. She did.
    And the urge to give him a swift kick when the blockhead did something stupid was almost
    impossible to suppress. Like staying in bed for two weeks. Idiot.
    He knew better. How was he
    supposed to rejoin his Special Forces team if he didn’t rebuild his strength?
    Honestly, if he lost his career, Winnie wasn’t altogether sure how he would cope. He might fall
    further into a depression, but Winnie knew that would be just the tip of the iceberg. She winced.
    In losing his career, he’d lose himself.
    And she’d rather let him go again than let that happen.
    Natalie thought she was crazy, of course, and wanted her to take the “seize the moment” advice
    she’d once given Natalie. But despite all the bravado, Winnie knew she couldn’t do it.
    In the first place, she lacked the nerve, sad but true. And in the second…she couldn’t risk the
    rejection. Somehow it was easier to pine away for him without making a play than to share her
    feelings and have them rejected. She shook her head. After all, she still had some hope in this sad
    little scenario that a rebuff would completely obliterate. She’d rather live alone with the hope
    than alone without it. This morning, she’d accused Adam of being a coward, but in truth she was
    the one who was afraid.
    She hated that, of course. In many ways, Winnie was a