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“So what do you think, Ty? Would that make PT day a better day for you?” Kara asked.
He nodded hard. “I still don’t like it, but... I can’t believe I’m gonna get to ride a real pony! I can hardly wait!”
Jim looked at Kara. She was blinking back tears. He thought the Almighty must have performed a miracle to put this woman into his path. Every doubt he had about whether he was doing the right thing for his son was obliterated tonight. She was the one. She was almost too good to be true.
My God, he was going to do this thing. He was going to marry this woman.
“It’s settled then,” Kara said. She focused on Jim. “What time should I tell her to expect us?”
“Around noon.” His voice came out hoarse.
“Perfect. I’ll call her back and let her know.” She ducked out of the bedroom quickly, probably because those tears in her eyes were getting near to flood stage.
Jim watched her go, then turned to his son. “Think you’ll be able to sleep now, Ty?”
“Uh-huh. I’m gonna dream about my pony.”
“That’s my boy. Night, Ty.”
“Night, Dad.” He hugged his father’s neck, kissed his cheek and then sank into the pillows. Jim tucked him in nice and snug, ran a hand through his hair, kissed his forehead.
Then he got to his feet and returned to the dining room, where Kara was wiping off the spotless table as if she hadn’t just performed a full-blown miracle. He went to her, put his hands on her shoulders. She straightened and turned to face him.
For a long moment he just searched her face, her still-damp eyes.
“I hope I didn’t overstep,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to interfere, I just—”
He pressed a finger to her lips. “You’re an angel,” he said. “I don’t even know how to begin to thank you.”
“There’s no need.”
“No need? You just did the impossible, Kara.”
“It was nothing.”
“It was everything.”
She shrugged and lowered her eyes. He touched her chin, drew her gaze back to his again and lowered his head until his lips met hers, captured and held them. She didn’t pull away. Instead she twined her arms around his neck and held on, and he deepened the kiss—but he was careful. Not too much, too soon, he warned himself.
When he lifted his head away, her eyes were glistening again. She whispered, “If that was just gratitude, Jimmy, I—”
He silenced her doubts by kissing her again. And this time his body got involved, first when his hands moved to her hips to urge her gently closer and then his arms when they tightened to keep her pressed snug against him. He was aroused and he considered that a bonus. This was going to work. This insane plot of his was actually going to work. He was going tomakeit work. When he moved his hips, she arched against him, and when he slid his mouth over her jaw and down to her neck, the frantic pulse there told him she was as turned on as he was.
But then her hands flattened to his chest and she pushed gently, blinking up at him with eyes that were slightly glazed. He could see passion and confusion and fear all roiling there in those green depths. And she whispered, “I don’t... this is happening too fast for me.”
He nodded and drew a deep, calming breath. “It’s hitting me like a ton of bricks, too,” he told her. And it was—the very fact that his plan seemed to be falling into place without a hitch. That he’d not only found the perfect mother for his son, but that marrying her wasn’t even going to be the sacrifice he’d expected it to be—that he honest to God liked this woman. And evenwantedthis woman. And she wanted him, too. It was too good to be true.
God, don’t let it be too good to be true.
“I don’t know where this is going, Jimmy.”
“Where do you want it to go?” he asked her.
She closed her eyes. “It’s too soon. I can’t—”
“Don’t tell me you don’t believe in love at first sight.” He smiled a little. “Okay, first sight in way too many years.”
Her eyes opened wider. “L-love? Youcan’t... you don’t even—”
