Free All That Matters by Loralee Lillibridge Page B

hot tears blurring her vision. Some day , she’d make it up to him.   Prove to him just how grateful she was.
    “Just look out there, Buddy Lee.” She pointed to the view from the patio door. “Aren’t those colors gorgeous?”
    “Yeah, they are, but we’ve got sunsets back home,” he said as he carried their dinner tray out to the glass-topped table on the tiny patio. “Are you sure you’re feeling up to sitting out here?”
    “Absolutely,” she assured him, hurrying to follow. “The fresh air will be good for me.” Ignoring the slight tilt of her stomach when she moved too quickly was easier than ignoring the note of resignation in Buddy Lee’s voice. She took a deep breath and eased into the nearest chair.
    He set a bowl of steaming tortilla soup in front of her and tucked a bright yellow linen napkin across her lap. “No sense messing up that fancy thing you’re wearing,” he mumbled.
    The robe she wore matched her blue sheer nightie but even though it was calf-length, she knew it didn’t do much to protect her from his intense scrutiny. She wasn’t sure what she’d been thinking when she’d purchased it. Had she still been pretending about having a real-life honeymoon? And had it really only been a few hours since she’d dashed through the mall to buy clothes for her temporary escape to Mexico?
    Reflecting on her actions made her wonder if she was mature enough to be a parent. Sometimes she felt like a child who’d never grown up. Did Buddy Lee see her that way? Probably. He’s certainly seen me at my worst, hasn’t he? she thought, remembering how he never even flinched when he’d held her head through that awful episode in the bathroom.. Maybe he was more qualified to be a parent than she was.
    “Something wrong?”
    He looked up from his soup, careful to place his spoon on the plate and not on the tablecloth.
    “This stuff’s got quite a South-of-the-Border kick. Is it too spicy for your stomach?” he asked. “I should’ve remembered where we are and requested something milder, like chicken noodle.”
    “I’ll be fine. And thank you for thinking to order room service. I love sitting out here, looking at the beautiful view.” She leaned back in her chair. “Isn’t it magical? Like a fairy tale.”
    He couldn’t stop the way his heart softened when she talked like that. When they were younger, there’d been a part of her that longed for a magic carpet ride to paradise. She’d hated the restrictive, small-town lifestyle and her parents’ rigid expectations. How he wished he could be her Aladdin with a fancy flying rug to take her away.
    He never quite understood her discontent, since a stable family life was all he’d ever wanted. Still, he’d always admired her determination to champion those less fortunate. It was just one of her endearing traits.
    “You really like it here, don’t you?” He watched her face light up like the neon time-and-temperature sign in front of her daddy’s bank.
    “I do. It’s so beautiful here. I wish we could stay longer.”
    The wistful yearning in her voice hit him like a fist, and it took all the self-restraint he could muster to keep from whisking her back to that big ol’ waterbed in yonder to love her thoroughly and completely until she loved him back. Walker, you are one messed up man.
    “We have to go back on Monday,” he reminded her, though staying here with her was enough to tempt a saint—which he wasn’t. “And first thing we’re gonna do is make an appointment for you with a doctor. I want to take care of you and the baby, Faith, and I aim to do it right.”
    She smiled that soft smile again. “We’ll have to find someone in Granite City who doesn’t know me, or else everyone will find out the baby’s real due date. I’ll go into the city when we get back, I promise.”
    Granite City was almost as large as Austin, so finding a competent doctor should be easy. There were plenty of shopping malls, too. “We’ll have