Page 72 of Rescuing Mary

Annie leaped off Mary’s lap, almost sending her tumbling to the floor. Only Truck’s hand on her back kept Mary from falling.

“Yipee!” Annie yelled, jumping up and down. “IknewitIknewitIknewit!”

Mary smiled at the little girl’s enthusiasm.

“When can I meet him? I want to show him my Army man. Oh no, I left him at home! Rayne, I need to go home and get my Army man so I can show him to my brother!”

“You’ll have time to do that later,” Rayne said, grinning from ear to ear.

“A brother,” Annie said a little more sedately. “I’m so happy.” Then she burst into tears.

Rayne gathered her up in her arms and beamed at Mary.

“I have no idea how I could’ve forgotten that beautiful little girl,” Truck said into her ear. “But more importantly, I have no idea how I could’ve forgotten how it feels to have my mouth on yours. To feel you squirming in my lap like you were earlier.”

Mary knew she was blushing, but she had to be honest with him. “It hasn’t been like that between us before.”

Truck didn’t respond verbally, but instead raised one of his eyebrows in question.

“It’s…complicated,” Mary finished lamely.

Truck’s hand ran up and down her arm in a gentle caress. “It doesn’t feel complicated now.”

Mary shook her head. “No, it doesn’t.”

She would’ve said more, but just then a voice rang out above the boisterous celebration in the room.

“Mary?”

Mary turned toward the voice—and froze. Literally every muscle in her body clenched.

“What’s wrong?” Truck asked urgently, obviously having felt the tension in her limbs.

“Nothing, I’ll be right back.”

Mary awkwardly climbed off Truck’s lap and made her way toward the nurse standing in the doorway to the waiting room. “Hey, Donna. How are you?”

“I’m good. The question is, how are you?”

“Fine.” She gestured toward the room. “I’m here because my friend just had her baby. There were complications and she had a C-section, but the doctor just told us that she and her baby are fine.”

“Awesome,” Donna said. “You missed your appointment.”

Mary grimaced. She knew she had. She was supposed to come back and talk to her doctor about the reconstruction surgery. She had to make a decision on what to do, but she’d skipped the appointment because of everything happening with Truck. If she was honest with herself, she’d been glad to have an excuse to ditch it. She had no idea what to do and didn’t want to even think about it.

“What appointment?” a deep voice asked from behind her.

Mary pressed her lips together in annoyance and spun around to face Truck. “Nothing.”

“Doesn’t sound like nothing if you skipped an appointment with a doctor,” he said, frowning.

“I’ll call to reschedule,” Mary told Donna, then turned her back on her and grabbed Truck by the arm and towed him away from the other woman. The last thing she wanted was Donna blurting out what the appointment was for, or anything else about her cancer. She hadn’t gotten up the courage to tell Truck about that yet, and she didn’t want him learning about it now.

“Mary, talk to me,” Truck said as he allowed her to move him away from the doorway and off to the side of the room.

“It’s not important.”

“Everything about you is important,” Truck said in an intense voice, leaning closer to her.