“Hey.” On her bed, Willow stirred, her slumberous voice interrupting my brooding. “Are you studying over there, or are you sleeping with your eyes open?”
I grinned, tickled that she remembered the stories I’d told her about being a plebe, where I swore that I’d learned how to sleep with my eyes open.
“Neither,” I replied. “Just thinking.”
“Ah.” She smiled. “Should I offer you a penny for them, or maybe a quarter considering inflation?”
“You can have them for free.” I reached over to the bed and picked up her hand, holding it, cradling it gently in mine. “I was remembering last week and being grateful all over again for how well everything turned out.”
“I get that.” Willow lifted our joined hands, and to my surprise, she brushed her lips over my knuckles. “If I haven’t said it before, Dean, then I was remiss. I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through any of this without you, and I don’t mean only this last scare. I mean—" She sighed. “My entire pregnancy.”
I gave a harsh bark of laughter. “All things considered, I think it’s the least I could’ve done.”
“Don’t.” Her voice was suddenly sharp. “Don’t do that, Dean. Don’t beat yourself up. Don’t torture yourself for making the same decision that any other guy in his right mind would’ve made, too. If I’m not blaming you, then you sure as hell should not be blaming yourself. Okay?”
I gazed at her for a long moment. With her hair flowing out around her face, her green eyes snapping bright and her jaw set, Willow looked more like a warrior than a Madonna. I wished that I had the right to tell her that, to bend over her now and gather her into my arms, to kiss her madly, even though both of us knew it could go no further than just that kiss …I wished, as I had for so many nights this week, that I could slip into the bed with Willow and hold her body close to mine, feeling our child wriggle and move even as her mother slept.
But if my angst caused Willow even a moment of worry or upset, I would never forgive myself. So, instead of arguing with her, I forced a smile and nodded.
“Whatever you say, Will.”
And then, before I was tempted beyond my ability to resist and did something that might shatter this fragile bridge between us, I stood up and shoved my computer back into my backpack.
“I’d probably better head back to the barracks. Major Thomas has been looking the other way a lot lately, and I don’t want to test his patience with me.”
“All right.” Willow pushed herself to sit up straighter. “Good night, Dean. I’ll see you…” Her voice trailed off.
“Tomorrow.” I let myself lean over and kiss her forehead, congratulating my willpower on a job well done. “I’ll be over in the afternoon.”
“Why don’t you take the day off and go do something fun?” She lifted one shoulder. “You’ve been on pregnant woman watch every day for the past week. You deserve to get out and do something with your friends. What do cadets do when they’re first classmen in their last semester at West Point?”
I cocked my head and raised my eyebrows. “They study like hell to make sure they get the branch and first post of their choice. But if they’re like me, and they’ve been working their asses off since they were plebes, sacrificing everything, they don’t have to worry so much. So they can hang out with their best friend who’s on bed rest for another two days.” I smiled, holding her gaze so she could see my resolve. “See you tomorrow, Will. Sleep well.”
I left the room before she could protest anymore, taking the now-familiar route down the steps toward the front door. Until Willow’s scary emergency room trip, out of respect for her parents and their feelings, I’d never gone above the first floor in the Caseys’ home, but Coach and Mrs. Casey had relaxed that unspoken rule for as long as Willow was on bedrest.
I was just shrugging on my coat in the foyer when I heard Mrs. Casey called my name.
“Dean. A moment, please?”
I followed the sound of her voice into the sitting room nearby. Coach’s wife was perched in a wing chair, her feet propped on a matching ottoman. She pointed to the chair’s twin on the other side of the fireplace.
“Sit down for a minute, Dean.”
I took off my coat and did as she’d asked, curious.
“I’m going to say something, Dean, and I don’t expect an answer.” Mrs. Casey didn’t sound upset; her voice was even, and her eyes never left my face. “As a matter fact, I don’t want an answer. I’m not sure why I need to say it other than maybe…” She shrugged. “Maybe I want to give you some assurance.”
My forehead drew together. “Yes, ma’am?”
“I don’t know how this happened. I can’t quite figure it out. And I’m not asking you to explain it to me. but I’ve had my suspicions, and now I’m almost sure.” She paused. “You’re the father of Willow’s baby, aren’t you?”
It felt as though all of the air had been sucked out of the room. I opened my mouth and then closed it, like a fish who’d been ripped out of the sea and tossed onto a deck.
“No.” Mrs. Casey shook her head. “I said I didn’t expect an answer, and I don’t. At the very beginning, when you first started coming over to hang out with Willow, I had a thought, but then I told myself how ridiculous it was. Willow was pregnant before she even came to West Point, so how could you have had anything to do with it?” She pressed her lips together. “I told myself it was just because you were such a nice guy, and my husband had asked you to be kind to our daughter, who was in a difficult situation. He’d asked you to be kind to her, and you went so far beyond that. I pushed away my suspicions. But then, last week, I saw your face when you came into the hospital room. And the fact that Willow had begged me to call you… again, maybe not so unusual when you consider that you are her closest friend right now. Quite possibly her only friend.”
I remained silent and still as a statue.
Mrs. Casey went on. “It probably would have remained simply a suspicion if I hadn’t gone upstairs tonight to see if either if you needed anything before I went to bed. I heard what Willow said to you. About you making a decision, I mean, and at that point, I just … I knew. I knew for sure. And as I said, I don’t understand how it happened or how you two met before either of you were at West Point this summer, but I just thought you should know that I know.” She took a deep breath. “Also, I wanted to assure you that I’m not going to tell anyone. I know what this would do to your career, Dean. You are so close to graduating, and it doesn’t seem to make any sense to upset the apple cart at this point. I’m not even going to say anything to my husband, and I never keep secrets from him.”
