Read Online A Very Special Delivery by Linda Goodnight - Free Book Online

intense and pale and dangerously
close.
    “I came up under my own power, Ethan.”
    “But—” he started to argue. Molly placed a gloved hand on his
cheek.
    “Ethan, it’s my roof. You were trying to help me. And thanks to
you, neither of us is hurt.” She knew she should move away from him, but she
didn’t want to. She hadn’t felt safe in a long time, and Ethan’s secure embrace
was a haven of comfort and security.
    Her hood had come off in the slide and her hair fell across her
mouth. As tenderly as he touched Laney, Ethan brushed the lock back from her
face.
    Something more disturbing than a fall stirred inside Molly.
Tenderness was such an alluring quality in a man. Hadn’t she admired that
characteristic over and over again in his care of Laney? And now he was treating
her with the same tenderness.
    “I’m glad you’re okay.” His troubled blue eyes studied her as
if he wanted to memorize her face. His warm voice dropped to a murmur. “Very
glad.”
    In that instant Molly thought he might kiss her. As scary as
that was, and as long as it had been since she had entertained such a thought,
she wanted him to.
    He swallowed and tilted his head. From the frozen north a
slight wind pushed away the warmth of his breath, bringing with it a new sound.
Not a cracking, groaning tree. Not a bird. But a baby’s cry.
    Molly jerked away and was in danger of going into another
slide. Ethan clutched her shoulders. “Easy.”
    “Laney,” she said, almost desperately. Her pulse trembled in
her throat. She pressed a hand there to stop the impending anxiety. “We
shouldn’t have left her.”
    Ethan cocked his head to one side and listened. “She’s awake.
Better go see.”
    As though he hadn’t just leaped over her carefully built wall,
Ethan moved away to tend his baby.
    And as quickly as that, the sweet mood dissipated like the call
of the chickadee on the north wind.
    During their moments of shared fright, Molly had all but
forgotten the insurmountable barrier between them. Now all the reasons for her
to stay far away from Ethan Hunter came rushing back in the cry of a tiny baby.
    * * *
    By midmorning of the fifth day, the temperatures hovered
around freezing and Molly embraced a ray of hope along with this morning’s ray
of sunshine that the deep freeze would soon end.
    To her relief, after the near-accident and the more disquieting
near-kiss, she and her delivery man had returned to friendly banter and
cooperative living.
    Ethan had to be tired of the tiny, cramped camper, but he never
complained. Still, he and Laney were normally in the kitchen for the baby’s
early bottle by the time Molly awakened each morning. Coffee, boiled the
old-fashioned way in a pot from the camper, filled the kitchen with a rich
scent.
    This particular morning they were arguing.
    “According to the radio anything that thaws will refreeze
tonight,” Ethan said, bouncing Laney on one knee. “So if I’m to have any hope of
digging out the van, I need to get moving.”
    “Even if you succeed, the roads are still treacherous.” Molly
shoved her hair back, looping it over one ear. Considering she had had no dryer
or curlers for nearly a week, she must look a fright.
    “I have to try. Laney’s running short on formula.”
    “What if you can’t get the van out?” she asked.
    “I’ll walk to town.”
    “And leave us ladies out here alone?”
    She tried to tease, but the quiver in her voice gave her
away.
    Ethan’s jaw tightened. “I can’t carry a baby six miles in this
cold.”
    “I know.” Self-loathing dripped inside her as cold and sharp as
the icicles hanging outside the kitchen window. Why couldn’t she just get over
herself? “We’ll be fine.” She hoped. “But if you have to walk, how will you get
back out here? To get us, I mean.”
    “I’ll worry about that after I get to town. My truck is small
and might not make it, but Pastor Cliff has a four-wheel drive.” He arched his
eyebrows, teasing. “In a