Spotlight: Not Through Loving You by Patricia Preston
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In the Southern town of Lafayette Falls, a new life brings together a woman with everything to lose and a doctor with everything to prove.
When a sickly infant is surrendered at the Lafayette Falls Medical Center, and orphaned soon after, pediatrician Aaron Kendall arranges to adopt him. After a painful divorce, the busy baby doc is about to realize his own dream of becoming a father when the baby’s beautiful estranged aunt turns up. She doesn't exactly approve of the Kendall bachelor pad, complete with Aaron's cranky dad and wacky brother, forcing Aaron to form a risky alliance with her.
Country singer-songwriter Lia Montgomery barely knew her half-sister, but she's determined her tiny nephew goes to a good home. If only she fit the bill herself, but her stressful life on the road is no place for a baby. Yet despite her misgivings, as she gets to know Aaron, she realizes the smart and sexy doctor is everything a child could want in a dad—and more unsettling, everything she's ever hoped for in a man. After all she's put him through, is it too late to form a family—and maybe put a song in the good doctor's heart?
Excerpt
LOVE IN THE NURSERY
He took a moment to admire her. She wore the pretty white dress she’d worn that night when they’d met in the hotel restaurant and he
had been determined to send her packing. A lot had changed since then. Lucky me, he mused as he took the music box out of her hands.
He placed it on the chest of drawers and restarted the song.
As “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” started to play again, he reached out his hand to her.
“May I have this dance?”
For a moment, it appeared her breath halted before she took his hand.
“Yes. Yes,” she repeated as if she had agreed to more than just a dance. They settled against one another as they waltzed around the nursery in small steps, a couple forward and backward since there was little open space.
“We need a bigger room,” he said as they bumped into the armoire.
“This is fine,” she whispered. She began to softly sing the lyrics to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
He smiled. He loved for her to sing to him, and as she sang about dreams coming true, he glanced at the picture of himself holding
John Aaron. The baby was a dream come true, and so was the woman in his arms. He sensed a shift in her as she slid her hand from his and
roped both of her arms around his neck as they swayed to the music.
“We should call it a night,” he murmured.
He shut off the light in the nursery as they headed across the hall to their bedroom . . .
Lia looked into Aaron Kendall’s irate blue eyes. She hadn’t expected handsome. She had thought he would be older, bald on
top, definitely glasses, reserved with an adoring chubby wife at his side. She had pictured them as a sweet couple who were thrilled by
the prospect of having a son and who would give Candace’s unwanted baby the home he deserved. How could she have been so wrong?
“All right. Tonight.”
She needed time to think through this latest wrinkle in her life.
“I’m staying at the Lansdale Hotel. There’s a small restaurant in the hotel. We can meet there.”
She glanced at his hand that was still on top of hers. He was the kind of guy who was available because that’s the way he wanted it.
Why else would he be single? He was attractive. Tall with the lean, athletic build of a man who was no stranger to physical activity.
The deep crow’s feet on the sides of his eyes revealed that he was in his mid to late thirties. He had a little scar on the side of his chin.
She wondered how he got it. She wondered why his wife had left him, and when she met his gaze, she wondered if he realized they
were close enough to kiss.
“I’ll see you at eight.”
He released her hand and stepped back. The tension rolled off him in waves.
“It would be good if your sister joined us as well.”
“Yes, that would be good,” she said before she slipped inside the Jag. She let down the window.
“Unfortunately, Candace is dead.”
She left Aaron Kendall standing speechless in his driveway. Four days ago, that news had left her speechless, too, when a scruffy girl
named Kelly had shown up on her doorstep with a duffel bag containing Candace’s belongings as well as a box holding her ashes.
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About the Author
Patricia Preston is a Mississippi author who writes witty mainstream historical and contemporary romance as well as humorous short stories. She won the William Faulkner Award for Short Fiction, the Lone Star Writing Competition for Historical Romance, and Harlequin’s World’s Best Romances Short Story Competition. Besides working as a medical office manager, she has also worked as a librarian. She loves the atmosphere of small towns but would love to live in New Orleans or Nashville, her favorite cities. Her other interests include history, cooking, photography, and getting together with friends and family. She is happiest when she is in her writing cave with a glass of sweet iced tea and ideas flowing.
