The Baby Wait

The Baby Wait
Cynthia Reese

Nothing will stand in her way…Sarah Tennyson has it all planned. In two months she' ll travel to China to adopt the beautiful baby girl she' s always wanted. Even after a mountain of setbacks, she has the faith that one day she' ll hold her daughter. But that' s before the man she loves starts to doubt….Joe is Mr. Fix-It. The only thing he can' t do is get Sarah her baby. Now, after all the disappointment they' ve faced, he' s begun to wonder if their little family was really meant to be.Sarah can' t give up her dream, but what if waiting for her baby means losing Joe?SUDDENLY A PARENTLife will never be the same.

“You’ve never had any faith in this, have you, Joe? So why’d you go along with it?”

“Because. You. Want. A. Baby. The one damn thing I can’t build for you with my own two hands. If I could, I’d go turn one out on a lathe for you right this very minute. I can’t buy a baby. I can’t borrow it. I can’t make it. Do you know how that makes me feel? To see you crying and to know that I can’t fix it? Me? The guy who goes in behind crappy contractors and cleans up their messes for half the price?”

“We’re fixing it!” Hearing Joe say the things I’d suspected he’d been thinking ripped into me like a chain saw. “If you’ll just believe…”

Dear Reader,

Every year hundreds of babies from China find loving homes in the U.S. Each one of those stories has a happy ending where baby and parent are united at last. One of those happy endings is my own—my husband and I brought our daughter Kate home from China in 2002, when she was just eight months old.

Our wait, though long, was nothing like Sara and Joe’s, and my childhood was nothing like Sara’s. But I kept thinking, what if? What if something had happened? What sort of woman would hang on? Why? What would her husband, hiding his own broken heart, do?

I thoroughly enjoyed creating all the characters who people Joe and Sara’s world. Dublin, Georgia, is real—though I’ve taken small liberties with south Georgia geography and created the town of Campbell—which doesn’t exist. Also, for dramatic reasons I chose a shorter initial Wait; the current wait, which fluctuates, is now about a year. Joe and Sara’s story isn’t my story—it’s theirs…and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

If you’re interested in adopting from China, see links from my Web site, www.cynthiareese.net, which will point you in the right direction. I look forward to hearing from readers!

Cynthia Reese

The Baby Wait

Cynthia Reese

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

For Kate,

My sweetie-pie, my miracle baby, the gift

God gave me…I love you!

This book would not exist without the help of

so many people: my editor, Laura Shin, who took

a chance on me, and other Harlequin editors—

Jennifer Green, who listened to me stammer

out this idea, and Ann Leslie Tuttle, who called

it the book of my heart. Thanks, too, go to

my agent, Miriam Kriss; to my critique partners:

Cindy Miles, Steph B., Tawna Fenske, Nelsa, R,

and Babette D.; to my husband, who thinks

I’m welded to my laptop; to Tessa Hill for an

inside look at how adoption agencies work

(any errors are my own); to my sister and

my mom for believing in me; to the 2005 BIAYers

and to the entire staff at Bellevue Avenue Post

Office—thanks for getting my work to my editors

on time, every time!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cynthia Reese lives with her husband and their daughter in south Georgia, along with two dogs, three cats and however many strays show up for morning muster on their back deck. She has been scribbling since she was knee-high to a grasshopper and reading even before that. A former journalist, teacher and English professor, she also enjoys cooking, traveling and photography when she gets the chance. The Baby Wait is her first book.

An invisible red thread connects those who are

destined to meet, regardless of time, place or

circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle,

but will never break.

—An ancient Chinese belief

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE