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she wanted to—more than anything. For most of her life, she’d wanted a baby, but now, right this moment, she couldn’t remember why.
    Her baby didn’t even look like her. Maybe she’d brought home the wrong baby. Her heart beat faster. She checked his tiny wristband, comparing the name and numbers to hers. They were a match. “What is it, Ryan? What’s wrong?”
    She picked him up, kissed his tiny forehead, and breathed in baby powder along with his own baby scent. Then she headed into the family room where Sandy’s daughter, Lexi, sat on the floor drawing in a coloring book.
    A few feet away, Sandy sat in an overstuffed chair with her legs curled beneath her. She was helping Jill write her monthly column.
    Jill hoped someday she and Ryan would look so relaxed, so peaceful.
    Sandy placed her laptop to the side and came to her feet. “I’ll get his bottle. How’s it going?”
    “Ryan’s doctor said as long as he’s been fed and changed, I don’t need to worry about his crying too much.”
    The sound of someone talking outside caught their attention. Sandy went to the window and peeked through the blinds. “Oh, my God! I can’t believe it. It’s him.”
    “Who?” Jill asked.
    “Hollywood.”
    “Who?”
    “Derrick Baylor. He’s talking on his cell,” Sandy said. “Oh crap. Here he comes.” She squeezed the blinds shut. “Your parents would die if they knew the father of your baby might possibly be a football player.”
    Sandy’s words caused a weird reaction inside her body. Until that very second Jill had no intention of answering the door, but Sandy’s words prompted her to change her mind.
    Sandy backed away from the window and hid in the kitchen. “Come on. Let’s hide and maybe he’ll go away.”
    Lexi rushed into the kitchen, climbed under the table and giggled.
    Jill went to the kitchen and handed Sandy the baby. “Take Ryan for me and I’ll take care of Derrick.”
    Sandy held Ryan close to her chest. “Derrick Baylor wants to take your son,” Sandy warned in a hushed voice. “You just saw him and his lawyer on the news walking into the courtroom.”
    Jill looked to the front door. It was true. Jill had been surprised to see Derrick on TV. Before she could blink, he’d run to court. But what Sandy just said about her parents not liking football players had gotten Jill’s juices flowing. For the first time in days, everything seemed suddenly clear.
    Jill had a plan.
    Just this morning, Jill’s mom had called to tell her she and Dad would be visiting sooner rather than later. As was the norm, her mom couldn’t give Jill an exact day or time of arrival. They were busy people. For Dad, getting away from work for a few days wasn’t easy. Sadly, Jill wasn’t looking forward to their visit. She loved her parents; she just didn’t like them very much. Her father was overbearing and controlling, while her mother was merely one of her father’s many puppets.
    Jill’s entire life had been built around her mother and father’s wishes. Even Thomas had been their doing. Before Thomas left her standing alone at the altar, though, Jill had begun to think perhaps her parents knew what was best for her after all.
    But not any longer.
    For twenty-eight years Jill had done whatever her father told her to do. Jill’s first act of defiance was moving from New York to California. Her parents would say her second act of defiance was having a baby out of wedlock, but that would be incorrect. Having a baby was a well-thought-out plan on Jill’s part. She and Thomas had been dating for many years before he finally proposed. During that time, they discovered Thomas had something called retrograde ejaculation, a disorder that causes some men, like Thomas, to become infertile. There were other related problems, too: problems she didn’t want to think about.
    For that reason, Jill had spent the last four years visiting sperm banks across the country, finally opting on CryoCorp, the best in the