Stand-In Mom

by Marie Ferrarella

  “I’m coming, darlin’, I’m coming. Don’t get your diaper all bunched up.”

  Hand on the nursery doorknob, Ike blew out a frustrated breath. For the first time in his life, he found himself completely stumped by a woman.

  Of all the times for that to happen…

  “I hate to see you go, Marta.”

  Marta closed her suitcase, offering Sydney a sad smile. They were in the guest room. Sara and Mac had already said their goodbyes last night and were still in bed, asleep.

  Ike hadn’t come at all, but then, she hadn’t expected him to.

  Only wished.

  Now there was only this final leave-taking before she boarded the Cessna with Shayne. She couldn’t wait to go.

  She wanted to stay, but then, that was just her craziness, that small holdover from her childhood that went hand-in-hand with looking for love. The only love she’d find here was in Sydney’s heart.

  “I remember saying words to that effect to you a little more than a year ago,” said Marta. “Except, I think I substituted ‘Sydney’ for ‘Marta.’” Laughing softly, she gave Sydney a hug. “I’ll be back soon, and next time we’ll have a real visit. I didn’t spend nearly enough time with you,” she apologized.

  Sydney wouldn’t hear it. “You were being Marta. Helpful.”

  And where did that get her? Miserable and feeling more empty than she had in a very long time. She put the suitcase she’d just packed next to the other two. “No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.”

  Sydney placed her hand on Marta’s shoulder. Something was wrong. Had been now for two days. “You want to tell me about it?”

  Marta tried to look puzzled. “About what?”

  “About why you came home crying the day before yesterday?”

  Having had her suspicions, Sydney had sent Shayne to talk to Ike, but he’d returned saying he’d gotten his head bitten off for his trouble. Whatever had happened between the two, Ike wasn’t talking about it. As for Marta, she’d eluded all of Sydney’s attempts to get to the heart of the problem. She had no recourse but to be blunt.

  It didn’t help. Marta pretended to glance around the small room, looking for anything she might have forgotten. In reality she knew the only thing she’d forgotten was to lock up her heart in the first place. “The wind stung my eyes.”

  Sydney crossed her arms before her. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard him called that before. Ike,” she added when Marta didn’t say anything.

  There was no point in lying, but neither was there any point in elaborating. She wasn’t sure she could, except that part of her had secretly hoped he would come looking for her, to talk her out of what she believed in her heart to be true. To convince her that what he’d said to her was true.

  “He’s probably been called a lot of things you haven’t heard firsthand,” Marta quipped.

  She looked at her watch. It was early, but she wanted to leave in plenty of time to make her flight. Staying here right now would only prolong her anguish. She would go on hoping until she was on the plane heading for home.

  Home. The word had never sounded emptier to her.

  Because she didn’t want to break down in front of Sydney, she changed the subject. “I wish there was another way to get to the airport without bothering Shayne.”

  “Well, I wish I was the one taking you, but Shayne won’t budge on this one.” She looked down at her stomach. Only a little while longer, she promised herself. “And you’re not bothering him. He has to stop at the hospital for new supplies anyway.” With a sigh, Sydney hugged her best friend. “When will you get it through your head that you don’t bother anyone? That having you in our lives is what makes our lives special?”

  Marta made no comment. The fact that Sydney believed that was good enough for her. She returned the heartfelt embrace. “I am going to miss you. I wish I could be here when you have the baby.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  Marta pressed her lips together, thinking. “Maybe I can arrange for a leave of absence—” There was a substitute teacher she could recommend to cover for her.

  “They only do that for family hardship,” Sydney reminded her.

  Tucking the smaller suitcase under her arm, Marta picked up the other two as she saw Shayne walking toward them. It was time. She looked at Sydney. “You’re the closest thing to a sister I ever had. I’ll do what I can to be here when the time comes,” she promised.

  Sydney barely had time to put her sadness away when she heard the pounding on her front door. Thinking that Marta had forgotten something, Sydney moved as quickly as she could to the door. She just managed to step back as Ike barreled into the house.

  “Where is she?”

  Now he came. She could have hit him. But one look at his face banished all thought of lectures. She’d never quite seen him like this before. “Oh Ike, you just missed her. She and Shayne left not more then ten minutes ago. She wanted to get an early start.”

  Sydney found herself talking to his back. Ike had spun on his heel and was hurrying away.

  “Good luck!” she shouted after him.

  Closing the door again, she shook her head. Men.

  Marta couldn’t find a place for herself.

  She’d turned down Shayne’s offer to remain with her at the airport until she boarded her flight. She knew his time was precious and that he was in a hurry to return to Sydney. Besides, she wanted to be by herself. To somehow make peace with the sadness that had soaked into her soul like an ink stain inching its way through fabric. She couldn’t do that and also keep up her end of a conversation that wasn’t registering.

  So she’d sent him on his way and had begun to prowl around the airport terminal, trying to distract herself—and failing miserably.

  All she could think about was Ike.

  Because of him, she hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to Celine. How big would the baby be when she returned? Babies grew quickly at this age.

  Would there be another woman holding her?

  Of course there would. There probably was even now. Alaska might have a female shortage, but Ike LeBlanc didn’t. He had probably forgotten all about her by now. Why else hadn’t he come by the house?

  Damn him, anyway.

  It felt like an eternity before her flight was finally called. After hearing first boarding announced, Marta turned toward the proper gate and slowly made her way to it, feeling as if each of her legs weighed a ton.

  She was going to have to snap out of this, she upbraided herself. It didn’t make any sense to feel this way about a man who didn’t care.

  It didn’t change anything.

  In a solitary world of her own making, Marta didn’t hear a man somewhere behind her excusing himself as he made his way through the crowd heading toward Gate 12. Like a lemming heading toward destruction, she moved with the crowd.

  Moved until she suddenly felt herself being scooped up into a pair of strong arms. Her suitcase falling from her hand, Marta bit back a shriek at suddenly losing contact with the floor.

  “Excuse me.” Ike addressed a man next to him. “Would you mind handing her that suitcase?” He nodded at it. “She just dropped it.”

  Grinning, the man acted as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on and put the handle into her hand.

  “Get a better grip on it,” Ike instructed Marta.

  Disbelief gave way in Marta to relief, and then slipped into disorientation. She stared at Ike as he proceeded to carry her away from her gate. “What are you doing?” Behind them, people were boarding the plane she was supposed to be on. She and Ike were moving farther and farther away from it. “Where are you taking me?”

  “As far away from the plane as is physically possible,” he answered.

  “Put me down,” she ordered. “I’m going to miss my flight.”

  “That’s the whole idea.”

  She squirmed, but Ike just held on tighter, strolling with her through the waiting area, garnering a host of interested
, amused looks.

  Where were the security guards when you needed them? she thought desperately. She didn’t want to be dragged back on the emotional roller coaster she’d just jumped from. “This isn’t funny, Ike.”

  He spared her a look from the corner of his eye, then kept his gaze straight ahead. “Didn’t mean for it to be, darlin’. You’ll know when I’m being funny. Actually, I’d hoped you’d know when I was being serious, but we can work on that.” He debated walking right out of the terminal with her, or just finding someplace where they could talk.

  “What’s this all about?”

  “Plummeting business at the Salty, to begin with.”

  Now she was completely lost. “What?”

  “Luc says I’m driving away business, and this is with a trapped clientele.” Ike couldn’t really say he disagreed with his cousin. He had been pretty surly these last couple of days, trying to sort things out in his head. Trying to tell himself he was better off without her. But a lie was a lie no matter how it was dressed up. He wasn’t better off without her, he needed her in his life. “I want you to stay. I need you to stay. It’s not like there’s anywhere else to go for a social drink in Hades, so you know I had to be pretty bad.”

  “What does this have to do with my missing my flight?”

  “Everything.” He stopped walking and looked into her eyes. “I want you to stay. Please.”

  The single word cut sharply into her escalating indignation. She was being a fool, Marta told herself. He didn’t love her, not really. He just needed someone to care for Celine. She’d heard him say it. If he felt anything for her, he would have come to talk to her after she’d stormed out.

  But he was here now.

  “Why didn’t you come to see me yesterday, or the night before that? If you’re serious, why didn’t you come after me?”

  Ike knew she’d hold that against him, and he couldn’t blame her. But he also knew he wouldn’t have been able to reach his decision any other way. He didn’t like leaping impulsively, and she’d very nearly made him do that. He’d had to stand back and take stock of things. To be sure. For both their sakes.

  “I had some soul-searching to do,” he told her. “And I found it.”

  “Found what?”

  “My soul. Only problem is, it’s determined to board a plane for Omaha.”

  Words, beautiful words. Make me believe you, Ike. Please make me believe you, Marta pleaded silently. “Put me down, Ike.”

  Ike looked at her, weighing his options. “Only if you promise not to run.”

  “I promise.”

  He believed her. More than that, he knew he could outrun her. Ike set her down slowly, but put his arms around her, just in case. “You know, if you go back on your word, I’ll just hunt you down and take you off the next flight. And the one after that.”

  All Marta had to do was look into his eyes to know he meant it. She let the suitcase slide from her fingers to the floor. “And how many times do you intend to do that?”

  “As many times as it takes. Maybe I didn’t say it right last time, but I love you. I love you, and I want you to stay. Not for a month, but forever.”

  “Forever,” she repeated. It had such a nice ring to it. She wanted forever. But others in her life had talked about forever, too. “Define forever.”

  He smiled into her eyes. That was easy. “Until the population of Alaska is equal to that of Southern California.”

  It suddenly hit her, as another flight was announced over the loudspeaker, that she’d had the only local pilot in Hades—now that Sydney was grounded—and he was now at the hospital. The roads were still impassable. “How did you get here?”

  “Jeb Kellogg’s still visiting with his family. I bribed him to fly me out here—and don’t change the subject.” His face became serious. “The only way you’re going to get rid of me is by looking me in the eye and telling me that you don’t love me.”

  She tried to look away, but he slowly turned her head back until their eyes met. Marta sighed deeply. “I can’t.”

  “Can’t love me?” he asked. “Or can’t say it?” He held his breath, waiting.

  Marta pressed her lips together. “Can’t lie.”

  “Good. I find truthful women very sexy.” He brushed his lips against hers. “Now tell me.”

  She knew what he wanted to hear. What she had been waiting all her life to hear. To know. “I love you.”

  He kissed her again, quickly and with feeling. He loved that her eyes looked just the slightest bit dazed. “There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  She had promised herself never to say those words again, because it hurt so much to have them flung back, disregarded. “Harder than you’ll ever know.”

  He understood. He had a lot of work ahead of him. But nothing he wasn’t equal to, or wouldn’t enjoy. He was going to spend his life showing her that she had placed her love in the right hands.

  “That’s because of the past, darlin’. Your past. But this is going to be our future. I swear to you that I’ll never do anything to hurt you or make you regret loving me.” He smiled into her eyes. “I’m the man you were meant to give your heart to.”

  She surrendered to the feeling. And to him. Marta threaded her arms around his neck. “What took you so long?”

  He grinned. “We can figure that out on the way back. C’mon, I’m paying Jeb by the half hour. If we don’t get back soon, he’s going to own the Salty.” And then, just as he took her hand to leave the terminal, he stopped abruptly and pulled her back into his arms to kiss her one more time.

  She braced her hands against his chest, holding him back. “I thought you were afraid of losing the Salty?”

  “Hell, I figure it’ll be worth it,” he said just before his lips met hers.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7028-6

  STAND-IN MOM

  Copyright © 1999 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

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