She didn't want to be pregnant. Mary Elise touched a bare foot to the ground and launched her old tire swing into motion under the ancient oak while watching Danny's back door. He'd just pulled into the driveway, home for the summer, and she knew he wouldn't wait long to see her.
To find out if their night together—long, hot hours—had left her pregnant.
Who wanted to be pregnant and unmarried at nineteen with three years of college left to finish? And it wasn't like she even loved the baby's father. Well, she loved him. She just wasn't in love with him. Like, geez, it was Danny. Her best friend.
Her best friend who really knew how to do it.
Well, as best she could tell then, from her limited—okay, nonexistent—experience. Now she had a weekend of experience under her tightening belt, along with a growing baby. No Air Force Academy graduation for Danny. No journalism degree and crime-beat-reporter job for her. And the part that sucked most was she hurt more over Danny losing his dreams than she did over losing her own.
She knew without a doubt he would offer to marry her. Would insist on marrying her. She wanted to tell him no, but the thing was, as much as she didn't want to be pregnant, she was. And it was Danny's baby, which made the kid already cute and special and deserving of the best she could manage.
So yeah, if he pushed, she'd marry him. Maybe they could work out one of those married-for-a-year deals so the baby would have his name.
But he'd still be booted out of the Air Force Academy. Would still lose his dream. And an ache started low in the pit of her belly at even the thought of pushing him out of her life in something so harsh sounding as a divorce.
Geez. They should be making plans to go to the beach, not wedding plans.
Then there he was. Danny, striding across the glass-enclosed back porch, through the screen door.
The military precision slipped into his walk a little more with each year at the Air Force Academy. He could wear wrinkled clothes all he wanted. The walk gave him away.
Pushing up from the swing, she made her way past a blooming dogwood tree, through the ivy-covered gate. He looked older, too. His parents' split hit him hard. He kept saying it didn't matter, since he was grown. She knew better. Senator Baker's trophy marriage shrieked cliché to a son who personified uniqueness.
That had to be the reason worry lines creased Danny's face. Not because they both knew they'd been stupid, stupid, stupid not to use birth control.
"Hey, Mary 'Lise." His smile pulled tight as he drew her in for a hug. Are you?
She could feel his unspoken question reach to her. His arms wrapped around her with the familiarity of a hundred other hugs. The awareness tinged with fear, however, was all new.
Are you pregnant? Again, the silent question pulsed from him.
Mary Elise swallowed and forced the words out. "I am."
She didn't have to say anything else. He would know what she meant. That damned unspoken connection between them was working just fine. She'd prepped herself for his proposal, knew Danny well enough to understand his sense of honor wouldn't let him do anything else.
But please, please, please, with her hormones in an ungodly tangle she wasn't sure she could handle seeing disappointment in his eyes, even though he had every right.
He held so still, unmoving for four deep breaths of her own. With their connection in total working order, she felt it all rock through his motionless body—the shock, frustration, anger … the resolution.
Finally he stepped back. She opened her eyes, slowly, in no great hurry to face him just yet, and found … Danny's smile at its most kick-ass vibrant.
"Well, Mary Elise, then I guess there's no reason we can't go lock ourselves in the pool house, tear off all our clothes and have out-of-control screaming sex." Scooping her up into his arms, Danny planted a deep kiss on her lips and made fast tracks past the diving board.
Mary Elise laughed, tension easing at least a bit. Her hand snuck up to play with the close-cropped hair at the nape of his neck. Yeah, she knew the proposal would come once their clothes lay in a pile by their sweaty, sated bodies. But he understood her enough to realize she couldn't hear those words yet.
And in that moment she fell a little in love with Danny after all.
Daniel scooped up sleeping Mary Elise and kicked the car door closed. Softly. Keeping his motions quiet, steady, although Mary Elise slept like the dead.
Dead.Not his favorite word today. Pine straw muffled the thud of his boots toward the rectangular cabin—a shot-gun-style house, one room deep, long and thin. Nowhere for anyone to hide inside.
He hitched his hold on her, his survival vest and belt dangling from the crook of his arm. He'd unload the rest of the gear once he had her inside, but not a chance would he let his gun out of his reach.
His eyes scanned, assessing for vulnerability with each step closer to the clapboard fishing retreat on stilts. He would have to put trip wires around the open underway to stop anyone from lurking beneath.
Shallow tides bordered the house on three sides, rotting marsh grass emitting a methane scent into the air. At least they would have prior warning of "visitors" on those three fronts from the water.
A single road in. Two minor paths, Manageable to defend with traps positioned to disable intruders.