Free Another Woman's Son (Harlequin Romance) by Anna Adams

children.”
    “What I’d give to sound so relaxed about having children.”
    “You can. I’m not telling.” She opened the sideboard that towered over the room. The shelves on the closest end held a china service Leah had received from her mother-in-law on the day of her own wedding. Isabel began taking it out.
    “How badly do you want kids, Isabel?”
    “Not enough to try to take yours.”
    She lifted her head to find him studying her like one of his experiments. “I’d like to believe you,” he said.
    “Choose to. You can trust me.”
    “I did.”
    Isabel nodded with sarcasm like his. How was she supposed to convince him? Part of her wished with all her heart that she’d told him the truth three months ago. “How was I supposed to tell my best friend he didn’t have a son?” She brought more china to the table. “Besides, Faith and Will might have taken Tony away for good as soon as I spoke up.”
    “Rationalize the best way you can.”
    His harshness took her breath away, but she refused to let him see. He left, presumably to find the boxes.
    She stacked Leah’s dishes on the table, with no qualm or regret. She’d loved them at first for the sense of continuity they’d given her. She’d imagined giving them to her own Barker daughter.
    Her silly ideas made her sad now. Will couldn’t explain why he’d so quickly tired of her but kept her on. She hadn’t held a gun to his head to make him propose.
    And he wasn’t about to rob her of happiness or the daughter or son she’d yearned for. The trick was learning to believe that she’d love someone enough to marry again and have children of her own. Will might have burned her, but his actions wouldn’t make her choose a life alone.
    “Here we are.” Ben came back, stepping over Tony’s legs. “I found some newspapers and tossed them in the boxes.”
    “Newspapers? I always recycled them.”
    “Will didn’t. There are at least three months’ worth out there.”
    He set a couple of stacked boxes on the floor. Isabel opened the top flaps and drew back. Musty newspaper and cardboard odors rose in the room. “They should be okay for dishes, but I hope the drapes don’t end up smelling like this. I’m not replacing a damn thing before I sell.”
    “Careful.” With a warning nod in Tony’s direction, he reminded her children repeated every “bad” word. “In case Ringo Starr hears you.”
    “Sorry.” She’d already been alone long enough to forget the basics around a boy learning to talk. “Ben?”
    “Hmm?” He tossed the dustiest pages of a newspaper into a corner of the parquet floor.
    “Can we still ask each other personal questions?”
    “You can ask. I don’t know that I’ll answer.”
    “What did you mean when you said you had problems before Faith left you her note?”
    “Nobody comes to the end of a marriage without warning.” He glanced at her in surprise as he pushed the newspaper her way along the table. “Unless you and Will did?”
    “He had an affair before we’d been married a year.” She stared at the blue pattern on Leah’s dishes. “Did you know?”
    “Are you kidding? He knew how much I care about you. He wouldn’t have told me.”
    “I don’t even know who the woman was.” Like Ray, she’d been afraid she’d have to hate someone she knew. She’d been lucky that first time, not having to find out. “We promised to start over, and I tried, but if I’m honest, I’ll admit now I never felt exactly the same. When he was late, or gone on business trips, there were moments when I wondered if he was with someone else.”
    “But you never suspected Faith.”
    “No, but I noticed the way they looked at each other. I was a little annoyed that they seemed to share private jokes, but I thought they were about me.” Isabel concentrated on wrapping a plate with the yellowing newspaper. “Those last few months were tense. We argued more and more about having children, because he didn’t want any. Maybe