She was twenty-two, unmarried, unemployed and no more than a week or two from delivering a baby. She was virtually back on a doorstep she’d vowed she wouldn’t cross again until she’d made something of herself and done it totally on her own without the Adams power and influence behind her. If she’d taken one thing away from Texas with her, it had been the fierce Adams pride, the determination to buck everyone and chart her own path.

She supposed, in a manner of speaking, that she had. She had made a royal mess of things. No other Adams that she knew of had gone so far astray. She’d skated through college with grades no higher than they had to be. She’d lied about who she was and run away more times and from more places than she could count. Rather than upholding the noble Adams tradition, she’d thumbed her nose at it. Oh, yes, she’d made something of herself, all right, but she wasn’t especially proud of it, and this was hardly the triumphant homecoming she’d once envisioned.

The only thing she had going for her was the absolute certainty that the two people inside would welcome her back with open arms and without making judgments. Luke and Jessie Adams accepted people for who they were, flaws included. That went double for their only child, the daughter they adored. They would be relieved that she’d finally realized that her heart and her identity were all wrapped up with the tight-knit family who’d been patiently waiting for her all this time.

As she huddled in the rapidly cooling car, she recalled the oft-told story of the joy with which she’d been welcomed into the world twenty-three years ago tomorrow. She had been born in the middle of a Texas blizzard with no one around to assist her mother except Luke Adams, her uncle at the time and the man who became her father. Luke had been blind drunk that night, but he’d sobered in a hurry when faced with the immediacy of those shattering labor pains. He had risen to the occasion like a true Adams hero.

From an early age Angela understood that they both considered her to be their Christmas blessing, a miracle on a cold and bitter night. With her natural father dead, her birth had brought Luke and Jessie together, helped them to overcome the anguish and guilt they’d felt at having fallen in love even before her father’s fatal accident. Just as her name implied, she was their angel. Living up to such a lofty label had been daunting.