She shrugged. "I"ve worked three before. This is hardly new to me."
He studied her, his green eyes dark and unreadable. "You"re an amazing woman, Darcy Montague. I"m impressed."
His words made her feel all warm inside. "Don"t be. I"m just taking care of my brother. It"s not all that different from what you did with your sister when your parents died."
"It"s very different. I looked after Maddie for a couple of years. You"ve signed up for a lifetime of commitment."
His words made her uncomfortable. Not because of the praise, but because she suspected she knew what was coming next. Now that Mark knew about her brother and all that was involved with caring for him, Mark would be heading for the hills.
She shifted so that she was lying next to him, on her back and staring at the ceiling. By blinking very fast, she managed to keep the tears at bay. Part of her wanted to scream out against the unfairness of it all. Part of her wanted to tell him that if he was leaving he should try to keep the door from hitting him on the a.s.s.
"I"d like to meet him."
The unexpected words hung in the room like balloons. She stopped blinking. A single tear slipped out of the corner of her eye and ran toward her temple.
"What?"
Mark leaned over her. "I said I would like to meet your brother. Why are you crying?"
She sniffed. "I"m not."
"I saw a tear."
"I have something in my eye."
"Liar."He spoke the word gently,then brushed her mouth with his. "I mean it, Darcy. I would like to meet Dirk. Unless you think it would be too weird for him."
She didn"t know what to say. No one had ever wanted to meet Dirk before. She"d learned to stop expecting that kind of miracle.
She gazed at Mark"s face and reminded herself that this man might look pretty amazing on the outside, but on the inside, he still didn"t trust women very much. She had to make sure she didn"t fall in love with him.
"It"s a long drive," she said, trying to give him an out in case he"d just been being polite.
"I know where theMadisonSchoolis. Are you trying to tell me you don"t want me to meet him?"
"No. I just-" She smiled. "I"m going next Sat.u.r.day. You"re welcome to join me."
"I"d like that."
"Move them to the right," Darcy called. "Santa has to be centered."
Josh glowered at her from his place on the roof."Is this where I remind you that I"m doing this as a favor to a friend. I"m not getting paid and I don"t care if Santa is centered or straight or even up. It"s cold and I"m hungry."
Darcy smiled. "I"m sorry, Josh. Did you say something?"
Josh turned his attention to Mark. "You should be able to talk some sense into her."
"You"d think, but you"d be wrong."
Mark chuckled as his friend straightened the plastic Santa covered in lights, all the while grumbling about people being perfectionists over the stupidest things. He thought about explaining that he hadn"t exactly tap-danced at the thought of spending an evening in the frigid night air hanging lights and putting up Christmas decorations, but Darcy had asked him to help and he"d been unable to refuse her. The fact that his ankle wasn"t a hundred percent meant that he"d had to call in reinforcements.
He finished stapling the white lights around the porch about the same time Josh climbed down off the roof. Darcy eyed their work critically.
"Very nice," she said.
Mark joined her, limping only slightly. It was Wednesday. His ankle had continued to hurt through Monday but then had started to heal. He rested his weight on his good leg and resisted the urge to put his arm around Darcy. Since they"d had their heart-to-heart talk, they"d been spending their evenings together, although not their nights. Mark wasn"t sure he was ready to be back in her bed. Something profound had happened the last time they"d been intimate.
Somehow, sharing his past and hearing more about her brother had changed things. It was as if in the telling of their secrets, they"d shifted their relationship. He didn"t want to think about what that meant. Trust still wasn"t easy for him. He"d been completely wrong about Sylvia, and while that didn"t mean he couldn"t be right about Darcy, he wanted to be sure. There was no way he was going to make another mistake like that one.
Darcy snuggled close, wrapping her arms around him as she gazed at the duplex. "Does it make you believe in miracles?"
"We must not be looking at the same thing."
He saw a slightly tired building with half outlined in white lights. A flashing Santa sat above the center of the porch. No doubt she saw a wonderland.
"Don"t be cynical," she told him. "You both did a great job. I really appreciate it."
"Yeah, well, you"re welcome," Josh muttered ungraciously. "Now I"m going home before I freeze to death."
"Do you want to come inside first?" Darcy asked. "I feel badly making you do work and then sending you off on an empty stomach. I have carrot cake."
Josh laughed. "Darcy, you already gave me two dozen cookies and a pumpkin loaf. I don"t need anything else."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." Josh gave them a wave and headed for his truck.
Mark stared after him. If Darcy had her way, she would feed the world.
"I know you won"t turn down my carrot cake," she said, moving toward the house.
"You"re right on that."
Five minutes later he dug his fork into a large piece of cake. One bite told him that Darcy had made this as well as she made everything else.
"It"s great," he said when he"d swallowed.
She poured him a cup of coffee. "I"m glad you like it. I think the tofu blends nicely with the other flavors."
He had another forkful halfway to his mouth. At her words, he froze."No way."
She blinked innocently. "Way."
"You didn"t put tofu in here."
Her smile gave nothing away.
Cautiously he took another bite. It still tasted heavenly. The cake was moist, the frosting just sweet enough to make his mouth water.
"h.e.l.l, if this is tofu, sign me up," he muttered in defeat.
Darcy dropped a kiss on his cheek. "I wish I could say it was. I"m just having a good time at your expense."
"It"s not politically correct to take advantage of a man when he"s injured."
"On the contrary, this is the only time I get a chance to best you."
She walked over to the counter and started pulling ingredients out of the cupboard.
"What are you making tonight?" he asked.
"More sugar cookies. Melissa doubled her order today. She said they"re selling a lot faster than she thought. And I have to make gingerbread for another house. The hospital said they wanted to raffle one off at their Christmas party on Friday. I"ll get it baked and cut out tonight, then a.s.semble it tomorrow."
As she spoke, her shoulders drooped with weariness.
"How late are you going to be up tonight?" he asked.
"I don"t want to think about it."
"Can I help? If you mixed up the gingerbread here, we could bake it at my place. That would free you up to concentrate on the cookies."
She gave him a grateful smile. "Are you sure you don"t mind?"
"Not at all."
"Thanks."
She collected large mixing bowls and baking pans for the gingerbread, then shooed him off to preheat his oven. As Mark made his way to his own place, he wondered if she would accept money from him. He had some put away. He could help her pay for the next semester of Dirk"s schooling.
But even as he came up with the plan, he dismissed it. Darcy would never take that kind of help. Using his oven was one thing, but money was something else. She was stubborn and proud.
She was also everything he"d wanted Sylvia to be. The difference was Darcy was the genuine article. So what exactly did he want from her?
Their relationship wasn"t like any he"d had before. With Sylvia there"d been sudden, overwhelming attraction. He"d been smitten from the second he"d seen her. With Darcy, things had happened more slowly. Although not s.e.xually, he reminded himself with a grin as he walked into his kitchen and turned on the oven. The physical chemistry between them was the most powerful he"d ever experienced. But the rest of it the friendship or whatever he wanted to call it had been slow in growing. Like a tiny ember that grew to be a- A what?Forestfire?He shook his head. That was too big. That implied a kind of connection that made him uncomfortable. He and Darcy weren"t in love, they were- He paused again, trying to define their relationship, all the while hating his own indecision. Before Sylvia, he"d always known where he stood with the women in his life. Usually they didn"t engage him. Sylvia had seemed like the answer to his prayers. So what was Darcy?
"Bigger is better," Darcy said the next evening as they stood freezing in the Christmas tree lot. "I want it to fill the living room."
Mark stared at the monstrosity she"d picked. "If you get this one itwill fill the living room, because it"s too tall. You"d either have to cut it in half or turn it on its side."
"You think?" She tilted her head to gaze up at the gorgeous tree she"d chosen. "It"s just that I usually don"t have a very big budget for decorating. But this year, with all the extra money from my baking, I thought I"d go a little wild."
"I suggest going wild on a smaller scale."
She thought about the low ceilings in her duplex and sighed. "I guess you"re right. I don"t want to have to cut the tree to make it fit. So if we can"t get a tall one, let"s get a really bushy one."
"There won"t be room to sit anywhere."
She laughed. "Aren"t you Mr. Crabby Pants? Mark,it"s Christmas. You need to get into the spirit."
Instead of answering, he took her hand and led her to a different section of the lot. Once there he started talking about different kinds of trees. As she didn"t know Douglas fir from cat fur, she didn"t pay attention to what he was saying. Instead she allowed herself to get caught up in the play of light on his handsome features and the way he gestured when he spoke.
She liked that, even though he wasn"t much of a holiday guy, he was earnestly trying to make sure she got the right tree for her place. Not that he would buy one for himself.
"Are you sure you don"t want a tree?" she asked, interrupting him.
Mark sighed in frustration. "Yes, I"m sure. I don"t do trees. If I get a burning urge to partic.i.p.ate in the holiday spirit, I"ll come over to your place."
"What about a little one for your table."
"Darcy!"
"Okay.Fine. I"ll get a tree. But you can pick it out so that it feels more like your own."
An hour later they were back in her living room. Mark had put the ma.s.sively fat tree into the stand and was positioning it as much in the corner as possible.
"We"re going to have to move the sofa," he told her.
She ignored his "I told you so" expression. "That"s not a problem. I"ll just pull it toward the dining room."
"You"ll have to climb over it to get down the hall."
She glanced at the sofa, then at the en- trance to the tiny hallway that led to her bedroom and the bathroom. "If we put it at an angle..."
"Then there"s no room for the coffee table."
She smiled. "It"s Christmas, Mark. We can do without a coffee table."
He grumbled under his breath,then obligingly carried the table into the dining room. Through a bit of shifting and pushing, they managed to fit the sofa and the chair and the tree all into the living room. The scent of pine drifted through the apartment. Darcy carried in the boxes of ornaments she"d had stored in the garage.
"Some of these are from when I was a little girl," she said, setting the boxes down on the sofa and opening the top one. "I made a few of them myself, so don"t laugh."
"I"d never laugh at you."
His words made her shiver. Darcy didn"t dare turn around and look at Mark. Not when she was afraid of what he would see in her eyes. There was something magical about spending this holiday with him. She didn"t know what was going to happen between them she still didn"t know how to define their relationship. All she knew was that when she was with him, she felt really good inside.
"Will you see your sister for the holidays?" she asked, digging around for lights. She found the first string and handed it to Mark.
"No.Maddie"s going to be on the road. What about you? Will you go see Dirk? Or will he come here?"
"I"ll go there on Christmas Day. There"s a big celebration at the school. Apparently a lot of parents and family come. I"m looking forward to it. I have to work the week between Christmas and New Year"s. We discussed Dirk coming here for a few days, but as he"d be alone most of the day, he said he would rather stay at school."
She hesitated, torn between wanting to invite Mark to join them for Christmas and wondering if that was too presumptuous. He was already meeting Dirk in a few days. Would he really want more contact with her brother? And yet if she didn"t invite him, was she being rude?
"What about Christmas Eve?" he asked.