“Yes, Ally,” Danny said, shaking his napkin out and placing it back in his lap. “I read you loud and clear. That’s not what I was going to ask.” He paused again. “Look, you and I come from very different family situations. Your dad was a well-educated, cultural anthropologist. Mine worked in a shoe factory and held down a second job on the weekends just to keep food on the table.”
“Yes, Danny, I’m well aware of that. And you had eight kids in your family, and I was an only child. I understand.” Ally sighed, wondering if their “discussion” was going to give her indigestion. “What was your question?”
Danny leaned back in his chair. “I can completely relate to your need to work and support yourself as a single woman,” he said simply. “That you were smart and educated were things that attracted me to you.”
“Just my brains and education?” Ally couldn’t help asking as she shot him a teasing smile.
Danny grinned, displaying that familiar mischievous, little-boy expression. “That and your cute, heart-shaped behind,” he added, winking.
Ally wasn’t quite sure how to take that. “Just when did you ever see my behind before we were properly introduced?”
“We were at a party in Fort Walton Beach. You were somebody else’s date then, and you were wearing a red, one-piece bathing suit. The first time I saw you, you were bent over a drink cooler or something, and I got a great view of your backside, red swimsuit and all.” He grinned.
“Oh,” Ally said. Best leave that topic alone for now, she thought. It would be a long time before she would consider putting her growing body into any swimsuit, much less a bright red one. A pup tent sounded good at the moment. “You said you wanted to ask me something,” she prodded. They did have to get back after lunch.
“Like I said,” Danny continued, “I understand about a single woman working, but I never really understood why you were so damn dead set against giving it up once you didn’t have to work. As I recall, you said your mother never worked.”
Even now that memory poked at a sore spot in Ally’s heart that hadn’t healed. “No, she didn’t. She never wrote a check, or paid a bill, or even learned to drive a car.”
“You said your mother met your father when she was a student at the university in Tamahlya? Surely she could have handled more responsibility.”
“My mother’s father was quite progressive regarding equality for women, but her mother had been raised in a more traditional way,” Ally explained. “My mother enjoyed learning, but she hadn’t really considered ever using her education once she became a mother. Perhaps if they’d stayed in Tamahlya, she might have taught, but when they came to the United States after Daddy accepted the teaching position in Chicago, she never seemed to fit in.
“I don’t know whether she didn’t want to make the effort or whether the move was too overwhelming for her.” Ally sighed. “She found English difficult to master, and she was self-conscious about her broken English and her inability to communicate well. Rather than go out and try, she preferred to stay at home as her mother had.”
“And since she couldn’t speak the language, she couldn’t pass the driver’s test, or write a check, or pay a bill,” Danny concluded as he reached for his water glass. “But I still don’t see why that made you so determined not to let a man take care of you. Obviously, you know how to do all that.”
“It’s because of what happened after Daddy died,” Ally said, steeling herself for the hurt that would come with the telling.
“Didn’t he leave her provided for?”
“Sure. He had all sorts of savings plans, insurance and all that.”
“So…?”
Danny still looked as though he was going to have a hard time understanding. Even after all these years, Ally had difficulty comprehending what had come next, what had influenced her determination to be her own woman.
Ally glanced up and was startled at what she saw. “Oh, no!” she exclaimed. The club dining room was virtually empty. She glanced at her watch. “We’re going to have to continue this later. We’re already late.” She blotted her lips with her napkin and signaled for their waiter.
Danny checked his watch and made a face. “I can double-time it and I probably won’t be late. Or I can stay and walk you back. After all, I could score an excuse from the teacher, couldn’t I?”
Ally made a face. “I don’t have a class this afternoon. It won’t matter if I get back to my office a few minutes late. You need to get back. Go on,” she said, shooing him off with her hands. “I’ll take care of this.”
She could read the reluctance in Danny’s eyes, but he pushed himself up out of the chair.
“Okay,” he said. “You pick up the check this time,” he said. “But the next one’s on me.”
“All right,” Ally said, digging in her purse.
“Don’t forget,” Danny said, looking back over his shoulder. “You still have to tell me the rest of the story. I want to understand. And,” he added as he strode toward the exit, “I’m pretty sure you just agreed on another date with me.”
Ally just shook her head and smiled as she watched Danny hurry out of the dining room.
That was a big change from the Danny she used to know, she couldn’t help thinking as she picked up her check and hurried to the register. Back in the old days, he would never have let her pay for him, much less been willing to listen to her reasons.
Maybe there was hope for them yet.
HIS ARMS LADEN with packages and sacks, Danny stood outside Ally’s front door and hoped that she wouldn’t go ballistic when she got a look at what he’d done. After grabbing a fast-food supper, he’d embarked on a major shopping spree at a local baby store, all but maxing out one of his credit cards. He figured he was six months behind on getting ready for the baby, so he had some catching up to do.
Besides, Ally had promised to tell him the rest of her story. He really wanted to understand. He wasn’t certain he could yield to her wishes, but he guessed he owed it to her to listen.
Ally had to be home, because lights were on, and he could hear the radio, or maybe the TV, coming from inside. He prepared himself for an argument, and rang the bell. Maybe he should have phoned first.
“Who is it?” she called from inside.
At least she was careful when the doorbell rang after dark, Danny applauded silently.
“It’s me. Danny,” he said, hoping his name wouldn’t send her running.
“Go away, Danny. It’s late, and I’m tired.”
Danny could tell by the weariness in her voice that she meant it, so he counted silently to three and delivered the coup de grâce. “I brought some stuff…for the baby,” he said through the closed door. “Just let me leave it…and then I’ll go.” Oh, he wanted to stay, but there was nothing to gain by pushing his luck. He had time.
The door opened a crack, and Ally peered warily through the securely hooked burglar chain. Her eyes widened with surprise when she saw the quantity of stuff he’d purchased in little more than an hour since class had been dismissed.
“What have you done?” she muttered as she fumbled with the chain.
“I figure you’re way ahead on prepping for the baby,” he said, thrusting a bag into her arms and then setting several more down beside the door. “This is my contribution.” He stepped outside.
“You don’t have to leave so fast,” Ally said, her confusion about how to react to this unexpected turn of events evident in her voice. “I haven’t bought anything for the baby yet,” she confessed. “I didn’t have a clue where to start. You’re way ahead of me.”
He turned toward his rental car.
“Hey, wait!” she called after him. “At least give me time to thank you properly.”
That was encouraging, Danny thought, but he didn’t say it. “I’m not leaving,” he clarified as he struggled to carry the huge carton containing a crib with all the bells and whistles. “I just went back to get this.”
“More?” Then Ally tamped do
wn her amazement and continued. “Danny, I can provide for my child by myself,” she protested, hugging the baby store sack to her rounded stomach. But her tone did not so much suggest anger as it did gratitude.
“I know, Ally,” he said as he leaned the box against the wall and shut the door. “But it doesn’t mean you have to. This is my baby, too. I want to share in providing for him.”
“Her,” Ally reminded him.
“Let me take this.” Danny removed the plastic sack from Ally’s arms and picked up the other. “You said you weren’t sure, so I got a neutral color.” He led Ally to the couch and sat her down.
“I—I don’t understand,” she murmured as she began pulling things out of a bag. “A yellow receiving blanket,” she exclaimed softly. “Sheets, towels.” She pursed her lips as she rummaged through the contents of the assorted bags, then lifted her hands in stunned amazement. “How did you know what to get?”
“I come from a big family, Ally. Babies are no mystery to me. I have four sisters, six nieces and five nephews.” He shrugged. “I was still living at home when the first few were born. I guess I sorta learned by osmosis.”
“I had no idea,” Ally said, her voice filled with wonder, “that a baby needed so much stuff.” She ran her hands over the downy receiving blanket. “I had no brothers or sisters.” She brought the blanket up to her face and stroked her cheek with it. “I had no idea where to begin.”
“You mean you haven’t gotten anything for the baby yet?” Danny hadn’t noticed any baby stuff on his short reconnaissance mission through her house the other night, so he figured she hadn’t gotten much, but he’d thought she must have a few things stashed away.
“No,” Ally replied defensively. “I still have time—almost three months till the baby comes.”
“Which will fly by at warp speed,” he countered. “What will you do if the baby arrives early? You won’t have a place to put him.”
“Her,” Ally insisted.
Danny raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, I give up. For now,” he added. “Until you have an ultra-sound or the baby comes, maybe we should just call it an it.”
“No,” Ally persisted, grinning this time. “Her.”
“All right, all right. ‘Her’ it is. Now, show me the baby’s room. I’ll put the crib together.”
If Ally had any comments about that, she didn’t voice them. She just led him down the hall.
ALLY STILL WASN’T CERTAIN how to think about this wonderful surprise as she silently watched Danny carry the many, many sacks and boxes into the spare room. She had planned to provide for this child. Why did Danny doing it now make her feel almost…guilty? And if she was guilty, just what was it she was guilty of?
“Where do you want this?” Danny said as he stood in the doorway of the baby’s room with the large crib carton balanced on his broad shoulder.
“I’d like to have the baby in my bedroom with me until she starts sleeping through the night,” Ally said, wondering if it was a good idea to let Danny Murphey within a mile of her bedroom. “But you can just put the box in here for now. I won’t need it for a few months yet.”
“Ally, Ally, Ally,” Danny said, shaking his head. “What have I told you about being prepared? You’re not going to be in any condition to assemble this thing while you’re in labor, and I’m not gonna be here then. It should be put together now, while you’ve got somebody around and ready and willing.”
“Darn you, Danny. Do you always have to be right?” Ally shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Okay, into the bedroom it goes.” She followed him out. “Are you going to need any special tools for this project?”
“Just the usual,” Danny said as he ripped at the huge staples on one side of the carton.
“Which are? I think I have a hammer and a couple of screwdrivers.”
“Thank heaven for small favors,” Danny muttered. “All the tools are supposed to be in the box, but I’d rather have the real thing than the flimsy, throwaway ones that come in the cartons.”
“I’ll go look for them.” Ally, relieved to be away from Danny’s potent masculinity, scurried away. Even though he had done nothing overt, just being in the same room with him, especially her bedroom, had set her heart tap-dancing against her rib cage.
And she’d believed that pregnant women lost the desire for intimacy!
But then, she’d gone without for a long time. Six months, to be exact.
By the time she got back with her small and inadequate toolbox, Danny had managed to wrestle the mattress, rails and springs out of the box. Now he was systematically arranging a collection of nuts, bolts and screws in neat little piles on the floor.
The room that wasn’t very big anyway, looked—no, felt—minuscule with Danny, the crib pieces and her bed in it, Ally thought. With the baby there, too, would she be able to move around at all?
She handed him the toolbox.
“Thanks,” he said, reaching for the tools without paying attention to her.
At least he was keeping his mind on the task at hand.
Maybe he’d be too busy to remember to grill her about her mother and her reasons, Ally thought. She perched on the edge of her bed and, hoping she wouldn’t be called on to help, settled in to watch.
“You promised to finish the story,” Danny said, though he seemed to be concentrating on putting the bed together.
Was Danny a mind reader?
“What story?” Ally lied. Danny wouldn’t buy the idea that she didn’t remember what he was referring to, but she felt she had to stall. The story didn’t get any easier with the telling.
He gave her a look that told her exactly what she’d been thinking. “You promised to tell me why you are so hell-bent on continuing to be an independent woman even after you marry me.”
“I didn’t say that I was going to marry you,” she countered.
“You will,” Danny said with confidence. “It isn’t a matter of if but when.”
“If you know so much, Danny, then surely you must know this.”
“Al-ly,” he warned, his tone vaguely threatening, yet intimate.
Letting him into her bedroom had been a bad idea, but maybe telling her mother’s story and, by default, hers would help diffuse the growing tension. Perhaps it would diffuse her urge to touch him, to hold him, to love him.
“It isn’t pretty,” she said.
“I’m a strong man. I can handle it, Ally,” Danny said, pinning her down with his emerald-green gaze. “And stalling isn’t going to make it any easier. Tell me,” he demanded, crossing his arms firmly over his broad chest. “I won’t leave you alone until you do. I want to understand.”
Ally reminded herself that it was just a ploy to make Danny leave her alone, but she really did want to make him understand.
So, she began.
Chapter Five
Danny whistled long and low. He didn’t like whatAlly had told him so far, but he had to hear the rest. He needed to hear it. Needed to learn everything he could that might help him figure out what made Ally tick.
“Go on,” he prodded. “When your father died, your mother decided to pick up everything and go back to Tamahlya?”
“Yes,” Ally whispered. “She wanted to go back to the one place she thought she belonged.”
“Can’t fault her for that,” Danny said. “There’s a lot to be said for being around friends and family when you are down.” He’d finished putting the crib together, and all that remained was actually inserting the springs into the frame and placing the mattress. He turned to give Ally his undivided attention.
She was sitting on the edge of her bed, her face looking pained. She wrung her hands over and over again, hunching her shoulders, telegraphing her hurt and tension. But as much as Danny hated putting her through this, he wouldn’t give her an out. The telling would be cathartic, and the story was important to his future. To hers.
To theirs, he amended.
“She went back to Tamahlya to be with her family
,” he repeated. “Did you go with her?”
Ally shook her head. “I should have. I might have been able to help.” She sighed. “I was a senior in college. I couldn’t get away because of classes.” She paused. “I didn’t really want to get away,” she added quietly. “I didn’t want to have to go back to Tamahlya.” She shuddered. “It’s a terrible place for a woman.”
Danny pushed himself to his feet and hurried to her, then settled on the bed beside her. He took her hands and covered them with his. “Come on, Ally. You’ll feel better once you get it all out.” He tipped her face up so that he could look into her wide, dark eyes, brimming with tears he wished he could stop. Danny felt like a class-A heel for making her cry, but he truly believed it would help her.
She’d been holding on to it for far too long.
Ally swallowed—gulped, really—and moistened her lips. “I didn’t want to go with her. I’d been there before,” she said softly. “I didn’t like it. I felt as though I was stepping back ten centuries.”
“Not exactly the kind of place a modern, young American woman would choose to move,” Danny concluded.
“No.” Ally drew in a deep breath and charged ahead. “Things had changed in Tamahlya since my father had attended the university there. The regime had changed. The mullah at the time was a traditionalist. No, he was—” Ally stopped and swallowed again. “He was a monster.”
“Did he hurt your mother?” Danny said, dreading what he might hear.
“No, not directly,” Ally whispered, shaking her head. “My grandfather had died since she was last at home, and my uncle, my mother’s brother, had…had disappeared. That left my mother and grandmother alone to take care of themselves.”
Danny wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.
Ally shook her head. “I have to go on,” she said, her voice soft. “Of course you know of the Taliban.”
Danny nodded.
“Something similar existed there, though maybe not quite as extreme. What few women professionals there had been were driven out of business. Women were allowed on the streets if they were modest and properly dressed, and they were allowed to shop and spend money if they had it.
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