All That Remains. Janice Johnson Kay

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      “Then I promise Cupcake’s father won’t find you by any doing of mine.”

      Those eyes, as soft as a Hershey’s bar melted for a s’more, kept searching his face. “Okay,” she said. “Fraser. My last name’s Fraser.”

      “Ren? How do you spell it?”

      “Like the bird. W-R-E-N.” She sighed. “I suppose that’s how I looked to my mother. Small and brown-feathered and sort of plain.”

      He’d swear he heard a lifetime of sadness in words she said lightly.

      “It’s a pretty name,” Alec said. Somehow, he hadn’t let go of her hand, which lay trustingly in his rather like the small bird they were talking about. “Wrens may not be colorful, but they’re quick and cheerful and full of life.”

      “Still, it would be rather nice to be a blue jay. Or a cardinal.”

      He grinned at her. “Blue jays are thieves, you know. Lousy characters all around. Cardinals are in bad taste. Too flashy.”

      Wren gave another tiny giggle that warmed his heart ridiculously. His hand tightened on hers, and she looked down as if bemused to see where it lay. But she made no move to remove it from his.

      Another contraction came. Gaze fastened desperately on his, she breathed her way through it. When it passed, she said, “Do you mind talking to me? You said you’re a detective?”

      “Major crimes,” he said. “Homicide, rape, assault.”

      “Do you like what you do?”

      He felt his mouth twist. Funny she should ask him that. He might still be married if he’d been willing to give up what he did. He wouldn’t have lost India and Autumn, the two people he loved most in the world.

      “Yeah.” His voice came out hoarse. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I like my work. I never wanted to be anything but a cop.”

      “Then that’s what you ought to do,” Wren said firmly. “You’re lucky.”

      Lucky. That was one way of putting it.

      “You?” he asked.

      “Nothing special.” Her voice brightened. “I did graduate from college.” The brightness left her. “But I majored in history, which is pretty much useless. I wanted to do grad school to become a librarian, but—” She grimaced. “I told myself I’d still do it, but…later.”

      Cupcake’s father had come along, Alec guessed. He was developing quite a dislike for Cupcake’s father.

      “You got married?”

      She looked at him in surprise. “No. Oh, no. I was stupid, but not quite that stupid. We’re not married, thank goodness. Just…” She indicated her belly.

      “Do you know for sure that he’s after you?”

      “No-o.” Memories pinched her face. “But he said I couldn’t leave him. That he’d find me, and I’d be sorry if I ever tried.”

      “Bullies like that don’t always follow through.”

      “No.” Again she sounded doubtful. “But I’d rather make it impossible for him to find me.”

      Alec didn’t like seeing that expression on her face. He smiled at her. “Well, there’s the silver lining to your current predicament. I can guarantee you that Cupcake’s father can’t get to you right now.”

      Some of the tension left her. “That’s true, isn’t it? And I was so lucky that you came along. I told myself I could do this alone, but…I was scared.”

      “You weren’t just lucky,” he told her firmly. “You were smart, too. You got yourself from your car to a house, then into the attic. If you hadn’t hung that white sheet out the window, I might not have come close. I knew this house was abandoned.”

      “Why was it?”

      “Old guy lived here. Josiah Maynard. His wife died quite a while ago. He let the place go after that, from what I heard. Almost two years ago he had to move to a nursing home.”

      “He’s still alive, then?”

      “Far as I know.”

      She gave a little nod. “Then I’ll go visit him once I can. I should thank him for…for leaving some clothes behind, and wood and even matches. And tell him I’m sorry I had to break a window to get in.”

      Alec laughed. “With water halfway to the ceiling downstairs, I think the house is history. One broken window doesn’t make any difference.”

      “You mean, it won’t be rebuilt—” She groaned, her grip on his hand tightened, and they were off again.

      After a quick glance at his watch, he counted with her. He hadn’t checked the time with the last one, but he thought contractions were still spaced about five minutes apart. Probably no surprise, not if it had taken her nearly two days to get to this point. Still, he’d feel better if they were getting closer together, even though he wasn’t looking forward to the denouement.

      “Are you hungry? Or thirsty?” he asked, when she was resting again.

      Wren shook her head. “No. I’m okay.”

      “Warm enough?”

      She seemed to do an internal check, then answered with faint surprise, “Yes.”

      “Let me get the window completely closed.” He left her to pry the grappling iron out of the wood. The sodden white sheet dropped into the water below and was whipped away. He stood looking out for a minute, having one of those moments of disbelief, then shook his head and shoved the swollen casement window down.

      The attic was not noticeably warmer.

      “I really am sorry. I mean, that you got stuck here with me.”

      He turned to face her. “I didn’t get stuck. I made a decision. You couldn’t climb out the window and get down to the boat while you were in labor. If the outboard motor had failed on the way back, we’d have been up a creek, if you’ll pardon the pun. It’s better to hunker down here with you. It would be nice if we had a working woodstove, maybe a kettle and some cocoa—”

      “Marshmallows.”

      He laughed. “Yeah, why not? But this isn’t so bad, is it? You gathered enough bedding and clothes to keep us from freezing. The water has risen as high as it’s going to get. We’re safe. You’ve got me to help Cupcake be born. Somebody will come looking for me eventually, or we’ll wait until the water goes down.” He shrugged. “We’re fine, Wren. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

      She thought that over, then said, “But now you can’t rescue anyone else.”

      He shook his head. “We were winding down. This was one of the last places I was going to check.”

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