Just In Time For Love (Stanton Falls #1) by Kaci Hart

Chapter 1

 
    Emily released a deep
sigh as she looked at the sign signaling that they had made it to their
destination.  

 
    Welcome
to Stanton Falls

 
    Her father had come to
the airport in Dallas to pick her up and bring her back home.  It had been
a long time since she had considered Stanton Falls home.  As she looked
around, she realized that not much had changed in the town since she had left
so many years ago.  There were no high rise buildings or occasional movie
star sightings.  No street corner artists or bistros selling with names
that she could barely pronounce.  She had gone to college on the west
coast to become a nurse and honestly had never even considered moving back to
her childhood home again.  All of that changed during her junior year of
school.  Having a baby had its way of changing lives.  

 
    She thought back to when
she had first found out that she was pregnant.  She had hoped that she was
wrong.  Had hoped that the home test was somehow at fault and that the
ninety nine percent accuracy allowed her to be the one percent of inaccuracy.
 Three tests later, she was sure that her life would be changing.  

 
    I can’t be pregnant.
 I’m not even done with school yet.

 
    She knew it was true
though.  She was studying to be a nurse so she should know a thing or two
about the signs of pregnancy.  The missed cycle was one thing but the
first morning she woke up throwing up, she knew there was a concern.  

 
    That was four years ago.
 She looked into the back seat at her now three year old daughter and
smiled at how beautiful she was.  She was unable to even fathom her life
without her little child now.  She thought back to meetings with the
doctor and at the options that he wanted to make sure that she and the father
knew were available to them.  As if her time in nursing school hadn’t
already taught her that.  The father had actually wanted her to get an
abortion simply because he wasn’t ready to be a father.  Emily knew she
had gone too far from God when she had considered it--even for the slight
second.  

 
    No matter how far she
had gone from her roots, she still considered the conglomerate of mixed DNA
inside of her belly to be a live baby and never really entertained the thought of
not having Ashleigh.  She’d decided from that day to have the baby and
raise her alone if that’s what it took.  She hadn’t spoken to the baby’s
father in two years.  She reached into the back seat and placed her hand
on Ashleigh’s tiny forehead rubbing softly as the she slept.  She turned
back around in her seat, watching the familiar scenery unfold before her and
was lost in her reverie until her father spoke.  

 
    “Sweetie, don’t worry.
 Your mother and I are going to be here to help you out.  It took you
long enough but I’m glad you finally decided to let us be here for you and our
grandbaby.  You know a big city is nowhere to raise a child by yourself.”

 
    Her father had looked at
her while he was driving and had seen the concern on her face.  He placed
his hand on hers and continued.

 
    “I know it wasn’t part
of your plan to get pregnant at this point in your life.  That definitely
isn’t what we expected when you went off to school, but God knows what He is
doing.  You made some decisions and you have to live with them, but you
aren’t going to do it alone.”

 
    His words took the sting
off of what she was feeling.  Her dad was one of the kindest people she
knew.  She was convinced she had the best parents in the world, with him
and her mother.  They supported her from day one, with her mother making
the two hour drive to spend weeks at a time with her and her little grandbaby.
 Even still, they were always telling her to come home and have family
around to help raise the baby.  She felt low at times.  She’d made
all the decisions that they had told her not to.

 
    “Thanks daddy.”

 
    She didn’t get how