“I don’t believe it,” Caleb repeated for the third time since she’d stepped into his office and handed over the file on Joshua Fox.
Miranda battled her misgivings and wondered if she should have told him that day. Maybe she should have waited until tomorrow.
“Everything about him matches up with the information I received from your brother.”
“No, I have no doubt that this is my great-uncle. It’s just that I’ve had a hell of a day.”
Instantly out of her seat, Miranda walked over and stood behind Caleb. She pulled back the neck of his shirt, and with her hands above the shirt line, positioned her thumbs. Starting at the bottom of his neck and gliding up gently, she applied a bit of pressure with both thumbs. Next, she slowly massaged her hands up and down his spine.
“That feels like heaven. Don’t stop.”
“I won’t if you tell me what happened.”
“We had a gunshot wound come into the emergency room this morning.”
“A police officer?” she asked, surprised.
“No, teenager.” Caleb closed his eyes. Just when he thought he’d grown halfway removed from the day-to-day medical cases, life threw him a curveball. “Accidentally shot in the leg by a seventeen-year-old friend playing with his father’s handgun.”
“Did he make it?”
Caleb had taken him straight into the operating room and worked alongside one of the surgeons. “He’ll live, but there’s a chance that we’ll have to amputate his leg. Christ, Miranda. The boy’s mother said he was an All-star baseball player and had a chance at an athletic scholarship.”
“It’s not your fault, Caleb. You can’t save the world.”
“Doesn’t keep me from trying, does it?” he asked rhetorically. The combination of Miranda’s scent, melodic voice and massage drained the tension out of his body.
“I know and that’s what makes you who you are. And I am proud of you for it.”
He reached up and covered her hand with his own. “Thank you, baby.”
“So what happens now?” she asked.
Caleb frowned and then remembered the information about his great-uncle. “I have to tell Marius. This is his baby. I need to let him decide what to do.”
“And if he makes the decision to let it be?”
Caleb shrugged. To keep secrets from his family went against everything he believed in. But this was bigger than his conscience. “Then my grandfather will live the rest of his days without knowing what became of his older brother.”
She came around in front of him and Caleb reached up and pulled her down into his lap, and swooped down for a kiss that sent the blood flowing to his heart and south to his lower body as well. He wrapped his arms around her. “I don’t know what I would do without you, Miranda.”
“Look, Caleb. There’s something I have to tell you.”
He shook his head and kissed her again. He knew she was going to talk about leaving and he didn’t want to hear it. Not right then.
“Sweetheart, whatever it is, why don’t you tell me tonight after the movie?”
“The movie?”
“It’s pizza night.”
She blinked. “I forgot.”
“I might be a little late. I’m going to drop by Marius’s on the way over and give him the news.”
She nodded slowly, and then leaned in to kiss him tenderly on the lips.
“I’ll see you tonight.”
He watched her backside as she exited the doorway and made a mental note. That evening he’d be making two stops. The first to deliver the file to his brother and the second would be to pick an engagement ring.
“I still wonder how Dad could give up his new toy for Africa,” Miranda whispered in his ear.
Caleb looked away from the fifty-six-inch wall-mounted high-definition television and toward Miranda. He pulled her closer, and then released an extravagant sigh. “What men do for love.”
“What women do for the men that they love,” she countered.
“I would sacrifice.”
“Sacrifice?”
“Being a doctor has taught me more about life than all the years of school. Before you came back into my life I only had two reasons to make any kind of sacrifice—work and family.”
“And now?” Miranda whispered.
“I have three, you, my family and Kelly.”
Her eyes dropped from his face and she leaned in close to rest her head against his chest. “I don’t know what to say.”
He rested his chin atop her head. “You don’t have to say anything. I’m not the same man who needed constant reassurance and reaffirmation. I’m a man who loves you, Miranda Tyler. I’m a man who wants to protect and cherish you and your daughter for the rest of our lives. And I know that right now you’re not ready to accept that yet. But I’m willing to wait.”
Miranda pulled away and searched his face. Just as she was about to speak, the doorbell rang. Her brow creased. “Darren must have forgotten his keys.”
Caleb shook his head as he tensed. “That’s not Darren.”
“How do you know?”
“I know.”
“Is there something you want to tell me about?” Miranda’s chin notched upward.
“Look, your brother’s not coming home tonight.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened. “But he’s got a broken leg.”
Caleb glanced over to the love seat and was relieved to see that Kelly continued to sleep. “You stay in here and I’ll see who’s at the door.”
“All right.”
He stood up and made his way to the front of the house. A quick look through the peephole confirmed it wasn’t Darren or the neighbors. Caleb unlocked the door and swung it open. “Can I help you?”
“I’m here for Miranda and Kelly.”
Caleb’s eyes narrowed. The stranger was tall, bald and built like a football defensive tackle. Normally, when faced with a man about two times his body weight and muscle mass, he’d have been intimidated. However, courtesy of his medical training, he knew of a few ways to bring even the biggest man to his knees.
“And who are you?” Caleb demanded.
“Daddy!” Kelly screamed.
Caleb frowned as, out of nowhere, Kelly barreled past him and into the man’s waiting arms.
“My baby. God, I’ve missed you.”
Caleb’s jaw tensed. So this was Miranda’s ex-husband and Kelly’s adopted father. He could have gone through life hating a faceless man, but now he had come face-to-face with the man who’d married his woman, the man she’d turned to as a substitute for him. He was the man whom Kelly thought of as her father.
Caleb’s jaw clenched as jealousy ripped through his guts.
“Dad, you’re really here…” Kelly repeated.
Caleb stared, unable to look away from the intimate scene. And as his brain caught up with observing the happy reunion, he couldn’t help but notice Kelly’s uncanny resemblance to the man.
“Ryan.” Miranda’s voice drifted over Caleb’s shoulder. “This is an unexpected visit. Is everything okay?” Caleb turned his head to see her standing a few feet away.
“It will be,” Ryan replied.
“Why don’t you and Kelly catch up in the den?”
Without waiting for an answer, Kelly took his hand and began to tug him toward the room she’d just left. “Come on, Dad, that’s a keyword for ‘get out of the room so they can talk.’”
They were halfway down the hallway when Miranda’s ex-husband stopped and turned toward Caleb. “Dr. Blackfox.”
Caleb met the man’s eyes and the gratitude he saw took him by surprise. “I appreciate what you’ve done.”
Even before Ryan and Kelly were out of hearing range, Caleb focused on Miranda. “She’s his daughter, isn’t she?”
He knows.
Miranda had been dreading this moment from the day she’d sat across from Caleb in the hospital cafeteria and lied. She didn’t want to lie anymore, but she didn’t really have a choice. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Caleb; she trusted him with her most precious possession—her heart. But she’d sworn to her friend and her boss that the only person she would tell the truth to about Kelly’s origins would be her brother. She’d given her word and, no matter the cost, she would have to keep it.
“Is Kelly your ex-husband’s biological child?” Caleb asked.
Her heart squeezed as a result of looking into his eyes mutely and seeing the hurt in their brown depths. She couldn’t answer. Wanted to, but couldn’t. The words stuck in her throat.
“She is my daughter.” Ryan’s booming voice filled the hallway.
Caleb’s eyes blazed and his voice was harsh. “This doesn’t involve you.”
“Yes, it does. Miranda won’t answer because she made a promise to me.”
“Ryan.” She shook her head. “I can handle this.”
Ryan stepped past Miranda and stood in front of Caleb. “You’ve already handled more than enough. Miranda and I were never married. Kelly’s mother passed away from cancer two years ago and I’ve been raising her alone ever since. The truth is that we worked together for the Witness Protection Agency. I am…I was a Federal Marshal. Two months ago I got mixed up in an FBI sting on a Russian crime boss. Because I was an eyewitness, I had to go into protective custody until the trial. But before I agreed to do anything, I needed to know that my daughter was safe. At that same time Miranda had requested leave to help her brother. The director saw it as an opportunity and I saw it as a chance for Kelly to be safe and to have some normalcy.”
Miranda watched Caleb’s expression throughout Ryan’s speech and the fleeting moment of hope crashed against the impassivity of his face. Tears began to pool behind her eyes, but she blinked to hide them. Clearing her throat, she faced Ryan. “I need to talk to Caleb alone, please.”
Ryan nodded and she made sure that he was completely out of hearing distance before stating the obvious. “I lied to you, not Ryan. I didn’t want to, but I gave my word.”
Feeling like the bottom of her shoes, she swallowed back tears. She should turn around and face the repercussions of her actions, but she didn’t want to look, couldn’t look at Caleb’s face for fear of what she would see in his eyes.
She heard the sound of his footfalls against the hardwood floor and inhaled the sandalwood of his cologne as he stood behind her. And when he turned her around, Miranda still didn’t lift her face to his. Only the slight pressure of his finger on her chin forced her to look upward. Her tongue darted out over her parched lips and she looked into Caleb’s soft brown eyes.
“I know.”
Her brow creased with confusion and she stared at him with amazement.
“You’re staring,” he told her.
“Why aren’t you mad? Why are you still here? Why are you holding me?”
“Would it make you feel better if I were upset?”
She swallowed hard. “Yes.”
Caleb reached out and ran his fingertips over her cheeks. “Then feel better. I’m angry because you think that the love I have for you is so fragile that something like this could break it.”
She shook her head. “You hate liars.”
“I hate liver, too.” He grinned. “But I ate it when your mother put it on my plate. Miranda, what you’ve done to protect Kelly makes me love you more.”
Just looking up at him made the place in the center of her heart feel warm. She felt as if she’d swallowed a glass of her father’s best cognac. His face. Lord, there should be a commandment against the beauty of his smile. She would never tire of seeing the chocolate brown of his skin against the white of his teeth and his midnight-black eyebrows. Miranda had never forgotten his face. She would never forget his face. Sometime in the past two months of being with Caleb, she’d unconsciously resigned herself to losing him. But she would happily go back to being alone as long as she had the memories of their time together and the image of his smile.
A tear slipped down her cheek. “I thought…”
“That I would leave?”
She nodded.
He placed two of his fingers underneath her chin and tilted her face upward. “I’m not leaving you tonight, tomorrow, next week, ever. Without a doubt we’re going to fight. My family will interfere and your brother will complain. But this time I’m not letting you go.”
“I love you, Caleb Blackfox,” she declared.
He grinned and held her a little tighter. “I know.”
“What do you mean you know?” Her eyes sparkled.
“Remember the other night in the middle of my bed when your fingernails ripped up the sheets?”
“Shh.” She blushed.
“You told me and the neighborhood raccoons.”
“No, I wasn’t that loud.”
“Baby, you almost made me deaf.”
She laughed and the sound made her feel a hundred times better. “Beast.”
“Only with you.”
He leaned down and took her mouth with his. Miranda could barely squelch a moan as her body temperature rocketed upward.
“Have you two made up yet?” Kelly’s voice drifted down the hallway.
Miranda pulled back and giggled like a school-girl. “I think we have.”
“Not yet,” he contradicted. Caleb’s gaze locked with Miranda’s; his heartbeat somehow tripled. “I need a promise.”
“Anything,” Miranda confessed, her heart warmed with a ray of hope.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the box. He pried open the black velvet box and revealed a silver band with a stunning solitaire diamond. “I took my mother, sister, grandmother, and Savannah to Atlanta and spent half a day searching for this ring. I wanted it to be perfect and a symbol of how I felt.”
Tears welled up and rolled down Miranda’s face. “It’s gorgeous.”
Caleb lowered to one knee. “Miranda Elizabeth Tyler, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
“Yes,” she answered softly.
She watched mesmerized as he took her left hand and slowly slid the ring on her left finger.
“Miranda’s getting married. Miranda’s getting married,” Kelly began to sing.
Caleb stood and kissed her on the cheek and sang, “Caleb’s getting married.”
“You do know how to make an impression on a girl.”
“I’d planned to propose at the end of the movie, when you were in tears.”
“How did you know that I would cry when Beauty and the Beast were reunited?”
“The same way I knew Darren wouldn’t be home and Kelly would pretend to be asleep.”
“My brother knew you were going to propose?”
He squeezed her tight and smiled down. “Love, he and I thought the same thing. About time.”