Page 25 of Never Too Late

“I promise,” I whispered, not fully aware of what I promised.

* * *

Present

“Hey, it’s that doctor lady.” I heard the cheerful shriek coming from behind me, but I ignored it.

It was the evening of decorating the well ceremony, an event the whole town came to and participated in and the tourists came from all over to experience the magnificence of it.

Before it started, I decided to reserve a tree to lug home after and spend the night decorating it. I was late with that anyway. The tree should have been up days ago, and if my grandmother was still here, it would have been. So, naturally, picking just the right one took all my attention, and I wasn’t willing to let any distractions invade and distract me. Even if the shriek obviously came from a child.

“Hey, you’re the doctor lady,” came from right next to me.

I looked that way and down.

The sight that greeted me was an arrow right through my heart.

Because there stood a little girl with brown eyes I knew so well.

And still, after all this time, loved.

When I last saw her, she was asleep, so how she knew that I was a doctor I had no idea. Then again, Hopeful was a small town and everyone knew everyone and their business, so it wasn’t a mystery.

Dylan was written all over her. Even if I didn’t know for a fact that she was his, she looked like him so much, her hair, her cheekbones, and her smile, I would have picked him as her father. And I knew, while she was sleeping in my office, if she opened her eyes they would be his.

And I was right.

Right down to that dark blue line on their outer edges.

“Yes,” I whispered, lost in those brown eyes on the little girl’s face. And somewhere deep inside, I wept for the fact that those eyes and that little girl didn’t belong to me.

“I’m all better now,” Zara said through a bright smile, puffing her little chest out and spreading her little arms out.

“I can see,” I muttered through my own smile. It was impossible not to smile when I was near her, no matter how much it hurt.

“What’re you doing?”

“Picking out a Christmas tree.” I indicated the trees with the tilt of my head.

She looked from the trees to me and back, a frown pulling at her mouth. She was so adorable in her obvious disapproval that I had a hard time holding in the laughter that started bubbling inside.

“You don’t like them?” I asked and looked back at the trees.

“They’re okay.” She took a step closer and leaned this way and that, concentrated on the task at hand. “But there’s not one that’s perfect.” She looked up at me and whispered, “And a Christmas tree needs to be perfect.”

“You are absolutely right.” I nodded my head. “It does. But it’s all they have, so I have to find one here.”

“You should tell my daddy to cut you one when we go and get one for us,” she exclaimed like it was the best idea in the world. “He always picks the best one. Everyone says so.”

She had no idea the punch in the gut her idea gave me. I bet it was the best one. If he chose one and cut it for me, I would think it was the most beautiful looking tree in the world, too.

“Zara, quit bugging the doctor.” Dylan’s rough voice came from behind us before I had a chance to come up with something to say to that. Zara looked behind me and up.

“She really isn’t,” I said softly, turning back and finding Dylan standing close.

So close I could feel the hot wave rolling from me and seep deep into my bones.

His eyes roamed my face, stopped on my mouth and his frown melted away and a gentle expression leaked in.