Phoebe swallowed and licked her lips. “I was hoping you’d dance with me tonight.”
Because it was Phoebe, and because he sensed she wasn’t very happy, he turned away from the exit. “All right.” He took her hand and began to draw her after him to the dance floor. Whatever had upset her, he could worm it out of her while they danced.
He pulled her into the middle of the crowded area and turned to draw her into his arms. There were so many people they were literally pushed together.
Phoebe’s slender body slid against his and settled as if she’d been made just for him. He realized suddenly that he’d never danced with her before. Never.
Would it have been like this between them before now if he’d been smart enough to dance with her? His heart began to pound and arousal began to stir. Automatically, he began to move to the beat of the music, and she moved with him, her soft curves a shocking temptation beneath his hands.
It was heaven. He turned his head slightly and breathed in her scent, and his entire body tightened.
What the hell… This was Phoebe. His little neighbor.
Not so little anymore. She was the same age Melanie was, though he’d bet his paycheck she was far less experienced. Stunned, confused, he actually stopped dancing right there in the middle of the crowd.
“Phoebe?” He pulled back far enough to see her face, wondering if she was feeling as overwhelmed as he was.
She tilted her head back and her entire face was shining as if someone had lit a lantern inside her. “Yes?”
When she met his eyes, something clicked into place. Something precious and irreplaceable, something that filled a spot inside him that he hadn’t even realized was empty. He forgot everything he’d been going to say, everything in his head, everything in the world. Nothing else mattered because everything he needed was right here in his arms, her eyes telling him that she felt the magic they were making together as well as he.
“Never mind,” he said at last. He pulled her close again, then grasped her hands, which had been resting on his shoulders, and slid them up behind his neck. The movement increased the intimacy of their position and he had to fight the urge to shift his hips against the soft body plastered to his. This was crazy. He was crazy. Crazy about a woman he’d known most of his life without really knowing her at all.
Phoebe made a small sound and turned her head toward him, nestling against his chest. He bent his head to hers and set his lips against her ear. “The rest of the evening.”
A shiver rippled down her spine and he delighted in the knowledge that she was as aroused as he was. Her head came up and their lips were a whisper apart. “What?”
He smiled and dropped his head farther, then brushed his nose lightly across hers. He wanted to kiss her worse than he’d ever wanted anything, including his first brand new bike and his ranger tab. But when he kissed Phoebe for the first time, he didn’t want an audience, and he didn’t want to have to stop. “You’re dancing with me for the rest of the evening.”
She shot him a glowing smile, and he swore there were stars twinkling and sparkling in the depths of those blue eyes. “All right.”
Dinner was the most nerve-racking experience Phoebe had ever had in her life. In the back of her head a steady cadence hammered: I have to tell him I have to tell him I have to tell him.
It was so insistent that she couldn’t relax and enjoy these moments she’d thought were gone forever. But she couldn’t tell him here, not in a restaurant.
Fortunately, Wade didn’t seem to want to discuss serious topics, either. He asked about her teaching job and seemed honestly interested. He asked questions about the little house in which she lived and how she’d found it. He asked about New York and how it was different from California, but he didn’t ask her why she’d moved. Thank heavens. Maybe he simply assumed that she’d wanted to get away from all the memories.
He told her a little bit about where he’d been and what he’d done. A lot of it was classified, but he could share generalities.
They didn’t talk about anything important. Neither of them mentioned the reunion, or the magical moments they’d shared, or what had occurred between them after the funeral.
And they didn’t talk about Melanie.
Melanie, for whom Wade had cared deeply for years before one evening of dancing…
“Phoebe, you’ll never guess who’s coming to the reunion with me.”
“I give.” She smiled as Melanie breezed into the living room of her small apartment on the weekend of their first class reunion. It had been nice to move away from home and get away from her sister, but it also was nice to see her from time to time. Melanie was lovable; she was just…too much sometimes. “Who?”
“Wade!”
Phoebe froze. She’d been expecting her sister to name a classmate, probably a male one, knowing Melanie. “Wade didn’t graduate with us,” she said carefully.
“I know, silly.” Melanie shook her head in exasperation. “I invited him.”
“But…”
“He’s going to wear his uniform.” Melanie waved a hand as if she was fanning herself. “I can’t resist a man in uniform.”
Neither could Phoebe, if that man was Wade. But she couldn’t say that to Mel.
The doorbell rang then, saving her from making a response. Melanie said, “That must be Wade. Let him in, will you? I’ve got to finish getting ready!”
Phoebe resisted the temptation to salute as she reluctantly moved toward the door and opened it.
“Wade.” It wasn’t hard to smile as she lifted her arms. It was much harder not to appear too thrilled. “It’s great to see you.”
“You, too.” Wade’s arms came around her and he kissed her lightly on the cheek before she backed away. “How’ve you been, Phoeber? You look terrific.”
He released her and stepped back a pace. “Seriously terrific,” he added, as he scanned the simple navy-blue dress she’d chosen.
“Thank you.” She knew she was blushing, and not just because of the admiration in his eyes. The feel of his hard arms around her had been overwhelming to senses that had been starved for even the sight of him. To suddenly be in her version of heaven was too much. She took a deep breath. “You look good, too. The army’s agreeing with you?”
He nodded. “And you’re enjoying teaching.” It wasn’t a question; they had stayed in loose touch by e-mail once or twice a month since she’d graduated from high school and headed off to Berkeley. As badly as she longed to hear from him, Phoebe always forced herself to wait at least a week before e-mailing him back. The last thing she wanted was for Wade to realize how she felt about him.
She nodded. “I think I told you I’m switching from first grade to fourth next year. It’ll be an interesting change.”
He grinned. “Yeah, the boys will have gone from being mildly annoying to thoroughly bratty.”
She laughed. “Hmm. Sounds like personal experience speaking.”
“Fourth grade was the year I got sent to the principal’s office for putting a tadpole in Miss Ladly’s Thermos of iced tea.”
“I’ve heard that story before. Guess I’ll be checking before I take a sip of anything.”
They smiled at each other and a companionable silence fell for a moment. But then she broke the mood. “How long are you home for, and where do you go after that?” He probably had no idea that she could recite every move he’d made in the nine years since he’d graduated from high school.
Wade’s face suddenly seemed guarded, his gray eyes darkening. “I have a few more days left of my two weeks’ leave and then I’m being deployed to Afghanistan.”
Afghanistan. The fear she’d always lived with rose, almost choking her. “Oh, God, Wade.”
“I’ll be back,” he said. “Who would come around to bug you once in a while if I didn’t?”
She forced herself to smile. “Just be careful.”
He nodded, reaching out a hand and rubbing her arm. “Thanks. I will.”
“Hey there!” Her sister’s voice singsonged a flirtatious greeting Phoebe had heard her employ dozens of times before. And just like many of those other times, Wade’s head swiveled around and Phoebe was instantly forgotten.
Lowering her eyes, she stepped away and busied herself gathering a few items for her evening bag while Melanie threw herself into Wade’s arms and gave him a loud kiss.
For the rest of the evening, she avoided looking at Wade and her sister as much as she could. It was just too painful.
Not long after they arrived at the reunion, she lost herself on the other side of the crowd. Her best friend from high school, June Nash, had come. June still lived in town. She’d married a former classmate and was expecting her first child. Phoebe felt conspicuously alone as she looked around. Everyone seemed either to be married by now or to have brought a date.
But June was genuinely delighted to see her, and they spent the mealtime catching up on the years since high school. Although they faithfully exchanged Christmas cards, their e-mails and phone calls had gradually slowed as their lives took different paths.
“So you’re teaching.” June smiled. “I bet you’re fantastic with children. I still remember how great you were when the student council helped with Special Olympics.”
Phoebe shrugged. “I enjoy it.” And the school district in which she taught was far enough from where she’d grown up that few people knew her as “the quiet twin.”
“That’s good.” June nodded her head in the direction of another group. “I see Melanie and Wade are an item again. I thought that ended a couple of years ago.”
Phoebe winced. “It did. But we’ve all stayed friends and Melanie invited him as her date tonight.”
Thankfully, the band began to play at that moment and she was spared any more discussion. June wasn’t dancing since her first child was due in less than two weeks and she said she felt like a hippo in a mud hole. But a group of girls Phoebe had known when they were all in the marching band dragged her up to the dance floor with them, and Phoebe decided she was going to enjoy what was left of the evening. She danced with a group of her classmates until the first slow song and then moved to another table to visit, forbidding herself to look around the room for Wade.
An hour later, she’d had enough. She’d seen the people she’d wanted to see, had danced and laughed and done her best to give the impression that life was treating Phoebe Merriman well. Melanie, as always, was the life of the party. She had abandoned Wade for a guy Phoebe barely remembered, and the two of them were knocking back drinks with a like-minded group.
This time Phoebe did look for Wade. He was standing alone by the bar and, as she watched, he set down his drink and approached Melanie. After a brief exchange, Melanie laughed and Wade turned and walked away.
When she realized he was heading for the door, she panicked. Plain and simple, she couldn’t bear the thought of Wade leaving without at least speaking to him one more time.
“Wade!” she called out. “Wait!”
Two little words. She could still remember them. Two little words that had altered her life. And not just hers. Three lives had been altered by that evening, four if you counted Bridget. If Wade had left the dance when he’d intended to, Melanie might still be alive. If Melanie were still alive, Phoebe and Wade would never have walked up to that cabin, would never have…and Bridget would never have been conceived.
Try as she might, Phoebe couldn’t regret those stolen moments of heaven she’d experienced with him. Nor could she imagine her world without her beautiful baby daughter in it.
“Would you like to go to a movie when we’re finished eating?” Wade smiled at her across the table. A movie. With Wade.
There was a time when she would have given an arm for that invitation. But things were different now. What she wanted and what was reality were two very separate things.
“Thank you, but no,” she said. “I have to get home pretty soon.”
He looked taken aback and, as she watched, the warmth in his eyes drained away. “All right.”
“Wade.” She leaned forward and took an irrevocable step. “I’d like you to come with me. There’s something I have to tell you.”
“You mentioned that yesterday,” he said, but she noticed he seemed to unbend a little. “Sounds scary.”
She couldn’t even smile. “I hope not.”
They left the restaurant and he followed her minivan directly back to her house. She’d offer him a glass of wine first, she decided, and then…then she’d have to decide how to tell him. But none of her opening lines sounded good. And now she had a new worry.
What if Wade didn’t want to be a father? What if he rejected Bridget and didn’t want to be part of her life?
Since yesterday, Phoebe had been trying to brace herself for sharing Bridget with her father when he came East. Which could be quite infrequently. After all, the man was probably going to be out of the country most of the time. If Wade didn’t want anything to do with them, their lives wouldn’t change appreciably.
But it would break her heart if he didn’t find Bridget as miraculous and irresistible as she did.
He followed her into the house at her invitation.
And it was then that she realized the flaw in her plan. Duh. How could she possibly explain the presence of a nanny?
Angie rose from the couch and gathered up her schoolwork. “Hi, Phoebe. Give me a minute to get organized and call my brother. I have an econ test tomorrow.”
Phoebe managed a smile. “Do you think you’re ready?”
Angie shrugged. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” She glanced at the ceiling. “Everything went fine this evening.”
Phoebe was having trouble getting out words. Her chest felt like there was an enormous weight bearing down, preventing her from taking one good, deep breath. “Good.”
Angie nodded and went to the phone. A moment later, she said, “He’s on his way.”
“I’ll walk out with you.” One more minute. Just one more minute to plan what she was going to say. Her hands were shaking as she followed the sitter to the end of her driveway. Angie’s brother was already rounding the corner and walking toward them, and Phoebe returned his wave as Angie moved away.
Then she took one last stab at a deep breath and turned toward her home again.
Wade stood framed in the doorway. His face was in the shadow, and golden light from her cozy little home streamed around him, illuminating the tall, unmoving figure. It looked right, she thought. Then she immediately censored the notion. There was no point in wishing for the moon.
Phoebe mounted the steps and he moved aside to let her enter. His brow furrowed as he watched her close the door behind herself. “You have a housekeeper?”
“No.” She took a deep breath. “No, I don’t. Angela is my nanny.” It wasn’t, perhaps, a perfect opening line, but she might as well jump in. She had to get this over with.
She watched the expressions move swiftly across his face: simple acceptance of an answer, then shock, and a growing incredulity as he took in what she had said. “Why do you have a nanny?” He looked around as if to confirm the obvious conclusion, but the books and toys had been put away in the large basket beneath the window, so there was no obvious evidence of a child in residence in the living room.
“I have a daughter.”
“I see.” His expression had gone so noncommittal she wondered what in the world he was thinking. Of all the reactions, calm acceptance wasn’t the one she’d anticipated.
“Wade?”
To her shock, he had started for the door. “This was a mistake,” he said. “Goodbye, Phoebe.”
“Wade!”
He stopped halfway to the door without turning around. “Yeah?”
“Don’t you even want to know about her?”
There was a long moment in which she held her breath. Then he turned around and in his eyes she saw a sadness so deep she couldn’t fathom what was wrong. Surely the existence of
a child couldn’t be that terrible, could it? Maybe it reminded him of what he would never have with Melanie—
“No,” he finally said. “I don’t.”
“But—”
“What we did—after the funeral—meant something to me.”
And she had known it would. He’d had a sense of honor a mile wide as long as she’d known him. It was one of the reasons she had been so loath to tell him she was pregnant. Even after she’d gotten past the hurt and the anger that he’d never contacted her after what they’d shared, she’d feared his reaction. She knew Wade well. He would have felt obligated to ask her to marry him.
The last thing she wanted was a man who felt forced into a loveless marriage with his child’s mother. But dear Lord, if he’d asked her to marry him then…she wasn’t sure she’d have had the strength to turn him down.
“I assumed it meant something to you,” he added.
“It did!” He was the first and only man she’d ever been with. He couldn’t possibly know what that meant to her.
“But you’ve moved on.” He laughed, but it wasn’t a sound of humor. “You’ve moved on in a big way.”
She couldn’t follow…. “I didn’t have a choice,” she said.
“Is the father still in the picture? I presume you’re not married or you wouldn’t have gone out with me tonight. I hope,” he said coolly.
She blinked, completely thrown off stride. He thought she’d—he thought Bridget was—“No,” she said. “You don’t understand. There is no other man.”
“Maybe not now, but—”
“She’s yours.”
Three
Wade froze, his face a classic mask of disbelief. Finally, as if he were sure he hadn’t understood what language she was speaking, he said, “What?”
“She’s your child,” Phoebe said. She probably should have been angry at his initial assumption that there’d been another man, but he looked so totally poleaxed now that she couldn’t summon much outrage.
“Are you kidding me?” He sounded as shocked as he looked. “We only—that one time—”
The Soldier's Seduction Page 3