Shelter In A Soldier's Arms

Maggie looked at him, her rosebud mouth parting. 'We can stay? Promise?'

His throat tightened. The sensation was unfamiliar. 'I'd like that.'

Ashley tucked a curl behind her daughter's ear. 'Maggie, I love you very much. I will always love you.'

'I know, Mommy. I love you, too.'

'I also love Jeff. And he loves us. I'm going to marry him.'

Jeff waited, his throat tight, his heart seemingly still. He and Ashley had discussed waiting to tell Maggie about the baby. She would need time to get used to her new family before having to adjust to having a younger sibling.

Maggie looked at him. 'Will you be my daddy when you and Mommy get married?'

Odd feelings crashed through him. He couldn't identify any of them so he didn't know what they meant. However, they made it tough to talk. He had to swallow a couple of times before he could get out the words.

'Would you like that?'

She threw herself at him. 'When we went to church on Easter I asked God to send me a new daddy, and he did!'

Her small arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Her weight settled on his body. He hugged her back. With a fierceness that surprised him, he vowed to himself he would always keep this precious child safe. If that wasn't love, it was the best he could do.

'So you're okay with this?' Ashley asked. 'You're happy that I'm marrying Jeff?'

'Daddy,' Maggie said, planting a sticky kiss on his cheek. 'You're marrying Daddy.'

Tears filled Ashley's eyes. She wrapped her arms around them both.

For the first time in many years, Jeff felt as if he was a part of something important and special. Daddy. The word felt both odd and right.

He shifted so he could reach his suit jacket, hanging behind him on the chair back. In the right outside pocket was a small box. He'd stopped to pick it up on his way home. Now he grabbed the box and held it out to Ashley.

Both females stared at the square of dark blue velvet.

'What is it?' Ashley asked.

'What do you think?'

She shrugged, then lightly touched the top of the box. 'Maybe an engagement ring?'

'Got it in one.'

He was suddenly nervous. Should he have waited and asked her if it was all right to buy her a ring? Should he have taken her shopping with him? He'd actually just stopped to look when he'd seen the elegant design and had known right away that it was perfect for her.

'Open it,' he told her.

She took the box and did as he requested. Both Ashley and Maggie gasped as she drew out an emerald-cut diamond on a platinum band. Smaller baguette-cut diamonds were set into the band. Light caught the larger gem and made it glow.

'It's gorgeous,' Ashley breathed.

'Do you really like it?'

She looked stunned for another second or two, then threw her arms around his neck and hugged him close. 'Jeff, it's so beautiful and way too expensive. You didn't have to do this for me.'

'I wanted to.'

'Thank you. You've made me very happy.'

Her scent, the feel of her body, the pressure of her mouth on his were all familiar. They filled him with a confidence that he'd never felt before. In that moment he knew he could take on the world and win.

* * *

'Oh, Jeff.'

Ashley snuggled against him in his bed. She curled herself around him, resting her head on his shoulder and gazing up at her engagement ring.

'I still think you spent way too much money.'

'I don't, and it's my money. At least until we get married.'

She turned and looked at him. 'No. It will always be your money. I want you to keep everything you made before the marriage separate. That way it's not community property.'

He frowned. 'Why would you want that?'

'Because I'm not marrying you for your money. I love you. But if I start asking for things or taking what's yours, you'll start to question me, and I don't want that. Everything has happened so fast. Your last experience with marriage wasn't exactly positive. I want this to be different. I want it to be forever. So I need you to trust me.'

He smoothed her hair off her face. 'I trust you with my life,' he said. Didn't she know that trusting or not trusting wasn't the problem?

'Good. Then keep everything you have now in your own name and it will never be an issue between us. Besides, in a couple of years I'm going to be the one making the big bucks, and then you'll be worried about me thinking you're in it for the money.'

She grinned and he couldn't help smiling in return. What twist of fate had brought this beautiful, giving woman into his life? How had he gotten so lucky as to have won her heart and that of her daughter?

'Speaking of my career, or the training thereof, I have finals in a couple of weeks.' She rested her hand on his chest and her chin on her hand. 'I have to really buckle down and study, so I was thinking we could get married after that. Or did you want to wait longer?'

'I will marry you whenever you say,' he told her. 'After finals works for me. What do you want to do?'

She wrinkled her nose. 'Something small is fine with me. Maybe just a couple of friends with a justice of the peace and then we all go out to dinner?'

'What about a honeymoon?'

She arched her eyebrows. 'What did you have in mind?'

'A couple of nights somewhere by ourselves. Maybe San Francisco. Then a week or so with Maggie.'

She sighed contently. 'This is why I want to marry you. You're such a great man, Jeff. Thoughtful and caring. It means a lot to me that you're willing to bring Maggie.'

'I wouldn't want to leave her behind.'

'I agree.' She hesitated, then ran her free hand through the hair on his chest. 'Do you think we did the right thing, not telling her about the baby? I mean, there's plenty of time. I won't really be showing until I'm well into my fourth month.'

'The wedding is enough for her right now.'

'Okay. That's what I thought, too.' She looked at him. 'What about your family? Do you want to tell them about us? You've never said very much about them. Are you seriously estranged?'

His family? He hadn't thought about them over the past few years. 'No one got angry and stalked out,' he said, 'if that's what you're asking. My visits made my folks uncomfortable so I stopped going.'

'Why?'

'For the same reason Nicole divorced me. I was different.'

'I bet they'd like to see you now,' she told him. 'It's been a long time and I'm sure they miss you. Maybe you could give them a second chance.'

He shrugged. He didn't have an opinion one way or the other.

'You're their son,' she persisted. 'You matter. They love you.'

'Do they?' he asked, because he wasn't sure. 'What does that mean? What do you feel when you say you love me? How can you be sure?'

She laughed and rolled onto her back. 'I'm sure because it's written in the stars. Because I hear the sound of the ocean when we're together, not to mention a choir of angels.'

'No. Seriously. What do you feel? How do you know?'

She sat up, leaning against the headboard and pulled the covers up over her bare breasts. Her humor faded and