She wanted to relearn everything about his body, but with her arms locked around his neck, she didn’t have a hand free to slip beneath his shirt and wouldn’t have wanted to separate from him enough to do that, anyway. His hips rocked, as if he couldn’t help himself any more than she could.
His groan sounded more like a growl in his chest before it reached his throat. He tore his mouth from hers and strung small, biting kisses along her jaw and down her throat. Panting, she let her head fall back to expose her throat.
Nate whispered, “I want you, but we can’t—”
Her mind struggled to understand why they couldn’t. Their one night together had opened a door and left her hungry for his touch. Now—
A breeze off the lake made the curtain of willow leaves shiver. Park, she remembered. They weren’t entirely hidden from anyone walking past. And someone would.
She forced her eyes open. “We could go home...”
They stared at each other.
“Look up the movies, see when they let out.”
“Let’s hurry.” She grabbed his hand.
Laughing, they ran to the car.
* * *
BY THE TIME Nate and Anna heard the car outside, they were dressed again and—more or less—presentable. Evaluating Anna, he decided that her lips were noticeably swollen and her cheeks reddened from the evening stubble he should have shaved off. That was okay. Considering what he and she had just been doing, she was sure to blush the minute his parents looked at her.
He’d forgotten the ring in his pocket until after they’d made love the first time. He’d leaned over the edge of the bed, picked up the small velvet box and rolled to face Anna.
Her astonished gaze had gone to the box.
He’d had to ask, “You will marry me?”
Her head bobbed, and for the third time this evening, her eyes became damp. Her smile glowed, though, when she saw the ring. Nate had assured her they could exchange it, but she loved the diamond flanked by small sapphires the color of her eyes. That it fit perfectly—there was the scary word—had to be a good omen, right?
She was starting the coffee and he was getting mugs out of the cupboard when the front door opened.
The kids swarmed then. “The movie was so good,” Jenna said, and started detailing the plot. Josh talked over his sister, telling them about the movie he’d seen. Molly stood beside him, her gaze going from Nate’s face to Anna’s and back. Meanwhile, Nate was very conscious of his parents, his dad straddling a bar stool, his mother behind the kids.
“You look different,” Molly said suddenly, and so loudly the other two stopped talking.
Nate’s mother smiled at him. He hadn’t seen delight like that on her face in a long time.
Anna faced her kids. Not even having to think about it, Nate took her right hand. Smiling, she held out her left. “Nate asked me to marry him.”
All three kids stared at the ring, then at their respective parents.
“You said yes?” Josh was the first to speak up.
Her smile tremulous, she nodded.
He jumped, punched the air with his fist and yelled, “Awesome!”
“Does that mean we get to stay here?” Jenna asked.
“We do. Except, once we’re married, we won’t live in the apartment anymore. You’ll both have bedrooms here in the house.”
Nate hooked an arm around Josh’s neck and pulled him into a tight embrace. He let go and then reached for Molly, bending to murmur in her ear, “Okay?”
Her head bobbed. “I wished so hard for Anna to stay.”
“You get a brother and sister, too.”
Josh and she made faces at each other, but Nate could tell neither of them meant them. Jenna bounced around the kitchen like a Ping-Pong ball, and he saw his father grinning.
“Lucky we came back from Arizona, since you needed a hand.”
Instead of arguing, Nate said, “You’re right. Thanks, Dad.” He smiled at his mother. “I love you both.”
“And me, too,” Molly said, with a hint of worry.
He leaned over to whisper in her ear, “Always.”
“So.” His mother again. “When’s the wedding going to be?”
Jenna tugged at Anna’s hand. “Can I be a flower girl? Can I be in the wedding?”
“Of course you can.” Anna released his hand to kneel and hug her daughter, then reach out to Molly. “And you, too.”
Josh recoiled. “I don’t have to be, do I?”
Anna laughed. “No, you don’t. But you need to sit right up at the front—”
“With your new grandparents,” Nate’s mother said firmly.
Nate and Anna looked at each other. “Let’s make it tomorrow,” he said at the exact same moment she said, “Soon.”
For an instant, it was as if they were alone. This time, she said, “July. School will be out, and...”
The anniversary of Kyle’s death would have come and gone. Nate felt a punch of gratitude at the reminder of her former husband. He suspected it would never go away. Kyle Grainger had died saving Molly’s life.
Nate could wait.
“July,” he agreed, and saw the relief and happiness on Anna’s face at the same time movement and laughter and chatter in the crowded kitchen resumed. His family.
* * * * *
If you loved IN A HEARTBEAT,
don’t miss these other recent books
from Janice Kay Johnson:
BACK AGAINST THE WALL
THE HERO’S REDEMPTION
A HOMETOWN BOY
A MOTHER’S CLAIM
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The Soldier’s Homecoming
by Patricia Potter
PROLOGUE
Aleppo, Syria
JENNY TALBOT KNEW she was in trouble the moment she heard the sound of approaching aircraft.
The sound grew thunderous as four planes appeared in the sky over Aleppo, leaving a trail of explosions in their wake. They were heading straight at her.
A cease-fire was supposed to have been declared while volunteer medical personnel tended the wounded in one of the few remaining makeshift hospitals in the doomed Syrian city.
The volunteer doctors and nurses, who had just arrived in a marked medical convoy, scattered, seeking cover. She and Rick
Cowan, also a freelance journalist, were accompanying them. Although they worked for different news services, they had been together when they heard about the medical mission to Aleppo. It hadn’t been easy to get permission from the supporting agency, but the promise of alerting the world to conditions in a city caught in the cross fire of three ruthless armies finally won them approval. It was emphasized that it was at their own risk.
So much for cease-fires.
As explosions grew louder, Jenny and Rick ran for cover with Ali, their driver and translator. All three ducked behind a pile of rubble that had once been a house.
Jenny instinctively grabbed the camera that hung around her neck and under the hijab she wore to cover her flaming red hair. Out of habit, she took several rapid shots of people fleeing among burning buildings and vehicles. She wanted proof of the violation of the cease fire.
Ali turned to them. “I go get jeep,” he shouted over the noise, then sprinted around the rubble. Jenny regretted now that he’d hid the jeep several blocks down to avoid thieves.
A little girl suddenly ran into the road, screaming as another explosion threw rocks and flaming shrapnel in every direction. The girl fell, her arms reaching out as if for help. Jenny saw bright red blood flow from the child’s leg.
A doctor turned back toward her but he was too far away. Jenny instinctively rose from her position and started to climb over the rubble to go after the child. Rick pulled her down. “Stay here, dammit,” he said. “I’ll go.”
As he started to scramble over the rubble, she followed. Another group of planes roared over them, raining more fire on the street. Explosions deafened her. Chunks of flaming metal flew through the air. Two cars and an ambulance used by the doctors burst into flames. She struggled to the top of the debris. Dust and smoke was everywhere. She couldn’t see the child.
“We’ve got to find her,” she said to Rick. A trailing plane came in low and dropped its munitions. The building across the street sustained a direct hit and started to crumple.
“I have to find the girl,” she shouted to Rick.
“You’ll be killed out there,” Rick shouted and pushed her down. “Nothing can survive out there right now. They’re pounding that street.”
She huddled against the rubble as heat seared her, gluing her tan T-shirt to her body. She wore a flak vest over the T-shirt and BDU pants, which she had selected for the additional pockets. The pockets were filled with everything she needed to do her job, from cell phone, notebooks and pens to a small recorder.
“The hospital?” she asked Rick, just as another explosion tore up the wreckage, only a few yards from them. The heat burned her arm, and the impact threw her back against a pile of debris. Her shoulder felt on fire, the skin burning. She looked down at her shoulder to see metal protruding from a jagged wound. She stared at it for a moment, and then the pain hit.
Rick uttered a curse as he scooted over to her to study the wound. “I’m afraid if I remove it, you’ll bleed out,” he said. “I’ll try to get one of the doctors. Ali should be back here with the jeep.”
He bolted over what was now a wall of broken cement, and she clenched her teeth to stop from moving, from crying out. The pain grew worse. She could smell her own burned skin.
She couldn’t tell how large the piece of shrapnel was inside, but she knew that the medical people, if they were still alive, were going to be busy with wounds worse than this.
She also knew they couldn’t stay here. Syrian troops or ISIS fighters often followed the planes, killing those the planes missed.
She didn’t know how long Rick was gone. It seemed like hours before he appeared over the wall. “They can’t come,” he said. “Three of them are wounded, and the others are busy trying to keep all the civilians alive. They’re afraid soldiers will follow the bombs.”
“The little girl?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see her on the street and it was too crowded in the hospital. Right now, we have to get you out of here.”
He didn’t have to explain more. She knew what might await her as an American woman.
“They gave me some pills, burn salve and pressure bandages,” he said. “I was told to get you to a refugee camp as fast as possible. I found Ali. He and the jeep are pretty close.” He hesitated, and then he added, “I have to pull that piece of metal out. The jolting in the jeep could do even more damage.”
Jenny understood. She’d been under fire before. She knew the risks.
“Do you think you can walk if I help? I can take out that shrapnel when we get to the jeep.”
She nodded. She had to. There was no way Rick could carry her any distance. He didn’t weigh much more than she did.
He handed her a canteen and several pills. Painkillers and antibiotics, she assumed. After she swallowed them, he helped her to her feet. She barely made it. The rocks and ruined buildings were going in and out of focus. One step, and then another. You have to do this.
No one paid attention to them as they stumbled through debris toward the jeep. It took every ounce of Jenny’s strength to put one foot ahead of the other as pain coursed through her, growing stronger by the minute. Only Rick’s steady arm kept her upright.
She was beyond grateful when she saw Ali and the jeep. But she didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. It was all she could do to stay upright. A few more steps. Gunshots. Behind them.
Everything dimmed...
Copyright © 2018 by Patricia Potter
ISBN-13: 9781488085635
In a Heartbeat
Copyright © 2018 by Janice Kay Johnson
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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