Miracle Road: Eternity Springs Book 7 Read Online Free Page A

an overstuffed easy chair, her feet propped up on an ottoman, a grumpy scowl on her face, and a baby belly so big that Hope wondered if she might be having a litter rather than a single baby boy.
    “Sarah, you look beautiful,” Hope told her.
    “You are a liar, Hope Montgomery, but I appreciate the effort.”
    “How do you feel, darling?” Celeste asked.
    “Fat. Grouchy. Ugly. Fat. My back hurts. I haven’t seen my feet in weeks. My so-called friend and neonatologist tells me I could go another week, curse her black heart.”
    The physician in question, Sage Rafferty, rolled her eyes. “I’m not your doctor, Sarah. I gave you my personal opinion, not my professional one.”
    Sarah pouted, then turned to Nic. “Sage is right. I should have asked you instead of her. You’re a vet. I’m a cow. When should I head for the barn and lie down on the straw? Or would I stand up? Do cows have their babies lying down or standing up?”
    “Mother,” Lori Murphy chastised, her expression long-suffering. “Just stop it. The baby is healthy and you are healthy and you look lovely.”
    “Your father called me a whale!”
    As one, the women in the room gasped.
    “No, he didn’t.” Lori explained to the others, “He called her a great white because she’d just bitten his head off for accidentally sloshing coffee onto the kitchen floor.”
    “It was clean. I want a clean house when I go into labor. But I shouldn’t have snapped at him, and he spoke the truth. Big fish, big bovine … what’s the difference? I’m fat! I wanted this baby very much, but why couldn’t I have a little bump like Cat had? I’m bigger than Nic was and she had twins! I’m a blimp and I’m ugly and I’m too old to be doing this. What woman has her first and second children more than twenty years apart? I can’t do this!”
    Hope blinked. Was the normally confident, composed Sarah Murphy sliding toward the edge?
    “Sure, you can.” Nic Callahan crossed the room to sit on the arm of Sarah’s chair. “And I thought this was supposed to be a baby shower, not a pity party.”
    Sarah’s lips quirked. “Can’t it be both? I’m a hundred and twelve months pregnant.”
    “I’ll bet you didn’t sleep last night, did you?”
    “Not much. Between the heartburn and his constant kicking and the fact he has his butt right on top of my bladder … and his father snores!”
    “You’ve never done well when you’re short on sleep.”
    “Newborns don’t sleep. I’m going to be a terrible mother.”
    “You’re a wonderful mother,” Lori protested. “The best. And this time, Cam will be around to help.”
    Sarah sniffed. “I love you, Lori. And I love your father and my friends. I love our baby. I have a wonderful life. I don’t know why I’m being such a witch.”
    “It’s the late-pregnancy hormones,” Sage said.
    “I hope it is hormones and not the new me. But my emotions are a mess. I’m happy and excited, but I’m also anxious and nervous and worried. At sixteen I was too young and stupid to know what the deal was. Now, I know what it means to parent and I’m scared to death.”
    “Of course you are,” Nic said. “That’s normal.”
    “She’s right,” Ali Timberlake chimed in. “Every mother-to-be is a little bit afraid.”
    You should be afraid, Hope thought, though she wouldn’t dream of speaking the warning aloud.
    “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Sarah.” Cat took a seat in a wooden rocking chair, then shifted her infant son to lie against her shoulder. “What you have to remember is that the risk and worry are worth it because the reward is so great.”
    “Excellent advice,” Sage Rafferty said. “On that note, I say we get down to business.” She made a flourishing gesture toward a table piled high with gifts. “Presents!”
    Sarah’s eyes went misty. “There’s a mountain of them. You guys went crazy.”
    “A little,” Celeste admitted. “But it’s so much fun to buy for babies.”
    “At the