Marine's Baby (Harlequin Super Romance Series #1478)

Caitlin sank to the cool tile floor of her tiny apartment bathroom, waiting for the nausea to subside. The crackers she kept on her nightstand helped some, but then she had to put up with crumbs in her bed.Crumbs were a poor substitute for a warm body.Her decision to stay in California had been rash, but not one she regretted, even though turning the moving van around had created a logistical nightmare. She'd had to find a place fast. Store everything from the three-bedroom row house that didn't fit into her new one-bedroom apartment. And redirect Luke's and her mail to the new address. Not to mention how disappointed her father had been when she'd cashed in her ticket and told him she wouldn't be coming home. She might not belong in this state anymore, but Coronado was where she'd buried her heart. And California was where she'd chosen to stay.She had a meeting "of a serious nature" with CryoBank director Carol Livingston at eleven, followed by lunch with "the wives" at noon. And here she could barely pull herself together long enough to get dressed.She stretched Luke's T-shirt across her legs, resting her forehead against her raised knees. The Navy had come knocking 184 days and seven hours ago.His scent had faded. So had her memories. Now whenever she wanted to picture his face she had to look at an actual picture of him."I'm not ready." Not ready to let him go? Or not ready to go it alone?Pregnancy was not the joyous event she'd imagined it to be. Not when Luke wasn't here to share it with her. She felt more alone than she ever would have thought possible. And more afraid. She had yet to tell her friends.They weren't even her friends anymore, not really. But she had to tell somebody before she burst at the seams, literally. She needed them to feel happy for her, since she couldn't quite allow herself those feelings yet.And what if they weren't happy for her?What if, like her father, they thought she'd rushed into things? He wanted her home. But she wanted to at least try to make it on her own first. Before the wedding, he'd been critical of her marrying so young and of her moving so far away--but he'd come around after meeting Luke.And he'd come around about the baby. But her mother-inlaw? Caitlin was a mess just thinking about it.No, her mother-in-law was a mess.Since the death of her only child, Nora Jean loved Caitlin one minute and hated her the next. Scratch that. The woman had always hated her and no longer bothered to keep up the pretense. No woman, except maybe one she'd handpicked, would ever have been good enough for her Little Luke. The woman had had much higher political aspirations for her son's naval career. Which was why she'd told everyone Caitlin was from "old money" when she wasn't.Nora Jean had gone ballistic when she'd learned Caitlin was the beneficiary of his stored semen. No telling how she'd react to the news that Caitlin had actually put those sperm to good use. The woman had tried to exert control over Caitlin's every decision since Luke's death.And then there was Dottie. Luke's aunt actually had the nerve to suggest that Caitlin give his flag to his mother.His flag!Nora Jean had had her pick of Luke's personal possessions, but Caitlin drew the line at his flag and his future babies. His mother had a deep-seated fear that given time, Caitlin would remarry and these things would become meaningless to her. Her mother-in-law didn't know her very well. She would always love Luke.She pushed herself up from the bathroom floor with the uneasy feeling that no one was going to react quite the way she wanted them to.She could just imagine what CryoBank wanted.While her husband's initial deposit had been free, she'd found withdrawal and continued storage of his remaining specimen to be quite expensive but necessary if she wanted to give her child a little brother or sister someday.She'd opted for the credit card payment plan, which was prBrewer, Rogenna is the author of 'Marine's Baby (Harlequin Super Romance Series #1478)', published 2008 under ISBN 9780373714780 and ISBN 0373714785.