Family by Design

While he was busy retrieving the flashlight, she wondered what he was doing so near to Katyville and decided he was probably back to visit his family over the holidays. She knew he had moved to Denver years ago. She also knew he was married. After she’d learned that, she hadn’t heard anything else.

“Let’s take a look at that spare.”

His voice jolted her back to her senses, and she followed him to the rear of her car. But she kept her distance. Opening the trunk, he gestured for her to come closer and handed her the light. “Shine it in here.”

Scrambling to stand beside him, she shone the light where he pointed. She had forgotten that the trunk light no longer worked. Inside, the baby stroller took up a large portion of the trunk, along with a few boxes. “I’ll just move these,” she murmured and tugged at a box with one hand.

“I’ll get it,” he said, and she stepped aside to give him space.

With the stroller and boxes out of the way, he found the tire, lifted it out and examined it. “It’s almost as flat as the other. No reason to take the time to change them. I’ll take care of them tomorrow.”

“No!” She bit her lower lip, shocked at her vehemence. But she didn’t want to be beholden to Nick Morelli. If it had been anyone else, she wouldn’t have protested. But it was Nick. “I’ll take care of it.”

He took the light from her and helped return the boxes, and then he shined the beam in her direction. “I’ll have Tony come out here and get it, first thing in the morning.”

“But your brother—”

“On the house.” Pocketing her keys, he slammed down the trunk lid. “If you have anything in the car you need, get it and lock the doors. I’ll give you a ride home.”

Since her only other choices were to stay out here on a deserted road all night or walk however many miles it was into Katyville, she didn’t argue. Enough time had been wasted. Raylene would be wondering why she hadn’t picked up the kids yet.

“If you can drop me at Raylene and Jeff’s…” For a moment, after she had said it, she thought she had seen him raise one eyebrow, but she decided it had been nothing more than her imagination. “You remember Raylene, don’t you?”

“Just give me directions when we get into town,” he answered as he turned to walk away.

Opening the door to her car, she grabbed her purse and the new vaporizer, and locked up. Nick waited in his truck with the engine running, and she wondered if he still looked the same when he smiled. He hadn’t smiled yet. But who could blame him? Finding a grown and weary version of a girl who had once wounded his ego wouldn’t exactly make him grin.

GLAD THE LIGHTS of the small town of Katyville were in view and they were nearly there, Nick glanced at Becca beside him. He was more than surprised to see her again. And if he didn’t know better, he would have thought she was scared to death of him. She sure hadn’t changed much. She had always seemed so down-to-earth, and at one time, he had thought she was something special—so special that they had planned a future together. But he had learned the truth about her a long time ago. The hard way.

“Somebody sick?” he asked, nodding toward the box she held on her lap in a death grip.

“Um, yes,” she said in the quiet voice he remembered all too well. “Daisy. My baby.”

Of course, she had a baby. More than one, from what he’d heard. His mother had mentioned that Becca had married some hotshot businessman her father had picked out for her. Leave it to Jock Malone to marry his daughter off to inflate his ego and raise his importance in the community even more.

He glanced at her again. “What’s wrong with her? With, uh, Daisy?”

Becca shifted in the seat, hugging the box closer. “A cold.”

He didn’t miss the “I hope” she added under her breath, and he wondered what was going on. Nick hadn’t missed the poor condition of the spare or the other tires on her car. No man should let his wife drive around in a car with bad tires. Maybe he should say something to the guy if he ever had the misfortune to meet him.

Then again, maybe he should just mind his own business. He didn’t owe Becca Malone or Becca Whatever-Her-Name-Was-Now anything. He’d been in love with her once and had thought she had loved him, too. But that had been years ago, and she had managed to completely douse his ardor one late spring evening. He should’ve known better. At nineteen, his hormones had led his life. No more. Not only had she taught him a valuable lesson, but he’d also gone on to learn many more. Most of them had left their mark.

“Which way?” he asked, pulling onto the main street that ran the length of the town.

“Left at Drury, then all the way to the end of the last block.”

He turned to look at her. Streetlights illuminated a face that was still young, in spite of the worry lines between her eyes and the hint of dark circles beneath them.

Not liking what he saw, he forced his attention back to the street ahead. Becca was still more than easy on the eyes, and he knew better than to get hooked on the sight of her. But the worn knees of her blue jeans and the loose edge of the shirt she wore hadn’t escaped his notice. So, okay, maybe she was cleaning the bathroom or something when she hightailed it to wherever she was coming from. Or maybe she had gotten tired of dressing up for the folks in Katyville. Or maybe—

“What’s your husband do for a living?” he asked suddenly, turning the corner to head down the familiar street.

“He…He’s a stockbroker. Why?”

A quick glance told him that her suspicions were aroused. His damn sure were. A stockbroker made good money, and nothing about her shouted that she was living all that well, considering the well-used car she drove. If she lived in Katyville—and he guessed she did, or she wouldn’t be headed in that direction so late at night—her husband probably commuted to his job in Wichita. Most people did.

“Just making conversation,” he answered with a shrug.

He remained silent for the next two blocks. He hadn’t done much poking around since returning to Katyville two weeks ago. Most of what he’d seen of the town was the main street, where his youngest brother owned the service station and garage that their father had owned for almost forty years. That and the drive from his parents’ home a few blocks away to the construction site at the edge of town, where his construction company was starting a new housing development.

The silence was broken when she showed him where to drop her off, and he pulled into the driveway. As soon as he turned the key to shut off the engine, she reached for the door handle and opened the door.

Running like a scared rabbit. If that’s the way she felt, he was okay with it. He didn’t have any intention of trying to change her mind or resurrect the past.

She slid from the seat and climbed out of the truck, then turned back. “Thank you, Nick. Tell Tony to send me a bill for the tire.”

The door slammed shut, and he watched her cross the lawn and head for the porch. When she stepped up on the first porch step, his jacket slid from her shoulders. Before he could stop himself, he was out of the truck and replacing the coat around her.

Taking the box from her grasp, he tried for a smile. “You have your hands full.”

She hesitated, and then turned to look at him, her gaze meeting his. “You always were a gentleman, Nick Morelli.”

He didn’t have the chance to read the look in her eyes when the storm door in front of them blew open.

“Mom! We thought you got lost.”

“Mommy, I don’t want to go to bed without you,” came a cry from behind the small boy, who had burst from the house first.

Becca hurried up the steps to the door and knelt down to take the boy into her arms. “I wasn’t lost, honey. I had a flat tire.” She held out one arm and pulled a small, tow-headed girl to her. “It’s okay, April. I’m home and everything is all right.”

The little boy pulled away a few inches and looked up at Nick. “Who’s he?”

Becca swiveled and offered Nick an apologetic smile. “He’s the nice man who stopped to help me with the flat tire.”

“Where’s our car?” the boy asked, his forehead creased in a worried frown.

The whimper of a baby caused Nick to look up to see Raylene Stevens holding an infant. “Nick brought you home?” she asked Becca, but didn’t take her eyes off him. “It’s good to see you, Nick.”

“You, too, Raylene.” He hadn’t seen Becca’s best friend since he’d left town ten years ago. The night was turning into a walk down memory lane, and he didn’t want to go there. He sure hoped her strange smile didn’t mean she thought he’d taken some kind of advantage of Becca.

“I found her out on one of the back roads with a flat and a spare that matched it,” he explained in defense, adding a shrug. “I’ll have Tony take care of it in the morning. He can drop her car off at her place after he fixes the tire.”

Becca unwrapped the two kids still clinging to her and held her arms out for the baby. After planting a kiss on the baby’s forehead, she turned to Nick. “Thank you for the ride and…everything. But don’t bother Tony about the car. It really isn’t necessary.”

“I will and it is,” he said, his gaze on the infant she cuddled. “Is this Daisy?”

“Yes, and I’d better get her inside and out of the cold before she gets worse.”