pan.”
Nick was thoroughly confused as he tried to follow the women’s conversation. “Allison has a small child?” he asked. “I thought she was an elderly woman. Why, Old Lady Lee is probably close to a hundred, isn’t she?”
“Nicholas, I’m going to whack you if I hear you say ‘Old Lady Lee’ one more time. What will Allison think of you? Especially when I’ve told her that you’re my most mannerly child.”
“That’s not saying too much for us, is it, Kathleen?” Sam commented.
Nick shook his head helplessly. To be honest, he wished his mother hadn’t invited anyone to the house tonight. He’d wanted to spend his first evening back home with just his family. Now he was going to have to make a point of being polite to some woman he’d never seen in his life. He liked meeting people but not tonight.
He almost wished he’d volunteered for Captain Logan’s maneuvers drill and come home a day later. Toting an M16 over miles of wet, dark terrain seemed like a party compared to the evening ahead of him.
Chapter 2
“Now listen, Ben, you must remember to be polite tonight,” Allison told her son as she stepped up on the Gallaghers’ back porch. “Ella thinks you’re a good little boy.”
“I am,” he replied solemnly.
Allison didn’t know whether to laugh or cross her fingers. “I know. That’s why I’m counting on you to be on your best behavior.”
“Where’s Jake and Leo?” the child asked, tugging on his mother’s arm just as she raised it to knock on the screen door.
“I don’t know. We’ll find out when we get inside,” she told him, then reached to slick down the unruly cowlick at his forehead.
Kathleen answered the door and quickly ushered them into the house.
“Take off your coat, Allison, and I’ll help Ben with his,” Kathleen said, already kneeling to assist the small boy.
“My goodness, what a pretty dress. You didn’t have to go to such pains for us,” Ella spoke from across the room.
Allison’s fair complexion became tinged with a delicate pink as she unconsciously smoothed a hand down the moss green skirt. “Thank you, Ella, but this dress has been in the washing machine more times than I could count.”
“Come on to the den,” Kathleen urged her. “I’m dying for you to meet Nick.”
When Allison and Kathleen entered the den, Nick was standing with his back to the fireplace, listening quietly as his father and brother talked farming.
“Well, there’s my little Ben,” S.T. boomed out as he spotted the small boy. “Come here, son.”
The redheaded child ran eagerly to the older Gallagher and climbed up on his lap, while Kathleen urged Allison farther into the room.
Nick tried not to stare, but he felt as if someone had whopped him over the head. The woman with his sister was nothing like he’d been expecting. She was young and lovely. Extremely lovely.
“Allison, this is my brother, Sergeant First Class Nicholas Gallagher. The infamous one, we all like to say,” Kathleen added jokingly.
Allison moved forward and offered her hand to Nick. “It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said.
So this was Old Lady Lee’s granddaughter! She had the most gorgeous red hair he’d ever seen. Or was it blond? Whatever color, the shoulder-length curly tresses went perfectly with her ivory white skin and sea green eyes. Why hadn’t anyone told him a vision was living next to the Gallagher farm?
“Hello, Allison. And before we go any further, whatever my family has told you about me is definitely not true.”
There was a sparkle in his dark blue eyes that Allison couldn’t quite ignore. She found herself smiling back at him in spite of the warning signals going off in her head. “Actually, I didn’t believe the part about you eating bullets for breakfast.”
Nick’s smile grew broader. “You were right. I wouldn’t eat bullets unless I had cinnamon toast to go with them.”
Across the room, Sam made a noise somewhere between a snort and a laugh. Deliberately ignoring his brother, Nick continued to hold Allison Lee’s small hand in his. “Mom tells me you’re Martha’s granddaughter,” he went on, careful to use the old woman’s given name.
Allison looked back at Nick Gallagher. Ella had been right when she’d described her son. He was a tall, handsome man. On first glance his closely cropped hair appeared almost black, but on second look she saw that it was actually a deep shade of auburn. Yet he didn’t have the fair complexion of a redhead. In fact, his complexion was darker than Sam’s or his father’s. A result of his job, she supposed.
At the moment his lean, angular face was creased in a smile that dimpled his right cheek and displayed his straight white teeth.
Allison took a deep breath and pulled her hand from his. “That’s right,” she answered. “My father was Martha’s only child.”
“Nick,” Kathleen spoke up, “why don’t you get Allison a glass of wine, and I’ll go see if Mom and Olivia need any help in the kitchen?”
“Sure thing,” he said and crossed the room to pour the drink. When he turned around, he saw that Allison had taken a seat on the couch a couple of cushions from his brother.
“I wanted to thank you for the wood you left yesterday,” she said to Sam. “You can’t imagine how much it will help in heating the house. But I would like to pay you for it.”
Sam shook his head at her just as Nick arrived with her drink. “I don’t want your money, Allison. Consider the wood a Christmas gift from me,” he said.
Nick offered Allison the wineglass. She accepted it with a brief thank-you and a faint smile, then turned her attention back to Sam. Nick was amazed at the envy that knifed through him. She was looking at his brother as if he were dear and familiar. Maybe he was, Nick thought crossly. But Sam already had one beautiful blonde madly in love with him. Did he really need two?
“You’re too generous, Sam.”
Yes, far too generous, Nick thought dryly. He’d always wondered why women were drawn to Sam. His older brother had always been quiet and brooding, even cynical at times. Maybe they found him a challenge.
Hell, Nick thought, his good humor suddenly returning. He was a challenge himself. No woman had caught him yet. And no woman was ever likely to catch him. He was young and still having too much fun to be tied down by just one woman. Even one as lovely as Allison Lee.
“So how long have you been living in the old farmhouse?” Nick asked Allison as he took a seat on the arm of the couch.
“I moved in last May,” she answered, trying not to notice how close he was to her.
He was nothing like Sam, she thought. Sam had always treated her like a friend. But this military man was sending her all sorts of dangerous signals.
