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A Baby For Christmas
Joanna Sims
The Other Twin BrotherMarine Captain Luke Brand has come home with one mission on his mind: to make amends with his identical twin brother's widow. They've never gotten along, but for the wounded soldier, establishing a connection with his yet-to-be-born nephew is a top priority–and failure is not an option. Still, he has to make peace without revealing his secret–that he's madly, completely, head over heels in love with Sophia Lee Brand.The last person Sophia wants to see this Christmas is Luke! She is too vulnerable and, well, too pregnant for the disruption. So why does she blush when he smiles, or her heart quicken when they touch? His looks are all too familiar–but he stirs up emotions she has never felt before. Perhaps a kiss under the mistletoe will make both of their Christmas wishes come true?


THE OTHER TWIN BROTHER
Marine Captain Luke Brand has come home with one mission on his mind: to make amends with his identical twin brother’s widow. They’ve never gotten along, but for the wounded soldier, establishing a connection with his yet-to-be-born nephew is a top priority—and failure is not an option. Still, he has to make peace without revealing his secret—that he’s madly, completely, head over heels in love with Sophia Lee Brand.
The last person Sophia wants to see this Christmas is Luke! She is too vulnerable and, well, too pregnant for the disruption. So why does she blush when he smiles, or her heart quicken when they touch? His looks are all too familiar—but he stirs up emotions she has never felt before. Perhaps a kiss under the mistletoe will make both of their Christmas wishes come true?
“Have you ever cried for him, Luke?”
“What do you think it will prove? You think that if I cry for Dan, I won’t feel like someone has yanked out half my guts? It doesn’t work that way, sweetheart!”
“Don’t you patronize me, Lucas Brand! I’m not your ‘sweetheart,’ I’m your friend, and I deserve a little respect from you.”
When the word friend came out of her mouth, Luke felt his stomach clench. No matter how many times he told himself to think of her that way, he couldn’t. Even now, when she was ticking him off beyond belief, he wanted her. His body ached for her.
She was everything he wanted in a woman: strong, independent, incredibly smart and sexier now than she had ever been.
He wanted to kiss the breath right out of her, until the word friend was permanently eradicated from her brain. But, whenever he came close to crossing that line, Luke would look down at her belly, and that would stop him cold.
Dear Reader,
When I was twelve years old, my family spent the summer on a working Montana cattle ranch. I remember that I loved the ranch so much that I cried when I had to return to my home in Florida. I have never forgotten the magic of Montana’s pristine mountains and the seemingly endless blue sky. When it was time to pick a setting for A Baby For Christmas, I couldn’t imagine a better place than a Montana ranch. And the ranch house of my childhood memories was never far from my mind when I created the Brand family home at Bent Tree as the backdrop for Luke and Sophia’s love story.
For me, writing for Harlequin is a lifelong dream that actually came true. I hope that A Baby For Christmas is the first of many stories featuring the Brand Clan and I hope that you enjoy spending time with Luke and Sophia as much as I have.
Happy holidays!
Joanna
A Baby For Christmas
Joanna Sims


www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
JOANNA SIMS
lives in Florida with her husband and their three fabulous felines. Joanna works as a therapist for the public school system during the day, but spends her evenings and weekends fulfilling her lifelong dream of writing compelling, modern romances for Harlequin Books. When it’s time to take a break from writing, Joanna enjoys going for long walks with her husband and curling up on the couch to watch movies (romantic comedies preferably). She loves to answer any questions or provide additional information for her readers. You can contact her at Joannasims2@live.com.
Dedicated to my husband, Cory
You are the true love of my life
Contents
Chapter One (#u1bfbc96c-dce8-5988-a61f-96cb54a3f561)
Chapter Two (#u533400e0-d5f7-580f-b385-67d1a180dfad)
Chapter Three (#ubace3e6b-cfb7-5aeb-8ae4-7ec14916eaa3)
Chapter Four (#ub200b7f8-c3aa-5eb4-9d60-8e3ee66c2632)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One
Captain Luke Brand was home for the holidays. Against his will. As far as he was concerned, First Recon was still in Afghanistan, so he should still be in Afghanistan. Bottom line. And it didn’t matter that an insurgent had blown a bullet clean through his left leg. It didn’t matter to him that he had almost lost the leg. Almost didn’t count. His leg was still attached; he should return to active duty. But the Marines sure as hell didn’t see it that way. They denied his request, patched him up and shipped his butt back to the States for medical leave. Like it or not, he was on his way home.
And he didn’t like it. Not by a long shot.
The military had gotten him as far as Helena; now Billy Whiteside, an old high school buddy, was taking him the rest of the way to his family’s Montana ranch. Bent Tree was less than an hour away. Luke wished it were two hours. Three would be even better. He wasn’t in a hurry to tangle with his sister-in-law, Sophia; from his point of view, fighting the Taliban for control of Afghan towns seemed like a much easier task.
“He’s found a good spot to hang out.” Billy glanced over at the black kitten perched on Luke’s left leg. Luke looked down at the scrawny kitten and grunted in response. The kitten had started the trip in a box situated between Billy and Luke. Once the kitten caught Luke’s eye, he made a determined escape from the box, and a beeline for Luke’s leg. Luke had always liked an underdog, and this kitten certainly qualified; found in a ball of toilet paper in a truck stop restroom, half starved, half frozen. He was lucky to be alive. He was a survivor. Luke liked that about him. So, when the kitten had gingerly sat down on the exact spot where his leg was wounded, Luke didn’t have the heart to make him move. In fact, the warmth of the kitten’s body and the vibrations of his purr seemed to ease the pain a bit.
“He’s lucky he didn’t end up in the Dumpster....” Billy’s naturally round face had gotten even rounder with weight and age; he still easily wore a giant grin that split his face. Billy reached over and banged on the dashboard of his Chevy to get the heater kicked on again. “Cindy swept him right up into the dustpan. Can you believe that? ’Course, she didn’t know what was in that mess’a paper. How could she know, ya know? ’Course, Cindy can’t keep him. What with four kids, two dogs, a couple of cats and that pig her youngest is raisin’! And, I don’t know, man... I think my ol’ lady will put me out in the barn if I bring anything else home. But what else could I do? I couldn’t just leave him there...” Billy banged on the dash again. “And, it looks like he picked you... Cats pick their owners, you know. Didn’t you tell me that? No! It was your mom who told me that! Your mom told me that....”
Luke didn’t bother to reply. He knew what Billy was getting at. He was trying to pawn this scruffy orphan off on him. Not a chance! The little fur ball would just have to go back into the box when the ride was over. As for Billy, his old friend wouldn’t expect him to say much, about the kitten or otherwise. That’s why he’d hit Billy up for a ride in the first place. He was in no mood for small talk. And Billy would understand that without being told. All Luke wanted to do was to be quiet and think about Sophia. All he wanted to do was figure out what he was going to say to Sophia. So, while Billy kept up both sides of the conversation, Luke stared morosely at each passing mile marker and thought about what he was going to say to his brother’s widow.
What in the hell am I going to say to you, Sophia? What the hell could he say?
By the time Luke caught a glimpse of Bent Tree over the horizon, he still hadn’t thought up a good answer to that question. Maybe there wasn’t one.
“This’s good.” Luke gestured for Billy to pull over at Bent Tree’s entrance.
“Are you sure, man? I can take you all the way in.” Billy had the good sense not to mention Luke’s leg or the cane he had to use to get around.
“This is good.” Luke repeated. The slow walk up the long drive would push back his arrival time. Anything to stall the inevitable was okay with him. He had no idea how Sophia was going to react to him. Was she going to hug him or hit him? It was a hard one to gauge. Luke gently picked up the kitten and put him back in the box. The kitten immediately started to cry, but Luke refused to look at him again. He grabbed his cane and pushed the door open. Once his feet were on the ground, he paused for a minute, balanced, and then pulled his sea bag out of the bed of the truck and hoisted it onto his shoulder.
“Thanks, brother. ’ppreciate it.” Luke reached across the seat, over the crying kitten, and shook Billy’s hand.
“No problem, man. Anything I can do to help,” Billy said, and Luke knew he meant it. “And don’t be a stranger while you’re here. Drop by. Meet the wife and kids.”
Luke leaned on his cane for support. “I’ll see what I can do. Things are...” His voice trailed off for a moment as he searched for the right word. “Complicated.”
For the first time, Billy’s grin faded. He looked down at the steering wheel. “You know, we were all real sorry to hear about Danny. I mean... We all knew it could happen. Lots of folks are headin’ over to Iraq and not comin’ back. But you never expect it to happen to someone you know....” Billy shook his head slowly. “I just didn’t expect it to happen to Danny.”
“I know. Me, neither.” He had seen a lot of death in the past six years, but to lose his brother, his twin, was...unbearable. If he was back in action, he could bury the pain and forget it for a while. But here? In Montana, with his grieving family and Daniel’s grieving widow? The pain was going to be front and center, in his face, all the time. With a definitive nod, Luke ended the conversation. “Give my best to your family.”
“Will do, Luke. Will do. To yours, too.” Billy shifted into gear. “And if I don’t see you, Merry Christmas, man.”
“Merry Christmas.” The kitten wouldn’t stop crying. Luke shut the door.
Billy saluted and started to pull away. Without thinking about it, and without knowing why he did it, Luke reached out and banged the side of the truck with his cane.
Billy’s brakes squeaked; the truck stopped. Luke yanked open the door.
“Dammit, Billy. Give me the damn kitten!”
* * *
Sophia Lee Brand was beginning to think that she had made a huge mistake. At first she had thought it was a great idea to stay behind while her in-laws went elsewhere for Thanksgiving. She had thought, foolishly, that the peace and quiet would do her a world of good. Not to mention that a three-hour car ride while she was eight months pregnant seemed like a slow form of torture. She had to pee all the time. So, she had stayed behind. Insisted upon it, in fact. And now she was bored senseless! One week of solitude was more than enough for a Boston girl stuck in the west, thank you kindly. Week two was going to be excruciating! Thank God for her to-do lists!
Sophia leaned over the kitchen counter and perused her latest list. It wasn’t even close to supper time and she had already checked off most of the items.
“I really need a longer list!” She stood upright, stretched backward a bit to ease the pressure from the small of her back. She rubbed her hands over her rounded stomach in a circular motion, looked down at her growing abdomen and laughed. “I’m one big belly.”
“All right, Danny boy,” she said to the baby nestled in her stomach. “There’s no time like the present.” She moved over to the fridge and started the next project on her list: make a giant salad. She dragged every raw vegetable out of the fridge that she could find, rummaged through drawers and moved bottles and jars out of the way. Once she had located every last veggie, she carefully and methodically sharpened a knife. She took her time. It was only a little after 3:00 p.m. and she had absolutely no idea what she would do with herself until bedtime.
“Let’s have a little ‘get in the mood’ music, shall we?” Sophia read the titles on the CDs stacked at the end of the long counter. “No. No. Really, no. Seriously, no! And...ah...yes. Mr. Van Morrison.” She slid the CD into the player and turned up the volume.
She waited for the first notes to play before she turned up the volume even louder. “I can play it as loud as I want to. Who’s gonna complain way out here in the boonies?” She patted her stomach. “Are you going to complain, my baby? No, you’re not, because you’re gonna love Mr. Morrison just like your daddy did.”
On the way back to the veggies, she grabbed a large salad bowl and then got busy chopping and dicing. The music helped get a rhythm going, and before she knew it she was moving on to the pile of carrots. While she worked, she thought of Daniel.
She paused her chopping for a minute, closed her eyes and conjured his face. In her mind’s eye, she could easily see his strong, squared jaw, the bright, sky-blue eyes and his trademark smile.
“Hmm. So handsome.” This was said with a sigh as she continued with her chopping.
Sophia had a theory, and it had actually helped her cope. She figured that if she thought about Daniel all of the time, she would burn into her brain the little details that made him so incredibly special. She never wanted to run out of things to tell her son about his father. And, of course, she never wanted to forget the little details of Daniel that had always been just for her, like the natural sweet almond scent of his skin and the sensation of his fingers on her neck as he brushed her hair over her shoulder. And his voice. The sound of Daniel’s voice always sent a shiver up her spine. Especially the husky way he would say her name when he reached for her in the morning....
“Hello, Sophia.”
Sophia was in midchop of a very hardheaded carrot when the sound of her name startled her. She simultaneously spun her head around and pressed the knife down hard. The knife missed the carrot and cut the tip of her finger.
“Ow! Shoot!” Sophia jerked her hand away from the cutting board, but otherwise ignored the wounded finger. Instead, she stared at Luke. He was standing in the kitchen doorway wearing his dress blues and a long gray overcoat; feet planted apart, shoulders squared, sky-blue eyes slightly narrowed. He stood before her proudly in his uniform. Strong. Unyielding. Totally masculine. He looked so much like Daniel that her heart started to thud in her chest, the muscles in her legs gave way, and she had to force herself not to cross the room, throw herself into his arms and squeeze the breath right out of him.
That’s not Daniel! That’s Luke. Stay put! You and Luke don’t hug.
“You’re bleeding,” Luke said.
“What?”
“Your finger.” Luke didn’t move from his spot. “It’s bleeding.”
Sophia looked at her finger. Luke was right. It was indeed bleeding. Quite a bit, actually. The blood had trickled down the length of her pointer finger and was pooling into the palm of her hand; some had gotten smeared on her mother-in-law’s counter. Under normal circumstances, she would have quickly fixed the finger, cleaned the counter and gotten back to work. But these weren’t normal circumstances, and it appeared that she had temporarily lost control over her body. She couldn’t seem to move.
But Luke could. In two long strides he was by her side. She saw him wince whenever he put pressure on his left leg. It was strange to see Luke hurt. He had always seemed so invincible to her. Luke flipped on the cold water and guided her finger beneath the stream. She was still pondering on the warm brand his fingers had left on her skin while he moved down the counter to search a nearby drawer.
“Right corner cabinet, top shelf, all the way in the back.” Sophia pointed with her good pointer finger.
“Band-aids?” Luke gave her a quizzical look.
“Your mother’s been rearranging since the day we got the news about your leg.”
Once Sophia said that, it made perfect sense. Barbara Brand didn’t cry when she was upset. She rearranged stuff. Luke located a step stool. “Okay, where are they again?”
“All the way to the right.” Sophia waved her hand for him to move farther down. “Top shelf. Behind the olives.”
Luke stabbed the off button on the CD player before he forced himself up the steps. He ignored the pain in his leg and concentrated on working his way through the maze his mother had set up between himself and the Band-aids. Luke grabbed the box, threw them onto the counter and got down off the step stool.
Luke put the box of Band-aids on the counter next to Sophia. “Not exactly the most convenient place to put first aid stuff.”
That made Sophia laugh. “No. It’s not. But none of us were about to argue with your mom. Not your dad, not me. Certainly not Tyler, he’s so easygoing.”
One side of Luke’s upper lip curled into something that vaguely resembled a smile. “I don’t blame you.” He knew better than to argue with his mother, too. Most people did. He unwrapped a Band-aid. “Here. Give me your finger.”
Something clicked on in her brain and she went from foggy to full throttle. She didn’t want him to touch her again. The heat from his body, the smell of his skin, made her feel light-headed. He was too much like Daniel. She didn’t know how to react to him, and that ticked her off!
She held her finger away from him. “I can do it myself.”
Luke gave her a look that she was certain was meant to intimidate her into cooperating. “Sophia. Don’t be a pain.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not being a pain.”
“That would be a first,” Luke said under his breath. Then, more loudly, “Just give me your finger.”
“Just give me the stupid Band-aid.” She held out her hand. His voice, so much like Daniel’s voice, sent a shiver right up her spine.
Luke grabbed her arm firmly, held her hand in place and put the Band-aid on her finger. “Now, was that so difficult?”
God, Luke irritated her! He always had. He was so bossy. Domineering. Why had she thought, for one minute, that things would be different between them now? She grabbed a rag off the kitchen faucet and wiped up the blood from the counter. “Thanks,” she said sullenly.
“You’re welcome,” he replied, with a hint of sarcasm. He wasn’t about to climb up on the step stool again. Instead, he tossed the box of Band-aids down the length of the counter.
Silently, she rinsed the rag and wrung it out before she turned back to him. “What are you doing here, anyway? Your parents said you wouldn’t be here for another week.”
He almost told her the truth, that he had come home early to see her. That he knew his family was away and she was alone. But he didn’t. Instead, he said plainly, “Change of plans.”
A flash of anger flushed Sophia’s cheeks. “Well, I wish you hadn’t changed your plans. Not if all you intend to do is fight with me the entire time you’re here. If you hadn’t noticed—” she pulled her sweater tightly over her belly and splayed both hands over her stomach “—I’m a little bit busy here with your nephew, and the last thing I need is to have you hanging around, bullying me.”
When she stopped talking, the anger ebbed as quickly as it had risen. The last bit of her energy slipped away with the anger. Suddenly, she felt exhausted. She always felt exhausted now because of the baby, but she did her best to fight it all day long until the fatigue finally won out. Sophia moved over to the table and sat down heavily.
Sophia’s words struck him as if she had slapped him in the face. The last thing he ever expected Sophia to call him was a bully. He raised an eyebrow at her. “Bullying you?”
He would have joined her at the table, but his leg was killing him. Instead, he leaned back on the counter and crossed his arms over his chest.
Sophia waved her hand before she rested her chin on it. “All right. Perhaps bullying is the wrong word. But you know what I mean. You’ve always looked for a reason to pick a fight with me. Always. And to tell you the truth, now that Daniel’s gone, I thought things might be different. I thought you might actually make an effort to be nice to me. Stop giving me such a hard time all the time.”
Next to his mother, Sophia was the only person who could easily cut through his B.S. and make him feel like crap. They were the only two women whose opinion actually mattered to him. And she was right. He was doing exactly what he had promised himself he wouldn’t do with her. He had promised himself that he wouldn’t fall into the same old pattern with her. He’d stop looking for reasons to fight with her and handle her gently. Things would be different. He would change his ways and get along with Sophia. That’s what Daniel would have wanted. That’s what he needed to do, for everyone’s sake, including his own.
“Okay.” Luke’s tone was steady and quiet. “We’ve obviously gotten off on the wrong foot here.”
Sophia drew her eyebrows together. “We?”
Luke eyed her, blew out his breath and then started over. “Okay...I got off on the wrong foot here. Let me go upstairs, take a shower. We’ll try it again later.”
Sophia nodded. Seemed like a good idea. The two of them were going to be under the same roof for the next month or so. They were going to have to learn how to get along. She was willing, if he was willing. “I’m in Daniel’s room. Your mom fixed up your room for you, of course. We’re sharing the bathroom. That a problem for you?”
“No.” He took a step forward, but stopped abruptly. A sharp pain ripped through his left thigh.
Sophia saw Luke’s tanned face pale as he bent over to put his hand on his leg. She forced herself to stand up. “Should you be walking around so much? Why don’t you have a cane?”
Luke straightened upright and took in a deep breath through his nose. He should be using his cane, but he had some stupid notion that he didn’t want Sophia to see him with it. He hadn’t wanted her to think he was weak. Screw it! She was going to see him use it eventually anyway. It might as well be now. It had to be now. “It’s in the hall. With my bag.”
Sophia went into the hall, grabbed the cane and brought it to Luke. “A whole heck of a lot of good it was doing you over there.”
Luke leaned on the cane. He suddenly looked beat. “I don’t like the damn thing.”
Sophia didn’t like Luke’s pallor, or the beads of sweat that had popped out along his forehead. Luke had always been so combative with her, but she still cared about him.
“Do you need help?” she asked.
Luke had to stop himself from snapping at her. He measured his words, regulated his tone. “No. I’ve got it.” Offhandedly, he added, “Thanks.”
Luke slowly made his way to the hallway. He looked between the narrow stairs and his duffel bag at the entrance. He considered leaving the bag behind. His leg was throbbing. He just wanted to get to his room and get off his feet.
“Luke?” Sophia’s voice made him stop.
“Yes?”
“Is your coat meowing?”
Chapter Two
For a moment, Luke stared at Sophia and tried to make sense of her words. Then it hit him. The kitten! “Shit! I mean, shoot!” He was going to have to start watching his mouth in his mother’s house. And in front of Sophia. One raised eyebrow in his direction made Luke acutely aware of Sophia’s displeasure with his use of profanity in her presence. Luke looked down into his gaping pocket at the sleepy-eyed kitten. “Sorry, little guy. You were so frickin’ quiet I forgot all about you.”
“What do you have?” Sophia peeked into his pocket. “A kitten? You have a kitten? Where’d you get him? Or her?”
Luke leaned his cane against the wall and used both hands to scoop the kitten out of his pocket. “It’s a ‘he.’ Billy suckered me into taking him. That ride from the airport wasn’t free.”
“Ah, yes. I’ve heard about Billy and his strays.” Sophia moved closer, her face delighted. She loved kittens. So had Daniel. “Hi,” she said to the kitten. Then, to Luke, “What’s his name?”
Luke examined the kitten, took in his coal-black fur and his giant golden eyes. Black and gold were Ranger colors. “Ranger.” The name popped out of his mouth, and it seemed to fit.
“Ranger,” Sophia repeated. Daniel had been a ranger in the army. Briefly. “I like it. Daniel would have liked it, too. He loved cats.”
Luke put the kitten on his shoulder. “Yes, he did.” He supposed that was the real reason he had decided to keep the little guy. It’s what Dan would have done.
Luke reached for his cane, accidentally pushed it, and the stupid thing slid down the wall and landed on the ground. Sophia and Luke both eyeballed it. With her hands on her hips, Sophia finally said, “I can get myself down there, but I’m gonna need help getting back up.” She patted her bulging belly with a self-effacing smile. “I’m a little top-heavy nowadays.”
Luke used one hand to hold the kitten on his chest. “I’ll get you back up.”
Sophia tilted her head. “Teamwork, then.” She carefully lowered herself down onto her haunches and picked up the cane. With her other hand she reached out and clasped Luke’s outstretched fingers. Luke braced himself and used the strength of his biceps to bring her up steady and smooth. As he pulled her up, while her eyes were averted, Luke took the opportunity to admire the angles of her beautiful face. How many times had her image kept him company while he was away? He knew her face well. He had memorized every landmark years ago. The slightly upturned tip of her nose, the smattering of freckles across the bridge. The honey tone of her skin that perfectly matched the honey highlights in her long, straight hair. Her full mouth. She had married his brother, but he had seen her first. Fell in love with her on the spot. Had loved her ever since; secretly and from a distance. Always from a distance.
“Here ya go.” Sophia handed the cane over and then scratched the back of Ranger’s neck. “Why don’t you leave him with me while you take a shower? I could use the company.”
Luke had been wondering how the heck he was going to get himself, his bag, and now the kitten all upstairs. Her suggestion sounded like a good one. “What about the whole pregnancy-and-cat thing...”
Sophia waved it off. “Oh, please. We’ll just trim his nails so he won’t accidentally scratch me and you’ll handle all the kitty-box duties. My mom had cats when she was pregnant with me, and I turned out fine. Not to worry...”
“All right.” Luke tried to pull Ranger from his shoulder, but the kitten was determined to stay put. Ranger used his claws to cling to Luke’s overcoat as if it was Velcro.
“Here, let me help you.” Sophia carefully extracted Ranger from Luke’s coat. She held him in the crook of her arm and gave Luke the once-over. She moved her finger up and down. “Why do you still have your coat on, anyway? Here, take it off and I’ll hang it up. No sense in you taking it upstairs.”
Luke shrugged out of the overcoat, glad to have it off, and handed it to Sophia. She nodded her approval and hung it up on the coat rack by the door.
“One more thing,” Luke said with a gruff tone. He checked himself and adjusted his tone. “If you don’t mind.”
“Hmm?”
“Drag my bag over here for me, will ya? I’ll get it on my shoulder from here. I don’t want you lifting it. It’s too heavy.”
“No prob.” Sophia dragged the bag over to Luke. She smiled up at him. “Teamwork!” That smile of hers was rarely aimed his way. It caught him off guard, made his stomach clench in response. Without a word, he bent over at the waist and lifted the bag up with a grunt. Once he hooked it onto his shoulder, he headed up the stairs.
“Take your time,” Sophia called after him. “I’ll just close the door to the kitchen so he has to stay in there with me. We’ll see you when you come down.”
* * *
Luke awakened from his nap, groggy and disoriented. At first he didn’t know exactly where he was; it took him a minute to figure it out. He had no idea how long he had slept. All he knew is that it had been light outside when his head hit the pillow and now it was dark. He reached over and fumbled for the lamp on the bedside table. Then he squinted at his watch. It was still on Afghan time. His fuzzy brain calculated the time difference and figured it was closing in on 9:00 p.m.
He couldn’t believe he had slept so long. Nearly six hours. He had popped a couple of pain pills before he crashed on the bed. Those pills must have done the trick; he usually could sleep for only an hour or two at a time.
Luke hung his legs off the side of the bed for a moment before he slid off the mattress. He stripped off the rest of his clothes, undressed his wound and headed for the shower. He examined the antique claw-foot tub, with unreasonably high sides, and worked out the most practical way to get himself in it. Once in the shower, he pressed his hands against the back of the wall and let the steaming water run down his back. The water stung as it hit the wound, but it was a good pain.
As the water pummeled his skin, Luke’s mind drifted, as it often did, to Sophia. She had surprised him. Honestly, he had expected to find a sniffling, hormonal, wretched woman who spent her waking moments blaming him for Dan’s death. He blamed himself, after all, so why shouldn’t she? If he hadn’t chosen a military life, perhaps Dan wouldn’t have joined the army out of the blue. And if he hadn’t joined, he’d still be alive today.
He’d thought for sure that Sophia would blame him. He had counted on it. Planned for it. But she didn’t seem to. And she certainly wasn’t wallowing and weeping. That was a major relief. There were a lot of things that Luke knew how to do. If he had to jump out of a plane to get the job done, he could do it. If something needed to be blown up, not a problem. But comfort a hysterical female? Not his area of expertise.
Luckily for him, Sophia had her act together. He should have known she would. He had no idea what possessed him to doubt her in the first place. Sophia had always been headstrong, determined and upbeat. In the ten years he had known her, he’d never once seen her let life get her down. It was one of the things he had always loved about her. So had Dan, for that matter. Dan and he had disagreed since they were kids, about everything, all of the time. But they had always agreed about the merits of Sophia.
Out of the shower now, Luke dressed the wound, pulled on jeans and a white undershirt. He was starved. He headed downstairs to raid the fridge and see how Sophia and Ranger were getting on.
Sophia was sitting at the table, writing. Ranger was sitting on the table next to her pad of paper, legs tucked up beneath him, eyes closed. He opened his eyes when he heard the kitchen door open, stood up, stretched into a back arch and then sat down on his haunches.
“Mom would have a fit about that,” Luke said. Sophia knew he meant Ranger sitting on the table.
Sophia wrinkled up her nose. “I know.” She sighed, heavily. “I know. But to tell you the truth, I was so impressed with his determination to get up here, I didn’t have the heart to tell him no.”
Luke remembered Ranger’s valiant escape from the box. He had felt the same way. “He has that effect.” Luke moved to the table and reached out to stroke Ranger’s fur. The minute he touched the little guy, he started to purr.
“How’s your finger?”
Sophia held up her bandaged finger. “Still attached. How’s your leg?”
Luke shot her a wry expression. “Still attached.”
Sophia smiled at him, which made the dimple on her left cheek appear.
“What are you doing?” Luke asked. He picked Ranger up and held him next to his heart.
“Making a list of things to do tomorrow. I swear, these lists are the only thing that’s kept me sane while your family is at your uncle’s for Thanksgiving. He’s in pretty bad shape after that surgery he just had. Did you know about that?”
Luke took a seat at the table. He nodded yes.
Sophia clicked the pen so the tip came in and out. “You know, you should really call your folks and let them know you’re here.”
“I’ll let it be a surprise.”
“Okay,” Sophia replied, skeptically. “If you say so. But you know how your mom is....”
“She’ll be fine.”
Sophia made a noise and went back to her list. After a minute, she slapped the pen down on the paper. “Wow. My brain is really fried. You haven’t eaten.” She pushed herself up. “You’ve gotta be famished.”
“I am.”
Sophia opened the refrigerator. She twisted to the side and looked at him. “Chicken and stuffing okay? I made myself a little impromptu Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Happy belated Thanksgiving, by the way. It’s a bummer you had to spend your holiday traveling.” She paused to take a breath and then continued. “So? Chicken and stuffing okay?”
“That’s fine,” Luke said. You always had to wait for Sophia to come up for air before you spoke. “I can fend for myself, you know. I don’t want you overdoing it on my account. You’re...you know.”
She pulled out some Tupperware. “Pregnant? I know. Kind of obvious. But it’s not like I’m disabled or an invalid.”
Luke’s shoulders stiffened. “Neither am I.”
Ah yes. The infamous Brand family pride. She knew it well. She found it as equally annoying in Luke as she had in Daniel. “You’d think you wouldn’t be so cranky after such a long nap.” Of course, the Brand men were well-known for being impossible to get along with if they were hungry. Sophia stopped what she was doing and leaned back on the counter. “I wasn’t calling you an invalid, but the truth is the truth. Your leg is screwed up. Mine isn’t. So, do you want me to help you out or not?”
The expression on Luke’s face undoubtedly sent his military underlings running for cover. She knew him well enough not to be impressed. “Yes? No? What shall it be, Captain?”
“Do you always have to be so dramatic over every little thing?” Luke answered a question with a question; another Brand family trait.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She popped the lids off the containers and piled food high on a plate.
While Sophia prepared his meal, Luke couldn’t take his eyes off her. Thoughts of her had been his constant companion, but this was the first time he’d ever been alone with her. This was the first time he’d ever had her all to himself. The circumstances weren’t ideal, but having Sophia with him now felt as if the planets had aligned for him. And he was enjoying just sitting back and watching her.
“How are you feeling?” he asked her.
Sophia’s ponytail swung to the side as she spun her head around to look at him over her shoulder. “Honestly, I’ve had a great pregnancy...all things considered. I’ve been exercising, of course, staying active. I have a friend who’s a personal trainer and she helps me choose the right foods, pick safe exercises. I haven’t even been all that tired, until recently.” She shrugged one shoulder. “The worst of it is missing Daniel, wanting him to be here with me. He always used to say that he couldn’t wait to see me pregnant.” Sophia paused for a minute to compose herself. At times, the emotions would well up without warning and she would have to push back the tears. “I suppose we shouldn’t have waited so long to have a family. We were waiting until he finished school and my practice was more stable.” Lower, almost under her breath, she added, “Stupid.”
“You couldn’t have seen this coming, Soph. None of us plan for this sort of thing. No one would get out of bed, if we did,” Luke said in a low, even tone. “But you’re right about one thing, though. He always wanted to see you pregnant. He always thought you’d make a great-looking pregnant woman.” His eyes swept her body unbeknownst to her. “He was right.”
“Thanks,” Sophia said with a small smile. The timer dinged and Sophia pulled the plate out of the microwave. “Of course, my face is puffy, my ankles are swollen and I have to urinate constantly.” She put the plate down in front of him and smiled. “TMI, right?”
Luke shook his head; as she set the plate down, he noticed the simple gold wedding band that still encircled her left ring finger. He wasn’t surprised that she still wore her wedding band; she had always been loyal to Dan. In life, and now in death.
The minute she moved her hand away, he hunched over his plate and started to dig in.
“Something to drink?”
Luke chewed fast, and then swallowed hard before he spoke. “Water’s good.”
She brought a glass of water back to the table with her and then sat down beside him. Ranger had found his way back to the food Sophia had scrounged up for him. The Brand family had taken in so many strays over the years that it was standard operating procedure to have emergency pet supplies on hand.
“The moral of this story is, I feel pretty good and I have to stay active in order to maintain a modicum of sanity out here in the boonies. So, I don’t mind helping you out while you rest your leg a bit...if you can put your male pride aside for a second or two.”
Luke wasn’t really paying attention to what she was saying; he was shoveling in his food as if he hadn’t eaten for days. He ate like a man who was used to being surrounded by other men vying for the same food. He protected his food with one arm, leaned forward and got the food to his mouth as quickly as possible.
“Luke,” she asked with surprise, “what happened to your table manners?”
Luke paused from his shoveling for a second, sat up and moved his arms off the table. He glanced up at her. “Better?”
“Much.” She shook her head at him. “I take it you like the food? Or, were you just that hungry?”
Luke gulped the water down before he said, “It was pretty damn good.”
Sophia picked up the plate and rinsed it in the sink. “Glad you liked it.” When she returned to her spot at the table, Luke had Ranger in his lap.
“Find any clippers when you found the cat food?” Luke was examining the kitten’s claws.
“Yes. Finally. I wish your mom would find a different outlet when she’s upset. None of us can ever find anything when she’s done.” Sophia chuckled and shook her head. “I put them over there on the counter.” She made to get up again. Luke’s warm hand on her arm stopped her.
“You sit. I’ll get them.”
She decided to let him win this one and didn’t protest. He returned with the clippers and the kitten. Once seated, he flipped Ranger over on his back and put him down gently on his lap.
“You’ve done this before.”
“Yes, I have,” Luke replied. His mom’s soft spot for animals was well-known in the community; everyone knew where to drop off the strays.
Ranger was crying and squirming on Luke’s lap. “If you steady his hind legs, we’ll get this done quickly.”
She scooted her chair closer and reached out to stop Ranger from kicking his legs, while Luke started to trim his front claws. She was so close to him that the fresh scent of his skin invaded her senses. He smelled just like Daniel when he was straight out of the shower: almonds mixed with the scent of soap. She couldn’t stop herself from taking his scent deeply into her lungs. Her long intake of breath caught Luke’s attention. He looked up from his task, caught her eye and said, “Teamwork.”
Nothing in his face read humor, but she saw a glint of mirth that lurked behind the intense depth of his light blue eyes. She leaned back a bit and resisted the urge to bury her nose in his neck. That’s what she used to do with Daniel. It used to be one of her favorite things to do.
“There you go, little man. All done.” Luke easily turned the kitten upright and let him down on the ground. Ranger hopped forward a couple of steps before he stopped and licked his shoulder to release some of his irritation.
Sophia watched Ranger, glad for the distraction that pulled attention away from the way Luke’s nearness made her heart race. “I was actually starting to think that you were going to sleep through the night.”
“I’m surprised I got any shut-eye at all, to tell you the truth.” Luke leaned back in the chair and stretched out his left leg. He rubbed his hands across his cropped hair. Daniel had always worn his light brown hair shaggy and long. Sophia couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Luke without what she termed “Marine hair.” Looking at him now, she was reminded of the first time she had seen Daniel after he had enlisted in the army; he had looked just like Luke in that moment. When they had made love, conceived the child she was carrying, for a split second, she had thought of Luke.
“What?” Luke asked her, an eyebrow raised in question. She must have been giving him an odd look.
“Just thinking.”
“Anything interesting?”
“No.”
Just remembering that I had thought of you when Daniel and I conceived this child...
Luke was growing a goatee; there was a faint outline of stubble that encircled his mouth. Her fingers had the strangest urge to reach out and follow the goatee trail around his lips, of all the stupid things!
“I think we should put Ranger in the hall bathroom upstairs. What do you think?”
“What?” She hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation; she had been distracted by his lips.
“The hall bathroom. Ranger. The kitty box. What do you think?”
“Oh. Yeah. Makes sense.” Those words were followed by a wide yawn. “I think it’s time for me to start thinking about bed. It’s been a long day.”
It took several slow trips, but between the two of them, they managed to get Ranger, his food and the kitty box upstairs into the hall bathroom. Sophia molded a bed out of towels and turned on a low nightlight before she shut the door. Ranger was hooked up.
Luke and Sophia faced each other outside of their respective bedroom doors. There was an awkward moment of silence before they both finally said good-night. Once inside their rooms, they ran back into each other on their sides of the adjoining bathroom.
Luke held on to his door. “Ladies first.”
Sophia agreed. She stepped into the bathroom. She added, “Make sure you knock, mister. Let’s not have any unfortunate moments.”
He knew what she was getting at. She didn’t want him to accidentally walk in on her while she was naked in the head.
“Understood,” he said before he closed the door firmly shut. He heard the lock click, and that made him smile a bit.
Fifteen minutes later, she knocked on his door. “Okay. Your turn.”
He got himself in and out of the bathroom as fast as possible. He popped a couple of painkillers into his mouth and then waited impatiently for them to knock him out. He tossed and turned; he tried to find a comfortable way to position his leg, but he never found it. Instead, he lay on his back with his hands folded behind his head, and imagined Sophia in her bed. It took all of his willpower not to cross to her room and pull her into his arms.
God, he loved her.
God, he wanted her.
But she loved Dan. In her eyes, he would always be second best to his twin. He knew that. Had always known it. Now, he would just have to continue to live with it.
Sophia wasn’t having any better luck sleeping than Luke. It was almost impossible to find a comfortable position to sleep at this stage of the pregnancy game. She had three pillows jammed along her back for support, and one pillow jammed between her legs to keep her knees from digging into each other. Little Danny had decided, for some unknown reason, to change his position the minute she lay down to go to sleep. He had seemed perfectly content in his original position the entire night, but once she closed her eyes, he stuffed his feet up under her rib cage and started to spin around. It felt as if he was trying to make a break for it!
So, when Ranger started crying at the top of his lungs, she was awake to hear it. She sighed heavily and rolled herself out of bed. The wood floor was cold on her bare feet as she quietly made her way to the door. She opened the door, stepped outside of her room and bumped right into a nearly naked Luke. The only thing the man had on was tight white boxer briefs. She hoped that her expression didn’t change as her eyes flitted up and down the length of him.
The frame was the same as Daniel’s, yes. But this build was all Luke. His body was lean and muscular from years of fighting and surviving. Her eyes settled on the bandage that encircled Luke’s sculpted thigh before she swung them back up to Luke’s face. At that moment, she was genuinely grateful for the dim light in the hall. She had no doubt that her face was stained bright red with a blush.
“I’ll get him,” Luke said. “You go back to bed.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I got it.”
Sophia removed herself quickly back to her room. The racing of her heart, she suspected, had absolutely nothing to do with her husband and everything to do with Luke. And she hated it. What kind of woman would bury her husband, carry his child and then respond physically to another man?
“A seriously disturbed one,” Sophia scolded herself as she pounded the pillows behind her, squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself to fall asleep.
Luke was having his own issues. Ranger was curled up in a ball next to his ear on the pillow, happily purring his fool head off. Luke, on the other hand, was wide awake and fully aroused. Seeing Sophia in her nightgown, her long silky hair spilling over her shoulders and onto her breasts, made blood flow rapidly into parts of his body that had no business waking up. But she had just looked so damned sexy in her modest cotton nightgown with the light from the stairs revealing the outline of her shapely legs. Even the bulge of her pregnant belly was a turn-on.
“God... You’re sick, man,” Luke said to himself. He balled his hands into a fist and waited for the arousal to ebb. He had no business horn-dogging after Sophia. No business at all! Luke felt like hitting something, so he pounded the mattress with his fists. Why hadn’t the pills kicked in? Only sleep would annihilate the vulnerable, sensual image of Sophia fresh out of bed that was now scorched into his brain. Sleep couldn’t get here soon enough. Not by a long shot.
Chapter Three
Luke woke up the next morning feeling hungover from the meds. He had managed to sleep off and on, but for the most part, he had tossed and turned all night. He couldn’t get his leg comfortable and he couldn’t get Sophia out of his mind. Being so close to her, without Dan as a buffer, was not something he had been prepared to handle. She made him feel out of control. He didn’t like it.
“Square yourself away, marine. Real quick,” Luke said to his reflection before he flipped open the hinged bathroom mirror and looked for a razor in the medicine cabinet. He knew he’d find one; his mom was always prepared. What he wasn’t expecting to find was a neatly organized row of Sophia’s favorite fragrances.
The first time he had ever laid eyes on Sophia, she was working behind a fragrance counter in a local department store. She had been talking with a customer, a perfume bottle loosely held in her hand. Her hair was swept up into a haphazard twist and her lovely face was completely devoid of makeup. The sight of her throwing her head back as she laughed stopped him in his tracks. She laughed without reservation; her positive energy sucked him in. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. In an instant, he was crazy, head over heels for her, and he had been ever since.
Luke glanced over at the adjoining bathroom door that led to Sophia’s bedroom. He had heard her moving around a couple of hours ago, so he knew she was already downstairs. He reached over and checked to make sure the door was locked before he pulled the first fragrance bottle down.
“Stalker,” Luke said quietly to himself with a self-effacing half smile. He popped the top off the first bottle and brought it up to his nose. The minute the perfume reached his senses, he thought “Sophia.” To Luke, Sophia always smelled like something he wanted to eat. She never wore the same fragrance two days in a row, but she did have a lineup of favorites, and Luke recognized them all.
One by one, Luke spent a moment with each of Sophia’s fragrances. Each one conjured up a memory of Sophia. From Luke’s vantage point, Dan had won the ultimate prize the day he married her. Luke snapped the top onto the last bottle and got back to the business of shaving the stubble off his face. He moved his head side to side and checked out the goatee that was taking shape. A couple of days more and it might actually look like something. He wondered if Sophia would like him with it. The minute that thought crossed his mind, he gripped each side of the sink, dropped his head and shook it.
Unacceptable, Brand!
The sooner he got back to his life in the corps, the better off he’d be. He didn’t make sense in civilian clothes. He sure as hell didn’t make sense when he was around Sophia; he needed to figure out a way to shove his feelings back into place. He had been doing it for years; it should be second nature. But it wasn’t. Keeping his heart closed to Sophia was like trying to stop his lungs from wanting to take in air. Whenever she was near him, he had an overwhelming urge to hold her face in his hands, look into those sweet hazel-green eyes and tell her that he loved her. That he had always loved her. Which would, of course, be the worst mistake of his life. His confession would freak Sophia out, and any plans he had to play a big role in his nephew’s life would get eighty-sixed. He couldn’t risk that happening. He just couldn’t risk it.
Luke stared down his own image in the mirror. “Maintain your military bearing, marine. That’s all you have to do. Maintain your military bearing.”
Luke pushed himself away from the sink and headed downstairs. Sophia smiled at him in greeting. She was on the phone; she mouthed the name “Tyler” and raised her eyebrows at him. He shook his head. There were five kids in the Brand clan, including him. Tyler was the middle child; he was sandwiched between two sets of twins; Dan and Luke were the oldest, and Jordan and Josephine were the youngest. Out of the three boys and two girls, Tyler had turned out to be the only true rancher in the bunch. He took after their dad, from his tall, lanky build to his love for the land. Luke was proud of him, looked forward to seeing him, but he wasn’t ready for a reunion just yet. His entire focus was on Sophia. The rest of the family had to take a backseat.
“Okay.” Sophia said into the phone after a pause. “Thanks for checking up on me. Tell your mom and dad that I’m fine. Danny and I are doing just fine.” She rested her hand on her stomach as she spoke those words. “Okay. I’m glad your uncle’s feeling better. And listen, have some fun while you’re there. Stop worrying about me. I’ll see you when you guys get back. All right. Bye, Tyler.”
Sophia hung up the phone. “You could have at least told Tyler you’re here. He’s as tight-lipped as you are.”
“And ruin the surprise?”
Luke said this with a deadpan expression. She could rarely read him, and this time was no different, but something in her gut told her that Luke’s early arrival didn’t have much to do with surprising his family. She just couldn’t figure out what else it could be.
She put the kettle on for tea. “I already got the third degree from my parents this morning...again. They want me to have this baby in Boston. I can’t really blame them, this is their first grandchild. But this is your parents’ first grandchild, too. And I don’t know...I think it’s more important for your parents because this is Daniel’s son.”
“No matter what you do, someone’s always gonna be ticked off.” Luke shrugged. “Do what’s best for you, make yourself happy; everyone else will fall in formation. Or not.”
Sophia smiled faintly. “You’re right. Not always easy to do, though. For me, anyway. Coffee?”
Luke nodded. She brought him a cup of black coffee. He was surprised she remembered that he didn’t take cream and sugar.
“Eggs okay?”
“I wish you’d stop waiting on me.”
“I wish you’d stop giving me a hard time about something I want to do. You’re actually doing me a favor. My days are packed in Boston with clients and meetings, friends, shopping. I’m used to being on my BlackBerry all of the time at home. I swear I’m having serious withdrawal because the reception is so bad here. I actually have to stand up on the window seat in my room and smash myself up against the wall in order to get just one lousy bar! I have to find stuff to do here, or I swear to you I’ll go stark raving mad.” She pulled eggs out of the fridge and located a pan. “I mean, your family’s great. Your mom, your dad, Tyler...all of them. They’ve been wonderful to me. But I’m a city girl. I’m used to keeping up the pace all day long. Coming and going as I please. Out here, I feel like I’m stuck in slow motion.” She paused from her task for a minute so she could punctuate her words with her hands. “Quite frankly, it’s driving me nuts. There are only so many sunsets I can admire, so much foliage I can appreciate. I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but bring on the traffic and the noise.” She dug in the cabinet for a bag of decaffeinated green tea. “And I can only hope that your parents aren’t going to want me to make this a permanent situation once Danny is born.”
Luke nodded. His mom just might try to convince Sophia to stay. His mom was all about family, and she would want to see Dan’s son grow. “It’s gotta be tough to be away from your business. Who’s taking care of your clients while you’re away?” Luke asked, before he took a sip of coffee.
Sophia started to scramble the eggs, just how he liked them. Another thing she had remembered about him. Dan only ate his fried.
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, leaving the business. I’ve had horrible abandonment issues. What kind of therapist abandons her patients? Luckily I have a great group of therapists in our office who were willing to take on my patients. I still feel bad, though. Like I’m letting them down. Especially during the holidays. I’m booked between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. A lot of depression.” Sophia took the kettle off the stove and poured the piping-hot water over the tea bag.
“Dealing with your family can do that to a person.” Luke nodded.
“The holidays are a tough time. People get depressed if they have to spend time with family, and then other people get depressed if they don’t have family to make them miserable during the holidays. Either way, the holidays are a therapist’s busy season. Kind of like tax season for CPAs.” Sophia put the finished eggs on a plate and brought them to Luke. “Here ya go.”
“Tax time’s probably busy for you, too.”
That made Sophia smile. Lately, Luke had been having that effect on her. She liked it. “Come to think of it, I do get a boost during April.”
When Sophia leaned over to set the plate on the table, her arm brushed against Luke’s. The sensation of his skin against hers set off an instantaneous chain reaction; the fine hairs on her arm stood straight up on end, and wherever his skin had touched hers a trail of goose bumps popped up. Horrified, she immediately started to rub her arm to smooth the goose bumps away.
Luke admired the food on his plate. “This looks really good. Thanks.”
“My pleasure.” She turned away from him. “Hey... Where’s Ranger?”
“I put him in the bathroom. He needs to use the head,” he said, then corrected himself. “I mean the facilities.”
“Gotcha.” Sophia smiled; she continued to rub her arm.
Luke noticed the rubbing, of course. Had to comment, of course. “You cold? I’ll get a fire started if you want.”
Sophia looked down at her arm. She wasn’t cold, but what was she going to say, “The feel of your skin on mine gave me goose bumps, Luke”? Not likely! Instead she said, “I’d like that. Tyler or your dad would always build me a fire. I’ve missed them. Do you need anything else? Toast? Orange juice?”
“I’m good. Thanks.”
“Then I’m gonna check on Ranger. Maybe he’ll be brave enough to explore downstairs today.” That little kitten had been a great distraction. She needed a reason to get away from Luke and the bizarre, completely unacceptable feelings he kicked up inside of her; Ranger was a perfect excuse. This reaction she was having to Luke was starting to get really old. She was obviously having some sort of emotional transference brought on by the fact that Luke looked exactly, for the most part, like Daniel. And it was obvious that she missed Daniel and was transferring some of her unrequited desire on to his twin! It had to be that. She didn’t want Luke.
“No. Of course you don’t,” she said under her breath as she climbed the stairs.
Luke had always been a pain. He had always given her a hard time. He was nothing like Daniel, except for the outside package. And even that wasn’t exactly the same. Case in point: a nearly naked Luke had looked quite a bit different than a nearly naked Daniel. Okay, perhaps that wasn’t the best example she could have thought of. But still!
Sophia reached the top of the stairs and put her hands on her hips as if she were scolding a small child. “You want him to be Daniel. But he’s not Daniel. He never will be Daniel, so you really need to get a grip, Sophia!” Her psychology degrees were starting to come in handy; she could psychoanalyze herself.
Sophia opened the bathroom door, and Ranger was more than ready to be let out. He dashed out with a trill, wound his way around her ankles and rubbed his head against her leg.
“Hi, buddy.” Before Sophia could reach down over her belly to pet him, Ranger voiced another excited trill, stuck his tail straight up in the air and zoomed down the stairs without a moment of hesitation.
She stared after him for a moment, bemused. “He’s going to be an absolute terror.”
He’d probably do the family a lot of good during the holidays. This would be the first Christmas without Daniel. Perhaps having a crazy kitten in the mix would distract them all.
Before she went back downstairs, Sophia stopped off at the medicine cabinet to pick out the day’s fragrance. Unfortunately, none of the self-talk up the stairs stopped her from wondering which fragrance Luke would like.
Irritated, she reached for Daniel’s favorite, sprayed it on and went downstairs with a renewed determination not to have any bizarre reactions to Luke.
She found Luke standing in front of the giant bay window that overlooked the ranch. He was staring out at the horizon and seemed to be lost in thought.
“Mission accomplished with the kitty box. Did he come through here?”
“Yeah.” One side of his mouth lifted. Sophia could tell by that one small gesture that the kitten cracked Luke up. “He went tearing through here, ran headfirst into the cabinets, shook it off like nothing happened, jumped up a foot in the air, spun around and went flying back toward the library.”
“That kitten is a menace. Your dad is going to hit the roof when he sees him.” Sophia laughed. She picked up her tea and walked over to stand next to Luke. Perhaps she stood closer to him than she should have, but once she was there, she didn’t have any desire to be anywhere else.
“At first. But he’s always the one who gets attached the quickest,” Luke said as he continued to stare at the horizon.
“It must feel good to be home, especially with all of this,” she said of the snowcapped mountains in the distance. “It’s getting a bit old for me, but this is your home.”
Again, Luke was quiet, as he often was. He stood stock-still, but Sophia could feel his body become tense beside her. She almost moved away, worried she was invading his space, but something made her stay put.
All Luke could do was keep his eyes trained forward. He wanted nothing more than to drape his arm around Sophia’s shoulders and pull her close until her body was molded into his. She was wearing his favorite fragrance. She smelled like citrus and freshly cut grass, and he wanted to bury his face in her neck and breathe her in.
And then she would slap me.
Luke shook his head at himself before he drained his cup.
“What?” Sophia noticed him shaking his head.
“Nothing. I think it’s time for a fire.”
There was something raw in his voice that quickened her pulse. She nodded her head and put some distance between herself and Luke. “I’m going to check my email real quick and then I’ll be back down.”
They both went their separate ways, headed in two completely different directions. No matter how hard Sophia tried, she couldn’t stop her body from reacting to Luke. And it seemed that little Danny was having his own reaction to his uncle’s voice. Was it her imagination, or did her baby seem to get more active whenever Luke was around?
Being around Luke was tying her up in knots on the inside. She felt like an absolute lunatic. She was hormonal and grieving, away from her friends and family, and now she was faced with her husband’s twin. No wonder she was confused. But she had to make sense of it all and do it quickly. After all, Luke had never liked her, not from the very first day that Daniel had introduced them to each other. If he had even a remote clue what was in her head, he’d dislike her even more. This tentative truce he had forged with her for Daniel’s sake would be ruined.
She smoothed her hand over her stomach. “We’re not going to let that happen, are we, Danny boy? No. We’re not.”
More than anything, she wanted Luke to be a big part of her son’s life. She couldn’t screw it up. She wouldn’t let herself screw it up. Instead of booting up her laptop, Sophia did something she rarely allowed herself to do; she curled up on the bed, buried her face into a pillow and cried.
After she cried, she slept. And both activities seemed to do her a world of good. When she awakened an hour later she felt a million times better, and she went downstairs with a renewed sense of purpose. It wasn’t like her to let things eat at her. She liked to bring things out in the open; clear the air. That was just the way she was; that was the therapist in her. And, even though Luke wasn’t exactly the most approachable guy in the world, she wanted to believe that his bark was really much more serious than his bite. She was just going to have to tell him how she was feeling, and he was just going to have to listen. Like it or not.
Sophia found Luke in the library. The fire had died down and the library felt to her as if she was slipping into a warm bath. It was the perfect temperature. Luke was sitting on one end of an overstuffed couch, head back, eyes shut. Ranger was perched on the armrest beside him. When Ranger saw her, he trilled but didn’t move.
“Nice fire,” she said.
“Hmm.” That was the extent of Luke’s reply.
Sophia sat down at the other end of the couch. She sank deep into the cushions and realized that she wasn’t getting back up unless Luke agreed to pull her out. Sophia slid her butt forward and leaned back. She rested her hands on her belly.
“My friends tell me it’s perfectly normal to get tired of being pregnant.” She sighed. “I look like I swallowed a basketball, but at least I have a comfortable place to rest my hands.” She smiled at herself after she said that.
“Hmm.”
“Are you even listening to me?”
Luke cracked an eye open. “No.”
Sophia grabbed a pillow and smacked him in the head with it. “Thanks a lot, Luke. That’s really sensitive!”
She saw his chest moving; saw the corner of his upper lip lift. The man was actually chuckling. Amazing. Rare. She hit him again.
Luke glanced over at her. “When has anyone ever accused me of being sensitive?”
Sophia raised an eyebrow at him. “Good point.”
After a minute, exasperated, she said. “Luke! Aren’t you going to say ‘you don’t look like you swallowed a basketball’?”
Luke pushed himself up so suddenly that it caught her off guard. He leaned forward and turned his head toward her. He had a hard, exasperated look on his face. “You don’t look like you swallowed a basketball, Sophia,” Luke said in a clipped manner; his hand sliced the air as he spoke. “And, honestly, I don’t like to hear you say sh...stuff like that about yourself. You’re a beautiful woman who looks better eight months pregnant than most women I know who aren’t pregnant. If you need to put yourself down, don’t do it around me anymore.”
Sophia was taken aback by Luke’s words. Shocked, actually. Just when she thought he was a total jerk, Luke would throw her a curve ball and prove her wrong.
She saluted him. “Aye, aye, el Capitan.”
Luke shook his head slightly at her sarcasm before he leaned back into the couch once again. “Can we enjoy the fire now?”
Sophia didn’t agree because she had an agenda, but Luke didn’t seem to require her consent. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply.
She wasn’t completely heartless; she would give him a few moments of quiet before she approached him about the main issue on her mind. He seemed to be in a pretty good mood; no time like the present was a personal motto.
After a couple minutes, Sophia pushed herself up into a more upright position and turned her body so she could look at Luke’s profile.
“Luke?”
“Hmm.”
“There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
It took several long seconds for Luke to respond. No doubt he didn’t like the phrase, “I have something to talk to you about.”
“This isn’t what I meant by ‘enjoying the fire.’”
“It’s important to me.” She tapped her finger to her chest, not deterred by the abrasive tone of his voice.
With a sigh, Luke rubbed his hands over his face several times. “What’s on your mind?”
Sophia had been mulling over in her mind how she should bring up the subject. There didn’t really seem to be any diplomatic way to broach it. Honestly, the direct approach seemed to be her only real option. Besides, Luke was a more “in your face” kind of guy. He was a marine. He’d probably appreciate her not beating around the bush.
“Well, it’s like this.” She held out her hand. “And I really hope you don’t take offense, Luke, because I’m not trying to hurt your feelings...”
“Before I’m ninety, Soph.”
“Quit rushing me!” she replied, “I want to make sure that when I’ve said what I have to say that you’re not going to feel bad....”
“Sophia...”
“Fine. Here goes.” Sophia paused, took in a deep breath, then let the deep breath out, before she said, “Luke... I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but your face really bothers me.”
Chapter Four
After the words popped out of her mouth, Sophia felt immediately relieved. Unloaded. It felt really good to get that off her chest.
There, she thought proudly. It’s good for relationship growth to get things out in the open.
She had absolutely no doubt that this would be good for both of them. They would have an open and honest dialogue about their feelings; about Daniel. About being together without him. Of course, she had never had a serious discussion with Luke before, but after all, Luke and Daniel were twins, right? There had to be some similarities in the way they resolved problems.
Daniel was great when it came to hashing things out.And he always had something relevant to say that let her know that he’d really listened to her and that he’d thought about his answer. He never dismissed her. It was one of the many things that she had truly admired about her husband.
Just like Daniel, Luke was taking his time before he responded. He hadn’t moved; his eyes were still closed, his head was still resting on the cushion. No doubt he was trying to think of the perfect thing to say....
Sophia sank back into the couch, rested her head in her hand and, for the first time she could remember, she really looked at Luke. Her eyes roamed his profile and naturally took an inventory of all of the little Daniel details she loved.
Those were Daniel’s ears. One of her favorites spots to nibble on when they made love. So sensitive. It made her wonder, irrationally, if Luke’s ears were sensitive, too.
Silly thought.
Of course, the dent in the middle of Luke’s nose, which made him look like a prizefighter, didn’t mirror Daniel’s nose. Daniel’s nose had been unaltered from the original design.
By the time her eyes landed on the faint, long scar that ran the length of Luke’s jawline, it hit her that Luke was taking an excessive amount of time to respond to her statement.
Sophia opened her mouth to say his name, but clamped it back shut when she heard Luke take in a deep breath through his nose that sounded suspiciously like a snore.
Sophia reached over and poked him in the arm with her finger. “Luke!”
“Hmm?”
“Did you just fall asleep?”
After a long pause. “No.”
“Yes, you did!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!” she snapped. Typical Luke behavior! Once again, she had given him more credit than he deserved. She had opened her heart, revealed something very personal to her, and he was snoring!
She would have thought at this point the man would have the decency to open his eyes. He didn’t. Luke didn’t move, but Ranger did. The kitten used his back leg to scratch an itch underneath his chin before he moved over to sit on Luke’s chest. Ranger plopped down and curled up into a tight ball. Luke didn’t bother to move.
“Luke!” she said forcefully.
“What?” Now he sounded irritated.
“You fell asleep!”
After a few ticks of the grandfather clock and a few loud Ranger purrs, Luke cracked an eye open and looked at her. “Then, why’d you wake me up?”
Her mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?”
“You bet.”
He used that abrasive tone that always rubbed her the wrong way, and she felt her blood pressure soar. She wasn’t here to play naughty “recruit” to his bad boy “drill sergeant”! She felt like punching him and she wished, at the moment, that she had a violent streak.
Was this some sort of bizarre pregnancy rage, or was Luke just that infuriating to her?
“Luke.” Her tone was snappy and she didn’t try to curb it. “We were in the middle of a conversation.”
Luke stretched, yawned and then stretched again. Finally, his eyes were open. He turned his full attention to Sophia, examined her through heavy-lidded eyes.
“We were?”
Sophia lifted up both her hands and splayed out her fingers. “Yes! We were! I said that your face bothered me.” When she repeated the phrase out loud, it sounded comical to her own ears, but she didn’t laugh as she continued. “Didn’t you hear me?”
“I heard you.” He had the audacity to sound irritated with her. She wasn’t the one who had fallen asleep in the middle of an important conversation.
She found herself glaring at him. “And?”
“And what?”
“And... What do you have to say about it?”
Luke rubbed his hands over his face, sighed heavily and finally turned his intense gaze back to her. “What do you want me to say? Oh, wait... How ’bout this. You’re the therapist. Why don’t you tell me what I should have said, since you obviously have my response all planned out for me.”
“No.” Her words were clipped and articulated with precision. “I didn’t have your response planned out for you, thank you kindly. I was waiting for you to add something constructive to the conversation. A temporary lapse of reason, quite obviously!”
“That was a conversation?”
“Luke! Now you’re just being thickheaded! Do you have anything to say or not?”
“No.”
“Nothing at all?” Her tone was incredulous; her eyebrows were lifted in disbelief. She told the man that his face bothered her and he had nothing to say?
“What’s your problem?” she demanded.
Finally, Luke was paying full attention to her. He held on to Ranger as he sat upright. The features of his handsome face hardened; his lips were downturned into a frown. His eyes were dark and unreadable.
“I’m not the one with the problem.” His tone was sharp, controlled. Slightly mocking. “Your face doesn’t bother me all that much.”
Sophia was silent; her mind raced to craft the perfect sarcastic retort. She stared at him; he stared back at her. Finally, she let out an exasperated noise and tried to push herself into a standing position. She wanted to stomp out of the room in a flurry of righteous indignation, but her belly was in the way, so it just wasn’t happening for her. Instead, she held out her hand with an irritated sigh.
“For crying out loud, Luke!” She waved her hand at him. “Help me up!”
Luke stood, clasped her hand in his and pulled her out of the overstuffed couch.
They were standing close together, too close. She could smell that intoxicating almond scent on his skin. It made her heart race even faster, and she couldn’t understand why he wasn’t budging. She pushed on his chest.
“Move it, Luke!”
She needed to find something to do, anything, to take her mind off Daniel’s arrogant, sarcastic, pain-in-the-ass brother. The farther away from Luke she could get, the better off she’d be.
Luke didn’t budge.
“Move!” She reached out and pushed him again. She was being rude and she didn’t care. For some reason, no matter what, Luke always brought out the worst in her. Just when she would start to think they had found some common ground, he went and screwed it all up.
This time, Luke turned to the side and let her by. She sent him a slit-eyed look before she lifted up her chin and breezed by him.
Luke watched as Sophia disappeared in the direction of the kitchen. He stood in the same spot for several seconds and felt as if he’d just been mugged. One minute he was enjoying the fire with Sophia, and the next thing he knew she was picking a fight with him. Why did that woman always have to make everything so damned complicated?
Luke looked at Ranger sitting on the edge of the couch cushion. “What the hell just happened here? Can you tell me that?”
Luke sat back down on the couch to contemplate his next move. One option was to not move at all. Normally, with any woman in his life, that’s the only option that would have been on the table. He would have stayed put and let them come back to him. They always did come back.
But there wasn’t anything normal about his situation, and he wasn’t dealing with just any woman. He was dealing with Sophia, and she definitely had to be handled with care.
What would Dan do in this situation?
He’d follow after her and eat crow! That’s what he’d do. Dan knew how to keep Sophia happy. And now, that was his new mission. Keep Sophia happy.
Luke dropped his head into his hands; that woman was giving him a massive headache. “So, go eat crow, marine.”
He dropped Ranger off in the bathroom and popped a pain pill into his mouth before he went to find Sophia in the kitchen. She was sitting at the table, writing in a determined fashion. She didn’t bother to acknowledge his presence.
She obviously still wanted to wring his neck.
He tried to break the ice by stating the obvious. He felt like an idiot trying to cajole a woman; it was out of character. “Working on your list?”
Sophia glanced up and narrowed her eyes at him. He had just been trying to lighten the mood, but Sophia looked as if she might want to do him bodily harm.
So much for breaking the ice.
Luke sat down at the table across from her.
“What’s on that list of yours, anyway?” Persistence was going to be a key element in this situation. He’d seen Sophia hold a grudge.
Sophia stopped writing and tapped her pen on the table. “Is there something you want?”
Luke rubbed his hands over the top of his shaved head. “God, Sophia, gimme a break, will ya? How was I supposed to know you wanted me to say something?”
She made a face. “Please.”
Luke let his arms drop onto the table with a thud. “Okay. How ’bout this? Why don’t you tell me what I should have said, because I sure as hell don’t know! Tell me what I should say when someone tells me that my face bothers them.”
It didn’t seem possible, but her eyes narrowed even more. She dropped her head and went back to her list. “Just forget it.”
“No. I’m not going to forget it.” God, she was a royal pain in the ass! “You wanted to talk about this. Let’s talk. I’m telling you flat-out—I didn’t know your statement required an answer. You don’t want to believe me, that’s your problem. But that’s the truth. Bottom line.”
Sophia chewed on his words for a bit. She glanced up. “You really didn’t think you should add something? Really?”
“That’s the honest truth. What do you think, that I sit around the campfire with my men singing Kumbaya and talking about our feelings? Come on...I just came out of a war zone, Sophia. You’re the shrink. Shouldn’t you be able to figure out that there may be an adjustment period for me?”
“You act as if you aren’t civilized anymore,” she said sullenly. The man did have a good point; there was no denying it.
“Maybe I’m not,” Luke said harshly without hesitation. “Because I sure as hell don’t know what I should have said to you back there.”
Sophia waved the pen in the air. “You could have said something like, ‘Gee, Sophia, I didn’t know that. I’m sorry that me looking like Daniel is making you feel confused and upset. Thanks for the info. Thanks for sharing.’ Something like that. Anything would have been better than snoring!”
When the woman had a point, she had a point.
Luke rubbed his hands over his face before he dropped them onto the table in surrender. Emotional conversations had never been his strength; that was a fact. He could have done better with Sophia. He needed to do better with Sophia. She deserved it.
“You’re right. I could have done a little bit better.”
Sophia snorted. “A lot better.”
“All right. A lot better.”
“Substantially better,” Sophia added.
Luke got up and pulled a glass out of the cabinet. He filled it up with tap water and chugged it. He turned his back to the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. Sophia was back to her list, and back to ignoring him. It was strange. He hadn’t really gotten a good look at her after she came down from her nap. He could see now, in the light of the kitchen, that her eyes were puffy. Sophia had been crying.
He felt like an even bigger jerk, if that was possible. He supposed it was possible, because he did.
Sophia always seemed so tough. In control. In charge. But right now she appeared vulnerable. He didn’t know quite how to deal with this version of the woman he loved. He’d never encountered it before.
“Sophia.” He said her name softly.
She ignored him.
Stubborn woman.
“Sophia.” He said her name as he always wanted to, like a caress. This grabbed her attention. It got her to look up.
“What?” Still a bite in her tone.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what? You don’t even know what you did wrong.”
“Dammit, Sophia... Can you let a guy apologize without crucifying him?”
Sophia put her pen down. Luke took this as a good sign. “First of all, an apology is useless if you don’t know what you’re apologizing for. Second of all, watch your mouth.”
“First of all, it’s not easy switching from marine life to civilian life. I’m sorry about the profanity; all I can say is that I’m working on it.” Luke jammed his hands into his front pockets. He lowered his tone back to an acceptable level. “Second of all, I know what I’m apologizing for.”
Sophia raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“What for?”
“For being an insensitive jerk.”
Sophia cocked her head and eyed him contemplatively. “For one thing.”
That’s the Sophia he knew. The woman didn’t give an inch. Then again, neither did he. This time, he raised his eyebrow at her. “Are you going to let me finish?”
Sophia waved her hand. “By all means. Please do.”
Her defenses were still up. Luke could see it plain as day. He had been working to get her defenses down since the moment he had walked through the door, had even managed to make a bit of progress with her, and then in two seconds he was right back to square one. Less than square one!
Nice going, Brand.
Luke knew what he had to do. There wasn’t a choice. If he wanted to see that guarded look leave Sophia’s eyes, he was going to have to open up to her.
“You know, sensitivity isn’t exactly a quality the Marines look for in a man,” Luke began.
In spite of herself, Sophia felt like smiling at that comment. She didn’t actually do it, but she felt like it.
Luke continued. “So, talking about feelings and sh...stuff like that isn’t my area of expertise. Never was, really. Dan was the talker. You know that.”

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