Playing With Fire
an excerpt

Everything hurt, but Kathryn didn’t care, as she looked at the tiny, squirming bundle wrapped in a blue blanket in her arms. Her son. She held out a finger, and he curled his five tiny fingers around it, and something inside her broke. She hadn’t realized it was possible to feel so much love.

She looked up at her husband, who was staring at their child with a look of wonder she knew must mirror her own. “We did good, flyboy.”

“We sure did, Katie.” He sat on the edge of the bed and slipped his arms around Kathryn and the baby, pulling the little family into a circle. His voice cracked as he whispered, “I love you so much.”

She stared at her husband’s face. “This can’t be a game any more. This is serious business now.”

“It always was, to me.”

“We can’t mess this up. We have to protect him and take care of him and make sure he has everything he needs.”

“We will.”

She pulled her finger out of the baby’s grasp and spread out his fingers, so small and yet so perfect.

“Yes, he has ten of them,” her mother said.

“It’s hard to believe a human being can be so tiny,” she said out in a voice filled with awe.

“I’d say healthy is a better description. Eight pounds, twelve ounces can hardly be called tiny. There won’t be any point trying to tell people this horse was premature.”

Trust her mother to add a note of criticism to even the best moment of Kathryn’s life. She jutted her chin forward. “I wasn’t planning to. My friends can all count to nine.”