A few minutes later, Lucas took a right turn into a driveway that wound through thick woods.
Dani’s heart beat faster, and her mouth went dry.
Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.
They traveled at least another half a mile before a large house came into view. It occurred to her in those final moments in the truck that if she had been wrong about Lucas, it would be months before anyone found her and her child.
Terror gripped her, closing her throat around a lump so big, she could barely breathe. Oh God, no. No, no, no. Please no.
“Danielle? Are you all right?”
She shook her head, which was the only thing she could do as the panic overtook her with a sudden ruthlessness that reminded her of the first weeks after Jack died, leaving her alone and pregnant and heartbroken. Her throat closed, making it impossible to breathe as she broke out in a sweat.
“Danielle!”
She could hear Lucas calling her name, but he sounded far away.
The baby began to cry, but Dani couldn’t move. Tiny dots danced in front of her eyes. This was a bad one, worse than any of the others she’d had in the months since Jack died. Then, as quickly as it had come on, the tightness in her chest loosened, allowing her to take a gulping deep breath that cleared the fuzz from her brain. That’s when she realized that Lucas had run around the truck to the passenger door and was standing next to her, telling her to breathe.
She sucked in a greedy breath of frigid air.
“Again,” he said, his tone patient and kind.
“Baby,” she gasped.
“She’s fine. Keep breathing.”
Dani closed her eyes and focused on drawing air into her lungs until her heart rate returned to normal, leaving only the clamminess from the sweat that made her shiver in the cold air.
“Are you okay now?”
“I… I think so. Sorry about that.”
“Nothing to be sorry about. Let’s get you ladies inside where it’s warm.”
If there was an upside to suffering a panic attack in front of the stranger who’d rescued her… He’d just had a golden opportunity to take advantage of her and had chosen to help rather than harm. That counted for something, didn’t it?
On legs that felt shaky and unsteady, Dani carried Savannah’s car seat and followed Lucas to the dark front door, where he punched in a code that turned on the outside lights while unlocking the door.
“After you,” he said, gesturing for her to lead the way inside.
Dani stepped into a spacious foyer that led to an open-concept living room/kitchen/dining room. A floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace was the centerpiece of the big room. “This is beautiful.”
“I know. I love this house. My friend Craig inherited it from his father when he died and usually rents it out during ski season. This year he’s not renting it because he’s got a big idea about trying to write a novel when he’s not traveling for work.”
“Oh wow, that’s great.” Dani appreciated that he didn’t ask a bunch of questions about what’d happened in the truck.
“I can’t wait to see what he comes up with. He was a total lunatic in college, but he’s grown up a lot since then. We all have.”
“Happens to the best of us.”
“Let me grab the bags and some firewood and get this place warmed up.”
While he left to do that, Dani took off her coat and removed Savannah from the car seat. The baby’s face was red from crying and her eyes wet with tears. “There now. Everything’s okay. Mommy is sorry she scared you.” She kissed her soft cheek and cuddled her into her arms.
Savannah let out a squeak as she rooted around, looking for her dinner.
Dani’s breasts tingled in response to the baby, giving her about a minute before her milk let down. She moved quickly to grab a blanket and landed on a sofa, managing to cover herself and the baby before Lucas returned with their bags.
Lucas took a quick glance in their direction, saw that she was feeding the baby and looked away. He went back outside, brought in an armload of wood and had a fire started in the time it took her to finish feeding Savannah. After burping and changing her, Dani walked her around until she dozed off—or at least she thought the baby was asleep. Turning her back to Lucas, she said, “Is she asleep?”
“Out cold.”
“I thought so, but I wasn’t totally sure.” She settled the baby on the sofa with a blanket rolled to keep her in place.
“She’s a good baby.”
“She really is. Thank goodness for that.” The whole time she’d been pregnant, she’d prayed for an easy baby, which had turned out to be one of the few recent prayers that had been answered. Others had gone mostly ignored, such as when she’d prayed for her parents to accept her choices without judgment. That one had gotten a big fat zero in response. So too had the one about keeping Jack safe. Ignored. Don’t even get her started on the prayer for a safe trip to Vermont for her and Savannah. Was it any wonder she was thinking about giving up on praying?
“There’re two bedrooms down here and four more upstairs.” He pointed to a hallway off the main living area. “If you want to take one of the rooms down here, I’ll go upstairs.”
“Whatever you want is fine with me.”
“I’ll put your stuff in the bigger of the two rooms down here. First door on the right. There’s a bathroom attached and towels in the closet.”
“Perfect, thank you.”
While he went to stash their bags, Dani ran a brush through her hair to contend with a bad case of hat head. Exhaustion tugged at her after the long day of driving and the stress of the last hour. What would she do if her car was badly damaged? She tried to remember if her insurance provided for a rental. She could figure that out in the morning when she had a better idea of the damage.
“Are you hungry?” Lucas asked when he returned to the room from stashing her bags in the bedroom.
“I could definitely eat something.”
“I’ll heat up the pizza.”
“Sounds good.”
He smiled, which only made him handsomer than he already was. In the months since she’d lost Jack, she hadn’t so much as glanced at another man. Until Lucas Abbott had come to her rescue and made her aware that while Jack might be gone, she was still very much alive.
She followed him into the kitchen so she could help with dinner prep and still keep an eye on Savannah. “I’m so sorry to bomb into your time alone, and now I’m eating your food, too.”
“It’s no problem at all. I’m actually glad to have the company.” He unboxed two frozen pizzas—one supreme and one pepperoni—and put them in the oven. “I was in a pretty pissy mood when I left Butler. Helping you has taken my mind off the reason why I wanted this getaway in the first place.”
She took a seat at one of the barstools that surrounded a huge island, making sure she could still see the baby. “I’m a pretty good listener if you want to air it out with someone. My friends are always coming to me with their problems. I was called Lucy in high school.”
“After the Charlie Brown character?”
“Yep. And because you’ve been so nice to me, I won’t even charge you five cents for my advice.”