Free The Christmas Baby Bump by Lynne Marshall Page B

having the time of his life, laughing, throwing, and running all over the place. Looked like kid’s heaven to her. And Phil played the role of a benevolent uncle wanting nothing more than to make the kid happy.
    Happy.
    That was a word that had slipped from her vocabulary these past three years. As she peeled the potatoes, sliced and dropped them into a bowl of cold water, she pondered how inviting the old and nearly forgotten feeling was. Her lips stretched into a broad smile that reached like a warm glove into her chest and squeezed her heart. Welcome back to the living. Happy felt great.
    It hit her before the next breath. She’d admitted being happy and she was in the company of a little boy. Wow. Maybe things were finally breaking through that guilt logjam.
    Robbie was a sweet kid. Justin was a memory she’d always hold deep in her heart and never forget, but Robbie wasn’t Justin. She wasn’t Robbie’s mother. She wasn’t responsible for him. Why be afraid of him? Did she want to spend the rest of her life cowering around all children, or was it finally time to face her fear?
    She wiped her hands on the dish towel and walked toward the French doors. As she opened them and walked onto the patio, she swallowed and took a steadying breath. “Um…” Her gaze darted around the yard as she picked at her nails.
    Phil quit jogging and gave her an odd look. “Is everything okay?”
    Her hand flew to her hair. “Yeah. Um…I was just wondering…”
    He took a few steps toward her, a concerned expression clouding his good looks. At the moment, passing the medical boards seemed easier than what she wanted to say. Another deep breath.
    “Do you have room for one more in that game?”
    By the time the potatoes had boiled, Phil had followed Stephanie back to the kitchen. Robbie looked sufficiently pooped out and sat in front of a children’s DVD in his little corner of the family room. On a separate large-screen TV the annual Thanksgiving Texas football game was going on.
    “I’d better put the yams in the oven,” Phil said. “I got this dish from my caterer.”
    She glanced over her shoulder at the gorgeous-looking casserole complete with pecans on top. Phil opened a top oven, slid the dish inside then checked on the turkey in the lower oven, basting it as if he’d done this before.
    “You’re making my mouth water,” she said, savoring the smell. She’d worked up quite an appetite running around with Robbie and Phil. And it hadn’t wiped her out emotionally either. If anything, it had invigorated her.
    “It’ll be done in another half hour. In the meantime, I’m having a beer. Can I get you anything?”
    Could she even remember the last time she’d had a glass of wine? “I’ll try that wine I brought.”
    “You’re on.”
    By the time they’d set the table, made the gravy, and laid out all the food, the few sips of wine she’d managed to find time to take had already gone to her head. The pleasant buzz filtered throughout her body, heating her insides and causing her to smile. A lot. How could a few sips of wine make her feel that giddy? Maybe this great feeling had a lot more to do with Phil, Robbie, and Thanksgiving than the liquid spirits. She took another sip, loving the way the simply laid-out table looked, and before he signaled for her to sit, she grabbed her purse.
    “Wait,” she said. “I want to take a picture of this. It’s so beautiful.” She dug out her cell phone and snapped first a picture of the turkey in the center of the table, then had Robbie and Phil pose for one, heads close to the bird. Then she snapped one of herself at arm’s length with the two of them beside her and the turkey in the background. In her opinion, all three were keepers, even if the third one, taken at such close range, looked as if they all had oversize noses and heads.
    Things had been so busy all afternoon she hadn’t allowed herself to examine Phil’s proximity to her until now as they studied her