Hot Single Docs Collection. Lynne Marshall

meant it as one.

      “I like my coffee light with one teaspoon of sugar if you have it.” She walked to the kitchen. While he poured she said, “If I stay over tonight, and that’s still a big if, I need to know you won’t tell anyone at work. Or Jessie. Especially Jessie. I don’t want anyone to think...”

      “There’s something going on between us,” he finished for her as he placed her mug of coffee within reach.

      She pulled out a stool and sat down. “Yeah.”

      Most women loved to brag about dating him. But he was fast learning Scarlet was not most women.

      He held up the scout’s sign again and said, “Scout’s honor.”

      She smiled. “How long were you in the Boy Scouts?”

      “Through Eagle Scout,” he said. The highest, most prestigious level.

      “That’s quite an accomplishment.”

      Yes it was.

      “But you don’t seem the camping, outdoorsy type.”

      He wasn’t, but his father had made Eagle Scout, and Boy Scouts had been the one father son activity his dad had made time for. “I grew up in Northern Westchester. I didn’t migrate down to the city until I got accepted at NYU.”

      She blew on her coffee then took a sip.

      With the brief lapse in conversation that followed, Lewis took the opportunity to fulfill his promise to Jessie. “When I spoke to Jessie earlier, she made it clear that if something should happen to me, she’d much rather go to live with you than with my sister. I told her you’re not family and it’s not your responsibility to take her in. I don’t expect you to say yes, so don’t feel in any way pressured. But she made me promise to ask you if you’d be willing, so I’m asking.” He leaned back against the counter and lifted his coffee mug. There. He’d done what he’d promised to do. Now he waited for the backlash. He took a sip. How dare he put Scarlet in such a difficult position? How dare he expect her to take on the role of parent to a child who wasn’t hers? How dare he set her up to be a bad person by saying no when Lewis, Jessie’s father, should have been the one to tell her no when she’d first mentioned the idea.

      But Scarlet looked up at him with an expression that was anything but angry and said, “If it doesn’t cause a problem within your family, I’d love to.”

      What? “You’d...”

      She smiled. “I’d be happy to have Jessie come live with me.”

      He stood there, speechless.

      “She’s a great kid, Lewis. Don’t look so shocked.”

      “You’d have to change your life around.” Like he had.

      “If something’s important, you find a way to make it work,” she said. “Jessie is important to me. So I’d find a way to make it work. Not that I’ll ever have to because you’re young and healthy. But if Jessie needs me, I’ll be there for her.”

      As simple as that.

      Lewis walked to the counter opposite Scarlet and looked down into her eyes. “Someday you’re going to be an exceptional mom to some very lucky children.” And an outstanding wife to one extremely lucky man. For the first time in years, the idea of marriage, as in marriage to someone exactly like Scarlet, did not make him feel like he was buried under a ten foot high pile of cinderblocks.

      She looked down into her coffee cup and quietly said, “Hopefully sooner rather than later.”

      Which brought to mind her pictures of baby paraphernalia and Lewis got a heavy feeling in his gut. “Sooner as in that’s why you’re carrying around pictures of baby furniture and supplies?” Was she already pregnant? Was she trying to get pregnant?

      She looked up at him with the same excited expression she’d had when they’d found the purple lava lamp. “Since you’ve already agreed to keep my sleeping over a secret, can I trust you with one more?”

      He nodded, no longer certain he wanted to know.

      “I’m in the process of trying to adopt Joey.”