The Soldier's Newfound Family

Been with him at the end?

His gaze shifted to the kitchen, where Savannah was hiding out. If he could outlast a sniper for ten hours, he could certainly wait out a pretty green-eyed waitress.

“I’ll take a piece of pie and a cup of coffee.”

Libby followed the direction of his eyes and grinned. “Coming right up.”

A half hour ticked by and the dining room emptied as the lunch crowd dwindled. Carter finished off the pie and started on his third cup of coffee but there was still no sign of Savannah.

“Excuse me?” He motioned to Libby as she emerged from the kitchen, armed with two coffee pots. She changed direction, navigating through the maze of tables until she reached his side.

“Do you need a warm up on that coffee?”

He needed to talk to Savannah. “No, thanks. Just the bill.” Carter reached for his wallet. “Is Savannah busy?” he tossed out casually.

“No.” The smile dimmed. “She left a little while ago.”

“Left?”

“She said she wasn’t feeling well.”

Savannah had slipped past him. Admiration and frustration battled for dominance. Frustration won.

Carter released a slow breath. “Will she be back tomorrow?”

“She’s not scheduled to work again until Tuesday.”

Great. Before she’d left, Maddie made him promise he would drive to Grasslands to meet the rest of the “family” as soon as possible.

“Would you mind giving me her home address?”

Libby looked uneasy with the request. “I don’t know—”

“Her husband and I served together in Afghanistan. He introduced us.” It was the truth. Sort of. He and Savannah might not have met until today, but Carter felt as if he knew her. He knew that she hummed when she was nervous and that her favorite color was blue. She liked yellow roses and coffee-flavored ice cream and black-and-white movies.

And she was more beautiful in person than she was in the photograph Rob had given him.

Carter set that thought firmly to the side.

“I didn’t know Savannah was married to a soldier,” Libby breathed. “She never talks about him.”

“He talked about her.” Twenty-four seven. “And he asked me to deliver a message.”

“That’s so romantic.”

Only in the movies, Carter wanted to say. The reality hadn’t been quite so warm and fuzzy.

He and Rob had been shoulder to shoulder in a shallow ditch, caught in the middle of a firefight. Under attack from both the ground and the air.

If anything happens to me, promise that you’ll find Savannah and make sure she’s okay. Tell her that I loved her.

But Rob hadn’t told him that Savannah might not want to be found.

Or that she was pregnant.

* * *

“Going somewhere?”

Savannah whirled around at the sound of a deep male voice.

It was him. Carter Wallace. The soldier who’d shown up at the diner that morning. He filled the doorway, arms folded across his chest in a casually deceptive stance. The set of his jaw warned Savannah that she wouldn’t evade him as easily this time.

She didn’t bother to ask how he’d found out where she lived. He must have sweet-talked Libby after she’d left the diner.

“Your landlady let me in.” Those intense blue eyes scanned the living room and narrowed on the hedge of cardboard boxes that separated them.

“Look, Sergeant Wallace.” Savannah heard a catch in her voice. “I don’t know what you want—”

“That’s because you didn’t wait around long enough to find out.” The corners of his lips kicked up in a rueful smile. “I’m sorry if I upset you when I showed up at the diner today. Rob told me where you worked but not your address.”

Rob told him.

Savannah’s throat tightened. She couldn’t deal with this right now. Not when she’d spent the past few hours packing up her things, each box she taped shut one more reminder that she was closing the door on the past with no idea what the future would bring.

“Do you mind if I come in?”

Yes, she did.

“I’m really busy.” To prove it, Savannah bent down and snatched up one of the boxes. A muscle in her lower back protested the suddenness of the movement and she winced in pain.

“Hey—take it easy.” Carter Wallace was at her side in an instant and he plucked the box from her hands. “Should you be lifting stuff?”

Color flooded Savannah’s cheeks when she saw his gaze drop to her rounded stomach, something that even a loose-fitting sweatshirt couldn’t hide.

“I’m not an invalid.” She was just...tired. And not prepared for unexpected company. Especially a handsome, blue-eyed soldier who’d claimed to be friends with her late husband.

“Where do you want this?” Carter stared her down.

Good job, Savannah. Instead of convincing him to leave, she’d unwittingly given him a reason to stay.

“Really, you don’t have to—” She saw his eyebrows dip together and realized there was no point in arguing. “By the door.”

Without a word, Carter strode across the room and deposited it near the entryway. And then proceeded to do the same with the rest of the boxes.

As he set the last one down, Savannah didn’t miss his swift but thorough assessment of the cramped upstairs apartment she’d briefly shared with Rob after their wedding.

“Thank you.” Savannah glanced at her watch, hoping Carter would take the hint.

He did.

“I’ll only take up a few minutes of your time,” he said quietly. “It’s important.”

Savannah sighed. Maybe the best thing was to get this over with as quickly as possible and send Sergeant Wallace on his way.

“All right.” She motioned toward a chair and sent up a swift, silent prayer for strength as Carter sat down. The flimsy wood creaked under the weight of his solid frame, the floral slipcover an almost comical backdrop for a guy who looked as if he could bench press the sofa.

It didn’t matter that Carter Wallace wasn’t in full uniform. His faded, loose-fitting jeans and a gray T-shirt with the marine insignia that stretched across his muscular chest proved to be just as intimidating. He looked as if he were born to be a soldier.

Savannah perched on the edge of the sofa and waited. But now that he had her attention, Carter didn’t seem to know what to say.

“You mentioned that you knew Rob—” Savannah’s voice cracked as grief sliced at the threads of her composure. She’d barely begun to accept the fact that her husband had walked out on their marriage when a military chaplain had knocked at the door and informed her that Rob had been killed in a roadside bombing.

Carter nodded. “He was assigned to my unit. We worked together. He talked about you.”

Savannah’s fingers knotted together in her lap. “He did?”

Carter looked surprised by the question. “All the time.” He paused. “That’s why I’m here. A few days before Rob... He asked me to give you a message.”

Savannah heard a rushing sound in her ears. Spots began to dance in front of her eyes. “A message?”

This wasn’t what she’d expected. She’d assumed that Carter had sought her out because Rob had owed him money. After the funeral, she’d received calls from some of his former buddies, asking if she would “make good” on the loans they’d given him.

Each one a reminder of how gullible she’d been.

“He was a good man. A good friend.” Carter leaned forward. “And he...he loved you.”

Savannah felt the color drain from her face. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Carter frowned. “That’s the message that Rob asked me to deliver. He wanted me to tell you that he loved you.”

Savannah’s breath collected in her lungs, making it difficult to breathe.

“Sergeant Wallace, Rob left me.”

* * *

Carter stared at Savannah, more shaken by the words than he let on. Rob hadn’t mentioned that Savannah didn’t support his decision to become a soldier.

“To serve his country, yes,” he said carefully. “Rob thought he was doing the right thing, but he couldn’t wait to finish his tour and come home to you. It was all he talked about.”

Savannah vaulted from the chair and then swayed on her feet. For a split second, Carter was afraid she was going to pass out. Instinctively, he reached out to steady her but she spun away from him, one hand pressed protectively against her belly, the other one palm up, as if trying to keep him at a distance.

“Please. Just go.”

Carter sucked in a breath, the flash of pain in those green eyes landing with the force of a physical blow. It was obvious that Savannah was still grieving. He fumbled for the right words, something that had never come easily. Unlike Rob, who’d entertained everyone on base with his anecdotes.

“Savannah, I know this must be difficult. Have you talked to someone—”

“I didn’t mean that Rob left when he enlisted. I meant that he left me. A week after we were married,” she choked out. “He sent one letter when he finished basic training saying that he’d made a...mistake. After that, I never heard from him again.”

The words hit Carter broadside. “I don’t understand.”

“I think you do.” Savannah’s gaze didn’t waver. “You just don’t believe me.”

Carter opened his mouth, ready to argue, and then realized she was right. What Savannah had just told him clashed with the man that Carter knew. The one who’d been devoted to his wife.

Rob had bragged about their plans for the future. Buying a piece of land. Building a home. Raising a family.

Why would—

Carter’s heart plummeted to the soles of his boots, weighted down by a sudden, unwelcome suspicion. “The baby—”

Emerald sparks flashed in Savannah’s eyes. “Is Rob’s. But he...he never knew.”

“You didn’t tell him?” Carter regretted the question the moment Savannah started toward the door.

To see him out.

But Carter didn’t move. Wasn’t going to move until he got some answers. “Rob never mentioned that you were separated. In fact, all he talked about were the things the two of you were going to do when his tour ended.”

“Then he lied to you, too.”

Too?

The band around Carter’s forehead tightened. “Rob and I were friends. Why would he do that?”

He had looked up to Rob. Admired him.

Envied him.

Carter had dodged serious relationships for years, never going out with the same woman more than once or twice. Knowing how hard it had been on him and his siblings every time their father left on a mission trip, he was determined not to subject someone he cared about to a relationship marked by uncertainty and goodbyes. Something the wife of a soldier had to accept. But listening to Rob talk about Savannah had made him question his decision to remain single. Made him wonder what it would be like to have a woman like her in his life.

Now she was trying to convince him that it had all been a lie?

Savannah opened the door, which didn’t answer his question but guaranteed there wouldn’t be an opportunity to ask any more.

Carter didn’t know what—or who—to believe. Savannah? A woman he’d just met. Or Rob, the guy who’d laughed with him? Encouraged him to pray, even though every mile Carter had hiked through the rugged hills of Afghanistan had taken him that much farther from the faith he’d professed as a child?

The guy that Savannah claimed had abandoned her.

What he did know was that she wanted him to leave.

“I’m sorry,” Carter muttered, although he wasn’t quite sure why he was apologizing. Or even who he was apologizing to. “I won’t take up any more of your time.”

As he started to move past her, she touched his arm. A gesture that stopped Carter in his tracks.

“Sergeant Wallace? Thank you for keeping your promise,” she whispered. “I am... I’m glad that Rob had a friend over there.”

The words brought Carter up short. He had kept his promise—but not all of it.

Find Savannah and make sure she’s okay.

For the first time, he noticed the lavender shadows below her eyes. Being the youngest in the family, Carter didn’t have a lot of experience with kids, but he figured that working at a diner wouldn’t be easy on a pregnant woman.

Savannah’s grief might be coloring her perspective about Rob’s feelings for her—maybe she’d somehow misinterpreted the reason he’d left—but Carter couldn’t simply walk out the door until he knew that she wasn’t alone.

“Are you moving back home?” he asked abruptly.

“Home?”

“Back to your family.”

“I’m staying in Dallas.” An emotion Carter couldn’t identify flickered in Savannah’s eyes. “But my landlady’s nephew needed a place to stay so she asked me to find something else.”

She was being evicted?

“Don’t you have a lease?”

“Mrs. Cabera only agreed to let me stay here because Rob and her son had gone to high school together. It was a verbal agreement.”

Carter didn’t like the sound of that. “But you have somewhere to go, right?”

Savannah hesitated just long enough to make him suspicious. “Of course.”

“Where?”

Her pink lips compressed. “This isn’t your problem.”

In a roundabout way, that answered his question.

“What are your plans?”

Savannah was silent for so long that Carter didn’t think she was going to answer the question.

“I’ll check into a hotel for a few days. Until I find something else,” she finally said.

“Isn’t there a family member who can put you up for a while?”

“No.”

Funny how one simple word could complicate a situation, Carter thought.

“Well, I happen to have picked up a few extras recently,” he said lightly. “And one of them owns a ranch near Grasslands. My sister, Maddie, offered me one of the empty cottages on the property, but you can stay there—”

Savannah’s eyes widened and Carter felt a slow burn crawl up his neck when he realized how that sounded. “—and I can bunk in the main house,” he added quickly. “You’d have a place to rest up. Until you find something else.”

Color swept into Savannah’s cheeks, filling the faint hollows beneath her cheekbones.

“That’s very nice of you.” She regarded him warily, as if she wasn’t sure it was nice of him at all. “But I can’t just quit my job at the diner. And I’m sure that when your sister offered you a place to stay, she wasn’t expecting you to pass it on to a random stranger.”

Carter could have argued the point. Savannah wasn’t a stranger. He’d carried her photograph around in his pocket for the past two months. Memorized the heart-shaped face and delicate features.

But how could he tell her that without coming across as some kind of stalker?

“I heard someone say that sometimes, a change of scenery can change your perspective.”

Carter decided not to mention Rob was the one who’d told him that.

For a moment it looked as if Savannah was wavering. But then her chin came up and Carter saw the answer in her eyes.

“You don’t have to worry about me. I know you were Rob’s friend, but I’m not your responsibility.”

Find Savannah and make sure she’s okay.

Whether Carter wanted it to or not, that made her his responsibility.

“But it’s not just you anymore, is it?” he reminded her. “You have your baby to think of, too.”

Savannah flinched. “Goodbye, Sergeant Wallace.”

Carter battled his rising frustration, not sure how to get through to her. “When I make a promise, I keep it.”

“And you did. You delivered Rob’s message—”

“Not that promise.” Carter interrupted. “I’m a marine, ma’am. And we never leave a man—or a woman—behind.”

Even though he was serious, Carter flashed a smile, letting her know that she could trust him.

A smile Savannah didn’t return.

“You aren’t leaving me behind, sergeant.” The door began to close. “I’m asking you to go.”

Chapter Three

“So, when will you be here?”

Carter sighed into the phone as he entered the post office. “Soon.”

“How soon?” Maddie wanted to know.

“A few more days.” Long enough to give Savannah time to change her mind.

Carter had jotted his cell phone number and the Colby Ranch’s address on a piece of paper and tucked it under the windshield wiper of her car after she’d shut the door in his face the day before.

He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. Wondering what had happened between her and Rob. None of the things Savannah had told him lined up with the claims his friend had made, but Carter couldn’t shake the feeling that she was the one who’d been telling the truth. Unsettling, given the fact he’d trusted Rob with his life.

“Jack said he might be able to find some work for you around the ranch now that you’re out of the service,” Maddie continued. “You love being outdoors. You helped Dad build that playhouse in the backyard when we lived in Appleton, remember? Once it was finished, you told everyone that you wanted to live there. I had to lure you into the house with chocolate chip cookies when it was bedtime.”

Maddie’s low laugh flowed over him, stirring up memories from the past.

Carter remembered handing his dad the nails, one by one. It was one of the few times they’d actually worked on a project together. Once his dad had started medical school, he’d left Rachel, the full-time nanny he’d hired, in charge of the family. Carter had heard the words “don’t bother your father” so often over the next few years, he’d eventually taken them to heart.

“I’ll come to Grasslands and meet Violet and Jack—” Carter still couldn’t think of them as family. “But I can’t promise any more than that right now.”

“I just want us to be together,” Maddie whispered. “With Dad gone...”

Dad is always gone, Carter was tempted to say. He knew that Gray and Maddie were concerned that something bad might have happened to their father, but knowing Brian, he’d probably just got caught up in his work and assumed everything back home was fine. Thanksgiving, the day he’d promised he would be home, was still three weeks away.

Gray had explained they couldn’t file a missing person’s report because technically, Brian Wallace wasn’t considered missing.

“I’ll be there.” Carter inserted the key into the post office box he’d kept in the city. “By the weekend—” A package tumbled out with an avalanche of junk mail. He winced as it hit the tiled floor. “I hope that wasn’t something breakable,” he muttered.

Maddie heard him. “Breakable? Where are you?”

“I’m at the post office and there’s a package in here that didn’t get forwarded for some reason.”

“A package,” Maddie repeated. “What does it look like?”

“Um...like a package?”

“Well, open it!”

Carter rolled his eyes. Bossy older sisters. But there was a tension in Maddie’s voice that hadn’t been there before. Not even when she’d been pestering him about coming to Grasslands. He dumped the letters onto a nearby counter and cut through the tape on the package with his pocketknife.

“Did you send this?” Carter stared at the small, leather-bound book swaddled in tissue paper. “Because I already have one.”

Not that he’d cracked it open for a few years.

“What is it?” Maddie whispered.

“A Bible.”

“Is there a note inside?”

Carter thumbed through the delicate, gold-tipped pages and found a piece of paper. “How did you know?”

“Because someone sent a Bible to me and Gray. And to Violet and Jack.”

Carter quickly skimmed the contents of the letter and then read it out loud.

“‘I’m sorry for what I did to you and your family. I hope you and your siblings can find it in your hearts to forgive me.’”

It wasn’t signed.

“What is this about? Who sent it?”

“We don’t know,” Maddie admitted. “At first we assumed it was a mistake because whoever wrote the other letters specifically mentioned a twin. But Gray thinks it might have something to do with the reason we were separated.”

“Maybe it has something to do with Dad’s disappearance.” Carter read through the words a second time, trying to make sense of the cryptic message. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“We didn’t think you’d—” Maddie stopped.

“Get one.” Carter filled in the blanks.

Because at the moment, he was the only one in the Wallace-Colby puzzle who actually knew where he fit. Which, the irony wasn’t lost on Carter, made him the odd man out. Again.

“I’m sorry, Carter.” Maddie sounded on the verge of tears now. “Gray will want to see the letter and compare the handwriting, but it has to be from the same person. Maybe if we put all of them together, we’ll find something that we missed.”

Carter held back a sigh.

“I’m on my way.”

* * *

“I have to admit I’m not happy with the numbers I’m seeing this morning.”

Savannah felt a stab of fear as Dr. Yardley set the paperwork down on the desk and took a seat across from her in the examining room.

“Is there something wrong with the baby?”

“The baby seems to be fine. It’s you I’m worried about,” the doctor said bluntly. “Your blood pressure is elevated, and you’ve actually lost weight since your last appointment.”

“I’m feeling fine,” Savannah protested. “A little tired, that’s all.”

“Mmm.” Dr. Yardley looked skeptical. “How many hours did you work at the diner last week?”

Savannah silently tallied them up. “Between twenty-five and thirty.” Give or take a few. She’d volunteered to cover for one of the waitresses who was standing up in a friend’s wedding so she would have money to cover the security deposit on a new apartment.

The apartment she still hadn’t found.

After being on her feet all day, she just couldn’t seem to summon the energy to search for a new place to live. Savannah assumed it was normal to feel this way but the concern in the doctor’s eyes told her otherwise.

“That’s what I thought.” Dr. Yardley shook her head. “I want you to cut back to half that amount. Effective when you walk out of this office today.”

“But I promised my boss that I could fill in on weekends and evenings when I wasn’t working my regular shift.” Savannah stared at her obstetrician in dismay. “It was the only reason he hired me.”

“You’ve been under a tremendous amount of stress throughout this pregnancy, Savannah, and you still have three months to go. If you end up on complete bed rest, you won’t be able to work at all.” The doctor’s stern words were tempered with a smile. “You need more rest and a little TLC. Two things that I’m afraid modern medicine hasn’t figured out how to put in a pill yet.”

Savannah laced her fingers together in her lap to stop them from shaking. “I’ll talk to him.” Although Bruce didn’t exactly have a reputation for his easygoing disposition.

The doctor gave her a shrewd look. “Is there anything else going on that I should know about?”

“I’ve been looking for a new apartment,” Savannah admitted. “But I’m sure that I’ll find something in the next few days.”

Dr. Yardley’s pen tapped the clipboard. “Isn’t there a family member you can stay with until the baby is born?”

“I don’t have any family.” One of the reasons she’d been so quick to fall for Rob’s charm.

“All right, then. How about a friend?” the physician persisted.

Even as Savannah was shaking her head, an image of Carter Wallace’s face flashed through her mind.

No. Way.

She didn’t want to accept his help. Carter had been stunned when she’d told him that Rob had left her. Savannah hadn’t really expected him to believe her word over Rob’s—but still, it had hurt. Why, she wasn’t sure.

She wasn’t sure why Carter had offered her a place to stay on his sister’s ranch near Grasslands, either. The sergeant had been Rob’s friend. She, on the other hand, was simply an obligation. One he had probably been relieved to cross off his list. There was no way she was going to show up on his doorstep like an orphan puppy in search of a home.

She’d viewed Rob as a knight in shining armor, swooping in to rescue her, and look where she was now. A single mother on the verge of being homeless.