Father Most Blessed by Marta Perry

Author:Marta Perry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2001-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Nobody seemed able to make him as angry as Paula could with just a word. Alex smiled wryly as he walked slowly across the patio. Perhaps he needed to remind himself that the rest of the world wouldn’t treat him with the deference most people in Bedford Creek did. Certainly Paula didn’t. He suspected only her desire to keep her job had prevented her from saying even more than she had.

She seemed, without being aware of it, to have joined the select group that actually looked at him as just another human being. Certainly Brett and Mitch knew his weaknesses as well as he did himself, and didn’t hesitate to call him to order if they felt he needed it. Now Paula had come on board, and he didn’t know how to handle that.

He’d watched her at the picnic. He’d seen her fitting into his town, fitting into his life, as if she belonged here.

Nonsense. He tried to reject that idea out of hand. Paula worked for him. She neither wanted nor would welcome anything else.

She was the only woman willing to defy him. Maybe she was also the only woman who could really accept him.

That was a dangerous thought. He wasn’t ready to take that kind of risk again. He—

A cry echoed through the gathering dusk, startling him. Was it a bird of some sort? Then it came again, and he knew instinctively what he’d heard. Paula! He began to run toward the garage, toward that panicked cry.

His heart thudded in his ears as he rounded the building. She was in trouble, she was hurt, she—

An errant flame, stirred by the breeze, licked upward from the brush the lawn service had been burning earlier. He’d have something to say to them about that. Then he saw Paula’s face, and her expression banished every other thought from his mind.

She was terrified. She stood backed against the garage wall, clutching the puppy in her arms. She looked unable to move, and she stared, eyes wide and frightened, into the flames.

“Paula!” He grasped her arm, pulling her away from the fire. Another dry branch caught, flaring up. He couldn’t stop the images that flooded his mind—the flames rushing toward them, working frantically to free Paula from the seat, knowing that at any moment it could be too late…

That must be what Paula saw, too.

“It’s all right.” He turned her toward him, frightened at her reaction, and held her face between his hands. His heart still pounded, but he willed his voice to stay calm. “Paula, look at me, not the fire. It’s all right, do you hear me? You’re safe.”

For several seconds she didn’t respond, as if she couldn’t hear him. Then, finally, she blinked. The terror was still in her eyes, but she focused on his face.

“You’re safe,” he said, longing to pull her into his arms and not daring to. “Can you stay right here while I get the hose and put that out?”

She swallowed, the muscles in her throat working.

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