Santa Assignment

Brayden truly wished he hadn’t noticed.

It had to be the fatigue and the stress.

It had to be.

“I’m not sure how this should work,” Ashley admitted, moistening those peachy lips. “Do we try some chitchat first? Or should we just get straight to the point of the argument that we both know we’ll end up having?”

His former sister-in-law had faults, but her directness sure wasn’t one of them. Under the circumstances, he found it refreshing.

“Let’s skip the chitchat. And just to let you know up front—brace yourself because you’re not going to like the point,” he volunteered.

“I figured as much.” She propped her hands on her hips. Not waif hips either. Curved ones. She was definitely built like a woman, and the snug jeans only emphasized that.

Yet something else he wished he hadn’t noticed.

Ashley studied him a moment. “So, you found out, huh?”

Brayden was almost certain he blinked. He hadn’t thought she would be the one delivering the surprises today. “Found out? About what?”

She blinked too. And for a split second, there was a panicky look in Ashley’s eyes. But she quickly covered it with a huff, which had a definite duh tone to it. “About where to find me, of course. Let me guess—you want to confront me about your unresolved anger? And this is some kind of requirement for a twelve-step program to help you deal with Dana’s murder?”

“No twelve-step program could help with that.” It’d taken long agonizing months to push the pain of his wife’s death aside just so he could function. It’d taken longer still for the numbness to go away. And even now, his life wasn’t normal. Never would be.

“Well, yeah,” she grumbled. “You got me there.”

Ashley turned her back to him again, pulled a pint of caramel-fudge ice cream from her grocery bag and strolled toward the fridge. She tried to look nonchalant—distant, even—but her tight at-war jaw muscles gave her away. This was no proverbial piece of cake for her, either. Especially since she’d let something slip. So, you found out, huh?

Brayden would let that pass.

For now.

Ashley took out a spoon from one of the drawers and opened the ice cream. “Wow, this must really be something earth-shattering for you not to get right to the point. You’re not the beating-around-the-bush type.” She sampled the caramel-fudge, made a sound of approval and recapped the carton.

“This isn’t easy.” Man, what an understatement. Brayden shook his head and wished he’d at least practiced what to say. He’d interrogated serial killers and hadn’t felt this uncomfortable.

“So, why don’t we just start with you telling me how you found me?” she prompted. “I’ve changed my name and kept my address a secret, so I seriously doubt you just happened to be in the neighborhood.”

“I hired a private investigator to find you.”

“A PI? This must be important.” Ashley had already reached for the freezer door, but she paused just a second before she opened it carefully as if the handle were fragile and might shatter in her hand. “So just how important is it?”

“Very. It’s Colton.” It was all he could manage to say without taking another breath.

Her gaze rifled to his. She stuffed the ice cream in the freezer, slammed the door and went toward him. Not slowly this time. Her long strides quickly ate up the space between, and she stopped only a few feet away.

“What happened?” she asked. “Has he been hurt?”

Brayden was thankful for the true concern that went through her eyes. The only real connection he had left to Ashley was through Colton. His three-year-old son. And her nephew. It was that connection that had brought him to her.

He was prepared to beg if necessary.

“He wasn’t hurt,” Brayden explained. “He’s had some medical problems.” A simple almost sterile explanation. It still put his stomach in knots.

Ashley reached out as if to touch him but immediately withdrew her hand and crammed it into her back jeans’ pocket. “Will I need to sit down before I hear the rest of this?” she asked.

“Possibly.”

Another nod that was edgy and clipped, and she dragged out not one but two chairs from beneath the small tiled table. Brayden didn’t take her up on her nonverbal gesture to sit. He continued to stand even after she dropped down into the seat.

“The diagnosis is acute lymphocytic leukemia,” he went on, after another breath.

She made a small helpless sound and pressed her fingertips to her mouth. “Oh, God. Leukemia. How he is? Is he okay?”

No. His son wasn’t okay. But Brayden didn’t even try to get that out. “He’s had chemo and is stabilized for now. But he needs a bone-marrow transplant. Not immediately. But eventually.”

“Okay.” She pulled in her breath, hard, and repeated that one word several times. “So, you need me to be tested to see if I’m a match—”

“You’re not a match,” he explained. “You’re already in the bone-marrow registry so Colton’s doctors were able to check. That’s not why I’m here.”

That brought Ashley slowly back to her feet. “Then why did you come?”

It was a good question, and Brayden considered a detailed, clinical answer. One that would make her at least think about his proposition before she tossed him out the door.

But there was no way to make this clinical.

Tears shimmered in her eyes. “Mercy, you’re not here to tell me he’s not going to make it—”

“Colton needs a sibling donor,” he interrupted, not wanting her to finish that thought. Then, he paused. Waiting to see if she had a response. She didn’t. Ashley just stared at him. “A sibling with my DNA. And his mother’s.”

She shook her head. Maybe because she didn’t understand what he was asking, or God forbid, maybe because she was already saying no.

She couldn’t say no.

He couldn’t lose his son.

He just couldn’t.

“I’m asking you to have a baby,” he explained.

Ashley blinked back the tears, and her eyes widened. “You’re…what?”

He swallowed hard and with it swallowed what little pride he had left.

Which wasn’t much.

“I’m asking you to have a baby,” Brayden clarified. “Our baby.”

FROM THE MOMENT Ashley had seen Brayden O’Malley standing on her front porch, she’d imagined lots of things he might say to her.