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“Feel free to look around upstairs.” Aaron retreated to the kitchen and cornered Mina. “So, what do you think?”
Mina grinned like she’d won the lottery, though she never gambled. “I think you already know what I think.” She winked.
Heat came to his collar for no apparent reason other than the way Mina smiled and eagle-eyed him. He fled to the formal dining room to gather paperwork that would hopefully bring his other two pararescue teams to Refuge.
Moments later, Sarah returned downstairs. “The rooms are amazing and—” Rapid movement cut her words short. Nimble feet took her to the kitchen doorway. She took the heavy, decorative wrought-iron tray from Mina, and headed to the family room.
Impressive. Pitching in already. And without her knowing, he observed her from the dining room. So her helping Mina had obviously been from pure motives and not falsity to impress him.
He made himself visible, joining them. From the tray Mina had prepared, he served the women and sat across from Sarah. “Besides being a meat-and-potatoes kinda girl who’s not afraid to dive into dessert, tell me about yourself. What are you interested in and why exactly are you interested in this job?”
As Sarah spoke, her body posture relaxed.
Mina settled in a chair, forming a triangle of the three, and sipped her tea.
Every now and then he’d glimpse her mouth twitch into a privately amused grin that her dainty teacup did little to hide, as though Mina sensed his being totally enthralled by Sarah’s heart and her love for children.
Yet he distinctly recalled her telling the agency owner yesterday that having children probably wasn’t in her future.
While she was seemingly open and transparent in a bigger sense, he couldn’t pinpoint something about Sarah. She remained a living labyrinth.
Until he determined what that something was, he’d bask in the moment and gauge Mina, whose radar would undoubtedly flip to red alert at the first sign of trouble.
Sarah’s face glowed and she laughed unabashedly when Mina told of the twins’ recent antics, both ornery and sweet.
“Sure you don’t wanna run right back out that door?”
“Absolutely not. I never run from a challenge.”
Aaron didn’t doubt that.
“And the thing experts don’t tell you about the terrible twos is that they last for two years.” Sarah giggled.
He found himself laughing along with her. Stories rolled back and forth between the three. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d had an easier, more carefree conversation.
Time to ask more questions.
Aaron rubbed his chin. “You applied to a Christian nanny agency. Tell me about your faith walk. What’s your current relationship with God like?”
Aaron studied Sarah as she talked of her faith and adventures in child care. Too often he found himself smiling at the animation in her face without being sure what she’d even said. Had Mina noticed his being enraptured with Sarah? Aaron looked toward Mina’s chair. Empty.
At what point had Mina gotten up and left the room?
He cleared his throat, not liking that he had been so into Sarah that he hadn’t noticed Mina’s departure. “Tell me more about your education and experience caring for children.” He adopted a serious tone, no longer lighthearted, and far from friendly. Like something he’d use on a Taliban defector he wasn’t sure was for real.
Sarah’s normally splendid smile dimmed enough to alert him she’d noticed. But soon her expressive face dazzled again as she lost herself in communicating how much she loved children. Her gestures became more exaggerated as she talked of interning at day-care centers and preschools. He loved her rendition of children’s shenanigans, and found himself smiling, completely enthralled. Again.
Until he remembered why she was here.
Not to keep him company. Nor to entertain him or provide the female companionship that he hadn’t known until this moment he’d been missing.
She was here for one reason only. And he wasn’t the reason.
She was here to watch his precious boys. He’d do well to remember that, especially since that elusive peace he’d longed for had finally come home the very second she’d stepped inside his doorway.
Feeling a tug toward Sarah that he wasn’t accustomed to or prepared to analyze, he forced his gaze to connect with his late wife’s picture, the mantel centerpiece. The one memento of Donna that he kept in view, nearly four years after her passing.
And the one reminder of why he could not afford to entertain foolish thoughts of long-term with any lady.
His gaze switched to Sarah.
Not even the one who’d awakened something in him that he thought had gone to the grave with his beloved wife.
Chapter Two
How had she died?
Sarah wondered the following day as she eyed the mantelpiece photo she assumed to be of Aaron’s late wife. After all, the woman in the picture held two newborn babies swaddled in blue camouflage buntings.
Adorna, the nanny agency owner, had informed Sarah that the twins’ mother had died when they were eight weeks old, but she didn’t elaborate. And Sarah hadn’t felt it appropriate to ask.
“Welcome back.” Aaron came up behind her. “Mina let you in, I see.” His gaze tracked where she’d been looking: the photo. He’d entered so silently it was eerie. She gathered he’d gained the ability from being a military special operative.
Sarah forced herself to seem oblivious to the profound sadness flashing across his gaze as it brushed the image. Then in awkward silence, he lowered himself to the footstool and skimmed his solemn gaze from the glass to Sarah. His face became completely unreadable.
Understanding dawned on her. How very difficult it must be for him to have to bring a stranger in to care for her children.
It took everything in her not to rush forward and say so.
A slightly frazzled Mina shuffled into the room with a tray, breaking the moment and preventing the opportunity.
Mina looked pointedly at Aaron, still seated. “The boys are about to come unhinged. They want to know when-when-when-when-when?” She darted a head toward Sarah and raised her brows.
Sarah bit her lip to keep from giggling, because it seemed to her Mina was just as anxious as the boys.
Sarah had to admit she was anxious, too. She’d hardly been able to sleep last night due to excitement over getting to finally meet the Petrowski twins.
Aaron rose. Again, as yesterday and the day before in the nanny agency upon first meeting him, Sarah was stricken with just how intimidatingly tall and watchtower-strong he was. Arms muscled into impressive facets made her glad he served in the job he did. If she were in need of rescue, she’d want someone this capable and strong. Blond hair with hints of starlike-silver above his ears was shaved into a military buzz. The masculine cut complemented his sturdy neck, jaw and otherwise exquisitely carved facial bones.
He gave the air a grand wave. “Let’s bring in the troops.” Exiting, he went to the doorway of the playroom, said something, and came back in.
Two sets of shoes clomped across an area of tile that she couldn’t see. So loud it sounded like a herd of…something. The kitchen door leading to the other end of the room banged open.
Two tiny humans who each looked like miniature Aarons in different ways bounded toward her, toting twin grins.
Her smile stretched, and her heart twisted into taffy. Twice.
Hunkered to his knee, Aaron drew them close. Tenderly, he sandwiched both in his massive arms. “Boys, I’d like you to meet someone special. This is Miss Graham. I’d like you to get to know her while I run to the DZ.”
Refuge had a drop zone? Duh, of course it did. She’d been skydiving before, so she knew a DZ was a skydiving facility. Made sense. Aaron was a commander of military search-and-rescue skydiving paramedic teams, the ones who dove into danger to rescue fellow military personnel as well as dropped feet-first into disaster to rescue civilians.
She’d looked up Pararescue on her computer after the agency’s owner had notified her she was a match for his family. How humbled and strikingly intrigued she’d become by Aaron after her extensive Internet and library searches. A real hero with uncommon valor and bravery.
Her attention shifted to the two beautiful boys smiling expectantly at her. She slid to the rug in front of them. The smaller twin with the shy grin hid behind the taller one, who didn’t look one bit bashful.
“Hello. You must be Braden,” she said to the taller one. Tipping forward, Sarah peered at the shorter twin. “And you must be Bryce. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Bryce inched forward. “Do you know I like fishin’?”
“I didn’t, but I’m glad I do now.”
Speaking of fishing…
Five minutes with the boys and she was hooked by the gills. She shouldn’t let hope rocket, but she couldn’t help it. The boys had climbed into her heart as fast as they’d clomped into the room. Yes, she had a past. But she knew the person she was today. She knew with confidence she would take the best care of these precious boys.
She could only pray that Mina and Mr. Petrowski would feel the same if they discovered the epic mess she used to be.
Fortunately, he seemed the kind of Christian who maintained a close relationship with God and who led his family with faith and strength. That meant he’d hear God’s voice and obey. And, hopefully, possess mercy for monumental mistakes.
Bounding forward, Braden performed a mutant wiggle dance. “And did ya know I like to play softball?”
“Really? Wow. Me, too!” Sarah tapped the brim of Braden’s ball cap and smiled at Bryce. “And I also like to fish.”
Truth struck Sarah like an aluminum bat to a ball.
If she didn’t get this job, she’d be devastated.
Standing, she lifted her face to find Mr. Petrowski carefully watching her. She retrained her focus on the boys. An easy task, given how delightful they were.
Other than her thrice-weekly letters, her gym regimen and her child-care classes the past few years, she hadn’t put her heart into anything so strenuously in a long time.
A decade, in fact.
Self-punishment, she presumed.
That she had hope for her future for the first time in a long time had to mean something, right?
If this is Your will, please give me favor with Aaron—I mean—Mr. Petrowski. Especially if those dark places of my past ever come to light.
Perplexed.
That’s exactly what he felt like at the moment. What thought pattern cast dark shadows across Sarah’s previously luminous eyes? Just what was the air of mystery and intrigue about her?
Mina, normally possessing unnervingly accurate radar, seemed oblivious as she went to the kitchen. Maybe he’d imagined the dismal caution in Sarah’s eyes.
Aaron nodded toward the door. Sarah waved and distracted his boys while he made his escape.
“Impressive.” Aaron slipped out, completely baffled at how Sarah had immediately engaged the attention of his toddlers like no one he’d ever known—faster than foreign aircraft drew attention from air control watch towers in no-fly zones.
At the driveway, he peered in the window to study them once more. Mina stood near the family-room wall, grinning bigger than he’d seen in a while. Good to see her relaxed for once. Her blood pressure had been climbing to dangerous altitudes lately, which was another reason he needed to secure child care. Though Mina was watching them temporarily, he couldn’t put the full burden on her once he returned to full-time duty.
Aaron stretched to see his boys, who stared at Sarah in wide-eyed wonder. They’d been too wrapped up in her to notice his departure.
He hoped he hadn’t had the boys’ enthralled, enamored look on his own face when he first saw Sarah.
She plopped back down in the floor, probably to reach eye level with his sons. Scooting close, she listened with eager, expressive eyes at something Braden was saying. Braden talked as much with his hands as with his mouth. At least Bryce wasn’t having his usual Monday-morning meltdown at Aaron’s leaving today. Sarah held his quiet yet rapt attention.
“Amazing.”
Aaron tugged out his keys and headed for his SUV. He’d let her spend an hour with the boys and Mina. He’d have his thirty-minute meeting with Senior Master Sergeant Joel Montgomery, the leader of his local PJ team, who was also Aaron’s prayer buddy, then swing back by here to observe Sarah with the boys and the boys with Sarah.
“You want the good, bad or ugly news first?” Joel asked at Refuge’s drop-zone facility moments later.
Aaron pulled out his planner and pen. “Good news first.”
“Thanks to our actions on Reunion Bridge after it collapsed, Refuge city council requested we take part in more community projects. They feel it will help build up town morale since our team’s rapid response saved lives and made national news.”
“What kind of projects are we talking?”
“For one thing, they asked us to conduct water rescue classes for local first responders. Paramedics, EMTs, firemen, police officers, Refuge River Guard, nurses, doctors, et cetera.”
Aaron jotted notes while Joel talked.
“Vince Reardon offered to head that up. He also said he’d expand the program to offer it to the general public. Meaning teach laypeople, adults, children, teachers, day-care workers, et cetera, classes on basic and advanced water safety.”
“And the bad news?”
“Refuge city officials want us to do more than water rescues. Our superiors are agreeable to the plan because it will help raise awareness of pararescue and help military recruitment.”
“So it’s a win-win situation.”
“Yes, except we don’t have the manpower with our seven, eight with you, teammates. Which is the bad news. Unless our superiors agreed to station at least one more of your other two PJ teams here.”
Aaron hated to break this to Joel. “No go. Least not yet. Not until I agree on paper to return to full-time, they said.” And he couldn’t do that until he secured child care for his boys.
Joel scrubbed his hands up his face. “May as well give you the ugly, then. Funders of the community projects have moved up their deadline by two months. Amber and I are scheduled to be out of the country then to visit the children we’re adopting.”
“Two months.” Aaron seethed air through his teeth. “That’s cutting our time in half.”
Joel pulled out his calendar and pencil. “Look, if you need us to reschedule our trip overseas—”
“No. You and Amber have waited years for this.”
“Tell me about it.” Joel casually tossed his pencil on the pad.
Aaron picked it up and twirled it. He knew Joel felt the pressure as much as he did. No doubt they wanted to help the community. The only solution was Aaron coming back full-time. He had to do that before his superiors would station his remaining two pararescue jumper teams in Refuge and that needed to happen in order for the Refuge PJs to help the community effectively.
The way Joel sank into his chair, he looked as if he could use more good news.
