Shelley giggled at that. Two arms and legs punched the air as she smiled up at Marjorie, who found she had somehow ended up leaning over the crib.

Sam came into the house and took a Pepsi from the refrigerator. He looked around for Marjorie, and when he didn’t find her, he opened the front door, thinking she might have forgotten something in the car. She wasn’t there, either. Concerned now, he started for the deck to find Betty.

A faint noise stopped him. It was almost indiscernible at first, so faint that he didn’t recognize it until he paused and listened intently. It was a baby cooing happily. He turned into the narrow hallway that led to Shelley’s bedroom and found Marjorie at last.

She was sitting in a rocking chair, cuddling Shelley in her arms as though she never intended to let the baby go. Tear tracks streaked her face, creating a bright sheen on her flushed cheeks. She sniffled loudly and wasn’t able to keep her chin from trembling.

“Marjorie,” he murmured, falling to his knees in front of her, hardly able to believe his eyes.

Nine

“Sam,” Marjorie whimpered softly. “I’m holding a baby.”

“I see that, Kitten.”

“She’s so beautiful.” A teardrop rolled down her face and landed ingloriously on Shelley’s cotton jumpsuit. Cooing, the baby reached out to catch the next drop.

With the gentleness she had come to expect from him, Sam tenderly brushed his hand over her face, wiping away the tears. “I’ve never seen a woman as beautiful as you are right this minute.”

“Sam, I didn’t think I could get close to a baby. I didn’t dare dream I’d feel this way—ever.”

“I suspected as much,” he countered, resisting the urge to wrap her and the baby in his arms and hold them both for eternity. “I prayed it would only be a matter of time until you recognized the mothering instincts were there. They have been all along.”

“They’re here, all right,” she whispered, smiling and crying at once. “I feel so tender inside—I don’t know how to describe it. Sam,” she said, raising her eyes to meet his, “if I feel this strongly about a baby I barely know, I can’t imagine how much love I’d have for one of my own.”

“We’ll discover that together, Kitten.”

The tightness that jammed her throat made it impossible to speak. He was talking about them having children together, and although the thought frightened her, it thrilled her far more. She yearned to ask him if he meant it and to tell him she was willing, but every time she opened her mouth, all that came out were soft, strangled sounds. She managed to free one hand from beneath Shelley to caress the rugged line of Sam’s jaw. Closing her eyes, she pressed her cheek against the side of his head.