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The Heiress and the Baby Boom
by Lauri Robinson
Chapter One
1956
The deep breath of fortitude that Randi Osterlund drew in was full of chilly January air, and she begged the brightness of the sun to give her strength as she ran her hands up and down the front of her red wool coat.
All she had to do was knock. Just knock.
Then say hello.
Then... Her entire body drooped.
Oh, good grief.
She squared her shoulders, nodded to herself and almost took the last step toward the front door, but then she envisioned the unopened letter. The one he’d writtenReturn to Senderon.
Her hands began to shake and she balled them until her nails dug into her palms. That had been years ago. She’d thrown that letter away. Was over it. Over him. All she needed was his land.
She checked the double row of brass buttons on the front of her coat, made sure they were neatly fastened and flipped her hair off her shoulders.
Time to get this over with. Knock on the door.
It was just Jason Heim.
With a motorcycle, a hot-rod car, slicked-back sandy-brown hair, dark brown eyes and a physique that would make the greatest male movie star jealous, Jason had been the James Dean of Chicago long before the real James Dean had hit the big screen.
He was also the reason she’d locked up her heart and thrown away the key.
Her family and his had bad history, as her father had wanted to buy the one hundred sixty-acre plot of land Jason’s father owned, but Heim had refused to sell.
That had been years ago, though. Now Jason owned that land, and she was going to acquire it. Prove she had what it took to be a woman in the corporate world. She might only be twenty-two, but she was ready, and fully capable. After all, the Queen of England was only thirty and had already been queen for three years.
Not that Randi wanted to be a queen, but she did want to prove that women could do more than get married and have children.
She took another deep breath in preparation to take that last step and knock on the door, but chose to make sure the big rhinestone R pinned on her coat was straight first.
“Are you going to stand there primping all morning, or are you going to knock on the door?”
Startled from her thoughts, her heels slipped on the concrete. She caught her footing, but seeing the man peering over the fence next to the house made her heart pound so hard it hurt and enough butterflies erupted in her stomach to make her take flight.
Jason’s grin showed off the dimple in his right cheek, and his elbows propped on the gate were a sign that he’d been watching her for some time.
He was as handsome as ever.
Maybe this hadn’t been a good idea.
No. She was no longer a schoolgirl. She was a grown woman. “No, I—” Quickly deciding that ignoring his comment would be a more mature choice, she lifted her chin. “I don’t know if you remember—”
He laughed. “Everyone who ever stepped foot in Westward High School rememberstheRandi Osterlund. The princess who would one day become queen.”
The bitterness of his laugh sparked ire. She loved her family, loved her parents for all of their successes, but she was more than just Randal and Jolie Osterlund’s daughter. Head up, she stepped off the concrete porch. “No more than they remembertheJason Heim.”
