Wanted: A Family Read Online Free PDF Page A

hesitated, as if deciding what to say. “Her father insists that she give the baby up.”
    Jake’s stomach tensed. “What would he have her do? Dump it in an orphanage?”
    She sighed. “Either that or put the baby up for adoption far from Peaceful.”
    An urge to tell Elise’s father what kind of a life his grandchild would have in such a place gripped Jake, holding him firmly in its clutches, then tightening like a vise. “Nice and tidy for everyone,” he said in a voice as rough as sandpaper.
    Why was Callie Mitchell getting involved with such ugliness? “If Miss Langley had thought of the consequences, she wouldn’t have gotten involved with a no-account man.”
    Her eyes flashed. “Your censure doesn’t solve anything. What’s done is done.”
    “I’m sorry.” He swallowed against a sudden lump in his throat. “I’m just…angry.”
    “I’m sorry you spent your youth in an orphanage.” Compassion filling her gaze, she reached a hand toward him.
    He’d revealed too much. He took a step back, avoiding her touch. “As you say, what’s done is done.”
    That morning she’d tried to pry into his past, tried to see inside of him. He knew better than to let anyone get close.
    Mrs. Mitchell sighed. “If only Mr. Langley could see that an orphanage isn’t the solution.”
    How many kids had Jake seen tossed into that orphanage from every situation or circumstance imaginable? Few thrived. If he tried to tell Elise’s father anything, he might resent Jake’s interference enough to dig around in his past. Perhaps discover his stint in prison. If word got out, he’d be forced out of town before he had a chance to find the woman who’d given birth to him.
    Avoiding her penetrating gaze, he turned to his task. He’d repair this house, look for his mother and avoid more than conversations about the weather.
    “Oh!” Mrs. Mitchell’s hand darted to her stomach.
    Jake leaped to his feet. “Is something wrong?”
    Like a rosebud opening, her smile unfurled. “Something’s very right,” she said, her tone laden with wonder. “I think my baby just moved for the first time.”
    Of its own volition, Jake’s hand moved toward her middle, hovering inches away. Had his mother reacted likethis when he’d moved inside her? No, if she had experienced Callie Mitchell’s joy, she couldn’t have tossed him out like yesterday’s garbage.
    “In four more months, I’ll have a child.” Her voice trembled with emotion. “A family of my own.”
    Behind the emotion, Jake heard Mrs. Mitchell’s determination to create a family with her and her baby. Family.
    The word conjured up birthday cakes and bedtime stories, kisses on small hurts and hugs after a nightmare. All the things he’d never had. “Not every woman would want to raise a child alone.”
    “I have God and my baby. I’m never alone.”
    Her eyes reflected a faith so bright, so pure, Jake felt filthy in comparison. The idea that he could have such a woman in his life ricocheted through him. He tamped down the ridiculous notion. Callie Mitchell grieved for her husband. He grieved for his past. Not a foundation for second chances.

Chapter Three
    C allie cringed, heat blooming in her cheeks. How could she have shared with Jacob Smith, a man, a stranger, the first movement of her baby? An intimate detail too personal to share with anyone but her doctor, her friends and the baby’s father, but Martin was gone and she hadn’t been able to contain her joy.
    Worse, Mr. Smith appeared as overcome and delighted by the news as a prospective father. This would never do. Her breath caught. Jacob Smith was turning her world upside down.
    Across from her, he took a long drink of water from the fruit jar, his Adam’s apple bobbing with each swallow. His sweat-soaked shirt clung to his torso, a surprisingly broad chest on that sinewy frame.
    Martin had been soft, pudgy. The unkind comparison of her deceased husband to a drifter knotted in Callie’s stomach.