The Brother Quest by Lori Handeland

Author:Lori Handeland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2004-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

JUST AS KURT had predicted, the west wind blew hot that afternoon. Marlie decided it was a good day to fly kites.

She was feeling pretty good, considering. Tired, but she figured running through a field with kites would cure that problem.

The day care looked better than ever. She still couldn’t believe Colin had gotten the place cleaned up so fast. Money talked, but that wasn’t news to her.

Tiffany hadn’t shown up again and hadn’t answered Marlie’s message as to where she’d been the day before. The girl was fired and Marlie was on her own. Nowhere she hadn’t been before.

She always took the children to fly kites in a land-locked area behind the preschool. The owner, Mrs. Anderson, no relation—there were more Andersons in Wind Lake than Kristoffersons—enjoyed watching the children play.

Marlie had hoped the fresh air would revive her, but by the time she got all the kids’ kites up, she was dizzy. So she sat down, her own kite resting at her feet.

Times like these were a quandary for her. Marlie adored every child. Their differences, their faults, their strengths made each one unique and special. But times like these also emphasized the loneliness she lived with. She had so many children and none of them were hers.

She wished she were brave enough and rich enough to partake of modern science. She’d read about single women who used artificial insemination to gain the child they coveted. But how would she explain something like that to this town she loved? She didn’t think she could, and she wouldn’t want her child to be labeled a freak.

Besides, in her dream she had children with the man she loved and shared everything with—her heart, her body, her life. That was as much a part of the dream as the child itself.

A shadow fell over her and she glanced up. The sun sparked off her glasses and she had to close her eyes against the pain that went through her brain like a laser beam.

“Hi,” Colin said, and her heart did a nosedive toward her toes.

He flopped next to her in the grass. She didn’t know what to say. At the first sound of his voice, an image of him naked flashed behind her closed eyelids.

“Good day?” he asked.

He didn’t appear embarrassed that she’d seen all there was to see. Of course, he had a beautiful body. If their positions had been reversed, not only would she be mortified, he’d be disgusted. She wasn’t much to look at naked—or rather, she was. Because there was a lot of her.

One thing to be said about being a virgin—no one but her mother had ever seen Marlie naked. Hey, there was a silver lining to every cloud.

“All days are good,” she answered.

“What about yesterday?”

“Great. Until just after noon.”

“Is your middle name Pollyanna, by chance?”

“Nope. Inger.”

“Whats-er?”

She smiled. “It’s Norwegian. Means Ing’s daughter.”

“Thought you were Martin’s daughter.”

“Someone at some time must have been Ing’s. My gramma’s name was Inger Astrid Varner Anderson.”

“Quite the mouthful.”

“If you like that one, you should stop by the cemetery and read some of the headstones.

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