world. It didn’t hurt that he got to see a rare glimpse of it before he headed back to guard this country’s freedom.
It didn’t hurt to see what he was fighting for.
Chapter Two
Could she see Jake from here? Rachel absently unsnapped the grain barrel’s lid and stood on tiptoe. Her attention was elsewhere, straining to see across the aisle, through Nugget’s box stall and past the open top of the half door.
Nope. No such luck. She saw plenty of sky and maple trees and the lawn in front of the house. But no Jake.
Pity, since he was such a sight. She had the right to look because he hadn’t been wearing a wedding ring. He was pleasing to the eye, pleasing in the way God intended a man to be. But there was more to him, and that was the attractive part—Mr. Jake Hathaway, Special Forces hero, defending and protecting.
He sure had seemed to be in control. He had to be to participate in all kinds of secret missions in the military. Handling a moose was no challenge for him. He’d tossed that rock as easily as if he’d been skimming stones on a pond and expertly enough so that he’d winged the animal on his antler and hadn’t caused any real harm.
And just what did he think of her? Please, don’t let him think I’m a nut bar. She rolled her eyes as she removed the lid and reached for the scoop. She was still wearing her fuzzy bunny slippers!
She hadn’t had a chance to run a brush through her hair or change out of her comfy after-work clothes. So she wasn’t exactly looking her best; she was more like looking her worst.
Great way to make a first impression.
This was the reason she didn’t have a boyfriend. She kept scaring them off. That was why she made sure, when she prayed for the right man to come along, that he have a sense of humor.
He would definitely need it.
She grabbed a pail from the shelf, dumped in three scoops of sweet-smelling grain and sealed the bin. Nugget was leaning over the side doorway, nickering in hopes of an early supper, poor guy. After leaving him with promises of grain to come, she hurried with the small bucket down the aisle and crawled through the paddock fence that faced the driveway.
Jake was still wielding the broom defensively, but the moose was a little farther off with his head down and snorting. Obviously there had been some action while she’d been in the barn. Before the big creature could charge again, she held the pail high and shook it.
The resulting ring of grain striking the side of the bucket brought the moose’s head up. He studied the bright red Jeep gleaming like a big bull’s-eye, and then turned to look at the bucket she held. To help him along with his decision to choose the grain over the vehicle, she shook the pail harder and hurried toward him.
“Give that to me and stay back.” Jake seemed to take his self-assigned role of defender seriously.
Maybe it was because he thought a woman wearing big long-eared slippers might not be tough. Well, she wasn’t afraid of a wild moose. She ignored Jake’s advice, she was sure it was well meaning, but really, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t dealt with this situation before. She marched across the road and upended the bucket on the ground. The grain pellets tumbled and rushed into a molasses-scented pile in a bed of wild grasses, and the moose came running.
With her empty bucket banging against her knee, she hurried back onto the graveled lane as the moose attacked the pile as if he hadn’t eaten in five weeks.
“A little theatrical for a moose, but he’s mostly harmless,” she told Jake, who’d rushed to her side looking pretty angry. “He didn’t take a liking to your Jeep, though. I’d move it into the garage if I were you, while he’s distracted.”
“I can’t believe you did that.” He stood between her and the moose. “You could have been killed. More people are killed every year in the Iditarod by moose than by all other predators combined, including wolves and mountain lions. You might treat him like a pet, but he’s still dangerous and unpredictable.”
She grabbed hold of her broom and was surprised at how worked up he was. She could sense how he’d been afraid for her safety, that was why he was all agitated. She didn’t know why she could feel his emotions or his intent. Maybe she was reading a lot into his behavior, but it was hard to be upset with a man who only wanted to protect her. Even if it was unnecessary, it was well-intentioned.
And wasn’t such goodness what she’d been praying for in a man? Not that he was The One, but still, a girl had to hope. “I’ll run ahead and open the garage door for you, and I’ll fix you a supper to remember. Is it a deal?”
“That’s a pretty tall order, but I’d sure appreciate it.” He didn’t take his steely gaze from the gobbling moose. “I don’t get home-cooked dinners very often.”
“Then I’ll see you at the house.”
His attention remained on his adversary as he backed toward his vehicle. “Are you sure you don’t want a ride? You’d be safer.”
“I don’t think so.” How could it be safer to be in close quarters with the handsome, hunky, Special Forces soldier?
She glanced over her shoulder before she stepped into the garage through the side door. She could barely see the driveway over the top of Mom’s Climbing Blaze, the shower of red roses nearly hiding Jake’s SUV as he guided it forward at a slow pace, as if expecting the worst.
She couldn’t see through the glare on the windshield as the Jeep hugged the lazy curve of driveway along the edge of the lawn, but she imagined Jake was watching the road out of the corner of his eye and keeping a close watch on the moose.
All was well. The wild animal stayed crunching away at his diminishing pile of grain, his jowls working overtime. It looked as if the Jeep was out of danger for the time being, so she hit the button and the garage door groaned upward.
Jake’s vehicle was right outside, waiting as the door lifted the last bit. The glare on the windshield had lessened and she could see his silhouette behind the wheel. He was tall. Now that she had a chance to think about it, she remembered looking at the upper span of his chest when she’d stood facing him.
He was really tall, she amended. At least six, six-one.
The vehicle rolled to a stop and she hit the button again. The garage door hid the moose from sight. It didn’t hurt a girl to dream, Rachel decided as she backed through the threshold that led through the utility room and into the kitchen, sizing up the man.
He definitely looked like a beef-and-potatoes guy. Maybe she’d take another pass through the freezer and find that roast she knew was in there—
The vehicle’s door opened, but it wasn’t Jake’s door. It was the one directly behind it. What? That didn’t make any sense. Jake was still clearly sitting behind the wheel. She could see him perfectly through the windshield with the dome light backlighting him. He sat soldier-straight and commando-powerful.
There was someone else with him? Her brother hadn’t mentioned a second buddy coming in for the wedding that she’d have to feed, too. Not that she minded, but… Her thoughts stopped dead at the sight of a little girl climbing down from the back of the SUV.
Jake had a daughter? She was the
