Mistletoe Mommy

He was quiet for so long that even he didn’t think he would answer the question until he heard himself say, “Love. It sounds insane, doesn’t it? But I think I love her.”

Sara straightened. “Then what are you doing here?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re in love with a woman in Mistletoe, Georgia.”

“Yes.” Funny, but the more times he admitted it, the better he felt.

“Then either she needs to be here or you need to be there. Adam, no offense, but I’ve watched you squander love before. The kids’, before you finally wised up-this vacation was the smartest thing you’ve done in years-mine.” She held up a hand, fending him off. “I’m not blaming you for the divorce. We both could have done things differently. But people loved you.”

“And I took it for granted,” he said softly. After this past week he truly believed that he and the kids were on the right track again. But how much time had he lost?

He thought of Brenna and considered Sara’s deceptively simple question: What are you doing here? Did he want to lose any more time with someone he loved, or seize the day and be with her?

SINCE BRENNA HADN’T been sleeping well for the past week and a half, it seemed likely that the SUV sitting in her driveway was a hallucination born of exhaustion. She rubbed her eyes and looked again.

Still there.

By the time she’d parked behind it, she’d already seen the man sitting at the top step of her porch. Adam! She was completely flummoxed, her shock not fading in the slightest as she got out of the car and approached him with no clue what to say.

“What are you doing here?”

He leaned back on his elbows and grinned. “I get that a lot. You look good.”

Then he must be even more tired than she was. She’d overslept this morning and dressed without a shower, slapping a ball cap on her head and vowing to come home and clean up more when she was done with the visits that had to be taken care of early. She certainly hadn’t expected to find Adam sitting here when she returned.

“How long have you been waiting?” she asked.

“Since about seven-thirty. I brought two cups of coffee, hoping to catch you before you started your day. I wound up drinking them both,” he said sheepishly.

“B-but what if I hadn’t come home between morning and midday assignments? You weren’t really planning to sit on my porch all day?”

“Not all day.” He gave her a lopsided smile. “I have an appointment at three.”

She plopped down on the step next to him, partly because she didn’t think her legs would support her anymore. This was a lot to take in. “You came back.”

For her? What kind of appointment? Was he doing some sort of medical consulting here in Mistletoe?

“Had to. I forgot something.” He slid closer, turning her face to meet his gaze. “I forgot to mention that I’m in love with you.”

Her mind went blank. Completely and utterly void. She wasn’t even sure how long she stared back at him, stupefied.

Say something, Bren! A woman more comfortable with emotional declarations would probably say she loved him, too.

Brenna, on the other hand, told him he was crazy. “In love? But that’s nuts. I’m…You…What about your kids?”

“Actually, I think my improving relationship with them has made it easier to accept falling for you. As it turns out, loving someone just makes you more receptive to giving and accepting love from others. It makes you a better person.”

She blinked, hearing her own words coming back to her. “Your twelve-year-old has a big mouth.”

“And a big heart. She already loves you a little. And I love you a lot.” For a moment his smile slipped, vulnerability leaking into his expression. “But I should probably stop beating you over the head with declarations I’m not even sure you want to hear. You haven’t mentioned whether…”

Oh, God, hadn’t she said it yet? It was so ever present in her thoughts that she was surprised people couldn’t look at her and hear her thinking it.

“I love you, Adam. I can’t believe you came back for me!” When had she started crying?

He kissed her with slow thoroughness. She recalled how rushed they’d been with each other the night they’d made love, because they’d known they didn’t have long. Now his every unhurried caress spoke of a man who believed they had a future.

“I’ve thought about you, too,” she admitted, tilting into his touch as he wiped away a tear with his thumb. “I even entertained mad ideas about moving to Tennessee. But-”

“Lord, don’t do that. It would be pointless if you moved there and I got a job here. Very O. Henry.”

“You’re applying for a job here?” she said, certain she hadn’t heard him right.

He shrugged. “Why not? I care about what I do, but it doesn’t have to be in Tennessee. People in Mistletoe have hearts, too.”

She could attest to that. Hers was currently full to bursting.

“The medical center is attracting all kinds of new patients, and the local hospital is going to need to take on new doctors to keep up with the growing number of surgeries. I don’t think it will keep me as busy as my current position in Knoxville, but I want more time for me. For my kids.” He stared into her eyes. “For us. Our relationship would have to be long-distance for at least a few weeks, while I get everything settled, but the people I’ve talked to seem very interested in signing me on.”

She resisted the urge to succumb to the pure, shimmering happiness threatening to engulf her, afraid there must be some kind of catch. Not even Maggie and Fred and Josh opening their hearts to her had quite prepared her for someone loving her on a scale of this magnitude. “But how would the kids feel about it? You just said your relationship is improving, so-”

“I didn’t do this without giving it serious thought,” he vowed. “If that were the case, I would have been back the same night as the day I left. I talked to the kids, talked to Sara, and what we decided is this-when you love people enough, you make them part of your life. You make an effort in spite of geography. Conversely, when you’re not trying, not even living under the same roof is a guarantee of being close.

“The kids don’t live with me, anyway. I get them for special occasions and some weekends, which they voted unanimously that they’d be happy to spend here. Knoxville is not at the other end of the galaxy. I can-I will-get up there for birthdays and graduations and school plays.”

Just like that, the dam broke. The joy she hadn’t quite dared to feel rushed over her in a wave and she was more than happy to let the undertow drag her out over her head. I love you, I love you, I love you.

She stood. “I have more pet visits to do.”

He nodded, looking disappointed but trying to hide it. “I understand. Maybe-”

“But I need to shower first. You know-” she tapped her finger to her lips “-we never really got to have our date on the Fourth of July.”

He arched an eyebrow. “No, I guess not.”

She pushed open her front door, grinning over her shoulder. “Come on, Dr. Varner. I owe you some fireworks.”

Tanya Michaels

Tanya Michaels began telling stories almost as soon as she could talk…and started stealing her mom’s Harlequin romances less than a decade later. In 2003 Tanya was thrilled to have her first book, a romantic comedy, published by Harlequin Books. Since then, Tanya has sold nearly twenty books and is a two-time recipient of the Booksellers’ Best Award as well as a finalist for the Holt Medallion, National Readers’ Choice Award and Romance