himself to play it cool, he leaned over to give her a casual one-armed hug and a light kiss on the brow.
“Welcome home,” she said in a husky voice.
Her emotion was contagious. Chase cleared his throat to get rid of the catch in his own voice. “Thanks.” He released Merri as quickly and efficiently as he had hugged her, and then knelt before the kids.
Jeffrey and Jessalyn regarded him shyly.
“Say hello to Chase,” Merri prodded.
An awkward silence fell. The twins stared at him mutely, probably still deciding if he was friend or foe. To his disappointment, they seemed inclined to put him in the latter category.
Deciding it would be best not to push them, Chase looked into their eyes. He smiled at them reassuringly once again, letting them know they could trust him, then stood. “It’s okay,” he told a concerned Merri under his breath. “We’ll have a chance to get acquainted later.”
Eyes glistening, she nodded, as if suddenly not trusting herself to speak.
Chase knew exactly how she felt. Confronted with the only real family he had left, he had a lump in his throat, too.
He had never expected to feel so alone and adrift at this point in his life. But maybe that would change now that he was back in Laramie. Back where he’d grown up, Chase thought, as familiar figures came forward to shake his hand and give him a hug.
“Hey, Chase!” His old high school classmate, Travis Anderson, stepped up to shake his hand. “Didn’t think we’d ever see you again!”
“Great to have you back in Texas!” His former high school English teacher beamed. “Don’t leave us again, you understand? We missed you!”
“I was beginning to think you’d left us for good,” the owner of Sonny’s Barbecue teased, giving him a slap on the back…and a hug. “Come by and see me when you get a little time.”
And so it went. Everyone complaining good-naturedly about how long he’d been gone, worrying he’d up and leave Laramie County again, warning him that if he did take off again their hearts would be broken beyond repair. The twins’ eyes got even wider as they soaked it all in.
“I think you’d all survive,” Chase joshed back when the rush of sentiment got a little much. Any more of this and they’d have him getting all weepy, too.
He looked around for help. Merri seemed to have faded into the background, but members of the band—also old pals of his—got the hint. They immediately started playing a rowdy rendition of the perennial Texas party favorite, “Friends in Low Places.”
An appreciative roar went up. Everyone joined in the raucous singing and swaying. Dancing soon followed. And, to Chase’s joy, the real homecoming began.
* * *
HOURS LATER, CHASE AND MERRI stood side by side as the last of the taillights disappeared down the drive. It was the first time they’d been alone since he arrived, and Chase was more than a little aware of her. Not that this was a surprise. The first time he had seen her, at his brother’s engagement party, he’d wanted her. But Merri had been living with another guy and practically engaged, so he’d done the honorable thing and walked away.
She turned to him now with heartfelt apology. “I’m sorry about the cool reception you received from the twins.”
Cognizant that he probably should have expected as much, given how little contact they’d had, Chase shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I tried to prepare them for actually meeting you, instead of just seeing your face on the screen in a video chat, or hearing your voice on the phone.”
Which, Chase reflected, given some of the rough-and-tumble sites where he had been stationed, hadn’t happened all that frequently. He tore his eyes from the curves beneath Merri’s snug-fitting T-shirt, cropped denim jacket and jeans. Her burgundy western boots were nice, too. Obviously custom, from Monroe’s. He recognized the signature Texas rose hidden in the fancy feminine embroidery adorning the sides.
“But I’m not sure they believed it was really going to happen,” Merri continued, oblivious of the impact she was having on him. “Or understood what your coming here would mean to them.” She released a sigh. “Because at the time I told them, I wasn’t sure if you were just coming for a visit or staying long-term.”
Had she always smelled this good? Like lavender…and woman? Wishing he could make a move on her, without complicating things unnecessarily, Chase shrugged. “I’m sorry about that.” Because the kids were already inside, fast asleep, he remained on the porch, speaking quietly with Merri. His gaze roved her upturned face. Although she’d been gorgeous in daylight, she looked even more radiant in the soft glow of the porch light.
Gruffly, he confessed, “I didn’t know what I was going to do myself till a few days ago.” It had been a tough decision to make. Complicated by the fact that if he came back to stay, Merri was going to expect him to be an uncle to the kids, and behave in a brotherly fashion to her. And his feelings for her were anything but fraternal. Although, thankfully for both of them, she didn’t know that.
Merri studied him, a new realism shining in her lovely green eyes. As if the fairy-tale wishes she had once harbored had faded, and she knew now what life was—and what it wasn’t. She stepped a little closer, further inundating him in her deliciously feminine scent. “You were really thinking of reenlisting?”
Chase ignored the mounting desire generated by her closeness; and the sight of her running a delicate hand through the soft, thick layers of her honey-blond hair. “It’s important work. I made a lot of good friends over there. But…there’s important work to be done here, too, and I also have a lot of friends here, so…I finally decided to come home.”
Chase saw her shiver a little in the cooling night air. She pulled the edges of her jacket together, but not before he noted her physical reaction to the declining temperature.
“I’m glad you did.” Flushing self-consciously, she said, “I know the kids are, too. They just don’t know how to express it yet. In any case, I prepared the guest room for you.”
“You don’t have to put me up tonight,” Chase said. “I can sleep in an on-call room at the hospital, till I have time to find a place.” Thanks to the local auto dealer’s cooperation in making an advance sale, he even had a brand-new pickup truck to drive, waiting in the parking area next to the ranch house.
A mixture of disappointment and guilt colored her expression. “This is your home.”
“It was once,” Chase agreed, his tone flat, as old decisions neither of them had anything to do with came back to haunt them once again. He brushed aside the hurt he’d felt for years now. The hurt that had helped keep him away, and made him wonder if he should return to Laramie County at all. “But not anymore.”
* * *
MERRI WONDERED IF THIS was the reason behind the rift that had existed between Chase and his younger brother. One that had seemed to only get bigger as time passed, reaching a point of no return shortly before Chase went off to war. Which, of course, made his eventual generosity regarding the birth of the twins even more difficult for her to understand.
Now
