LITMIR.BIZ

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James? Maybe because she hadn’t been worried about him getting the wrong idea. He’d been the one to break off their engagement, not her, so he wasn’t likely to want to rekindle anything at this late date.

      And neither was she.

      Oh, maybe she’d taken one look at that rugged face and piercing blue eyes and had seen stars for a second or two. But that had been pure fantasy. The real-life version of that relationship had gone up in smoke. And if she were stupid enough to harbor any ideas, she’d better snuff them out now because the man hadn’t wanted her back then, and he undoubtedly didn’t want her now.

      Adam filled James in on what surgery to Leo’s feet would entail and how long it and the ensuing recovery would take, while Mila peered into the bags of clothes.

      Hmm. Superheroes. She never would have pegged James for a superhero kind of guy, although he was aloof and secretive. And he never snatched at publicity. In fact, he’d always shunned it while they’d been together, even though reporters had dogged his every step back then.

      Was it because he hadn’t wanted to be seen with her?

      He’d asked her to marry him, for heaven’s sake.

      And yet he hadn’t been able to go through with it in the end. How humiliating it had been to see cringe-worthy pictures of herself beneath headlines that had screamed things like “scorned” and “dumped.” She’d fled to Brazil to get away from the onslaught...and the pain.

      Pulling her mind from the past, she ripped open the packages, instead. “I wish we could run these through the washer before putting them on him, but I guess it’s better than staying in the filthy things he has on now. I’d like to get him to a room and get him cleaned up, if we can.”

      James pulled his cell phone from his pocket and made a quick call. “Okay, mark the suite as occupied. Oh, and, Stella, make sure you have an extra trundle bed set up.”

      Good, he was taking her at her word that she wanted to stay in the room with Leo.

      “Yes, I’m aware that the room already has one. I need an extra, in case there are any problems.”

      “Problems?” The panicked word slid from her mouth before she could stop it.

      Adam, as if sensing a storm was brewing, gave a quick wave. “Let me know what happens with the social worker, or if there’s a problem during the night. I’m on call.”

      She mouthed, “Thank you,” to him, still trying to wrap her head around the bombshell James had just dropped. Why on earth did he need an extra bed? Did he think she couldn’t handle one small child on her own?

      As soon as the specialist was out of the room, she turned toward him. “I don’t understand.”

      “You don’t know this child or what he’s like. It’s just for one night, to make sure things run smoothly.”

      Smoothly? He was making Leo sound like he was just another chart to be dealt with.

      As if realizing he needed to clarify matters, he said, “If it’s true that his uncle dropped him off, the boy is bound to be frightened. He might even try to run away or the uncle could show up, which could cause legal problems for the clinic if the Department of Children and Family Services comes by tomorrow and the child has disappeared. I thought we could take shifts and watch him. See how he does.”

      Okay, so that made sense. Although she wasn’t sure how he expected a three-year-old to sneak down the hallways unnoticed and make a daring escape. But he could get lost. Or hurt. Or someone could appear, claiming to be one of his parents.

      At least James’s reasons for staying with them were now perfectly clear. It had everything to do with protecting the reputation of his precious medical center.

      And nothing to do with her.

      * * *

      She heard something.

      Cracking her eyelids, Mila found a dark, silent room.

      Not her bedroom.

      Lying there for a moment, she waited for her vision to adjust.

      Another murmur of sound.

      Leo! She was in a hospital suite. Rolling to the side, she almost tumbled off the narrow cot until the events of the previous evening came flooding back to her. The boy. His damaged feet. James’s insistence on spending the night with them.

      She somehow managed to get her legs beneath her and staggered upright as a quiet sniffle and whisper slid past her.

      Yanking down the T-shirt she’d retrieved from her apartment, she tiptoed toward the sounds, hoping she could get there before Leo woke up James. If she could do that and leave the lights off, she would.

      More snuffling, and then a deep sigh.

      She could finally see enough to make out the cot where James had been.

      It was empty.

      She relaxed. Maybe he’d decided not to stay after all. If he’d had as difficult a time getting to sleep as she had...

      Well, her stupid insomnia was due to having James sleeping in the same room.

      She made her way toward the hospital bed, almost reaching it before she realized there were two figures there.

      Her heart squeezed so tight she almost couldn’t breathe. There in the bed was James, eyes closed, one arm loosely draped around Leo, keeping him from falling off the edge. The boy, dressed in the new set of superhero pajamas, was half-sprawled across her ex’s chest. Tears pricked her eyes.

      Their future could have looked exactly like this, only she would have been in the bed beside James, and Leo would have been their son.

      She had to blink several times to get the chaos swirling within her to settle down enough to move closer. Leo must have woken sometime during the night. James had evidently heard him and she hadn’t and he had gone to him.

      Since it looked like one of Leo’s hands was clutching James’s shirt, rather than his ratty blanket, he probably couldn’t ease away from him.

      How long had they been here like this?

      From James’s posture, it had been a while. His right arm was curled beneath his head, as if using it for a pillow, since the actual pillow was on the boy’s side of the bed. Except Leo wasn’t using it. He was using James’s chest instead.

      She crept closer, fascinated, just as she’d always been, by how her ex’s face looked as he slept. His lashes made slight shadows beneath his eyes. The furrow of concentration he normally had between his brows was softened in sleep, and just the slightest hint of a depression remained.

      She should go back to bed and leave them alone, but she couldn’t. It wasn’t fair to let him shoulder the burden when she had been the one to insist on staying with him in the room.

      So she leaned down, close to his ear. “James,” she whispered.

      His lids flicked open in an instant, all traces of sleep gone. Blue eyes sought out hers and the arm holding Leo to him tightened slightly.

      The frown was back. “You okay?”

      “Yes.” She nodded to the sleeping boy. “Did he wake up?”

      “He had a nightmare.”

      There was something about whispering with James in the dark that made her swallow. How easy things had once been between them, and how simple they’d seemed.

      In reality, nothing had been simple. They’d known each other for too short a period of time to commit to staying with each other forever. She’d known almost nothing about him and yet she’d planned on spending the rest of her life with him.

      An ocean of hurt welled up inside her, making its way to her eyes once again.

      James didn’t miss it. Then again, he didn’t miss much of anything. His

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