“It’s disarmed,” Sloan said. “What about the person I saw trying to escape on the elevator?”

“Our security caught her on the third floor. They’re holding her until the police get here. From what information I’ve got, she was mad at the judge for his ruling on a divorce last week.” Warren chuckled. “I guess it’s right what they say about hell having no fury like a woman scorned.”

“Her? I could’ve sworn I saw a man running away,” Sloan said.

“She’s tall and pretty good sized. I can see where you might think that.” Warren nodded.

“I’m glad it’s all under control,” Sloan said.

“Me too, and anytime you want a job working for me, you just say the word.” Warren wiped sweat from his brow with a white handkerchief.

“Thanks, but I reckon I’ve got enough to keep me busy.” Sloan took Ginger’s hand in his and started back down the hallway toward Betsy’s room.

“Hey, I didn’t even get your name!” Warren called out.

“Sloan Baker,” Ginger threw over her shoulder.

“That job offer still stands anytime, Sloan,” he said.

“Thanks, but no thanks.” Sloan waved over his shoulder.

“Why’d you go and do that?” Sloan groaned.

“Because you wouldn’t. Let’s go get coffee and candy bars for the sisters. They all need a little snack,” she told him.

“How can you be so calm?” he asked. “Until I felt my old team around me back there, I didn’t know if I could get my hands to stop shaking.”

She stopped and tiptoed so she could brush a soft kiss across his lips and then took a step back. “They wouldn’t have come to help you if they blamed you for what happened over there. They were tellin’ you that it’s time to let all the guilt go.”

“Maybe so.” He finally smiled.

A deep voice Ginger recognized as that of Mr. Warren filled the hospital from the PA system. “Good evening, folks. We have just completed a safety drill. It’s now all right to open your doors if you wish to do so. Have a great rest of the day.”

“They’ll never know how close a call that was,” Ginger said.

“How’d you stay so calm during those minutes?” Sloan led her into the small gift shop and stopped at the selection of baby things.

“I wasn’t calm,” she told him. “My stomach was threatening to give back that bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit you brought me. My hands were sweating, and a couple of times the whole hospital swayed to one side. I found out that I’m not ready to die, but I couldn’t run or even walk because my feet wouldn’t move,” she answered honestly. “I was glad that you hugged me, because I was on the verge of passin’ out stone cold.”

“And here I thought you were a rock.” He grinned.

“Had you fooled, didn’t I?” She let go of his hand and picked up five candy bars.

He laid a cute little bow for a baby girl’s hair and a bill on the counter. “That’s a prize for the baby and to pay for the candy.”

The clerk rang up their purchases and put them into a bag. “There you go. Y’all make a cute couple.” She smiled.

“Thank you.” Sloan flashed a wide grin.

“I was going to get that,” Ginger said. “I have my Easter egg money. And why did you let her think we’re a couple?”

“Next time you can buy something for the baby. This is just a small token of thanks for giving me courage.” Sloan handed her the bag. “You take this, and I’ll carry the coffee. And, honey, it would have embarrassed her if I’d said we weren’t together. Besides, today I kind of like the idea.” Sloan tucked her free hand in his.

Ginger smiled up at him. “Me too.”

She’d helped him. She’d given him courage—he said so himself. A warm feeling wrapped itself around her like a fuzzy blanket on a cold night. He’d let someone think they were a couple, and that made her feel like she was floating two feet off the floor.

They were halfway to Betsy’s room when Sloan asked, “Are we going to tell the sisters that this wasn’t a safety drill?”

“Oh, yeah,” Ginger answered. “It’s way too good of a story not to tell them. They can keep a secret. And it will stop them from asking us all kinds of questions about why it took us so long to get back with the coffee and candy.”

“I think I asked before, but I’ll do it again. How did you get to be so smart?” Sloan followed her into Betsy’s room.

“I’ll have to blame anything I know on life,” she said as she showed the sisters the cute pink bow with feathers all around it.

“Did you go to Dallas to get the coffee?” Connie asked.

“Nope.” Ginger passed out the candy bars.

Sloan gave everyone a cup of coffee, then sat down. “We got sidetracked.”

“Doing what?” Betsy tore the wrapper from her candy bar and took a bite.

“Sloan is going to tell you the story, but it can’t leave this room,” Ginger said. “And you ain’t goin’ to believe it.”

Chapter Fifteen

I want you to think about what I asked you to do at the hospital,” Sloan said when Ginger walked him out to his truck a couple of days later. He’d stopped by to say goodbye to Ginger and the ladies before he left on a three-or four-day trip that he should’ve taken when he first got back to the States.

“You mean about listing you as the father? That’s a lie that could come back and bite you on the butt, Sloan,” she said.

“I’ll take that chance, so promise you’ll give it some serious thought, please,” he said.

“You said that when we thought one or both of us would be killed,” she told him.

“But I meant it.” He tipped her chin up with his fist and gave her a sweet kiss.

“You think about it while you’re gone,” she said. “We’ll talk when you get back.”

“Will you think about it?” he asked.

“I will,” she promised. “Be safe and call me. Now that I’ve got a smarty-pants phone, I can even get texts and pictures and we can FaceTime.”

“That’s why I talked you into it.” He gave her a quick hug and got into his truck before he changed his mind about the trip. “See you in a few days. I expect to be back for church on Sunday. I want to see which one you choose.”

He watched her in the rearview mirror as he pulled away. She stood on the side of the road in her faded skinny jeans and a T-shirt that was stretched out as far as it would go over her belly. She was still waving when he made the slight curve into town and lost sight of her.

According to the map he’d pulled up on his phone, the first leg of the trip would take four hours. That would put him there by midafternoon and give him all the time he needed in the Crawford Cemetery to find Bobby Joe Daniels’s grave.

“Well, Tinker.” He reached over with his right hand and rubbed the dog’s ears. “You’ll be able to say that you’ve been outside Medina County after this trip.”

Tinker didn’t even open one eye; he just kept sleeping on his favorite throw from the house. Sloan had thought about asking Ginger if she’d go down to the house and check on Tinker every day, but she had her hands full with Betsy. The old gal had been cranky with everyone except Ginger since she’d gotten home from the hospital. Ginger did a fine job of keeping the peace, but Kate and Connie were about at their wits’ end with their middle sister.

He turned on the radio and kept time to the music with his thumb on the steering wheel. One song that played reminded him of Bobby Joe’s sense of humor, and the next one made him think about the way the two kisses he’d shared with Ginger had affected him.

“Putting those two together in my head is downright weird.” He chuckled. “But, Bobby Joe, you would have liked Ginger. You might have even fussed at me for not asking her out already, but she’s pregnant and she’s only nineteen, and it would be awkward if things went south between us. The Carson sisters would come gunnin’ for me if I made her cry, but I do like her a lot.”

He remembered the first time he’d met the team. They’d been thrown together after he’d finished with his training after basic. He and Bobby Joe hated each other at first sight. Sloan never could put his finger on it, but there was something about that guy that just rubbed him wrong. Finally, he went to his commander and told him to either put him with another team or else get rid of Bobby Joe.

The commander called them both into his office and asked Bobby Joe if he had a problem with Sloan Baker.

“Yes, sir, I surely do,” Bobby Joe admitted.

“What is the trouble?” the commander asked.

“I just flat-out don’t like him,” Bobby Joe said.

“And you can’t give me a reason why?” The commander stood up from behind his desk.

“He’s always judging me,” Bobby Joe answered.

“And you have the same problem with this soldier?” the commander asked Sloan.