Heart of a Hero. Anne Marie Winston

around. I bet it about killed you to be overseas when she was born. I know it would have done me in for sure, if my Ira had missed an important event like that. Here.” She reached into the basket hooked over her arm without even taking a breath and came up with a handful of some kind of pink flowers. “Last snaps of the season. I was going to bring them over after Phoebe got home but you can take ’em in and set ’em in water. Might earn you some points, you know?”

      “Snaps?” She’d lost him a few sentences back.

      “Snapdragons. I always start mine indoors. Never bring ’em out until the twentieth of May on account of late frosts, my daddy always said, so I start ’em in the house and set ’em out bright and early on the twentieth. Got the first ones in the neighborhood, and the last ones, too,” she added proudly. “Mine are hardy.”

      “That’s, ah, that’s nice.” He cleared his throat. “So you’ve known Phoebe since she moved in?”

      She nodded. “Sweet, sweet girl. I brought her my raisin cake that I always take to new neighbors, and we hit it off right away. I was a teacher a long time ago, before I married my Ira, and my goodness, it’s amazing how things have changed in fifty years.”

      He smiled. “You sound just like my father. He’d happily go back fifty years to what he calls ‘the good old days.’”

      “Not me!” Velva shook her head. “Give me the age of technology any day. I love being able to instant message my grandchildren and find out what they’re up to right that minute.”

      He almost laughed aloud. As it was, he couldn’t hide his grin. “Computers sure have made communication easier.”

      “My great nephew is in Iraq,” Velva told him, “and getting e-mails a couple times a week really helps his wife to stay strong. I guess you and Phoebe know all about that, though.”

      “Hello there!”

      Wade spun around. Phoebe stood on the back porch of her little house. “Hey,” he called back. To Velva, he said, “It was nice to meet you, ma’am. I hope to see you again.”

      She looked amused. “Well, I expect if you’re living next door, you’re gonna see me from time to time. Now go greet your wife the way you want to.”

      Oh, boy. The lady had no idea what she was suggesting. He strode through the yard with Bridget and stepped up onto the back porch. Phoebe stood there in the navy skirt and the matching sweater with crayons on it that she’d worn to work.

      “Hi,” she said. “How did it—mmph!”

      The sentence stopped abruptly as Wade hooked an arm around her waist and brought her up against his free side, setting his mouth on hers at the same moment.

      He sought her tongue, sucking lightly and then probing deeply as he felt her body yield to his, her tension evaporating. She had put her hands up and clutched his shoulders when he’d grabbed her, and after a moment she flattened her palms, smoothing them over his back and up to his neck. Kissing Phoebe was like a drug, he decided, juggling the baby so that he could pull her closer. Addictive. Very, very addictive.

      When he finally gentled the kiss and released her mouth, he blew out a breath. “Wow.”

      “What was that for?” She rested her forehead against his shoulder. Her hands slid down his chest and grasped his forearms.

      “Ack!” Bridget threw herself forward and Phoebe put up her arms just in time to catch her.

      “Hi, sweetie,” she said. “We didn’t mean to ignore you.” Her face was red and she didn’t meet Wade’s eyes as she jiggled the baby and blew kisses against her neck, making Bridget giggle.

      “For Mrs. Bridley,” he said.

      “Hmm?” She raised her gaze to his, but the connection to her earlier question seemed forgotten.

      “The kiss,” he said patiently. “Your neighbor is delighted that I’m home from Afghanistan. I didn’t think we should disappoint her.”

      Phoebe’s forehead wrinkled. “Oh.” It was slightly gratifying to see that his kiss had scrambled her circuits so thoroughly. It was nice to know he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

      He reached around her and held the screen door open, ushering her into the kitchen. “Interesting that she thinks you have a husband.”

      “I never told her that.” Phoebe sounded startled.

      “I guess she assumed. She’s an interesting woman.” He gave the adjective special emphasis, and Phoebe finally smiled.

      “She’s unique.”

      “Good word for it. How was your day?”

      “My—? Oh, fine. How did you two get along?”

      “Famously,” he assured her. “I managed to change a couple of diapers and get more food into her than on her, and she took both her naps. So I’d say we were successful.”

      “Good.” She looked genuinely pleased. “No emergency calls to Angie, hmm?”

      “Nope. Not a one.” He took the baby as she got down two glasses and filled them with ice and sweet tea. She cut a slice of lemon, which she squeezed into his, then stirred with a long spoon. As she slid one across the table to where he’d taken a seat, he said, “You remembered.”

      She stopped with her own glass halfway to her mouth. “Remembered what?”

      He lifted his glass as if he were toasting her. “My tea. With lemon.”

      Her color had almost returned to normal from their kiss on the porch, but it was back in an instant. “Just a lucky guess,” she said.

      Right. A warm feeling stole through him. She’d remembered.

      She made spaghetti for dinner while he set the table and changed Bridget. It was just bizarre, Wade decided. To go from not even knowing how to find her to living with her in less than a week.

      He had anticipated—hoped—that she would still be free and still have feelings for him when he finally tracked her down. And he’d thought about the rest of his life and he’d known he wanted it to include Phoebe. But he’d expected to court her, to date until she felt comfortable with him. So much for expectations, he thought, eyeing the cozy table, the baby in the high chair at one end, and the easy way Phoebe moved around him as if he’d always been there to get in the way.

      He’d take this any day, although it certainly hadn’t been anything he’d imagined in his wildest dreams.

      While they ate, he told her about the other dad with the eight-month-old son he’d met at the park earlier, and she recounted her day. He set Bridget in her infant seat while he helped Phoebe clear the table, and then he said, “I’d like to invite my father to visit at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Do you have a preference?”

      She was still looking at him and her eyes went wide. “Thanksgiving or Christmas?” she said faintly. “The holiday season is more than a month away.”

      He was puzzled. “Yeah. And…?”

      “Exactly how long are you planning to stay in my house?” There was a note of what sounded like panic in her voice.

      He looked at her closely, unsure he’d heard her right. “I don’t have any plans to leave,” he said evenly.

      “But…but you can’t just live with us forever! What if I wanted to—to get married or something?”

      “To who?” He couldn’t have kept the note of naked aggression out of his voice if he’d tried. He hadn’t seen any signs of a man in Phoebe’s life, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one. “Is there somebody I should be worrying about?”

      “No.” As soon as the word popped out, she closed her mouth abruptly, as if she was aware that she’d just given him a major tactical advantage.