Her Perfect Stranger

'Hello,' said the man who he assumed was Corrine's father. He thrust out his hand. 'Donald Atkinson.'

'Dr. Donald Atkinson,' Corrine corrected. 'My father.' She gestured to the petite, dark-haired woman next to her, who was watching Mike closely, brimming with curiosity. 'And this is my mother. Dr. Louisa Atkinson.' She smiled sweetly. 'And now you can go.'

This was going to require finesse. 'We need to talk, Corrine.'

'Actually, Mike, we don't.'

'I know you're mad at me, but-'

'Not here. I'm…busy. Really busy.'

'Why do you keep running?'

'Running?' She nearly gaped, then seemed to remember their audience and slammed her mouth shut. 'I never run. Now go away, Mike.'

'Of course he can't go away, darling,' her mother said, stepping forward and reaching out a hand to Mike. 'He hasn't even come inside yet.'

He took her hand immediately, expecting a handshake, but found himself pulled into her warm arms for a welcoming hug. 'Well,' he said, at an utter loss. Held tight in her embrace, he finally settled for patting her back uncertainly. 'Uh…nice to meet you, Dr. Atkinson.'

'Oh, just Louisa.'

'Mom.' Corrine didn't look like a commander at the moment, nor the lover who'd rocked his world; she looked like a peeved daughter. 'He doesn't belong here.'

Louisa shot her daughter a long look. 'I raised you better than that.' She smiled at Mike. 'We don't stand on formality here. Come in.' She slipped an arm through his and led him toward the front door. 'So you work with my daughter? All the things you people are doing up there in space, it just blows my mind. Did you get the solar panels to work properly? And what about that complicated computer communications system? What a shame, the troubles, this close to launch. Well, let's not think about that now, hmm? Donald, honey, get the door, will you? And Corrine, put on a pot of water, please. Now, Mike.' She squeezed his hand. 'Tell me all about yourself. Where are you from? I find that all of you astronauts have such fascinating backgrounds. Corrine's included,' she said with a delighted little laugh.

Somehow Mike found himself up the steps, through the front door and sitting in a charming, warm, open living room with a cup of hot tea in his hands.

Corrine paced the length of the room, pausing every five seconds or so to give him a glare that he would have sworn amused her mother all the more.

It should have been awkward, showing up here unannounced and uninvited, but it felt right. And as he opened up for the first time in a long time, he decided Corrine was just going to have to get used to it.

'Oh my goodness,' Louisa said, shaking her head after he'd told her a little about himself. 'All those years in Russia. What a wonderful experience! I went there for a conference, several years ago now, and I found it to be one of the most beautiful yet haunting places on earth. How lucky you are, to receive that heritage from your mother.'

And just that simply, Mike fell in love. He couldn't help it; he had no defenses against a mother, any mother. His had been gone for so long, and his world had always been lacking in any maternal presence or influence whatsoever. But Louisa crossed all barriers and entered his heart.

He looked up and caught Corrine's eye. She'd gone still, and now she was looking at him with something new, something he couldn't place. 'What?' he asked softly, but she only shook her head.

And yet her irritation at having him there seemed to diminish. When her parents left the room, ostensibly for cookies, Mike knew it was to give them some privacy.

'You like them,' Corrine said with a sigh. 'I couldn't have imagined you here, holding a teacup, making nice. But here you are.'

'I couldn't have imagined you here, either. But here you are.'

'And here we are.'

'Yeah.' He reached out and touched her hand, wanting, needing, yearning for so much it hurt, and yet he didn't have the words. 'What now, Corrine?'

'That depends.'

'On?'

'On why you're here. Why are you really here, Mike?'

He opened his mouth, but as he didn't have a clear answer for that, or at least one he understood enough to explain, he closed it again.

Looking oddly deflated, she pulled back.

'What did you want me to say?' he asked in turn.

'That's just it,' she whispered with a heartbreaking sigh. 'I don't know, either.'

12

No doubt about it, Mike's presence in her family home scared Corrine, really scared her.

He looked good here, comfortable. Confused, she took a walk. Unsatisfied, she ended up in her parents' garden, where she found her father showing off his prize roses to Mike.

Both of them were hunkered down in the dirt, their backs to her, admiring the growth of a flower.

It was a contradiction in terms, these so very masculine men surrounded by such sweet, feminine beauty, and yet that was one of the things she loved so much about her dad.

He didn't fit into a type. She stood there, rooted by a sudden realization.

That was why she liked Mike as well.

Oh, God, it was true. He was an astronaut, which meant by definition he should have been cocky, arrogant and in possession of a certain recklessness. A wild adventurer.

He was those things, but he was also so much more. And watching as he reached out now and touched the tip of a blooming rose with such joy, with his entire face lit up, made her heart tighten.

The reason for being one half of a couple had always escaped Corrine, mostly because she'd never wanted to be half of anything. She'd certainly never wanted anyone able to veto her decisions, or God forbid, make them for her.

And yet her parents were a couple, a solid one, and for years they'd managed to work things out with an ease that Corrine always admired but never understood. They were both well-educated overachievers, stubborn as hell, and single-minded, so really, their success was one big mystery.

A mystery Corrine suddenly, urgently needed to solve.

She waited until dinner time, when she found both her parents together in the kitchen. Her father was chopping vegetables. Her mother was standing over him, shaking her head. 'You're not cutting diagonally, dear. You need to-' 'I think I know how to cut a tomato, Louisa.' 'No, obviously you don't. You have to-'

'Louisa, honey? Either let me be or order takeout.'

'Take-out sounds wonderful.'

'Don't you dare,' Donald said, smiling when his teasing wife laughed at him.

'How do you do that?' Corrine asked, baffled by the mix of temper and affection. 'How do you fight over a tomato and still love each other?'

'Forty years of practice.' Her father grinned. 'You going to marry Mike and learn how?'

'No!'

Louisa sighed. 'Well, darn.'

'Mom, I didn't invite him here.'

'But he followed you.' Her mother sent her a dreamy look. 'He loves you, you know.'

'What?'

'He's head over heels. Ga-ga. Fallen off the cliff.'

Corrine felt the color drain from her face, but managed a perfectly good laugh. 'You've been dipping into the