The Impossible Alliance Read online

  “Alex, are you sure?”

  She nodded. “It was supposed to be a wedding present for you and me. I was going to tell you tonight.” She smiled. “And, no, knowing I’m going to be stuck with you for the next sixty years, instead of twenty, doesn’t change anything.” Her smile ebbed as she stopped at the top of the steps and glanced down on a sight he apparently wouldn’t be forgetting, after all. “But, Jared, it does change one thing.”

  “What?” Damned if his voice hadn’t grown hoarse again. This time with fear.

  “I want kids.”

  Kids? But—he’d had a vasectomy. He wouldn’t reverse it even if he could. He might not have Early-onset Alzheimer’s, but it was still genetic. He still carried the gene.

  “I know.”

  Something in her voice made him follow her gaze. To a little boy in a fancy, new high-tech wheelchair Sam had sent, along with the horses. The boy’s grandmother, Helga, stood beside the wheelchair, along with Sam. The boy’s new “Uncle Roman” knelt to show him how to work the controls. Alex was right. Orloff would be leaving to work in the refugee camps soon. Helga and Mikhail would need a home.

  Mikhail would need a mother and a father.

  Damned if his eyes didn’t begin watering once more as he stepped behind his wife and drew her into his arms. Piercing joy and humbling relief burned through him as they gazed down together on another scene he never wanted to forget. Though he could now see the form in his mind, he still couldn’t quite believe it. To know that he would be able to hold the memory of this perfect day, this perfect moment, this perfect woman, in his mind for the rest of his life was almost too much to grasp.

  Until his wife turned in his arms.

  “Hey, Soldier, I hear there’s a virgin bed upstairs. Want to help me make a memory to last a lifetime?”

  Everything inside him burst into his grin as he pulled his wife close. As close as he had on that bed three weeks before in Roman Orloff’s house. Close enough so she couldn’t escape. Close enough so there would be absolutely no mistake. “You bet I do.”

  And they did.

  Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Candace Irvin for her contribution to the FAMILY SECRETS series.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-8265-4

  THE IMPOSSIBLE ALLIANCE

  Copyright © 2003 by Harlequin Books S.A.

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