The Baby Connection

The Baby Connection
Dawn Atkins

He's a real game-changer…No better way to kick off her career than a fabulous weekend with a rock-star journalist! When Melody "Mel" Ramirez and Noah Stone part ways after those intense days, she knows nothing will stop her rise to the top as a news photographer.Nothing except a positive pregnancy test. Suddenly, Mel trades chasing breaking news with the routines of a single mom.Then Noah reappears. None of the intensity from that weekend has gone away. If anything, their attraction is stronger, thanks to the son they share. But is Noah ready to downsize his career for a family? As easy as it is for Mel and Noah to be together, being a parent isn't so easy. And if Noah stays, she wants him for good!

Need poured through Noah

He kissed Mel and felt her instant response. She grabbed the back of his neck and yanked him tighter against her. He smiled against her mouth. Mel didn’t do things halfway. Intense. The way it had been two years ago, the two of them connected. Career and ambition had been the bond then. And now? What tied them now?

An accident on both their parts, but a person had resulted. Daniel. And that changed everything.

Suddenly, Mel sat up and straightened her shirt. “I guess that’s the same,” she said.

“Yeah.” He watched her face, a million thoughts in his head.

“But we’re not,” she said, biting her lip.

“No.” He was far from the man he’d been. She was weighed down, too, but in a good way, by the child who was her whole world.

“I wish we could go back,” she said. “I do.” She touched his face, desire sparking in her eyes for a moment. “But we can’t.”

“I guess not.”

“Then go, Noah,” she said softly. “Get on with your life and we’ll get on with ours. Sometimes the right thing to do is to walk away.”

Dear Reader,

This book is dear to my heart. It stars people whose lives seem so distant from my own I don’t know how I got the courage to write their stories. Not to get all mystical on you, but it was as if they grabbed me and wouldn’t let go until I did.

I’ve always had an affinity for Latin culture, which has woven through my life in major ways. But I’m not Latina, so writing Mel threw me at first. Daniel, a baby, wasn’t easy either, since I haven’t dealt with bibs and bottles in, ahem, two decades.

Then there was Noah. Though I’ve been a freelance feature writer, I’ve never been to journalism school, nor have I covered a war, and I know nothing about the army or Iraq. Needless to say, I was somewhat lost when I began this book.

Thankfully, I got expert help from friends who planted me firmly in the unfamiliar soil I wanted to explore. Eerily, many of my instinctive ideas were borne out in what they told me of their lives and work, which gave me chills and made me even more proud of this book.

The story is about making tough choices in life, about living with mistakes that cost lives, about the sacrifices we make for those we love, and about filling life with meaning. It’s about love between mothers and daughters and fathers and sons and more—at least that was my intent. You can tell me if I hit the mark.

I hope this book touches your heart as it did mine, and that it reminds you of your connections with the people you love most.

All my best,

Dawn Atkins

P.S.—Please visit me online at www.dawnatkins.com.

The Baby Connection

Dawn Atkins

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

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning author Dawn Atkins has written more than twenty novels for Harlequin Books. Known for her funny, poignant romance stories, she’s won a Golden Quill Award and has been a several-times RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award finalist. Dawn lives in Arizona with her husband and son.

In memory of Maria Irene Dominguez,

con todo cariño, forever in my heart

Acknowledgments

Heartfelt gratitude to Iraq veteran U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Dodge, Scout Sniper, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, who made the Iraq sequences come alive. (All errors are mine.) Thanks to investigative journalists Eric Miller and Susan Leonard—gracious friends—and the Iraq war correspondents who contributed to Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq, by Bill Katovsky and Timothy Carlson. Mil gracias to Julia Martinez, who shared her life with me so I could more clearly see Mel’s; to Sonya Morillon, who loved my little boy as her own; and to my dear friend Irene Dominguez, who inspired me to create Mel in the first place.

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

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

HIP-CHECKING A PERSISTENT blonde, Mel Ramirez broke through the clot of people to reach the star journalist who had packed half the Arizona State University student body into the auditorium. “Ready to head to the hotel?” she said to him.