Found: One Secret Baby Read Free Page B

learn anything new.”
    “I knew I could rely on you, Morgan. You were always such a good child.”
    I had to be or you might have walked out, the way my mother did
. He ignored the little boy’s voice inside him and resigned himself to a few days more in California.
    Rosalie escaped the overheated courtroom and flipped open her phone. Her heart lurched when she clicked the calendar. Her appointments for the afternoon now included Morgan Danby.
    The noisy courthouse lobby swirled around her with the same black panic that had almost overwhelmed her when Mr. Danby first mentioned Márya’s child. After three days, she’d thought the man was gone for good.
    She sat down hard on a well-worn wooden bench and forced air into her lungs. Then she punched her office number and tried to act as if her world hadn’t just been turned upside down—again.
    “The judge is running late,” she told her receptionist when he answered. “Please tell my afternoon appointments I’ll be there as soon as I can, and reschedule anyone who can’t wait.”
    And please, please make it so that Morgan Danby can’t wait and can’t reschedule, she added in silent prayer.
    Not that she had much hope of that. For all his casual air, Mr. Danby didn’t strike her as a man who would give up easily or be a gracious loser. But she had to win this one for Joey’s sake.
    When she reached her office building four hours later, the expensive black sports car in the parking lot warned her that her prayer had not been granted.
    Mr. Danby stood in the reception area outside her office, staring at one of the paintings that decorated the wall, an impressionistic hibiscus in brilliant red with broad strokes of yellow, green, and black.
    “Are you an art critic, Mr. Danby?” she asked, in lieu of the polite greeting she couldn’t force out.
    He scanned her wind-blown hairdo and crumpled linen suit. She ignored the urge to straighten herself the same way she’d ignored the flutter in her chest when she first saw him.
    “Rough day in court?” he asked with one sexily raised eyebrow.
    “Rough day on the freeway. I won in court.”
    “Congratulations.” He turned back to the painting. “I didn’t have a chance to look closely at this when I was here before. It’s quite good. They both are.” He gestured to the painting on the other wall, a golden poppy with the same bold strokes of contrast.
    “Thank you.”
    “You painted them?”
    She allowed herself a smile at his surprise. “My mother.”
    “She’s very talented.”
    Her smile faded. “Was very talented. She’s deceased.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that.” His tone was more calculating than sympathetic.
    “It’s been a few years,” she told him as she crossed to her office and gestured him in.
    He gave the hibiscus another look before he followed her.
    She went to her desk and set down the bag that held her tablet computer. Mr. Danby had his back to her, intent on the painting of a flower garden on the wall across from her desk.
    “Your mother again?”
    She nodded, fighting to ignore the tingle his gaze sent through her.
    “And that one?” This time he pointed to the painting of a child in a sandbox that hung behind her. “Is that you?”
    She refused to let him see the sudden flash of grief. “Yes.”
    “Your mother had a remarkable talent for that kind of middle-brow art.”
    Middle-brow art? Rosalie stiffened and gestured toward the chair across from her.
    “Did she sell many of them?” He lowered his long, lean body into the chair.
    Why should he care, if it was middle-brow art? She sat down and jiggled the mouse to turn on her computer monitor. “No. It was a hobby. She gave a few to friends.”
    He crossed his legs and leaned back to watch her face. “I came up blank in Merced.”
    Irritation morphed into dread. She sat up straighter and gave him an empty smile.

Chapter Two
    The ice princess was back in place as soon as Morgan reminded Ms. Walker why he was here. He missed