The Mommy Miracle Read Online Free PDF Page A

well as ones that break legs in three places and put people into comas and necessitate the removal of spleens. Dev and some unknown woman had had acontraceptive “oops” roughly eleven months ago, and here was a baby, and her mom had probably just run to the store for diapers and milk. She and Jodie would meet each other any minute now.
    â€œI can’t take this in,” she blurted.
    â€œI don’t blame you. Jodie, this was all set up for Tuesday. Does your family know you’re here? They couldn’t!”
    â€œOh, my family… Didn’t you just ask me if I felt there was too much family? Well, there is! I said I was going for a walk and I didn’t need company. I just told them around the block, and that if I wasn’t back in forty-five minutes, send a search party. Coming here was an impulse.”
    â€œI’d better call your folks.” He rocked the baby in his arms instinctively.
    â€œIt hasn’t been forty-five minutes.”
    â€œYou’re going to be here for a while.” He’d already picked up the phone and hit speed dial, as if the matter was urgent.
    He has my parents on speed dial, she registered. But she liked his directness, the decisive way he moved. It was reassuring, somehow. Dependable.
    He spoke a moment later. “Hi, Barb?” Barb was Mom. “Just letting you know, Jodie’s here…. Nope, not my idea… No choice, at this point… I can’t argue it now, you have to trust me…. Of course I will… No. Just me. Please… Yep, okay, talk soon.”
    â€œWhat was that about, Dev?” She tried to stand up, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate. The walk had tired her more than she wanted.
    â€œWe’ve both said it. Too much family.”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œFirst, tell me why you came. I mean, what made youthink—? What gave you the idea—?” He broke off and swore beneath his breath. “Just tell me what made you come.”
    His difficulty in finding the right words made her flounder a little, and struggle for words herself. “I wanted to ask you…or to thank you, too, for coming to see me in the hospital those times.”
    â€œJust that?” He sounded cautious, looked watchful, as if waiting for a heck of a lot more.
    â€œWell, and for—I don’t know if I’m even the reason for this, or even part of the reason, but…not going back to New York when you planned.”
    â€œHell, of course I wasn’t going back to New York!”
    She looked at him blankly and he understood something—something that she didn’t understand at all, but she could see the dawn of realization in his face, while her body stopped belonging to her and belonged…somewhere else, to someone else.
    It was a familiar feeling. Just the accident and her slow recovery? Or something more?
    He was muttering under his breath. Curse words, some of them. And coaching. He was coaching himself. He sat down suddenly, in the armchair just across from the couch, with the sling-wrapped baby cradled in his arms, as if his legs had drained of their strength just like Jodie’s had.
    â€œ Pretend I’ve just been in a coma for nearly nine months, Devlin,” she said slowly. “Tell me anything you think I might not know. Pretend my family has a habit of shielding me from the most pointless things. And from the serious things, too. And tell me even the things you think I already do know. What did you mean, set up for Tuesday? What did you mean, no choice at this point? And this might be totally off-topic, but how is there a baby? And where is her mom?”

Chapter Three
    S he doesn’t know. She doesn’t understand.
    The realization kept cycling through Dev’s head, paralyzing him. Hell, he hadn’t wanted it to happen like this! He’d been so scared of the moment, sometimes—scared about what it would mean for his own bond with his baby girl.