Heart of a Hero by Sara Craven Read Free Book Online Page B

about everything under the sun didn’t mean Phoebe’s personality was any less pleasing. She just wasn’t loud and attention-grabbing, that was all. But he didn’t know how to say that in a way that made much sense, and he could almost feel the resistance in the air. She didn’t want to talk about Melanie, that much was clear.
    A pang of guilt shot through him, tempering the anger that still simmered. He was blaming Phoebe for not telling him about the baby…but he’d been responsible for her sister’s death. No wonder she hadn’t told him.
    The baby had grabbed a board book and was busily manhandling the sturdy pages. As he watched, she put it in her mouth.
    “Here, honey.” Phoebe extended a brightly colored set of rings and confiscated the book. “We don’t chew on books.”
    Wade looked at the frayed corners of the one she held. “Apparently, some of us do.”
    She smiled, and abruptly it felt right between them again. “I’m working on it,” she said wryly. Then she glanced at her watch. “It’ll soon be dinnertime. Would you like to stay and eat with us?”
    He raised one eyebrow.
    “Are you planning to stay here
tonight?”
    “That’s the plan.” He stood and folded his arms. “If you spend the weekend teaching me how to take care of Bridget, then I could keep her while you work.”
    “Don’t you have to work or something?” she asked in an exasperated tone.
    “Or something,” he agreed.
    “So you have to go back to California.” It wasn’t a question.
    “No. I’m pretty sure I’m retiring from the service.”
    She looked shocked. “But that’s what you’ve always wanted to do. To be. A soldier.”
    “I’m not physically able to perform on the battlefield to the army’s satisfaction anymore,” he said quietly. “And I’m not interested in a desk job staring at a computer monitor all day. So I’m taking early retirement.”
    “But what will you do?”
    He shrugged. “I’m checking out a number of options. One of them is with a freelance security firm out of Virginia. I’d be establishing a West Coast office.”
    “So you’d be going home?”
    He noted with satisfaction that she still referred to California as home. But all he did was nod. “That would be the plan.” He shrugged. “But now, everything has changed.” He looked down at his daughter, who had rolled onto her stomach and was making swimming motions as she tried valiantly to get to another toy just out of reach. “Everything.”

Four
    P hoebe still sat on the blanket at Wade’s feet and he reached down, putting his hands beneath her elbows and lifting her to her feet.
    Her eyes were fastened on his face; her hands fell to rest against his chest for a moment before she moved away. She cleared her throat. “I understand it’s going to take some time to get used to being a father,” she told him, indicating the baby playing at their feet. Her voice was huskier than normal.
    His body was having no trouble understanding that the woman he’d dreamed of for months—hell, years—was standing practically in his arms.
Themother of his child.
The anger he’d been hiding couldn’t be summoned. Instead, he found the thought surprisingly arousing. Here, right before them, was something they’d made together during those wild, impossibly wonderful moments they’d shared in the cabin.
    He exerted a little pressure until she stopped resisting and let him draw her forward. “It’s amazing that we created that.”
    She nodded, looking straight ahead at his throat rather than tilting her head back. “It’s a miracle.”
    He pressed a feather light kiss against her temple and felt her body shudder. “I’m still pissed at you. But thank you.”
    “I, ah—I don’t think—”
    “Don’t think,” he urged. “I won’t if you won’t.”
    He wanted to kiss her. He’d dreamed of it for so long that he could hardly believe this was real. Releasing her wrist, he put one finger beneath her chin and lifted her