The Sergeant's Baby

by Bonnie Gardner

  She pulled the pins out of her sensible twist and let her hair swing free. Danny always had loved her hair loose. She ran her fingers through it to tousle it, then admired the results. “Dynamite,” she said.

  Ally hurried to the door and reached for the handle. Remembering Danny’s previous warnings about not opening doors without finding out who was behind them, she held herself back. “Who is it?” she called in a saccharine voice.

  “Come off it, Ally. You know damn well who it is,” Danny answered.

  Ally flung open the door. “Well, you did tell me not to open the door till I knew who was there,” she reminded him. She certainly was enjoying this. If she had to pretend to be a helpless ninny to catch her man, she would.

  After all, Technical Sergeant Daniel X. Murphey was certainly worth it. Ally beamed up into his glowering face, and enjoyed watching his frown turn to an admiring grin.

  “Wow. You look hot!” Danny declared.

  “Thanks,” Ally replied, pleased she had gotten exactly the reaction she’d wanted. There was something about long hair cascading around a woman’s shoulders that always turned guys on. And she wasn’t above using all the tools at her disposal tonight. “Are you ready? We’re starved.”

  Danny glanced around as if expecting to find someone lurking in the shadows. “We? Who’s going with us?”

  “The baby and I, Danny. Like I said, we’re very hungry.” And me—I’m hungry for you. “Ready to go? If we don’t get going, we’ll end up keeping Roger waiting.”

  “Can’t let that happen,” Danny said, crooking his arm.

  Ally accepted it gladly and followed Danny out the door.

  “It’s not every day that I get to take my two best girls out to dinner.”

  “But remember, I’m paying,” Ally said as she closed and locked the front door.

  “Can we renegotiate?”

  “Why? Dinner was my idea. Besides, if I pay, I get to choose the restaurant,” she said. “I know the perfect place.”

  Danny lifted his hands, feigning surrender. “I give up. You win. Just please don’t make me eat in one of those froufrou places where they serve alfalfa sprout-and-tofu sandwiches. A guy could starve to death before he got out of a place like that.”

  “Who do you think you’re dealing with here?” Ally said as Danny opened the passenger door for her. “I want red meat. And I want lots of it. I think you’ll approve of the place I have in mind.” Ally settled into the seat and reached for her seat belt. “Now, come on. The native is getting restless.” She folded her hands across her stomach and was rewarded with a healthy nudge. “Ally Junior is hungry.”

  Danny swung into the car. “Lead on, Ms. Carter. Since I don’t know where we’re going, you can be the navigator.” He belted himself in and started the car. “Oh, and we are gonna have to discuss names. Tonight is as good a time as any to start.”

  Ally didn’t respond. She just grinned.

  Everything was falling right into place.

  Chapter Twelve

  Danny sat back and watched Ally as she perused the menu at O’Malley’s. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he’d been there for lunch today, but then, did it matter? He himself couldn’t have picked a better place.

  “I’m so hungry I could eat a side of beef single-handedly,” Ally said as she continued to scan the menu. She read each entry with deep concentration, her tongue tucked in the side of her mouth, occasionally flicking back and forth to moisten her lips.

  Holy Toledo, Danny realized, she could get him worked up without even trying. If they didn’t settle their differences soon, Danny would be a complete basket case. “I’m pretty hungry myself,” he said, more as a way to distract himself than anything else. He’d already made his decision. On his entree…and Ally.

  “Okay, I’ve finally decided,” Ally said, snapping her menu shut. “How ‘bout you?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Danny said. “I know exactly what I want.” He wanted Ally now and forever. How to get her was still the crux of the problem. “I’m going to have the New York strip.”

  “Good choice,” Ally declared. “That’s a little big for me. I’ll have a filet mignon. And a really, really big baked potato with all the trimmings.”

  “Only a filet mignon? I thought you were hungry enough to eat a horse.”

  Ally made a shocked face. “I could never eat Black Beauty.”

  Danny had to laugh. “I was speaking figuratively, of course. You’re making up for it with the loaded potato, you realize.”

  The dining room was crowded, so Ally lowered her voice. She looked at him conspiratorially. “Humor me. I’m pregnant. I get strange cravings, and I can’t tell from one day to the next what they will be for.”

  Danny just smiled and signaled for the waiter. He was getting pretty familiar with cravings. In his case, though, they were not for food.

  He enjoyed the easy camaraderie that had begun to develop between them almost as much as he loved the special moments, the lovemaking. Now, if he could just figure out how to propose to her and be certain that Ally would accept, he could die happy.

  Then he remembered his pending assignment to Tamahlyastan and amended himself. Of course he hoped it wouldn’t come to that. At least not for another fifty or sixty years.

  DARKNESS HAD FALLEN by the time they finished at O’Malley’s, but the evening air was still balmy, thanks to the lingering Indian summer.

  Ally paused outside the restaurant and let the warm breeze caress her cheek. “What a wonderful night for a stroll in the park,” she said.

  Danny reached around her, fitting his hand into the curve of her waist. “Yeah, it is nice,” he said, and lifted his face to the breeze. “Too bad we have to go see the captain.” With gentle pressure to Ally’s waist, he steered her toward the waiting car.

  She couldn’t help thinking that this was one of those postcard moments that made a courtship beautiful. Of course, this wasn’t an ordinary courtship. After all, the courting had been done long ago.

  Now they were just trying to work out the details for the rest of their lives. And what happened in the next few days would determine their future. If Danny proposed again, she would accept—after making some concessions, she supposed—and they’d have their happily-ever-after.

  If not, they would have to figure out how to keep Danny in the baby’s life, but not necessarily in hers. That was a future she did not want.

  Though Ally was happy that Danny had decided to come out of his cave to be with her tonight, she still didn’t have a real feel for his current mindset. Yes, he’d proposed to her. Several days ago and on the spur of the moment. Had he really meant it?

  Yes, he’d suggested that he might propose again, but now that she’d decided that she would accept him, he hadn’t broached the subject. How was she going to get him to do it so she could say yes, while making him believe that it was his idea?

  They stopped at a light and Ally glanced over at Danny, illuminated by the glow. In the red glare, Danny looked like the fierce warrior he was trained to be, yet he had shown her another side of him as he’d opened up to the idea of their baby and the prospect of being a father.

  Ally had loved Danny as he was almost three years ago, but now that they’d both matured, so had her love.

  As they drove through the dark streets toward Roger Haddad’s off-base neighborhood, Ally knew one thing for sure. She would accept any proposal from Danny in an instant, with no reservations, if he’d just ask.

  DANNY COULDN’T HELP grinning at Ally seated cross-legged on Haddad’s garage floor surrounded by the litter of squirming puppies just like a kid. No, she looked just like their kid would look some fifteen years or so from now.

  Who wouldn’t be in love with that beautiful woman sitting in front of him?

  Ally glanced up at him, two wriggling puppies in her arms. “I can’t decide which, Danny. They’re both so adorable,” she said as one pup licked at her face while the other one decided to make a snack
of her long, jet-black hair. “You’ve got to help me.”

  Danny hunkered down beside her and took the hair chewer out of her hands. “Do you really want this one? You’d have to keep your hair pinned up all the time, and that would be a damn shame.”

  Ally beamed at his comment. “Yes, but I’d have to constantly be fixing my makeup with this one,” Ally pointed out as she held the face licker away from her.

  “Why do you bother with makeup anyway, Ally? You always look beautiful to me.”

  Ally glowed with pleasure from the compliment, and Danny caught Amy Haddad giving her husband a knowing nudge. He guessed his feelings for Ally, and hers for him, weren’t as carefully hidden as he’d thought, but at this late date, he no longer cared.

  He had just a few more days to figure out what to do. Then he had to make it happen.

  Seeing Ally, sitting happily on the floor amid the puppies, he couldn’t help musing that maybe the whole mess just might work out after all.

  If it didn’t, it wouldn’t be for lack of trying on his part.

  In the middle of all this, Ally seemed oblivious to his deep thinking, but Danny didn’t really mind. What had to be said between them was best said in private.

  Ally glanced up, her chin damp from wet puppy kisses, and grinned like a kid. “I guess it’s gonna be Sweetie-Pie here,” she announced.

  Danny took the pup out of her hands and turned it over. Correction—turned him over. “Now wait just a minute, Allison Carter. You will not ruin a perfectly good guy dog with a stupid name like Sweetie-Pie.”

  Making a face at him, Ally took the puppy back. “He’s my Sweetie-Pie, and I can call him anything I want.” She gazed at the pup. “Can’t I, Sweetie-Pie?”

  If Ally would promise to be his Sweetie-Pie, Danny thought, he wouldn’t give a damn what she called him, either.

  Sweetie-Pie took that moment to sprinkle her lap, and Danny had to laugh. “I guess Water Boy had other ideas.”

  Ally cuddled the puppy. “It’s okay, little guy. I forgive you this time, and the right name will come to us sooner or later. I love you anyway,” she whispered.

  He closed his hand over Ally’s and helped her and the puppy up. Then he turned to the Haddads. “Sweetie-Pie here is the one.”

  Amy Haddad smiled. “Most people don’t realize that they can’t name puppies—puppies name themselves.” She smiled at Ally. “I think you made a good choice.”

  Ally beamed. “I do, too.”

  She was pretty sure Danny wasn’t referring to the dog.

  “I guess we’ll have to stop at the pet store for supplies on the way home.”

  Danny liked the way she said “home,” even if it really wasn’t his. Yet. “That we can do,” he said, then he looked Ally square in the eyes. “Then we’ll discuss names.”

  He was pretty sure she understood they weren’t talking about the puppy’s.

  ALLY WAS AFRAID they wouldn’t make it to the pet shop on time. Puppy cradled in her arms, she and Danny dashed into the store just moments before it closed. After throwing themselves on the mercy of the tired manager, and with the help of the store clerk, they got what they needed.

  “Thank you so much for taking the time with us,” Ally said as one of the staff rang up all her purchases. Danny blanched at the total, but Ally presented her debit card without a moment’s hesitation. If Danny didn’t say anything, she wouldn’t, either.

  Sometimes, knowing when to keep your mouth shut was the best way to get along, she had recently concluded. She understood that if she was going to make a relationship with Danny work, she would have to concede on some issues. Danny would have to compromise, as well.

  “Yeah,” Danny added. “We knew better than to try to get all this so late, but we just couldn’t take this little guy home without the best of everything.”

  The manager, a tired-looking woman of middle age, smiled. “It makes my day to help such a happy little family,” she said.

  Danny didn’t correct her, and Ally simply smiled. From your lips to God’s ears, she couldn’t help thinking.

  She turned to Danny. “Well, let’s get our ‘son’home and tucked in,” she said. “We’ve all had a long day.”

  “Got that in one,” he agreed. Then, to the obvious relief of the store personnel, he gathered up their purchases and led the way outside.

  DANNY PACED in the living room, waiting for Ally to tuck the little fellow into his crate in her bedroom. He was gonna do it, he told himself. Tonight he was going to make sure that Ally knew how he felt. He was almost certain that if he asked her to marry him, this time she would accept.

  Now, if they could just get on with it.

  He wondered whether he should have bought a ring, but he hadn’t been certain until tonight when the moment would be right. Should he get down on one knee the way they did in the movies? He wanted to do it properly, but he wasn’t a one-knee kind of guy. And if he had to have a ring, he’d have to put his proposal off till another day.

  “No,” he told himself firmly. “Tonight’s the night.”

  “Did you say something, Danny?”

  When had Ally come into the room? He pivoted to face her. Damn, she was beautiful. She’d kicked off her shoes and slipped into some sort of flowing robe-type thing in that dark pink color she’d once told him was fuchsia. Whatever color it was, she looked hot in it. She couldn’t have prepared for this unexpected moment better if he’d told her what to wear.

  “Are you sure that crate isn’t too big for the little guy?” he asked, to divert Ally’s attention from what she might have heard him muttering.

  “Positive,” Ally said, a little confused at his question.

  Had she expected him to ask something else?

  “He needs room to move around if he’s going to be in there all day when I’m not at home,” Ally continued. “And he will grow.”

  “Yeah, they do that, don’t they.” Danny wasn’t entirely sure whether he was talking about the dog or their baby. He was still new to both: puppy ownership and fatherhood.

  But, he reminded himself, he’d best get used to the ideas. He’d just signed on to be responsible for a puppy and he was about to do the same for Ally and their baby.

  “Whew,” he whistled, stepping closer. “You’re more gorgeous every time I see you.”

  Ally beamed with pleasure. “Thank you,” she said, staring up at him, her dark, dark eyes wide with anticipation.

  Could she be as ready for this as he was?

  “We fat pregnant ladies need all the reassurance we can get, even if it isn’t true.”

  “It is true, Ally. Every word of it,” Danny whispered, his voice husky with emotion. He took Ally’s hands and drew her to him, then bent to her, touching her forehead with his. He loved this kind of closeness.

  “Ally, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever known. You’re all I ever wanted. I don’t care how much weight you gain. It’s natural.”

  “Well, I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Ally said with a chuckle.

  “You know what I mean,” Danny said. “Here,” he went on. “Let’s sit down.” He inclined his head toward the sofa, then cleared his throat. “I have something important to ask you.”

  Ally’s eyes grew even wider. “Yes?” she said, sinking slowly and gracefully to the cushions.

  Boy, this was hard, Danny thought. Why couldn’t he just blurt out the proposal and get it over with? No, he told himself. He had to do this perfectly. This was way too important.

  The rest of his life hinged on the next few moments. He let go of Ally’s hands only long enough to wipe his on his pantlegs. “Ally?” he said, then he shook his head and cleared his throat again.

  “Yes, Danny?” she prompted.

  Did she know what he was getting at? Of course she did. She had to. Then why the hell didn’t she help him out here. He started again. “Ally, I want you to be my wife,” he finally managed to say.

  Ally nodded, but she seemed to be waiting for
more. She glanced downward.

  Danny touched her chin and tipped her face upward. He kissed her on lips that trembled with emotion. The sweetness, the tenderness of response overwhelmed him. “Will you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Allison Murphey?”

  Her eyes filled with tears, and Ally blinked them away. She nodded again—frantically. “Yes, yes, yes,” she said. “I want so much to be your wife.”

  Danny threw his arms around her and squeezed her to him. “Thank you so much. I intend to be the best father to our child,” he said, wanting her to know for certain that he loved the baby, too.

  “I know you do, Danny,” Ally said softly.

  He clasped his hands excitedly. “What do we do next? We have to get started,” he announced. “We have to make plans!” Now that she’d said yes, he didn’t want anything to get in the way of their beginning the rest of their lives.

  “Hey, hold on there, Sergeant,” Ally said, raising up one small hand like a traffic cop. “We have plenty of time.”

  “No, we don’t. We have only a few months till the baby comes. And I’ll be leaving here Saturday morning to go back to Hurlburt. And not long after that, I’ll be taking off for Tamahlyastan.” Now that he’d done it, Danny didn’t want to fool around with petty things like details. He wanted to get on with the program.

  “We have to get a marriage license. We have to find a preacher.”

  “Yes, there is that,” Ally said. “And I do want to marry you—the sooner the better. But we have some technicalities to settle.”

  Danny shook his head vehemently. “No, no. All I need is to give you my name. Give my child my name.”

  Ally held her hand up again. “That name thing is one of those details we have to talk about. I love you more than life itself, and I want to be your wife.” She paused as if trying to figure out what to say next, then she took a deep breath and charged on. “Would you mind very much if I kept my family name?”

  He felt as though she’d detonated an eighty-megaton atom bomb. “What?”