One Night Stand Ch. 07

"You think of everything, don't you?"

"I had good training. Mama always had a plan for everything - fire, tornado, flood, robbers, even alien invading," she laughed.

He nodded, "Like mother, like daughter. So I was your emergency backup plan."

She blushed, "I guess I should say sorry for lying to you."

"Don't you dare. I might wish things had happened differently than they have, but I will never regret my daughter." He bent down so that they were eye to eye, "Or that night."

He sighed, "Only the job I had to carry through with afterward. If anyone should say sorry, it's me." He shook his head, "I'd like to say I was doing it to protect you, but the truth was..."

He did not get to finish as the driver's door opened and Jack slipped behind the wheel. He looked in the rearview mirror for a moment before turning the key. The van hummed to life as if it were new. He pulled out onto the road before he spoke.

"Sorry, they did not have much other than cardboard sandwiches. The girl behind the counter asked too many questions. I think she was just flirting, but I hope she bought my story about not wanting to stop again until I hit the Gulf."

Ryan looked at her before reaching out to take the bag that Jack passed over the seat, "Good thing we stayed out of sight then."

Laura sighed as she watched Chloe nurse, tears filled her eyes, as an afterpain, that Lupe said was perfectly normal, sliced through her abdomen. "Oh, the tangled web we weave," she whispered as she kissed the top of her baby's head and closed her eyes. Sir Walter Scott had certainly got that one right. Even if she did not sleep, at least if her eyes were closed, they would not expect her to engage in conversation.

***Thanks to Anonymous for reminding me of the source to that quote. It was not Shakespear, but Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field by Sir Walter Scott.***