Sensing—correctly—that Nora needed her physical space, Zane lounged against the mantel. “Your mom?”
Restless, she stood, too. “Was in meetings in South Korea at the time.”
Zane watched her pace to the windows. “So ‘The General’ didn’t come back?”
Nora swung to face him and took another sip. “She Skyped with us. Met her new grandson that way. And told us both we were doing the right thing.”
Zane gave her a bluntly assessing look. “Davina wasn’t upset by your mother’s absence?”
Strangely, no. Nora shrugged and with a great deal of effort met Zane’s penetrating gaze. “She didn’t want to make a big deal over Liam’s birth, either. Although they were both happy for me.”
“And that was it? Davina didn’t have any second thoughts? Then or since?”
The unselfish part of Nora only wished. “She loves him like a distant aunt. That’s all. Davina’s real passion is for her work with the Army, just like my mom. Everything else pales in comparison.”
Zane ambled over to join her at the window. Gently caressed her cheek, then said philosophically, “Sounds like Liam may have dodged a bullet, then. ’Cause it’s clear you adore him.”
At the mention of her son, Nora’s heart filled with love. “I do.”
“I can see why.” Zane’s lips curved into an empathetic smile. “He’s a really cute little fella.”
Another silence fell and they walked back into the kitchen. Zane offered Nora more coffee. Declining, she drained her mug and put it in the sink. He set his mug next to the coffeemaker.
“What was your mom’s reaction to becoming a grandmother?” He was standing so close she could feel the heat emanating from his powerful body.
Nora shrugged, doing her best to hide her deep disappointment about this, too.
She couldn’t help but compare her every-woman-for-herself family to Zane’s much more close-knit brood. To her consternation, he seemed to be doing the same.
“As usual,” she replied, standing with her back to the counter, her arms clamped in front of her, “The General was more concerned about the logistics of care than the emotions involved.” She sighed wearily. “From the first, she wanted to ensure that our duty and responsibility to the new life was met. A solution found that would best suit all of us.”
Zane regarded her sympathetically.
Aware he was going to be very hard to resist if he kept caring for her this way, Nora replied matter-of-factly, “It was actually her idea that I take over the familial obligation and raise Liam myself.”
He moved closer still and lounged next to her. “Like your grandparents brought up you and your sister in your parents’ absence.”
Nora nodded, aware that although she had never lacked for love from her mother’s parents, she had acutely missed the day-to-day attention of her own.
His expression turning even more serious, Zane pivoted to better see her face. “And Davina was on board with that idea, too?”
Nora nodded, lifting her chin to meet his empathetic gaze. “She was the one who wanted to take it a step further, make it official and have me actually adopt Liam.”
Zane did not appear surprised by any of this. Maybe because he knew both her sister and mother, and how unmaternal they both were. He walked over to pour himself the very last of the coffee. “So Davina would be clear of any future parental responsibility?”
Reluctantly, Nora admitted, “That, plus Davina knew how hard it was for us kids, having parents who chose active duty over us, year after year after year. Even when Dad died in that training accident, when we were in our teens, Mom refused to request in-country assignments. She was on track to be brigadier general. And nothing was going to stand in her way of achieving her goal.”
Nora fought the tide of emotion rising inside.
Swallowing hard, she forced herself to continue, “The General envisions the same bright future for Davina, if she stays on track. And my sister intends to do just that. Now that this ‘blip’ in her rise to success has been dealt with, anyway.”
Zane’s gaze narrowed, his expression grave. “Is any of this common knowledge?”
“No. Davina and my mother were both afraid if word got out, some of her fellow soldiers would think less of her, and it would hurt her chance for promotion, and garnering the plum assignments she has come to really enjoy.”
“Like being the assigned interpreter for some of the top brass, overseas?”
Her breath hitched in her throat. “Right.”
Zane leaned over to put his empty mug in the sink, next to hers, his broad shoulder brushing hers in the process. “And you agreed with this part of the plan, too?”
That was much harder to quantify.
Noting the rain was diminishing once again, Nora confessed, “I want to protect Liam. Make sure he feels safe and loved and wanted and has the kind of good, stable home every child deserves.”
He straightened slowly, his big body blocking any easy exit she might have made. “Are you ever going to tell him the truth?”
Nora raked her teeth across her lower lip, shivering as Zane tracked the movement. “When he is a lot older, if need be. If, on the other hand—” as I really hope “—Liam demonstrates no curiosity about what his biological origins were, then...” She let her voice trail off.
Zane clamped a hand on the counter on either side of her. His expression turning even more brooding, he said, “Okay, I get why you did what you did for the little guy, even if you’ve put yourself at risk for tremendous heartache down the road.”
Nora stiffened, wanting to deny the potential for hurt was there. She couldn’t—not in good conscience, anyway. So she met his gaze, aware her emotions still felt pretty raw. “If you’re worried the adoption won’t become final in three months...”
Apparently, he was.
With a short exhalation of breath, she flattened a hand over the center of his chest and slipped out of the cage of his arms. “You needn’t be. Davina is not going to say one thing only to later do another.”
Zane shot her another intuitive glance. “Why do I suddenly think you’re comparing me to your sister?” he asked, deadpan.
Maybe because she was?
He waited. Expecting—no, demanding—she explain what she was thinking and feeling.
Deciding far too much soul-baring had been done for one day, however, Nora went in search of her coat and bag once again. “Look, I get it, Zane,” she said over her shoulder. Then she swung back to face him.
“I’ve even felt a tiny fraction of what you and my mother and my sister and a whole host of other soldiers feel about putting your service to your country above all else. Including family. And it’s admirable, I know.” Aware she was suddenly on the verge of tears again, she shrugged on her rain jacket, lifting her hair out of the collar, then zipped it up. “Because without people like you the world would be a much less safe place for the rest of us.”
Once again, he saw far more of what she was thinking and feeling than she would have wished.
Shoulders stiff with tension, Zane walked her to the foyer. “Except you’d never turn your back on loved ones in order to go off and rescue someone else.”
She opened the door, then paused in the portal. With difficulty, she met his probing gaze. “I’m not sure I’d put it quite that way,” she returned. “But you are right. Now that I have a son I love more than life, I couldn’t leave him behind for weeks and months at a time for any endeavor, no matter how noble.”
She paused to let her words sink in. Ignoring the telltale wrench of her heart, she added resolutely, “Liam has to come first. Ahead of my work. My duty to others. And most definitely my personal life, Zane.”
He studied her with a look that was maddeningly inscrutable. Finally, he palmed his chest. “
So where does that leave us?” he asked gruffly.
Nora drew a deep breath, her emotions in complete turmoil once again.
If only Zane were going to be around for more than a few weeks. But he wasn’t, so...
She threw up her hands in dismay. “I don’t know, Zane. I’m going to have to think about it.”
* * *
“SO WHAT DO you think, Liam?” Nora cooed late Saturday morning, as she situated her son in his stroller, a short distance away from the driveway.
The previous day’s torrential rain had left the Texas skies sunny and clear and briskly cold.
“Are you ready to see Mommy take our Christmas tree off the roof of our car?”
All bundled up, Liam gurgled happily.
“Then here we go!” Nora said.
The only problem was that the twine the lot attendant had secured it with was awfully tight. So tight, it was hard to get the utility scissors between the metal and pine. But finally she managed and with a sigh of relief, grabbed on to one of the thick branches and gave the tree a tug. It didn’t budge at all.
She turned to see what her son was doing. He had his head tilted to one side, a cloth-covered rattle clutched in one hand. “I’ll get it,” she promised cheerfully.
Figuring it might go easier if she snipped the twine on the other side, too, Nora walked around. Cut again. To no avail.
The big tree still wouldn’t budge from the center of her minivan roof.
“Need a hand there, darlin’?” The deep masculine voice sent a thrill up her spine.
Nora turned to see Zane jogging up the sidewalk toward her.
It wasn’t surprising he was out for a run. Active duty military worked out daily. Nor was she surprised that he was on her street. He could run up and down every avenue, business or residential, in the town limits and still barely get in his usual six miles. What was disconcerting, however, was just how happy she was to see him. They’d only been apart twenty-four hours, yet it felt like so much longer.
Especially because they’d left things so up in the air.
He squinted, grinning, awaiting a response.
Embarrassed not to be able to handle this chore by herself after all, she came back around to see Liam, who was still watching patiently. Then she decided, why look a gift horse in the mouth? “Sure,” she told him, “if you think you can get it down.”
He reached over the minivan roof. Tall enough to grasp the center of the evergreen, he lifted it up and over and down, standing it upright. It was a foot and a half taller than his six foot three inches and almost twice as wide among the lower branches as his extended arm.
He gave it an admiring glance. “Nice tree.”
As well as a fair sight bigger than she’d realized. But that was okay, she thought, since her home had high ceilings.
His gaze drifted fondly over her. “Do you have a stand for it?”
Nora felt an answering warmth. “Inside.”
“I’ll carry it in for you.”
The assumption she couldn’t handle that, either, rankled almost as much as her ever-resurging feelings for him. She wanted to be friends with him, at the very least, but she wasn’t sure she could limit it to that. And that could mean trouble. For both of them. “I’ve got it,” she announced cavalierly.
He lifted a brow. “Sure?”
Reminding herself she had decided to take a time-out to decide what kind of relationship they should have in the future, she nodded and grabbed hold of the middle of the tree. He made sure she had it, then let go.
The weight of it sent her reeling backward.
He caught it with one hand, her waist with the other, then flashed the kind of wolfish grin that said he always knew best. “Why don’t you let me give you a hand?” he asked quietly.
Figuring the fastest way to have him on his merry way was to acquiesce, Nora drew a deep breath. “Thank you.” Spine stiff, she extricated herself from his protective grip. Taking hold of Liam’s stroller, she led the way to the door and put her baby boy inside, in the corner of the living room, well out of harm’s way. Then went back to hold the door for Zane.
He carried the tree in and over to the stand.
Short minutes later, it was upright and secured into the bottom of the base. Unfortunately, it practically scraped the ceiling with its height. And was clearly bigger and fuller on one side than the other. Flushing, Nora turned the evergreen one way, then the other. To no avail. It still looked almost-comically lopsided.
Grooves deepened on either side of his mouth. “You could put it in a corner with the skimpy side hidden from view,” he suggested. “That’s what my mom always does.”
“Lucille has this problem?” Hard to imagine. His mother was so elegant, so pulled together. Competent in all the cozy nesting ways her own mother was not.
“You can never really tell what you’re getting on the lot, with all the trees bunched together like that. That’s what makes it fun.” Zane moved the tree around. “See?” He pushed it back. “It looks fine now.”
Surprisingly, it did. If you didn’t look too closely, that was.
From his stroller, Liam kicked his feet and gurgled happily, albeit a little impatiently.
Aware what was really important was finding a way to embrace the Christmas spirit and do everything in her power to make her son happy, she turned back to Zane.
Perhaps their next step was to simply try and be friends... “Want to stay and help us decorate it?” she asked impulsively.
Regret flashed in his eyes. “Love to.” He hunkered down to fondly brush her son’s cheek. “Just can’t do it today. Which is why I came by.”
He straightened to his full height, his tall, physically fit frame towering over her more petite one. He regarded her for a long careful moment.
“I need to talk to you about the gift baskets for soldiers.”
“Okay.” Nora ignored the sudden racing of her pulse.
“Miss Mim and the others wanted to help with that, but if the presents are going to make the next transport, the Army needs them by Monday noon. So we’re going to have to get them all put together tomorrow afternoon. Is that going to be doable on your end?”
“Sure,” she replied, knowing there was nothing her senior patients liked more than still feeling needed. Working to hide her disappointment she and Zane wouldn’t be spending any more time together today, she moved close enough to inhale the lingering woodsy scent of his aftershave. “How many gift baskets are we talking about?”
“West Texas Warriors Assistance has pledged to provide ten thousand.”
Nora staggered dramatically backward, a hand to her heart. Zane laughed, as she meant him to.
“Not to worry.” He grasped her wrist lightly and reeled her back to his side. “We’ve got four churches, three civic organizations and a big group of high school students working, too. So if Laramie Gardens can’t handle their allotment of a thousand,” he said, letting her go once again, “some of the other organizations can pick up the slack.”
Oblivious to the way her skin was still tingling from his touch, Zane sobered. “Just let me know what to expect, so I can make sure the supplies are all where they should be by the time we get started.”
She nodded, doing her best to concentrate on the requisite logistics instead of the ruggedly handsome man opposite her. “I think we can do it.” Nora walked over to get her son out of the stroller. “When will you be bringing the stuff by?”
“Just before we get started tomorrow. I’m heading to Dallas and Fort Worth with my brothers and a few other WTWA volunteers shortly to pick up a lot of the donated materials.”
Once again, she had to work to hide her disappointment. She tore her eyes from the sinewy contours of his chest. “Then Liam and I won’t keep you,” she promised.
Even if she, at least, really wanted to. Even if he had only twenty-seven days of leave left.
Not, she reassured herself firmly, that she was counting.
Chapter Six
“Okay, does everyone understand what we’re doing?” Zane asked the one hundred seniors assembled in the Laramie Gardens dining hall, the next afternoon. “Everyone has five baskets in front of them, and some sheets of red tissue paper that you can use to line the bottom.”
He turned to Nora and waited for her to demonstrate. Trying not to notice how sexy he looked—both in and out of uniform—she did.
“While you’re all doing that, we’ll come around and pass out the items that go in the baskets.” He walked over to hand her the items. “Then we’ll put the holiday cards the elementary school kids made for the soldiers on top of that.” Their hands brushed as he gave her one. “And wrap the baskets.”
Intoxicated by his genial, take-charge nature, Nora again showed the seniors how to proceed. Securing the cellophane overwrap with a snap-on bow.
Smiling, Zane turned his attention back to the crowd. “Once we finish the toiletries gift baskets, we’ll start on the food ones and use the same process. Okay?”
Resident Kurtis Kelley cupped his hand around his mouth. “We got it, Lieutenant! So get moving already!”
Everyone laughed.
Zane took a pushcart. The younger volunteers he’d brought with him to help out—mostly ex-soldiers and their wives or husbands—followed. Nora took up the rear.
Perhaps because it was so well organized, the process went remarkably fast. Three hours later, each senior had put together ten gift baskets. The younger volunteers put them in shipping boxes, which would then be loaded onto trucks.
Yet few seemed ready to disperse as they filtered out into the community room while dinner was being set up by the kitchen staff. Nora didn’t want to leave, either, with Zane still there. So she retrieved Liam—who was still sleeping soundly in his stroller—from his sitter and returned to find the handsome soldier standing next to the fireplace, holding court.
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