The Sergeant's Baby. Bonnie Gardner

Ally had realized that she’d become pregnant from that one night’s reunion, she’d wondered if the lady in the red hat had been her fairy godmother making her fondest wish come true. Of course, she knew that those kinds of things only happened in fiction, not real life. But it had seemed like fate.

      Karma.

      Destiny.

      Still, she had been so elated that that night had produced a miracle that she hadn’t really considered how her situation might affect Danny.

      And it had never occurred to her that he would find out.

      Or that he might actually care.

      Now he has found out, and he apparently does care, Allison thought as she shoved her notes for tomorrow’s class into her already overstuffed briefcase. But was it a real desire to know his child that motivated him, or simply stupid macho pride. She jammed her arms through the sleeves of her coat and looped the belt loosely around her waist.

      Danny was here, and had figured out she was pregnant. Now she had to figure out what to do.

      DANNY HATED resorting to subterfuge, but he had already scouted out Allison’s car in the staff parking lot. She still drove the same one she’d had at Hurl-burt Field, so finding it hadn’t been hard.

      Ally wouldn’t recognize the rental he’d picked up at noon. He sat in the driver’s seat, motor idling, as the late-September sun began to sink behind the Headquarters Building. As much of a workaholic as Allison had been in the good old days, he couldn’t imagine her staying into the night to work with a baby on board.

      A recorded bugle call announced “Retreat” and Danny stepped out of his car and stood at attention as the flag in front of HQ was taken down for the day. He couldn’t actually see the ceremony, but he knew what that distinctive melody meant, and he knew what he had to do.

      If Ally picked this moment to come out, she was supposed to stop, as well. Maybe she wouldn’t notice him, just see him as one of many nameless, faceless airmen coming to attention as the flag came down. She didn’t appear. When the last strains of “Retreat” faded, Danny relaxed and climbed back into the car to wait.

      Within minutes Allison emerged from the building and headed for her car. Yessss, Danny cheered inwardly. Right on time. Ally hadn’t left early, but she hadn’t lingered, either.

      Danny watched as she’d stowed her bags in the back seat, settled herself into the car, turned on the engine and pulled out of her slot. Once she’d steered out to the main road, he pulled out behind her.

      ALLY DRUMMED HER FINGERS impatiently against the steering wheel as she idled at the red light on the congested road leading out of the base. She just wanted to go home, where she could relax and unwind. Maybe five in the afternoon didn’t seem late to anybody else, but to Allison Carter it might as well have been midnight. Every muscle in her body ached with a kind of fatigue she’d never experienced. This wasn’t the normal pregnancy weariness she’d been having so far. This feeling was something entirely different.

      It was because of Danny. Of that she was certain.

      Her fatigue was easily explained. It was from the tension of wondering what Technical Sergeant Daniel Xavier Murphey was going to do next.

      So far so good, though, she thought with relief. She’d made it through the day without any more scenes from Danny, so maybe that was the extent of the problems he would cause. Maybe Danny had just needed to let off some steam, and he’d let her be from now on.

      Maybe she’d convinced him that the baby she was carrying was not his, even if it was and even if she longed with every fiber of her being to acknowledge him as the father. Not only that, but she wanted so much to be gathered into his arms and to enjoy that safe and protected feeling that only Danny could give her.

      Of course, she’d ruined any chance of that happening by her refusal to satisfactorily respond to his probing this morning.

      An impatient driver leaning on his car horn brought her to attention. The light had turned green while she’d been woolgathering. She quickly eased out onto the main road, the better to avoid the wrath of an entire crew of tired workers angry at her for keeping them from their homes and their dinners.

      She had leftover homemade soup in the fridge. Nothing would make her happier than to kick off her shoes, slip into her most comfortable old sweats, heat up the soup in the microwave and just sit. She’d have the rest of the evening to regenerate and to rehearse what she would say if Danny confronted her again.

      Of course, she’d hoped she wouldn’t have to give any speech, but it was always better to be prepared. If she’d anticipated seeing him, she probably should have been prepared to face Danny, instead of assuming that he was out of her life for good. If she had, their encounter might have gone better than it had this morning.

      After all, the military, as spread out as it was, had always been a small community, more like a small town than a giant corporation. News traveled fast, and even if Danny hadn’t appeared in her classroom this morning, one of the other members of Silver Team based at Hurlburt Field in Florida could easily have gone there and reported back to him.

      She really should have been prepared, she chided herself.

      Ally drew up in front of her small, ranch-style house and paused long enough to retrieve the mail from the box at the side of the road and scoop up the newspaper, clothed in a bright orange plastic bag. That portended rain. What else did she need to polish off her crummy day? She jabbed the remote to open the garage door.

      A car cruised by as she steered hers into the garage. It wasn’t a car she’d noticed in the neighborhood before, and its leisurely pace indicated that the driver was probably looking for a house number. The vehicle hadn’t stopped at her house, so as far as Ally was concerned, the problem was somebody else’s.

      The garage door closed behind her and Ally sighed in relief. She was home.

      She was safe.

      She didn’t have to think about Danny Murphey again until 0730.

      “WHEW.THAT WAS CLOSE,” Danny told himself as he passed Ally’s house. He made a U-turn farther down the street, then cruised back up and idled in front of a house a couple of lots down from hers. He figured he’d best reconnoiter the situation first. If there really was a man in Ally’s life, he wanted to know about him. He damn sure didn’t want to intrude on somebody else’s domestic tranquility. If there was any.

      For a woman who’d placed her career before him, Ally sure had a homey little house. Hell, it was everything any woman would want, except for, maybe, the missing picket fence. But then, he wasn’t sure they even made them anymore.

      The lawn was neat and tidy, and mounds of brightly colored flowers lined the sidewalk. Window boxes dripped with some ivylike stuff, and the tiny front porch had one of those clay pots with the holes in the sides. He couldn’t see what she’d planted in it, but he’d bet something was there.

      He watched as the lights went on, making the cozy-looking house look even warmer, more welcoming. First in what must have been a kitchen, then the living room and then in a room toward the far end of the house, which must have been her bedroom.

      A quiver of envy for the man who had slept with her crept to the front of his mind, but Danny pushed it back. He was here to see if anyone else came home before he confronted Ally one more time.

      As much as she had protested that the child she was carrying was not his, something in his gut told him it was. If another man did show up at her house tonight, then Danny would quietly back away and no one would be the wiser. If she was alone, then he’d take his chances.

      Tonight might be the only chance he’d get.

      Danny waited until the sound of his stomach grumbling seemed to drown out the radio. So far, no man had driven up, and he figured that both he and Allison still had to eat. He might be eating for one, but Ally was eating for two.

      He could go pick up a pizza. If a man did turn