A Very Special Delivery

go check it out, light the stove and such. Will you watch Laney while I go?”
    No! As soon as the thought came, shame followed. If Ethan had nearly frozen to death to help someone else, surely she could find the courage to stay in a warm house with his baby for a few more minutes. She swallowed back the knot of anxiety. She could. She had to.
    Pushing out of her chair, Molly went to the bedroom. When she returned with the camper keys clenched in one hand, Ethan was changing Laney’s diaper.
    She stopped dead in her tracks and watched. Something about a big, masculine man maneuvering a diaper around the chubby, thrashing legs created an endearing scene.
    Ethan looked up and grinned, and Molly’s heart fluttered oddly.
    “She leaks like a sprinkler system.” Deftly, he smoothed the plastic tabs into place before slipping the tiny legs into the pajamas.
    “You’re good at that.”
    “Practice.” He lifted the infant in his big hands and laid her against a wide, blanket-covered shoulder, patting the tiny back with a tenderness that stirred Molly. One of his hands covered Laney’s entire back.
    “She’s beautiful.” Molly swallowed a lump and wished for what could never be.
    “Yeah.”
    To break the spell of man and baby, Molly stuck out her hand, displaying the keys. “The camper is behind the detached garage. The propane bottle is still hooked up so all you have to do is light the stove. You can take these blankets with you.”
    “Perfect.” He took the keys and rose, bringing Laney up with him. “Do you mind feeding her?”
    Before Molly knew what was about to happen, Ethan placed the baby in her arms. The soft, warm body cuddled into her and made sucking noises against the little fist.
    Two years. Two long years since she’d held a baby in her arms.
    Molly thought she would collapse on the spot.

Chapter Three
    E than found the camper accommodations more than acceptable and was thankful he hadn’t been forced to sleep in a frigid barn—though he would have slept there rather than spend the night in Molly’s house. After what he’d gone through with Laney’s mother, he would never again put himself in a compromising situation. He didn’t figure the Lord would approve of him putting Molly in such a questionable spot either.
    Shining the flashlight around inside the camper, he found the propane stove and lit it. Molly had said the camper was equipped with electrical outlets, but it was too cold and too late to find the breaker box and make the connections. He opted for the camping lantern he found hanging from a peg inside the narrow closet next to the stove. Leaving it lit, he used the blankets to make up the bunk and, satisfied, started back to the house to ask another favor.
    Stomping over the ice-packed ground to keep his footing, he came around the side of the house and onto the porch. Through the window, he could see Molly sitting by the fireplace, holding Laney. Firelight played through her barely red hair and cast a halo around her. Her face was pale, sending her spattering of freckles into relief. And though her eyes drooped with fatigue, she kept them trained on the now-sleeping baby.
    Giving a soft knock of warning, he turned the knob, found the door unlocked, and stepped in.
    Molly looked up, her relieved expression all out of proportion to his short absence. Did she dislike kids that much?
    “You shouldn’t leave your door unlocked.” He wiped his feet on the rug and watched with dismay as ice fell from his clothes to the polished wood floor and quickly formed more puddles.
    Molly stood and came toward him, moving with careful ease so as not wake Laney. “Who do you think would be out in this storm?”
    “Me.”
    “Yeah, well, you’re not dangerous.”
    “How do you know?”
    Her soft laugh raised the hairs on his arms. “Because you’re so tired you’re about to fall over.”
    As Ethan took his daughter, Molly stretched and rubbed her arms as if they ached. Warmth crept into him that had nothing at all to do with the pleasant fire and comfortable house. “You didn’t have to hold her all that time. Once she’s eaten, she sleeps like the dead.”
    Molly’s skin faded to white. Her eyes grew round. “She’s fine. I promise. Nothing happened to her.”
    “I can see that,” he said gently. What was that all about? He thought Molly’s behavior was odd but blamed it on fatigue. “I seem to be melting all over your living room again.”
    “I can clean the floor in the