but a guy could always hope. He turned off the engine and climbed out of the car. He had to explain about Darcy before he brought her in to spend the night.
Darcy felt, more than heard, the car door slam. She struggled to rouse herself from the depths of exhaustion, but her mind refused to clear. Had Bill said they were home? She’d started to correct him, but it wasn’t worth the effort.
She rubbed her eyes and looked around. They seemed to be in somebody’s yard. Had Bill’s car broken down, too? Had he had to stop to ask help from a stranger?
No. He seemed to know the woman, dressed in a worn housecoat, coming slowly down the steps from the homey-looking front porch complete with an inviting swing and a profusion of potted plants.
Then Bill’s comment about being home started to make sense. This wasn’t Montgomery, and it sure wasn’t a motel.
He had taken her home to his mother’s house.
Darcy stretched and yawned, then fumbled to release her seat belt. She had to get out and move around. She’d been sitting on this seat too long, and her neck was stiff. She needed to work the kinks out of her back and to get the blood circulating again. Maybe then she could think.
She and Bill could sort everything else out later. Or tomorrow, she supposed. She glanced at her watch. It was almost midnight. He’d said his mother would have a bed, and that’s all she cared about for now.
She looked toward the house and couldn’t help being touched by the mother and son reunion.
“What are you doing up so late?” Bill called as he hurried up the dirt walk to the house.
Mrs. Hays laughed, her merry tone belying her serious condition. She looked well enough, but Darcy’s training allowed her to recognize the subtle signs that indicated her illness. “You said you were bringing me a surprise, Billy boy. You had my curiosity running so fast, I couldn’t sleep.”
Bill had forgotten about the comment he’d made when he’d called to say he’d be later than usual. He’d told her about ordering the new Jeep some time ago, but he hadn’t told her that he’d finally gotten it. He’d said he was bringing home a surprise.
A brilliant smile lit up Momma’s face, and Bill turned to see Darcy push open the passenger-side door and climb out, stretching after hours in the car.
“Oh son. It’s the best surprise you ever could give me,” Momma said, hurrying down the steps, her gait more steady than he’d seen in months. “I didn’t think you’d find a bride before…before…. Well, you know.” She smiled again and, arms outstretched, hurried toward Darcy.
He realized with horror what his mother must be thinking. Now, what was he supposed to do? Tell her the truth and break her heart?
Chapter Two
Bill’s mother folded Darcy into a warm embrace. “Welcome to the family, daughter,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “It makes an old lady happy to know that her youngest son is finally going to settle down.”
Fortunately for Darcy, the fact that she was enveloped in Mrs. Hays’s frail embrace kept her from displaying her shock at what the woman had just said. Had she really just called her daughter?
What’s going on here?
She glanced over Mrs. Hays’s shoulder and saw the panicked look on Bill’s face. At least he was as startled about this as she was. Darcy started to push herself out of Mrs. Hays’s embrace and explain, but Bill shook his head and silently mouthed the word, please.
Darcy signaled her objection, but Bill just shook his head again. Considering the woman’s health and the terribly late hour, she tacitly agreed to go on with the ruse. At least until morning.
They would have to explain then and make sure Mrs. Hays understood her mistake. As if she didn’t have enough sorting out of her own to do.
She patted Mrs. Hays gently on the back and pushed herself out of the woman’s embrace. “It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Hays. Bill has told me so much about you.”
“Well, Billy surely hasn’t said anything at all about you,” Mrs. Hays said, shaking her head. “If you’re going to be in the family, you can call me Momma. Or, at least, Nettie. Mrs. Hays sounds so unfriendly, don’t you think?”
“Yes, ma’am, I suppose it does. I’ll be happy to call you Nettie.” There was absolutely no way Darcy was going to call the woman Momma. That would just be too cruel.
It was bad enough that she and Bill were going to have to burst her bubble in the morning. She glanced up at Bill and raised an eyebrow and hoped he got the message.
She wasn’t sure what the message was, but she did want him to know that she wasn’t happy with the turn of events.
After all, she’d just escaped from one fiancé. She certainly did not need another one.
Darcy smiled at Mrs. Hays. “It’s awfully late, Mrs. H—I mean, Nettie. Why don’t we get you settled, and we can chat in the morning.”
“I do look forward to that, hon. And you are right. I am tired. I guess all this excitement’s done worn me out.” She turned toward Bill. “Help me up the stairs, son, so I can go to bed. I’ll leave you to settle your fiancée in—Why, I do declare, you have not introduced me to my future daughter-in-law.”
“It’s Darcy Stanton, Nettie,” Darcy said, forcing a smile. She waved and Nettie smiled back, then took Bill’s arm and allowed him to help her up the short flight of steps.
Wondering how they were going to talk their way out of this charade without hurting the woman struggling up the stairs, Darcy stood outside in the glare of the security lamp and took stock of her surroundings.
The house was small, and Darcy wondered how the woman could have raised five kids in it. But the lawn was trimmed and the flower beds neat and cared for. Obviously, Bill’s brothers and sisters were coming around to help. She thought about the strong love they must share and weighed it against her family’s feelings about duty and tradition. They didn’t compare.
She could see a couple of outbuildings beyond the small house: a chicken house, she supposed, and a shed or a small barn. Mrs. Hays might have kept some chickens and a few cows at one time, but Darcy doubted she was up to keeping them now.
It reminded her of something out of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books she’d loved as a child. Darcy suspected that it had been fun growing up here where the kids could run free and grow like weeds. Not like her own heavily restricted upbringing on military bases all over the world. She’d often had to be escorted to school by armed guards and had only dreamed of running free. The Hays family might have been poor, but her upbringing hadn’t been any better. At least, Bill and his siblings had the roots and stability she’d always craved.
“What do you think?”
Darcy turned, startled, at the sound of Bill’s voice behind her. “About what?”
She looked so much like an angel, Bill thought as he hurried down the porch steps to where Darcy waited outside in the yard. He shouldn’t have left her there, but he had to take care of Momma first. Hell, he shouldn’t
