“That’s not possible,” he said unequivocally.
Her heart melted. “Oh, Daddy, I love you.”
“I love you, too. Which is why I say with all affection that if he hurts you, I’m gonna break both his legs. Even from this chair. I can do it.”
She laughed, relieved that this conversation was drawing to a close and without too much blood spilled.
“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl yet?”
She shook her head, meeting her dad’s gaze and smiling. “I’m thinking we’ll leave it a surprise right until the end.”
He patted her hand. “I’ll be walking on my own long before then. I’m going pretty good on my crutches now.”
“Well, don’t do anything foolish. We’re going to need you back at the head of the boardroom table, and don’t you forget it.”
As if the family sensed the coast was clear, the doors opened and they spilled through, carrying pie, ice cream, plates and a pot of coffee. Chris put down the stack of dessert plates and leaned over under the pretense of kissing her hair, the soft caress burning through her scalp, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
“Everything okay?”
She looked up. “Sure is,” she replied.
And then he did the last thing she expected. He leaned down an extra two inches and dropped a quick, but soft, kiss on her upturned lips.
He was taking the charade a little too far in her opinion. Her lips tingled from the kiss and she knew the rest of the family had seen it. When coffee was poured, Chris made sure she had a glass of milk to go with her pie. Her chair was a little too close and more than once during the conversations that followed, his arm rode along the back of her chair.
The light was softening when Alex burst back outside, dressed in cotton pajamas, his face scrubbed shiny and his dark curls damp against his scalp. “Chris, Anna said it was okay to ask if you’d tuck me in.”
The request surprised everyone, since Chris was a new addition to the family scene, but he pushed back his chair. “Sure, partner.”
“’Night, Mama. ’Night, Dad. ’Night, everybody.” Alex kissed Julieta and then Brock’s cheek before holding out his hand to Chris. “Wait’ll you see my room. Mama let me pick out my wallpaper and everything.”
Lizzie watched as Chris took Alex’s hand. “Let me guess. Cars?” He looked over his shoulder and winked at Lizzie.
“Cars? No way!” Alex’s protest sounded as they went back in the house. “It’s horses, of course.”
Lizzie started cleaning up the dessert mess once he was gone and Brock wheeled himself up to the doors where Julieta was waiting with his crutches to help him over the step and inside. The boys said their good-nights and went their own ways, and Carly, Savannah, Lizzie and Anna finished putting the kitchen to rights. Carly would spend the night with Savannah in her space above the store, and head to her own home in Houston in the morning.
Anna was the first to pipe up about Chris. “Alex likes your Chris a lot,” she observed, loading the last of the plates in the dishwasher.
“He likes children. Lucky for me, right?” She smiled. It wouldn’t be much longer. She could keep this up for a little bit more and then they could go home and she would have a warm bath and decompress.
Carly wiped out a serving bowl and looked over at her sister. “You haven’t been seeing each other that long, though, right?”
Here it comes, Lizzie thought. “It wasn’t planned, no. And at first I was pretty panicked. But now...” She put her hands on her belly. “Now I’m used to the idea. I’m excited. I’m just worried that...”
She frowned. She’d never really talked to her sisters about their mother. She’d always felt it was her job to keep things together, to make the best of it. Not bring up the hurtful past.
“Worried about what, Lizzie?” Savannah put her hand on Lizzie’s arm. “Is it Chris?”
Lizzie shook her head. “No. It’s Mom. You guys were even younger than me, so I don’t know how much you remember.”
“You’ve been thinking about her a lot?”
“She left us. What if I’m like her? I’m worried maybe I won’t be a good mom, you know?”
Anna had been listening keenly. Now she came over and gave Lizzie a big hug. “You will be fine, little one, because you have all of us to help you, and your young man, too. He’s steady as they come, I think.”
She only felt marginally better. “I wish I could talk to her and ask her why she left.”