Unexpected Gift Read online

  Kelly opened her mouth again, probably to remind him that marriage was the least of their concerns. And maybe it was.

  However, it was a start.

  After that, they could work out the details of visitation, shared custody and anything else that cropped up.

  “Sleep on it,” Gabe insisted.

  He’d sleep on it, too. Well, he would if he managed to get any sleep at all, and maybe by morning he’d know what the heck he was going to do next.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SLEEP ON IT.

  Even in sleep that order didn’t sit well with Kelly. And it had been an order, no doubt about that. The Air Force Captain had spoken, and even though he’d given her that sleep on it postscript, it was still an order.

  Because Gabe fully expected her to say yes.

  She wouldn’t, of course. And even in sleep, she knew that, too. Heck, deep down Gabe probably wanted her to turn him down anyway since there was no way a baby and a wife would fit into his life.

  Still, the order repeated through her head in her dreams. Dreams of her telling him no. But other dreams, as well. Of that night together. The dream kiss was just as potent as the real one had been.

  Scalding hot.

  She’d fantasized about Gabe for so many years that the kiss, any kiss, could have been a letdown. It was hard to live up to the fairy tale that she’d spun in her head.

  But that kiss had.

  It had been the same for the caresses. Gentle but determined. And it was that gentle determination, and more kisses, that had sent her and Gabe stumbling for the bed.

  Kelly could feel that now, too.

  And as on that night, the pleasure rippled through her. So strong of a memory that she heard herself make a needy sound of pleasure that she didn’t want to make. Especially since Gabe was actually in the guest room next door. He might hear it, too, and get bad ideas that would only complicate their situation.

  That woke her.

  Kelly forced her eyes open and sat up. She was groggy from lack of sleep. So groggy that it took her a moment to realize something was wrong.

  There was sunlight threading through the partially opened curtain, and she caught a glimpse of the ice-coated window and yard. But it was worse than that. There was freezing fog drifting around like tiny bits of glass.

  Good grief.

  With that much ice, she’d never get Gabe out of her house and back on the road, something she needed to figure out how to do. But she couldn’t drive him back to his car at the library until some of that ice melted.

  Her gaze flew to the clock on the nightstand. Nearly seven-thirty. She hadn’t slept that late since having Noel.

  She barreled out of bed, her foot catching on the sheet, and nearly tumbled right on the floor. She hurried to the nursery in the room next to hers, grabbed on to the crib to steady herself, and her stomach went to her knees.

  The crib was empty.

  Oh, God. Empty!

  A dozen thoughts flew through her head, none good. Mercy, where was her baby?

  “Noel?” she shouted, not that the baby could answer, but someone else did.

  Gabe.

  “We’re in the kitchen,” he said.

  Kelly didn’t bother with a robe or her socks. She sprinted out of the nursery, across the living room, nearly taking out the Christmas tree. She skidded to a stop in the doorway of the kitchen, bracing herself to see some horrible sight. Maybe Noel had gotten sick or there’d been some other emergency.

  Instead what she saw was Gabe in his uniform pants and snug tan T-shirt.

  And he was feeding Noel a bottle.

  Maybe because her heart was slamming against her chest or because she was practically gasping for breath, it took Kelly a couple of seconds to process that. There was no emergency or illness. Noel was in her carrier seat on the table, sucking her bottle that Gabe was holding. And he was kissing her toes as she kicked at him, smiling at him while the bottle was still in her mouth.

  “What’s going on?” Kelly asked.

  Gabe kept his attention on Noel and lifted his shoulder. “When I got up, I heard Noel moving around in her crib. I figured you could use some extra sleep, so I brought her into the kitchen and fixed her a bottle.”

  It was as if he was speaking a foreign language. Gabe going into the nursery? And then fixing a baby bottle?

  And she hadn’t heard any of it?

  “Noel was wet, too, and I changed her diaper, but I didn’t do a very good job,” he added.

  No, he hadn’t. The tapes were askew, and it was loose, gaping at the legs. Still, it was on the baby’s bottom, and that was far more than Kelly would have imagined he’d tackle.

  “Delbert’s still not answering his phone,” Gabe went on. “I tried to call him again a few minutes ago and left him another message.”

  Gabe looked up at her then and did a double take. His gaze slid from her face—heaven knew how rumpled and bad she looked—to her flannel pj’s. Or rather to her pj top that was partially unbuttoned. There was a good deal of her right breast showing, and it had a good deal of an effect on Gabe.

  She recognized that heated look.

  She had been on the receiving end of it the night they’d had sex.

  Kelly fixed her top and silently cursed this blasted attraction that just wouldn’t cool down. It managed to get in the way of her thinking. Breathing.

  And just about everything else.

  “Are you sure you fixed the bottle right?” Kelly asked, making her way to the table so she could give Noel a morning kiss. “You have to mix it in the right proportions.”

  “Anyone who can read could have fixed it right with your notes.” Gabe tipped his head to the three-ring binder on the counter. “It was a page long, typed, single spaced. There are deployment manuals not written in that kind of detail.”

  “I just wanted to leave specific instructions for Mrs. Saunders,” Kelly mumbled, though she had to admit she’d gone a little overboard.

  “You left her burping instructions,” Gabe said, turning those sizzling blue eyes on her. “Since Mrs. Saunders has six kids of her own and at last count more than a dozen grandchildren, I’m thinking she knows how to rid a baby of some extra gas.”

  All right, she’d gone a lot overboard.

  “I was nervous about leaving Noel when I went to work,” she justified. “I think most new mothers are, and I didn’t want there to be any questions about her routine and how to take care of her.”

  He made a lazy sound of agreement and played another round of foot kissing with Noel. This time, the baby laughed.

  That shouldn’t have sent a pang of jealousy through Kelly, but it did. Noel and Gabe had known each other less than twenty-four hours, and they were acting like, well, father and daughter.

  “I was just glad there was a bottle around to give her,” Gabe said. “If you’d been nursing, you wouldn’t have gotten the extra hour of sleep.”

  An hour? That’s how long they’d been up and she hadn’t heard them? Mercy, those dreams had really sucked her in.

  She headed for the teakettle and found the water already hot. Of course, it was. Gabe had had a whole hour to take care of the things she always did, and from the looks of it he’d done a good job—with the exception of that droopy diaper.

  “I couldn’t breast-feed,” she said, glancing around for the can of formula that he had opened. She found it in the fridge, where it belonged, and Gabe had even washed out the cup he’d used to measure it. “I got an infection right after Noel was born and had to go on antibiotics. The doctor thought it best if I didn’t nurse.”

  “An infection?” That took the smile right off his face. “Ross didn’t know.”

  “It didn’t last long, and it wasn’t that serious. But by the t
ime the infection had cleared up, Noel didn’t want breast milk, only the formula.”

  “Well, she does seem to like it.”

  Yes, but she seemed to like her daddy more. Noel was doing a lot more toe kicking than formula drinking. Kelly tried not to be jealous of that, too, but failed just as much as she had before.

  What she wouldn’t fail at was the conversation that Gabe and she needed to have. Kelly needed to tell him no to his marriage order, but before she could get out a single word, he pointed to the trio of small framed drawings held by magnets onto the side of the fridge.

  “Those are new,” he said. “Like all your others, they’re really good.”

  “Thanks.” Bunnies, trees and flowers. Her favorite things to sketch, and these had reminded her of Noel.

  “What about that one?” He tipped his head to a small framed drawing on the windowsill. “Are those actual dried rose petals on the flower you drew?”

  They were. And it was yet something else she really didn’t want to discuss.

  “I was experimenting,” she said. Kelly snatched up the drawing and stuffed it away in the drawer. “I drew the flower and thought it could use something extra.”

  Gabe stared at her, clearly not believing that explanation. Probably because it was a partial lie.

  “I’m guessing those dried petals have some kind of special meaning to you,” he commented. “Since you just hid it and your face is flushed, I’m guessing it has a meaning that you’d rather not share with me.”

  She nodded.

  Good. They were on the same page.

  “So, who gave you the flower?” he asked.

  Okay, not on the same page, or else he would have known she didn’t want to discuss it. “I’ve had it for a long time,” she settled for saying.

  She decided to have some tea before refusing his marriage proposal, and she went to the stove to fix herself a cup.

  “You really should be illustrating children’s books,” he said before she could speak.

  Yes, she’d heard that a lot over the years, but it seemed like something far off. A mirage, even. She needed to work to support Noel and herself and take care of the house. There weren’t enough hours left in the day to do sketches that she might never sell.

  “You sent me some sketches three years ago when I was on the other deployment,” he added.

  Yet something else that seemed so far off. But she had indeed sent him sketches. Prayers, too.

  Always prayers.

  “I figured you didn’t send them this time because you were angry with me,” he went on. “And maybe that was part of it, but it’s my guess that taking care of Noel is a second full-time job.”

  She nodded. “A good full-time job.”

  He nodded, too. Met her gaze. “It suits you.”

  With everything else going on, the compliment should have made her wary, but there was something in his voice. His eyes. Something that he quickly tried to cover up with more Noel foot kisses, followed by scooping her up and putting her against his shoulder.

  But burping duty didn’t distract Kelly.

  Even if he was doing a decent job of it.

  “Was it bad over there?” she asked, not sure she really wanted to know the answer. It’d been the stuff of too many nightmares.

  He looked at her again. A man carefully weighing his words. “Sometimes.”

  Which meant it was bad more often than not.

  “Sometimes, there were children,” he said, his voice suddenly raw and whispered. He brushed a kiss on Noel’s cheek just as she let out a loud burp.

  Gabe laughed. And Kelly was glad. She caught only a glimmer of the pain there, and it’d been enough. It was much better to hear the laughter, especially since just about everything Noel did made her smile or laugh, too.

  Well, almost everything. The daddy endearment was continuing with Noel’s eyes fixed on Gabe’s.

  “The Air Force wants me to fly a desk,” Gabe added a moment later.

  Kelly was familiar enough with military lingo to know what that meant. The Air Force didn’t want him going back into combat. Probably because he’d already been on so many deployments.

  Good.

  That might save her a few prayers and some sleepless nights. He’d had four deployments in the past eight years, and she figured the majority of that time he’d either been in direct danger or else trying to deal with the effects of it.

  Sometimes, there were children said it all.

  “They want me to be an instructor for the next four years,” Gabe went on, dragging in a deep breath. “Might not be a bad idea since it’d give me a better chance of spending more time with Noel.”

  Oh.

  So, that’s where this was going.

  Desk duty not because he needed downtime from the stress of combat situations but because it would give him more opportunities just like the one he was having in her kitchen.

  Since this could be the start of that conversation they needed to have anyway, Kelly sank down in the chair across from him and hoped that the attraction, his uniform and the daddy sparkle in Noel’s eyes stayed out of this.

  “The whole time I was carrying Noel,” she said, “I wasn’t thinking about you as part of this.”

  Well, she did think of it, but she’d shoved that particular fantasy aside. She had a lot of faults, but living in a fairy tale wasn’t one of them. Gabe was a CRO, and she was a hometown librarian. Not exactly on the same grid when it came to planning a future together.

  “Ouch,” Gabe mumbled. He gave Noel several more burping pats on the back. “I deserve that.”

  Yes, but she hadn’t expected to see that hurt look on his face. “It wasn’t just you,” Kelly explained. “My last relationship ended because I wouldn’t marry him and leave Sugar Springs.”

  “Brent Marcum,” Gabe provided. “Yeah, I remember.”

  Since her relationship with Brent had ended nearly three years ago, it surprised her that Gabe would even recall the guy’s name. Unless he’d heard rumors or something.

  “He was that lawyer, and he was all wrong for you,” Gabe concluded. “Wait. Is he the one who gave you the flower that you used in the drawing?”

  Good grief. Would he just not drop it? Apparently not.

  “It’s from your senior prom, all right?” she snapped.

  Judging from the way he stared at her, he didn’t have a clue what she meant. Of course, he didn’t. It’d been just a little blip on Gabe’s radar of life.

  For her, it’d been a memory of a lifetime.

  “The prom?” he repeated.

  Still no clue.

  Even though this wasn’t on her discussion agenda, he probably wouldn’t let it drop until she explained. “I sneaked into Ross’s and your senior prom at the high school gym. I was fourteen and feeling somewhat left out.”

  “Oh, because your mom and dad had recently passed away.”

  They had. Just a few months before that. And yes, she was still grieving their loss after all these years. Always would, but it’d been a different emotion that had prompted her to sneak into the Midnight in Paris theme prom.

  Jealousy.

  “Tiffany Waters was your date,” Kelly said, omitting the jealousy part altogether. “I just wanted to see how you looked dancing. Ross, too,” she added because this was her version of that night and she didn’t want Gabe to know that she hadn’t given a flying flip about her brother’s dancing skills. Only Gabe’s.

  Well, specifically Tiffany in Gabe’s arms.

  “When Tiffany saw me lurking by the retracted bleachers,” she continued, “she said I needed to go home and grow some boobage before coming to a prom.”

  Not a shining moment for Kelly, and if it’d ended there, she wouldn’t have gotten one of
the best memories of her life.

  Or that rose.

  Lightbulb moment. “Yeah.” He nodded. Smiled. Then frowned. “Tiffany wasn’t very nice, and she made you look sad.”

  Kelly nodded. “And you danced with me.”

  The corner of his mouth kicked up again. “I did. Gave you my rose boutonniere, too. That’s where the rose petals came from?” he asked, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you kept it all this time.”

  She tried to dismiss it with a shrug. “It was my first dance. A girl remembers that kind of thing.”

  In nth detail, she remembered.

  The DJ was playing the Backstreet Boys’ “Shape of My Heart,” and Gabe had slow danced with her on the polished gym floor. The doors had been open, and the night breeze had played with his hair. Definitely heartthrob material, and he’d done exactly that—caused her heart to throb.

  Obviously, Gabe had been trying to cheer her up and hadn’t realized that she had a crush on him bigger than Texas.

  He made a sound of both surprise and amusement. “Funny how memories like that stick with you. I’m just glad the petals hadn’t come from Brent. I didn’t especially want you hanging on to any memory with him. Since he’s wrong for you and all,” Gabe quickly added. “Though he was right about trying to get you out of Sugar Springs. Noel needs to grow up in a town with lots of other kids. And a school.”

  That got her frowning. An automatic response since Brent’s opinion of the town had changed somewhat. And since she had this argument with Ross every time he came home. Not about the school since both the high school and elementary schools had been closed and unified with a county district. But about her leaving and getting a job that he felt was more in line with her master’s degree in library science.

  “The town will make a comeback,” Kelly insisted. That was possibly true.

  Possibly.

  Gabe’s lifted eyebrow indicated that he wasn’t buying into that particular theory, and he was likely about to start what would be an argument that she’d heard too many times from Ross.

  But the sound of the voice stopped them.

  “Get inside now!” the person shouted.