Free The Homecoming Baby by Kathleen O`Brien

on…things.”
    â€œDarn it, Trish. Since when did you want to hook me up with Jerry Killebrew? I seem to remember you once said he was as dull as a day-old dog biscuit.”
    Trish patted her shoulder. “Since it was a choicebetween the dog biscuit and the traveling salesman, sweetheart. That’s when.”
    Helplessly, Celia watched Trish pass Jerry in the lobby. Jerry clearly asked where Celia was, because Trish pointed toward the main dining room with an exaggerated air of helpfulness and a mischievous smile.
    Thanks a lot, Celia thought, steeling herself for the encounter. To tell the truth, she’d always privately agreed with Trish. Jerry was a little…tepid. But he had been sweet and needy, and not at all threatening. The perfect project.
    And now here he came, running his hands through his hair, double-checking his cuff buttons and adjusting his shirttails under his belt.
    Jerry had always been nervous around her. She’d once found it cute, but right now it seemed much less appealing. Suddenly she discovered that she didn’t want a “project.” She far preferred a man who marched forward with confidence, with a sparkle in his eyes and a roguish wave in his blue-black hair.
    And, with any kind of luck, a man exactly like that would be arriving any minute.
    Still, it wasn’t poor Jerry’s fault that Celia’s tastes had changed—quite inexplicably, all because of a chance encounter at a ghost town. She owed it to him to be pleased to see him after all these months. He was a decent person, boring or not.
    So somehow, as Jerry wandered into the dining room, Celia managed to put on a smile big enough for the occasion.
    â€œJerry!” She held out her hands. “How are you, stranger?”
    He looked over at her and grinned, proud and sheepish all at once.
    â€œHi,” he said, taking her hands. He wasn’t tall, maybe five-eight, but he was muscular and very handsome, especially when he smiled. “I guess you know why I’m here.”
    Celia squeezed his hands. “I hope I do,” she said.
    The last time she’d seen Jerry, he’d been in the middle of a career crisis. He had just finished law school, but, though he was the son of a hugely successful trial attorney, he suddenly wasn’t sure he wanted to practice after all. Celia had privately diagnosed a bad case of cold feet about the bar exam, and she’d done everything she could to help him see that merely taking the exam didn’t lock him into a life as a lawyer. But not taking it would leave him with an abiding sense of failure.
    â€œSo?” She smiled. “Am I right? You took the bar? And you passed?”
    Jerry took a deep breath. “Top ten percent.”
    â€œHurray!” She reached out and wrapped her arms around him. She loved it when one of her projects turned out well. “I knew you could do it. Congratulations!”
    To her surprise, Jerry pulled her in and hugged her tightly.
    â€œJerry,” she said, looking up at him. This was hardly the tame admirer she remembered. “You haven’t forgotten that we—”
    But before she could finish her sentence, he lowered his face to hers and kissed her. At first, she was too shocked to react. This was Jerry Killebrew? In their six weeks of dating, he had never found the courage to kiss her, not once.
    Besides, she’d made it plain to him at their last meeting that it was over between them, that he should get on with his life for his own sake—not to try to win her back.
    Now here he was, acting as if the bar exam was the only thing that had ever stood between them. Acting as if he had been sent off to slay that dragon just so that he could come home to claim his reward—Celia herself.
    Oh, dear. She pulled gently against his embrace, not wanting to insult him. She must not have given very clear signals after all. And by encouraging him to be brave, she seemed to have