Her Baby and Her Beau

Until she reminded herself that he’d portrayed her as some kind of slut.

And abandoned her.

That steeled her against his current appeal.

“How did all this happen?” Beau asked then, nodding at her braced wrist.

Small talk. Okay.

Kyla explained how and why she’d come to Denver, the housing situation on her cousin’s property, and how she’d come to have Immy with her that night.

Then she said, “The fire department thinks it was an electrical fire that started on the second floor, where Rachel and Eddie’s bedroom was. I was asleep in the guesthouse. There was no smoke alarm—I’m not sure what woke me up, but whatever did, it was already too late for me to do anything but get us out. I could see the main house through one window and it was... Mostly I could just see huge, bright flames. And the guesthouse was on fire, too—there were flames right outside the bedroom door, and I guess the roof out there fell in, because there was a huge crash. I just kept thinking that no one would know we were back there in the guesthouse, to come and help, and I had to get us out.”

The terror of that memory flooded Kyla.

“I slammed the bedroom door to keep the flames out—I was just hoping that if the fire had to burn through the door it would give me a few more minutes. Luckily Immy was in a portable crib in my room—if she’d been anywhere else I wouldn’t have been able to get to her. But the only way out was the window in the bathroom that faced the back. We were above the garage and...” Kyla swallowed hard and shrugged. “I didn’t really know what to do. I thought about throwing Immy out first, but I was afraid to do that. Like I said before, the bubble wrap was right there, so I rolled her in it, wrapped a blanket around that, and—”

“Jumped out the window?”

“It was really more like we fell out the window—I kind of got us up to sit in it. It was a straight drop from there. I tried to hold Immy to one side and twist so I’d fall on my back and maybe be the cushion for her. But I ended up falling on my other side—Immy was on my left and I fell on the right—and I guess maybe I tried to brace us or catch us or something with my hand out.” She shook her head. “I don’t know for sure—that part is a blur—but the next thing I knew I was on the ground and Immy was crying and I was hurt and it was so hot, and I knew I needed to get us to where someone would be able to see us to help because we were way in the back.”

She shrugged again. “I got over to the neighbor’s place next door and out to their front yard. Somebody saw us coming then and...there was help, but I couldn’t find Rachel or Eddie, and I kept asking where they were. I think I just kind of collapsed.”

Beau took his eyes off the road for only a second. “You did a lot before that—you’d make a good soldier.”

Kyla shook her head. “No, thanks.”

“How long was it before you knew that your cousin and her husband hadn’t made it out of the fire?”

“I’m not sure of that, either. My concept of time from there is off. I know I started to think it was bad when no one would tell me anything about them. I kept asking—the EMTs in the ambulance, the hospital staff—but all anyone would say was that it was Immy and me who they needed to think about. Immy was in the hospital nursery and they kept me informed about her, but it was sometime the next day I think when they finally told me Rachel and Eddie hadn’t made it.”

Kyla had to blink away tears at that thought, and as she did she focused on the scenery to get herself out of the nightmare in her head.

They’d driven into the heart of Denver and now they seemed to be in an area called Cherry Creek, where the houses were old and enormous.

Beau pulled into the driveway of a beautiful, stately two-story white Colonial saltbox with wings that stretched out from both sides of the first floor. It was trimmed in black with wood shingles, there were two chimneys on the roof, and lantern sconces on either side of a red front door.

“This is your house?” Kyla said, amazed by the difference between it and anywhere she’d ever lived.

“It has been for three weeks.”

“For only three weeks—are you still living out of boxes?”

“No, ma’am,” he answered as if that could only be true of a slacker. “There are some empty rooms—two less as of this morning when one got turned into a nursery and another into a guest room—but you’ll find it shipshape.”

“And you live in this huge place alone?”

“Yes. When I’m left alone,” he said, nodding in the direction of a sedan parked at the curb as he pulled farther up the drive. There was a woman sitting behind the wheel.

“That would be my sister January,” he explained. “Jani, we call her. Uninvited, but with good intentions, I’m sure. I’ve only been back for two months—”

“Back?”

“Out of the Marines, back to civilian life. And things are...we’re all trying to figure out where I fit in with the family again. The females in particular seem to hover and try to take care of me as if I need that.”

He sighed as if to maintain patience that was strained. “Anyway, I’m betting Jani is only the first platoon to be sent in today and the rest will just ‘happen to stop by.’ I’m sorry. I didn’t ask for their help, but brace for it, because it’s likely to be coming at us today.”

Kyla tried to grasp this newest twist as he followed the curve of the drive around the west wing to the attached garage that was hidden behind it. As he pulled in, something seemed to suddenly occur to him.

“I forgot to stop for formula!”

Without Immy crying, Kyla had forgotten about it, too.

“Okay, how about this,” he said as the garage door began to close behind them. “Since the baby is still sleeping and she’s safe in here, we’ll leave her where she is while I get you in and settled, with the car door and the door into the house open so I can hear her if she wakes up. And we can send Jani for formula.”

“Sure. Okay,” Kyla agreed vaguely as a whole new stress took over.

Because now his family was entering the picture.

People who believed that once upon a time she had falsely accused Beau of fathering her baby. How would they react to seeing her suddenly in Beau’s life again—and with a baby in tow?

Chapter Three (#ulink_5e4a0d30-2b01-54b2-b967-0be8af9a0ae2)

Oh, Darla, thank you, thank you, thank you! Kyla thought as she washed her hair with her own shampoo late Thursday afternoon.

Within an hour of arriving at Beau Camden’s house the day before, she’d called her Northbridge roommate with his address. Darla had an entire box of Kyla’s own clothes, toiletries and necessities waiting and had mailed it overnight. She’d even included some new things—like a hair dryer and curling iron—to replace what Kyla had brought with her to Denver and lost in the fire.

The box had been delivered an hour ago and just having her own belongings again was more of a boon than Kyla would ever have guessed. Despite the bumps and bruises and still-bad wrist, it made her feel worlds better.

Although the way she’d spent the time since getting here had helped a lot, too.

Beau had been completely correct when he’d said that his sister Jani’s visit was only the beginning. She’d been joined within half an hour by the family’s grandmother—who Kyla had been instructed to call GiGi—and GiGi’s private physician.

The doctor had consulted with the hospital staff that had treated Kyla and Immy, so he was familiar with their conditions. He hadn’t liked the toll taken on either of them by the motel stay or the lack of sleep and food, and had ordered Kyla to another twenty-four hours of bed rest.