LITMIR.BIZ

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and guidance. It was terrifying to be heading out on her own.

      Except she wasn’t alone. Keaton would be there to help her. Her skin prickled. She hadn’t quite gotten used to the idea that he would be spending time in her private space. Buying a house and living alone for the first time in her life had been blissful. No more worrying about saying the wrong thing to her roommate’s friends or hearing their whispers and knowing they were talking about the weird girl who rarely came out of the second bedroom.

      “You’re going to do great,” said Nancy. The nurse with the most experience in the NICU, she’d been the one Lark had turned to about her anxiety.

      “I don’t know why I’m so emotional.” Lark laughed self-consciously. At the hospital she worked hard to appear confident. Letting anyone glimpse her shy awkwardness might make them question her ability to do her job. “I guess I’m feeling a little overwhelmed.”

      “Oh, honey.” Nancy wrapped her arm around Lark’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “With your sister in a coma and this precious baby still so delicate, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Frankly, we’d be surprised if you weren’t feeling that way.”

      Through the NICU’s large window, Lark spotted Keaton. Her pulse gave a little leap as their eyes met. He nodded in acknowledgement, his grave expression and compelling gaze easing her turmoil a little. His presence reminded her that she wasn’t alone.

      Amy spoke up. “And it looks like Keaton Holt is going to be a big help.” Her tone was sly, matching her wicked grin. “It’s nice to see you two could put aside your families’ differences.”

      Had they? Lark wasn’t sure. A lifetime of hostility and accusations stood between them. Just because she and Keaton weren’t at war with each other didn’t mean they were going to get along. He was determined to the point of obstinacy and laser-focused when he decided he wanted something. While it might make him a successful rancher, it made fighting with him an exhausting enterprise. Lark tore her attention away from the tall, imposing ranch owner and redirected her thoughts to the five-pound bundle she held. For Grace’s sake she and Keaton were just going to have to play nice.

      Telling her pulse to settle down, Lark cradled Grace in her arms and gazed around the NICU for the last time. Burdened with a well-stocked diaper bag and the responsibility of her delicate charge, she threw back her shoulders and walked the gantlet of smiling nurses who’d gathered to wish her and Grace well.

      “How is Grace this morning?” Keaton asked as she approached.

      “Doing better than I am.” Lark shifted her grip on the baby as Keaton slid the well-stocked diaper bag off her shoulder, lightening her load. “Thanks.”

      “Don’t tell me you’re nervous.” His genuine surprise bolstered her confidence.

      “I owe it to Skye to make everything perfect for Grace.”

      “It will be.”

      The hand he set on her back caused a shiver of awareness to travel up her spine. His touch was at once reassuring and stimulating. She wanted to lean into his strength. The urge gave her much to contemplate. For as long as Lark could remember she’d been a solo act. Growing up, she’d enjoyed solitude. Smart and independent, she’d been neither a leader nor a follower, but one of those quirky types who loved books and was perfectly content doing her own thing. Looking back, Lark wasn’t sure if her isolation had been the cause or the result of her social awkwardness.

      “If you don’t mind, I’d like to stop by the ICU before we leave the hospital,” Lark said as they walked down the hall to the elevators. “This is Grace’s first time outside the NICU, and I want her to see her mother before we leave.”

      Lark didn’t add that she was hoping that Grace’s presence would somehow miraculously awaken Skye from her coma.

      “Of course.”

      As always, she was discouraged by the sight of her beautiful, vibrant sister lying so still, the only sign of life the beep and electronic readouts coming from the machines that measured her vitals. But Lark’s reaction today was worse than normal. Her throat closed up as misery swamped her. What if Skye never woke up? What if Grace never got to know how amazing her mother was?

      “Damn,” she muttered, wiping away the moisture that escaped the corners of her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said to Keaton.

      “For what? Being sad that your sister is like this? It’s terrible.”

      She wanted to smile in appreciation of his understanding, but her facial muscles were controlled by the ache in her heart, so she settled for a nod.

      “Skye, this is Grace. You haven’t had a chance to meet her because she’s been too tiny to leave the NCIU. She’s so beautiful. I wish you would open your eyes and see for yourself.” Staying away from the wires that connected Skye to the monitors, Lark fitted Grace into the hollow between her sister’s arm and her side. “She needs her mommy.”

      As soon as Lark finished speaking, Grace punched outward with both fists and opened her eyes. Lark half expected her face to screw up in distress, but the baby blinked and relaxed in a way that Lark had never seen before. Was it being snuggled against her mother for the first time in three months?

      Keaton leaned forward to peer at Grace. His shoulder pressed against Lark’s back. “She looks happy.”

      “The mother-daughter bond is alive and well.”

      How comfortable it would be to rest her head against his broad chest and pull his muscular arms around her body. The longing for his touch was so compelling, Lark had to dig her fingernails into her palms to keep from acting on the impulse. What was happening to her? She’d never been so physically drawn to a man before. Usually the men she dated were intellectually stimulating, but not exactly fantasy material. Not that they were unattractive, but their allure had been mostly cerebral.

      Grace yawned and her eyes drifted shut. She knuckled one cheek. Her other hand rested on her mother’s arm.

      The anxious knot in Lark’s chest tightened. “What if Skye never wakes up?” It was the first time she’d spoken the fear out loud.

      “She will.” Keaton’s big hands settled on her shoulders. “As Grace gets stronger, so will her mother.”

      Keaton’s words couldn’t have been any more perfect. Lark’s optimism surged.

      “You’re right.” As much as she was loathed to disrupt the rapport that had bloomed between her and Keaton, she needed to get Grace home and settled. “Say goodbye to your mommy,” she said to the baby, lifting her away from Skye. It hurt Lark’s heart to separate mother and daughter, but she told herself it was only temporary. Before she left Skye’s bedside, Lark turned to Keaton. “I want you to know how much I appreciate everything you’ve done. I realized this morning that I’d underestimated how much I needed to get ready for Grace’s homecoming. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

      Her father would be furious to hear her say those words. But if he and her mother refused to step up and be grandparents to Grace, they had no right to criticize Lark for accepting Keaton’s assistance. Unfortunately that wouldn’t stop them from bombarding her with their opinions. Lark cringed away from thinking about her father’s ire. Always volatile where the Holts were concerned, he’d become a powder keg since the tornado leveled his tree farm.

      “You don’t need to thank me,” Keaton said. “We’re doing this for Grace, remember?”

      “For Grace,” she agreed.

      With Keaton a step behind her, Lark headed out of the ICU. As she neared the door to the hall, two people came into view. Her parents. They stood at the nurses’ station, speaking with Lark’s coworker Jessa and hadn’t spotted Lark or Keaton yet.

      She slowed her pace, all too aware of Keaton’s towering presence behind her. In the rush of getting prepared for Grace’s homecoming, Lark had neglected to mention to her parents that

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