When Love Is True. Joan Kilby
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entire ceremony, including the part where the minister had asked if there was any reason why Chloe and Daniel shouldn’t be joined together. The impulse to speak had been there, but only fleetingly. Evan had told her before he’d left for Sudan that he’d be back when his stint was up—and probably that would have been true. But they’d known each other a mere six weeks and he was only twenty-eight; he had a whole world to explore before he settled down.
“I’ll regret that for the rest of my life.” He cupped her chin with his long fingers and lifted it so he could search her eyes. “Is the baby mine?”
“I’m not sure,” she said, her gaze sliding sideways.
A surge of irrational anger ran through him. “You got over me awfully quickly.”
“I wrote to you twice,” she shot back. “You didn’t answer.”
“It’s not a sedate suburban clinic over there,” he said tersely. “People are dying by the thousands.”
They continued to dance in silence for a few minutes, tense at first but then gradually she relaxed and let him draw her closer. “Is hubby taking you on a honeymoon to some romantic destination?”
“We’re not going anywhere,” she told him. “Daniel has to work.”
Evan raised their joined hands to brush his lips across her knuckles. “My return flight isn’t until the end of the week. While hubby’s away, Chloe could play.”
Her gaze locked with his and heat rose between them. For two cents he’d drag her out of this hall and say to hell with her husband, to hell with Sudan.
“I’m married,” she whispered. “Daniel’s a good man. I can’t betray him.”
Evan felt a sharp stab of pain over what he’d lost. He almost felt as if he’d been betrayed. He’d been careless with women’s feelings before, but no one had ever mattered to him the way Chloe did. Until this moment he hadn’t even realized how strong his feelings were for her. “Paul Bunyan over there might be your lawful husband,” he said, “but you’ll always belong to me.”
“Oh, Evan, this is such a mess.” She sighed. “I love you, but I can’t…” Her voice trailed off.
“You could if you wanted to.” At that, her mouth pressed into a thin, stubborn line, and Evan knew he wasn’t going to get his own way tonight. To his dismay, his voice shook as he asked, “Before I go may I kiss the bride?”
She nodded and he lowered his mouth to hers in a brief kiss that was achingly sweet and salted by tears. Evan cradled Chloe in his arms, lost in emotion and not knowing how he’d gotten that way.
A large hand grasped his arm, pulling Evan back. Damn, it was the glowering lumberjack. Evan cast a last glance at Chloe, and then released her. “She’s all yours, mate,” he said roughly to Daniel. “For now.”
Chapter 2
Bubbles streamed from the mouthpiece of Daniel’s regulator and cold water seeped into his wet suit. After an awkward duck dive he hauled himself hand over hand down the rocky underwater slope. Evan descended in an effortless glide, with an occasional casual flip of his fins. The bastard made it look so easy.
The sound of his own rasping breath and thudding heart filled Daniel’s silent world. Then, as he went deeper and the pressure increased, he gained speed. Starfish and anemones slid past, barely noticed. Twenty feet, thirty feet…With too many weights on his belt, he was going too fast. He banged his knee on a rocky outcropping. The underwater flashlight strapped to his calf clanked against rocks.
Daniel fumbled for the hose of his buoyancy compensator and spurted compressed air into the vest, slowing his descent. Relief flooded his veins and he realized he was sweating despite the cold.
At the base of the slope, hovering in a cloud of sediment that rose up from the soft ocean floor, Evan waited patiently, his upturned face pale inside his mask. Anger surged through Daniel at the thought he’d allowed himself to be goaded into this expedition; had allowed this man access to his family. Daniel should be pummeling the brilliant Dr. Cutler, not trying to prove he was the man’s equal.
At the bottom Daniel was still breathing heavily, and he consciously tried to slow his oxygen intake. Eyebrows raised, Evan put his thumb and forefinger together in the universal sign, waiting for Daniel’s answer to the question of whether everything was okay.
Everything was not okay. His wife was in love with this man and she was probably, right this minute, planning to go away with him. Daniel formed his fingers into a circle in response. Okay.
Inside, he seethed.
Chloe unbuttoned her blouse and pushed aside her nursing bra. Six-month-old Brianna latched eagerly on to the exposed nipple and started to suck. Her sturdy little legs in their pink sleeper pushed against the arm of the chair and a tiny hand clutched at Chloe’s breast.
Outside, cold November rain was falling for the fifth day in a row, making Chloe feel like a prisoner in her own home. The rental house was small and shabby, the living room dim even in midafternoon. It was all so dreary!
Chloe stroked her daughter’s downy cheek and peace settled over her, wrapping the two of them in a cocoon. Now and then Brianna stopped sucking, making small gusty sighs that caused Chloe to smile. Any hardship, any sorrow, was endurable for Brianna’s sake but, oh, she missed the modern light-filled apartment overlooking the water that she’d lived in before she was married.
She’d just switched the baby to her other breast when she heard Daniel’s truck pull into the gravel driveway at the side of the house. The back door opened and his boots clunked heavily on the rubber mat just inside.
Daniel padded through the living room on his way to the bedroom. Noticing Chloe, he stopped. “Why are you sitting in the dark?” he asked, flipping on the lamp.
Chloe blinked against the light. “You’re home early.”
“Can’t work in this rain.” Beads of water glistened in his black hair, which was messy from being pushed out of his eyes. “We’re raising the roof trusses and it’s too dangerous, even with scaffolding.”
He bent to kiss the top of her head. Chloe glanced up and saw his gaze on her bare breast, and she tried, without appearing obvious, to cover herself.
Daniel pretended not to notice and gently touched the back of Brianna’s hand with a fingertip. The baby stopped sucking to smile at him. “Do you want some tea?” he asked Chloe, keeping his eyes averted.
“Yes, please,” she responded, feeling contrite and resentful at the same time. His love made her feel guilty, because she didn’t reciprocate it. They’d both known what they were getting into when they’d decided to marry, but somehow the reality had turned out to be different from the theory.
Daniel put on the kettle, then took Brianna away to change her diaper. Chloe pulled her clothing back together and went out to the kitchen to finish making the tea. As she rinsed out the teapot in the chipped enamel sink, she felt the floorboard sag beneath her feet and looked down to see water seeping between the worn green linoleum and the baseboard.
“Daniel,” she called. “We’ve got a problem!”
He appeared in the doorway with Brianna in his arms and watched Chloe bounce up and down on the soggy boards. “This place is a piece of crap,” he said, disgusted. “We can’t have Brianna crawling around in here.”
“This wouldn’t be happening, if we’d stayed in my apartment,” Chloe couldn’t help but say.
“We couldn’t afford your apartment—as I explained when we went over our budget,” Daniel replied patiently. “Here, we’ll have a backyard for Brianna to play in next summer.”
Chloe sighed as she dropped tea bags into the pot and poured boiling water over top. She supposed Daniel was right, but