Soldier on Her Doorstep by Soraya Lane

Mom.”
    She heard Anna flicking through what she presumed was her calendar. That girl knew what everyone was up to!
    â€œNope. Mom has that charity fundraiser meeting going on. I’ll tell her you asked, though,” Anna said.
    Lisa tucked the phone beneath her ear and rinsed her hands in the sink. Her eyes were still firmly locked on Alex.
    â€œYou sure you’re okay?”
    Lisa nodded.
    â€œI can’t hear you if you’re nodding,” her sister said dryly.
    Damn it! It was like Anna had secret cameras installed in the house!
    â€œI’m fine. I just need to get all this sorted,” Lisa told her.
    â€œNeed me to come by?” Anna asked.
    â€œNo!” she yelled. “I mean, no. I’m fine.” The silence on the other end told her she hadn’t convinced her sister. “Come by with the girls on Saturday afternoon. I just need some time and we’ll catch up then, okay?”
    As Lisa said her goodbyes and hung up the phone she felt guilty. She usually shared everything with her sister. Everything. And yet she had a very big something hanging around out back, staying with her for the next few weeks, and she had omitted even to mention it.
    Lilly was marching back and forth outside, Boston at herheels. She had a huge stick in her hand—one that Alex had no doubt cut down before she’d claimed it.
    Lisa went about fiddling with quantities and ingredients, dragging her eyes from the window.
    She couldn’t deny that she liked what she saw. But then what woman wouldn’t?
    Â 
    Alex walked inside with Lilly on his hip. He’d thought the dog was going to attack when he’d first picked her up, but after a few gentle words and a futile attempt to stop the kid crying he had hoisted her up and into the house.
    But his feet had stopped before they’d found her mom.
    Lilly’s cries had become diluted to gentle hiccups. It was awkward, holding her so close, but he’d had little choice. It had been a very long time since he’d held another human being like that.
    Lisa was swaying in time to the beat of the music playing loudly in the kitchen. Her hair was caught back off her face with a spotted kerchief, and she had a splodge or two of flour on her cheek. The pink apron added to his discomfort. It had pulled her top down with it, and she was displaying more cleavage than he guessed she would usually show.
    And she still hadn’t noticed them above the hum of the music.
    â€œHuh-hmm.” He cleared his throat. Then again—louder.
    She looked up, lips moving to the lyrics. Her mouth stopped, wide open, before she clamped it shut.
    Lilly burst into much louder tears as soon as her mother noticed her, and all Alex could do was hold her out at a peculiar angle until Lisa swept her into her own arms.
    â€œBaby, what happened?”
    The lips that had been singing and smiling only moments earlier fell in a series of tiny kisses to her daughter’s head. Lisa nursed her as she moved to turn off the speaker that was belting out the tunes.
    â€œShh, now. It’s all right—you just got a fright,” Lisa crooned.
    She hugged her daughter tight. Alex couldn’t take his eyes off them. It tugged something inside him, pushed at something that he hadn’t felt in a long while.
    â€œHow about Alex tells me what happened while you catch your breath?” she murmured.
    He cringed. Taking care of kids wasn’t his thing. This one might have taken a shine to him, but he had no experience. No idea at all. “I’m sorry, she just…ah…she fell from a tree. I should have been watching her. I…”
    Lisa drew her eyebrows together and waved at him with her free hand. “She’s a child, Alex. And she’s my child. If anyone should feel bad for not watching her it’s me.”
    A touch of weight left his shoulders. But not all of it.
    â€œI was…”
    â€œEnough.” She put Lilly down