A Very Special Delivery Read Online Free PDF Page A

snug once it’s warmed up. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you used it.”
    Ethan seemed relieved. He placed his bowl on the coffee table.
“That will work great. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you for this,
Molly.”
    He was the hero, risking life and limb to help a sick man. She
was a coward who wouldn’t have done anything at all had he not forced her. She
suddenly felt ashamed.
    He drew in a breath and leaned forward, forearms on his thighs,
palms pressed together. “So if you have that camper key, I’ll go check it out,
light the stove and such. Will you watch Laney while I go?”
    No! As soon as the thought came, shame followed. If Ethan had
nearly frozen to death to help someone else, surely she could find the courage
to stay in a warm house with his baby for a few more minutes. She swallowed back
the knot of anxiety. She could. She had to.
    Pushing out of her chair, Molly went to the bedroom. When she
returned with the camper keys clenched in one hand, Ethan was changing Laney’s
diaper.
    She stopped dead in her tracks and watched. Something about a
big, masculine man maneuvering a diaper around the chubby, thrashing legs
created an endearing scene.
    Ethan looked up and grinned, and Molly’s heart fluttered oddly.
    “She leaks like a sprinkler system.” Deftly, he smoothed the
plastic tabs into place before slipping the tiny legs into the pajamas.
    “You’re good at that.”
    “Practice.” He lifted the infant in his big hands and laid her
against a wide, blanket-covered shoulder, patting the tiny back with a
tenderness that stirred Molly. One of his hands covered Laney’s entire back.
    “She’s beautiful.” Molly swallowed a lump and wished for what
could never be.
    “Yeah.”
    To break the spell of man and baby, Molly stuck out her hand,
displaying the keys. “The camper is behind the detached garage. The propane
bottle is still hooked up so all you have to do is light the stove. You can take
these blankets with you.”
    “Perfect.” He took the keys and rose, bringing Laney up with
him. “Do you mind feeding her?”
    Before Molly knew what was about to happen, Ethan placed the
baby in her arms. The soft, warm body cuddled into her and made sucking noises
against the little fist.
    Two years. Two long years since she’d held a baby in her
arms.
    Molly thought she would collapse on the spot.

Chapter Three
    E than found the camper accommodations more than acceptable and was thankful he hadn’t been forced to sleep in a frigid barn—though he would have slept there rather than spend the night in Molly’s house. After what he’d gone through with Laney’s mother, he would never again put himself in a compromising situation. He didn’t figure the Lord would approve of him putting Molly in such a questionable spot either.
    Shining the flashlight around inside the camper, he found the propane stove and lit it. Molly had said the camper was equipped with electrical outlets, but it was too cold and too late to find the breaker box and make the connections. He opted for the camping lantern he found hanging from a peg inside the narrow closet next to the stove. Leaving it lit, he used the blankets to make up the bunk and, satisfied, started back to the house to ask another favor.
    Stomping over the ice-packed ground to keep his footing, he came around the side of the house and onto the porch. Through the window, he could see Molly sitting by the fireplace, holding Laney. Firelight played through her barely red hair and cast a halo around her. Her face was pale, sending her spattering of freckles into relief. And though her eyes drooped with fatigue, she kept them trained on the now-sleeping baby.
    Giving a soft knock of warning, he turned the knob, found the door unlocked, and stepped in.
    Molly looked up, her relieved expression all out of proportion to his short absence. Did she dislike kids that much?
    “You shouldn’t leave your door unlocked.” He wiped his feet on the rug and watched