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finally had her secretary call to see how he was doing. He’d chatted with Kelly a few minutes before his great-aunt had actually picked up and in that time he’d mentioned the fact that he’d helped deliver a baby.
    “See that you do keep in touch,” Kate said with a deep chuckle. “I’ve got a stake in this, you know.”
    “Oh, I know.” He squinted out the window to the snow-crusted fields and the tiny herd of strays he’d managed to drive back to the barn.
    “And keep your eye on that widow with her newborn.”
    He hesitated.
    “They’re still staying with you, aren’t they?”
    “For a while.”
    Kate sighed. “Thank God you found Lesley whenyou did. Sometimes I think we all have guardian angels with us.”
    He didn’t reply. What could he say? That Lesley had been so confused she’d thought an actual angel had been in the car with her?
    “I know it must be hard for you,” Kate ventured to say, and Chase tensed. “What with it being the holidays and all.”
    “It’s all right.”
    “You’re sure?” He knew what she was asking, but he didn’t answer. Couldn’t. His son hadn’t survived to see his first Christmas, and his wife…well, Emily had blamed herself and taken her own life on New Year’s Eve. She’d mixed vodka and an entire bottle of sleeping pills. The results had been deadly.
    “I’ll be fine, Kate,” he assured her.
    “I know you will, Chase. Just remember no man is an island.”
    “No?”
    “Have a good holiday.”
    “You, too.” He hung up with the unsettling feeling that there was more to the old woman’s bargain than first appeared. And she was wrong. A man could be an island. Self-contained. Self-reliant. Chase had told himself years ago that he didn’t need anyone, not even his own family, to make it on his own. Meeting Lesley Bastian hadn’t changed that.
    He added a couple of chunks of oak to the woodstove, then checked on Lesley. She was lying on the bed, her eyes closed, the baby nuzzling at her breast. Something tightened in his chest, and he averted hiseyes; he still hadn’t gotten used to seeing her so uncovered, but it was fascinating and sensual in a domestic, earthy way that caused heat to climb up the back of his neck and an answering response between his legs.
    It was beginning to seem right—her sleeping in his bed, the tiny baby swaddled and sleeping either with her or in the make-shift bassinet.
    At the turn of his thoughts he stiffened. What was he thinking? Just seconds ago he’d been on the right track, and now as he glanced at the sleeping woman and child he doubted himself.
    “Angela and I are leaving in the morning,” she said, surprising him. He thought she was asleep and didn’t realize that she knew he was in the room.
    “You can barely walk.”
    “I’ll manage.” Her eyes opened fully, and he was struck by the intensity of her gaze—green irises shot with silver—that didn’t flinch. “I’ve imposed too much already.”
    “There’s another storm on its way.”
    “This time we’ll all be ready.”
    “I couldn’t leave you over there all alone,” he insisted.
    “I don’t think you’re going to have much choice.”
    “Don’t I?” he demanded. “How’re you gonna get over there? There’s no damned taxi service out here.”
    “How about your truck? I heard you start it this morning, and I can only think that you have chains. The radio announcer said that most of the roads areclear, so I think I should call a tow company for my rig and have you drive me and Angela home.”
    “I don’t know if I’d feel right about it.” He rubbed the back of his neck in agitation. He couldn’t keep her here forever, not that he wanted that, but the thought of her and that baby alone in an empty house in subfreezing weather bothered him.
    It bothered him a lot.
    “It’s time, Chase,” she said firmly, and he realized he couldn’t change her mind. “You have your life—I have mine. I appreciate everything you’ve done