Harlequin Special Edition November 2019--Box Set 1 of 2 by Teresa Southwick

Author:Teresa Southwick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

Sam had fallen fast asleep in the backseat by the time they’d gotten back to Natalie’s place.

“I’ll carry him in,” Des told her when he pulled into her driveway.

He opened the rear door and leaned in. He unbuckled the restraints and lifted a sleeping Sam out of the booster seat. The child wasn’t heavy but his weight caused a strange new sensation in Des’s chest—around the area of his heart. He’d never been around young children and wouldn’t be if he remained single. He didn’t have nieces or nephews to interact with. A lot of the men his age in Loon Lake had started or were adding to families, but Des only knew them in passing. A nod hello here and there but that was all. Not enough to interact.

When they’d been together, he and Ashley hadn’t gotten around to discussing children. Huh, maybe that right there was a warning sign that their relationship was doomed. How could they have contemplated marriage without discussing something so important? He glanced down at Sam and clutched him a little tighter. At least he and Ashley hadn’t brought an innocent child into their lives because their relationship hadn’t weathered its first storm. He’d met Ashley while out in a group with fellow officers. They were all celebrating getting their various assignments. At the time, he’d considered their meeting a lucky coincidence. Now, the cynic in him wondered how much calculation had gone into that night, along with her easy acceptance of all the difficulties his training posed for a relationship.

Had he let his need for acceptance blind him to their problems?

He shifted Sam’s weight in his arms and followed Natalie to the door. She unlocked it and pushed it open and stepped aside so he could go first.

“Could you bring him straight to his room?” Natalie whispered, then put her hand on his arm. “Wait a sec.”

She leaned down and scooped up the black-and-silver cat. “He likes to trip people when they’re carrying something and can’t look down.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t be any fun otherwise,” he whispered and was rewarded with one of her crooked-tooth smiles.

She followed him into Sam’s bedroom and set the cat on the bed. The tabby walked around the bed and began kneading his claws on a royal blue fleece with orange moons and white spaceships.

“Let me get some of Sam’s clothes off before you put him down.”

Des nodded and she pulled off Sam’s boots, hat and mittens. Des shifted and held the boy so she could unzip his jacket.

She pulled back the covers. “You can lay him down and I’ll slip off the coat.”

Des laid Sam on the bed. Natalie pulled off his jacket and put a ragged stuffed rabbit next to him before pulling up the blankets. He stirred and hugged the rabbit to his chest. The cat curled up next to the stuffed rabbit.

She smoothed the hair back from Sam’s forehead in a tender gesture. “Bunny Rabbit kept him company when he was hospitalized.”

Des watched her with her son.

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