A Baby Changes Everything

A Baby Changes Everything
Marie Ferrarella

After five years of loving and honoring her husband, Savannah Perez worried that her marriage to Cruz was doomed. She loved him so much, but felt that his backbreaking devotion to their new ranch was ruining their relationship.Cruz Perez felt he had something to prove, so he pushed himself beyond his limits. He wanted the best for his wife and son, but tried to forget the pained looks they gave him when he returned home late at night. He knew he had to show his pregnant wife that she meant everything to him–before it was too late.

Praise for Marie Ferrarella:

“Ferrarella has penned a guaranteed page-turner!”

—Romantic Times on Internal Affair

“Time and again, Marie Ferrarella demonstrates her gift for storytelling in the romantic suspense genre, and Crime and Passion is no exception.”

—Romantic Times on Crime and Passion

“…the saucy quips will draw a laugh, and the chemistry will make you shiver. Marie Ferrarella does it again!”

—Romantic Times on Mac’s Bedside Manner

“Great romance, excellent plot, grabs you from page one.”

—Affaire de Coeur on In Graywolf’s Hands

“…the pleasure of this journey is in the getting there. Reading about warm, caring people and watching relationships mature under stressful situations is a pleasurable way to spend an afternoon. As usual, Ferrarella’s dialogue is in voice, crisp, and moves the story along without ever bogging down in the emotional angst each brings to the relationship. Once a Father is a hearty recommend for a skilled writer.”

—The Romance Reader on Once a Father

A Baby Changes Everything

Marie Ferrarella

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

Dear Reader,

It isn’t often that we get a chance to see if happily ever after is all it’s cracked up to be. When I was invited to do the second book in THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: REUNION continuity, I discovered that I was being reunited with two characters I had brought together in Expecting in Texas and they were having problems. Although they still loved each other as much as ever, life and reality had found a way to put a wedge between them. Cruz worked too hard to create the kind of life he felt his family deserved and Savannah felt as if she was being taken for granted. (Sound familiar? Yeah, me, too.) Juggling as fast as they could, they had no energy left to devote to the marriage they had created. And let’s face it, marriage takes work. Constant work. Changes were going to have to be made. But I’m betting that Savannah and Cruz are up to it. How about you?

I wish you love,

To Stella Bagwell, who no longer has a brain, because I’ve picked it clean.

Many thanks, Stella, for all your help.

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

Bonus Features

One

“H ey, I’d given up on you two.”

Vanessa Fortune Kincaid threw open the door on the first ring and immediately hugged her dearest friend in the world as the latter began to cross the threshold. Stepping back, Vanessa took a closer look at Savannah Perez and decided that she didn’t like what she saw. Savannah’s bright, sunny smile was conspicuously absent.

Ushering her five-year-old son, Luke, in front of her, Savannah sighed. Luke hadn’t stopped talking or moving since he’d opened his eyes this morning. The word lively, she had come to believe, had been created expressly to describe her son.

Savannah forced her lips into a weak smile. It was the best she could offer her friend. “You wouldn’t be the first one.”

Vanessa had dropped down to one knee to give her godson a huge embrace. The boy smelled faintly of raspberry jam and peanut butter, his sandwich of choice. “How’s the handsomest man in three states?”

Luke beamed. “Fine, Aunt ’Nessa.”

He shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans, just like his father, and cocked his head, his dark eyes huge as he asked, “Got something for me?”

“Luke!” Embarrassment brought the only visible color to Savannah’s pale cheeks. “You don’t ask someone to give you a present.”

“I’m not ‘someone,’” Vanessa said, winking at the boy. “I’m Aunt ’Nessa.” Rising to her feet, Vanessa waved her hand at Savannah’s protest. They’d been friends far too long to leave any room for embarrassment over imagined neglected niceties.

Vanessa walked to a credenza and opened one small door. “And, as a matter of fact, I do have something for Luke.”

Taking out an object, she tucked it behind her back as she turned to face the boy.