Christmas at Timberwoods - Fern Michaels [111]
Odie emitted a low growl, which was followed by a junglelike meow from Clovis. “Come on, you two, it’s time to call it a day.” She said this every night to the pair of mismatched animals. Like clockwork, they wiggled out from under the kitchen table and followed her to her office.
She’d promised herself she wasn’t going to work the rest of the holiday season, said she wasn’t going to turn her computer on until the year had ended, but she hadn’t voiced the promise out loud, so that was okay. As long as she hadn’t verbalized the commitment to anyone else, she wasn’t really worried about being accountable to anyone for breaking her promise, something she normally wouldn’t do. Without another thought, Melanie went to her desk, clicked on the lamp, then hit the On button to her highend Titanus computer. A slight hum from the machine was the only sound in the room. Odie and Clovis had found their favorite spot by the fireplace. There wasn’t anything or anyone to prevent her from doing what she was about to do.
She logged on to the Internet, typed Google into her browser, then typed three words and hit Search.
Adoption in Colorado.
Her heart raced, and her stomach fluttered as though a thousand butterflies were dancing inside her. So many websites appeared, Melanie was sure she’d misspelled something. She typed the words a second time, this time watching her hands as they moved across her keyboard.
A-d-o-p-t-i-o-n-I-n–C-o-l-o-r-a-d-o. She hit the Search icon.
Again, hundreds and hundreds of websites appeared on her screen.
“Okayyy, I can do this,” she said out loud.
Melanie clicked on the first blue hyperlink at the top of her screen. She scanned the website, knew she didn’t want to travel across the globe to China, and clicked on the second link. She perused the contents, then moved on to the next site. After two hours of reading about Colorado’s many adoption agencies, Melanie leaned back in her chair and twisted her stiff neck from left to right, her mind wondering at all the possibilities she’d just examined.
Is it possible?
She thought of all the tabloids she’d scanned while in line at the supermarket. It seemed just about every superstar in Hollywood was adopting a child. Many of them were single. If they could do this, why couldn’t she? She was financially able to provide for a child, and she certainly had lots of love to give. Her parents would be surprised at first, but Melanie knew that once they got used to the idea, they would be as thrilled as she was beginning to feel.
Yes! She could do this! She would do this. First thing tomorrow morning, she was going to call World Adoption Agency in Denver, a local orphanage. Out of all the websites, this one held the most appeal. Children of every age, every race, some with health issues, some with emotional troubles, resided at the state-funded home. Yes, this would offer her a wide selection of children from around the world. Sex or age didn’t matter to her. Melanie sensed she would know exactly which child she would adopt when the time came.
At long last, Fern Michaels’s bestselling
hardcover novel,
MR. AND MISS ANONYMOUS,
will be available in paperback in January 2012!
Turn the page for a special preview.
Prologue
University of California
Berkeley Campus, 1986
Peter Aaron Kelly stared out of his grungy apartment window not caring that he was running late. His roommates had gone home for the Christmas holiday, so he had the sparsely furnished apartment to himself. Maybe he should just blow off his appointment at the clinic and go straight to his job at the café, where he worked as a waiter for the three-hour lunch period. But, he needed the last payment from the clinic. Needed it desperately to pay the final installment on his tuition for his last semester. In the end, what the hell difference did it make one way or the other? He shrugged his shoulders, reached for his Windbreaker and baseball cap.
Thirty-five minutes later, Pak, as he was known to his friends, entered the Berkeley Sperm Bank thirteen minutes