Free For Love and Family by Victoria Pade Page A

into the hospital tomorrow at eleven for a follow-up visit. I had to promise him lunch at one of those kiddie places with arcade games and teenagers dressed up in bear costumes to serve bad pizza. Think you can handle it or would you rather beg off?”
    â€œAfter the grimy marshmallow? I can handle anything,” she assured him with a laugh as they reached the cabin and she opened the door.
    â€œThe pizza’s bad but I guarantee there won’t be any dirt on it.”
    â€œOkay, then,” she said with another laugh.
    She stepped inside the cabin, and since she assumed Hunter wouldn’t come in, she turned around to face him, finding him leaning against the doorjamb, and, as she had at the end of the previous evening, she once again had the sense that they were ending a date, even though she was well aware that they weren’t.
    â€œI enjoyed the night picnic,” she said as if they were anyway. “Dirty marshmallow and all.”
    Hunter’s topaz eyes were steady on her and he smiled a lazy smile. “I doubt it compared to what you’re used to.”
    â€œWhat I’m used to isn’t nearly as much fun,” she told him, wondering why her voice had suddenly taken on a quieter, softer tone.
    â€œI’ll bet it’s a whole lot more sophisticated when a four-year-old hasn’t arranged it, though.”
    â€œI wouldn’t have traded eating marshmallows off the ground for anything.”
    â€œYou’re a good sport,” he said in a way that made it one of the best compliments she’d ever received. Particularly because he said it as if it impressed him.
    â€œThanks,” she said.
    For another long moment they just stood there, his eyes holding hers, his expression unreadable.
    Then he smiled once more and pushed off the jamb.
    â€œI’ll let you get to that bubble bath.”
    Terese could hardly tell him that she would rather have stayed there with him, just gazing into the topaz brilliance of his eyes, so she merely said, “Your coat,” and began to slip it off.
    But Hunter was too much of a gentleman to let her do it alone and reached a long arm around her to help. A long arm that brushed her shoulder and set off tiny skitters of something bright and twinkling inside her.
    Something bright and twinkling enough that she couldn’t resist looking up at him again. At hishandsome face. Closer to hers now than it had been before since his arm was still a half circle around her.
    Close enough that he could easily have come another few inches and pressed his mouth to hers.
    Especially when her chin tipped upward on its own.
    And his tipped downward…
    But it was only for a split second before he pulled the coat the rest of the way off and straightened up, as if his own actions had surprised him.
    â€œBreakfast’ll be at eight again,” he informed her slightly tersely, then he turned to go back to the house as if nothing at all had passed between them.
    And maybe nothing had passed between them, Terese thought as she watched him go. Maybe she’d just imagined that brief moment and kissing hadn’t been on his mind the way it had been on hers.
    But she didn’t think she’d only imagined it.
    She hoped she hadn’t only imagined it.
    It just felt so good to think she hadn’t.

Four
    â€œN ow this is what I like to see!”
    Terese was walking down a corridor of Portland General Hospital the next day with Hunter and Johnny when an older woman and a man about Hunter’s age turned a corner in front of them. The moment the older woman caught sight of Johnny and his father, recognition dawned and her face lit up with a smile.
    â€œThis is definitely what I like to see—Mr. John Coltrane, looking healthy and happy and none-the-worse-for-wear after his adventure last week,” she clarified. Then, after rubbing the top of Johnny’s head, she raised her gaze and said, “Hello,