other. “I was beginning to think you might still be napping,” he said as he brushed past her and walked toward the dining area at the opposite end of the room.
“What are you doing here, Daniel?” she asked, closing the door to follow him.
Looking over his shoulder, he gave her an indulgent smile. “Don’t you remember? I told you I would be back with dinner around six.”
She frowned. “I remember telling you that you didn’t need to bother stopping by, but I don’t recall anything about you bringing dinner.”
“You might have fallen asleep by that time,” he said, pulling cartons of delicious-smelling food from the paper bag to place them on the table.
“Might have?” She shook her head. “It’s more likely that you purposely waited until I had gone to sleep to mention bringing dinner.”
He shrugged as he removed his coat, then walked over to lay it on the back of one of the armchairs. “Either way, I did mention it.” He returned to the table and picked up the bottle of wine. “Besides, you have to eat and I didn’t think you would feel like making something for yourself.”
Even though the food he had brought smelled heavenly and she was ravenous, she wasn’t willing to give in so easily. “I might have plans,” she said stubbornly.
“But you don’t.” He gave her a smile that caused her to feel warm all over. “Now, why don’t we sit down and enjoy this before it gets cold?”
If there was one thing about Daniel Addison that she had learned in the past several months, it was that he never lacked confidence. She only wished she could say the same for herself, especially now that she was going to have to find a way to tell him about her pregnancy.
When he reached for two wineglasses on top of her small liquor cabinet, she shook her head. “I’m going to have a glass of milk.”
He nodded as he removed the corkscrew from the cabinet drawer and popped the cork on the wine bottle. “Considering how sick you were this morning, that’s probably a good idea.”
She didn’t comment as she walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. It would probably be best if he was sitting down when she told him the reason behind her illness this morning and why she wasn’t drinking wine with her meal.
When she returned to the dining area, she wasn’t surprised that he had gotten plates from the china cabinet and was setting their places at the table. He was a man who took charge and was hands on when he saw something that had to be done. A tiny tingle coursed through her when she remembered his hands on her and the magic he created whenever he …
“Lily, are you all right?” he asked, bringing her back to the present.
“Um … of course, why do you ask?” She had to stop thinking about what they had shared in the past because there was absolutely no future in it.
A shadow of concern clouded his dark blue eyes. “You’re not acting like yourself, sweetheart. You seem distracted by something.”
The endearment Daniel always used made her long to go back a few months to when they first began seeing each other and everything was much simpler. His mother hadn’t said those mean things to her and she hadn’t known that her beloved father had been leading a double life since before she was born.
“I was just thinking about how everything was before Christmas.” She shook her head as the gravity of all that had happened settled across her shoulders. “We had no way of knowing that it would be our last holiday with Daddy or that we would start out the new year with his funeral and a family scandal that will undoubtedly be talked about for years to come.”
When Daniel took her glass of milk from her to set it on the table, then reached out to wrap his arms around her, Lily placed her hands on his broad chest to push away from him. Her whole world had changed in ways she could have never imagined and it was almost more than she could take in. But she couldn’t allow herself to be drawn back under his spell.
“Please, Daniel,” she said, trying to hold herself away from him.
“Hush, sweetheart,” he whispered. “You need someone to lean on right now.”
“Not literally,” she said, unwilling to give up so easily.
His deep chuckle sent a shiver straight through her. “I think literal has its merits.”
Unfortunately, Daniel was much stronger and the more she pushed, the closer he drew her to him. Suddenly too emotionally exhausted to resist any longer, she rested her head against his broad chest. Just for a moment, she wanted to forget that the past few weeks had happened and pretend that her life was the same as it had always been—carefree and happy.
But the feel of his hard muscles against her cheek, the steady beat of his heart and the solid strength of his arms around her, caused a longing to build inside her that had nothing to do with comfort and support. She had missed this man more than she had thought was possible, and it would be in her best interest to put distance between them.
Looking up into his navy eyes, Lily started to pull away, but just as a night creature often became trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car, she couldn’t seem to look away as he slowly began to lower his head. He was going to kiss her and, for the life of her, she couldn’t remember why she shouldn’t let him. But the sudden rumbling of her stomach reminded both of them that she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast.
Daniel took a deep breath, kissed her forehead and smiled. “It would probably be a good idea if you eat something, sweetheart.”
“I think you’re right,” she said, thankful that hunger had intervened and kept her from doing something she would regret later. The last thing she needed to do was fall under his spell again. Stepping back, she turned to pull out one of the chairs at the table and sat down. “What smells so delicious?”
“When I stopped by Miss Pauline’s Southern Cupboard, I wasn’t sure which you would prefer, baked chicken or roast beef,” he said, seating himself at the head of the table. “So I got both.”
“I’m positively starved,” she said, meaning it. She might have been sick every morning for the past couple of weeks, but every evening, her appetite seemed to return with a vengeance. “I think I’ll have a little of both. I love Miss Pauline’s food.”
“We also have mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, corn fritters and fresh-made corn bread,” he said, reaching for her plate. “And be sure to save room for apple pie.”
“It all sounds heavenly,” she said, watching him fill her plate. “I have some vanilla ice cream in the freezer that would be fantastic with the pie.”
They both fell silent for several minutes as they enjoyed the delicious food. But the longer Daniel watched Lily eat, the more fascinated he became. They’d shared many meals, but he didn’t think he had ever seen her quite so hungry. She was eating like a longshoreman after a full day’s work at the docks of Port Charleston.
“When was the last time you ate?” he asked, watching her put another corn fritter on her plate, then reach for the carton of green beans.
She nibbled on her lower lip a moment as if trying to decide what to say. “I couldn’t stand the thought of breakfast this
