Luke’s hand closed over her shoulder, forcing her to look up. “I thought we would be together.” Something kin to anger flashed in his eyes. “I thought you wanted that, too.”
The emotion etched on Luke’s face tempted her to stand, to slip into his arms and accept whatever he offered her. But she was through pasting together pieces of happiness. It wouldn’t work. It never did. Tears trailed a hot path down her cheek and dropped against the blanket.
When she spoke, her voice was surprisingly steady. “Something terrible happened and something wonderful came out of it. But neither thing has anything to do with me. Not really. I don’t belong here.”
“No, you’re wrong. I would be lost without you.” Luke dropped to his knees before her and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “We would be lost without you.”
She smiled, a weak attempt to ease the ache in her chest. “You can hire a nanny.”
He tilted her chin until she met his eyes. “Yes, but I can’t hire a mother.”
She shook her head. “Don’t be cruel, Luke.”
“Don’t leave me, then.”
Dana pulled away and stood, barely resisting the urge to run. “I can’t do it anymore, Luke. I can’t just accept what I’m given only to have it snatched away again.”
Warm, strong arms wrapped around her shoulders, pinning her back against the front of Luke’s body when she would have run. “Nothing will be taken away from you this time. Give me the chance to prove that to you. Give me the rest our lives.”
She shook her head, swallowing back a sob. There was nothing she wanted more than to say yes. But if she did and if this dream failed her, it would be the end. She’d shredded every emotional safety net on her last fall. There was nothing left to catch her if she fell again.
“You don’t understand. I can’t…”
“Fall, Dana,” Nick whispered against her neck. “I’ll catch you.”
Dana’s breath caught in her throat. How could he…? How could he possibly know what she was thinking? She closed her eyes and felt the connection, felt it vibrating through the contact of their bodies. He was practically a stranger and yet he knew her thoughts, her fears, her longings…
“We were meant to be together. All three of us,” he whispered.
“It can’t be that simple.”
“You’ve always accepted what fate denied you. Now you need to accept what fate is giving you.”
“Sir?” the EMT’s voice interrupted. “The baby’s body temperature is steady. You can take him home now.”
Luke cleared his throat. “Dana?”
She turned and met Luke’s eyes. What she saw there was desperate hope, and knew that it was mirrored in her own eyes. Slowly, as if in a dream, she held her hands out for Daniel. The paramedic laid him in her arms, and she stared down at his sweet face, a miniature version of Luke’s, and realized it was right. In that instant she embraced the entirety of all that had happened—the tragedy that had brought her to the mountain, the magic between her and Luke, the gift that was Daniel.
Luke leaned forward, kissing her lightly. “Are you ready to go home now?”
Dana shrugged the blanket from her shoulders, and in her mind’s eye saw it fall into the pit, forever extinguishing the despair.
She cupped Luke’s face with one hand and Daniel’s with the other.
“I’m already home,” she whispered.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8275-3
IN THE ARMS OF A STRANGER
Copyright © 2003 by Kristen Robinette
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In The Arms of a Stranger Page 22