her feet, and a pair of pink barrettes were stuck into her thick, beautiful hair. Costume jewelry dangled from her wrist and her neck, and she held a tattered purple bunny that had seen much better days.
Oh, she was a sucker for kids. Suddenly it made sense that she’d found the Popsicles. It was as if one of God’s angels was giving her a clue. Now there was a treat waiting for this adorable little girl. Determined to be friends, Rachel gave a little wave. “Hi there. I’m Rachel.”
The little girl stared with big, wide, shy eyes and ducked back behind her open door for safety.
I know just how you feel. Rachel had been shy every day of her life. Her heart squeezed for the little girl, who had to be feeling out of her element.
Then Jake emerged, shrinking the cavernous size of the triple garage with his sheer magnetic presence. He held out one big hand, gentle despite his size. “C’mon, Sally baby. This is Ben’s sister I told you about.”
“’Kay.” She took Jake’s hand and let him lead her through the garage. The little girl looked resigned and not happy.
Determined to cheer her up, Rachel offered the child her friendliest smile, but the girl intentionally sent her gaze upward, looking around at the various shelves of tools, lawn stuff, Ben’s old hunting gear and every imaginable outdoor activity stored overhead in the rafters—from the canoe to the cross-country skis.
Jake, however, did return her grin. He had a nice grin, one that softened the hard granite of his chiseled face and etched dimples into his lean cheeks. “I don’t know if Ben mentioned I had Sally in tow with me. I had planned on picking her up after the wedding, but things didn’t work out that way.”
Oh, divorce, Rachel guessed. Shared custody. That couldn’t be easy for anyone involved. “No problem. Life rarely works out the way you think it will. I was just about to defrost a roast.” If I can find it. “So that will be enough for all three of us. Sally, may I ask you something?”
The little girl nodded, her pretty emerald eyes wide and somber.
“Do you and your bunny want to help me pick out what kind of potatoes to make?”
Another shy nod.
“Excellent. Are you a mashed-potatoes kind of girl? Or do you like Tater Tots?”
“Tater Tots!” Some of her reserve diminished, and she hugged her bunny tight. “Uncle Jake don’t know how to make ’em right.”
Uncle Jake? Rachel shot a glance at the unlikely uncle closing his door and nudging the child along in front of him. “It takes talent to know how to get Tater Tots just right. Do you like ’em soft and crumbly or crisp?”
“A little crisp but still kinda all soft in the middle, but not so it’s still cold.”
“Me, too.” Since it was hard not to like a man who took the time to spend with his niece, especially on his limited stateside visit, she’d ask his opinion, too. “Are you a Tater Tot man or a mashed?”
“Strictly French fry, but I can make an exception.”
“Maybe I can rustle up a few fries for the man who defended us from the dangerous wild moose. A man needs a reward.”
Okay, he could tell when someone was amused at his expense. “You could have told me the thing was more of a pet than a wild dangerous animal. I did ask.”
“He’s not a pet. He’s just…” She shrugged.
“Got your number.” It wasn’t too hard to see that Rachel was a genuinely nice person. “Okay, I went a little commando. I had Sally to protect. She’s been through enough.”
“I’m not blaming you, City Boy. I just wondered if you had fun playing with poor Bullwinkle.”
“Not so much.”
He liked her. He liked the twinkle of humor in her eye. That she was as friendly as could be without batting her eyes at him like a marriage-minded woman. He did not have a great neon sign pasted to his forehead that blinked, “Not married!” He liked that she was easygoing and that she was pretty up close. Very pretty.
And here he’d been dreading this. He’d originally planned to fly in tomorrow morning, bright and early, and do the wedding and fly home, but Sally had changed things. Here he was in town early, and Ben wasn’t here to meet him.
He didn’t blame his friend. Instead of a rehearsal dinner, the groom had reservations at one of the nicest restaurants in the area to spend a quiet pre-wedding evening with his bride-to-be, and there was no way Jake wanted him to cancel that. But when Ben had suggested this, Jake had felt obligated to accept this invitation. A home-cooked meal would be good for Sally.
Her hand in his felt so small and held on so tightly. There was a surprising strength in her fingers—or maybe it was need. The way she clung to him was an undeniable reminder of the promises he’d just finished making to her. From the day she’d been born, she’d had a sweet little spot in his heart and now that he was the only one left to look after her, he was only more committed. How he was going to keep those promises to her, he didn’t know. Not when his job took him to dangerous corners of the world and kept him there.
Rachel had disappeared through a connecting door on the other side of a laundry room—it was a nice set-up. A closet lined one wall and a washer and dryer covered the wall on his right. Through the window he caught a glimpse of the backyard filled with lush green grass and blooming red roses and big yellow-faced flowers in tidy beds. Trees stood on the far side of the lawn, and that’s all he saw before he tugged Sally into the kitchen after their hostess.
“Let me get you something,” she said from across a spacious country kitchen.
Nice. He didn’t know why he thought so, maybe it was because he’d been on Temporary Duty way too long. Home had become a desert base with a tent over his head and food served on a tray.
Everything smelled so good. The floor of fresh pine and the air like cookies. A chipped coffee mug sat on the granite counter stuffed with red roses from the vines outside. Their old-fashioned fragrance took him back to his grandma’s house when he was a kid, where he ran wild during the summers on their San Fernando Valley farm. Maybe that was why he felt at ease with the pretty woman in the kitchen, who looked as if she were in her element as she yanked open the fridge door.
“We’ve got milk, soda, juice. What’s your pleasure?” She looked to Sally first. “I have strawberry soda.”
“Strawberry!” Sally gave a little leap, taking his hand with her. “Can I, Uncle Jake?” She beamed up at him with those big green eyes and he was helpless. They both knew it.
“Sure.” He’d have to figure out how to say no to her eventually; being a parent was a whole world different than being an uncle.
Sorrow stabbed him, swift and unexpected. He couldn’t get used to Jeanette being gone. He dealt with death a lot in the military; he’d lost close friends and team members and soldiers he’d admired. But to lose his sister crossing the street on the way to her office, it wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair to Sally.
“I’ve got two cartoon cups to pick from.” Rachel held the cupboard door open wide, displaying characters he didn’t even recognize.
He
