“I don’t know if that’s smart. I may have shed a bag or two, but my cargo hold is still packed full. It’s not just you. It’s Brianna too. That may be a hill too high for me to climb, not without a lot of time and therapy, anyway.”
“I understand baggage, Hannah. Believe me. See, I’m a multitasker. While I’ve been sinking roots, I’ve also been sorting through my baggage. I promise you that you won’t find a better place to unload. No one will rush you. You’ll have all the time you need to tackle the task. And as far as therapy goes, you could go to the ends of the earth, and you won’t find a better counselor than Celeste Blessing.”
She wanted to say yes. She yearned to say yes.
She was afraid.
But she wanted to live. She wanted to keep the color in her life.
She wanted Boone McBride and the chance at happiness he offered.
But right this moment, she needed to take a step back. The man would steamroll right over her if she allowed it. So she avoided making any agreement by teasing, “Oh, I know what’s going on here. You just want to earn your wings.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your Angel’s Rest blazon. You’re such an overachiever, McBride. It’s not enough for you to be Brianna’s light. You want to be my light too, and earn your wings.”
“I won’t argue that. So what do you say?”
She dropped his hand, lifted her arms, and laced her fingers behind his neck. “I say is that a Zippo in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”
He snorted.
Encouraged, she added, “I’ll be the candle, and you can light me up.”
His silver eyes glittered as his hands slid around her waist. “Did you really just say that?”
“Too much corn? Unfortunately, I don’t have your smooth-talking gift, Boone. Flirtation does not come naturally to me, and I’m rusty at romance.”
“I disagree. No rust on you, Hollywood. You might not use words to flirt, but those eyes of yours? They say more than War and Peace.”
“War and Peace?”
“Longest novel that comes to mind at the moment.” He held her gaze, his own steady and sure. “So that’s a yes? You’ll stay in Eternity Springs?”
He was strong. “You’re a steamroller.”
“No. I’m a lawyer.”
She’d have to be strong to be with him.
“Say yes, Hannah.”
She pursed her lips. “You promise you’ll be patient with me?”
“Sweetheart, when it comes to you and this relationship we’re building, I have the patience of a saint. Say yes.”
I am strong. “Yes.”
Triumph blazed in his expression.
When he yanked her tight against him, his eyes alight with a wicked gleam, Hannah added. “There’s nothing saintly about you, Texas.”
Just before his lips captured hers, he murmured, “Aren’t you glad?”
Happiness rose within her right along with desire. The blaze of it all but blinded her. Yes.
* * *
The next few weeks passed in a sleep-deprived and sexually sated haze of happiness for Boone, as he and Hannah officially became a couple to his friends in Eternity Springs. Their welcome to Hannah as the town’s newest resident could not have been warmer. In a development that both pleased and annoyed him, Boone sometimes found himself competing for her time.
The babysitter brigade happily endorsed and encouraged the romance, which aided Boone’s attempt to find a balance between “couple” and “family” time. He was careful not to foist too much motherhood on Hannah. Yet with every day and week that passed, she assumed that role more and more often.
Toward the end of July, as the nanny’s start date approached, Hannah moved in with Boone to free up Serenity Cabbage for the nanny, Serena Whittaker. In early August, Hannah joined Boone, his nanny, and his daughter on the trip to Las Vegas for Tucker and Gillian’s wedding vow renewal. That’s when the beans about Brianna officially spilled to his sisters. With his parents due home from their cruise less than two weeks later, he trusted them to keep their mouths shut that long.
What he didn’t anticipate was his mother having Facebook-friended Gillian’s mother. She posted a candid shot from the festivities, including one of Boone bending down to kiss Hannah while he was holding Bree. Luckily, he was tending to the two AM feeding when his mom’s ship-to-shore phone call occurred, so he was already awake, and the ringing didn’t disturb Hannah.
He told his mother the whole story. She honestly seemed as excited about his relationship with Hannah as she did about Brianna joining the family.
Boone’s parents arrived back at DFW in the middle of August on a Friday morning. They didn’t leave the airport before taking the next flight to Colorado, arriving in Eternity Springs in time for Brianna’s bath.
Nana was in heaven. Hopeful mother-in-law-to-be struck just the right chord with Hannah too. They stayed for three nights and bought a small vacation home before returning to Texas. Boone was okay with that. He wanted Brianna to know her grandparents.
The day following his parents’ departure, Boone met with a client in his office in downtown Eternity Springs. After listening to Benjamin Karr’s request, Boone slowly shook his head. “Ben, you don’t want to do this.”
“Sure I do.” The gray-haired man lifted his chin and spoke with belligerence in his voice. “It’s a good cause. Do you know they rescued almost three hundred dogs last year? And the people who run it are all volunteers. They’re good people.”
“So is Melissa.”
Ben scowled. “She had them take away my driver’s license!”
Boone hesitated. Hannah might like to call him a smooth talker, but he wasn’t so certain. Meetings like this one required that he dust off persuasive skills honed by years of argument before a jury and now gone rusty with disuse. “Ben, you love your daughter, and your daughter loves you. Melissa isn’t trying to punish you. She’s trying to do what’s best for you and everyone around you. You’d be devastated if you ever inadvertently caused harm to another. You know it. She knows it.”
“Anybody can hit a deer,” Ben defended glumly. “Happens all the time.”
Boone chastised him with a look.
“It’s my arthritis, my hip. I just need to change my medicine, and I’ll be able to move a little quicker.”
“That’s between you and Doc Cicero. I’m your lawyer, and I’m advising you that disinheriting your daughter due to this disagreement would be a mistake. I’ll draw up a new will if that’s what you insist, but I want to be perfectly clear. I will not defend you in a vehicular manslaughter case.”
“Manslaughter!”
“Deer aren’t the only things that dart into the road. How old are your grandchildren, Ben?”
The octogenarian glared at Boone for a long moment before dropping his chin to his chest. “Damn it, it’s hard to get old.”
Boone knew his client well enough to silence the better-than-the-alternative quip some people might have appreciated. Benjamin Karr was a proud man. Losing his driver’s license was a blow to his independence, and Boone respected that. “You are managing better than most, Ben. May I make a suggestion?”