Finding Her Family

by Syndi Powell

  Is her dream finally within reach?

  Her heart’s saying yes

  Delivery nurse Page Kosinski has conquered a deadly disease—twice! Now she’s gearing up for a battle she needs Mateo Lopez to help her win. Adopting a baby will give her the family she’s always wanted. The handsome crusading attorney could fulfill her other dream, too. But will Mateo be brave enough to open his heart to hope...and love?

  Mateo left the balcony and brought out a folding chair and set it up behind her.

  Page lowered herself into it. “Thank you. I haven’t been taking it as easy today as I probably should.”

  He put a hand to her forehead then her cheek. “You’re warm, but that’s probably from dancing and being inside.”

  “You don’t have to take care of me.”

  “Funny. Because I figured someone needed to.”

  “I can take care of myself. I don’t need you or anyone else.”

  “Really? You’re not doing such a great job of it lately.”

  She could feel her temper rising, the flush spreading out from her chest down her arms to her fingertips. “What do you want?”

  He gave a shrug. “Nothing.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. He’d never lied to her before. She’d always appreciated his frankness, even if it seemed a little harsh. What’s changed now? she wondered.

  Dear Reader,

  It’s hard to imagine that we’re already at the final book in the Hope Center stories. I hope you’ve come to love these fierce breast cancer survivors as much as I have.

  Life has a way of turning out in the way we least expect it. We might have plans, goals and ambitions, but we often get thrown a monkey wrench in the middle of it that changes everything. For Page Kosinski, cancer has upended her life for the third time. Everything she had hoped for in a family seems to have been taken from her. But then she meets Ruby, a pregnant teenager who might provide the opportunity at motherhood she’s been waiting for.

  I think the best stories have those two words at the heart of them: but then. When a reader sees those two words, they know they’re about to be taken on an unexpected journey. And why shouldn’t we expect those plot twists in our own lives?

  I lost my job but then...

  I got divorced but then...

  I got cancer but then...

  I never gave up hope. When all seems lost, please remember those two words. Things may not turn out as you originally wanted, but like Page, you might get exactly what you needed. In her case, a very special man named Mateo.

  Best wishes,

  Syndi Powell

  Finding Her Family

  Syndi Powell

  Syndi Powell started writing stories when she was young and has made it a lifelong pursuit. She’s been reading Harlequin romance novels since she was in her teens and is thrilled to be on the Harlequin team. She loves to connect with readers on Twitter, @syndipowell, or on her Facebook author page, Facebook.com/syndipowellauthor.

  Books by Syndi Powell

  Harlequin Heartwarming

  Healing Hearts

  Afraid to Lose Her

  The Sweetheart Deal

  Two-Part Harmony

  Risk of Falling

  The Reluctant Bachelor

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  This book is dedicated to my Groban Girls: Laurie Peplinski, Debbie Greathouse and Angela Chisholm. We’ve known each other for more than half of our lives and have seen each other through boyfriends, heartbreaks, marriages, kids, divorces and sicknesses. I know that all I need to do is pick up my phone and call if I need something, and you’d be there for me. And also to Lindsay Kosinski, with whom I can spend three hours sharing a meal and it feels like only minutes because there’s so much to talk about. These friendships have been such blessings to me. Now when’s the next Girls’ Night Out???

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  EXCERPT FROM A HOME FOR HER BABY BY ELEANOR JONES

  CHAPTER ONE

  ON A HUMID late July day in Detroit, Page Kosinski paused at the intersection and waited for the light to turn so she could cross the street. The coffee shop where she had agreed to meet her ex-husband, Chad, was up ahead. He’d called and said he had something to tell her. Begged her to meet him at their once favorite place. She wondered what he was about to tell her. Did he want to get back together?

  She had to admit that she’d thought about it herself every once in a while, but then she reminded herself that she didn’t need him to mess with her life or her heart anymore. The thing she really missed was being part of a couple. Her pride would never let her admit it to anyone, especially her best friend, April, but she liked having someone to come home to. She liked waking up with him every morning and going to bed with him every night. She liked knowing she had a standing date on New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day. She reveled in being one half of a group of two. Her marriage to Chad had hardly been the stuff of fairy tales, but at least he had been there. For a while anyway.

  The light turned and she hurried to cross the street. She didn’t want to seem too anxious, but she was running late as usual. She opened the door to the coffee shop and groaned at the sight of him waiting at a table. With his perfectly coiffed blond hair and chiseled features, Chad didn’t have the right to look so handsome, although the scruffy chin was new. He stood and moved the chair opposite his out for her. He kissed her cheek. “You look...different, Page.”

  She reached up and touched her bald head. She knew exactly how she looked—like someone fighting cancer. She’d beaten it twice, but it had come back a third time in her ovaries. She only had a few months of chemo left, and then she’d find out if it was gone for good. “You look like you always do.”

  She took a seat, and he left to order their coffees. He didn’t need to ask what she wanted since she always ordered the same thing. She didn’t like surprises.

  He returned with their drinks, and she put her hands around the mug in order to give them something to do. “How are you, Chad?”

  “Good. Really good.” He looked her over. “Should I even ask how you’re doing?”

  “Why would you? You never liked hearing about all the icky details of my cancer when we were married. That was an inconvenience to your precious life.” He winced at her sharp tone, and she regretted the words after they were out. They might be true, but he clearly wanted some kind of truce. She swallowed her bitterness by taking a sip of her coffee. “On the phone you said you had some news.”

  He shifted in his seat and looked out the window before turning to face her. “I wanted to be the first to tell you before you heard it from anyone else.”

  Oh. She gripped the mug tighter. “Are you getting married to her?” Her being the anti-Page: blonde, bubbly and buxom. She couldn’t even say her name.

  Chad ducked his head. “Nikki and I are getting married next month.”

  “So soon? What is she, pregnant?” She smirked at the thought of
Chad with kids when he was little more than a child himself. He blushed and was unable to meet her gaze. The bottom fell out of Page’s stomach. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Get out.”

  His perfect features hardened into a familiar scowl. “I knew you’d take it wrong.”

  “How should I take it? You cheated on me with her while I was going through chemo. You divorced me when I was still sick so that you could move in with her. And now you tell me you’re having a baby?”

  “It just happened.”

  “I’m a labor-and-delivery nurse, so I know exactly how it happens.” She pursed her lips. The words she wanted to say fought to come out. The emotions that she kept buried deep inside bubbled up, but she kept quiet and took a long sip of her coffee.

  He reached across the table to touch her hand, but she snatched it away. “Please be happy for us. You know how much I always wanted to have kids.”

  The urge to punch him grew stronger. “Really? The way I remember it I was the one who wanted kids, but you told me we needed to wait. First, until we had more money. Then it was a bigger house. And we waited and waited until I was sick and then it was too late. But you didn’t wait very long for her, did you?” She put a hand to her flat belly. “Get. Out.”

  Chad rose from his chair and put a hand on the table near hers. “Page, you don’t want to end up like your mother, do you? Mean? Spiteful?”

  Page summoned all the anger inside her and glared at him. He almost tripped over his own feet hurrying away from her. Once he was gone, she put her hands around the still warm mug. She glanced at the other patrons. They looked as if their lives were continuing as normal, while hers had crumbled a little more.

  She finished her coffee and left the shop, vowing never to set foot in there again.

  * * *

  THE KID SITTING opposite him had his head down on the table, and his long dark hair covered his face. He hadn’t looked up since Mateo Lopez had entered the interrogation room of the Detroit Police Department, and Mateo tried to squelch the desire to leave Scotty to deal with the consequences of his actions alone. But he’d been hired by the kid’s mother to represent him in front of a judge, who wouldn’t likely turn a blind eye to a repeat shoplifter.

  Mateo asked a question that he already knew the answer to. “What was it this time, Scotty? What was it that you had to have and didn’t care that you’d end up in juvie for? Again?”

  Scotty kept his gaze on the table as he shrugged. “Don’t matter.”

  “Really? Because we seem to end up at the police station too often for it to mean nothing.” He sat quietly, waiting for the kid to say something, anything. After five minutes, he took out a legal pad and pen. “This is your third strike, so you’re looking at a year of lockup.”

  Scotty raised his panicked eyes to meet Mateo’s. “A year?”

  “Minimum. The judge isn’t going to give you a slap on your wrist since you’re a repeat offender.” Mateo leaned closer. “Why did you do it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Mateo doubted that. The kid knew more than what he said. “How about I tell you what I know? I know that your group of so-called friends dared you to take the cell phones. That when you got caught, they all ran off with the merchandise and left you to take the blame. Then you told the cops that you were alone and wouldn’t give any names. And now they’re all free while you’re in here and looking at a year in juvie. Those don’t sound like very good friends.”

  The kid’s eyes lowered, and he once more concentrated on the table. “You don’t know nothing.”

  “The truth is, I know the law. Which is good for you, since I can try to get a reduced sentence if you’ll give me the names of those friends.”

  “No.”

  Mateo might have admired the loyalty to friends in different circumstances, but not when his client was staring at the full brunt of the law if he didn’t give up those names. “Scotty, I’ve seen you hanging out with that gang in your neighborhood. I live there, too, so I expect that both the Four Aces and the Spanish Quarters have been trying to recruit you. And today was a tryout.”

  Scotty frowned. “Like I said. You don’t know nothing.”

  Mateo sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He grew tired of defending kids who knew better but longed to find a place to fit in. The street gangs were an attractive brotherhood to a kid who had an overworked single mother and no male role models aside from the ones he saw in the neighborhood. Didn’t seem that long ago that Mateo had been the one on the other side of the table talking to a lawyer. He wanted to give Scotty the chance he’d been given. To find a way out of the endless cycle of poverty and violence.

  He stood and left the room without another word. He found Mrs. Rodriguez wringing her hands as she paced the hallway. She rushed over to him. “What did he say?”

  Mateo shook his head. “He won’t give up the names of the gang members that were there with him. And I can’t help him if he’s not willing to divulge that information to me or the judge.” He put a hand on her shoulder as she started to cry. “He’s looking at about a year in juvenile hall.”

  She grasped his hand in both of hers. “He can’t go back to that place. Last time, he had nightmares for a month after getting out. I can’t let them put my baby in there again.”

  “This is his third offense, Mrs. Rodriguez. The judge won’t be lenient. Even if Scotty does tell us the names of his friends, he’s still going to jail.”

  He opened the door to the interrogation room and ushered her in. Scotty sprinted into his mother’s arms. Mateo shut the door behind him and walked away, feeling tired of seeing the same story play out time and again.

  He walked to the end of the hallway and stared out the window and rested his hands on the sill. After a few minutes, he heard a door open, and he turned to find Mrs. Rodriguez wiping her eyes with a tissue. She looked up as he approached. “What’s next?”

  “We meet with the judge in the morning, and Scotty will stay in lockup here until then.”

  She nodded and glanced at the door. “Thank you, Mr. Lopez. I know you will do your best for my son.”

  He feared that his best wouldn’t keep Scotty out of jail, though.

  Despondent, he left the police station and drove to visit with friends, hoping that he could find some cheer. He parked in front of Dez and Sherri’s house and walked up to the front door. His cousin Sherri answered his knock and smiled at him. “Hey, you’re just in time for dinner. You must have some kind of sixth sense about these things.” She gave him her cheek to kiss then let him pass, shutting the screen door behind him.

  “More like you always eat at seven during the week.”

  “We’re eating out on the deck since it’s such a nice night.”

  Mateo followed her through the living room to the kitchen, noticing how her hair was slowly returning after a recent bout of chemotherapy and radiation for breast cancer. She looked well. Last he’d heard she was beating the disease, unlike his mom, who had lost her own battle years ago.

  He swallowed at the memory and brightened as he found Sherri’s husband, Dez, singing along with the radio as he dressed a green salad. He raised his eyes to Mateo’s and grinned. They clasped hands and bumped chests. “What brings you by?”

  He shrugged and glanced around the homey kitchen. Wasn’t too long ago that Dez had been a bachelor like him. Now his friend had married and adopted a teenager. He looked good in his role as husband and father. Mateo ignored the sharp stirring of jealousy. “It’s been a rough day. Was hoping to hang out for a bit with you guys.”

  “Sure, sure.” Dez took a platter of raw meat and then pointed at the bowl of salad. “Come out on the deck while I grill these burgers. And bring that with you.”

  Mateo retrieved the salad bowl and followed Dez. Out on the paved patio, Dez put the burgers on the steaming grill and took a se
at at the table under the neon green umbrella. He pushed out a chair with his foot. “Tell me what’s going on that has you so troubled.”

  Mateo placed the bowl on the table and sighed as he dropped into the chair. “A client. Too young, too full of himself.”

  “You’re not going to ask me to mentor him, too, are you?”

  Over the years, Mateo had reached out to male friends like Dez who had come out of impossible situations to make a better life for themselves. Dez had mentored several young men—one was currently thriving in the military and serving in Afghanistan at the moment. Marcus, Dez and Sherri’s adopted son, had also avoided a life in a gang and had finished the past year at school on the honor roll.

  Mateo replied, “No.” And put his head in his hands. “There’s too many who need help. I feel like I’m trying to shore up a dam that’s already burst. Why do I even try to help them?”

  Dez leaned over and put a hand on his shoulder. “You do it because you love it. And you care about them.”

  “I’m not sure how much longer I can. Disillusionment is my constant companion.”

  Dez chuckled at his comment and stood to check on the burgers. “Well, if you leave your law career, you can give poetry a try.”

  “Funny.”

  The sliding door opened, and Sherri appeared with two longneck bottles of beer. She handed one to Mateo. “You looked like you might appreciate a drink.”

  “Thanks.”

  She turned and handed the other bottle to Dez, then kissed his cheek before returning inside the house.

  “You’re a lucky man,” he said.

  “You could be, too.” Dez pointed to Mateo with his beer bottle. “And I know just the woman. One of Sherri’s friends is interested in you.”

  Mateo waved off any suggestion of romance. “I’m married to my job, futile as it seems to be.”

  “She’d be a nice distraction. If nothing else, you could try those poetic words on her.”

  Sherri returned with a stack of plates and silverware rolled into cloth napkins. She handed them to Mateo, who stood and set the table. As he finished, Marcus stepped outside and his face lit up at Mateo’s presence. “Uncle Matty, what’s up?” asked Marcus.