Second Chance Mom

Second Chance Mom
Mary Kate Holder

After his sister's death, Jared Campbell had to get married to keep her adopted children together.Quiet Annie Dawson was a fast favorite of the kids and seemed the perfect choice for an Australian farm wife. Until Jared discovered Annie's shocking secret: the youngest boy was her son. As a teenager, Annie had given up her baby, hoping he would have a better life. Now she had a second chance to be his mother.But when Annie's past was revealed, Jared's own experience with abandonment made it hard for him to accept what Annie had done. Could his wounded heart find healing within his new family?

Annie knew the time had come to tell Jared about her past.

“Adoption saves so many children from never knowing love,” she said, and began gathering the courage that had allowed her to contemplate marrying him. “You’re adopted. You know how well it can work. You’ll be able to help the three children through any transitions they have to make.”

She opened her mouth to tell him the secret only two other people had known, but the dark expression on his face, and the narrowing of his blue eyes, stopped her.

“My life turned out better than I could have hoped when I came to live with the Campbells,” he said, an odd note of emotion gone before she could identify it.

“But I will never understand how a mother—any mother—can give up her child.”

MARY KATE HOLDER

is a transplanted Aussie now living in sunny Florida. She married her husband four years ago after meeting him online in a karaoke chat room. They live with their dog and three cats who laze around the sunroom all day and think the Florida climate is so much better than rural Australia’s temperatures. When she’s not writing, Mary Kate likes to putter around in her garden or go fishing and is slowly learning to do home improvements—but it’s not quite as easy as it looks. She also is now a full-fledged karaoke fiend.

Second Chance Mom

Mary Kate Holder

He gives the childless woman a family,

making her a happy mother.

—Psalms 113:9

To my husband, Tom with love—

thank you for asking me.

This book is dedicated to Pamela Hodder,

Mary Holder and Patricia Dick,

three incredibly strong and loving women

who inspire me every day. They are,

I’m proud to say, the mothers I have

been blessed with in my life.

Thanks to my dear friend Ada, whose kind

and gentle heart is an example to us all.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

Letter to Reader

Chapter One

Annie Dawson sat alone in the crowded restaurant Today could very well change her whole life and bring her back into her little boy’s life. Toby…a child she’d thought she had given up forever.

What was he doing today? She looked out one of the large windows at the glorious sunlight, and blue sky in the distance. Was he outside right now playing with his brother and sister?

There wasn’t anything more pretty, more filled with possibility, than the lazy days of an Australian spring.

“Annie?”

Startled from her thoughts, she looked up at the sound of her name. Deep blue eyes, narrowed and questioning, surveyed her.

“It’s been a long time.” She shook the hand he held out to her. He pulled out a chair and sat down.

Jared Campbell hadn’t changed a lot over the years. His face still wore that serious look. Even as a boy he had seemed far too somber.

The dark suit was perfectly tailored. The shirt seemed even whiter against the bronze of his skin and the dark green tie was a conservative splash of color. From the top of his dark head to the tips of his shined shoes—about six foot four if she didn’t miss her guess—he exuded the confidence of a man in total control of his world.

Clean-shaven, yet there was just a hint of five-o’clock shadow on his lightly tanned face. His hair, a deep brown with gold flecks scattered through it, was cut short on his neck.

She felt helplessly casual in her knee-length khaki skirt and plain white cotton blouse that buttoned down the front.

“I apologize for being late. There was an accident on the motorway and traffic was stopped for miles.”