Dead Wrong

“I’m not going to go ru

“Due dates aren’t exactly chiseled in granite,” Joa

But now, with the nightmare still lingering and her back hurting like crazy, Joa

“All right, all right,” she grumbled. “Since we’re both wide awake, I could just as well get up.”

Pulling on a wool robe that no longer co

Joa

Once her tea was ready, Joa

Under departmental guidelines, Joa

“As long as you cooperate,” she said, patting the lump of her belly where the as-yet-u

Butch had taken the envelope from her fingers and stuck it on the fridge with a heavy-duty magnet. “I’m an old-fashioned kind of guy,” he told her. “When we unwrap the baby will be time enough to know what it is.” And there the unopened envelope remained to this day-much to Joa

For the next hour or so, Joa

The next e-mail was an a

At six, as Joa

“Mom,” Je

“May I,” Joa

“Butch lets me have coffee,” Je

“He does?”

“Sometimes.”

There was a lot that went on between Je

Blond and blue-eyed, Je

“All right,” Joa

As Je

“It won’t kill her,” he returned. “I started drinking coffee when I was eight. It didn’t stunt my growth. Well, on second thought, maybe it did. Maybe I’d be a few inches taller if I hadn’t started drinking Java so early, but still. One cup isn’t going to hurt her. Besides, wouldn’t you rather have her drinking it at home with us instead of hanging out with her friends at the local Starbucks?”

“There is no local Starbucks,” Joa

“Oh, that’s right,” Butch said. “I forgot.”

Joa

“Weird. Turns out Hawthorn put a bound galley of Serve and Protect in the goody bags they hand out to each of the conference attendees. I had di

“It’s a good book,” Joa

“For one thing, it means that people see my name badge and then they want me to sign their books, so I’m already signing autographs even though my book isn’t actually published yet. One of my fellow newbies-a lady named Christina Hanson-is on the same panel I am. Her book is due out in June. At the pre-conference cocktail party she made it abundantly clear that she’s more than a little a