Local Hero

family. She’d been taught that marriage was forever, but she’d learned that it was a promise easily made and easily broken. There would be no more broken promises in her life, no more broken vows.
    Feelings might rush through her, bringing with them longings and silver-dusted dreams. Her heart might be lost to him, but her will was still her own. Even as her hands gripped him tighter, pulled him closer, Hester told herself it was that will that would save them both unhappiness later.
    “I love you, Hester.” He murmured the words against her mouth, knowing she might not want to hear them but that it was something he had to say. If he said it enough, she might begin to believe the words and, more, the meaning behind them.
    He wanted forever from her—forever for her—not just a moment like this, stolen in the sunlight that poured through the window, or other moments, taken in the shadows. Only once before had he wanted anything with something close to this intensity. That had been something abstract, something nebulous called art. The time had eventually come when he’d been forced to admit that dream would never be within reach.
    But Hester was here in his arms. He could hold her like this and taste the sweet, warm longings that stirred in her. She wasn’t a dream, but a woman he loved and wanted and would have. If keeping her meant playing games until the layers of her resistance were washed away, then he’d play.
    He lifted his hands to her face, twining his fingers into her hair. “I guess the kids will be coming back.”
    “Probably.” Her lips sought his again. Had she ever felt this sense of urgency before? “I wish we had more time.”
    “Do you?”
    Her eyes were half closed as he drew away. “Yes.”
    “Let me come back tonight.”
    “Oh, Mitch.” She stepped into his arms to rest her head on his shoulder. For the first time in a decade, she found the mother and the woman at war. “I want you. You know that, don’t you?”
    Her heart was still pumping hard and fast against his. “I think I figured it out.”
    “I wish we could be together tonight, but there’s Rad.”
    “I know how you feel about me staying here with Rad in the next room. Hester . . .” He ran his hands up her arms to rest them on her shoulders. “Why not be honest with him, tell him we care about each other and want to be together?”
    “Mitch, he’s only a baby.”
    “No, he’s not. No, wait,” he continued before she could speak again. “I’m not saying we should make it seem casual or careless, but that we should let Radley know how we feel about each other, and when two grown people feel this strongly about each other, they need to show it.”
    It seemed so simple when he said it, so logical, so natural. Gathering her thoughts, she stepped back. “Mitch, Rad loves you, and he loves with the innocence and lack of restriction of a child.”
    “I love him, too.”
    She looked into his eyes and nodded. “Yes, I think you do, and if it’s true, I hope you’ll understand. I’m afraid that if I bring Radley into this at this point, he’ll come to depend on you even more than he already does. He’d come to look at you as . . .”
    “As a father,” Mitch finished. “You don’t want a father in his life, do you, Hester?”
    “That’s not fair.” Her eyes, usually so calm and clear, turned to smoke.
    “Maybe not, but if I were you, I’d give it some hard thought.”
    “There’s no reason to say cruel things because I won’t have sex with you when my son’s sleeping in the next room.”
    He caught her by the shirt so fast she could only stare. She’d seen him annoyed, pushed close to the edge, but never furious. “Damn you, do you think that’s all I’m talking about? If all I wanted was sex, I could go downstairs and pick up the phone. Sex is easy, Hester. All it takes is two people and a little spare time.”
    “I’m sorry.” She closed her eyes, knowing she’d never said or done anything in her life she’d been more ashamed of. “That was stupid, Mitch; I just keep feeling as though my back’s against the wall. I need some time, please.”
    “So do I. But the time I need is with you.” He dropped his hands and stuck them in his pockets. “I’m pressuring you. I know it, and I’m not going to stop, because I believe in us.”
    “I wish I could, also, honestly I do, but there’s too much at stake for me.”
    And for himself, Mitch thought, but was calm enough now to