and I talked. I think she’s confused. I just want to make sure you’re as serious about her as I think you are.”
“I adore Betsy,” he said.
Kate exhaled the breath she must have been holding. “Good. That’s what I thought.”
Last year Ryan had dated the woman at his side. Now they were what they’d been meant to be—good friends. “I understand about Joel. For the longest time, I didn’t.”
A tiny smile lifted the corners of Kate’s lips. “I know you didn’t.”
“In fact when it came out that you were Chloe’s birth mom, I found myself thinking it was awfully convenient that you’d fallen in love with her adoptive father.”
“Joel initially thought it was a little convenient, too,” Kate said with a sigh. “He accused me of using my relationship with him to get to Chloe.”
“But he finally realized that wasn’t true.” Ryan liked the happy ending Kate had found. It made him think that same happiness was possible in his life, too.
“Yes, he did.”
“Betsy isn’t going to believe I love her.” Ryan turned and planted his hands on the windowsill. He gazed unseeing into the darkness.
Kate placed a hand on his shoulder. “Why wouldn’t she believe you?”
“I’m the boy who cried wolf.” He whirled, frustration surging through his veins. The knowledge that he had only himself to blame fueled the anger.
“I’d convinced myself that what I’d felt for those other women was love.” Ryan gave a humorless laugh. He’d been such a fool. “What I feel for Betsy is so very different.”
“That’s how it was for me with Joel.” Kate’s eyes were filled with kindness rather than censure. He realized again how lucky he was to have her as a friend. “Anything I’d ever felt before paled in comparison.”
Ryan shook his head in wonder. “All I want is her to know my feelings are real and aren’t going to change. I don’t want her to have any doubts.”
“Words alone won’t do it. She’s going to be scared that you’ll change your mind.”
“I can’t imagine life without her, Kate. I like hanging out with her. I like working with her on cases. We have fun together. She gets me. And you know what a challenge that is.”
Kate’s chuckle lightened the mood.
“She’s the only one I want. The only one I’ll ever want.” He thought of the love token Betsy showed him. You and No Other. That pretty much summed up his feelings.
“You’re going to have to be patient, Ry. Show her by your words and your actions how much you care.” Kate’s eyes met his. “In time she’ll come to realize you’re sincere.”
“She has to, Kate,” Ryan said. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her.”
Betsy hid behind a large boulder in Joel and Kate’s backyard, snowball in hand. For a while she thought that the promise of a snowball fight had been forgotten. Then after lunch the kids were sent outside to make a snow fort and to mark off the camp of the attacking army.
Once that was done, Kate took the two different flags her daughter had attached to broom handles and everyone counted off. Through the luck of the draw, or perhaps the unluck, she and Tripp were on the attacking team while Ryan was a defender of the fort.
“Cover me,” Tripp whispered from next to her.
He had their patrol’s flag in hand and this was their last chance to breach the fort and thus win the game. All of their other comrades had gotten hit and were now out of the game. Of course the other side had lost many soldiers, too. As far as Betsy knew, Ryan was still playing.
“I’ve got five or six snowballs made up,” she said to Tripp. “But I’m not sure I’ll be able to throw them fast enough to protect you.”
“No guts, no glory.” Tripp shot her a devilish smile. “If I go down, grab the flag and make a run for it.”
Betsy smiled. “Deal.”
“On the count of three,” Tripp said, his voice filled with determination. Betsy wondered what the hospital board would think now if they could see their new administrator with his eyes blazing and snowball in hand. “One, two, three—”
Betsy rose and began flinging snowballs.
She got Joel in the shoulder, Mary Karen in the belly. Her oldest boy, Connor, came out from nowhere with snowball in hand.
He howled with frustration when her snowball caught him in the leg.
Tripp was almost at the fort, all of his snowballs gone, flag in hand when Ryan stepped out. He stood there, with no protection, waiting for a sure shot at Tripp.
Betsy stumbled forward, one last snowball in hand. She didn’t know if Ryan discounted her or if he was too focused on Tripp to give her a second thought. But she released her ball just as he raised his arm, giving her a perfect shot to the abdomen.
He looked up in surprise as Tripp planted the flag, signaling the game was over and the blue team had won.
She didn’t have a chance to say anything to Ryan, who was looking at her with disbelief in his eyes, because her team mobbed her, jumping up and down in the snow, chanting her name.
Betsy couldn’t remember ever having quite as wonderful a day.
By the time they went inside and warmed up, the sun had already set. Tripp left, but not before giving Betsy a congratulatory hug and promising to call her.
Ryan seemed strangely silent. Of course, it could be only her imagination. She hoped he wasn’t disappointed in her. After all, she couldn’t throw the game just because she didn’t want to hit him with the snowball.
It wasn’t until they were in his truck that they had the opportunity to talk privately. “About the snowball—”
He raised one hand, then turned on the highway leading back into Jackson. “I have something to say first.”
A chill of dread slid down Betsy’s spine. Over and over she’d heard girls say that guys don’t like it if you beat them at sports. Or that you shouldn’t flaunt how smart you were if you wanted to get dates. It had seemed silly to her. Of course she hadn’t had that many dates either.
“I’m proud of you, Bets.”
Betsy blinked. “For what?”
“For being such a competitor.”
Had he forgotten her team had won? “If I hadn’t hit you with that snowball, the red team would have won. You’d have been the hero, not—”
Betsy
