The Mother'S Day Garden,New

Product DescriptionAn ordinary woman makes an extraordinary discovery and gets a second chance to follow her dreams in this heartwarming novel from awardwinning storyteller Kimberly Cates. Parenthood behind her, her only daughter off to college, Hannah O'Connell should be enjoying the peace of an empty home, and time with her husband, Sam. But a miraculous arrival, an abandoned baby girl, comes into their livesa precious infant with the power to put the unspoken strains in their marriage into sharp focus.Clashing with Sam over caring for little Ellie, Hannah takes a chance on her lifelong wish for a home filled with the laughter and joys of children. Sam needs only to look at Hannah's gardenwhere, years ago, she hoped to plant a lilac bush for each of her children still to beto know he cannot keep her love for Ellie from blooming.But will a shattering secret from Hannah's past push them to the breaking point? Hannah will risk everything on the hope that love is enough for them all.About the AuthorKimberly Cates is the beloved author of the over ten historical romances, includingCrown of Mist, Restless Is the Wind, Briar Rose, andLily Fair. She turned her talents to contemporary fiction with her novelsFly Away Home andThe Mother's Day Garden. She is also the author of the short story Gabriel's Angel in the holiday collectionA Gift of Love. A native of Illinois, Kimberly taught elementary school for three years and married her high school sweetheart.Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.Chapter OneTrapped like a rat, Hannah O'Connell thought as the screen door slammed and all too familiar footsteps sounded briskly in her back entryway.'Hannah?' her best friend, Josie Wilkes, called out. 'Don't get up. It's just me.'Hannah clutched the handles of the wicker laundry basket as if it were full of drug money instead of mounds of damp things fresh from the washing machine. You'd think most people would consider hanging out wash pretty harmless. But she had a funny feeling Josie Wilkes wouldn't see it quite that way.Hannah looked for someplace to ditch the evidence, but there was no retreat. Reckless, her nineteenyearold daughter Becca's grizzled black Lab, blocked the way to the laundry room, immovable in his unfailing hope that anyone at the door might be his girl home from college. And Josie was already rounding the corner into the kitchen, a bulky plastic baby carrier clasped in both hands.'Just when you think you're indispensable, you find out the world can get along just fine without you.' Josie sighed without looking up as she settled her fivemonthold, Tommy, in the middle of Hannah's kitchen table. 'You should see those eager little volunteers we trained at the community garden taking over while the two of us are on leave. By the time we get back to work they'll have pasted their names over ours on the manager's doors. When I stopped by to pick up the veggies they wanted to send you as a getwell present, I told Steve to quit looking so happy about being in charge or I'd rip his heirloom tomato vines out by the whoa there!' Josie's green eyes widened in disapproval as they locked on Hannah. 'Exactly what do you think you're doing, buddy old pal?'Hannah's cheeks burned, but she clutched the basket even tighter in spite of the ache radiating from the angry red scar on her abdomen. 'It's been four weeks since my surgery.''And by my count that leaves at least two more weeks before you're allowed to lift anything at all, let alone something as heavy as that basket.''But all this sitting around is driving me crazy, Josie. I can't stand it.''Civilization as we know it won't come to a crashing halt if you let someone help you for once in your life, Hannah,' Josie insisted, grabbing the basket's rim.'Easy for you to say!' Hannah tried to hide a grimace of discomfort as she released her hold on the basket. 'If people don't stop telling me to sit still, take it e