by Jett Munroe
Delaney carried the salad and serving utensils into the dining room as Vivian washed her hands. She came to the table with a big basket of bread, the garlic scenting the air along with the aroma of herbed tomato sauce, making Delaney’s mouth water.
“Delaney, you can sit there, next to Sofia,” Gabe said. As she took her seat, he asked, “Who wants to say grace?”
For some reason Delaney half expected him to look at her and felt her shoulders draw up. She was relieved when he kept his gaze on the children.
“I will, Daddy,” little Sofia piped up.
Tension drained from Delaney’s shoulders.
“All right, baby.”
When Sofia bowed her head and closed her eyes, so did the rest of the family. Delaney bowed her head but watched as Sofia clasped her hands together. “Hi, God,” the little girl said, her eyes closed so tightly they scrunched. “It’s me. Sofia Maria Elizabetta Falco.”
Delaney rolled her lips between her teeth to mask her humor at the girl’s quirkiness. She was so doggone cute.
“Thank you for Mommy and Daddy and for the food on the table. And thank you for Laney bringing us brownies. I’d like it if Dalton and Raeden didn’t tease me so much, but they’re boys so I’m not sure what you can do about that.”
Delaney heard a soft snort come from across the table and peeked to see Vivian biting her bottom lip, clearly also trying to hold back a smile.
“Keep my mommy and daddy and my brothers safe, and please make my mommy feel better. Amen.”
“Amen,” Gabe echoed. When Delaney glanced at him, he gave a brief shake of his head and mouthed, “Later.”
Dinner was a boisterous affair. The boys were funny, and Sofia was right, they did tease her. But they obviously loved their little sister, and when they were finished eating, including two brownies apiece for the boys, though Sofia only wanted one, they were excused and all three ran back into the family room to watch TV.
Gabe got up and helped Vivian from her seat. “You go on in with the kids, sweetheart,” he said. “I’ll handle cleanup.”
“Oh, but Laney…”
Delaney could see how much paler the other woman had grown, and even her voice sounded weak. She saw from Vivian’s plate that she also hadn’t eaten very much.
“You go rest, Vivian,” Delaney said. “I’ll help Gabe clean up.”
“But you’re a guest,” she protested.
“I’m pretty sure if I help clean up that makes me a friend. So that means it’s perfectly acceptable for me to help Gabe with the dishes.”
A slight frown dipped between Vivian’s brows. “Somehow that seems a little convoluted.”
“Makes perfect sense to me,” Delaney said blithely. She jerked her chin toward the family room in an unspoken message for Gabe to get his wife in there. As he did that, murmuring to her in a low, gentle voice, Delaney carried the lasagna pan and salad bowl into the kitchen then went back in for the empty bread bowl. When she started stacking dishes to carry them into the kitchen, Gabe came back in and lent a hand.
“Thank you for that,” he said.
“Sure.” Delaney paused and looked at him. “She’s sick?”
“Lung cancer.” He sighed and went past her with a stack of dishes.
She followed, a couple of plates with utensils piled on top in her hands. She set them in the sink and began rinsing them, making sure the food went down into the disposal, which she turned on. When she was done rinsing, she turned off the disposal.
In the quiet of the kitchen, with the TV blasting from the family room, he told her, “She grew up with parents who smoked, and she started smoking at sixteen. She stopped when she got pregnant with Dalton, but I guess the damage was already done.” He blew out a breath. “She just finished treatment and they say it’s in remission, but she’s still regaining her strength from all the chemotherapy and radiation.”
“She seemed to be doing really well when I first got here.”
He nodded. “The fatigue usually hits around dinnertime. I don’t know if it’s the time of day or if it’s because it’s the first time she’s sat down all day.” He started loading plates into the dishwasher. “But we’re hopeful because she’s so much better than she was even a few weeks ago.”
Delaney briefly touched his arm. “That’s a good sign, right?” She gave him a handful of silverware. “I’ll pray for her.”
“Thanks.” When he glanced up, his dark eyes shimmered. He bent his head and went back to loading the dishwasher.
A few minutes later Delaney poked her head into the family room and said, “Thank you for the lovely dinner, Vivian.”
“Oh, you’re leaving?” The other woman set a cuddling Sofia to one side and began to struggle off the big sofa.
“Please don’t get up. You and Sofia look too comfortable.”
“But I feel so bad. We didn’t get much of a chance to visit.”
“The nice thing about being friends is I can come again and we’ll visit more later.” Delaney grinned at her.
Vivian looked relieved and settled back onto the sofa with a sigh.
“Sofia. Raeden. Dalton. It was nice to meet you all.”
The boys grinned at her while Sofia slid off the couch and ran to throw her arms around Delaney’s waist. The little girl tipped back her head and grinned up at her. “When are you coming again?”
“I don’t know, sweetie. Soon, I hope.”
“You’ll bring brownies?” This from Raeden.
She sent him a smile. “Maybe. Unless you’d rather have cookies?”
He shrugged, his grin not diminishing. “Cookies are good too.”
She looked down at Sofia and rested her hand lightly on top of the girl’s dark hair. Visions of her with her own little girl, with stormy-gray eyes like Beck’s, danced through her head. “You look after your mama, okay?” she whispered.
The little girl gave her a squeeze and returned to the sofa to clamber up beside her mother.
“See you later,” Delaney called out with a wave.
“Don’t forget to give her the new-hire paperwork, honey,” Vivian reminded Gabe.
He walked with Delaney to the front door, where he retrieved a manila envelope from the hallway table. “Here’s your employment package.”
She took it. “I guess I’ll see you Monday morning.”
“Yep. Nine sharp. Call me when you get home.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Smart-ass.”
She paused in the doorway. “Would you text me Vivian’s number? I’d like to keep in touch.”
His smile was gentle. “She’d like that.” He pulled out his cell phone and punched a bunch of buttons. “There, done. Now, call when you get home.”
She heard a chime from her phone, indicating she had a text waiting. “I will,” she promised.
And she did, as soon as she let herself into the house thirty minutes later. “I’m home, Dad,” she told him.
“You left your brownies,” he said by way of greeting.
“Your brownies,” she corrected. “I eat a carrot cake muffin almost every day. You think I need brownies lying around the house too?”
He laughed and ended the call.
She kicked off her shoes and wandered into the living room. Sitting on the sofa with one leg curled beneath her, she used her forefinger to rip open the end of the envelope Gabe had given her. When she read over the offer letter, she felt her eyes go wide and her stomach bottom out. The salary they were offering was over ten thousand dollars less than the salary she’d gotten at SNJ. Granted they were starting her out with three weeks’ vacation, two weeks’ sick time, ten paid holidays per year, and medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance, but with that salary she couldn’t afford to renew the lease on her house. And her portion of the insurance premiums had to come out o
f her salary too.
Her phone rang and she grabbed it out of her purse. She didn’t recognize the number, but she hoped it was Beck. Her stomach somersaulted and her heart started pounding, making her lose her breath. “Hello?”
“Hey,” came Beck’s low response.
The tummy acrobatics heightened.
“I got some airtime with a satellite phone,” he told her. “I only have a few minutes, but I wanted to check in and see how you’re doing.”
“I had dinner with Gabe and his family tonight. It was fun. Took my mind off my troubles for a little bit. His boys are hilarious, and his little girl, she’s such a cutie.”
“Yeah, that she is. She’s his heart, for sure.”
“He told me about Vivian. About the cancer.”
“She had a biopsy done about eight months ago; then part of her right lung was removed, followed by chemo and radiation treatments. He’s hopeful that they got it all, but I know he worries.”
She got that. How could he not worry about her?
She waited a second then told him, “I’m starting at Red Eagle Group on Monday.”
“Oh, baby.” His deep voice held so much concern and caring it made a sweet warmth spread throughout her body. “You lost your job,” he said.
“Yeah.” Delaney’s voice quavered with emotion but she fought back the surge of self-pity. In light of what Vivian Falco was struggling with, there were worse things that could happen. “But I know a great guy who offered me a job a little over a week ago, so I have something else to go right to.”
His laugh was low and intimate. “What about the salary? Is it enough?”
“Can you afford more and still offer the benefits?”
There was a pause, then his “Not really” came through, regret rife in his tones. “Is it a problem?”
She had enough in her savings to supplement what he could pay her, but not for long. And no way could she afford to stay in the place she now rented. “I’ll have to find a new place to live.” She hesitated then decided being honest with him was the way to go, so told him, “I’ll have to keep looking for another job, Beck. But I can help you interview candidates for my replacement. Just think of me as being a temp.”
There was silence on the phone for a long pause, almost long enough for her to start to think the call had dropped. “Beck?”
“I’m here.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t want you as a temp, Laney, not at work and not in my life.”
An ache started in her chest. God, she missed him. And it sounded like the distance between them was grating on him too.
“I’ll look at the numbers again when I get back to the office.”
“Do you know yet when that’ll be?” she asked.
“Another week, minimum. Maybe more.”
She gave a nod then remembered he couldn’t see her. “Right,” she said. If he could find a way to pay her more, that would ease her mind. “Beck, I don’t want you to stretch your finances too thin. I’ll be out of a job again if you can’t cover payroll,” she teased.
“Don’t worry about that,” he said in all seriousness. “I wouldn’t do that to you.” Another pause, then he added, “As far as moving goes, there’s an empty condo in my building.”
Delaney laughed. “Beck, if I can’t afford to stay here, I know I can’t afford a condo downtown.”
“Baby, I own the building.”
She blinked. “What?”
“I own the building. We can work something out in rent. Or…”
“Or?”
“You can move in with me.”
Whoa. Even while the reckless, falling-in-love-with-Beck part of her jumped up and down in glee, the saner part of her prevailed. “Beck, I realize you think we’re not moving fast since we’ve known each other for a year, but I will remind you that in that year we barely spoke to each other and, yes, before you say anything, I realize that was because of me. But we’re certainly nowhere near being at the living-together stage in our relationship.”
“I can understand you think that,” he came back with. “But factor this into your decision, honey. If you live with me, you don’t pay your way. You wanna redecorate and make the place yours, that’s fine. But I pay for food, utilities, and mortgage. So you’ll save some dough.”
“Now, Beck, that’s hardly fair—”
“That’s the way it’ll be, babe. You live with me, I take care of you. That includes paying for a roof over your head and food in your belly.”
“That’s insane. If I’m earning a salary, I should help.”
“We can talk about it when I get home,” he said in a tone that indicated he would merely reiterate what he’d just said.
He was such a guy. A woman said what he didn’t want to hear and he thought he could just sweet-talk her into doing what he wanted. Well, if Beck thought that, he had another think coming.
“Whatever,” she muttered, which was her way of saying what he wanted wasn’t necessarily what he was going to get. He wasn’t in the military anymore. He didn’t get to bark an order at her and expect her to simply fall in line.
His low chuckle sent goose bumps chasing over her skin.
She heard voices in the background on his end of the call; then he said, “Listen, baby, I’ve gotta go. We’ll be out of communication so I won’t be able to call you again until the mission is finished, okay?”
“Okay.” It was definitely not okay, but what else could she tell him? Besides, she had to get to a place, mentally and emotionally, where she was okay with it.
“I’ll be thinking about you.” His voice dropped an octave and roughened. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” she whispered, the ache in her chest intensifying.
“Think about moving in with me, baby,” he said softly. “No pressure, I swear. It’s your decision. But I’d really like knowing that when I get home you’ll be waiting for me there. So think about it, would you?”
“I’ll think about it,” she promised him. And she would because it was tempting beyond belief. To brush her teeth standing next to Beck, to go to sleep with him and wake up to him every morning was almost more than she could bear to think about.
“All right. Gabe has an extra set of keys, so if you decide to move in before I get home, get them from him. Or he can have another set made.”
“Okay,” she said, her insides getting warm as the thought of living with him started working on her.
“Okay. Good night, baby,” he murmured.
“Bye. Stay safe.”
“I will. Bye.”
“Bye,” she whispered again and ended the call. Tomorrow was Saturday, which meant a trip to Coffee & Confections for breakfast, where she’d enlist her friends’ help in starting to pack up her belongings. Whether she ended up with Beck, in Beck’s building, or somewhere else, bottom line was she still needed to pack.
Chapter Ten
“Keep or donate?” Rachel asked, holding up a dragon-shaped cake pan.
It was Saturday, the morning following Delaney’s dinner with Gabe and his family and her later phone call with Beck. As true friends did, her girl posse was at her house, helping her pack up to move. Right now it was just Rachel and Colbie, but Lily and Andi would be coming over late in the afternoon after Coffee & Confections closed for the day.
She’d already packed up everything that was in the spare bedroom. It hadn’t taken long because a lot of what was in the closet in that room had stayed in boxes from when she’d moved in after her divorce. Mostly it had been packing up three bookshelves’ worth of books.
She looked at the cake pan. It was something she’d bought and used once, years ago, when she’d still been married. “Put it in the donate pile for now, but I might know someone who’d like it.” A dragon cake seemed like just the thing a couple of rough-and-tumble boys, and even a little
princess, might like. She’d check with Vivian later to see if she wanted it.
“When is your lease up again?” Colbie asked from where she was in the dining room, wrapping plates in towels and putting them in a box on the table.
“I have to sign a new lease by the end of the month, so, just two more weeks, though it’s not up until the first of October.”
“It sucks that renters have to let a landlord know a month in advance if they’re going to renew.”
“Uh-huh. Well, look at it from the landlord’s point of view. They need to prepare for new renters, do some advertising, whatever.” Rachel was ever the voice of reason and a cheerleader for the business sector.
Colbie made a face. “Like it takes a lot of preparation to put a FOR RENT sign in the front yard.”
“And list it on the various online property sites,” Rachel said.
Delaney stopped and stretched out the kinks in her back. Before the two could really start bickering, she offered, “At least the timing of this layoff works in my favor. If it’d come next month or the month after, I’d probably end up paying through the nose to break my lease.”
“Now that would really suck,” Colbie muttered and put another towel-wrapped plate in the box.
“If you move in with Beck, though, you’ll only have to worry about your credit card bills and auto insurance, right?” Amidst loud clanking of metal on metal, Rachel pulled several cookie sheets from a lower cabinet. “Keep or go?” she asked, holding them up while still kneeling on the floor.
“Keep,” Delaney answered. “And if I move in with Beck, according to him, yes, I would only have to worry about my bills. Not mortgage, not groceries, not utilities.”
“And your problem with that is?” Colbie asked, looking at her with her hands on her hips.
“For one, since I would be financially able to, it wouldn’t be right for me to not contribute to the household. For another, me not being allowed to contribute to the household keeps things to a him-and-me status and doesn’t change it to an us.” Delaney took a breath and blew it out. “It keeps it to me moving into his condo and not making it our condo.”
