Seven

Luke held on tightly as Anna shivered in his arms. The despair in her voice rocked him to his core. He knew what she was going through, knew how she felt, and the pain he kept locked away the other eleven months out of the year rushed to the forefront. But he beat it back so he could focus on the woman trembling in his arms.

“I’ll call you when I’m on my way,” she said, her voice emotionless. She was in shock. He knew the signs.

“I need to find a rental car,” she mumbled, pushing out of his arms, looking for all the world like a lost child. She was in no shape to drive the three hours it would take to reach Springfield.

“You shouldn’t be driving this upset,” Luke stated.

She glanced back, looking right through him as if he were a ghost. Then her bottom lip began to tremble. “I . . . don’t have a choice.”

“Anna,” Luke started to argue with her, but her shoulders began to shake as the tears she’d been holding back began to fall.

“He’s all I have left in the world,” she sobbed. “I’ll walk if I have to. I’m not letting him die alone,” she cried out, then shoved past him through the kitchen and headed for the staircase.

Luke reacted on instinct and followed her up the stairs. “You’re not heading out on those slick roads on your own.”

She spun around at his voice, surprised he’d followed her. “It’s Christmas Eve, Mr. Knight. My parents are dead. My friends have all moved away, save one, and she went to Dallas for Christmas with her husband. I have no one I can call on to travel with me.”

He could hear the helplessness in her remark, knew how alone she felt in this world, and he immediately wanted to be the one person she could count on.

“My name’s Luke to you, not Mr. Knight,” he answered, closing the distance between them. “And you’ve got me. I’ll take you to Springfield.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. “But you don’t even like me. Why would you help me?”

To answer her ridiculous question, his hand whipped out and closed around her neck before he slammed his lips to hers. Her mouth opened in surprise, so Luke took the advantage given to him and tasted her fully. She froze at first, then melted into his arms as he drank freely from her silken lips. She tasted exactly like he’d expected her to. Fresh and innocent, with a hint of passion that was as addictive as any drug. But more than that, she tasted like hope.

“I’m going with you, so stop arguing,” he whispered against her lips. He’d wanted her from the first moment he laid eyes her. There was no way in hell he would turn his back on her now. Not when she needed him most. He was going and that was final.

He expected her to fight him anyway, but her eyes filled with tears instead, relief written clearly across her face. “I’m so confused. I thought you hated me.”

“No. I hated that you were unavailable,” he answered, wiping a tear from her cheek. “I’ve never gone after another man’s woman, but I was seriously considering it where you were concerned. It pissed me off that I had no self-control, and I took it out on you.”

Her brows pulled together in confusion. “Unavailable?”

“You and your brother don’t exactly look alike,” he pointed out. “I assumed he was your man. It wasn’t until you referred to him as your brother that I clued in.”

The mention of Gregg brought bleakness back to her eyes, so he wrapped her up tight in his arms to give her what solace he could. “Thank you for offering to go with me. But won’t your family mind?”

He tensed at the mention of his family. He kept clear of them for his own reasons, mainly the guilt he carried. They wouldn’t miss him any more this year than they had the last four years.

“It’ll be fine. Get your things together, and I’ll be back to pick you up in twenty minutes.” She nodded and began to pull away from him. “Hey,” he said, gently grabbing her chin with his fingers. She looked up at him, searching his features. “Don’t give up hope. Miracles happen daily, but during this holiest of seasons, they happen hourly. Have faith,” he lied. He knew God wasn’t listening, but he wouldn’t tell Anna that. Maybe she had a direct line to the man upstairs that he didn’t. Because he sure as hell knew God hadn’t listened to his prayers when he’d begged him to spare his nephew’s life.

It seemed appropriate that the skies had turned gloomy as Luke and I headed down the turnpike toward Missouri. Luke had been true to his word and returned within twenty minutes with a bag packed and a different vehicle: a silver SUV he used when he wasn’t working.

I’d thrown whatever I came across that looked clean into my suitcase, then used my arm to literally clear my sink of what I needed in a single swipe. I wasn’t entirely sure anything I’d packed matched, or that it was winter clothing. I might have a suitcase full of shorts and T-shirts.

I clutched my phone in a firm grip as we crept along safely through the snow, my knuckles turning white as I willed the damn thing to ring, praying Darryl would call me with good news.

Peeking a glance at Luke as he navigated the Christmas Eve traffic, my eyes dropped to his mouth. I hadn’t had time to process the kiss we’d exchanged. Hadn’t had time to process the fact that he’d kissed me at all, or admitted he’d been an asshole because he’d thought I was involved with my brother. That made me smile. Gregg would get a kick out of the fact he had kept a man from asking me out because he thought we were a couple rather than siblings.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Luke asked.

My eyes darted to his. “What?”

“You were smiling.”

Oh, dear Lord. I wasn’t about to admit I’d been thinking about him kissing me.

“I was thinking about Gregg.”

“I take it you’re close?” he asked, looking at me briefly before turning back to the road with sharp eyes. The closer we got to Missouri, the worse the conditions became, so Luke didn’t take his eyes off the road for long.

Answering him gave me an excuse to study his face, which had the added benefit of taking my mind off the fact that Darryl hadn’t called back.

“As close as any full-blooded siblings. We were born one day apart to drug addicted mothers at the same hospital. Gregg and I had the same caseworker, who, thankfully for us, had been working with the Stubbs to get them approved as foster parents. They’d never had children of their own and decided that fostering might fill that void.”

“They gave two drug addicted newborns to people with no experience with children?”

“Yes. Most people don’t want to take on babies who are born addicted to drugs. But the Stubbs weren’t most people. They were super parents from the moment they held us until the day they left this earth.”

I caught his lips twitching slightly before he mumbled, “Super parents?”

“Beaver Cleaver parents. Dad had retired after a long career as an attorney, so they devoted all their time to Gregg and me. Mom made sure we had dinner together every night. They never missed a school function. Both sat on the board of the PTA every year, and they took us on vacations every break so we were well traveled. So you see, super parents.”

“Sounds like,” he mumbled.

“What about your family?” I asked.

His body stiffened at the question, then he looked down at the gauges on the dash and mumbled, “We need gas.”

I could take a hint as well as the next person. He wasn’t willing to talk about his family, yet, so I let it go.

“So, you’re a heat and air guy?” If his family was off limits, I could wait. But I needed to know more about him, since his tongue had been in my mouth, after all.

“I’m a general contractor. I was covering for a friend who owns Green Country Heat and Air.”

“So, you oversee construction?”

“Yep.”

“Commercial or residential?”

“Residential,” he answered, then looked at me. “What about you?”

“I just finished my master’s degree in occupational therapy, but I haven’t found a job yet.”

His eyes slid to mine for a moment, then back to the road. “Are you looking for work here or out of state?”

There was something in the way he held himself. As if he was holding his breath as he waited for my answer.

“Here. I’ve always wanted to work at the Little Lighthouse.”

His posture relaxed as suddenly as it had stiffened. “The non-profit school for mentally and physically disabled children?”

“Yeah.”

Luke turned his head and looked at me for a long moment, then turned his eyes back to the road.

“What?” I asked.

“Just wondering when you’re gonna sprout wings.”

I blinked. “Pardon?”

He glanced my way again, scanning me from head to toe. “Angels have wings, and I’m pretty fucking sure you are one.”