by Jean Oram
There’d been a time when Catherine had been proud of the way her parents had stayed together, knowing their marriage was unlike the others. Her father treated his wife like a queen, giving her the latest and greatest in cars, vacations, gems and jewels. And then one day, when Catherine was fourteen, she’d seen it for what it truly was. He’d been paying her off. Giving her a reason to remain quiet, to stay. Reasons other than love or devotion.
“They say the odds reset,” Zach mused, “but overall you’re still playing the same game.”
That had been her mother’s point.
“So you came home.”
“I bowed out and started the business with Logan.”
Because, as she’d discovered yesterday, he was alone. He had no home to return to after leaving active duty.
She struggled with the urge to reach over and touch his hand, to let him know he wasn’t alone. Instead she kept her hands clasped in front of her and her gaze out the window at the snowy scene surrounding them.
On the radio the announcer called out the time. They were definitely going to be late for John’s birthday gathering, but this felt worth it.
“You thought civilian life would be straightforward and easy?” she asked, referring to their earlier conversation.
“The idea of trading heavy problems for light ones was appealing, but it is an adjustment. The things I care about now are whether my neighbor is bothered by the weeds in my yard rather than whether my team is about to be weeded. If you know what I mean.”
“Very poetic.”
He smiled. “I try.”
“I can tell.” The way he was watching her caused a warm tug in her gut. She liked his easy charm and his contradictory serious undertone. His life hadn’t been perfect, either, but he was still standing, still had a concrete backbone she felt she could count on.
“You’re looking at me as if you just decided you might like me.”
She laughed, feeling free, safe. “Is my expression that readable?”
He got that contemplative look again. “It’s more like I know you.” He added quickly, “I don’t. But it’s as though…” His blue eyes grazed her, searching for clues, things to put into words.
She knew what it was.
“There aren’t many people like us.” People with a past so dark that even a floodlight couldn’t illuminate it.
During the conversation they’d begun to lean in, their shoulders touching over the console, their lips now close enough that one of them could raise their chin and they’d be kissing.
“Maybe that’s what it is,” Zach said softly.
This close she could see the faint scar on his cheek, the pulse in his temple, feel the heat from his body. He smelled good. Like someone she could get close to.
She straightened, heart pounding. She opened the car door, letting a blast of cold air into the vehicle’s warmth. Seconds later she was out in it, opening the back door to retrieve Xavier.
What had she been thinking? She’d almost kissed Zach!
She needed to stay distant, not hint that she had a darker-than-most past—although wasn’t that obvious, due to the way she’d come running across the world after marrying a perfect stranger?
They weren’t alike. He had dedicated his life to good things. To protecting others. To honor. He was a good man, and wouldn’t understand that she wasn’t like her family, who’d sold arms on the black market—the very thing most military men risked their lives to fight against in hostile areas of the world.
Managing to retrieve Xavier from the cramped backseat, she tried for a teasing tone as she met up with Zach alongside the car. “What’s your real vehicle again, and when do you get it back?”
“A Land Rover. Tuesday.” He was watching her, the slope of his slumped shoulders hinting at disappointment for the way she’d so quickly retreated.
“Ample rear seat?”
“For all things.” The hint of flirtatiousness in his gaze made her blush. She wanted to flirt back. Desperately.
Instead, she handed him the carrier and flipped a blanket over Xavier, protecting him from the cold wind whipping across the parking lot.
In awkward silence they walked to the building, then down the long shiny hallways, every moment of quiet highlighting how she’d ruined their little moment, taken it and stomped on it.
“What’s with the Team Pancakes or Team Waffles thing?” she asked. “Ginger asked me back at the store.”
“No clue.” Zach shot her a quick smile and knocked at a wide door, after setting down Xavier in his carrier. “Probably trying to figure out if we’re compatible.”
He held her eye until she had to look away.
From inside the room came a loud man’s voice. “You gonna get that, sweet cheeks?”
Zach let out a chuckle.
“Which team are you?” Catherine asked, curiosity getting the best of her despite her vow to keep some distance between them.
“Depends on my mood.”
“You’re a pancake. All the way.”
Zach’s chin jerked as though he was insulted. He turned, leaning against the wall to face her more fully. “Pancake? I’ll have you know that I’m complex enough to be a waffle.”
Next, a woman’s voice came from inside the room. “Reggie, don’t be so lazy!”
“I’m being practical and conserving energy,” the man replied. “The door’s always for you, my social butterfly.”
Catherine shook her head, ignoring the fight going on inside the suite. “I’m a waffle. You’re about the essentials. No frills. That says pancake all over it.”
“Frills, huh?” Shuffling sounds slowly grew louder on the other side of the door. Zach leaned toward Catherine, the fresh scent of snow following him. She caught a hint of his aftershave, which clung to Xavier’s clothing after being held by him. She already associated the smell with good things like snowmen, hot cocoa and happiness.
Zach was still in her space and she forced herself not to step back, but to hold her ground.
“I like pancakes because they’re quick and easy.” His voice was low, with a hint of something in his tone that made her body respond in a way it hadn’t to a man in nearly a year. “The problem is…” Oh, how his voice was delicious. “…syrup runs off of pancakes, it doesn’t pool, so they’re never quite sweet enough.”
Catherine opened her mouth to retort, but the suite door opened and an elderly woman exclaimed with glee, “Oh, it’s Zach!” She placed her hands on his cheeks, smiling up at him before frowning remorsefully. “How’s the poor car?”
“I’m picking it up on Tuesday.”
“I am sorry about that. I hope the bumper didn’t cost too much.”
“It’s fine.”
The woman’s lips pursed and she shook her head. “I really wish you’d let me pay for it, since I was the one without insurance.” She saw Catherine standing behind Zach and explained, “I no longer drive, but it was an emergency. And wouldn’t you know it, I slid right into poor Zach’s Range Runner.”
“Land Rover,” he said quietly.
“Yes, that big thing.”
Catherine took a second look at Zach. So he hadn’t been embarrassed about the accident; he’d wanted to change the subject because he’d been protecting a little old lady? She wasn’t sure what that meant, but it made her heart warm.
Catherine bent over Xavier’s carrier to make sure he wasn’t overheating, and the woman focused more closely on her. “Now who do we have here?”
“This is Catherine,” Zach said, then cleared his throat as he lifted Xavier in his seat. “My wife, and her son, Xavier.”
“Married! I thought that was just a rumor. Ginger said she hadn’t found you anyone.”
“This is Gran,” he added.
“Everyone calls me that,” she said, catching Catherine’s uncertain expression. “No need to be related to have the honor.” The woman turned back to the suite, hollering, “Reggie! Come meet Zach’s new wife! He found someone.”
Reggie said something and she hollered back, “I’m not fibbing! It’s true. She’s standing right here with her baby! Get off your duff and come see.” She turned again, all smiles. “What a sweet picture the three of you make.”
Catherine awkwardly shifted from foot to foot, intrigued by how Zach didn’t seem at all fazed by Gran.
Zach reached into his coat pocket. “I think I found something that belongs to you.” He pulled out the ring, and Gran peered at it for a moment as though trying to look through invisible reading glasses. Then her expression brightened.
“Reggie! Break out the good sherry! Zach found my mother’s old engagement ring.” She waved her hand. “Come in! Come in! That ring slides right off my finger in this cold weather. I need to get it resized.”
“We’re actually on our way to John’s birthday party,” Zach said, not moving. “I just wanted to drop this off so you could stop worrying.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet of you.” Gran frowned. “John’s party? Wasn’t his birthday last month?”
“I’m not sure.”
Her expression froze for a second before she said hurriedly, “Well, you’d better go. You can’t be late. So nice of you to drop this off for me. Lovely meeting you, Catherine, dear.”
The door closed and Catherine gave Zach a surprised look, to which he shrugged in reply.
The door opened again and Gran held out her hand. “Zach, dear, since I don’t drive anymore and I never think to ask Mary Alice to drop me off at the jewelry store, would you be a dear and get this resized? I want to wear it to church on Sunday.”
“Of course.” Zach pocketed the ring again. “What size?”
“Just one down from that should be fine.” And she shut the door again.
With no mention of a reward, and him willingly taking on another favor, Catherine fell a little bit in love with her helpful and honest husband.
As Zach pulled up outside the home where John was celebrating a birthday that surely numbered well into the sixties, he let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes. What Gran had said about the lawyer’s birthday being last month seemed accurate. Was this a belated celebration?
Something felt off, especially with Gran giving them such a hasty goodbye, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
He used to be good at sussing out the reasons why stuff didn’t add up.
“You’re not a social animal, are you?” Catherine asked.
“It’s going to be a zoo.”
“We don’t have to go in.”
He appreciated the offer, but she’d been right earlier in suggesting it was best to get the curiosity over with, so they wouldn’t be bombarded throughout the coming weeks. Maybe then he could get to the bottom of why she danced away whenever they seemed to connect. Oh, right. Because she was a widow who wasn’t looking for love, or anything beyond companionship.
Like the goof he was, in the car he’d all but leaned in, eyes closed, lips pursed, even though she’d made it abundantly clear she wasn’t interested.
“Do we have a story?” he asked, thinking ahead to the party and the line of questioning that would surely ensue.
“Oh, like a cover?” She wiggled in her seat, enthused by the idea.
“Yeah. Sure.” The truth was, their unorthodox arrangement was a tad embarrassing, and he hoped to steer clear of any conversations that involved how they’d met or what had caused them to take the leap with a stranger. The good thing was that guys rarely asked those kinds of questions, and nobody but Logan knew that he’d married her and forgotten about doing so.
“What should it be?” Catherine asked.
“We met online.”
She gave him a blank look and he grimaced. This was his thing—thinking on his feet and coming up with good cover stories. So why couldn’t he?
Because he’d be lying to people he cared about.
He cared about the people of Blueberry Springs.
When had that happened?
A chill rippled over his flesh and his old commander’s advice echoed in his ears. “Don’t get involved. You’ll only put yourself and others at risk.”
Inhaling slowly, Zach unclenched his hands, reminding himself that there was no risk. Not any longer. He was doing the real-world thing now. No more dangerous cases, no more big secrets.
Just a woman with an infant who’d traversed the world to come live with him, because she was in mourning and wasn’t in contact with her family—by choice.
That was a lame cover story, and after twenty-four hours together he should have more on her than that.
“And…?” Catherine prompted.
“Maybe it’s easiest to tell the truth?” he offered. Although not all of it. He wanted her to see him as a regular guy, not someone to fear, someone with secrets, or a past that would surely make her uncomfortable around him.
“The truth?” she said, her voice hollow.
They were silent for a moment, and a burst of laughter filtered into the car from the house they were parked outside of. It was going to be loud and warm in there. Maybe it would be too much for Xavier and they could leave early.
“Maybe not the truth,” he answered, thinking of himself and the things he never planned to speak of, the stories he hoped Catherine would never ask him to tell.
“Everyone’s going to want to know why I came over here.”
“True love,” Zach said, a hint of irony in his tone.
“And where Xavier’s father is.” A note of vulnerability had crept into her voice, and Zach reached for the keys to start the engine.
Catherine held out a hand to stop him. “Simon passed away when I was pregnant. I was alone, and so I came here, hoping for a fresh start and to give Xavier a family. That’s the truth.” She was so filled with sorrow that Zach did what he hadn’t dared yet do, and he reached out to gently touch her cheek.
“I’m sorry about Simon.”
A tear fell from her eye, and she quickly swiped at it. “I’m fine.”
“I know you are. You’re very strong, you know that?”
Catherine gave a huff of disbelief that sounded as if it came from a gut twisted with grief and remorse.
Maybe her cover story was just what she’d said it was and nothing more. He was so out of practice in dealing with genuine human emotion that he’d erroneously assumed there had to be more as a driver for her life-changing event. But maybe it was just grief pushing her to take the risk and come to Blueberry Springs. He knew that when it came to doing the unthinkable, there was nothing bigger than emotion as the reason behind it.
“Even though you’re strong, it’s okay to lean on me.” He would be here for her, wouldn’t he? He could make promises he never used to be able to make, for fear of suddenly having to vanish. “I admire that you want the best for Xavier, and that you’re willing to take a risk to find that for him.” Unsure what she was thinking, and what he should say to let her know that she could let down her guard, he added, “I can’t give you everything, but maybe—”
“I don’t want everything. I’m just looking for an honest, normal life.”
“Me, too,” he mumbled. “Me, too.”
And never in his life had he wanted it more.
6
As they entered the house, Catherine began to wonder what she had been thinking in saying yes to attending the party. The place was packed with people, noise and food. And as soon as they were safely inside the door, everyone turned and yelled, “Surprise!”
Catherine clutched Xavier’s carrier, stumbling backward and landing against Zach, who caught her. With one smooth move he had her and the now crying child behind him, his stance wary and wide, as though ready to defend them. In her confusion she wasn’t certain whether her heart was pumping that extra beat or two because of the way he was sheltering them, like they meant something to him, or from the shock of the unexpected greeting.
“Zach, you look as surprised as if you just gave birth to a camel!” A woman in a pink floral shirt with a booming sm
oker’s laugh came over, and Catherine instantly disliked her. The woman thought this was amusing, taking them by surprise and making Xavier cry. She ought to be ashamed of herself.
Catherine took in the room with a sweeping gaze. Cake. Gifts. There was even a banner on the far wall that said Congratulations Zach and Catherine!
“How did they know we’d come?” she whispered to Zach. And how had they put this all together so quickly? She’d only arrived in town yesterday.
“I hate ambushes. Absolutely hate them.” His neck was red and his hands were in fists, even though the rest of him had eased into a more casual stance at her side.
Raw energy was positively vibrating off him, and Logan had made his way out of the crowd to stand in front of them, his eyes glued to Zach’s as he said, “Cool it, man. It’s just a party. Just some people having a get-together.”
Catherine bounced Xavier in his seat and shushed him as people mulled around them, offering congratulations, taking their coats, shaking hands and trying to take Xavier from her. While she was flattered by the thought and effort that had gone into the party, she already wanted to go home.
“Should have seen this coming,” Zach muttered to her. There was something in his tone that was reluctant, self-disparaging, as if he was berating himself for not expecting the surprise.
“I think that would be missing the point.” She wanted to chuckle at how much he simply hated this moment—even more than she did. People were still smiling, their eyes shining with glee for having secretly pulled off the party as well as gotten them there.
Zach glanced at Catherine, his blue eyes still narrowed as if he was holding a grudge. “I don’t like having heart attacks.”
“It’s flattering they care.”