Secret Father

My good friend, Lynne Marshall, has published her first book! It's only available online, since it's being released in the U.K. I haven't read it yet, but the first chapter is fabulous and I can't wait to get my copy from overseas.

Title: Her Baby's Secret Father
Buy it HERE.

Here is a short excerpt:

The nurses gathered around a huge panoramic window like they always did at six-thirty each Monday morning. For a moment they’d put aside any last-minute shift-change bustle or patient charting to enjoy what nature offered. Excited, expectant, they gabbed and giggled while their eyes fixed on the Chinese Elm-lined streets that led to the back of Mercy Hospital in northeast Los Angeles.

Jaynie Winchester didn’t approve of their gawking, but who was she to tell them to stop? As charge nurse for the small pulmonary ward, she knew when to crack the whip and when to let her co-workers enjoy a moment’s reprieve from their hectic schedules. She’d studied the statistics, and knew mutual respect boosted morale on any difficult hospital ward. And their heavily burdened floor catered to ventilator patients and every imaginable respiratory ailment. Bottom line, the nurses deserved their thirty-second fantasy break.

Any other day she’d pretend to be preoccupied with nursing duties while the scrub-clad ladies gaped—-and from the corner of her eye watch right along with them.

Today though, she was distracted with annoying, moderately painful Braxton Hicks cramping. False labor. What else could you call it at less than seven months gestation? She’d felt so energetic on Sunday. Perhaps she’d overdone it stenciling the butter yellow nursery walls with plump, fuzzy ducklings wearing cute blue bonnets and vests.

Jaynie blamed the Mexican food she’d eaten for dinner as the cause of her little one’s spurt of activity throughout the night. The baby had rolled and tumbled, she’d cramped on and off, and because of it had gotten little sleep.

A sudden rise in the nurses’ chatter, followed by awestruck silence, alerted Jaynie that the moment they’d been waiting for had arrived. She rubbed her abdomen, adjusted her small, wire-framed glasses, and wandered toward the early morning light that poured through the huge window. Heck, she deserved a treat too.

Without fail at six-thirty, sinewy Terrance Zanderson jogged up the sidewalk, his scant shorts revealing magnificent, masculine legs. With thigh muscles tight and bulging, he ran like an Olympic gold medallist. His long, tanned torso met with
the nurses’ overwhelming approval, if their sighs were any indication. Taut abdominal muscles could be seen even from the second story distance. Strong, shapely deltoids rippled with each swing of his arm.

A pleasant memory came to mind of the month she’d actually dated Terrance last year. She’d been well set on her plans for motherhood by then, and hadn’t wanted anything to get in the way. And besides, his life was way too hectic with his pursuit of medical school, while being the day supervisor of the Respiratory Therapy department, and all his sports activities on top of that. After her last disastrous relationship, she expected more from a man than he’d been ready or able to give, and they’d parted amicably.

Aside from being a work of art, what moved Jaynie the most was Terrance’s flowing, auburn-colored hair that barely kissed his shoulders. The clean-shaven, chiseled face, square jaw and predominant nose weren’t half bad either. She tamped down a warm, visceral response in her gut.

Why hadn’t she slept with him when she’d had the chance?

For a longer excerpt go here.