Unexpected Gift

by Delores Fossen

  So, Gabe moved in to do just that—against his better judgment about complicating a complicated situation with yet another complication.

  He touched his mouth to hers. Just a touch. But it was one of those earth-moving kinds of touches. The heat sped right through him, firing up his body and clouding his mind.

  Definitely not good.

  Did that stop him?

  Uh, no.

  He slid his hand around the back of Kelly’s neck, yanked her to him and kissed her. Long, slow, deep. Just the way he liked his kisses.

  But again, this wasn’t his usual.

  It was Kelly, and with that one kiss, his memories went back to that night when the kisses had gone on for much longer, slower and deeper until they’d ended up in bed.

  “We can’t,” Kelly said, scrambling out of his grip.

  Oh, yes, they could, but that didn’t mean they should. Landing in bed again would be incredible. Gabe was sure of it, but it wouldn’t help Kelly and him iron things out.

  Unless…

  “I’m not on the pill and I seriously doubt you have a condom with you,” she added.

  All right. That nixed his unless.

  And it was a darn good argument, too. They’d used a condom the last time, one that he’d taken from his wallet, but clearly something had been faulty. Or maybe they were just more fertile than most people.

  “Besides,” she said, moving even farther away from him and to the cabinet next to the sink, “Noel’s wide-awake and watching us.”

  She was. The baby had her attention fixed to them as if they were the most fascinating creatures on the planet. That cooled down the fire inside him, but Gabe wasn’t stupid. Not about most things anyway.

  And he figured a cooled fire for Kelly was only a temporary thaw.

  “Formula,” Kelly mumbled. “Oh, no.”

  Since his mind was on kisses and thaws, it took him a moment to realize she meant baby formula. “What’s wrong? The rest of the can I used this morning is in the fridge.”

  “Yes, but that’s only enough for today and tonight. I’d bought some extra cans, six of them, but I left them in my office at the library.”

  Understandable. She’d had plenty on her mind yesterday with his arrival and the filming of her baby news.

  “The store won’t be open because it’s Christmas Eve,” she added as if this were the end of the world. “I have a few cans of another brand, but Noel doesn’t like it nearly as well as her usual.”

  “No problem. I’ll just go to the library and get them. Anything else you need for Christmas dinner? I noticed the ham in the fridge and was hoping you were cooking that.”

  “I am. And no, I don’t need anything but the formula.” Kelly shook her head. “But that doesn’t matter anyway. The roads are coated with ice. You can’t drive.”

  “So I’ll walk,” he said, putting his coat back on. “Hey, I’m a Combat Rescue Officer, and I’ve already rescued a cat this morning. How hard can it be to rescue some formula, too?”

  Since it was butt-freezing cold, and he’d have to walk the two miles and back, Gabe decided not to wait for an answer. Instead he wanted to plant a seed in her head. One that would get him a little closer to being a full-time dad to a baby who deserved nothing less.

  He looked Kelly right in the eyes. “But just know that when I get back, the sleeping on it is done, and I expect an answer to my marriage proposal,” Gabe told her. “And the answer I’m expecting is yes.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  KELLY CHECKED THE time again while she paced from the kitchen to the living room and back. Gabe had been gone much too long.

  Four hours.

  That was a lifetime out in the cold and ice, and for some reason her calls to him were going straight to voice mail. Maybe the weather was responsible for that, too, but Kelly’s imagination was causing her to think the worst.

  Sweet heaven, was Gabe all right?

  She couldn’t help but think back to her parents’ car accident. Not caused by icy roads but rather by a drunken driver. They were good people, and something horrible had happened to them.

  Something horrible could be happening to Gabe, too.

  Noel whimpered and looked up from the whirling butterfly mobile that Kelly had attached to her bassinet. The baby was probably sensing her mother’s frayed nerves.

  And they were indeed frayed.

  Things weren’t exactly in a good place between Gabe and her, and now he was out there. Yes, he was doing something important, getting Noel’s formula, but she could have given the baby the other formula. Of course, she should have just remembered to get the cans she’d already bought in the first place. There’d been a lot going on with Gabe’s homecoming, but she still should have remembered something that important.

  Kelly scooped up Noel when she whimpered again, and she continued her pacing with the baby cradled in her arms. Continued looking out the windows, too, for any sign of Gabe or anyone else who might be coming up the road to deliver bad news.

  “He’ll be back soon,” she whispered to Noel, trying to soothe the baby and herself. Gabe would be back soon, and he would want an answer to the proposal. Or rather the ultimatum.

  And the answer I’m expecting is yes.

  Kelly wasn’t sure what the consequences of saying no would be, but it was what she’d have to tell him. She couldn’t leave Sugar Springs.

  Could she?

  She paced, mulled that over, paced some more, and it didn’t take long for the movement to put Noel to sleep. Kelly eased the baby back in the bassinet and glanced over at Mrs. Saunders’s house.

  Maybe she should get the woman to stay with Noel while she went out looking for Gabe.

  Kelly reached for the phone to give Mrs. Saunders a call, but before she could press in the number, she saw something. At first, it seemed to be a shadow in the misting frozen fog, but she kept staring at it and finally saw something she wanted to see.

  Gabe.

  Not hurt and not in some ditch as she’d imagined. But here.

  Thank God.

  He was walking on the side of the road, a bag in each hand. His shoulders were hunched against the cold, head slightly down, but he was keeping a steady, swift pace toward the house. Kelly grabbed a blanket throw from the sofa and hurried out onto the porch.

  “You’re all right,” she blurted out, and Kelly made her way down the steps and into the yard so she could put the blanket around him.

  “Were you worried about me?” The corner of his mouth lifted in that damnable smile that made her want to throttle him and kiss him at the same time.

  Kelly went with the kiss.

  The relief flooded through her. He was not only all right, but he could smile at a time like this when she was clearly worried. But one touch of her mouth to his, and it wasn’t just a flood of relief.

  No.

  This was that fiery heat that she remembered in perfect detail. Heat that she’d longed for.

  And was now getting.

  Outside, in the freezing cold.

  Gabe did his part to up that heat. Despite the bags, his arms went around her, pulling her closer and closer until they were slapped right against each other. Body to body, and with her own body wanting a heck of a lot more from him than just a kiss.

  “The baby,” he managed to say.

  That jolted her back to reality fast, and Kelly untangled herself from him so that she could hurry back inside. Even though she’d left the door open a fraction, the room was still toasty warm and Noel had stayed sound asleep.

  “You didn’t answer my calls,” she said, the frayed nerves still right there at the surface.

  “My phone died, and I’d left the charger in my rental car. I stopped by and picked it up.”

 
; Gabe came in behind her, setting the bags on the floor and closing the door. He looked down at Noel, smiled and, in the same motion, took hold of Kelly and pulled her right back to him.

  “I was just relieved that you were okay,” she said, a split second before he kissed her again.

  “I’m just relieved that you kissed me,” he countered.

  And Gabe returned the kiss a thousandfold.

  Oh, he was so good at it, too. Just the right pressure from his mouth. The right grip of his arms around her. He was strong, muscled and pulled her right into that grip as if he were in charge.

  Sadly, he was in charge. When it came to this anyway.

  Probably because he fired every nerve in her body.

  It was because of the heat that she didn’t stop him. The kiss went on way too long, leaving her breathless, giddy and apparently stupid. The last thing she needed was to be kissing Gabe. Not with that marriage proposal lingering between them.

  Talk about her sending him mixed messages.

  Hours earlier she’d said no to his proposal, and now she was letting him kiss the living daylights out of her.

  Heck, it was mixed messages for her own body, too, and that’s why Kelly finally moved out of his grip. Of course, moving away from him didn’t rid her of the heat. Not a chance. Looking at that drop-dead-hot face only made it worse.

  “That was a complication I didn’t need,” she mumbled.

  He flinched a little, as if she’d cursed at him or something. “Sometimes, complications are the spice of life.”

  “I thought variety was.”

  Gabe smiled again, obviously making his point. With her grounded roots, she hadn’t been a big fan of variety, spice or complications.

  The kiss had been the exception.

  And he knew it.

  Even if things were still unsettled between them, one thing for certain was this blasted attraction. It was clouding her head at a time when she needed clarity.

  He stared at her for several long moments. Maybe waiting for this conversation to turn to the proposal, or to the possibility of another kiss, but Kelly only shook her head. That earned her a heavy sigh from him, and his face dropped a bit, but it didn’t last.

  “The formula,” he said, holding up one of the bags.

  “Thank you.” And she meant it. Many men probably wouldn’t have gone out in the cold for a baby’s preferred formula, but she’d known her entire life that Gabe wasn’t like most men.

  Or maybe that was the effects of the kiss still talking.

  Gabe set the formula on the coffee table and held up the other bag. “Christmas presents.”

  Kelly did a double take of the bag. “Where’d you get Christmas presents? Everything’s closed in Sugar Springs.”

  “Yep, but Herman Newman opened Snapshots and Whatnots so I could do a little shopping. Well, he did after I pounded on the door for a while,” he added in a mumble. “He even wrapped the gifts for me. Sort of.”

  She didn’t want to know how much that’d cost Gabe. Herman wasn’t exactly the kind of man to get caught up in the holiday spirit, and it would have taken plenty of cash—Herman didn’t take checks or credit cards—not only to get presents on Christmas Eve but to wrap them, too.

  “For Noel,” Gabe said, taking out a present.

  Yes, it was indeed wrapped in newspaper and tied with a frayed red-yarn bow, but the shape of it told Kelly exactly what was inside. “You got her a football?”

  “Not just any ol’ football. It’s the one from the district championship from Ross’s and my senior year.”

  A district championship that they’d won.

  Kelly had seen the football in the store, had even asked once how much it cost, but Herman had said it wasn’t for sale. There were so many happy memories attached to that football since she’d been in the bleachers watching Gabe throw the winning touchdown to Ross.

  “Herman said Coach Myers gave him the football after the game,” Gabe added, “but I suspect somebody like Delbert took it from the locker room and sold it to Herman.”

  Yes, she was betting the same thing. But it was signed by most of the team and would indeed be a good keepsake for Noel. Something that family would pass down to family.

  “And I got her this,” Gabe said, taking out the next gift.

  This one was wrapped in pink tissue paper, and the shape also gave it away.

  “It’s the antique angel doll.” Kelly’s breath caught in her throat a little. “From the top left shelf behind Herman’s cash register.”

  Gabe made a ding-ding-ding sound as if she’d guessed something right on a game show.

  “I always loved that doll,” she admitted. “I guess Herman told you that?”

  “He didn’t mention it. Instead, he was trying to sell me the limited-edition rubber ducky that was still inside the box, but I figured every little girl needs an angel doll to go along with a football. Besides, the angel reminds me of the wings on my CRO badge.”

  Yes, it did, and that was one of the reasons Kelly had been drawn to it in the first place. That and the silk dress and blue eyes.

  Eyes the same color as Gabe’s.

  “I’m sure Noel will love it when she’s old enough to play with it.” Kelly took the packages and slipped them under the tree next to the other toys she’d bought the baby and the gift from Ross that Gabe had given to her at the library.

  “It probably seems a little silly to wait until tomorrow to open it,” Kelly added, “since I already know what it is and Noel’s too young to realize what’s going on—”

  “Doesn’t seem silly at all. Opening presents on Christmas morning is a great tradition.” Gabe took yet another present from the bag. “This one’s for you.”

  Unlike the others, the shape didn’t give this one away.

  “Herman actually had a gift box to fit it,” Gabe added.

  She gave the eight-inch-square box a little shake. Something rattled around inside, but she had no idea what it was. “Thank you, but I didn’t get you a gift.”

  “Sure you did. When you ran outside with the blanket and kissed me, that was a one-of-a-kind present.” He paused. “Was that a limited-edition kiss, Kelly, or will there be more of those?”

  There was still a trace of the smile on his mouth when he asked that, but it melted away when she just stared at him. Gabe didn’t exactly sigh, but Kelly figured there was a heavy sigh somewhere inside him.

  “One last present,” he said and took out the small package. “But unlike the others, we’re opening this one now.”

  Her heart jumped to her throat.

  Because this one wasn’t wrapped, and it was a jewelry box. The kind that held a ring.

  Gabe flipped it open with his thumb.

  “Now, Herman did mention that you looked at this often,” Gabe added.

  And there it was.

  She managed a nod, but it was hard to do much of anything with her heart still in her throat.

  The white-gold ring had tapered ends, folding onto each other, and making it resemble angel wings. Not the ornate ones on the angel doll or Gabe’s CRO badge. This was more of a delicate swirl, the way an artist would see an angel.

  She shook her head. “I can’t accept this. It’s too expensive.”

  That was the first thing that came to mind. However, there was an even bigger objection to this particular gift.

  After all, it was a ring.

  From Gabe.

  Along with his proposal, which made this an engagement ring.

  Gabe shrugged. “Herman said you’d taken a shine to it. I didn’t have enough cash for it, so he’s holding my credit card and my watch until I give him the money.”

  “Does this ring go along with your marriage proposal?” she asked when she
finally gathered enough breath to speak.

  He made another ding-ding-ding sound. It was lighthearted considering the seriousness of the moment. It almost seemed as if he was trying to guard his heart, or something.

  “It does,” he answered.

  Those two words hung like a heavy weight in the air.

  And on her.

  “I can’t get out of the military right away,” he continued when she didn’t say anything. “Not for at least two more years, but I’ll do whatever it takes to be a father to Noel and a husband to you.”

  She waited, in part because she lost her breath again, but mostly it was to see what if anything he would add to that.

  Was there anything he could add that would change her mind?

  Kelly still wasn’t convinced that marriage and being a full-time dad would make Gabe happy. And making him miserable wasn’t something she could live with. She cared too much about him for that.

  However, there was something he could say that might sway her. Might.

  The L-word.

  But there was no mention of love or even his feelings for her. No verbal repeat of the marriage proposal, either. Just the look on his face that told her he’d sacrifice what he was to be a father to Noel. It was an honorable act coming from an honorable man.

  However, it wasn’t enough.

  “I can’t give you the answer that you think you want, Gabe.” She closed the ring box and put it back in his hand.

  He stared at the box for a long time. “Sleep on it one more night,” he finally said. “Come Christmas morning, if the answer’s no, then I’ll see if I can come up with something else.”

  She’d expected the first part but not the last. “Something else?”

  He pressed a kiss on her cheek but didn’t explain what he meant. However, Kelly quickly filled in the blanks.

  Was he surrendering?

  Was Gabe giving up on this notion of marriage and family?

  Both were good questions, but the biggest one was the question that Kelly had herself.