Page 8 of The Protector’s Heart
“Yeah. Nila said that she couldn’t go to the grocery tonight because of the weather so I thought I’d stop myself and take some things over. Unless you think that’s a dumb idea?”
“It’s a great idea, honey. You’ll show her that you were not only listening about her needs, but trying to help.”
As she began to list things he should pick up at the grocery, he made a mental list, hoping he got everything and that Nila would accept his help. Maybe she wouldn’t, and it would all be for nothing, but maybe she would and he’d be one step closer to her seeing that he wasn’t anything like her ex.
CHAPTER FOUR
Nila looked out the front window but couldn’t see much in the darkness. The power had gone out at 9:30 and hadn’t come back on, so an hour later, she’d built a fire in the fireplace and pulled Jack’s crib into the front room. He was sleeping soundly in his footy pajamas, his favorite stuffed wolf tucked close.
Headlights flashed along the front of the house as a big vehicle pulled into the driveway. Who was that? She wasn’t expecting anyone. Immediately she wondered if Damien had come for her and Jack. The alarm system wasn’t working because the electricity was off, which made her wish she’d taken the security company’s advice and installed a generator for just such an emergency.
The SUV’s headlights blinded her for a moment, but she blinked past the spots in her vision and watched the driver’s door open and the interior light illuminate Malachi.
What the hell?
She grabbed her coat and tucked her feet into the boots at the front door, casting a glance at her sleeping son before opening the front door, stepping out into the bitter cold, and closing it behind her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. Malachi had superior hearing; he would be able to hear her even if she was whispering.
He got out, shut the door, and opened the passenger door, extracting two grocery sacks. He didn’t say anything until he reached the bottom step of the porch.
“I remembered you saying you weren’t going to get to the store because of the snow, so I stopped for you.”
He made no move to come up the steps, crowd her, or push past her into the house, like her ex would have done. Of course, her ex didn’t care if she had groceries or not, unless he was asking her to make him something to eat.
Her mouth opened and closed, twice, before she said, “What are you doing?”
With the SUV’s headlights illuminating him from behind, he looked so much like a freaking angel she almost forgot she was trying to keep him at arm’s length. He looked like a guardian angel—arms full of groceries, a halo of light around him, snow falling against his dark hair.
Without stopping his smile, he set the bags down on the top of the porch and said, “I’ll get the others and then I’ll take off.”
He made two more trips to the SUV. When he was done, seven paper sacks were lined up on the porch. “I wasn’t sure what kinds of things Jack would eat, so I called my mom.”
She forgot the cold and the snow. She forgot everything but the man standing on the sidewalk in front of her house, and the words he’d just spoken.
“You called your mom about Jack?”
He shrugged, looking embarrassed. “I don’t know a lot about kids, so I went to an expert. I didn’t think that if I called you you’d tell me what you guys needed, anyway.”
She snorted, but inside she knew he was right. If he’d called her and offered to bring groceries, she would have been too proud to accept. He was being kind, and yeah, maybe he was trying to show her that he was different from her ex, but at the moment he wasn’t asking anything but for her to accept the groceries.
Her mouth opened before she could stop it. “Help me bring them in, but be quiet because Jack is sleeping.”
He smiled so broadly that he looked as if someone had given him the best present ever. She picked up the nearest bag and opened the front door, stepping in and holding it while he picked up several bags and walked ahead of her. She carried her bag to the kitchen and Malachi moved like a ninja, silent and fast, bringing in the other bags and closing the front door quietly.
The kitchen was through the family room, and without the heat, it was cooling quickly. “It’s cold enough outside to leave the milk and stuff on the back porch,” he said, shifting some things into one sack and unlocking the door at the back of the kitchen that led to the tiny concrete porch. She watched him put the cold things – milk, eggs, packages of deli meat and cheese, and an eight-pack of her favorite strawberry-banana yogurt – onto the back patio and shut and lock the door.
He turned and said, “Take care, Nila.”
He made it halfway through the family room before she managed to snap herself out of her stupor and race to him. She put her hand on the front door, not that she could stop him from opening it if he really wanted to.
“How did you know I like that yogurt?” she whispered. She stared up at him, his beautiful blue eyes glinting in the firelight.
He raised a brow. “I pay attention. You have one every day during your break.”
She felt her insides tremble in excitement and scowled internally at herself. She was not going to melt into a puddle of goo because he happened to notice something that her ex, who had lived with her, had never once noticed.
She blinked rapidly, unsure where the sudden stinging tears were coming from, and whispered, “I thought I’d make some hot chocolate, if you’d like to join me.”