The Marine's Baby. Deb Kastner

his own silly behavior.

      What was he thinking?

      He used the dish towel to scrub his face and force his mind back to the present. His cheeks carried a week’s growth of beard on them—because, for the first time in ten years, he could go without shaving.

      He shook his head. He’d been alone for far too long to be conjuring up fantasy families in his mind, where none existed in reality.

      Still, the idea of a family wasn’t completely without merit.

      Tamyra, Nate remembered, had rounded out Ezra, taken the rough edges off the heretofore certified bachelor. After the wedding, Ezra had been the happiest Nate had ever seen him. And then baby Gracie had come along and added exponentially to their love. She had, Nate realized, completed the picture.

      He recalled being a little envious of his best friend. True love made life worth living, Ezra had told him a dozen times. But Nate’d had his work and his wanderlust, and that had been enough.

      At the time.

      Now everything was different. Not just in his circumstances, either. His heart felt as altered as the difference between a Colorado blizzard and a California summer. His priorities had shifted from thinking only of himself to having someone else as the center of his existence.

      He had a baby to consider now—a little girl who deserved to be raised in a family with both a father and a mother.

      Someone like Jess, he realized. A woman who was sweet and caring and who knew how to care for an infant; who would love Gracie the way Nate loved Gracie.

      As if on cue, the baby made an enormous pterodactyl scream from the playpen, startling Nate and setting his hair on end. He dashed to the playpen and scooped Gracie into his arms.

      Gracie was hot to the touch. He didn’t need the thermometer to tell she was burning up with fever. Panic immediately coursed through him, stinging his limbs like an explosion of white-hot nails in an IED.

      Snatching the thermometer from the tabletop, Nate rushed to the rocker and took a seat. He attempted to mimic what Jess had done, placing the tip of the thermometer under the baby’s arm, but it was a lot more difficult than it looked, even if Gracie wasn’t fighting him the way she had with Jess. She wasn’t fighting him, but was staring up at him with her big brown eyes as if pleading with him to make her all better.

      He didn’t know how.

      She was frighteningly lethargic.

      He checked the thermometer, and another surge of panic coursed through him.

      Gracie was running a fever of one hundred and four degrees.

      The sound of her cell phone ringing startled Jessica from her sleep. She groaned loudly. She’d nodded off in her easy chair and now her shoulders were stiff and she had a kink in her neck.

      Stretching her head from side to side to work loose her muscles, she reached for her purse, which she’d haphazardly tossed on the coffee table earlier. Groggily she dug for the still-pealing phone.

      “Hello?” she said, her voice still a little slurred as she wiped the sleep from her eyes with the palms of her hands.

      It wasn’t surprising that she’d fallen into a deep, dreamless slumber—ever since she was a child, sleep had been her defense mechanism against stress. Her mind and body simply shut down, giving her the rest needed to face her trials afresh.

      “Jess?” The one word was laced with so much fear and alarm that Jessica was instantly alert.

      “Nate? What’s wrong?”

      “It’s Gracie.” Nate’s anxious, labored breathing set Jessica right on edge, and she gripped the phone more tightly within her grasp. “She spiked a high fever. I don’t know what to do.”

      “Oh, no!” Jessica inhaled sharply, her whole heart and soul immediately appealing to the Heavenly Father to protect the sweet little baby girl. She tried to quell the rising alarm in her head with little success. “How high?”

      “One hundred and four degrees. Jess, what should I do?”

      “I’m on my way over,” she asserted, trying to keep her voice calm and reassuring despite the way her heart was pounding in her head. Adrenaline coursed sharply through her veins, making her tingly and light-headed.

      Whatever promises she had made herself earlier about not seeing Nate or the baby again flew right out the window as if they had never been.

      They needed her now.

      There was no question that she would be there for them, at whatever cost to her own heart.

      She was already reaching for her coat and sliding her feet into her old hiking boots. Her thumb was poised over the phone’s exit button when Nate spoke again, his voice rushed.

      “I…I phoned you because…because I didn’t know who else to call,” he stammered.

      It occurred to Jessica that the obvious choice would be Vince, who was family. Wouldn’t that have made the most sense? Why hadn’t Nate called him?

      But now was not the time for such questions. She rapidly ticked down the list of vital issues, forcing her mind to concentrate on priority.

      “Does she have any other symptoms? A sneeze? A cough?”

      “She’s pulling on her ear and crying,” Nate choked out. “Does that mean anything?”

      “Okay, listen, Nate,” Jessica said, an instinctive sense of God’s strength and peace enveloping her as she took control of the situation. “You need to get her temperature down.”

      “How do I do that?” he asked, his voice tight. “I just gave her some more medicine, but it will take some time to see any effect. What else can I do?”

      Jessica heard Gracie pealing in distress, and her heart turned over.

      “Hush, baby girl,” Nate crooned. “Uncle Nate’s trying to help you, honey. Jess?” he queried uncertainly. “What do I do?”

      “Fill the sink with lukewarm water. You need to give her a sponge bath,” Jessica directed. “That’s going to be the fastest and most effective way to bring down her temperature.”

      “She’s so tiny.” Nate’s taut voice cracked with emotion.

      “And she’s not going to be happy about that bath. It’s hard to be a parent at times like this.”

      Jessica realized Nate had referred to himself as Gracie’s godfather, but they both knew he was acting in a much greater capacity. “You have to do what is best for Gracie even if it appears to be hurting her.”

      “I’ll do what I have to do,” he vowed solemnly, “as long as she gets better.”

      “She will.”

      Gracie howled again, her little voice hoarse from screaming.

      “I have to go,” Nate said.

      “Of course. Gracie needs your full attention, which you can’t give her while you’re still speaking on the phone with me.”

      “Yeah,” he agreed. “But, Jess?”

      “Yes?”

      “Hurry.”

      His one word sent a shiver down her spine. “I’m heading out the door right now.

      “And, Nate?”

      “Hmm?”

      “I’m praying for you guys.”

      She heard the hesitation, and the way Nate quietly cleared his throat. She was on the verge of apologizing when he broke into her thoughts.

      “I…” Once again he hesitated. “Well, anyway, thank you. For Gracie, I mean.”

      “Don’t