“With my life. I don’t need to count weeks or months to figure it out. And it won’t be perfect all the time. I know that. I just know I want to try.”
It won’t be perfect all the time. She rolled those words around in her head a few times, mulling them over. She thought about Michelle in the next room, struggling so hard to make decisions, thought about Josh, who’d lost his wife overseas mere weeks before she was due to return home. She thought about Lizzie’s mom, and how she’d had to be put in full-time care. Truth was, there was no such thing as perfect all the time, and perhaps that was Charlie’s problem. She’d built up this imaginary dream life to be so perfect that it was an impossible, unattainable goal.
Instead she had a wonderful, slightly damaged, sexy, beautiful man holding her tight and asking her to give them a shot. And it occurred to her that perhaps she’d been demanding too much, because what he was offering was everything. Himself. All he asked in return was that she meet him halfway.
“You really mean that you love me?”
She relaxed into his arms, curling into his embrace so that her face was nestled in the curve of his neck. “Oh yes,” he answered softly. “Charlie, there was a moment. I know you remember it. You have to. A moment when we were making love and our eyes met and it was like lightning.”
She did remember. It had been a magical, soul-deep connection beyond anything she’d ever known. It had been the moment that had given her hope that the life she longed for might be within her grasp.
Now he was telling her it was. And she could either choose to believe him or walk away.
She thought of what Lizzie would say right now and she laughed a little, holding on to him a bit tighter. Lizzie would tell her to stop being a chicken and take a chance, because if she didn’t, she’d always regret it.
“Is that a good laugh or a bad one? Cripes, woman. I spill my guts to you and you laugh?”
She pushed on his chest so that she was sitting up and could look him square in the face. “David Ricker, I am terrified of having my heart broken. But lucky for you I’m more afraid of what will become of me if I don’t take a chance. So here it is. I fell in love with you too. Right about the time you turned around with a baby in your arms and told me we had a problem.”
A smile bloomed on his face and he pulled her close, kissing her like she was a cool glass of water and he was a man dying of thirst. With a heart full of hope, she kissed him back, melting into him, loving the taste and feel of him until she realized someone was knocking on her office door.
Reluctantly she removed her lips from his and then felt heat rush to her face as she saw Josh standing in the doorway, his knuckles resting on the door frame and a goofy grin on his face.
“I hate to interrupt this reunion, but Michelle is getting ready to go now. She asked to see you first.”
Charlie turned to Dave. “Do you want to meet her? She seemed very interested in knowing who found her baby.”
“She brought us together, didn’t she? Of course I’ll meet her.”
“I’ll be right back.”
Michelle agreed to meet Dave, and Charlie loved the way he smiled at the girl when she walked through the office door. He had a big heart too, whether he realized it or not.
“Thank you,” Michelle said quietly. “For saving my baby.”
“You’re welcome,” he answered, and he came forward and shook her hand. “Don’t worry, okay? You’ve got Dr. Yang in your corner. And if I’ve learned anything, it’s that when she’s got your back, it’s not the end. It’s just the beginning. You’re going to be just fine.”
Michelle nodded, shouldering her backpack, and then she suddenly smiled. “Oh!” She let the pack slide to the floor and hurriedly undid the zipper. “I nearly forgot. I took this the night I left him in the manger. I didn’t mean to steal it, I just wasn’t sure…”
She stood up. It was the doll from the manger, still diapered and swaddled and wrapped in Dave’s soft shirt.
Charlie started to laugh, and so did Dave. She put her arm around Michelle’s shoulders. And in that moment, she knew that everything was going to work out exactly as it should. And it had nothing to do with facts or figures. It was all down to one simple thing: faith.
Chapter Fourteen
Light snow was falling on Christmas Eve. The tangle of lights Charlie had wrestled with the first day was twinkling from the shrubs throughout the churchyard. A floodlight lit up the nativity, and together Charlie and Dave went forward and placed the original Baby Jesus on the straw.
“Back where he belongs,” Dave said quietly, holding Charlie’s hand.
“It seems like so long ago I was sitting here talking to him like he was my best friend. So silly…”
Dave shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he was listening.”
Charlie laughed a little, leaning against Dave’s arm. “That’s even more embarrassing. I was telling him about this guy I could see from the window at Breeze’s on my lunch hour. How I’d made up this fantasy boyfriend…”