A Very Special Delivery

morning.” She yawned and shook her head. Her shoulders drooped with weariness. “Is the camper going to work out okay?”
    “I’m so tired it looks like the Waldorf to me.”
    In preparation for the trek out to the camper, Ethan wrapped Laney in a pile of soft blankets. With a whimper, she squirmed and made sucking motions with her mouth.
    Both adults stilled, waited for her to settle again, before Ethan continued. “I guess I’ll say goodnight then. And thanks for all you’ve done.”
    He had considered asking Molly to keep the baby in the house for the night, but her nervousness around his daughter had changed his mind.
    Molly McCreight had done enough.
    “If you need anything before morning, just come on in. I’ll leave the back door unlocked.”
    Even under the extraordinary circumstances, he was moved and heartened by the trusting gesture. Molly McCreight was a fascinating woman, and somehow he’d find a way to repay her kindness.
    * * *
    Exhausted as she was, Molly thought she’d fall asleep the minute her head hit the pillow. Instead, she lay awake for hours, listening to sleet rake the window panes and thinking about Ethan Hunter. Tomorrow, somehow, someway, she had to get him away from her house. Not that she didn’t like him. That was the trouble. She not only liked him, she admired a man who would go to such extremes to help someone in need.
    But Ethan had a baby and spending those hours tonight with her had taken an incredible toll. Hunger for a child coupled with the fear of losing her clawed at Molly’s tenuous control.
    A gust of wind rattled the house, howling. Molly sat up. Was that Laney crying? Would Ethan, tired as he was, hear her if she choked? Would he know if she needed him during the long, cold night?
    She shook her head, rueful. She must be crazy to think she could hear Laney. Though the camper was near the house, it was too far and the storm too fierce for her to hear anything.
    Fear was a tormenting bedfellow.
    Samson stirred from his usual spot at the end of the bed and tramped up to stare at her with yellow, curious eyes as if to say, “Will you let me get some rest here?”
    She lifted the cover, inviting him under as a peace offering. “Go on. I’ll be still, I promise.”
    As the cat curled, warm and soft, next to her feet, Molly hoped she could keep that promise.
    Forcing herself to lie down again, Molly pulled the pillow around her ears and began to pray, blocking out every obsessive thought.
    * * *
    When she opened her eyes again daylight streamed through the window, glistening painfully bright on the crystal kingdom outside. She heard someone moving around in her house, and the memory of last night came flooding back.
    Quickly dressing, she shoved her feet into fuzzy slippers and her hair into a rubber band before hurrying into the kitchen. There she found Ethan warming a baby bottle in her microwave.
    Wearing a smile that lit his eyes and accented the interesting scar over his eyebrow, Ethan turned to her. “I hope we didn’t disturb you.”
    Stretching, she asked, “What time is it? I thought we’d all sleep half the day.”
    “A little after nine.” With a wry grin he nodded at the baby cradled in one elbow. “She shows me no mercy. We’ve been up since six.”
    “Six!” She recoiled in mock horror. “That’s obscene.”
    He laughed. “I try to tell her that, but she’s a female. Has a mind of her own.” Balancing the bottle with his chin, he said, “I hope you don’t mind that I came inside. I didn’t want to disturb you, but Laney insisted on breakfast.”
    “I told you last night to come in if you needed anything.”
    He nudged his chin toward the coffeemaker. “I made coffee. Care for a cup?”
    With a mock groan, she said, “Ethan, you are my hero.”
    She’d made the joke without thinking, but she was right. He was a hero. “You sit down and take care of Laney, I’ll get my own coffee. And once I’m fully conscious I’ll make breakfast.”
    Settling onto one of Aunt Patsy’s old chrome-backed chairs with decided grace considering he held a baby with one hand and a bottle in the other, Ethan said, “You don’t need to do that. The coffee is enough.”
    She leaned against the butcher-block counter and poured a cup of the fragrant brew. With the first sip, she sighed with pleasure and said, “People have to eat.”
    Serious blue eyes captured hers. “How much do I owe you for all this? The food, the babysitting, the hotel