“ I think I’ll have a filet mignon. And a really, really big baked potato with all the trimmings,” Ally said.
“ Only a filet mignon?” Danny asked. “I thought you were hungry enough to eat a horse.”
Ally made a shocked face. “I could never eat Black Beauty.”
Danny had to laugh. “I was speaking figuratively, and you know it. Of course, you’re making up for it with the loaded potato.”
The dining room was crowded and Ally lowered her voice, looking at him conspiratorially. “Humor me. I’m pregnant. I get strange cravings, and I can’t tell from one day to the next what they will be for.”
Danny just smiled and signaled for the waiter. He knew all about cravings. In his case, though, they were not for food.
Dear Reader,
Sometimes military life leads a man or a woman in a direction he or she hadn’t originally intended. Both air force TSGT Danny Murphey and Ally Carter thought they knew exactly where they were going. Then life intruded.
Danny was baseball, apple pie, mom and family. He wanted a home and a family, and he fully expected to be responsible for taking care of them. When he met independent Ally Carter, he thought he’d found the perfect woman. Ally Carter had a mind of her own. She’d come from a less traditional family. Her father had been a cultural anthropologist studying in the Middle East when he met her mother, a native of Tamalya. In Ally’s rebellion against her mother’s traditional upbringing, she almost lost her own happiness.
How do you make two diametrically opposed personalities come together in a meeting of minds (and bodies)? You throw in an unexpected pregnancy, assignment to a Middle Eastern war zone, and mix well. The result is lasting love.
Though there are military special operations schools that prepare servicemen and women for their assignments, I have left the details purposely vague, and I have invented the foreign country in question. However, the reactions and emotions of our characters are real.
I hope you come to know and understand Danny and Ally as I do. And I hope you enjoy reading their story.
Fondly,
Bonnie Gardner
The Sergeant’s Baby
Bonnie Gardner
In loving memory of my dad, George W. Purcell, Major, U.S. Army Ret. (March 19, 1925–February 17, 2004). He was my first military hero.
To Mud, as always.
As always, I thank, for their hard work and dedication, the military men and women who sacrifice so much to keep our world safe, and the families they must leave behind to keep the home fires burning.
Books by Bonnie Gardner
HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE
911—SGT. BILLY’S BRIDE
958—THE SERGEANT’S SECRET SON
970—PRICELESS MARRIAGE
1019—SERGEANT DARLING
1067—THE SERGEANT’S BABY
Contents
Prologue
Two Years Ago
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Allison Carter stood in her bra and panties in front of the closet and tried to decide what to put on. She’d always preferred slimming blacks and dark colors, but tonight she and her fiancé, Danny Murphey, were going to announce their engagement at Danny’s air-force unit’s annual Fourth of July bash on the beach. She needed something that shouted celebration, for the nation’s birthday and her own special day.
“I like the red one,” Danny said from behind her. He wrapped his arms around hers, pinning them to her sides, and drew her to him. He nuzzled her neck, his breath warm and arousing against her cheek. He was referring to the crimson silk sheath with the oriental motif.
Ally had to admit that she looked great in that dress when she was wearing four-inch heels, but on the sandy beach, they would be very much out of place, nor would she be able to walk. Plus, considering her five-foot frame, she wasn’t so sure the dress would have the same effect when she had on flat sandals.
Ally turned around and found Danny’s lips. She tasted him hungrily, and soon she wasn’t worrying about what to wear.
What was there about this man that made him different from the others she’d dated? Ally wondered with delight. She felt Danny harden against her, but she gently pushed him away.
“There’s plenty of time for that later, Danny,” she said breathlessly, turning back to the open closet. “Tonight’s important. Tonight, we’ll officially be a couple.”
“We aren’t now?” Danny countered. “We’ve been all but living together for months. It’s hardly a secret.”
“I know,” Ally replied. “But it’s a big deal for a woman. I can’t wait to introduce you to the people I work with,” she said as she selected a fuchsia sun-dress. She’d always thought it a little bright, but Danny had helped her pick it out. And she could wear sandals with it. “Will this one pass inspection?”
“Definitely.”
Danny reached around her and grabbed a moss-green polo shirt. Ally loved the way it stretched across his broad chest and over his wide shoulders. She smiled as she thought of the day she’d helped him pick it out. Telling her that he wore green almost every day, he’d rejected it almost immediately. She’d had to explain to him that with his tanned complexion, Irish green eyes and red hair