âUm ⦠would you like to take some pie with you? Canât eat it all, would hate to throw it out.â
Matt smiled. A soft smile, barely visible through the scruff. Kelly dulyâbut not dullyâconsidered that scruff, about how sensitive her skin was, and her heart started banging so hard she nearly passed outâ
âCanât have that, God knows.â
What? Oh. âNo,â she said. âCanât have that.â Goodness gracious, her sternum was going to hurt like hell in the morning. âWell. Okay. Let me get that packed up for you â¦â
Kelly turned toward the kitchen, letting out a little gasp when she found herself somehow cradled to his chest.
Oh, she thought, smelling him, wanting to inhale him as she listened to his lovely strong heartbeat and soaked up how amazing those arms felt folded around her. She nearly cried, it felt so good and it had been so long, and heck, yeah, she missed this.
âYour call,â he said, and Kelly did flinch.
âWh-what?â
âWhether I go or stay.â He smiled. âItâs up to you.â
Jersey Boys: Born ⦠raised ⦠and ready.
Chapter One
Her arm muscles screaming from the weight of the sacked-out toddler slumped against her chest, Kelly McNeil blinked up at the multigabled Queen Anne, so still and serene in the dark...and prayed she wasnât making the biggest mistake of her life.
Okay, the second-biggest mistakeâ
âWhoâd you say these people were again?â
Behind her, the minivanâs engine ticked itself to sleep, the sound overloud in the deep winter silence, and Kelly smiled briefly for her young son.
âThis is where my best friend lived,â she said, her heart knocking as they started up the softly lit brick walk that bisected the snow-shrouded front yard. âWeâll be safe here.â
Between the twin disks of his Harry Potter glasses, Cooperâs nose scrunched. âYou sure?â
âYes,â Kelly said, because she had to believe that or die. As it was, she felt as though sheâd never be completely free of the fear knotting her stomach...a fear that had finally trampled her last shred of common sense. Because this was so not her, this was insane, uprooting two kids in the middle of the night and taking them someplace she hadnât even seen for nearly twenty years. She knew the Colonel still lived there, Sabrina had said so in her last Christmas letter, but his number was unlisted and Sabrina had apparently changed her cell phone numberâ
Swallowing hard, Kelly boosted Aislin higher on her shoulder and trudged up the steps to the porch, where brass coach lamps still stood sentry on either side of the glossy black door, illuminating the weathered gray floorboards, the dark green porch swing that had been privy to many a summer nightâs adolescent gripefest....
Blowing out a breath, Kelly pressed the doorbell. A dog barked. A big one, by the sound of it. Coop sidled closer.
âDadââ
âDoesnât know where we are, sweetie.â
âYou sure?â
âPositive.â
âHow come?â
Because by the time she and Rick had met, her third year of college, her father was dead and her mother had moved to Philly and Maple River, New Jersey, had quietly slipped into her past. Oh, Sabrina had been one of Kellyâs bridesmaids and had visited after Coopâs birth, but thereâd been no reason for Kelly to return here. âIt never came up,â she said quietly, and Coop nodded.
Except he then glanced over his shoulder, worried, and Kelly tugged him closer, fury hard-edging the fear. A moment later, through the frosted panels framing the door, a light flashed on. Sabrina wasnât there, of courseâgirlfriend had traded the Garden State âburbs for Manhattan years before. And Breeâs mom, Jeanne, had died some years before. Which left the Colonel. Whoâd always scared Kelly a little, truth be told. Man hadnât risen through the ranks of the air force as quickly as he had by being a softie, that was for sure.
But for all Preston Nobleâs penchant for order and discipline, heâd also adored his five kids, four of whom were adopted. And Kelly had come to associate ânext doorâ with love and laughter and the security that comes from being in a large family where everyone had each otherâs backs. Sure, Sabrinaâs dad might glower and bluster for a moment, especially at the late hour, but Kelly had no doubt heâd allow her and her children the same refuge heâd not only given to an untold number of foster kids over the years but also more rescue animals than she could count.