Suddenly Married by Loree Lough Page B

she’d almost admitted his idea had merit.

Chapter Five
    N oah lay on his back, hands clasped under his head, and stared at the ceiling. A brisk wind had kicked up, went prowling and howling through the yard like an angry, lone wolf. As the snowflakes steadily hissed and pecked at the windowpanes, Noah was reminded that he had a houseguest.
    Would Dara be asleep by now, snug and warm under the green plaid quilt he’d brought her? Had she put on the pajamas he’d tucked between the comforter and the sheets…the two-sizes-too-small pajamas Francine had bought for him half a dozen Father’s Days ago?
    If he closed his eyes, he could almost see Dara, the maroon silk of his pjs looking lush against her creamy skin as she sat cuddled in front of the cozy fire, long, dusky lashes dusting her freckled cheeks as she sought a peaceful night’s sleep on a stranger’s sofa.
    He hadn’t seen freckles on a female since grade school. Dara’s dotted the bridge of her nose as if they’d been sprinkled there by a guardian angel. He wouldn’t have noticed them at all if he hadn’t pulled her into ahug under the sixty-watt lightbulb in the kitchen fixture. At the time, his only thought had been how incredibly lovely she was. Now, he thought, the faint, almost undiscernible speckles gave her a girlish, innocent look that went perfectly with chin-length auburn curls that bounced and bobbed with every turn of her head.
    She had a quick, natural smile that immediately put others at ease. And those eyes, as big and wide as a doe’s, glimmered with mischief when Angie and Bobby had challenged her to a spirited guessing game, then later glowed warm with sympathy when he described his pathetic past.
    He’d told her he believed she was an honest woman, a hard worker with a heart bigger than her head. Well, she’s all that and then some. The proof? Dara’s attitude toward his blithe compliments. He’d clearly embarrassed her, as evidenced by her downcast eyes and the pink blush that had colored her cheeks. And that puzzled him. Puzzled him plenty. Because it had been his experience that most women lived to be flattered, whether the praise was bona fide or blarney. Surely a woman as gorgeous as Dara had had those attributes pointed out to her many times.
    But if that was true, why hadn’t she reacted the way other women he’d known before her had? “Oh, stop Noah,” they’d say, giggling, striking shy poses, fluttering their lashes. “You’ll make me blush.”
    Dara had blushed!
    She’s something else! he told himself, grinning into the darkness. There were likely a thousand clichés to describe her. Pretty as a picture. Sharp as a tack. Sweet as cotton candy. But there’s nothing cliché about Dara! No, sir. She’s one of a kind.
    If he ever fell in love again, it would be with a woman like Dara Mackenzie.
    He ran the thought past his brain another time or two. If he could fall in love again…Why can’t you love again? he wondered.
    But the answer was there, as plain as the night-black ceiling above him: he hadn’t felt the heart-tugging stirrings of romance because he hadn’t given it—or himself—a real chance.
    Noah scrunched the pillow up under his neck, linked his fingers atop his chest. Have you been deliberately choosing women without a single solitary maternal bone in their bodies? Not deliberately, maybe, but subconsciously, he’d sabotaged the would-be relationships, right from square one.
    Until now.…
    What was different about this one? Why was he being so ham-handed now?
    Because didn’t he owe it to her memory to try to keep the promise he’d made on the night Francine died?
    You just answered your own question. Francine hadn’t just asked him to “Get a woman in here, fast.” She’d made her demand plain and simple: “They need a mother to look out for them. They need a woman’s touch.”
    A woman’s touch. Noah grunted, one side of his mouth tucked in, hands back up under his head again. Kids