Changed by His Son's Smile Read Free Page A

raised?
    “Yes, I will. Because I accept your marriage proposal.”

CHAPTER TWO
    “E XCUSE ME ?” D ANI asked, sure she must have heard wrong.
    “Your marriage proposal. I accept.”
    “My marriage proposal?” Astonished, she searched the deep brown of Chase’s eyes for a sign that he was kidding, but the golden flecks in them glinted with determination. “You can’t be serious.”
    “I assure you I’ve never been more serious.”
    “We haven’t even seen each other for three years!”
    “We were good together then. And we have a child who bonds us together now. So I accept your offer of marriage.”
    The intensely serious expression on his face subdued the nervous laugh that nearly bubbled from her throat. Chase had always been stubborn and tenacious about anything important to him, and that obviously hadn’t changed. She tried for a joking tone. “I’m pretty sure a marriage proposal has a statute of limitations. Definitely less than three years. The offer no longer stands.”
    “Damn it, Dani, I get it that it’s been a long time.” He raked his hand through his hair. “That maybe it seems like a crazy idea. But you have to admit that all of this is crazy. That we have a child together is...crazy.”
    “I understand this is a shock, that we have things to figure out.” Three years had passed, but she still clearly remembered how shaken she’d been when she’d realized she was pregnant. Chase obviously felt that way now. Maybe even more, since Andrew was now here in the flesh. “But you must know that marriage is an extreme solution.”
    “Hey, it was your idea to begin with, remember? You’ve persuaded me.” A slight smile tilted his mouth. “Besides, it’s not extreme. A child should have two parents. Don’t you care about Andrew’s well-being?”
    Now, there was an insulting question. Why did he think she’d left in the first place? “Lots of children are raised by unmarried parents. He’ll know you’re his father. We’ll work out an agreement so you can spend plenty of time with him. But you and I don’t even know each other any more.”
    Yet, as she said the words, it felt like a lie. She looked at the familiar planes of his ruggedly handsome face and the years since she’d left Honduras faded away, as though they’d never been apart. As though she should just reach for his hand to stroll to the kitchen, fingers entwined. Put together a meal and eat by candlelight as they so often had, sometimes finishing and sometimes finding themselves teasing and laughing and very distracted from all thoughts of food.
    A powerful wave of all those memories swept through her with both pain and longing. Memories of what had felt like endless days of perfection and happiness. Both ridiculous and dangerous, because there was good reason why a relationship between them hadn’t been made for the long haul.
    Perhaps he sensed the jumbled confusion of her emotions as his features softened as he spoke, his lips no longer flattened into a hard line. “I’m the same man you proposed to three years ago.”
    “Are you?” Apparently his memory of that proposal was different from hers. “Then you’re the same man who didn’t want kids, ever. Who said your life as a mission doctor was not just what you did but who you were, and children didn’t fit into that life. Well, I have a child so you’re obviously not the right husband for me.”
    His expression hardened again, his jaw jutting mulishly. “Except your child is my child, which changes things. I’m willing to compromise. To adjust my schedule to be with the two of you in the States part of the year.”
    “Well, that’s big of you. Except I have commitments to work outside the States, too.” For a man with amazing empathy for his patients, he could be incredibly dense and self-absorbed. “We should just sit down, look at our schedules for after the eight months I’m here and see if we can often work near enough to one another that you