A Mother's Love by Ruth Wind Page B

as well as physically as they curled close beneath the boughs of the tree, trying to keep warm. He pulled her next to his ribs and wrapped his arms around her. She tucked her legs over his, and they were warm enough.
    â€œYou fit me,” he said.
    Kyra nestled into the hollow of his shoulder, her hand slipping inside his coat. “Did you go to their wedding? Africa and Thomas?”
    â€œI didn’t. They eloped at Gretna Green.”
    â€œHow traditional.” She chuckled against him, and he liked her for knowing what it was.
    â€œWhy haven’t you married?” he asked.
    â€œWell, not for lack of trying. I’ve been engaged twice. Both times the groom-to-be changed his mind.”
    â€œAh. That’s my tale, too.”
    â€œYour groom changed his mind?”
    â€œNo, my bride-to-be left me at the altar in front of the town. At that old stone church you know.”
    â€œLiterally at the altar?”
    He nodded, realizing that the sting of it had finally subsided. He lifted a shoulder. “Things happen, don’t they?”
    â€œNo, that’s not right, Dylan. That was wrong of her. There were a hundred ways not to humiliate you. She didn’t have to do it that way.” Kyra shook her head. “I hate it that that happened to you.”
    â€œThank you.” He lifted her hand, kissed her fingers. “I hated it, too.”
    â€œWas she the love of your life?”
    â€œI thought so at the time. How about you? Who was the love of your life?”
    She wiggled her foot and he wondered if she realized it. “Oh, I haven’t really chosen very well. Africa always told me that. Both times I fell for a bad boy. Like you.”
    He spluttered. “I’m not a bad boy! I’m an engineer.”
    â€œYou play Celtic fiddle.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œAnd you look like—”
    He grinned. “Like?”
    â€œThis was actually supposed to be about me, wasn’t it?”
    â€œAh, I forgot. Yes, the loves of your life. Bad boys and bad judgment.”
    She sighed. “Not even worth it. I learned my lesson.”
    â€œOh, no you don’t. You can’t get off the hook that easily. I want the chance to be outraged on your behalf.”
    A small laugh fell from her lips. “Okay, okay. Robert was my college beau. He loved motorcycles and rock climbing and we had a great…um…time. He broke our engagement on my birthday, and I never heard another word from him ever again.”
    â€œBastard!”
    Kyra grinned. “The other engagement was a couple of years ago. He was a pilot. Very handsome, very charming. He started coming to Yogariffic with a flight attendant girlfriend and came back on his own. We were together for three years. It turned out he had a girl in every port, as they say. One of them called me. It was pretty embarrassing.”
    He cuddled her close. “I’m not a jerk like those guys.”
    â€œHow can I possibly know that, though? It wasn’t as if the other two told me so.”
    He thought about that for a long while, watching stars dance on the dark water. “When I think of Maeve, my ex-fiancée, I think about how she spoke of travel. She loved totravel, go far away, and she was so independent that she didn’t really didn’t need anyone else.” Rubbing his head along the crown of her head, he said, “I knew she would never stay in a little Welsh town and have babies with me. She didn’t, but I did.”
    â€œSo are you saying I probably knew at the start?”
    â€œThere were things you knew from the start that you chose to overlook. That’s what we do.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œTo fall in love,” he said. “That’s what we’re all trying to do. Connect. Find that special person.”
    â€œAnd yet, look how often we’re wrong!”
    He nodded. A ripple of nervousness moved through his gut, and he knew he was going to do it.