Loving Lydia (Atlantic Divide) (2 page)

She dug into what appeared to be the kids’ backpack and retrieved a mobile phone that had been slipped into the side pocket. She switched it on and cast him another wary glance as she tapped her foot, impatient while she waited for what seemed like an eternity for it to load up. Various ringtones sounded as it tried to find a new network; her glance flickered between her phone and Sam as though she believed he was going to leap on her.

He was aware how dirty and rough he seemed, but as far as he knew, he didn’t really look like a kidnapper or a serial killer. No one had ever told him that anyway. By all accounts, that’s what she seemed to think. Didn’t she realize that if he had been the vagrant she’d assumed, he wouldn’t still be standing there waiting patiently for her to pick up a message from her sister? He’d have more likely snatched the bag that she’d left unattended and run off through the airport.

As she studied him, he stood perfectly still observing her, hands loose, hooked in the front pockets of his jeans.

Her attention was distracted by more musical notes that emitted from her phone. As she opened the message from her sister, he could see her face fall, and the furtive suspicious looks that she’d been giving him started to look uncertain. Her lips moved silently for a moment, and then her quiet voice read the message.

“In labor, off to hospital now. Jack’s brother Sam will pick u up. I trust him. Sorry. Kate.”

Lydia’s large, shocked eyes met his. He shrugged and turned away from her. Taking hold of the luggage cart, he started to push it in the opposite direction. She grabbed the stroller and trotted after him.

“I don’t know what to say,” she puffed out as she caught up with his long-legged stride.

“Nothing to say.” His voice was calm and quiet.

“But, I was so rude to you.”

“Uh huh.”

She took one hand off the stroller and grabbed his forearm with enough strength to make him stop. He stared down at her hand for a moment, surprised that she had been brave enough to touch him. Lifting an eyebrow, he waited as she slowly removed her hand from his arm.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t know who you were.” She fluttered her free hand at him. “You’re not exactly … presentable.” She closed her eyes briefly. She was a funny little thing; in order to apologize, she’d become defensive. Added to that, she seemed to want to insult him. They’d got off to a bad start, and much to his amazement, she seemed to want to make it worse. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

His grin just spread across his face. He didn’t want to go ahead and laugh out loud at her, but she was just so amusing. He didn’t need her to say she was sorry again though; it was starting to get a little embarrassing. Sam ducked his head and tried to explain his appearance before she got herself tangled up any more.

“Lydia, I was out working at five o’clock this morning, and I just about finished at eight tonight when Jack called me to come and pick you up. I didn’t have time for a wash or a shave, and if that insults your sensibilities, I can only apologize, but I can’t guarantee that it won’t happen again as that’s the kind of life I live. It’s an honest, hardworking living that I earn, but it’s dirty. Right now, I’d just like to get home, eat a really good steak, have a bottle of beer, and fall into the sack, if that’s okay with you.” He kept his voice gentle, but the rebuke was unmistakable. He turned his back and headed for the exit doors, his stride a little slower in order for her to keep up.

“I’m sorry.” She muttered behind his back, obviously even more mortified now that she knew how long he’d been working. It wasn’t as though he had volunteered to pick her up; he’d been roped into it by his brother.

All she’d done so far was threaten and snarl at him. It couldn’t be good for her. As she trotted alongside him, he noticed her hands were starting to shake, and she seemed like she might burst into tears at any moment.

“Don’t be.” He glanced down at her as they rounded the corner of the airport and crossed over the pedestrian crossing into the parking garage. He thought it best to ignore the fact her eyes were filled with tears. She was obviously exhausted from the flight, but it seemed to him his heart had given a nasty little pull at the sight of the glitter in her eyes.

They walked in silence for a few moments, until his long-legged stride took him straight toward a monster truck. The wheels were almost as tall as she was, and she simply gaped as she stared up at the cab.

“Oh dear Lord,” she muttered to herself as she gazed up at the fire-engine red truck with black and yellow flames painted over the hood and along the sides, engulfing the entire front end of the vehicle.

“You don’t expect me to get my children in that?” Her eyes were wide and horrified.

Sam hauled her suitcases one at a time into the back of the truck with ease, ignoring her muttered “Why on earth would I want them in that? Oh dear, I can’t believe this.” He simply let her carry on, and then walked around and opened the rear door to the cab. He couldn’t hide the grin on his face as he turned back to her.

“You need to climb up into the truck, Lydia. I’ll hand the kids up to you. I managed to fit the child safety seats in there that Kate bought for them the other day.” He waited for her to move, but she simply stood there.

“You’re kidding me.” Astonishment tinged her voice as though she was offended at the mere thought of getting into his truck. Unlike him, however, the truck was immaculate, not a scratch, not a scrape. It was washed and polished to perfection. He thought it had been a better choice than his Jeep, which was full of hay and straw and dirt. He eyed her jeans as he considered throwing her up there, but he knew the moment she caught his thoughts as she took a step away from him.

“No kidding.” He said mildly. “You need to get your leg up there and take hold of the bar on that side and the door on the other side and haul yourself up. Then when you’re in the cab, I’ll hand the kids up to you.”

Lydia looked at him and then down at her two sleeping children.

“You can trust me,” he murmured, his voice quiet. “I won’t let them come to any harm, Lydia. My hands may be rough, but they’re used to being gentle.” He leaned forward and tucked a stray strand of silken hair behind her ear, noting that she nearly jumped out of her skin at the contact. It made her move though.

He smiled to himself as she turned her back on him and followed his instructions on how to get into the cab, her leg barely reaching the footstep that he had pulled out for her. He watched her struggle to pull her own weight up, despite being on the skinny side. It was a long way up. His lips twitched with amusement as he noted the full-length stretch of her slender legs. He could have given her foot a boost to get her into the cab, he thought to himself, as he put his hands on her slender little waist and gave her a firm shove, bodily lifting her into the seat. He heard her squeak of surprise and chose to ignore it as he turned his back on her. Bending down, he started to unfasten Rosie’s straps so that he could lift her out of the stroller.

He lifted the little girl into his arms and let her snuggle into his neck for a moment before he turned to Lydia. A puzzled look crossed her face as she stared down at him for a moment before she took Rosie from his outstretched arms and placed her in the seat furthest away from the door.

As she turned back, Sam already held Aaron effortlessly as he waited to hand him up. At six feet two, he was a pretty tall guy, and he noticed how tiny Lydia appeared up in the cab as she gazed down at him. He thought she must be all of five feet four. The top of her head had just reached his shoulder.

He stretched up and placed Aaron safely in her arms and wondered what the problem was as she fell silent while she strapped her little boy into the brand new car seat. She seemed to have difficulty swallowing, and he swore there were tears in her eyes until she let her hair fall over her face so he couldn’t see her expression any more.

The poor little thing was obviously so exhausted, and he couldn’t imagine that it was normal for her to be so rude. He shrugged to himself as he waited for her to finish. No wonder she looked guilty; it probably wasn’t in her nature to be vicious.

She climbed backward out of the cab. It was way too far down for her to reach the ground, and it wasn’t outside of his nature to take advantage of a woman in need, so he automatically put his arms out and caught her around her slim waist again, almost encircling it as he lifted her down. Skinny little thing, she felt no heavier than her children. Before she could protest, he stepped away from her to collapse the stroller and put it in the back of the truck. By the time he turned around, she’d scrambled hastily into the passenger seat of the cab before he could help.

She was silent next to him as he drove out of the airport parking garage. She was still silent as he drove through the city limits. By the time he drove through the dark country roads, she was asleep while he sang to the country channel he had tuned into on his radio. He glanced over as she murmured in her sleep and wished the journey were longer so that the bruised look of exhaustion under her eyes would disappear.

He kept his voice low and soft, singing along to a song of the pain some man felt who had been deserted by his wife because he worked too hard. As he crooned, her muttered words gentled, and the rocking motion of the monster truck soothed her exhausted body as it swayed her gently into a deeper sleep.

Sam pulled the truck up in front of the ranch house. It was in complete darkness. He turned off the engine and headlights, but left the eerie orange glow of the dashboard lights on.

“Lydia, we’re here.” She slept on, no acknowledgment that she had heard his voice.

He leaned over her, touched her arm gently. When that didn’t work, he touched her cheek, his hand so huge and dark against her white skin. Skin that felt so soft against his callused work hands. He leaned closer, and whispered her name again in the semi-darkness.

“Lydia.”

Her eyes flew open in horror, and she flung herself away from him, virtually climbing up the door in her attempt to get as far away as possible. Her reaction was so violent that he jumped back away from her. His heart leaped into his throat. When she fumbled for the door handle though, he moved back to take hold of her arm. It was a long way down, and she wasn’t properly awake.

“Whoa, steady there,” he soothed. “You were just dreaming, honey. You’re okay. Take it easy. It’s okay. You’re safe, sweetheart.”

He could hear her panicked breathing and see the glitter of her eyes as she stared at him through the darkness, but she never shook his hand off her arm, and her own hand slid away from the door handle.

She took in a long, hitching breath and after a moment sat up straight. With a shaky hand, she tucked her golden hair behind her ear, and then stared down at his hand that still gently soothed her arm.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I must have been in a deeper sleep than I realized.”

It was dark inside the cab, except for the glow of the dashboard lights. It was pitch black outside. She seemed irritated that she’d allowed herself to fall asleep instead of remaining awake, for some strange reason, and he realized that she didn’t trust him in the least.

He watched her closely, his hand still on her arm. Oddly enough, she seemed to take comfort in his touch and didn’t seem compelled to shake his hand off, but her breathing was still uneven and her hands shook. She turned her face to the front window and stared at the dark outline of the house in front of her.

“Well, I suppose this means we’ve arrived.” Her voice was still a little shaky.

“Yeah.” Sam opened his door and the interior light came on, over-bright in the dense darkness of the night. He glanced over at Lydia and noted the paleness of her skin. Exhaustion and fear. She’d reacted like a skittish foal.

He realized she was one of the walking wounded, and he knew he had plenty of experience dealing with the wounded, the beaten, and the damaged. It was going to be a long haul for those wounds to heal, but he thought it might be interesting to stick around, keep an eye, and see what developed with this pretty little woman with her fears and her secrets.

“I’ll turn some lights on in the house, and then we can get the kids and you to bed.” He heard her stomach give a loud growl and wondered how long it had been since she had eaten. It can’t have been easy on the plane with the two kids. He considered it might put her a little more at ease if they ate together. “Perhaps we need to feed you first, before you sink into a coma.”

*

It was almost two thirty by the time she crawled between the sheets of the double bed. She found it strange that it had the familiar and comforting smell of her sister. The bedding was clean, but Katie had washed it in her normal powder, and it somehow had a slightly surgical smell to it. It comforted Lydia as she drifted into sleep, thinking of the gentle giant downstairs who’d fed her re-heated spaghetti bolognaise that Katie had left in the fridge. He said he would stay until they had word from Jack so she wasn’t alone in a strange house with the kids.

She’d barely spoken to him, but she couldn’t stop flicking glances his way. She knew he didn’t expect a response from her, but whenever he caught her looking, his dimples creased in his cheeks as he smiled in encouragement.

Her room was enormous, and they’d had to walk through it to get to the children’s room and bathroom. She noticed a new lock on her door and knew that Katie was responsible for that. Not that a lock was much security against a determined interloper, but she didn’t want to think about that right now, so she turned her mind back to the gentle caramel eyes framed with long dark brown lashes. Strangely comforted, she closed her own eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 2

The good thing about children was they recovered fast. The bad thing about children was they recovered fast. When they did, they were invariably loud, energetic, and starving.

Lydia glanced at her watch and figured she could survive until later that night on her four and a half hours of sleep.