Page 10 of Christmas with the Baby Daddy

I wasn’t sure if I qualified as his favorite. I was one among many quarterbacks over Coach Parker’s forty-year-long career. But I caved, thinking I’d stay only long enough to say hello and congrats to the old man.

I hadn’t counted on encountering Blake, though.

Before I lost the courage to subject myself to the people gathered here, all in high spirits and a good mood, I had to check on her. She’d fallen, and I had to make sure she wasn’t as messed up from seeing me as I was from spotting her. Awkwardness was due, but I couldn’t surrender to the cloying claustrophobia of being in a public setting for much longer.

Weaving through the people near the back of the bar, I aimed for the door she had escaped through. Standing around out here would only leave me susceptible to the standard platitudes ofthanks for your serviceorZach, glad to see you home. Checking on the one woman who’d never left my mind sounded like a better use of my time.

I pushed the door open, finding her just ahead. Swatting off bits of food that had fallen on her white blouse, she hung her head low and surveyed the damage.

“Unbelievable. Zach freaking West,” she mumbled. “Of all people…”

I felt the corner of my mouth tip up at her grumbling, entertained that we were in sync about the surprise. Before she’d look up to face me, I took the moment to really look her over. Tight braids pulled her long raven locks back, but it was her. Curvy, short, and damned sexy. If she lifted her face to peer at me, I bet those wide, green eyes would be just as beguiling as they were six years ago when I last saw her. They wouldn’t swim with tears. She wouldn’t be stricken with grief that cut at my heart.

As she jerked her head up, I saw her narrow her emerald eyes with another hit of surprise. A blush stole over her cheeks, and I wondered just how far that flush would spread. And if her smooth skin would still taste as sweet and delicate as I recalled.

“Blake.”

Her throat tightened as she forced a swallow. “Zach. Hi.” She flicked an errant strand of her black hair back, but with the gesture, a glob of food flew into the air.

“Hi.” I couldn’t stop staring, taking in every detail of this sweet woman. I tried to reconcile the new things I noticed now with the version I’d memorized from years ago. With each attempt at reminding myself that she was really here, in the flesh, at this moment, I failed to let that reality sink in.

“I didn’t know…” She shook her head, falling prey to getting sucked into this bubble of space that seemed only big enough for the two of us. Nothing else reached her. The loudness of the kitchen, the chatter of the party outside the swinging door. It all faded to my ears, and as she gazed at me, stuck on the sight of me, she demonstrated how the world fell to the side when we were within each other’s reach.

“I, um, I didn’t know you were coming back.”

I nodded, shoving my hands into my pockets. Nerves swirled in my gut, and this racing tempo of my heart bewildered me. Adrenaline was a familiar foe. I’d faced plenty of tense and dangerous situations in my life. I had survived treacherous days in combat. I’d endured countless tests to my stamina in my years in the military.

Facing Blake was another test altogether. Nothing in my life had ever prepared me for staring into the soulful eyes of the woman I’d told myself I couldn’t ever have. Kevin wouldn’t have approved—but he wasn’t here anymore. My need to be in the military kept me from any type of a long-term commitment with women—but I was no longer welcome in the military. All the miles of distance that separated me from Blake in Vernford held no significance. I had nowhere else to go, no place else to call home.

As unsettling as it was to feel lost and without a purpose, just existing without the sense of adventure of who I could be after my military career was over, sinking in the pull of Blake’s vulnerable gaze was more of a threat. The ground felt unsteady. My head swam. Dizziness cloaked me as I tried to accept that fate had thrust me into the same time and space as Blake’s. That somehow, regardless of the gap that parted us in life, we’d been thrust into this room, sharing the same air and locked in an identical lure of taking each other in.

“Yeah.” I licked my lips and rubbed the back of my neck. Discomfort snaked through me, but it wasn’t the familiar ache of muscular tension near the site of my surgeries. It was…

Fuck, this is terrible.

I had no clue what to say past hello. I wasn’t equipped with an explanation for why I was here now, and if I had to give anyone a heads up, I wouldn’t have thought of telling her. She wasn’t supposed to be here either, gone for bigger dreams outside this town.

I had nothing ready to say. No apologies for never contacting her when I couldn’t get her out of my mind. No checking in to see how she was doing or where she was. Nothing. We’d never been close, thanks to Kevin warning me that I couldn’t ever hook up with his baby sister, but still, after he’d died, it wouldn’t have killed me to make sure she was doing all right. I could’ve reached out after we fucked away our grief the night of his funeral.

“I, um…” She pointed at the tray that she’d set down. Just as impacted by the awkwardness hanging so heavily in the air between us, she reacted with a stiff retreat. “I should get back to cleaning that mess up…”

“Okay. Right.” I took one step back, then another. No farewell came to me. Not a single word. I was still stupefied and at a loss for being in her presence again. When my back touched the swinging door, easing it in the direction of the party, I exhaled a long breath and spun to get the hell out of there.

I didn’t get far. Escape was on my mind. I’d overstayed my stay, subjecting myself to too much company. I needed more space and time to decompress after seeing the last woman I’d held close.

Just… say something!More than a fucking hello. I stopped, shaking my head to turn back and power through this awkward tension. I hadn’t checked on her from that fall. I needed to make the most of this moment of seeing her again. I refused to get this tongue-tied and be a damn coward.

But as I pivoted, head down and frustrated with myself, I ran into an obstacle.

“Zach!” Reagan Francis lifted her arms in something that looked like a cheerleading pose she’d perfected years ago. It ended up as a segue into a hug as she lunged at me and wrapped me into an embrace. Stuck in her clutches, I was cut off from doubling back to speak with Blake again.

Shit.She was the last person I wanted to see.

“It is you, Zach! Oh, my God!” She squeezed me in a chokehold before rearing back to grin at me. “I thought I saw your face!” Giggling, reaching up to smooth her hand over my beard, she leaned in too close again. “I can’t believe you’re home!”

“Yeah.” I set her back, keeping her at arm’s length. “Me neither.”

How ironic. The last time I’d seen Reagan was at Kevin’s funeral six years ago—the same time I’d last seen Blake. But the surprise at reuniting with Vernford’s former cheerleading prom queen paled to the shock to the system that I experienced at spotting Blake again.

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