Summer Kisses by Theresa Ragan, Laurie Kellogg, Katie Graykowski, Bev Pettersen, Lindsey Brookes, Diana Layne, Autumn Jordon, Jacie Floyd, Elizabeth Bemis, Lizzie Shane

flew back to New York, all bets were off. Although Jill knew it wasn’t fair to judge a book by its cover, so to speak, she was too tired to care. Her ideal mate could never be an athlete. She preferred intelligent males who kept their hair combed appropriately and wore suits to work.
    “All my life,” Jill began to explain, “since I was in my teens, I wanted to have a baby.”
    Derrick raked a hand through thick, unmanageable hair. “Seriously?”
    She nodded. “Most girls dream about their wedding day, but not me. I dreamt of having a baby of my own. My sister would ask Santa for a princess dress. I always asked for a baby.”
    He appeared to be listening intently, which made her wonder about him. Men didn’t listen to women rattle on about their wants and desires. Derrick Baylor obviously had a plan of his own. Fine with her. Two could play at this game.
    “Fast forward to Thomas,” she went on. “We dated for years, but he couldn’t—” Jill pulled her gaze from his. “This is too personal. I shouldn’t be talking about this with you.”
    “No, please go on,” he said. “Thomas was infertile?”
    Jill looked at him skeptically, warily, and then nodded. “We had a long engagement. During that time, I looked for help. I finally found CryoCorp. When things didn’t work out between Thomas and me, I knew right away that I would keep my appointment with CryoCorp and raise my baby on my own. No father, no ties, no one telling me how to raise my child. No one judging me. Women all over the world raise their children alone.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t see anything wrong with what I was doing.”
    “I’m not judging you, Jill.”
    God, he was good at this, she thought. No yawn; no bored, wandering eyes. “You’re not?”
    He shook his head.
    “It was all supposed to be confidential,” she said. “And then you showed up out of the blue. What were the odds?”
    “One in a million.”
    She nodded. “One in a million.” She looked into his eyes again, deeper this time, searching. “I never should have left the hospital without talking to you first. But what about you?” she asked. “You never mentioned having a lawyer, or that you were going to court. You weren’t exactly upfront with me, were you?” She lifted her chin a notch.
    “You’re right. I should have told you my plans.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I’m hoping the two of us can work something out.”
    “Like what?”
    He pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket and handed it to her. “Here’s the date and time we’re scheduled to meet next month for mediation. The soonest date I could get is thirty days from now.” He cleared his throat. “I was hoping before that time, you would allow me to spend time with you and Ryan, you know, so we could get to know one another better.”
    She took the paper and looked it over.
    “He’s not coming in here,” Sandy said from inside the apartment.
    Jill sighed. “Do you want to see Ryan?”
    He looked surprised. “I would love to.”
    A loud moan sounded from inside the apartment. “Shouldn’t you be practicing your drops? I thought good mechanics were needed on the field?” Sandy asked from the other side of the door.
    He smiled—a flash of white teeth and a charming sparkle in his eyes. The man definitely had to have a string of beautiful women falling at his feet on a daily basis.
    “Training camp doesn’t start for another six weeks,” he told Sandy through the door.
    “Before we go inside,” Jill said, “I do have a question.”
    “Shoot.”
    “What happens if we go through with mediation but then fail to come to any mutual conclusion with regard to Ryan?”
    “I guess we’d have to take the matter to court.”
    She liked his honesty, but that didn’t mean she liked his answer.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Derrick sat in the middle of Jill’s lime-green couch and watched her feed Ryan the last of his bottle. Four-year-old Lexi