Free Pregnant In Prosperino by Carla Cassidy Page B

a lot of pieces to pick up.” She released Meredith’s hand.
    Meredith only hoped the pieces of her life and her family could be picked up. “There’s one other thing,” Meredith said as she nervously twisted her hands together in her lap.
    â€œAnd what’s that?”
    â€œI have a terrible sense of impending doom, of imminent danger. It’s a feeling I’ve only had once before in my life.”
    â€œWhen was the last time you felt this way?” Dr. Wilkes asked, leaning forward.
    Meredith drew a shaky breath. “The day I got in the car with Emily, the day we had our accident. I felt this way the morning of the day that my twin sister stole my identity and completely destroyed my life.”

Five
    C hance stood by the corral, watching as a load of lumber was dumped nearby. He waved to the driver who created a cloud of dust as he drove away.
    â€œGuess that means it’s time to get back to work,” Kirk Brighton said, rising from the bale of hay where he’d been sitting. The other three men Chance had hired the week before also got up from their various positions of rest.
    They’d spent the last week cleaning out the barn, repairing any woodwork that needed repairing, then putting on a new coat of paint. Despite the pleasant September air, the work had been hot and dirty.
    That morning they had torn down the corral in anticipation of putting up a new one. Although there was no longer any livestock on the Reilly ranch,Chance knew whoever bought the place would need adequate corrals and fencing for horses or cows.
    Much to his surprise, Chance had enjoyed the physical labor the last week had brought. Working as a traveling salesman, the most physical thing he’d accomplished was an occasional swim in a motel pool or a quick workout in a gym facility.
    For Chance, the most satisfying time of the day was those minutes after the men knocked off for the day and before Chance went inside for dinner. He’d walk in the waning sunlight, muscles burning with the sting of overuse, as he looked at the work they’d accomplished that day.
    He frowned as he recognized this wasn’t exactly true. That moment in the fade of day wasn’t the most satisfying. It was in the deep velvet black of night when he reached for Lana and she came willingly into his arms that Chance felt something he’d never felt before—a surge of excitement so intense it threatened to consume him, followed by a sense of fulfillment that absolutely terrified him.
    They came together each night with a fierce intensity that was in direct opposition to the careful distance they kept between them during the day.
    â€œHey, Chance.”
    Chance shoved away thoughts of Lana and focused his attention on Charlie Trainor, the eldest of the four men he’d hired. “Yeah, Charlie?”
    â€œWhen you get ready to buy a herd of cattle, I’ve got just the man for you to talk to,” he said.
    Chance didn’t want to tell anyone that he had no intentions of settling on the place, that he intended tosell it as soon as it was in good order. He didn’t want to have to handle the kinds of questions people would ask if they knew he wasn’t staying.
    Everyone would want to know where he and Lana were moving to and he didn’t want to have to explain that he and Lana were going nowhere together. He would go back to his wandering lifestyle, and she would return to her apartment and have a baby to raise.
    â€œThanks, Charlie. I’ll keep that in mind when the time comes and I’m ready to buy.”
    â€œYou talking about old man Stanton?” Kirk Brighton asked Charlie.
    Charlie nodded. “That bull of Stanton’s is a fine specimen of cowhide and he’s got a herd of healthy heifers that make most other ranchers’ cows look sick.”
    As the men worked on the new corral, they talked about ranching, filling Chance in on who had the better horses and