Baby Makes a Match

Baby Makes a Match
Arlene James

Stranded at a truck stop alone and in trouble, pregnant Bethany Carter desperately needs a ride to Buffalo Creek. Then along comes Chandler Chatam, a cowboy with a bad-boy smile and a heart of gold.But when they get to Chatam House, Chandler's three maiden aunts assume he's the father! Chandler's honored to care for Bethany and her unborn child. Problem is, the more time he spends with sweet Bethany, the more he wishes he truly were the father–and her husband. What's a rodeo cowboy to do but lasso the lady into his arms?

“What are you doing up at this hour?”

Bethany looked around to find Chandler standing in the doorway, his boots in his hand. Her heart racing, she gasped. “You frightened me.”

“Sorry.” He walked across the floor in his stocking feet. “You didn’t answer my question. Why aren’t you asleep?”

She shrugged. “Just feeling kind of weird, I guess.”

Frowning, he lifted a hand to her forehead. “Maybe you’re coming down with something.”

“I’m fine.” She reached up to remove his hand from her brow. The baby suddenly moved. Bethany instinctively placed Chandler’s hand on her abdomen. “I’m not the only one who can’t sleep.”

He stared at her belly as it rippled, little hillocks appearing here and there, only to smooth out again as the baby moved. Finally the baby subsided into stillness, and Chandler looked up at her with awe in his cinnamon eyes.

“Amazing,” Chandler whispered.

Their gazes held for several moments before he abruptly snatched his hand away.

If only, she thought, if only this was a true marriage.

ARLENE JAMES

says, “Camp meetings, mission work and church attendance permeate my Oklahoma childhood memories. It was a golden time, which sustains me yet. However, only as a young widowed mother did I truly begin growing in my personal relationship with the Lord. Through adversity, He has blessed me in countless ways, one of which is a second marriage so loving and romantic it still feels like courtship!”

The author of more than seventy novels, Arlene James now resides outside Dallas, Texas, with her beloved husband. Her need to write is greater than ever, a fact that frankly amazes her, as she’s been at it since the eighth grade. She loves to hear from readers, and can be reached via her Web site at www.arlenejames.com.

Baby Makes a Match

Arlene James

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.

—John 6:5–6

For Lisa Onvani,

friend, artist, beautiful soul.

Thank you,

DAR

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

Chapter One

“Six hundred dollars?” Bethany gaped at the mechanic. The man was unknown to her, just the first possible help that she had found along the road to Dallas after steam had started pouring out from under the hood of her pathetic little heap. “You’ve got to be kidding. The car wasn’t worth six hundred bucks when I started out in it!”

The hulking fellow wiped grease from his hands with a grimy red cloth. “Can’t argue with that,” he agreed, eyeing the offending vehicle.

“Look, I’m not even going as far as Dallas,” she pleaded, clutching the thin cotton skirt of her empire-style, ankle-length, blue-and-white-flowered sundress, inadvertently pulling the fabric taut across her distended belly. Her slenderness made her look further along in her pregnancy than she actually was, but she didn’t think about that now. “Isn’t there something you can do to get me to Buffalo Creek?”

He scratched his bald head. “Tell you what, I’ll give you three hundred cash for it as is. Maybe I can part it out, get my money back that way.”

“Three hundred?” Bethany repeated in dismay.

Making three hundred dollars beat shelling out six hundred that she did not even have, but how was she to make it to Buffalo Creek if she sold her car? The baby moved, producing an odd fluttering sensation inside her abdomen, as if to say she might as well get on with it. She wasn’t going anywhere in a broken-down car that she couldn’t fix, anyway, so she really had no choice here. That didn’t solve the problem, though. She shook her head, trying to see another way.

The tubby, middle-aged man spread his hands, displaying sweat stains on his coveralls. Bethany didn’t know how he managed to work in this old garage in the stifling July heat.