Mirror Image

glow of the night-light. As he started to stand up, his eyes locked with Avery’s. Acting on impulse, she laid her hand on his furry chest and raised her head to lightly kiss his lips. “Good night, Tate.”
    He straightened up slowly. As he did, her hand slid down his chest; over the hard, curved muscles; across the nipple; through the dense, crisp hair; to the smoother plane of his belly; until her fingertips brushed against the elastic waistband of his briefs before falling away.
    “I’ll be right back,” he mumbled.
    He was gone only a few minutes, but by the time he returned, Mandy was sleeping peacefully. He had pulled on a lightweight robe, but had left it unbelted. As he lowered himself into the rocking chair, he noticed that Avery’s eyes were still open. “That bed’s not meant for two. Are you comfortable?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “I don’t think Mandy would know if you got up now and went to your own room.”
    “I would know. And I told her I’d stay with her the rest of the night.” She stroked Mandy’s flushed cheek with the back of her finger. “What are we going to do, Tate?”
    Resting his elbows on his knees, he sat forward and dug his thumbs into his eye sockets. A tousled lock of hair fell over his forehead. With stubble surrounding it, the vertical cleft at the edge of his chin seemed more pronounced. He sighed, expanding his bare chest beneath the open robe. “I don’t know.”
    “Do you think the psychologist is doing her any good?”
    He raised his head. “Don’t you?”
    “I shouldn’t second-guess the choice you and your parents made while I was indisposed.”
    She knew she shouldn’t get involved at all. This was a personal problem and Avery Daniels had no right to poke her nose into it. But she couldn’t just stand by and let a child’s emotional stability deteriorate.
    “If you have an opinion, be my guest and say so,” Tate urged. “This is our child we’re talking about. I’m not going to get petty about who had the best idea.”
    “I know of a doctor in Houston,” she began. One of his eyebrows arched inquisitively. “He… I saw him on a talk show once and was very impressed with what he had to say and how he conducted himself. He wasn’t pompous. He was very straightforward and practical. Since the current doctor isn’t making much progress, maybe we should take Mandy to see him.”
    “We haven’t got anything to lose. Make an appointment.”
    “I’ll call tomorrow.” Her head sank deeper into the pillow, but she kept her eyes on him. He sat back in the rocking chair and rested his head against the stuffed pink cushion. “You don’t have to sit there all night, Tate,” she said softly.
    Their eyes met and held. “Yes, I do.”
    She fell asleep watching him watch her.

Twenty-One
    Avery woke up first. It was very early, and the room was dim, although the night-light still burned. She smiled wistfully when she realized that Mandy’s small hand was resting on her cheek. Her muscles were cramped from lying so long in one position; otherwise, she probably would have gone back to sleep. Needing to stretch, she eased Mandy’s hand off her face and laid it on the pillow. Taking agonizing care not to awaken the child, she got up.
    Tate was asleep in the rocker. His head was lying at such an angle to one side that it was almost resting on his shoulder. It looked like a very uncomfortable position, but his abdomen was rising and falling rhythmically, and she could hear his even breathing in the quiet room.
    His robe lay parted, revealing his torso and thighs. His right leg was bent at the knee; the left was stretched out in front of him. His calves and feet were well-shaped. His hands were heavily veined and sprinkled with hair. One was dangling from the arm of the chair, the other lay against his stomach.
    Sleep had erased the furrow of concern from between his brows. His lashes formed sooty crescents against his cheeks. Relaxed, his mouth looked sensual, capable of giving a woman enormous pleasure. Avery imagined that he would make love intently, passionately, and well, just as he did everything. Emotion brimmed inside Avery’s chest until it ached. She wanted badly to cry.
    She loved him.
    As much as she wanted to make recompense for her professional failures, she realized now that she had also assumed the role of his wife because she had fallen in love with him before she could even speak his name. She had loved him when she had had to look at