Four Years Earlier

Remy River stood amongst the sugarcane buds, the tiny, grainy, black and white picture laying flat in her hand. Tiny green shoots were just beginning to poke through the dirt around her boots, the sign of burgeoning life all around her.

Biting her lip, Remy held in the tumult of emotions she felt. Tucking the picture into the back pocket of her jeans, she walked across the rich, dark soil of her family’s sugarcane farm.

Her cowboy boots left neat tracks in the soft soil as she walked to the tallest point on her family’s lands. From the big hill, she could look right across at Roman Ranch. She could see his house from here, if she squinted.

No Sawyer, though.

Her high school love, the prom king to her prom queen. Tall, dark, and handsome to her fair-skinned blonde beauty. The perfect couple… until he joined the Navy.

He’d left Remy in the dusty quiet of their shared past, and moved on to what she presumed were much more exciting things. Sawyer was probably capturing terrorists and winning medals right this second, and what was she doing?

When he’d come home to visit two months ago, Remy’d known he wasn’t here to stay. The same song had been playing on the same radio, and just like always, she hadn’t been able to resist his heated looks, the way his touch lit her up inside.

She bit her lip, feeling tears begin to well up as she pulled out the photo again.

The sonogram. A little white blob surrounded by darkness.

Her baby.

She ran a fingertip over the image, swiping at the tears that spilled down her face before they could splash onto the photo.

She couldn’t stop thinking about the last night that Sawyer was in town, and all the sweet things he’d whispered. He’d told her that he couldn’t write much — SEALs didn’t stay in one place too long.

He’d made promises… promises that she wanted badly to believe…

Still, she’d rose at dawn and left him sleeping in his room, slipping away with the sunrise. She loved Sawyer, loved him with all her heart, but when he didn’t write…

She was hurt, but not surprised.

No, the surprise had come today. She’d gone to the town doctor, complaining of fatigue. The last thing in the world she had thought was that she might be pregnant…

She pressed a hand to her flat stomach, uncomprehending.

“What am I going to do?” she whispered, her words blowing away in the cool spring wind.

She was 25 years old, no longer a girl. She’d made a mistake, a huge one. And she had no living idea how she was going to fix it.

She had a part-time job at a bar in town, lived at home in a house that was already cramped with five other people. She’d gone to community college, but never made it any further.

The father of her child was halfway across the world, serving in the military and not answering her letters. She could tell Sawyer’s father, perhaps… but even the idea of telling Colonel Roman made her cringe. She didn’t know what the retired Navy man would say, but it wouldn’t be kind.

At least Sawyer has good genes, she thought. My baby will be healthy.

She pictured herself holding a newborn, looking down at a baby with those stunning hazel eyes.

Sawyer’s eyes.

A low sound escaped Remy’s lips. She sank to her knees, burying her face in her hands.

Stupid, stupid, she thought. I’ve been so stupid. Now I’m all alone…

She let herself cry for a few minutes, releasing all the pent-up anger and fear and worry in her heart. When she’d exhausted her rage and self-loathing, she straightened and blew out a breath.

She looked at the little photo again, damp and wrinkled from her tears. She smoothed it out, trying to calm herself.

She could cry all she wanted, but there were certain inescapable facts.

One, she was pregnant.

Two, she’d keep the baby, no matter what.

Three, people were going to talk.

Four, her life was about to become very difficult.

Five, she was going to have to do this on her own.

At this precise moment, she didn’t even know if Sawyer was alive, much less if he was interested in coming home to help her parent a baby.

Actually, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she might not even tell him. After all, if Sawyer wanted to be in her life, he could’ve called or written. Instead, she’d received nothing but radio silence.

That made his intentions pretty damned clear, didn’t it?

The sooner she came to terms with all of that, the better off she’d be. Wiping away the last of her tears, she took a deep breath.

“I can do this,” she said. “I can do this myself.”

Not that there was anything to decide, per se… but the act of self-reassurance made her feel better. Made her feel like there was a chance that this would work out. That she wasn’t going to spend every minute of the rest of her life looking at Sawyer’s child and regretting the life they could’ve had…

No, she told herself. He’s made his bed, as I have mine. I need to put him out of my head, because I have way bigger things to worry about. This baby needs me now.

Tucking the photo back in her pocket, Remy strode down the hill, leaving her tears behind her.