Love All – Excerpt
Hi Friends,
I won’t make you wait around. I know what you’re all waiting for, so without further ado, the winner of last weeks’ drawing for a free autographed copy of Love All , is Stacy!
But fear not, I am so excited about the release of my thirteenth romance novel, and I wanted to give all of you a little something, so I’m going to share with you an excerpt of the entire first scene from Love All .
Prologue
“Sadie, you can’t do this all by yourself.” Tad echoed the refrain of her parents, her brother, and every one of their friends. The only difference was, he held a golden ring between his trembling fingers. “I enlisted. I’m going to have insurance and housing and a steady paycheck. I’ll be able to take care of you both.”
Both.
She glanced down, surveying the face so small it was nearly lost in the sea of pink swaddling blankets and the oversized hospital gown obscuring her own features. The two of them were a unit, a package deal, tethered together now every bit as much as they’d been when connected by a cord. She didn’t need him to tell her. She felt the tie tugging at her core the same way she’d felt every kick, every shift, every hiccup.
“A baby needs a dad.” He pressed, the anguish making his voice raw.
“She’s got a dad.” She cupped one hand gently around his cheek, marveling at the contrast of her dark skin stark against the paleness of his.
Black and white. That’s how he saw the world. Right and wrong. So clear-cut. He would make a good soldier. His righteousness would give him strength, but so would hers. She held the sleeping baby closer in the crook of her arm, noticing for the first time that her eyes were the same shape as his. Would they hold her color? Retain the proud bridge of her nose? The little dimple of her chin mirrored his, but the shape of her tiny mouth clearly came from Sadie. She inspected the strangely familiar face, then looked back up at his, unable to tell which of them seemed more vulnerable in that moment. “I’m glad you’re her father, but I don’t want a husband.”
A little muscle in his jaw twitched under her fingers. “You don’t want a husband, or you don’t want me for a husband?”
She sighed softly. That was the question on which all their futures hung. She could add it to the long list of ones she couldn’t answer. “Tad, I don’t know how to explain, much less make anyone understand, but I have to do this on my own.”
“You’re sixteen.” Emotion cracked in his voice.
“I’m almost seventeen.”
“You haven’t finished high school.”
“I will.” “You don’t have a job.”
“I’ll find one,” she said matter-of-factly, partly because this wasn’t the first time she’d had this conversation, and partly because each time she said the words, her certainty grew.
“And who’s going to take care of her?” He nodded toward the sleeping infant, his smooth face contorted with a worry so discordant with her youthful features. “You can’t be everything she needs.”
She let her hand fall from his cheek as the final break between them was cemented. “I will be.”
He rose, tears shimmering over the cobalt eyes she’d been so drawn to so many months ago. She’d never seen eyes like his, not on anyone who’d ever looked at her the way he had.
“I’m trying to do the right thing, Sadie.”
“So am I,” she said resolutely.
He stared down at them for a long, heavy moment before bending to place the lightest of kisses across the baby’s smooth brow, but he made no attempt to repeat the gesture with her. She could feel the grief radiate off of him in waves with each exhale, but she managed to feel only relief as he straightened.
“I left my enlistment details with your mom. I’ll send my address as soon as I get to basic training in case you change your mind.” He sighed. “Or maybe if you want to send me pictures at least.”
She nodded. “Be safe.”
A strangled sound escaped his throat. “You too.”
She didn’t want him to go, but she didn’t want him to stay either. She didn’t feel anything at all from his absence, except maybe a hint of finality. Perhaps she should’ve felt scared, but she couldn’t summon any fear. Did that make her unrealistic? With all the doctors and nurses and social workers gone, had he been the only sensible one left in the room? When it came to her prospects as an unwed teenage mother, everyone she knew agreed with his assessment of her fitness.
Everyone but her.
She lifted her sleeping daughter to her chest, gently easing back the blanket to drop a kiss atop the wispy black curls. The scent of baby shampoo and fresh powder overtook the antiseptic tinge of the hospital air, and peace settled through her aching body. She didn’t know why she couldn’t share everyone else’s concern. She didn’t have answers to all their questions, but she knew with the same certainty she had had since the moment she’d first felt life growing inside her that she would find a way. This was her life, her child, her destiny.
“Destiny,” she whispered, and the baby’s eyes fluttered open, so big and round and beautifully full of awe. A smile built in Sadie’s chest and spread slowly until it stretched her cheeks.
“Do you like that?” she cooed softly.
The little girl blinked up at her, then furrowed her brow as if trying to focus on something complex.
“I think you do,” Sadie continued. “I think it’s going to stick.”
Sadie cradled the baby’s head in the palm of her hand and stared into the wonderment reflected there. “Everything’s going to work out. I don’t know how yet, but I know it will. You’re just going to have to trust me on that, because I’m your mama, and you are my Destiny.”
The baby blinked, and Sadie grinned. “Just me and you, kid. From here on out, everything I do, it’s going to be for you.”
And there you have it! The prologue to Love All . If you want to see how we get from there to the wide world of professional tennis, you’ll have to go to http://www.bywater.com and get your own copy of Love All in print or eBook.
