Twice a Hero, Always Her Man Read online

  “Heather and I will handle it,” Ellie said, looking at the girl. “Won’t we?”

  Heather looked as if she was willing to get started the second they got home. “You bet.”

  It did Colin’s heart good to hear his niece sounding so happy. And he knew that he owed it, at least in part, to Ellie. The woman was becoming very precious to him, he thought.

  * * *

  Because the turkey weighed in at a little over sixteen pounds, it was going to need to be in the oven for four hours after it was cleaned and draped with cheesecloth, the latter properly doused with melted butter. In addition, the stuffing needed be made before that. Between toasting the bread and cutting each slice into tiny pieces, plus frying the sausages to get rid of any excess fat, Ellie knew that would take her another hour. By her calculations, she needed to get started by ten, which meant day off or not, she had to get up a lot earlier.

  Even so, she was going to be busy for most of that morning. She was trying to time everything down to the minute so that all of her time was taken up with preparing the dinner. She deliberately didn’t want to give herself any time to think. Thinking only made her dwell on the past—and remember what she didn’t have anymore.

  “Not the time for it now,” she sternly told her reflection in the wardrobe mirror when she caught herself mentally drifting for a moment. “It’s not about you. There’s a little girl counting on you to make today special.”

  Heather’s loss was fresher than her own and she wouldn’t forgive herself if she didn’t do everything she could to make this Thanksgiving a good one for the little girl.

  In her heart, Ellie knew that her husband would have wanted her to do this. He would have wanted her to move on because he was that sort of a selfless person. He’d always told her that he wanted her to be happy and if anything ever happened to him, he wanted her to find someone to love.

  Because you’ve got so much love in you, Ellie. You can’t keep it all bottled up—you have to find someone to share it with.

  He’d made these declarations when he was being deployed, thinking that he might die fighting for his country. Neither one of them had ever dreamed that he would meet his end stateside, not fighting for his country but defending an unarmed young couple.

  “I’m trying, Brett,” she murmured as she got dressed. “But you’ve got to help me. I can’t do this alone.”

  And then she looked at her watch. It was after nine. She should have left fifteen minutes ago. She’d set a schedule for herself in her head, the way she did every day no matter what she was doing. It kept her organized.

  It also kept her from thinking too much. And that was the way she liked it. Right now all she wanted to focus on was making a good Thanksgiving dinner. After that, she told herself, she’d focus on something else.

  Her mother had told her shortly after Brett’s death that the way to get through the oppressive pain and the horrific grief was to take one step at a time.

  Just one step at a time, Elliana. You’ll be surprised how those steps add up—and where they lead to.

  Her mother had said that recalling her grief when her own husband had died.

  Ellie had never hoped her mother was right as much as she did today.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It seemed that the very second Ellie knocked on the door, it swung open. Colin was in the doorway, a broad smile on his face.

  “Wow, if I didn’t know any better, I would have said you were standing right behind the door,” Ellie said as she walked in.

  “I was,” he told her, closing the door behind her. When she looked at him quizzically, he said, “Heather alerted me. She’d been at the window watching for you for the last hour.” He nodded toward the dog that was trying to snag her attention. “I don’t know who’s been jumping around more, Heather or Pancakes.”

  “Well, it’s nice to be greeted with this much enthusiasm,” Ellie said, shifting the grocery bags she was carrying so she could give Heather a quick hug.

  Not wanting to leave her out, she petted the bouncing dog. The latter tried to catch hold of her sleeve with her teeth, an act Ellie managed to deftly avoid.

  His niece and the dog weren’t the only ones looking forward to her arrival, but Colin deliberately refrained from saying anything because he didn’t want to send her running back to the shelter of her car. He sensed that she was still skittish and he approached Ellie with caution.

  Instead, he nodded at what she’d brought in. “What’s in the grocery bags? I thought we got everything for today.”

  After setting the bags down on the kitchen counter, Ellie proceeded to unpack them. “These are just a few miscellaneous things I forgot to pick up during our shopping trip the other night.”

  Colin grabbed the item that was closest to him. “Parmesan cheese?” he questioned.

  “That’s for the mashed potatoes,” she explained, then offered, “Do you want me to go over what everything else is for?”

  “No, I’ll learn as we go along,” Colin answered, a bemused smile on his face.

  Ellie returned one in kind. “See, you’re learning already.” Turning to Heather, she said, “Okay, assistant, let’s get to work, shall we?”

  “What can I do?” Colin asked.

  Ellie turned around to regard him for a moment. “How are you at peeling potatoes?”

  “You’re giving me KP duty?” he asked with less than enthusiasm over the prospect.

  “Extremely important KP duty,” Ellie emphasized. She gestured toward the bag he had out on the counter. “We’ve got five pounds of potatoes that need peeling.”

  With a resigned shrug, he said, “I guess I can’t ruin that.”

  Ellie made no effort to hide her amusement. “Not unless you cut off one of your fingers.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Colin pretended to grumble.

  Ellie spread her hands wide, feigning innocence. “Hey, you were the one who said you didn’t exactly shine in the kitchen.”

  He inclined his head as if to give her the round. He took out a knife from the last drawer on the right hand side. “You want all of them peeled?”

  “Peeled and cut up into very small pieces.” When he seemed confused, she explained, “They cook faster that way.”

  Nodding, he slid open the bag, allowing him to take the potatoes out. “Anything else?”

  She was already slicing open the individual sausages, getting them ready to be put in the frying pan. “When you finish that, I need five celery stalks finely diced.” She turned her attention to his niece, who was impatiently shifting from foot to foot. “Heather, your job is to toast the bread. We’re going to need all the slices from both loaves.”

  “You got it,” Heather told her happily, throwing herself into the task.

  * * *

  The rest of the morning was spent doing all the things that were involved in preparing a proper Thanksgiving meal. To a casual observer, it would look like just barely organized chaos, with Pancakes weaving in and out between all of them, continuously foraging for any bit of food that had been dropped on the floor. The only time the dog stopped foraging was when she found something. At that point, she disposed of it at lightning speed.

  And then went back to foraging.

  There seemed to be no downtime, not even when the turkey was finally basted, draped and in the oven, baking. At that point, Ellie turned her attention to making the pumpkin pie and the rolls she’d decided to add at the last minute.

  Heather appeared to be in heaven and Colin, although not in heaven, was enjoying seeing Heather so involved and so content. He knew he had Ellie to thank for that.

  * * *

  “You realize that you were on your feet the entire time?” Colin asked when they finally sat down to eat dinner hours later. “From the
minute you walked in to just now, when I finally got you to sit down to eat with us?” For a second there, he’d been afraid that she was bent on cleaning up, leaving Heather and him to eat while she tidied.

  “It’s no different than when I’m out on assignment,” she answered. “Just a little hotter,” she added, indicating the stove. He had a relatively small kitchen, so the heat was difficult to avoid and it was an unusually warm Thanksgiving, even for Southern California. “Except when they send me out of state to cover a story smack in the middle of a heat wave,” she added as a postscript.

  “I take it you don’t believe in complaining,” he said to her.

  Ellie shrugged. “What good would it do?” She watched Colin and his niece, looking from one to the other, waiting for some sort of a reaction. They’d both started eating. “Well?” she finally asked. “How is it?”

  Colin stared at her, pretending to consider her question for a moment before saying, “Oh, well, maybe it’s a little undercooked.”

  “What?” Ellie cried, surprised as well as mystified. “But I timed it and the skin is just crisp enough—” She stopped abruptly because Colin had started laughing.

  “I’m sorry—I’m just kidding. This is probably the best turkey I’ve ever had. Ow!” he cried when Ellie took a swipe at his arm. He gave her what he assumed might pass for a reproving look. “You realize that I could take you in for assaulting an officer of the law, right?” he told her.

  Ellie raised her chin. “You’d have to catch me first.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” Colin told her, the expression in his eyes saying things that he didn’t—or couldn’t at the moment.

  “He’s just kidding, Ellie,” Heather assured her, eating merrily. “And this is really, really good.”

  Ellie smiled at her fondly. “And you know why?”

  Heather swallowed, then answered, “’Cause of all those things you put in?”

  Ellie nodded. “Yes, but mainly because we all worked together to make it. Things always taste better when you make them yourself,” she told the girl with feeling.

  “Obviously, I’m going to have to make you breakfast someday,” Colin told her with a laugh.

  For just a second, their eyes met and Ellie felt a shiver go down her spine, the kind a person felt in anticipation of something that hadn’t been experienced yet. He was talking about making her breakfast. Did he mean after they spent the night together, or was that an entirely innocent comment on his part?

  You’re doing it again. You’re overthinking things. Take what he said at face value and nothing more.

  Ellie glanced away. Looking into his eyes did unsettling things to her.

  “Okay,” she told him, smiling even when he went on to describe the ingredients that went into his perfect breakfast, items that had no business on the same plate. Even so, she was relieved that the dinner was a success. She began to relax and started to actually taste—and enjoy—what she had prepared.

  * * *

  After dinner and dessert had been eaten and savored, at Heather’s behest, the three of them sat down and watched the tail end of the second football game on TV that day.

  “This your idea?” she asked Colin as they settled on the sofa to watch.

  He shook his head. “Not guilty. This is strictly Heather’s idea,” he said, nodding at his niece.

  Heather was nestled between them, her attention riveted on the TV monitor. At first Heather thought the girl hadn’t heard them, but then, still watching, she said, “My dad always liked to watch the games on Thanksgiving. Mom said we had to keep him company because he loved watching the games almost as much as he loved us.” For just a second, she spared Ellie a glance. “It makes me feel closer to them watching the game now.”

  Moved, Ellie gave her a hug. She could totally relate to the need to bond across time and space.

  “I’ve just got one question,” she told Heather. “Who’s playing?”

  With a delighted air of superiority, Heather answered her question, throwing in both teams’ stats as an added bonus.

  * * *

  “So what’d you think of it?” Ellie asked the little girl when the game was finally over almost two hours later.

  When she received no answer, she was about to repeat her question, then stopped. Leaning in closer, she took another look and then smiled. Raising her head again, she turned toward Colin.

  “Don’t look now, but your little football fan is fast asleep.”

  “I know,” he told her. He’d watched the rest of the game not because he particularly cared about the outcome but because he just liked sitting with them like this. There was something so right about it and he hadn’t wanted to disturb the scene. “We lost her shortly after the third quarter started.”

  After getting up so as not to wake up Heather, he gently eased his niece off the sofa and into his arms. Asleep, she looked even younger than she was. “I’ll just put her to bed.”

  Ellie was on her feet. “Need any help?”

  “No,” he whispered, “I’m just going to lay her down and cover her with a blanket. She’s a light sleeper. If I do anything else, even take off her shoes, I’m liable to wake her up and then she’ll be up for hours again. I’ve learned from experience that a forty-five-minute nap can really power her up. She’s better off if I just let her sleep in her clothes. I’ll be right back,” he promised, turning away.

  “Don’t trip on the dog,” Ellie warned in a stage whisper. Pancakes was sprawled out near the sofa, directly in his path. “Apparently, football puts her to sleep, too.”

  “Maybe we’re onto something,” Colin said with a laugh just before he made his way out of the room with Heather in his arms.

  When he returned several minutes later, the TV was still on, but Ellie was no longer on the sofa or even in the room.

  Colin looked around. He half expected her to be getting her things together to go home.

  He knew that she’d spent almost an entire day with them, but even so, he didn’t really want her to leave just yet. He liked her company, liked doing simple, ordinary things with this woman who regularly found her way into everyone’s home for four or five minutes at a time.

  This was different from that.

  He wasn’t really certain just what was going on, because he’d never felt quite like this before, never wanted to have a woman around to this extent.

  But then, this wasn’t just a woman; this was a unique, special woman. He couldn’t help wondering what Ellie would say if he told her that.

  Probably take off faster. He had to tread carefully if he wanted this—whatever “this” was—to progress.

  Since she hadn’t said anything about leaving, there was only one other place she could be. Ellie had to be in the kitchen, cleaning up. The dishes had previously been left where they were because of the football game. He’d just naturally assumed that he’d tackle them in the morning.

  “You don’t have to do that,” he told Ellie, walking into the room.

  She shrugged as if this was no big deal. “It’s part of the process. First you cook, then you eat and then you clean up.” She spared him a quick glance over her shoulder. “You really don’t want to have to face this mess in the morning,” she told him knowingly. “Besides, I’m almost done.”

  “But you’re not loading the dishwasher,” Colin observed. There were soap bubbles rising from a filled sink. He assumed the dishes were in there. “You’re washing them.”

  “Sometimes,” she said, keeping her back to Colin, “sinking your hands into a sink full of suds is therapeutic.” And she did just that.

  He came up behind her. “Is it working for you?” he asked kindly.

  She didn’t answer his question. Instead, she told him, “I enjoyed today. I think Heather did, too.”

  “O
h, I know she did,” he declared with certainty. And then he told her, “Thank you.”

  She deflected his thanks. “I really didn’t do anything. I just made a turkey.”

  Colin suppressed a sigh. “Do you ever just take a compliment?”

  “Sure,” she answered a bit too quickly. “If I deserve it.”

  “Well, there is no ‘if’ here,” he said. “You did a really good thing and you made my niece very happy.” She was still keeping her back to him and he found that a little strange. Something wasn’t quite right here, he thought. “Will you just turn around from the sink and let me thank you?”

  When she slowly turned around, Colin saw why she’d kept her face averted. Something squeezed his heart. “You’re crying.”

  She knew she couldn’t deny it, but she didn’t want him questioning her about it.

  “I get sentimental over soapsuds,” she said, quickly wiping away the tear tracks from her cheeks with the back of her hand. That only made the situation worse because her hand was wet.

  Colin took out his handkerchief, and ever so carefully, he wiped her cheeks. “Try again,” he told her softly.

  Ellie tried to turn away, shrugging off his concern, even though he’d all but melted her just now. “I’m fine,” she insisted.

  But he wasn’t going to be put off. Colin took her into his arms.

  “No, you’re not,” he told her. “Maybe if you talk about it—”

  “No, no talking,” she protested, shaking her head. “No—”

  And then something seemed to just break apart inside her. She’d started by pulling away, and somehow, inexplicably, she wound up even closer to him than before. So close that the next moment, her resolve cracked. Ellie gave in to the overwhelming desire she felt to fill the emptiness inside her.

  In a blinding flash, she was kissing him. Kissing him because the first time they’d kissed, she’d felt that old, familiar feeling she’d missed so much.

  It was like a homecoming.

  The kiss blossomed, catching her up in the feeling, reminding her how wondrous it could all be.