The Soldier And The Single Mom. Lee McClain Tobin

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СКАЧАТЬ stranger pulled up in front of a rambling brick home. The outdoor light was on, revealing a porch swing and a front-door wreath made of flowers and pretty branches.

      “I’ll have to wake up my sister. You can wait here in the truck or out front.” He gestured toward the house.

      Well, okay, then. No excess of manners.

      Except that, actually, she was the stranger and he was doing her a service. “I’ll wait on the porch. Thanks.”

      He seemed able to read her mind as he came around to open the truck door for her. “Sorry to leave you outside, but my sister is sort of touchy,” he said as they walked up the narrow brick walkway. “I can’t bring a stranger in to set up shop without asking permission. It’s her place.” He paused. “It’s a very safe town, but I’ll leave Crater out here if that will make you more comfortable.”

      “It will, thanks.” It had been the dog, and the stranger’s reaction to the dog, that had made her decide he was a reliable person to help her.

      That, and the fact that she was desperate.

      In her worst moments she wondered if she’d done the right thing, taking Bobby away from her in-laws’ wealth and security. But no way. They’d become more and more possessive of him, trying to push her out of the picture and care for him themselves. And she kept coming back to what she’d seen: her mother-in-law holding Bobby out for her father-in-law to hit, hard, causing the baby to wail in pain. Her father-in-law had started to shake Bobby, she was sure of it, despite their vigorous denials and efforts to turn the criticism back on her.

      Once she knew for sure, she couldn’t in good conscience stay herself, or leave Bobby in his grandparents’ care.

      When she’d first driven away from the mansion that had felt increasingly like a prison, relief had made her giddy. She’d not known how oppressed she had felt, living there, until she’d started driving across the country with no forwarding address. Realizations about her dead husband’s problems had stacked up, one on top of the other, until she was overwhelmed with gratitude to God for helping her escape the same awful consequences for herself and Bobby.

      As she’d crossed state lines, though, doubts had set in, so that now her dominant, gnawing emotion was fear. How would she make a living? What job could she get without references and with few marketable skills? And while she worked, who would watch Bobby? She wouldn’t leave her precious baby with just anyone. She had to be able to trust them. To know they’d love and care for him in her absence.

      Inside the house, a door slammed. “I’ve about had it, Buck!”

      She heard Buck’s voice, lower, soothing, though she couldn’t make out the words.

      “You’ve got to be kidding. She has a baby with her?”

      More quiet male talk.

      The door to the guesthouse burst open, and a woman about her age, in a dark silk robe, stood, hands on hips. “Okay, spill it. What’s your story?”

      The woman’s tone raised Gina’s hackles, whooshing her back to her in-laws and their demanding glares. The instinct to walk away was strong, but she had Bobby to consider. She drew in a breath and let it out slowly, a calming technique from her yoga days. “Long version or short?”

      “I work all day and then come home and try to renovate this place. I’m tired.”

      “Short, then. My purse was stolen, I’m out of gas and I need a place to stay.”

      The woman frowned. “For how long?”

      “I...don’t know. A couple of days.”

      “Why can’t you call someone?”

      That was the key question. How did she explain how she’d gotten so isolated from her childhood friends, how she’d needed to go to a part of the country where she didn’t know anyone, both to make a fresh start and so that her in-laws didn’t find her? “That’s in the long version.”

      “So...” The woman cocked her head to one side, studying her with skepticism in every angle of her too-thin frame. “Are you part of some scam?”

      “Lacey.” Buck put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “If you’re opening a guesthouse, you need to be able to welcome people.”

      “If you’re serious about recovery from your drinking problem, you need to stop pulling stunts like this.”

      Buck winced.

      Gina reached up to rub her aching shoulder. Great. Another addict.

      The woman drew in a breath, visibly trying to remain calm. “I’m sorry. But you’re blinded by how she looks like Ivana. Stuff like this happens all the time in big cities. We have to be careful.”

      Bobby stirred and let out a little cry, and as Gina swayed to calm him, something inside her hardened. She was tired of explaining herself to other people. If she weren’t in such dire straits, she’d walk right down those pretty, welcoming porch steps and off into the night. “You can search me. All I’ve got is this diaper bag.” She shifted and held it out to the woman. “It’s hard to run a scam with an infant tagging along.”

      Buck raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment, and scarily enough, she could read what he was thinking. So you don’t have a gun in there.

      Of course she didn’t.

      The woman, Lacey, took it, set it down on the table and pawed through.

      Gina’s stomach tightened.

      Bobby started to cry in earnest. “Shh,” she soothed. He needed a diaper change, a feeding and bed. She could only hope the trauma and changes of the past few days wouldn’t damage him, that her own love and commitment and consistency would be enough.

      “Look, you can stay tonight and we’ll talk in the morning.” With a noisy sigh, the woman turned away, but not before Gina saw a pained expression on her face. “You settle her in,” she said to Buck. “Put her in the Escher.” She stormed inside, letting the screen door bang behind her.

      * * *

      Buck felt tired, inescapably tired, but also keyed up to where he knew he wasn’t going to sleep. “Come on,” he said to the beautiful stranger.

      But she didn’t follow. “This isn’t going to work out. I’ll find something else.”

      “There’s no place else.” He picked up her bag and beckoned her inside, with Crater padding behind him. “Don’t worry, Lacey will be more hospitable in the morning.” Maybe. He knew what else had bothered Lacey, besides the fact that she’d rescued him one too many times from some late-night escapade: Gina’s little boy. Just last year, Lacey had miscarried the baby who was all she had left of her soldier husband. Seeing someone who apparently wasn’t taking good care of her own child had to infuriate her.

      He wasn’t sure his sister’s judgment was fair; Gina might be doing the best she could for her baby, might be on the run from some danger worse than whatever she’d be likely to face on an Ohio country road.

      He led her through the vinyl sheeting and raw boards that СКАЧАТЬ