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Tess touched the girl's shoulder. "You can laugh," she said softly.
Katie looked up. In the meager light, her brown eyes appeared huge in the small, pale oval of her face. "Can I try it?" There was a quaver in her voice that tugged at Tess's heart.
"Of course. You go on down there, and I'll send one your way."
Katie hurried toward her sister and turned around, hands outstretched.
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Tess lobbed a slow, easy one. The biscuit rolled through the air and landed in Katie's tiny hands.
"I got it, Savannah! I got it!"
Tess was so caught up in watching the girls, she didn't hear Jack come up beside her. "What are you doing?"
She jumped in surprise. Whirling around, she found herself almost in his arms. There was a flicker of surprise in his eyes, but the emotion lasted for less than a heartbeat. His gaze narrowed, pinned her in place.
"Answer me, damn it."
His nearness sent strange sensations tingling through her body. Her throat felt thick and tight. For a second, she couldn't breathe.
Moonlight spilled through the branches and illuminated their faces. They stood motionlessly, close enough to touch but careful not to.
She tilted her face up and met his troubled gaze.
He's afraid, she realized suddenly and without question. Tess had learned long ago to trust her instincts about people. She was rarely wrong. For some reason, Jack was afraid of his wife, and his sarcastic anger was just a cover, a way to keep his precious distance. She'd bet her last dollar on it.
"Jack." she whispered his name in quiet wonder.
He didn't move, just stood there, staring down at her through those narrowed, unreadable eyes. Their faces were close, no more than a hand's span apart. She could smell the masculine wool and leather and woodsmoke perfume of his clothing, feel the whisper-soft threads of his breath against her lips.
"What are you doing?" he asked quietly.
Tess swallowed thickly. After years of deafness, she knew what it meant to listen. In his voice she heard things a non-hearing-impaired person would never notice. Fear,
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exhaustion, despair. And something else, something that took her heart and twisted it in half. Loneliness.
In that moment, she knew
. She could be a part of this family. Tonight when she'd picked flowers with the children, and taken their hands at prayer-time, Tess had felt ... as if she belonged.
This was the second chance Carol had given her. It wasn't just about another body in another time. It was about finding the kind of emotion she'd only dreamed about, about exploring a side of herself she'd never known existed.
And it was even more than that. This chance belonged to all of them. Together they could help one another, heal one another.
The realization freed her, gave her a sense of daring and Tightness she'd never known before. Made her feel ... brave. As if she could take on the world?or one very frightened, very lonely man.
Tess blinked up at him, knowing her eyes were filled with all the pent-up hopes and dreams of a woman who'd lived alone too long. Knowing that the emotion in her eyes would scare the hell out of him, but unable to shield her gaze. She'd never been good at pretending not to care.
He backed away from her suddenly, his hands raised in the air, his head shaking slowly in denial. "I won't let you hurt those kids any more than we already have." She reached for him. "Jack ..." He jerked away, stumbling backward in his haste to escape her touch. "I mean it," he said quietly. "Don't hurt them."
Tess watched him go. With every step he took, she felt an aching sadness creep through her chest.
She realized then the risk she was taking. If she let herself fall in love with this family, with Jack, nothing would
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