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  “Maybe we should bring Ben in. We can introduce him to his new baby sister and let him decide what we’ll call her.”

  Shannon’s face lit up. “Oh, yes. Please go get him.”

  Burke darted out of the birthing room while the doctor and nursing staff cleaned up and saw to the rest of Shannon’s medical care. He fetched his three-year-old son from Shannon’s mother, who had moved in with them shortly after their wedding, and the nanny they’d hired to help around the house during the last weeks of Shannon’s pregnancy, and returned in less than a minute.

  “Mommy!”

  “Hi, sweetie. Come here.” She patted a space on the bed beside her and both Burke and Ben slid in beside her. She tilted her other arm so he could see the baby resting against her breast. “This is your new sister,” she said in a low voice. “But Mommy and Daddy can’t decide what to name her, and we thought you could help. We were thinking of calling her Sarah or maybe—”

  “Molly.”

  “Molly?” Burke and Shannon said at the same time. They exchanged a look, both trying not to laugh because Molly just happened to be the name of the animated dog on Ben’s favorite television cartoon.

  Ben reached out and brushed the tip of his finger over the baby’s forehead, down her nose, across her lips, and under her chin. She gazed up at him intently. “I want to call her Molly.”

  “I kind of like it,” Burke murmured after a moment.

  “It’s not bad,” Shannon agreed. “There are worse things than being named after a purple cocker spaniel, I guess.”

  “Molly it is, then. Thanks, buddy.” Burke ruffled his son’s dark-brown hair. “We never would have thought of that on our own.”

  For a long while, they sat in silence and Burke merely watched his family, taking in every detail of the picture they made as his entire being filled with complete contentment. With only their wedding coming in a close second, he hadn’t thought he could be happier than the first time he’d held Ben immediately following his birth. But now, he felt his heart swelling larger than he’d ever imagined possible. Everything he’d ever wanted was right here in front of him. Everything and more—so much more than he’d dreamed, thanks to Shannon.

  She’d brought laughter and passion and colors as bright as the sun into his otherwise black-and-white existence. Midnight feedings, dirty diapers and childish smiles that melted his heart. He’d rearranged his life for them—for her and for their children—and didn’t regret it for a single second.

  Tucking her head into the curve of his shoulder, he waited for everyone else to drift off before he closed his eyes and followed them into sleep, his whole world wrapped safely in the circle of his arms.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7690-5

  BOUGHT BY A MILLIONAIRE

  Copyright © 2005 by Heidi Betts

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