It Happened One Night

Josh stared at her a moment longer. “If you say so,” he finally said, turning back toward the boxes of ornaments. She could tell he didn’t believe her for a minute, but at least he hadn’t pressed the issue.

By the time they finished decorating the tree, Emmie had started rubbing her eyes sleepily and Kiley knew it was time for her daughter to take a nap. “Emmie, would you like for me to read one of your books to you?”

“Ponies,” Emmie said, reaching into Kiley’s tote bag.

While she read her daughter’s favorite book, Kiley noticed that Josh collected the empty ornament boxes, then, setting one aside, took the others back out to the storage area of the garage. When he came back in, he sat down in the armchair next to the couch. Every time she glanced up, he was staring at her, and she wondered what was running through his mind.

“She’s asleep,” he finally said, getting up to walk over and lift her daughter from Kiley’s lap. Carrying her over to the love seat, she watched him cover Emmie with a colorful Native American blanket. “Would you like a cup of coffee? I made a fresh pot while you were reading to the pony princess,” he said, chuckling.

“A cup of coffee sounds wonderful.” Maybe the caffeine would help chase away some of her fatigue. “How do you take yours?” she asked, rising to her feet.

“I’ll get it.” He grinned. “You cooked dinner yesterday evening and, unless a tropical heat wave sweeps through the area to melt all this ice off the roads, you’ll probably be cooking again this evening and maybe tomorrow evening. The least I can do is bring you a cup of coffee.”

Telling him how she liked her coffee, Kiley sat back down on the couch. For the past few years she had thought of him as a man who couldn’t be trusted—an unfeeling jerk who had broken her sister’s heart. And in the past several months, she’d come to think of him as the uncaring chairman of the TCC funding committee who, along with some of his fellow committee members, wanted nothing more than to see the day care center fail and her be out of a job.

But the more she got to know him, the more she had to admit that Josh was different than she had perceived him to be. Even before her sister finally confessed that their breakup hadn’t gone quite the way she’d told everyone, Kiley had started to realize that he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

If he was as heartless as she’d first thought, he wouldn’t have given her a month’s worth of the extra money she had asked for and the chance to prove to him that it was needed for the day care center. Nor would he have been concerned for her and Emmie’s safety and insisted on driving them to his ranch, rather than her trying to get them home on a treacherous, ice-glazed road.

“Here you go.” Laughing, Josh handed her a steaming mug. “Coffee-flavored milk with a little sweetener.”

She smiled. “I suppose you’re one of the coffee purists?”

He nodded as he sat down beside her. “I like it black, and the stronger the better.”

“Aside from the taste, if I drank it like that, I’d never go to sleep.” She set her cup on a coaster on the end table. “I didn’t even start drinking coffee until after I had Emmie. It was the only way I could stay awake during the day after staying up all night with a colicky baby.”

“So when you told me that your ex-husband left right after Emmie was born, you meant immediately after?” he asked, frowning.

“Mark moved out four days after she was born.” Kiley shrugged. “Looking back on it, I’m just as glad that he did. Taking care of a baby was enough to keep me busy. I didn’t need a demanding, immature male to deal with at the same time.”

“What about your mom or your sister?” Josh asked, sounding genuinely interested. “Surely they helped out.”

She nodded. “They were there for me as much as they could be. But they both had to work. Besides, Emmie was my baby to take care of.”

He seemed to think over what she had just told him before he finally nodded. “I can understand your sense of responsibility, but it couldn’t have been easy. What about some time for yourself?”

“If by that you’re asking if I’ve seen anyone since she was born, the answer is no.” She smiled lovingly at her little girl sleeping so peacefully on the love seat. “It might have been extremely difficult at times, but there isn’t a single second of it that I regret. I don’t need a social life?I have my daughter. Nothing is more important to me than being her mother.”

Setting his coffee on the end table, Josh moved closer to her. “You’re a great mom and Emmie is a great kid,” he said, pulling her into his arms.