The Perfect Present

by Rochelle Alers

  Throwing back his head, Caleb laughed loudly. “That’s from Rush Hour !”

  Noah hid a smile when the children pushed back their chairs, picked up their paper plates and cups, and deposited them in a large plastic-lined can. It was apparent they had been taught to pick up after themselves. He pushed back his own chair and came to his feet. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m ready for seconds.”

  “I’m ready for seconds, too,” Delia announced. “What are y’all looking at?” she asked when everyone stared at her. “I’m eating for two.”

  Noah walked over and took her plate. “What do you want?”

  Luke snatched the plate from Noah’s hand. “I’ll take care of my woman, while you do the same with yours.”

  Noah held up both hands. “Sorry about that.”

  “Watch it, little brother,” Daniel drawled as he tried not to laugh. “Brother Noah happens to be built like a Sherman tank, so I think you’d better slow your roll.”

  There came a swollen silence before Luke doubled over in laughter. “Gotcha, Brother Noah. You should’ve seen your face.”

  A hint of a smile tilted the corners of Noah’s mouth. “No, I got you, Brother Luke, because I’m going to give your wife what she wants.” He bowed from the waist. “Now, what can I get you?”

  Delia flashed a white-toothed grin. “I’d like a few more meatballs with the tossed salad.”

  He bowed again. “Consider it done.”

  “Mess with the bull and you get the horns,” Mark said to Luke.

  Laughter erupted in the room as Noah strolled over to the table to fulfill Delia’s request and refill his plate.

  Chapter 4

  Sierra kissed her grandmother and grandfather as they announced they were going to bed and the men huddled at the far end of the table to talk. She sat down next to her mother and wrapped an arm around her waist.

  “Everything was delicious.”

  Evelyn patted her daughter’s head. “It looks as if your brothers really like Noah.”

  “I like him, too.”

  Evelyn’s eyebrows lifted a fraction. “You only like him?”

  “Yes.” She couldn’t tell her mother that she’d just met Noah, so it was impossible for her to feel an emotion that went beyond liking.

  “How did you guys meet?” Pilar asked.

  Sierra repeated what she and Noah had discussed earlier that evening. “And before you ask, we’ve been seeing each other for about seven months.”

  Delia rubbed her rounded belly over a navy-blue knit smock. “Are you serious about him?”

  “Of course she is,” Pilar interjected. “Why else would she bring him home to meet the family?”

  Evelyn smiled. “I must admit I like him a lot better than that idiot you were dating a couple of years ago.”

  Sierra agreed with her mother. “That was the reason I never introduced him to the family. Once I told him it was over, he had a hard time accepting the fact that I didn’t want to see him anymore. If Mark hadn’t gotten involved, I believe I still would have a problem with him.”

  Pilar’s eyes grew wide. “Is that when Mark told me he had to go to California to take care of some personal business?”

  Sierra did not want to believe her brother hadn’t told his wife why he’d asked his commanding officer for emergency family leave to confront a man who had continued to stalk her despite her having a court-issued restraining order. “I believe so.”

  “What did he do?” Pilar’s voice was barely a whisper.

  “It’s not so much what he did but what he said, and after that I never saw or heard from Derrick again. And when I asked Mark about it, he said it was settled and not to ask him about it again.”

  Naomi whistled softly. “Daniel says Mark has always had a short fuse when it comes to nonsense.”

  Evelyn shook her head. “Stalking is not nonsense, Naomi. It’s a crime.” She gave each of the four young women a long, penetrating stare. “When Philip and I were first married and we lived on the base, I was content to be a military wife and follow my husband whenever he was transferred. Even when I had Daniel and Luke, I still was content to live on base. It was only after I gave birth to a girl that I began to think differently. I know a lot of girls grow up as military brats, but that was something I didn’t want for my daughter. I suppose I’d become somewhat paranoid because there were just too many men, and as she grew older she could easily become a target for some pervert. But little did I know that she wouldn’t have to live on a military base to meet some lunatic who would threaten her life.”

  Reaching over, Pilar patted Evelyn’s hand. “I doubt if anyone is going to mess with Sierra now that she’s with Noah. I thought Mark was ripped, but Noah is jacked!”

  “Word,” whispered Naomi. “The man has to be Special Ops to be in that kind of shape.”

  Delia nodded in agreement. “Is he, Sierra?”

  Sierra stared at her sister-in-law. What did Delia expect her to say? Even if she knew Noah was Special Ops, she still wouldn’t tell them. That admission would have to come from him. “He’s in intelligence, Dr. Nelson,” she said, repeating what Noah had said earlier.

  Naomi narrowed her eyes. “He looks and smells like Special Ops. I’d dated Daniel for a year, and then married him, before he admitted to me that he was a Night Stalker and made me swear never to tell anyone outside the family.”

  “Why don’t y’all stop trying to figure out what Noah is, and accept the man at his word,” Evelyn admonished softly.

  “Thanks, Mom,” Sierra said, smiling.

  Her sisters-in-law were as different in personality as in their physical appearance. Red-haired, green-eyed Kentucky native Naomi was born in a coal-mining region where the men in her family had mined coal for generations. Her brother, also Special Forces, introduced her to Daniel, and after a whirlwind romance Daniel married the nursery-school teacher, and now they were parents of two preteen boys.

  Delia’s grandparents had emigrated from Puerto Rico and settled in Chicago before World War II. Her parents doted on their only child, who had graduated at the top of her class in high school and college, and then went on to study medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago with a specialty in pediatric medicine. She was driving home one night when her car blew a tire. She managed to pull off onto the shoulder to wait for road service. Luke spotted her car and stopped to help change the tire. Delia offered to pay him, but Luke said she could repay him by giving him her phone number. Three weeks following her graduation from medical school she married Luke, and two years later they became parents of David, a bright, energetic little boy.

  Pilar and Delia were second cousins and sisters-in-law who married brothers. Delia, the consummate matchmaker, badgered Luke to host a little get-together for Mark when he returned from his first Middle East deployment. Pilar, who’d met Mark for the first time at Delia and Luke’s wedding, claimed she wanted nothing to do with the brash young marine. However, she saw him differently when he returned as a war veteran. Maturity had replaced the cockiness, and she saw the highly decorated first lieutenant in a whole new light. Pilar married Mark before his next deployment, unaware she was pregnant at the time. Mark returned to the States in time to witness the birth of his twin daughters.

  The conversation segued to Delia, who didn’t want to know if she was having a girl or a boy because she liked being surprised. She had just begun a six-month leave from the medical group she had formed with several of her medical school classmates. Six months would give her time to decorate her loft and bond with her new baby. She updated everyone about Luke becoming partner at his law firm, and she would have celebrated with a small gathering at their home if she didn’t have to deal with the furniture deliveries and the impending birth of her baby.

  “You can always have it here,” Evelyn volunteered.

  Delia shook her head, as a profusion of braids swayed with the motion. “No, Evie, I don’t want to impose on you like that.”

/>   Evelyn waved her hand. “It’s not an imposition. There’s only me, Philip, and his parents rattling around this house day after day, so I look forward to Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the summer when the kids come over to liven it up. There’s going to come a time when I know I’m going to have to sell it, because it’s much too big for us. You and Luke have the loft. Pilar, you and Mark have your condo, but if you decide that you want to have more children, then you can have it. I’m not going to say anything to Daniel because, like his father, he plans to put in at least thirty years before he retires.”

  “Where are you and Dad going to live?” Sierra asked.

  “There are a lot of senior communities where we don’t have to concern ourselves with shoveling snow, making repairs, or even cooking if we don’t want to.”

  “That’s not going to be for a while,” Sierra stated firmly.

  “You’re in denial. Philip and I are sixty-five and sixty-three, and I can’t see myself ten or even twenty years from now trying to take care of this house, even if I hire someone to come in to clean every week. Now, if you marry Noah and decide to move back here, I would seriously consider willing you the house once he decides to leave the military.”

  Sierra’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe her mother was making plans for her and a stranger who was uncertain whether he would become a lifer. “Mom, I think you’re getting ahead of yourself.”

  Evelyn stared at her with wide eyes. “Am I? You bring a man home with you to meet your family and you have no intention of planning a future with him?”

  “We haven’t talked about marriage.”

  “What do you guys talk about?” Naomi asked.

  “Politics. Sports, and whatever else is trending. We really don’t get to see that much of each other because he’s either assigned to a base or a ship. We only reconnect when he’s on leave.”

  Sierra didn’t know why she found it so easy to perpetuate Mark’s misconception as to her and Noah’s relationship. It would have been so easy to tell everyone that they’d sat next to each other during the flight from San Diego to Chicago and that Noah’s connecting flight to Boston was cancelled because of the weather, but after telling one lie they would be forced to continue the lies until someone uncovered the truth.

  Groaning slightly, Delia stood up. “This child is definitely going to be a gymnast, because it doesn’t kick like a normal baby but does somersaults and backflips.”

  “Leave your plate,” Evelyn said when Delia reached for it. “Go to bed and get some rest. And don’t you dare think about getting up early, because now that Sierra’s here we’ll have enough hands in the kitchen.”

  Delia came over to kiss her mother-in-law. “Thanks, Evie.”

  Evelyn stood. “The rest of you can also go to bed.”

  “I’ll stay and help you, Mom,” Sierra volunteered. “I’ll put away the food.”

  She went into the pantry to retrieve plastic containers and made quick work of filling them with leftovers. She had just finished storing them on a shelf in the refrigerator when Noah entered the kitchen carrying an ice chest. He frowned as she attempted to smother a yawn with her hand.

  “Why don’t you go upstairs and turn in. You’ve had a long day,” he said in a quiet voice. “I’ll help Evie clean up the kitchen.”

  Sierra looked at her mother, who nodded. “Okay.” She hugged her mother and kissed her cheek. “Good night.”

  Evelyn patted her back. “Good night, baby.”

  Sierra turned on her heel to walk out of the kitchen, but then found herself in Noah’s arms as he lowered his head and brushed a light kiss over her parted lips. “Don’t wait up for me,” he said in her ear.

  She was so stunned that he had kissed her, and in front of her mother, that all she could do was nod. She managed to make it upstairs to their bedroom, still glorying in the warmth of Noah’s body against hers, the firmness of his mouth on hers, and the sensual, masculine scent of his cologne.

  Why, she mused, did he have to be so damn attractive? It would have been easier for her to go along with the pretense if he were the exact opposite of everything she would want in a boyfriend or lover. Physically he was perfect, and having impeccable manners merely added to his overall charismatic personality. There was no doubt he had charmed the women in her family, and judging from his interaction with her father and brothers, he had bonded quickly with them.

  Sierra brushed her teeth, washed her face, applied a moisturizer, and then pulled a nightgown over her head. Walking on bare feet, she made her way to the alcove, pulled out the trundle, and made up the daybed with linens and several blankets and a quilt. Before climbing into bed, she opened the four-paneled screen decorated with Chinese calligraphy that provided a modicum of privacy between the alcove and the rest of the bedroom.

  Jet lag swept over her like a weighted lead blanket, but her brain refused to shut down. Leaning over, she turned on the bedside lamp and picked up the magazine she had left on the table during her last visit. Sierra found herself totally engrossed in an article about a woman who had defied the odds to become a medical doctor at the age of fifty-six, when she heard Noah come into the bedroom. It was as if every sound in the room was magnified: his closing the door to the bathroom, water running in the sink when he brushed his teeth, and his return to the bedroom and removing his clothes.

  “Thank you for helping my mother,” she called out.

  Noah stuck his head around the screen. “I thought you’d be asleep by now.”

  She smiled. “I guess I’m a little too wound up to sleep.”

  “Come get into bed with me.”

  With wide eyes, she looked at him as if she had never seen him before. “Why?”

  “So we can talk.”

  The seconds ticked. “Okay.” Noah was already in bed, the blankets covering his lower body, when she slipped in beside him. Sierra hid a smile. Thankfully he hadn’t removed his underwear. She went still when he placed an arm over her shoulders and pulled her close to his length. “What do you want to talk about?”

  Noah pressed his mouth to her hair. “First I want to apologize for kissing you in front of your mother. Even though I agreed to go along with the charade that we’re a couple, I feel very uncomfortable fooling your family, because I like them—a lot, Sierra.”

  She smiled. “And it seems as if they like you.” She sobered quickly. “And if I could turn back the clock and correct Mark when he assumed we were romantically involved, I would do it. This hasn’t been easy on me either. I hate more than anything to lie to my parents—my mother in particular when she assumes because you came home with me that we’re planning a future together.”

  “You’ve never brought a man home to meet your family.” His question was a statement.

  “No.” Sierra sucked in a lungful of air, held it, and then let it out slowly. “A couple of years ago I met a man—”

  “Was he the soldier you dated?” Noah asked, interrupting her.

  “No. When I look back, I wish he was. One of my colleagues introduced me to her cousin because we both liked black-and-white movies, documentaries, and art museums. It wasn’t until we were dating for about six months that I realized we did everything together. And I do mean everything. If I went grocery shopping, then he wanted to go with me. I couldn’t go to the drugstore to pick up feminine products without him shadowing me. Although I’d convinced myself that I was in love with him and accepted his marriage proposal, I knew there was something unhealthy about our relationship. And I kept putting off his request to meet my family because I was beginning to have second thoughts about sharing my life with him.

  “When I finally got the nerve to end the engagement, he turned on me, screaming that if he couldn’t have me, then he would make certain no man would. That’s when I got a restraining order, but he ignored it. I’d find him lurking outside my school and my apartment building. I was forced to change both my home and cell phone numbers because he would call and hang up. I called th
e police to inform them he was stalking and harassing me, but they said they couldn’t arrest him until he came within two hundred feet of my home or place of employment. That’s when I finally called Mark to tell him that I feared for my life.”

  “What happened after that?”

  Sierra felt the tension in Noah’s body when his fingers tightened on her shoulder. “Mark flew out a couple of days later, and I gave him Derrick’s address. My brother went to see him, and when he came back he told me he had taken care of everything.”

  “What did he mean by that?”

  “I don’t know, Noah, because Mark refuses to talk about it. It took almost a month before I stopped looking over my shoulder or screening my calls whenever my phones rang.” She closed her eyes for several seconds. “I haven’t dated anyone since, because there must be something about me that attracts the crazies.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with you, Sierra. It’s just that some men don’t do well with rejection. They may feel it’s all right to walk away from a woman, but not the other way around.”

  “I can’t imagine a woman leaving you.”

  He chuckled softly. “Why can’t you?”

  “I don’t know. Call it women’s intuition, but there’s something about you that most women look for in a man.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “You have home training.”

  Noah laughed. “Is home training that important to you?”

  “It’s everything to me. Whenever I used to act up, Nana would remind me that I was raised better than that. What really hit home was when she said I was a descendant of survivors and I should never do anything to disgrace my ancestors.”

  Noah pulled Sierra closer. “My grandparents would tell me the same thing. I can still hear my grandfather’s voice when he’d say, ‘Boy, your mama sent you down here so I can help you grow up to see what it takes to go from a boy to a man. Making babies don’t make you a man but a reckless fool, because you have to be able to take care of your woman and your seed. And if you can’t, then don’t make no baby. A real man is respectful, hardworking, and most of all trustworthy. ’ He drummed that into my head year after year, until I realized how right he was.