Savannah Mills has a reputation as her town's bad girl. Getting
pregnant one night and not telling anyone who the father is certainly
didn't

help.

Zack Bennett worked hard to leave his tiny Montana town, wanting
nothing more than to get away and see the world. When he finds out
that he has a 2-year-old daughter with Savannah, one he's never met,
he's shocked but determined to do the right thing. It's not long before
mother and daughter work their way into his heart, however, and make
him realize that the best part of going away is coming home

Bad Reputation By Eliza Richmond

Copyright © 2015 by
Eliza Richmond AmazingBooks.

Dedication: For my daughter. Mommy loves you.

Author's Note
Dear Readers, Happy holidays! I hope that you enjoy reading about
Zack and Savannah, and Chloe. I love Christmas, so I really wanted to
do a holiday story about family coming together. This one did not end
up quite the way I expected when I first thought of the story, but I think
it's even

better this way.
As always, feel free to get in touch with me. I love hearing from
readers! My email is

[e-mail]

. If you'd like, you can also follow me on

Pinterest

or

Facebook, or you could sign

up for my newsletter

.

Happy reading!

-Eliza

Prologue
Savannah Mills cheered along with everyone else at the football game.
It was a crisp Friday evening in October, and most of the high school
kids were out at the game, even the ones who, like Savannah, didn't
particularly care about football. It was more the camaraderie, getting to
stay out late, and the general excitement that she enjoyed.
Besides which, she had a date, and that was everything to a high school
girl. She looked at the boy in question, Elliot Toller, then back out to
the football field. The boy she really wanted to be dating was out there,
huddled up with the rest of the football team. But Zack Bennett was
way out of

her league and she knew it, even if he hadn't been a senior. He'd never
look at a lowly sophomore so she, along with the other girls of her
class, contented herself with dreaming about him from afar.
Elliot said something to her and she smiled at him, then rejoined the
conversation their—his—group of friends was currently involved in.
Elliot wasn't a bad sort, she thought. He didn't make her heart speed up
the way Zack did, but he was funny. Besides, he was a junior, and he
had a car. It wasn't a nice car, but it was a car. This was their fourth
date, and the thrill of being picked up by him to go out still hadn't worn
off yet. It would, she knew, but for now she

was determined to enjoy it. There were so few things in her life which
she got to enjoy wholeheartedly, with her home life being so difficult.
After the football game, as she and Elliot were walking out to his car,
holding hands, she noticed Zack in the shadows by a fence, talking to
Mindy Pims. He was still in his uniform, one hand clutching the fence
over his head and the other holding his helmet, smiling as he leaned
toward Mindy. From the answering smile on her face, Savannah
assumed that Mindy was the most recent recipient of Zack's charms,
and turned away, saying something to Elliot to distract herself. He
laughed and she smiled, pleased with herself and with

the night.
Elliot didn't drive her straight home as she'd thought he would.
"Where are we?" she asked, looking around as he pulled off the main
road and onto a dark side street she'd never been down before.
"We're going parking," he said with a jaunty smile.
Savannah's palms started sweating and she wasn't sure if she was more
nervous or excited. He wanted to make out with her! He'd kissed her a
couple of times, but parking meant honest-to-goodness making out.
Only, as it turned out, that wasn't what he wanted. When Elliot started
to take things too far she told him

to back off.
"Aw, come on baby. Everyone knows your mama spreads it around.
Why don't you be a good girl and show me some of that love?"
That was the exact wrong thing to say. Savannah managed to pull her
knee back far enough to get a nice upward swing, right where it
counted. Even has he was doubling over in pain she was scrambling to
get out of the car.
"I am not like my mama!" she shouted as she slammed the door closed.
"And don't you ever forget it!"
She walked home, her righteous fury carrying her the entire six miles
despite her silly heeled boots that she'd worn specifically to make
herself seem

older, more appealing to a guy like Elliot. She didn't even feel the
autumn chill in the air, so angry was she.
She got home in the wee hours of the morning but no one was home to
chastise her for being out too late. Her mama was probably out at one of
the town's two bars, almost certainly with a man. Savannah knew from
experience that she wanted to be in bed before they got home, asleep
preferably, so that she wouldn't have to witness anything between her
mom and whoever the latest guy was.
When Elliot tried to talk to her on Monday, she snubbed him, walking
away before he could even get close enough to talk to her. Even if he
wanted

to apologize she didn't want to hear it. From the look on his face she
didn't think she'd be getting an apology, however.
The rumor started slowly. She didn't notice kids whispering about her
until Wednesday of the following week, their wide eyes and smirks
following her. When she asked one of her few friends what was going
on at lunch, Hannah looked uncomfortable, but told her. "I just heard it
this morning myself. Elliot told everyone that you slept with him last
Friday night after you two left the football game."
Savannah sat there in stunned silence, too shocked even to deny the
accusation. Hannah didn't ask for an explanation, and stiffening her
shoulders,

Savannah merely nodded, then turned back to her lunch.
A reputation was born.

One
"Hi Granny," Savannah said, kissing the elderly woman on the cheek.
"Hi!" Savannah's daughter, Chloe, said from her side, smiling up at her
great-grandmother and waving one tiny hand.
"Hi yourself, sweet pea!" Granny said, delighted as ever to have her
granddaughter and great-granddaughter around. She leaned as far
forward as she could to plant a kiss on Chloe's fair hair.
Savannah went straight into the kitchen with her grocery totes, putting
the groceries into the fridge or cabinets, as needed.
"How are you doing this

morning, Granny?" she asked as she worked.
"My arthritis is acting up again, so I haven't been able to knit so well as
I'd like to."
Their small house was littered with the products of Granny's copious
knitting projects, from doilies to blankets on the back of the couch to
pillow covers. Even the sweater Chloe wore that afternoon, a happy
bright green with a hem that looked like autumn leaves, had been
knitted by Granny. Though it wasn't really her style, she wore it often
because it pleased the older lady to see her in it.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Savannah told her, putting the last item

away. "Do you need me to make another appointment with your
doctor?"
"No, no. Don't you trouble yourself none. I'll be fine. It's just the change
in weather, the cold, that bothers me. It'll pass soon."
"If you're certain.... "
"I am."
Savannah nodded and set about organizing the ingredients she'd left
out, planning out how she'd make dinner that night. She and Chloe
lived with her grandmother, an arrangement which suited them all well.
Granny Roberts had had a bad fall the winter before, which combined
with her arthritis meant that she couldn't move around as well as she
used to. Though Chloe had had her

own apartment for years, she'd gratefully moved in to help her
grandmother out. It was the least she could do for the woman who'd
raised her.
In return, Granny was helping to raise Chloe. Savannah worked mostly
nights at the Tavern, the most popular local bar, and she needed
someone reliable to watch Chloe. Not that it was all that hard, since
Chloe went to bed not long after Savannah went to work. Still, she'd
had a hard time finding good babysitting before and it had been a relief
when her grandmother had said that she would be able to do it since
Savannah only worked Thursday through Saturday nights. She also did
Sundays, but the bar was closed that day so Chloe

frequently came with her to run around as she did a deep cleaning of the
place, blaring music so that they could dance together, and when Chloe
napped, Savannah took care of the bookkeeping. All told, it was an
arrangement which suited her, Granny, and her boss, Howard, quite
well.
Now, she listened to the sweet sounds of her grandmother and her
daughter holding as much of a conversation as they could, what with
Chloe's limited language skills. She was as chatty a two-year-old as
either of them had ever seen, but much of it was still garbled and
incomprehensible. Still, the old woman and the very young one got
along like a house on fire, and

Savannah contentedly set about making lunch for the three of them.
"I hear Zack Bennett's back in town," her grandmother said suddenly to
her.
Savannah stopped dead, her eyes widening a bit and her heart starting
to pound. "What? Where did you hear
that?"
"Meredith from over at the gas station said she saw him drive up. He
was driving some fancy car, she said, but I told her it was probably a
rental."
"Oh."
"He looked real nice too, according to Meredith."
Savannah was tempted to shoot a dark look at her Granny, but had too

much respect for the elderly to do so. Instead she turned back to the
apple she'd been coring and said, "That's nice."
"You should go talk to him," Granny prodded after a moment.
Savannah sighed. "I really don't see what difference that would make."
"Honey, he's got a right to
know."
There really wasn't anything to say to that, especially since she agreed.
She'd even given contacting him a fair shot, but had struck out in such a
way that she didn't want to put herself on the line like that ever again.
She was tired of being burned by people. Life was so

much easier when she kept to herself.
Not quite three years before, the last time Zack had been home, it had
been Christmas. She'd heard he was in town but, being nobody in his
life, she hadn't thought much about it. When he'd walked into the bar
where she worked, however, he'd noticed her. Noticed her in a way
she'd wanted him to notice her since high school. Sparks had flown
from across the bar and they'd made eyes at each other for quite a
while, he talking to his buddies while she took orders and cleaned
spills, before he'd finally sauntered over.
"You're Savannah, right?"
"Yeah."
"I remember you. We went to

high school together, didn't we?"
"Sort of. You were a bit older than me. I think," she'd added, in a
terrible attempt to cover up the fact that she remembered exactly who
he was.
"Yeah, now I remember." He smiled at her and took a pull on his beer.
Then he'd chatted her up and, flattered by the attention, she'd let him
By the time they'd left the bar together, he was a fair way toward drunk
and she was still stone sober. At her invitation, he'd gone back to her
apartment and given her quite a memorable night. She shivered now,
just remembering the way his big, warm hands had felt on her skin, the
way his mouth had tasted faintly of beer, and the

rough stubble from his cheeks which had abraded her skin in just the
right way. Some men weren't at their best when they were drunk, she'd
been told, but Zack...well, if he hadn't been at his best, she wasn't sure
she could survive it when he was.
He'd rushed out in the morning, mentioning that he needed to catch a
flight back home, and that was that. She didn't expect that she'd see him
anymore, and consoled herself with the knowledge that she'd had one
stunning, wonderful night with him. It was more than she'd ever
expected to have.
A few weeks later, positive pregnancy test in hand, she'd discovered
that the night had been memorable in

more ways than expected.
She'd debated long and hard about what to do. She wasn't against
abortion, but at the same time it just hadn't felt like the right decision
for her. She knew how hard raising a baby on her own would be, and
worried that she hadn't had the best example of parenting in her own
childhood. Would she even make a good mom? But, she loved kids.
She'd been babysitting since she was a child herself and she'd been darn
good at
it.
She'd wanted to let Zack know before she made a final decision, so that
he could weigh in. After all, it was his kid too. But he hadn't left a
number or any way to contact him.

Taking her pride in hand, she'd gone to his mother to quietly tell her
what had happened and ask for Zack's phone number. The look of
disgust on his mother's face, however, had been enough to dampen any
hopes she might have had that his family would want to be involved
with this baby.
"You say this child is Zack's, but I find it hard to believe that you'd
know whose child it could possibly be. A reputation like yours gets
around, missy, and don't you think I'll be fool enough to bother Zack
with this. If you've come sniffing around for money, you can just forget
it."
Savannah had drawn herself up to her full five foot, three inches, and

stared down Mrs. Bennett as best she could, considering that the other
woman was a good five inches taller. "Fine, then. If that's how you feel
about it, I won't bother you any more."
And she hadn't. She'd looked Zack up online and found a work email
address, but she'd quailed at the idea of contacting him that way. By the
time she'd thought to Google him, it was nearly the Fourth of July.
Would he even remember the night they'd spent together? Would he
believe her when she said it was his kid? Each time she was on the
verge of writing to him, she remembered the cold look in his mother's
eyes and deleted the message. She'd finally just sent him one that said

something like, "We need to talk," with her phone number and her
name, but he hadn't responded. If he'd wanted any further contact with
her, he'd have gotten in touch with her.
Savannah stared unseeing down at the sandwiches she'd been
preparing. He hadn't been back in all that time, not even for Christmas.
She'd heard through the grapevine that his parents had gone out to
California to visit him the year before. If they'd mentioned to him that
he had a daughter, he hadn't bothered to get in touch with Savannah
about it. She assumed that he still didn't know, since he didn't seem like
the kind of guy to ignore his own kid, but there was always a little voice
in the back of her mind

whispering that he might know and just didn't care. A vision of his
mother's disgusted brown eyes flashed into her mind along with the
little voice, and any surge of her conscience for not telling him receded
once again.
"Lunch is almost ready," she called out.
Three nights later at the Tavern, as the locals called the Hot Springs
Tavern, she was working hard. It was Friday night and the Tavern, as
usual, was hopping. It was good. She liked working Friday nights
because people tended to be happy so the tips were usually big and
plentiful. Since that was

a good portion of her income, she relied on those nights.
The group of guys she was serving, all of whom she'd gone to school
with, looked behind her at a new arrival and started shouting out
greetings.
"Hey, there he is!"
"We thought you'd never show
up."
"What'll you have, City Boy? Drink's on me!"
"Hey, man, what's up?"
"You've been gone for way too long, Zack, it's good to see you again."
"We've missed you, man."
Savannah went cold at the name and carefully didn't turn around to
look

at him. With this group here, knowing that he was in town, she should
have expected him but just hadn't. She was so used to seeing these guys
that sometimes she forgot that they'd all been good friends with Zack.
She set down the drinks she'd carried over and, with a too-bright smile,
asked, "Anything else?"
"Hold on, hold on. We'll see what Zack wants," Robbie Watts told her.
Clutching her tray like a shield, she finally turned to stare at the
newcomer. He was smiling at his friends, fist bumping and clapping the
other guys on the back and generally greeting them the way men do,
then he

turned to face her. His smile widened and she had the feeling that he
was remembering the night they'd spent together.
"Hey, Savannah," he said softly.
"What'll you have?" she asked swiftly. She knew that her eyes were too
wide but she couldn't help it.
He ordered a beer and she left before he could say anything else.
His eyes dogged her all night, however. His table was rowdy with
happiness and the freely flowing alcohol, and it caught her attention.
Whenever she looked up, Zack seemed to be watching her. Even the
guys at the table noticed. She went over to deliver yet another tray of
drinks to them and

Andy Wright drunkenly told her, "My man Zack here has been staring
at you all night. What d'ya say you put him out of his misery and take
him home for the
night?"
There were snickers around the
table.
Savannah stared at Andy, then looked briefly at Zack. He had the good
grace to look sheepish, clearly not as drunk as the rest of the group.
"I don't take bar patrons home," she told them all, unsmiling, then
walked away.
Zack caught up to her by the bar, taking her arm and pulling her off to
the side a bit.
"Hey, I'm sorry about that," he

said.
"It's nothing." "No, it's not."
She looked up at him. He was looking down at her seriously, sincerity
in his eyes. She knew exactly how much he'd drunk that night, having
kept a close eye on his table, and it wasn't enough to get a large man
like him drunk.
For a long moment she just stared, debating once again about whether
or not to tell him. Everyone in town knew that she had a kid, but she
hadn't told many people who the father was and, so far, no one had
figured it out. Or if they suspected, they kept it to themselves.
She shrugged. "I'm used to it."

Zack cleared his throat. "Look, about that Christmas...."
Savannah grabbed her courage in both hands. "Actually, I was hoping
we could talk about that later, after the bar closes. Could you stay until
after I've cleaned up?"
He looked surprised. "Um, yeah. I could do that."
"Thanks."
He walked back to his table with a little swagger, clearly thinking that
she meant for something other than just talking to occur. She felt a
pinch of conscience, then thought, Tough. It was about time he knew
about his daughter.
She walked behind the bar. Howard Mollison, the owner, was back

there serving drinks. In his early forties, he'd bought the bar from the
original owners about ten years back. The secret to his success had
been that he hadn't changed anything about the place. It was still
essentially the same Tavern folks in this town had been coming to for
nearly fifty years. The same jukebox was in the corner, the same pool
table with the worn spots. He changed up the beers some, bringing in
some smaller brands as well as the big ones, but for the most part it was
the same place, which had a comfort about it. This wasn't a big city
nightclub, it was just the local watering hole. Music was kept at a
reasonable level for folks to talk to one another and there wasn't really
room for dancing

anyway, though occasionally people moved tables around to create a
space.
Savannah had been working there since she was twenty-one, for four
years now, and he'd been good to her. He was one of the few people
that knew who Chloe's father was, and he'd accommodated her all
during her pregnancy, even paying her for a little bit of her maternity
leave. She could never thank him enough for all that he'd done.
Tonight, he looked at her searchingly, obviously having seen her
talking to Zack.
"You OK?" he asked quietly.
"I'll be fine."
"You need a minute? Some fresh air?"

Savannah smiled at him. "Thanks, but I really will be all right. Besides,
it's busy enough in here that if I take so much as a bathroom break
things will start to back up."
She squeezed his arm companionably as he drew another drink from
the tap, just to let him know that she was serious, and walked back out
into the fray.
At long last, when her feet ached and her face felt stiff from the fake
smile she'd plastered on it most of the evening, the bar closed. Only one
patron remained behind, off in a corner by himself, while Howard and
Savannah cleaned up. Before he'd closed the door, Savannah had
whispered to Howard that

Zack would be staying behind so that she could talk to him.
Howard had eyed the much younger man, then turned back to
Savannah. "Are you sure about this? Want me to stick around?"
"It's OK. He needs to know and it's probably a conversation best done
privately."
Howard nodded. "I'll just clean up behind the bar and leave you two
alone, then. Don't forget to lock up after yourself."
"I won't."
When they were finally alone, Savannah found herself stretching out
the cleaning, dreading and avoiding the moment of truth. When she
was wiping

down the last table, Zack quietly walked up behind her and removed
the rag from her hand, startling her.
"You've washed this table at least four times," he whispered against her
ear. "I think it's clean," he added, a hint of laughter in his deep voice.
Savannah was still, simultaneously enjoying his closeness and
dreading what she had to tell him. He turned her slowly around and she
didn't resist. She also didn't turn away when he slowly lowered his head
to kiss her. Instead, she let him. It was tentative at first, not at all like
the last time. When he'd kissed her before, their very first kiss, they'd
both been in a fever and nothing about it had been

sweet or unsure. It had been a conflagration of their mouths.
This time it was more shy, neither of them quite sure of themselves or
where they stood with one another. But Savannah's body remembered,
tightening and coming awake in a way it hadn't for a very long time.
She let Zack kiss her longer than was good for either of them, enjoying
the remembered sensations and the way only he had ever made her feel.
Finally she gently pushed him back. His eyes opened slowly and he
stared at her, a small smile on his mouth, expecting more. That dashed
her with cold water and she pulled away from him in a hurry.

He frowned. "What's up?"
Savannah gripped her hands tightly. "I'm sorry, that's not why I asked
you to stay late," she told him.
He sat down on the table and crossed his arms over his chest, his
expression a little smug and self-satisfied. "So why did you ask me to
stay?"
"Do you remember that last Christmas you were here?" "Of course."
"How well?"
He gave her a look. "Quite well, thank you, up to and including the
night I spent with you. If you're worried that I was too drunk to
remember, or if I didn't, uh, satisfy you-- "

Savannah shook her head, her chest tight. "It's not that. I just...oh, hell,
I have no idea how to say this to you."
"Say what?"
She unintentionally paused, unable to force the words out for a long
moment. "You have a daughter."
He waited a beat. Then he seemed to reel. "What?" he asked faintly, his
eyes wide with disbelief and shock.
"You have a daughter," Savannah patiently repeated. The words, she
discovered, were much easier to say the second time. "I got pregnant
that night."
He ran a hand over his face, trying to scrub his thoughts into some

sort of order. "But.. .how?"
"Well, when your sperm met my
egg.... "
"That's not what I meant and you know it," he said crossly. "I wore a
condom that night, I know I did!"
"Yeah. It's called a failure rate," Savannah said quietly, shrugging. He
couldn't possibly blame her for the condom failing, since it had been
his condom, pulled out of his wallet at the crucial moment.
Zack stood up to pace away from her, then back again. "How are you so
sure it's my kid anyway?" he asked suspiciously.
That hurt. She was used to that sort of attitude from people, but it still

hurt. Especially from him.
She drew herself up to her full, not at all imposing, height and stared
down her nose at him. "You don't have to believe me," she said. "I just
thought that you should know."
"If you're so certain it's my kid, then how come you didn't tell me any of
this before? I had a right to know from the beginning."
"Yeah, you did. But you didn't exactly leave your contact info with me
when you hightailed it out of town."
"As if you couldn't have gotten in touch with me if you'd really wanted
to. This is a small town. Practically everyone knows how to get in touch
with
me."

"I didn't think you'd want me telling the whole town about this," she
said, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
He stopped for a moment and processed that information. "Thanks for
that, actually. But if you didn't want to tell people why you were getting
in touch with me, you could have still asked someone."
"I tried sending you an email, but the only email address I was certain
was yours was for your work. I said I needed to talk to you, and you
never responded."
"Because I never got any damn email!" he shouted. "Who tries to send
a fucking email about this sort of thing anyway?"

"A woman with no other choice." She didn't shout it at him, but she
came pretty darn close. Fists clenched she faced off with him,
belligerent.
"Hell, you could have gone to my parents--"
"I did."
That shut him up for a long, silent moment.
"What?"
"If you want to know why I never got in touch with you, you should ask
your mother. She's one of the only people I told, with the mistaken
impression that she might help me, but she flat out refused to give me
your number or any other way to get in touch

with you. She didn't believe me any more than you do when I said that
you were the father."
He stepped back in shock. "No, she wouldn't have done that."
"You think she took this news any better than you are? Ha! Any
objections you think you have, she voiced them, and not very politely,
either. So if you want to know why I never got in touch with you, ask
your mother," she repeated, even more upset now as she remembered
what his mother had said. Knowing that he was already upset she didn't
want to add to it by saying that his mother had told her to "just have an
abortion and be done with it". The disgusted way she'd said it had

made Savannah even more protective of her baby, more determined to
keep it.
Hands on hips, she was glaring up at him now. Zack's mouth worked a
few times as he tried to process everything, then he turned away. With
his back to her, Savannah wilted against the table. She hadn't expected
this to go well, but this was so much harder, and worse, than she'd
thought it would be. He didn't even fully believe her, she could see it in
his eyes.
"I'm certain that Chloe is your daughter because you were the only
one," she told him quietly. "And in case you still don't believe me,
maybe you'll believe your own eyes." She pulled her phone out of her
pocket and brought up a

picture of Chloe, handing it to him. "She looks just like you. I don't
know how most of the people around here haven't figured that out yet.
Maybe some of them have and just haven't said anything, I don't know.
But she's your daughter, through and through."
Zack stared down at the picture, his jaw slack as he took it all in. It was
a picture of Chloe at the breakfast table, grinning hugely with Cheerios
stuck to her face and a nice milk mustache. She had blond hair, unlike
Zack's dark brown, but it curled as his did and her eyes were the same
dark chocolate ringed with long black lashes. Even her smile, with the
dimples on either side of her plump lips, was Zack's.

Zack scrolled through a few more pictures, which Savannah didn't
mind since they were all of Chloe.
"I could send you a few of those, if you gave me your number."
He nodded dumbly.
"I know it's a lot to take in," she said softly, "and I'm sorry for the way I
told you. I've gotta get home to her now, and I won't bother you
anymore. If you want to be part of her life, that's up to you. I just
thought that you should know."
She took her phone back and, his hands slack, he let her. When she
turned away he said, "Wait. I would like a few pictures, if you'd send
them to
me."

"Sure."
They exchanged phone numbers, Zack still faintly disbelieving. But
she could see that the information was settling into his mind. She just
didn't know what he was going to do with it.

Two
Zack got into his car but didn't drive straight home. Instead, he wound
up and down the dark, silent streets of his hometown, his thoughts in a
whirl. He had a daughter! A large part of his mind still refused to accept
it, but it was coming around. As she'd said, even if he didn't want to
believe her, it was hard to doubt his own eyes. He pulled over on one of
the dark country roads to look again at the pictures she'd sent him. The
little girl, smiling in almost all of them, was the spitting image of
himself at that age, right down to the mop of blond curls. He'd been a
towhead too, his hair not darkening until middle school. He saw his
own smile and his brown eyes,

so unlike Savannah's hazel ones.
He stared at the pictures for an hour or more, searching for clues and
turning it all over in his mind. He was furious with Savannah for
keeping his daughter from him, but she'd seemed sincere when she told
him that she'd tried to get in touch with him. He still couldn't believe
that his mother would have kept something this big from him, though.
Around four in the morning, he finally pulled into the driveway of his
parents' house. It was a large two-story building, one of the oldest
houses in town, and it was where he'd grown up. The town's main
reason for existence was a mine not too far away, and his

father had worked there since long before Zack was born. The mine had
treated them well, providing enough income that his mother had been
able to be a housewife, devoting herself entirely to her family. Zack
supposed that, when he thought of it that way, he could picture his
mother keeping something like this from him. If she really hadn't
thought it was true and just wanted to save Zack from what she
perceived as a malicious woman she would have done so. But not to
have mentioned it to him in two years? Zack was hurt by that. He didn't
like that his mother still thought of him as a little boy, needing her to
shield him from the rest of the world.
He stared up at the dark house.

He'd never really thought about having kids. In a distant sort of way
he'd assumed that one day he would settle down and start a family, but
he'd never yet met the right woman. Having a kid from a
one-night-stand, of which he had not had many, hadn't even entered his
thoughts.
He thought about Savannah, remembering her from school. She'd
always seemed a little distant, a little untouchable, though if her
reputation was anything to go by that was the farthest thing from the
truth. But she was blond and beautiful, and he wasn't in the least
surprised that she got the sort of attention from guys that he knew she
did. Hell, he'd been unable to resist her charms

himself. She was gorgeous, and that same untouchable quality made
him want to muss her up, just to see what would happen.
What had happened was one of the most amazing nights of his life.
He'd tried not to remember it, but it had become the standard by which
every other woman was judged. He'd dated since then, of course, but no
one had been able to equal Savannah. He didn't like to think it of
himself, but he knew he'd been hoping that they could recreate some of
that while he was home this time. No strings, just amazing sex.
The no strings part had obviously not worked out for her, and he
cringed that he'd never considered that it

wouldn't.
He knew about her mom, of course. Everyone did, but Zack had never
been one to judge the daughter by her mother's actions. Ingrid Mills
lived on the edge of town in a trailer, through which a revolving door of
men had passed. Savannah's father, from what he knew, had hightailed
it out of town when she was a kid, and hadn't contacted either mother or
daughter since.
He winced to think of it. Was that why she hadn't gotten in touch with
him? Had she worried that he'd be just like her dad, abandoning them?
Seen in that light, he could almost understand it. Better not to try than
to get her hopes up and be burned for them.

Then again, she had said that she'd tried to email him. He was terrible
about email and never deleted anything. Since he'd been working at the
same company for four years now, there should still be a record of that
email somewhere if she was telling the truth. Feeling the need to verify
at least one thing, he quickly exited the car, not bothering to lock it in
such a small town and on such a quiet back road.
He entered the house as quietly as possible and climbed up the stairs to
his old bedroom, still decorated as it had been when he was in high
school. His parents had left it that way, and he hadn't bothered to
change it since he'd never been back for longer than a few

weeks since leaving for college.
He pulled out his laptop and pulled up his work email, then searched
Savannah's name. Sure enough, one email popped up, dated during the
summer over two years ago, and it just said, "I need to talk to you.
Savannah," then gave her phone number.
Zack sat back, stunned. He didn't remember reading the email, but it
wasn't marked unread so clearly he had. Had he just been caught on a
busy day? He tried to remember. He'd been a little fuzzy on the details
surrounding the night with Savannah, thanks to the alcohol he'd drunk,
but he knew he'd had fun and had sincerely hoped that she had too. But
when he'd left, he'd put it out of his mind

and focused on his real life, the one he'd built since college. He'd gotten
a job in California and moved out of state, then he'd gotten a better job
at a bigger company which he'd been at ever since. He'd started looking
for something even better now, though, his current job starting to pall.
Zack picked up his phone again with the pictures of Chloe and stared at
them with only one thought going through his mind. Holy shit, I have a
daughter.
Zack was already sitting at the kitchen table the next morning when his
mother came downstairs, a cup of coffee clutched in both hands before
him.

Since it was unusual for anyone in the family to be up before her, his
mother startled
"Oh, Zack!" she laughed. "What are you doing up so early, darling?"
She kissed him on the top of his head as she went by. "Did you make
enough coffee for me?"
"Yeah, there's plenty," he said, watching his mother pull a mug out of
the cabinet, not smiling at her as he normally would have.
She poured the coffee and sat down across from him. "So, what has you
up so early today?" she asked with a
grin.
"I haven't gone to bed yet. I was out at the Tavern with the guys," he

said by way of explanation, watching her.
"That's nice. Did you have fun catching up with everyone?"
"Yeah. I also saw Savannah
Mills."
His mother's smile faltered. "Oh?" she asked, politely interested but no
more.
"We just talked," he said, his eyebrows lifting. Not that his mother
would say or do anything to let him know it if she disapproved of him
sleeping around, but he wanted to make sure there was no
misunderstanding in this matter.
His mother's smile vanished, however. "And what did she say?"

"She told me I have a daughter," Zack said simply.
His mother pushed back from the table. "I knew that little tart would try
to get to you."
Zack, stung, stood up as well. "So you knew about this?" he asked
coldly.
"I know she came here almost three years ago with some wild story
about you being the father of her child,
yes."
He was stunned. "And you didn't think that I should know about
this?"
"But honey, we both know it isn't true," she pleaded.
Zack ran a hand through his

hair. "I'm glad you're so certain of that," he said. "I'm beginning to
think that it is, though."
"What? No, sweetie. It couldn't be."
"Yes, mom, it could be," he contradicted. "I went home with her the last
night I was here over Christmas that year. Don't you remember? You
asked me where I was all night and I said I'd crashed at Jason's house
when we left
the bar."
His mother's lips, full just like his own, tightened. "Well so what if you
did sleep with her? It's not like she hasn't taken half of the bar patrons
home at one time or another, from what I hear. How could she possibly
know if the

baby was really yours?"
Zack remembered Savannah's voice when she'd told them all the night
before, "I don't take bar patrons home." Well, she'd made one exception
that he knew of. Were there others? She'd certainly had quite the
reputation for sleeping around in high school.
He also remembered her quiet, sweet voice saying, "You were the only
one," and he wasn't certain what to believe. He thought of the pictures,
the adorable little girl who looked just like him, and reality came
rushing back.
"Mom, have you seen her little girl?" His mother shook her head. "She
looks just like me."
For proof, he pulled out the his

phone and showed her the pictures. His mother sat down heavily and
scrolled through them. "Oh my god," she whispered at one of them,
covering her mouth with her hand. Her smile was tremulous. "We have
a picture of you as a little boy doing this exact same pose."
He looked over her shoulder at the picture of the little girl—his little
girl—hamming it up for the camera, smiling widely and throwing her
arms up in the air as if she'd just shouted "ta-da!"
"Mom, why didn't you tell me?" Zack asked quietly. "Even if you didn't
think it was true, why didn't you at least
tell me?"
His mother looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "You were just

starting to get settled out in California, and so happy. You worked so
hard in college to get good grades, and I know you wanted to get away
from Montana and see the world. How could I let some small-town
tramp trap you into coming back here by getting herself knocked up?"
Zack hung his head. "I still had a right to know," he said quietly, then
he left the room, shaken and needing to be alone.
"Are you ready to go to the park?"
"Pahk!" Chloe shouted happily. "Pahk pahk pahk!"
"We've gotta work on that New

England accent of yours, baby," Savannah told her with a grin.
"Yeah!" That was Chloe's favorite word, used indiscriminately
whenever someone said something she didn't understand.
Savannah laughed. "All right then. Shoes on? Sweater? Let's go."
They opened the door and Savannah had stepped out before she saw
Zack. He'd obviously been pacing in front of her house, though she
didn't know for how long, and he whirled around when she opened the
door.
"Hi," he said when she merely blinked at him.
"Hi."
"Hi-i!" shouted the ever

agreeable Chloe, waving at him.
"Hello yourself," Zack said, crouching down to her level, his eyes
running all over her to take in everything from her blond pigtails to the
rain boots she'd insisted on wearing. There was a stunned, ever so
slightly pleased, expression on his face and Savannah relaxed
marginally.
"We were just headed to the park," Savannah told him warily. "Did you
want to join us?"
Zack stood up, stuffed his hands in the pockets of his j acket. "Yeah,
OK."
Savannah closed and locked her front door, then gripped Chloe's hand
and the three of them walked the two

blocks over to the nearest park, the adults silent the whole way, Chloe
singing and babbling between them.
Once at the park, Chloe raced over to the big play structure and started
climbing up immediately.
"Doesn't she need help?" Zack asked, worry in his eyes.
Savannah smiled, charmed. "No, she's got it. She's been able to climb
all the way up that ladder for a few months now."
"Oh."
They were silent again for a long moment, watching their daughter.
Finally, Savannah took pity on him. "Physically, she's ridiculously
healthy. No allergies, not even an ear

infection as a baby, thank God. She's not particularly tall, a little under
average, but she's incredibly active and precocious in what she can do."
"Yeah?"
Encouraged, Savannah went on. "Her birthday is September 22

nd

and

she was born just a bit early. She's also usually very happy, very
outgoing. She loves to wave at people, even at cars going by. She loves
dogs but we can't have one, so she settles for petting them at the park.
Her language skills are finally starting to take off, although it can be
tough to understand her."
Zack smiled as he learned about his daughter, his eyes never leaving
her as she raced around the playground. It

was a chilly afternoon in late September, but other young kids were out
today so she had playmates to run with. Zack and Savannah stood apart
from the other parents so that they wouldn't be overheard.
"What else do you want to know, Zack?"
He hesitated. "What have you told her about me?"
Savannah thought. "She doesn't quite know enough yet to know that
she's supposed to have a daddy. I showed her your picture a few times
and said that you were her dad, but I don't know if she remembers that
or not. And I didn't want her blurting it out to everyone, so I stopped
doing that."

"You haven't told anyone?"
"Why should I? A few people know, or guessed, but that's about it. I
didn't want to spread it around, especially if you weren't going to be
part of her life." She bit her lip, then continued, "It can be hard, without
a dad, when everyone knows everything. I didn't want that for her."
Zack nodded, quietly thinking. Finally he looked down at Savannah. "I
want her to know that I'm her dad. I want to get to know her, and I don't
care who knows that she's my daughter."
Savannah let out a long breath.
"All right."
"I talked to my mother this morning."

"Oh."
"I'm sorry for what she said, even more sorry that she didn't give you
my number. I would have wanted to know."
Savannah nodded and looked away. It was still tough to remember how
she'd felt, scared and alone with this knowledge, unsure of what she
should do, unable to get help and support from the one person who
should have been by her side through the tough parts. She was lucky to
have people—her Granny, Howard, a few friends—who'd been had her
back the whole way, helpful and supportive. There were plenty of
people in the world who had kids with less support than she had.

Even so, it had been difficult. She wouldn't trade Chloe for the world,
but there had been times when it was so tough she thought she'd made
the wrong choice.
As if he could read her mind Zack asked, "What would you like?"
"Huh?"
He took a deep breath and let it out. "I want to help support her."
Savannah drew back, offended, and he held up a hand to forestall her.
"Hear me out. I'm not trying to denigrate all that you've done for her,
and I'm not trying to pry into your finances. But I know kids can be
expensive, and she's my daughter too. At least let me help out in this
one way."

"If you think that I want your money, you can go back to California and
shove it up your ass," she hissed at him.
He looked stunned, then angry. "What the hell!"
"I did not get in touch with you for money," she spat at him,
remembering the accusation his mother had thrown at her when she'd
tried to get his number.
"I never said that you did!" he cried. "I'm trying to figure out what to do
in this situation, OK?"
Savannah closed her eyes, trying to get ahold of herself. "Sorry," she
said after a long moment. "It's become a bit of a knee-jerk reaction."

He nodded, looking only partially mollified. "We can talk about that
later. For right now, I think the best first step should be getting to know
her. You might think it's great now, but you could change your mind
after you've dealt with the reality of a toddler."
What she really wanted to say was that she couldn't bring herself to
depend upon him, either financially or emotionally. He could walk
away at any time, decide that he wasn't ready to be a dad yet and just
leave them hanging. It wasn't a risk she could or would take. They'd
been doing all right financially, scraping by really but able to cover the
bills. Now that she was living with Granny things were much easier.
Not

that Granny had money, but she got her Social Security checks and
between that and Savannah's pay they were able to make things work.
In fact, Savannah actually had a positive bank balance which was
growing a little bit every month.
"Mama mama mama mama!" Chloe chanted to get her attention.
Savannah looked at her daughter, smiling and waving to show that she
was watching.
"Dis!" Chloe said proudly, pointing at the slide.
"You want me to catch you at the bottom?" Savannah guessed and
Chloe nodded.
"Can I?" Zack asked, waiting

for her approval. How could she say no? Savannah nodded and stood
back as Zack called out, "All right, Chloe, I'm ready when you are."
Savannah looked around the park, noticing that a few of the other
parents were looking speculatively at the three of them, particularly at
Zack and Chloe. Were they noting the resemblance? Whether they did
or not, she knew that their little secret was out, and would be all over
town by that evening. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. She was
used to being speculated about, but the furor over Chloe had died down
some time before and she didn't like that her daughter would once again
be the subject of

rumor and conjecture.
But it was hard to be upset when she watched Chloe slide down into her
father's arms for the first time. Picking her up, Zack looked surprised
and pleased. Chloe, for her part, giggled at him, perfectly happy to be in
the arms of a near-stranger. It worried Savannah occasionally that
Chloe was so trusting, but then again as a single parent, nearly
everything worried her.
Zack set Chloe down and she immediately pointed to the swings. "You
want to swing? All right, I can push you on the swing."
Savannah watched them playing, getting to know one another over the
next half an hour. At last, Chloe

began yawning and Savannah gave her the five minute warning, letting
her know that park time was nearly over.
Zack seemed just as disappointed as Chloe was. "Could I take you two
out to lunch?" he offered.
Savannah looked down at their daughter. "Well, we were just going to
have a quick lunch at home before nap time," she hesitated, thinking
about how long it would take to get to a restaurant and then to order and
eat, thinking that she usually made lunch for her grandmother as well.
"Please? I really would like some more time with her," Zack pleaded.
Still she hesitated. "We'll have

to take my car, because it's got the car seat in it."
"Not a problem"
"You haven't seen my car," she told him dryly, thinking of the beat-up
old sedan she drove.
He grinned. "It'll be fine. I just want to hang out with Chloe."
"All right then."
Zack, seeming to know his audience, took them to one of the sandwich
shops in town. There Chloe wouldn't bother anyone if she was rowdy,
the food was quick and pleasing even for a toddler, and it was small so
there would be fewer witnesses to their very first meal as a, sort of,
family. Zack asked more questions about Chloe,

and Savannah got Chloe to show off a bit with the animal noises she'd
recently learned and the parts of the body she knew, pointing to her
eyes or nose or bellybutton on cue.
Unfortunately, Chloe's goodwill deteriorated as her exhaustion rose,
and she began pouting.
"Are you done eating?" Savannah asked at one point.
"No!" Chloe shouted.
"Would you like another bite?"
"No!"
"What about if it's an airplane?"
"No!"
"Is she usually like this?" Zack asked, his eyebrows lifted.

"Only when she's tired." Savannah tried to get her daughter to eat
another bite but Chloe snubbed it, and Savannah sighed, giving up.
Chloe jumped up and down on the bench seat, her face scrunched up
with anger.
"This was a bad idea," Zack said. "I'm sorry."
"No, no. It was a great idea," Savannah told him, secretly thinking that
Chloe's whole daily routine would be off a bit now, and that she'd be
crankier that evening because of it.
"No, it wasn't." Zack pushed his plate away, looking upset with
himself.
Savannah reached out to put her hand over his, the gesture automatic.

"Hey, it's hard being a parent. I imagine it's even harder coming into it
late. Go easy on yourself, you're still getting to know her, which
includes getting to know what her moods are and what will make her
tired or cranky. It takes time. I've been doing this for over two years
now and I still don't get it right nearly all the time."
Zack gave her a little ghost of a smile but didn't say anything else and
she worried that she'd scared him. Would he back out now, declare it
too difficult and say he didn't really want to see Chloe anymore?
They walked back to the car in silence, Savannah sardonically thinking
that she shouldn't have gotten her hopes

up, which she now realized that she had. Against everything she
believed, she had still hoped that Zack would actually want to be a
father, to stick around.
When she pulled up in front of her little ramshackle house he turned to
her and put a hand on her arm to stop her from getting out.
"When would be another good time for me to come by?" he asked
simply.
With that, Savannah relaxed, feeling foolish for imaging the worst.
"Um, how about Monday around the same time as this morning?"
"Sounds good."
"I don't even know when you leave town," she pointed out.

"Not until Thursday."
She nodded. "I'll keep that in
mind."
He got out of the car to unbuckle the car seat, fumbling with the
unfamiliar mechanism for a moment before freeing Chloe, then he
carried her up to the miniature front porch. Chloe, who was vigorously
rubbing her sleepy eyes, yawned in his face when he set her on her feet
and crouched down at her level to say goodbye. He looked helpless for
a moment, obviously wondering what to say to her, and Savannah's
heart melted a little bit.
"Can you give him a hug?" she asked Chloe.
The little girl did, flinging her

arms around Zack's neck. He wrapped his around her for a long
moment, closing his eyes, before releasing her. Looking her in the face
he said, "I'll see you later, OK?"
She nodded and yawned again, but gamely waved as Zack strode over
to his car.
Zack's friends called him up that night and invited him out to the
Tavern again. Part of him wanted to say no, but he also didn't feel that
he could pass up an opportunity to learn more about Savannah. After
all, she was the mother of his child, and he admitted to himself that he
didn't really know her. He had a

few vague recollections from childhood and high school, but she'd been
a couple of years younger than he was and he hadn't paid attention
beyond remembering her reputation.
Her reputation. That was something which bothered him, a lot. Had
there been other men around, men who'd come and gone from Chloe's
life as they'd gone through Savannah's childhood? He didn't like to
think of it.
He'd been tipsy the night he'd gone home with Savannah, but not truly
drunk. He knew he'd been wearing a condom because he wasn't foolish,
and though he did know they had a failure rate he'd never expected it to
happen to him. He wondered, did it break and he

just didn't notice? Or was he careless with it? Was he reading too much
into a few pictures? The last question bothered him only until he
pictured Chloe. Her eyes and her smile, the dimples, were the same
ones he saw in the mirror, no mistake.
All evening he watched Savannah work. If she noticed him she
certainly didn't give any sign of it, but he couldn't get her out of his
mind. She'd said that he was the only one, and that she didn't take bar
patrons home, but could he be sure about that?
"Hey, Zack, you paying attention, man?"
"No, sorry."
"What's got you crying in your

beer tonight?" Chad asked.
"I know," Jason answered, looking around the table significantly to see
if he was the only one.
"Oh yeah?" someone else challenged.
"I hear he was spotted today with everyone's favorite Tavern wench
and her kid, first at the park and then out to lunch."
"Don't call her that," Zack said,
annoyed.
Jason's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "All right," he said agreeably
enough.
"Whoa," Robbie said, looking between Savannah and Zack.
"Seriously?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zack asked, knowing exactly how
defensive he sounded.
"Nothing," Robbie mumbled.
"No, let's hear it."
The other guys exchanged glances. "It's just, you know, she's not your
usual type," Andy finally spoke for them all. "I mean, I guess she's
good for a quick lay now and then, but," he shrugged, "come on, she's
got a kid."
"She's got my kid," Zack said in a hard voice.
Except for Robbie choking on his beer, they all grew still. "Tell me
you're joking," Jason said in all seriousness.
Zack just stared at his friend

and raised his eyebrows. One by one, each of his friends looked over at
Savannah, who finally seemed to notice all of the attention she was
drawing from their corner of the room. When she saw so many men
staring at her she paled and turned away, practically racing back to the
bar where she drew pitchers without looking at them again.
"OK, so how did that happen? And why haven't you said anything
about it before now?" Robbie asked, leaning across the table.
Zack sighed deeply. "I didn't know until now."
"Did you get, like, one of those paternity tests done?"
"No."

"Then how do you know she's telling the truth? Shit, that could be just
about anyone's kid."
Zack looked at his friend curiously. "Did you ever sleep with her?" he
asked. Robbie shook his head, then Andy and Jason and Joey slowly
did the same. "Yeah, I thought not."
"OK, so just because none of us ever slept with her doesn't mean she
hasn't been around a time or two."
"Fine," Zack said in a hard voice. "I get it. But I can tell you right now
that Chloe's the spitting image of me when I was her age. Even my
mom thinks so."
"Your mom knows about this?"
"She does now," Zack

confirmed.
"What did she say?"
Zack hesitated. "It's complicated."
Jason laughed. "Yeah, I can just imagine how my mom would react to
such a thing."
"Your mom would be happy if you knocked up some girl, since she'd
be so relieved that your boys could actually swim rather than just go
around in circles bumping into each other."
"Shut up, Andy."
The table snickered with juvenile humor, all except Zack, who was
once again watching Savannah.
"Hey," Joey said quietly, bumping Zack's arm to get his attention.

"So why did she just tell you about the
kid now?"
"Because it's the first time she's talked to me since that night. I didn't
leave any information with her, and she had no way of getting in touch
with me." Zack shrugged, feeling rather foolish. "She did find my work
email address and sent me a message but she didn't say why she wanted
to talk to me, so I ignored it."
"Ouch, man."
"Yeah. Anyway, I went over to talk to her this morning and we ended
up going to the park and then to lunch. I want to get to know my
daughter."
His friends looked down into their drinks, wondering what to say, and

he had to fight a surge of annoyance with them. They'd been his friends
since grade school, but sometimes it seemed that they'd never
developed past high school. Maturity was not what they were most
noted for.
At last Andy looked up at him "Congratulations, I guess. First one of us
to have a kid. Ain't that something?"
Zack smiled slightly. "Yeah,
ain't it?"
"So what are you going to do? I mean, you live in California. Is she
going to let you have the kid—er, your daughter, for part of the year or
something?"
"I don't know yet. And her name's Chloe."

Jason clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, I can't say we'd mind seeing
your ugly face a bit more often."
Zack forced out a laugh and turned the topic to something else, but it
ended up being a short, quiet evening, with all of them preoccupied.
Zack's friends left early, most of them anxious to make it back to their
respective girlfriends or just to get away from Zack and his heavy,
dampening mood.
He stayed behind, nursing the same beer he'd had all night. Howard, the
owner of the Tavern, came over toward the end of the evening, when he
was alone, to ask if he needed anything.
Zack looked up and thought for a long moment. "Yeah, I wanna know

something. Does Savannah ever leave with customers at the end of the
night?"
Howard gave him a flat stare for an uncomfortably long moment before
saying, "I've only seen her leave here with one person, and that was
you."
"Yeah, I thought so," Zack nodded, looking back down into his beer as
if it held the answers to questions he didn't even know he wanted to ask
yet.
Howard sighed heavily. "Lots of men have tried to take her home. I'm
sure some of the rumors about her are because plenty of men have tried
to get her to go home with them, and a few truly drunk ones have tried
to force the issue, which is why I usually stay to lock up with her. But
she's worked here for

four years and that was the only time I've ever seen her so much as
show true interest in any man."
"Yeah?" Zack perked up.
"Yeah. She's a fantastic employee, and as far as I know she's pretty
much as celibate as a nun. She lives for Chloe." He paused. "What I'm
saying to you is, don't be a dick to her."
"I'll try not to," Zack answered
dryly.
He waited for Savannah to finish up that night.
"Can I give you a lift?" he invited. "I promise, I've only had the one
beer and I'm perfectly sober."
"Oh, but I have my car.... " she
hesitated, looking embarrassed and

flustered.
"Please? I can help you pick it up in the morning."
She glanced at Howard. "Um, I guess so. Goodnight, Howard," she
called.
"Goodnight. Make good choices," he called in return, smiling benignly
when Zack glowered at him.
It was getting chilly at night and, in his light jacket, Zack shivered
slightly. He was getting soft living in California he told himself, and
frowned at the thought. He'd always wanted to see the world, to get out
of this tiny Montana town, and now he had. But, it hadn't made him any
happier. He didn't enjoy living in such a big city. San

Francisco had a lot to recommend it, but there was a lot that he missed
about Montana which he'd never thought he would. His friends were
immature but he'd known them since childhood, and that was a bond
which was hard to beat. His friends in San Francisco just seemed...less.
More ambitious, more sure of themselves, more greedy and more
willing to work hard, sure, but less in most respects that counted for a
friendship. Less willing to go out of their way for him, less likely to
understand him and where he was coming from, less likely to actually
listen when he had a problem. He tried to think if there was anyone in
California whom he'd want to share his current

dilemma with and realized that he couldn't think of a single one. For all
their faults, he hadn't hesitated to tell his friends here what was going
on between him and Savannah, and telling them had helped in some
subtle but immeasurable ways.
"What are you thinking about?" Savannah asked him quietly.
"Hm? Oh, nothing."
"Liar. I can tell when there's something on your mind. You get a deep
furrow between your brows."
He glanced at her and realized that she, too, was part of the landscape
of home. Though he didn't know her well, something would have been
wrong in his world had she not been around.

"Been watching me, have you?"
"I've watched you since high school," she laughed, self-deprecating.
"You were the sexy older boy that all the girls in my grade secretly had
crushes on. Didn't you know that?"
His mouth opened in surprise. "Please tell me you're joking."
"Nope. Why would that be such a surprise? You were a jock, and smart,
and did I mention sexy?"
She seemed pleased by his discomfiture, and he sent her an assessing
glance. "Is that why you slept with me that night? To fulfill some sort
of high school fantasy?"
That made the smile disappear from her face and he was almost sorry

he'd brought the subject up. "No," she told him shortly.
"Then why did you? Howard confirmed that you never bring patrons
home with you."
"Checking up on me?" she asked bitterly, her good mood completely
soured.
Gently Zack said, "Is it so odd that I'd want to check your story? This is
important to me, in case you didn't already realize that."
She blew out a breath. "Fine. I took you home with me that night
because there was...something...between us which I've never felt
before."
"I felt that too," he confirmed quietly. She looked at him with wide,

suspicious eyes. "Maybe it was fate," he joked.
She didn't answer, turning away to look out the window at the moonlit
landscape going by.
Zack had so many things he wanted to ask, and so many things which
he knew he didn't even know to ask about his child yet. It still made him
stop every once in a while, the thought that he had a child, a daughter.
A little girl with wild blond hair and big brown eyes.
"What was it like?" he asked
quietly.
"What was what like?"
"When you were pregnant with her. Did you have awful cravings?

Swollen feet?" He racked his brain, trying to come up with any other
symptoms of pregnancy he could think of but drawing a blank. How
could he get to adulthood and know so little about the practicalities of
human gestation?
Savannah smiled softly. "It was interesting," she said after a moment.
"I felt horribly nauseated for a few weeks, then about the time that
started passing I got super tired. I could have slept for a month straight,
I was so tired. My biggest craving was for beef burritos, dripping with
grease and stuffed with cheese. Sometimes I really wanted mangoes,
and once I ate an entire jar of jalapenos straight, the whole thing, then I
got the worst heartburn ever. But it was

really fun to feel her moving around, then to see it. My whole belly
would roll at times and it looked like something out of an alien movie.
She was pretty active even then."
"How big was she?"
"Seven pounds three ounces and perfect in every way except for one.
She was breech."
"What does that mean?"
"She was upside down and the cord was wrapped around her neck, so
the doctor decided that it would be less risky to do a c-section."
"You had surgery?"
"Yeah. It sort of sucked, but my Granny was around to help out. She
was a bit more mobile then, her arthritis

wasn't so bad. And Howard gave me three months off so that I could
recover in peace. Even after I came back to work he let me take it really
easy, resting whenever I needed it."
"What about your mom? Was she around?"
Savannah's face darkened. "No. I haven't really talked to my mom more
than a couple of times since I finished high school and moved out. She
hasn't even come into the Tavern since I started working there,
preferring Frank's." That was the other bar, across town. A bit seedier
and with a less friendly atmosphere.
"I'm sorry," Zack said, reaching out to touch her hand. He had long
since

pulled up to the curb outside of her house but he wasn't quite ready to
let her
go yet.
"It's OK. Actually it's better this way. Granny was more of a parent to
me than my mom was."
"Was she just so disappointed when your dad ran out?" he asked,
genuinely curious. Everyone knew that Dolores Mills was the town
floozy, a drunk who made a living cleaning houses, but he'd never
really heard anyone talk about what would make her that way.
Savannah shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even remember my daddy,
but Mama was always going on about how he was a shifty bastard. I
don't

think she misses him, it's just an excuse to drink and sleep around." She
glanced out the windshield then back to him and asked, "What about
you? I'm not sure if I even know where you're living these days except
that you're somewhere in California."
"Out in San Francisco." He named the company he worked for, which
was big enough that he knew she'd recognize it. "I got my degree in
computer science and took off for greener pastures right after, first
going to work for a small company in Silicon Valley, then I moved into
the city when I got this job."
"What's it like?"
"San Francisco?"

"Yeah. I've never been outside of Montana. Is it as hilly as the pictures
make it look? Have you ever been in an earthquake?"
He was stunned that she'd never left, though he shouldn't have been
since roughly half of their classmates could say the same thing. "Yeah,
it's hilly. There was one small earthquake, but it wasn't all that exciting.
All the local news could talk about for days afterwards was basically
the one can which fell off a shelf at some grocery store downtown, but
nothing really happened."
She grinned. "So basically, it was the stuff newscasters dream about,
that big career-making story."

"Exactly." He smiled back, realizing how much fun he'd had just
talking about normal things with her. It made him wonder if that spark
was still there, smoldering between them. It had certainly seemed so
the night before when he'd kissed her, and he got the urge to do it again.
Without letting himself think about it too much, he leaned forward and
kissed her gently. Her lips were soft and he felt the breath she drew in,
her lips trembling open for him to deepen the kiss. He put a hand up
under her jaw, right over her pulse, and he could feel the way it began
to beat double time.
Leaning over the center console, he licked into her mouth, tasting

her. She was as sweet as he remembered and he drank her in, his brain
significantly less foggy with drink than it had been that first night.
Savannah responded to him, matching him, and he felt jubilant that this
feeling wasn't one-sided. Whatever was between them, she felt it too.
He reached out to touch her breast, cupping it in his palm and feeling
her hardened nipple. He remembered that she had great tits, just the
right size to fit his hand. He brushed his thumb around her nipple and
she pulled away from him, breathing heavily.
"I'm sorry, I don't think we should be doing this," she told him.
Zack's body was screaming that

it was exactly what they should be doing, all of it and more. "You're
right," he answered, though, not wanting to pressure her in any way if
she felt uncomfortable. He scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to
recover his wits.
"Thank you for the ride," she told him sweetly. Leaning across the
console she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Zack watched her unlock the front door of the tiny house and let herself
in, then waited for a moment to give his body time to calm down before
starting the car and driving himself home.

Three
Savannah was thankful that it was a Sunday and that she was alone in
the bar. She'd waited until Chloe was down for a nap before coming in
to do the cleaning and the bookkeeping, needing the time alone to
think. All morning she'd been unable to keep from thinking about the
way Zack had kissed her the night before. Even worse, the way she'd
kissed him back. She wondered, was she a glutton for punishment? He
would be going back to California soon and she'd still be here, without
him. The memory of the one night they'd spent together was
bittersweet, and she preferred that it stayed in memory. It hadn't
precisely

been a mistake—how could she think it was, since the result was
Chloe?—but it definitely hadn't been one of her smarter choices either.
And now here she was, poised to make the same mistake once more.
Her body was practically screaming for it, reminding her of the
pleasure she'd found with him and the fact that she hadn't felt anything
similar except by her little vibrating friend in nearly three years. It just
wasn't the same as feeling a man, that man, plunging deep inside of her
as he kissed her and touched her.
She shivered and turned back to the computer but still couldn't focus.
Thoughts of the night they'd made Chloe combined with the way she'd
felt kissing

him the night before until she was so hot and bothered she could barely
see straight.
She put a hand over her face, remembering the night before in vivid
detail. What had he meant by kissing her that way? It was obvious what
he wanted, but what did it mean? She hadn't even bothered to ask if he
had a girlfriend or lover waiting for him back in San Francisco. What if
there was, and he just wanted another one-night-stand with her before
going back to his real life? Did he expect that just because she'd had his
kid he would get to be with her every time he was in town? Or did it
mean something more to him? She hardly dared to hope for the

latter.
Savannah heard a noise out in the bar and, grabbing the bat she kept
near the office door, she crept over to it to see who was out there. She
was certain she'd locked the bar so there was only one logical choice,
but still she thought it was best to be cautious.
"Hi Howard," she called, putting the bat back in its place.
"Hi," he said. "I just wanted to check on a few things." He looked at her
closely. "How was the ride home last night?"
"It was fine," she assured him casually, managing to tamp down the
flush which threatened. She'd been too embarrassed to call Zack for a
ride that

morning so she'd gotten one of her friends to drive her over. "He just
wanted to know more about Chloe." "Yeah?"
"Yeah. He actually wants to be part of her life." Savannah grinned.
"She'll get to know her daddy." She didn't precisely miss her own
dad—last she'd heard, he'd been in jail out in Arizona for petty
theft—but she still felt like she was missing out by not having a father
in her life. She'd hated to think that Chloe would grow up the same
way, and it had been that which had pushed her, finally, to tell Zack.
Howard grunted. "That's good, but how will that work with him out in
California and you two here? Oh now,

hey, I didn't mean to make you look like
that."
"No, it's a good question," she said, crestfallen. How, exactly, was Zack
planning to be part of Chloe's life from so far away? They hadn't
discussed any specifics yet.
Howard placed his forearms on the bar and studied her. "I'm sure you
two will work it out. It's only been, what, two days since you told him?
Don't worry about it just yet."
She scoffed. "Sure, that works. Just don't worry."
He smiled, sort of like he was quietly laughing at her. "It won't work if
you don't try it. That goes for a lot in
life."

Now it was Savannah's turn to study her boss. "Howard, how come you
never married?"
"Who says I didn't?"
"You've never told me about your ex-wife, then." She sat down on one
of the bar stools, chin on her fists as she looked at him. He was a good
looking guy, if a little too old for her. But he hadn't developed a
middle-aged paunch and he still had all his hair, most of the lines on his
face were from smiling and he had nice eyes. In a small town like
theirs, with very few choices, she was surprised that the middle-aged
divorcees weren't all over him Then again, maybe they were and he was
just very, very discreet.

He smiled, looking away and shaking his head. "I was married for nine
years. She was with me all the way through my service, then when I got
out of the military she up and left me for another guy. Said she needed
more excitement in her life, while all I wanted was to settle down
quietly somewhere."
Savannah nodded sympathetically. "That sucks."
"Yeah, it does. But I got over
it."
"There hasn't been anyone
since?"
He grinned wolfishly. "There've been quite a few someones."
She rolled her eyes, laughing. "You know what I mean. Someone

serious."
"Nah. I think things are better off for me as they are."
Savannah couldn't really understand that attitude. Perhaps it was the
way she'd grown up, watching an endless parade of men go through her
mother's bedroom, or maybe it was a result of the reputation she'd been
given, but she wanted to believe that true love could happen and last.
She wanted that for herself, one man to come home to every night and
to grow old with.
The problem was that the man she was now fantasizing about having
that with was the same man she'd dreamt of in high school, with no
more real hope that it would actually happen than

she'd had back then. Was that pathetic or what?
Thinking about Zack going back to California made her depressed and
upset with herself. She'd already gotten her hopes up that he would
want to be a family with her and Chloe, just because he'd said he
wanted to be part of his daughter's life. But what did that really mean?
Did he expect to go back to San Francisco and just send a card for
birthdays and Christmases? He'd offered to help pay for her living
expenses, which still galled her—did he think she couldn't afford to
care for Chloe properly?—so perhaps sending money was all he'd
meant about wanting to be part of her life.

So many questions swirled through her mind, with no answers. She
needed to talk to him but she dreaded doing so, particularly after the
night before. She could not let him kiss her again or she'd be lost.
Howard laid a consoling hand on her arm, squeezing gently. "Hey, it'll
be all right," he assured her once more. "From what I've seen, he's not a
bad guy. If you had to get yourself knocked up by someone, at least you
picked well."
"Thanks, boss," she told him sarcastically, though when he grinned at
her she couldn't help but smile in return. He was a friend as much as he
was her boss and they both knew it, but

sometimes she liked to tease him about blurring the lines. Pushing
away from the bar she said, "I'd better get back to the computer. Those
accounts won't reconcile themselves."
"You sure you want to do that today? I could take care of it for you if
you've got too much going on."
"And have you mess up all of my hard work? I don't think so." It was a
point of pride with her that she was so good with the accounts, and that
he trusted her with the money management aspect of his business.
Howard was a great guy and he knew how to run a bar very well, but
the numbers and ordering overwhelmed him He'd been both shocked
and grateful the first time she'd

pointed out an error he'd made, and after that he'd shown her what
needed to be done, supervising her for a while and testing her out. She'd
gotten all A's in math in school, something which most people didn't
know about her, so putting her skills to use made her especially proud.
She'd not only fixed a number of previous errors he'd had on the books
but she'd figured out how to do things more efficiently than he had
before, so the bar was running on a smaller budget than ever and
making bigger profits. Not that it was going to make anyone fabulously
wealthy, but they weren't going to go bankrupt anytime soon, either.
"Let me know if you need any

help," he joked now.
Savannah tossed him a small, grateful smile and then sequestered
herself in the office, determined to lose herself in the minutiae of
numbers and accounting.
Zack's mother came into the kitchen's dining area where he was
working on his laptop. "There's someone here to see you," she told him
stiffly.
Curious who would be visiting him so late in the evening, he went to
the entryway and looked around but no one was there. Even more
curious, he opened the door and found Savannah waiting on the porch,
under the light.

She was facing out at the yard, her hands in the front pocket of a too-big
sweatshirt with their high school logo on it. Zack's eyes roved all the
way down, appreciating the way her jeans clung to her butt and thighs.
He looked up just as she was turning around. "Hi," she said awkwardly.
"Hi Savannah." Since his mother, apparently, didn't want her inside the
house—he'd have to bring that up with her later—he gestured to the
bench swing and sat down next to her. "What's up?"
She hesitated for a moment, seeming to collect her thoughts. "I've been
thinking about this situation—you

—us—a lot today. What did you mean when you said that you want to
be part of Chloe's life? Because you live so far away, and I don't want
her to get too attached to you if you're just going to be away from her all
the time. If you're just going to send cards for her birthday and visit
every once in a while, it might be best if you just stay away from her. I
don't want her to be heartbroken by
you."
Zack paused, incredulous. "You wouldn't let me see her if I want to
keep living in California?"
She shook her head, looking away from him as if this was too difficult
to say to his face. "No, I'm not saying that, but for her sake you might

want to think about it. I don't want to see her be crushed over and over
again when you leave her behind. That's about the only thing I'm
thankful to my daddy for, that he made a clean break when he left us."
Zack stared at her for a long time in silence, thinking furiously. He'd
given this a lot of thought over the past day and a half. Hell, it was
practically all he'd thought about. He just hadn't been prepared to give
any definite answers yet, not when he was still getting over the shock of
finding out that he was a dad. He certainly wasn't going to open up to
her about his still-forming plans.
"I'm not sure what I want to do

yet," he said at last. "I hadn't thought much beyond this trip. However, I
don't want to just go back to San Francisco and forget about her
between holidays. When I said I wanted to be her dad, I meant it. I
intend to be there for her, whenever she needs me."
"But how can you, if you work and live so far away?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. We'll have to figure that out." Savannah
nodded, morose, and to cheer her up some he said, "There's always
Skype. We can video chat, every day if you want."
She smiled. "Yeah, that would
be nice."
"And I meant what I said, about

helping to pay her living expenses."
Savannah shrugged. "Honestly, despite what you hear in the news,
she's not all that expensive. I get her clothes second-hand most of the
time and since Granny watches her while I'm at work, I don't have to
pay for daycare. Also, living with Gran means that we don't have to pay
very much except utilities because it's the same house she and Grandpa
bought when they first married."
Zack was surprised, and thought of how much he paid in rent for his
studio apartment in San Francisco where housing was dear. "Surely
there's something I can do? Something she's been missing out on?"

To her credit, Savannah actually thought hard about it. "She loves
baths, so maybe if you wanted to get her in swimming lessons? I've
thought about doing it myself but worried she was too little. I think the
town pool only holds them over the summer, but you could help out
with that if you wanted. Or open an account so that she can go to
college one day."
"Did you? Go to college?"
Savannah shook her head. "No way to pay for it. As soon as I graduated
high school I was out on my own. I suppose I could have gotten a
scholarship of some sort, or loans, but I wasn't sure what to do and
besides, no one expected me to go to college so I

j ust sort of... didn't. I want better for Chloe, though. I want her to have
all the options I didn't."
Zack wrapped an arm around her, understanding, and they sat in
companionable silence for a while.
"Hey, about last night..." he
began.
She put a hand over his heart to stop him. "I understand if you think it
was a mistake," she said quickly.
Surprised and somewhat hurt, Zack's mouth hung open for a moment as
he processed that. "Actually, I was thinking that it had been one of my
better ideas since coming home."
She actually blushed lightly as she turned wide, unsmiling eyes on him.

"If you think that I'm going to—to make myself available for you every
time you come home-- "
He cut her off there by kissing her the way he'd wanted to since he'd
first seen her standing on the porch, his tongue delving deeply into her
mouth so that there could be no mistaking his ardor for her. She seemed
a bit more hesitant, but soon she was matching him, her tongue stroking
his in return as he wound his hands into her hair.
By the time he pulled away she was looking dazed, a flush riding high
on her cheekbones.
She put her face into his neck and mumbled something. "What was
that?" he asked.

"I said, I don't even know if you've got a girlfriend waiting for you back
in California."
Zack wanted to be offended but couldn't bring himself to work up to it.
She had a right to know about him, just as he had a right to know about
her. "No, no steady girlfriend. A few dates here and there, but nothing
solid and no one who will get hurt by anything we do. And I did not
assume that you'd just be here for me when I'm around, there's
something between us. I know you still feel it too."
She nodded but pushed out of his arms, sitting back against the far side
of the swing.
"There's something I have to

ask you," Zack said carefully, not wanting to offend her but knowing
no other way to find out except to come right out and ask her. "I'm not
going to judge you, but how many men have you slept with?"
"You wouldn't believe me," she said sharply.
"Try me."
There was a challenge in her gaze as she looked at him, her chin tilted
up proudly. "Just one."
Zack felt his jaw drop open but couldn't stop it. "What? But—how?
Why?"
"I told you you wouldn't believe me."
"Hey," he said, grabbing her

arm gently when she made to turn away. "I never said that I didn't
believe you."
"You didn't have to say it."
"Sorry for having my doubts but you can imagine my surprise,
considering... "
"Considering the number of guys who've decided to bolster their
reputation by saying they did me?"
"Exactly." He smiled coaxingly at her. "So you've slept with only one
other guy," he prompted.
Savannah shook her head. "No, I've slept with precisely one man." He
said nothing so she continued. "In high school, I refused to sleep with
Elliot Toller. We dated for a short time my sophomore year."

Zack thought for a moment. "Yeah, I remember Elliot. Year younger
than me, right?"
"Yeah. Anyway, I refused to sleep with him but he told everyone I did,
probably to get back at me."
"Why would he need to get back at you?"
"Because he didn't take my initial no as a firm answer, so I ended up
making a point with my knee in his groin."
Zack winced. "Ouch."
She sighed and sat back once more, perhaps enjoying finally telling the
whole tale to someone. "Everyone believed what he said because of my
mom, assuming that I'd be just like her,

and after that it just seemed to balloon, with every guy who wanted to
inflate his number or make others think he'd had more experience than
he had claiming to have slept with me. Then no one ever questioned it
because I'm a slut, right? They talked about me so much I think some of
them honestly came to believe that they'd actually slept with me. It got
so that if I was even seen with a guy people assumed that we'd been
together, so I ended up getting a lot of attention from guys who wanted
that. By the time high school finished, I was avoiding boys entirely but
the reputation stuck."
Zack frowned and looked away, thinking hard. It was outlandish, but
also sort of plausible. He remembered Elliot

Toller a bit, and there had been a reason they hadn't run in the same
circle of friends despite their age difference. Elliot was a braggart with
not much to back it up, and Zack despised guys like that. He could
definitely see Elliot being the sort to claim he'd slept with a girl just for
revenge. "So why didn't you sleep with any of them?" he asked quietly.
"I mean, if they were going to say they did anyway, why not find a guy
you liked and go for it?
Savannah huffed out a breath. "You don't get it, do you? I tried to date,
but every single time the guy assumed he was going to get lucky with
me and I got so frustrated by it that I finally stopped. It felt like any
choice I had in the matter

was taken away because they thought it was a foregone conclusion. I
haven't been on an actual date since my senior year of high school
because it was just too stressful."
"That's why you don't bring bar patrons home."
"Yeah. Men try, but I've dissuaded most of them. It doesn't keep them
from talking, but I was sort of getting past the whole reputation thing,
until I got pregnant."
Zack stared at her with dawning understanding, horrified that he'd
inadvertently contributed to the way the town treated her. "When you
got pregnant, it just confirmed what everyone believed about you," he

guessed.
"Yeah."
"That is...unbelievable," he said. "Not you!" he added quickly when she
opened her mouth to rail at him. "I mean, just the way you've been
treated over the years, and what people have assumed about you."
Savannah shrugged, pretending she didn't care and wasn't hurt by it. "I
guess I'm used to it by now," she lied.
"I don't know how you could be," he told her gently. Then after a pause,
"So then, why did you sleep with me that night?"
"I answered that already, when you asked me before."
He shook his head. She'd really

been a virgin the night they'd spent together? It was unreal. "You didn't
tell me before that it was your first time. Surely you've been tempted to
have sex before. Why with me, and why that
night?"
Savannah looked him in the eye. "I don't know. You were safe, I guess.
I overheard you saying that you were going home the next day so I
knew you wouldn't be around to pester me or brag that we'd spent the
night together even if you were the bragging type, which I know you
aren't." She shrugged, standing up to walk over to the porch railing, not
looking at him. "As far as first times go, I guess that was pretty
amazing. I can't deny that I was attracted

to you, or I never would have let you touch me."
Zack walked up behind her and slowly turned her around to face him.
Then he wrapped a hand around each of her hips, bringing them in
alignment with his. Thinking about that night had turned him on, as it
always did. She was so close that she could feel his hard-on, and her
eyes widened with the proof of how much he desired her. "You were
attracted to me?" he whispered in her ear. "What about now?"
"I think you know the answer to that," she told him just as quietly,
tilting her head back as his lips grazed her neck.
"I can't stop thinking about

you," he quietly confessed. "How it feels every time I touch you. I
could never fully put out of my mind that night we spent together, or
how amazing it was."
Zack captured her mouth with his own, and Savannah pressed herself
more fully against him. He knew when he'd aroused a woman and she
was as ready to go as he was, if only they weren't on the front porch of
his mother's house. Zack tortured himself by kissing her for a long
time, but he knew that's all they were going to do. It was such sweet
torture and he knew he'd be paying for it later when he had to settle for
his hand rather than Savannah.
At last, knowing that he'd take

her right there on the porch if he didn't stop soon, Zack gently released
her, then stood panting and holding onto the railing, his head hanging
down between his arms, for a long moment to get himself under
control.
"I didn't mean to take things that far," he said.
She turned wide eyes on him and he could see the muscles of her throat
working as she gulped in air. "I'd better get home," she said.
Zack stood up, wincing a bit as his jeans pinched sensitive skin and he
adjusted himself. She watched his actions and a small smile appeared
on her mouth, which was bright red from all the time they'd spent
kissing. Zack

smiled in return. "I'll see you tomorrow morning then?" he reminded
her.
"Yes. Tomorrow morning.
Right."
Once again Zack watched her walking away, making sure her old
beater of a car started before going inside. He went straight up to his old
room, knowing that he wasn't fit to be around his family just yet.

Four
Zack showed up at Savannah's around nine the next morning. He rang
the doorbell and was met by an older lady in a sweatsuit but leaning
heavily on a cane.
"Hi, is Savannah here?" He looked around the living room, which
appeared to have had a magazine about crochet throw up all over it. But
it was tidy and the furniture didn't seem particularly worn. There was a
comfy looking leather armchair with the footrest up and he guessed that
his elderly hostess had been sitting in it.
The older lady looked him up and down, then motioned him inside.
"She's still asleep. Since she works

such late nights Chloe and I let her sleep until nine-thirty most
mornings. Ten on Saturdays and Sundays."
His daughter came running into the living room and held her arms out
to him. "Up!" she demanded and he complied.
"I'm sorry," he said to Savannah's grandmother, "I didn't realize. She
told me to come by."
"That's fine. I'm Granny Roberts. Would you like a cup of
coffee?"
"Sure."
Zack started to follow her into the kitchen but was arrested when he felt
two tiny hands on his cheeks. He hadn't shaved that morning and when
he looked

at Chloe, she was very intently rubbing her hands up and down over his
rough beard stubble. In silence he watched her, noting each change of
expression. He wondered if she'd ever felt a man's beard before and
was saddened for all the moments that they had missed out on over the
previous two years.
She looked up into his eyes and, once again, he noted how much it was
like looking into his own. When she smiled at him, his heart melted a
little
bit.
"I'm your daddy," he said to her, having not said the words aloud until
now.
"Doggie," she said.
"No, daddy."

"Doggie."
"Daddy."
"Doggie!"
Zack sighed, "We'll work on it," and carried her into the kitchen, where
a mug of steaming coffee was resting on the wooden table for him.
Savannah's grandmother, sipping her own coffee, eyed the two of them.
"Were you blond as a child?" she asked.
"Yes." He didn't think Savannah would have kept Chloe's parentage a
secret from her grandmother so the question was not a surprise.
Mrs. Roberts smiled at him then. "Would you like to see some pictures
of Chloe as a baby?"

"Very much." Chloe climbed down off his lap and ran to a different
chair, where a plate of toast and a bowl of yogurt were set out, clearly
meant for her. She picked up a spoonful of yogurt and half of it plopped
onto the table before she got it to her mouth. With the hand not holding
the spoon she started idly painting the table with the yogurt.
The old woman picked up a tablet and unlocked it. "Savannah got me
one of them i-thingies so that I can read my books in big print," she
explained, tapping the screen until she'd gotten into the pictures,
finding the album she wanted. "Here it is!"
The first picture was of Savannah in the hospital, looking so pale

that her lips were nearly the same color as the rest of her face and he
was surprised that the surgery had taken such a toll on her. But her eyes
were bright and her smile wide as she held Chloe cradled in one arm,
the baby swaddled and covered in a tiny striped hat so that nothing but
her face was visible. Zack studied the picture for a long time, both
mother and daughter, before handing it back to Mrs. Roberts.
She waved it away. "Keep looking through as you'd like," she told him.
"It's not like I've got racy photos on there or anything to keep private."
Zack grinned at her and turned back to the pictures, flipping through
and noting all of the changes his daughter had

gone through in her first few months of life. She'd started out almost
completely bald, but her eyes were his right from the start. He smiled as
he went through the newborn pictures, noting when she started getting
some hair and when she started smiling.
"Good morning," Savannah said from behind him, walking shyly into
the kitchen looking sleepy and rumpled. She was still wearing pajamas,
flannel bottoms with a plain t-shirt up top. He could see that she wasn't
wearing a bra yet and that caught his interest. He had a hard time not
looking at her chest, but felt awkward with her grandmother sitting
across the table from him.
"Good morning," he answered

as casually as possible, looking back down at the tablet so that he
wouldn't stare at her.
"I didn't expect to see you until a bit later," she said unnecessarily.
"I thought we agreed that I'd come over this morning?"
"We did, but last time you didn't come over until ten-thirty so I thought
that's when you'd show up."
"Oh. Sorry." He'd been too nervous and excited about seeing Chloe
again to wait any later in the morning, though he wasn't normally much
of a morning person.
She smiled over her shoulder at him, pulling down a coffee mug. "No
problem. You were looking at

pictures?"
"Yeah, your grandmother was showing me the pictures from Chloe's
babyhood."
"Oh-eee!" Chloe shouted.
"That's right, your name is Chloe," Savannah said to her. To Zack she
asked, "Wasn't she a cute baby?"
He grinned. "Yeah." And it was the truth. Normally he thought babies
looked sort of funny, like little old men, but there was something about
Chloe's gaze, so aware right from the start, which came across even in
pictures.
She was a cute kid, too, he thought, looking at her. Her hair had grown
in and was now brushing her

shoulders in gentle curls. She had what he thought could be described
as a button nose, pink lips, and her eyes were always sparkling. Even
when she'd been tired there had been a hint of mischief in them.
"What are we doing today?" he
asked.
"I don't have to work tonight so I'm free all day, except for her nap."
"What do you usually do on your days off then?"
"Go to the library sometimes, and I usually try to get her to the park at
least once a day, either before or after her nap."
"How about the library, then?"
"Sure."

They spent the whole day together, first at the library and then out to
lunch again. Chloe fell asleep in the backseat so they drove around for a
while before turning onto a back road and going out to an overlook so
that they could talk while Chloe slept. Zack was surprised at how easily
he could talk to Savannah, and how smart she was, though he knew he
shouldn't have been. She told him how she'd started keeping the books
at the bar a few years before.
"Do you like accounting then?"
"Not really, but I'm damn good at it, so I do it. I think it's because I
frequently had to use my babysitting money when I was younger to buy
food, so I learned math real quick. I'm lucky

I've got a head for numbers."
Zack thought of his own childhood, which had been relatively carefree,
and felt bad for the girl she had been. Between her mother and the
poverty she'd grown up in she should have been trashy and crass, but
somehow she wasn't. He marveled how some people could rise above
their circumstances so well. "I have a minor in math and even I
wouldn't describe myself as having a head for numbers," he told her.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Hey, if you'd gone to college, what would you have studied?"
"I don't know. Maybe physics? I really liked it in high school."

Chloe woke up then and saved him from having to answer, which was
good because he didn't know what he would have said. Probably
something stupid. She liked physics that much? The more he learned
about her, the more he realized that there was a lot of depth to her.
In the afternoon they went to the park and he loved playing with Molly,
chasing her and pushing her on the swings and catching her at the
bottom of the slide. He spun her around until they were both dizzy and
the sound of her laughter became etched on his heart. He knew that
people around town had noticed and were whispering about the three of
them, but he didn't care. He was

having too much fun getting to know his daughter.
The one person who did care about the gossip, however, was his
mother. "I can't go anywhere now without people asking about you and
Savannah. Or worse, insinuating things about the two of you," she
complained to him the next night.
Zack had spent as much of that day as possible with Chloe and
Savannah again, only coming back to his parents' house after helping to
put Chloe in bed, and couldn't believe he only had one day left. He
dreaded leaving on Thursday, which surprised him. There had been a
time when he'd have given anything to shake the dust of this little

town off his boots, but it was home. More so now that he had the pull of
a child calling to him.
She'd called him Daddy, instead of doggie, that afternoon.
Zack sighed. "Mom, I don't care what people say. Let them talk. Chloe
is my daughter, and I don't care who knows it."
His mother wrinkled her nose in distaste. "But people will know that
you were—and with her!"
"She's not the girl you think she is," he said, his eyes narrowed in
warning.
"Oh, leave off Kathy," his father finally chimed in. "Thirty years of
marriage and I never before realized

what a prude you are." "Dan!"
"Well it's true, worrying over a silly thing like people knowing he slept
with a girl. So what? It's not like our generation didn't have plenty of
that going on, as you know very well."
Zack was surprised by his quiet father's speech, but it was nothing
compared to his mother. Her mouth hung open as she stared at her
husband in shock.
He wasn't done yet. "If you want my honest opinion, we should get to
know our granddaughter, and her mother, before we miss out on the
best parts of being grandparents. You might not like the circumstances
but what's

done is done. There's no point in fussing about it now."
His mom, after a few flabbergasted moments, wordlessly left the room
and Zack's father looked at him. "Don't let her ruin this for you. She's
just concerned because those old biddies she hangs around with are
needling her about you having a child without being married. She'll
come around."
"Dad, it's been two years and she hasn't come around yet. Did she tell
you when Savannah came here to try to get my number?"
His father shook his head sadly. "She might have mentioned
something, but just in passing while I

was busy, like it wasn't a big deal. You know how your mother is."
"I'm beginning to."
His father clapped him on the shoulder and went to go sit in his easy
chair with a book.
"Do I really look all right?" Savannah asked her grandmother for at
least the fourth time.
"You look lovely, dear. Just
right."
"Thank you." Still, she nervously smoothed down the skirt of her dress.
Zack had said that he wanted to take her out to dinner after Chloe was
asleep, to talk about what they were

going to do until he could come home at Christmas, and she was
nervous. Should she treat it as a date, or as a business meeting? Was it
casual? He hadn't said where he was taking her, not that the selection
was either particularly notable or fancy, but the uncertainty was driving
her crazy. He'd kissed her several times, and he'd certainly been turned
on by her, but did it really mean anything to him? He still hadn't said
more than that he felt something physical for her.
The uncertainty was driving her crazy. She'd had enough confusion
during her childhood to more than last her a lifetime and she'd done her
best as an adult to create a more orderly world for herself. Zack couldn't
seem to enter

her life without causing her anxiety and creating unpredictability.
It was his last night in town. She tried not to focus on that, but she
couldn't help herself. Though she'd tried to steel her heart against him
all week, knowing that he'd be leaving and not wanting to depend on
him, he'd been so sweet with her and Chloe that she couldn't help
loving him a little bit for the way he'd thrown himself into fatherhood.
Not many men, she thought, would be as thrilled by a surprise toddler
as he had been. He'd spent most of each day with them, learning
everything he could about Chloe. She had to admit, he was a great dad
already, which was one more reason for her not

to get too worked up over him. Chloe would be disappointed enough
for the two of them that he was gone, she didn't want to work on
consoling herself as well as a distraught two-year-old.
Savannah looked in the mirror one last time and wondered, yet again, if
she'd done too much makeup, or too much with her hair, but she heard
his car pulling up out front and it was too late to change anything now.
"Thanks for watching her,
Granny."
"What's to watch? She's
sleeping."
Savannah kissed her grandmother on the cheek and opened the front
door. If it was truly a date she

supposed she should have played coy and waited for him to come to the
door, then had him kicking his heels for an extra few minutes. But since
she wasn't certain this was a date and she'd never really learned to play
games anyway, she didn't bother.
Zack, who'd been halfway to the door when she came out, opened her
door for her. "You look great," he said, admiring her for a long
moment.
"Thank you. You too." He did, in his khakis and button down shirt
which emphasized how broad his shoulders were and how narrow his
waist. Usually he wore jeans and a t-shirt, which were sexy as hell on
him, but seeing him even casually dressed up

was a novelty that she liked.
He drove them to the town's one Mexican restaurant. "I guess I should
have asked if you like Mexican," he said, "but I really didn't want to
take you out for burgers or barbecue."
She smiled at him "It's great,
really."
He took her hand as they walked in and she felt as if everyone already
seated turned to stare at them immediately, though she knew it wasn't
true.
She was too nervous to speak to him, instead pretending to read the
menu even though it was pretty standard Mexican fare and it hadn't
changed since she was a child.

Zack, she realized, was as quiet as she was, and she realized for the first
time that perhaps he was nervous too. It gave her the courage to ask,
"What time do you leave tomorrow?"
"First thing, so it'll be an early night for me." He gave her a half smile.
"I'm supposed to go in to work tomorrow after I get in. It's going to be a
long day." His smile faded. "And I won't get to say goodbye to Chloe. I
mean, I kind of did today, but it's not the same."
Savannah looked at him sympathetically. "We've got the pictures of
you two, though. I'll print them out tomorrow and put them up by her
bed. She won't forget you. I'll make sure of

it." Chloe's room wasn't much more than a glorified closet. But it was
big enough for her bed and her clothes, and most of her toys could be
stored elsewhere. She had some pictures on the wall of teddy bears and
such, just to cheer up the room, but those could easily be replaced by
the pictures of Zack with Chloe.
"Would you? That actually means a lot to me."
She put the menu down and crossed her arms on the table, leaning
toward him a bit. "I understand that you have a lot to work out on your
end, but I want you to know that I'm willing to help you out from my
end. I can send you pictures of Chloe and tell you about new things
she's able to do. I know it's not

the same as being here, but it's a start."
Zack nodded. "I meant what I said about video calls, too. Maybe not
every day, but a few times a week." He grinned suddenly. "I still can't
believe how fast she started calling me Daddy."
Savannah's weak heart fluttered. "You're really good with her."
He looked both surprised and pleased by the comment. "You think so?
I keep worrying that I'm doing stuff all wrong."
Savannah laughed. "Welcome to parenthood. I have been worrying
about everything since the minute I found out I was pregnant. Was I
eating enough, or well enough? Was I getting enough exercise?
Suddenly I worried about

pollution and toxins. Should I start buying organic vegetables?" She
laughed at herself again. "It just got worse from there."
"You're a great mom. She's happy and healthy, and what more can you
ask for?" He smiled at her. "I'm glad that she's ours.''"
There went her traitorous heart again. "Me too."
The waitress came over and they ordered, then spent the rest of the
evening discussing a few logistics, such as when was the soonest Zack
could come back to Montana, but soon enough they moved on to
talking about people they'd both known all the way through school and
things which had happened

while they were in high school. The both found themselves laughing a
lot, having way more in common than either of them would have
guessed.
Savannah knew that the other diners would be speculating about the
two of them, and that news she'd been out on a date with Zack Bennett
would be all over town soon enough, but she didn't care. It was a lovely
evening and she wasn't going to let any of that worry her.
At the end of the evening he drove her home but gave her no more than
a simple kiss, which was for the best. She didn't want to do anything
stupid with him again, and her heart was already too much involved.
She was

going to miss him far more than was wise.

Five
By the time she'd been at work two hours the next night, she was
exhausted. It seemed that half the town at turned up at the Tavern, and
everyone wanted to know about what had happened between her and
Zack. Most of them just whispered to one another, watching her. She
told herself that as long as the tips were good she didn't mind, but the
truth was that she was sick of it. She hated being the subject of so much
rumor and speculation. It was frustrating and annoying.
"You doing all right?" Howard asked her.
"Yeah, I'm OK."

"Let me know if you need a
break."
She waved over her shoulder at him, returning to her tables, taking
orders and distributing drinks or baskets of chips, pretzels, and peanuts.
One of her tables was occupied by Mindy Pims. She and Zack had gone
out steadily for the last half of their senior year and then he'd broken up
with her before leaving for college. A couple of years later Mindy had
married a man a few years older, one who'd moved there for a job at the
local mine rather than one who grew up there, but rumor had it she'd
never gotten over Zack.
After three drinks she did lose her inhibitions and any sense of social

niceties. "I hear you've been screwing Zack Bennett lately," she said to
Savannah.
The other women at her table, some of whom Savannah knew and some
she didn't, laughed into their drinks.
"Shhh!" one said to Mindy. "That's not very nice." But she was
laughing.
Savannah asked them all, "Do you need anything else?"
"Yeah," Mindy said. "Tell me, is his dick still as big as it was in high
school?"
Savannah raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't know."
"Is he really the father of your daughter?" Samantha Toller-Davis

asked, putting a hand on her arm as if they were conspiring.
Savannah looked down at the sister of the boy who'd started such a
nasty rumor about her and felt her eyes narrowing. She'd never liked
Mindy or Samantha or anyone else who ran in their crowd. "That's
really none of your concern," she said as politely as she could.
But Samantha didn't let go of her arm. She laughed, scandalized. "Are
you just saying that because you don't know?"
Savannah pulled her arm out of the other woman's grasp. "I know
exactly who the father of my child is.
Do you?"

A few people at nearby tables, clearly having overheard the exchange,
snickered and Samantha flushed to the roots of her hair. Nearly
everyone in town, it seemed, knew that she was cheating on her
husband except for her poor husband. They had two kids together, but
of course there were rumors floating around that one or both of the kids
was not actually her husband's. He worked long hours and was
frequently gone for days or weeks at a time, and Savannah knew that it
must be hard to maintain a relationship with such a schedule. Still, that
was no reason to cheat and if Samantha was going to be nasty then
Savannah could be cruel in return. It wasn't right, but it sure did feel

good.
"Howard, I'm taking a quick break," she called out. "And that table is
all yours," she pointed at the one occupied by Mindy and her friends.
Savannah made her way out to the back alley, which was generally
deserted aside from perhaps a stray cat once in a while, and she bent
over at the waist, resting her tray on her knees and taking deep breaths
to calm down.
She didn't have long before her conscience got to her, however,
reminding her just how many people were inside waiting for drinks.
Straightening, she reminded herself of the fat wad of tips in the pocket
of her apron and walked back in.

Thankfully, one of the tables was now occupied by a few of her
friends. Hannah, whom she'd remained good friends with even after
school, waved to her, smiling happily. Savannah smiled back and, after
ensuring that no one else was trying to get her attention, made her way
over there.
"Hi," she said to the three ladies. "What can I get you?"
"A bottle of wine and some answers," Molly said promptly, twinkling
up at her.
Savannah sighed. "Red or white? The answers are going to have to
wait."
Her friends, thankfully, nodded. "Red," Hannah said.

"Coming right up."
Savannah worked hard the rest of the evening, but in a better mood.
Having her friends there to support her, even if they wanted to know
what was going on between her and Zack as much as anyone else did,
bolstered her spirits. Slowly the people who'd just been there to see
what they could see and hear what they could hear drifted out until the
crowd was more manageable, until finally it was closing time and
Howard started kicking people out.
Savannah's friends, of course, were allowed to stay after everyone else
had been ushered out. "So, what's new with you?" Hannah asked
slowly and with mock casualness when the bar was

otherwise empty.
Savannah laughed. "Oh man, you have no idea."
"Of course we don't, that's why we're here," Emma said with a roll of
her eyes. She was a newer addition to their group, having arrived two
years before as one of the mine's new employees, an environmental
officer, but she fit in so well that sometimes it was difficult to
remember that she hadn't been with them all since grade school.
Savannah looked seriously at her three friends. Aside from Howard and
her grandmother, and Zack's mother, they were the only ones who had
known the truth about Chloe's father. So she knew they were dying of
curiosity and

excitement for her.
"Well, I finally told Zack about
Chloe."
"I take it that went well?"
"Not at first, no." She filled her friends in on the details as she wiped
down tables and washed glasses. They asked her a bunch of questions,
half of which she didn't have the answers to.
"Wait, wait!" Hannah said at one point. "He really kissed you?"
Savannah noted out of the corner of her eye that Howard had gone still
at the question but she didn't think much of it. He felt oddly protective
of her since he'd had to help her out of more than one tight spot.
"Yeah, he did. And it was just

as hot this time as it was before. Maybe better." She felt a little shiver
just remembering.
Molly squealed. "OMG, do you think he's going to move back here to
be with you guys?"
Savannah was a little uncomfortable with the question, not knowing
what he intended. "I don't know. For now we're just going to video call
frequently so that he can say hi to Chloe, and I'm going to send him
pictures and other updates. He said he'll be back at Christmas and we'll
talk more
then."
"I'm really happy for you and Chloe," Emma said. "And now that we
know all there is to know, we should get

going. I'm driving, and I need to get up way too early tomorrow for
work."
The Tavern closed at midnight on weeknights, but they'd been talking
for over half an hour.
"I'm nearly done cleaning up anyway," Savannah told her friends. "I'll
see you guys this weekend?"
"Of course."
They waved goodbye and left the bar, chattering about how the weather
had suddenly turned much chillier now that it was October. Savannah
put the last glass upside down on a stack of them and dropped her rag in
the bucket for washing.
"So I take it everything was just fine with Zack?" Howard said quietly

from across the room, sweeping up the last little corner.
Savannah looked over at him. "Yeah, things are working out as well as
can be expected. I mean, he's not here, but he's said that he wants to be
and that he'll find a way to make it work."
"And how were things between the two of you?"
Savannah blushed, though she couldn't have said why. It wasn't as if
she needed to hide anything from Howard. "I'm not entirely sure, but it
seems like he might be interested in me as well as Chloe."
"Just be careful, and don't let him break your heart again," her boss
advised.

"He didn't break my heart
before."
"Oh yeah?"
Savannah turned away, not knowing what to think about that comment,
and walked into the office to grab her coat and purse. "I'll see you
tomorrow night," she said to Howard.
"Goodnight."
Zack sat in his office staring at his screen, unable to concentrate. It was
now late October and he'd been away from his daughter for almost a
whole month. How was it possible that it seemed like forever when
he'd only just found out that he even had a daughter?

Savannah had been as good as her word, sending him pictures and
videos at least once a day and texting him about the important things in
Chloe's life. She'd decided that she was too big for the baby swings and
refused to go on any but the big kid swings. She'd learned what an
elbow was, and what sheep say. She'd scribbled on a piece of paper,
and Savannah had written "I miss you Daddy," across the top, then
mailed it to him He'd proudly hung it up on his fridge. If it was an
indication of her future as an artist then he could safely say that she
should stick to other hobbies, but he loved it nevertheless.
It killed him that he hadn't been there for any of it. Video calling her
just

wasn't the same thing at all, though he lived for the moment she saw
him, her face lighting up as she shouted, "Daddy!" She didn't quite
understand yet that she was supposed to talk to him and she usually ran
off quickly, but he loved getting to see her. Savannah always talked to
him for a bit about whatever was going on with them, and he loved
those times as well. It turned out that it wasn't just his daughter that he
missed but her mother as well, and wasn't that just the kicker?
He found himself caring less and less about his work, more interested
in what was going on back in Montana than any of the things which had
driven him so hard since he'd decided to move

away. His friends were confused by his behavior, he knew, but he
didn't feel like confiding in any of them why he was acting so strangely.
He chewed absently on a fingernail as he thought.
"That's a nasty habit," his boss, Sara, said to him from the doorway.
"What? Oh, yeah, I suppose it
is."
She sat down on the far edge of his L-shaped desk. "So what's up with
you? I knocked and you didn't even answer. Ever since you got back
from vacation you've been distracted. You've made way more mistakes
in your coding and you've missed meetings because time got away
from you. That's not like

you at all. So what's up?"
She looked at him steadily and he debated with himself about whether
or not to confide in her. She'd been a great boss and he really liked her.
She was nearly ten years older than he was and universally respected as
being both tough and fair, but still approachable. They had never really
strayed into the realm of personal before, however, and he was wary.
Would she even care? Still, she'd asked, and he'd never get to the point
he wanted to be at if he didn't take a chance.
He minimized what he was working on and turned the monitor so that
Sara could see it. The background was a picture of Molly, one he'd
taken at

the park with her. She was at the bottom of the slide and hamming it up
for the camera, grinning.
Sara's eyebrows lifted. "Cute kid," she said.
"My kid," he answered quietly.
She tilted her head, considering the picture a bit more. "I didn't know
you had a daughter."
"Neither did I, until I went home this time."
She blinked at him. "Wow. How did-- ? No, never mind, you don't need
to tell me that, it's not my business." She shook her head once. "That's a
lot to take in though. No wonder you're so distracted."
"Yeah." Feeling the need to

explain himself a bit more he added, "Chloe's already two, and I've
missed out on so much. Savannah, that's her mom, didn't know how to
reach me and I haven't been home since, uh, two Christmases ago. I
spent most of the time that I was home trying to learn as much as I
could about my daughter." He shook his head. "I still can't believe I
have a daughter."
Sara waited a beat. "So now that you know, what do you want to do
about it?"
Zack took a deep breath. "I'm still trying to figure a lot of that out, but I
know I want to be there with Chloe, watching her grow up."
She studied him for a moment.

He knew she had two kids of her own and wondered if she was thinking
about them, how she would feel if she'd missed two whole years of
their lives. "Yeah, I imagine you do. Kids are tough, and trying to
parent from longdistance would be even worse. I'd hate to lose you,
though. You're a great part of the team."
This was the opening Zack had been hoping for. "Is there any way I
could work long-distance? I mean, I can program from anywhere and
conference in via the web for meetings. We could set up a face-to-face
online once a week so that you could review my work, whatever you
want. I will honestly do just about anything legal for this

chance."
She smiled briefly and thought hard for a long moment. "You've
proven yourself as a good, hard worker so I trust you, and you're right
that your presence here is not absolutely critical. But I'm not really the
one whose approval is needed for that sort of thing. Company policy
says that people can work from home, but in reality they're a bit strict
about who and when. I'll need to talk to Mike," that was her boss, "and
see what he thinks. But with my recommendation, we might be able to
swing something like that. You'd have to actually come visit us a few
times a year, you couldn't just hole up in Montana and never make an

appearance."
Zack let out a deep breath. "Thank you," he said. "I can do whatever
you need me to. I'd hate to leave this job."
Sara stood up. "There's no chance of her, or them, moving out here to
be with you?"
Zack shook his head. "No, I've thought about that. But Savannah's
grandmother has mobility issues and they're really the only family she's
got, as far as I can tell, so it's important that Savannah be there to help
out."
Sara nodded again. "All right. I'll see what I can do for you."
She left his office and Zack lifted his arms in the universal sign of

triumph, feeling lighter in spirit than he had since leaving Montana.
Over the next few weeks things came together quickly for Zack.
Knowing that he was being watched closely he became extra careful
about his work, double-checking everything and staying late at the
office to show his commitment. It wasn't like he had anything at his
apartment which needed him, and it was starting to feel lonely going
home to an empty apartment anyway.
Mike approved his move to working long-distance on a probationary
basis, which was good enough for Zack.

He tied up as many loose ends as he could, preparing himself and the
rest of the team as well as he could for the transition.
He gave notice to his landlord that he would be breaking the lease two
months early and paid the exorbitant fee, feeling that it was worth it.
His friend Robbie helped him find an acceptable place to rent back
home and he sold most of his furniture, whatever couldn't fit into his
car. He was so focused that he lost all sentimentality, only taking a few
mementos of his time in California.
His friends there couldn't understand what had come over him or why
he was suddenly moving back to, as they thought of it, a backwater hick
town

in Montana and he couldn't explain it himself. He told a few of them
about Chloe and they took it well, but it was obvious they didn't quite
grasp why he'd want to upend his life for a daughter he'd only just
found out about. It was a fair enough attitude, he reflected, since he
would have felt the same way just a few months before if any of his
friends had been in his position. But Chloe was that important to him.
At last the day came. Since Thanksgiving week was only three days of
work, or really two and a half, Mike had agreed to let him move the
weekend before. That last Friday at work, his coworkers threw him a
small goodbye party, wishing him well. He was

genuinely touched, having worked really well with the men and women
on his team. He'd explained to them a little bit of why he was moving
back to Montana and they'd all been sympathetic.
"I won't be gone forever," he assured them "You'll still have to see my
face during meetings, since I'll be calling in."
"What a hardship," one of the women said sarcastically.
At the end of the day he cleaned out his desk and tossed it all in his car.
Sara was out in the parking garage as well, just a few spaces away, and
she hurried over to shake his hand.
"Good luck in Montana. I hope things work out well for you."

"Thank you. And thank you, so much, for helping me arrange all of
this."
"No problem. You can still call or email me if you run into any issues
and we'll try to fix them"
"Thank you."
When he was in his car he gripped the steering wheel for a long
moment, breathing deeply and taking it all in. The one person he hadn't
told any of his plans to was Savannah. At first he didn't want to
disappoint her if things fell through, then he wanted to surprise her. He
wanted to see her face when she realized that he'd be coming home to
stay. He didn't analyze why that was so important to him, but it was.
Zack took one last deep breath,

then he started the car, backed out of his space, and began the long
drive to Montana.

Six
Savannah waved goodbye to the last customers as they left and let the
smile slide off her face. It was nearly Thanksgiving and it brought out
both the best and the worst in people. Those with family and friends
around were jubilant, excited about the holiday and more generous
with their tips. Those who didn't have family around or who had to
work over the upcoming holiday were generally a bit morose, drinking
more heavily and occasionally getting belligerent. The holidays were
always the best of times and the worst of times to work in a bar.
Thank goodness it was Saturday. She'd have a few days off, and

then Howard had given her Thanksgiving off. Since there were usually
only a few patrons that day anyway he could handle it all himself.
Over the last month, without Zack around to fan the flames of gossip,
people had calmed down around her and begun to accept that Zack was
Chloe's father. She'd seen Zack's mom in the grocery store one
afternoon and she'd nodded civilly, if not precisely happily. But she'd
watched them as Chloe babbled away and tried to eat an orange with
the peel still on it before Savannah realized what she was doing.
When Savannah put the orange back in the cart far out of Chloe's reach
she looked up and Mrs. Bennett was

there, next to them, staring at Chloe. The unexpectedness of her action
made Savannah wary.
"I just want to get a look at my granddaughter," Mrs. Bennett had
explained quietly.
"Chloe, can you say hi to your grandma?" Savannah instructed.
"Hi!" Chloe had added a wave and a charming grin.
Mrs. Bennett had smiled. "She looks just like my Zack did at her age."
"She's got his eyes, and his dimples," Savannah said, earning an
absentminded nod.
When Mrs. Bennett had looked at her Savannah was surprised to see
tears in the corners of the older woman's

eyes. "I won't keep you but, if it wouldn't be too much of an imposition,
do you think you could bring her by sometime? I'd really like to get to
know
her."
"Of course." Savannah blinked hard in surprise. Considering the Mrs.
Bennett's reaction when she'd found out that she was to be a
grandmother Savannah hadn't expected that she'd ever want to be part
of Chloe's life, but she wasn't going to let that stand in the way of Chloe
knowing her grandparents. She still hadn't forgiven or forgotten the
things Mrs. Bennett had said to her, but she understood remorse when
she saw it and she was willing to overlook a lot for Chloe's sake.

They'd gone over to the Bennett house a couple of times over the
preceding weeks and both of Zack's parents had welcomed them as
well as a chance to get to know their granddaughter. Mr. Bennett, in
particular, had taken to Chloe, and she to him. He'd confessed to
Savannah once that he'd always wanted a daughter, but that they'd
never been able to have another child after Zack.
Savannah smiled softly now as she thought about it all. But there was
one shadow, and that was that Zack wasn't there. She'd known before
he left that he wouldn't be home until Christmas, but she'd hoped that
perhaps he'd be able to get home for a weekend.

It hadn't happened. Chloe asked about him from time to time, looking
at her with those big dark eyes and asking, "Daddy?" Telling her child
that she wouldn't get to see Daddy for a few more weeks was tough.
She dumped the dustpan into the garbage and put the broom back in its
closet.
"We're closed," Howard called out when the door suddenly opened as
she was backing out of the closet.
"I know."
Savannah turned around at the sound of that deep voice and Zack was
just there, silhouetted in the doorway. She smiled tremulously at him,
her heart beginning to pound. She could hardly

believe that he was real. She'd been thinking about him and then, like
magic, he'd appeared.
Howard looked between the two of them, seeing the way their faces
were lit up at the sight of each other. "I'll just leave you two alone," he
said quietly, but he might as well have been speaking to the air for all
either of them noticed. He grabbed his coat and slapped Zack
companionably on the back as he passed by.
When the door closed behind him they just stood there for a moment,
drinking in the sight of each other. At last Zack broke the spell by
asking, "Are you done for the night or is there more
still to do?"

In answer, she went to the office to grab her coat. They'd been mostly
finished for the night anyway, and the few things which she was
leaving behind could be done before opening on Monday.
She turned out the lights and locked up, a thrum of excitement
beginning deep inside of her, and they walked out to his car together,
their breath visible in the frosty air. They neither touched nor looked at
one another, but still the tumult built within her. She had not realized
how much she'd missed him, had not allowed herself to think that she
missed him at all. But having him back was a relief, like part of herself
had been missing and

now it had been returned to her.
He started the car, which was cold inside even after only a few minutes
without the engine running. Zack started it up with a deep rumble and
began driving.
"I'm not taking you home j ust yet," he said with a meaningful glance.
"If you've got a problem with that, let me know now."
"No. I mean, it's fine. Great." She clicked her mouth shut to stop herself
from babbling. Her hands were trembling in her lap.
Zack reached over to put a hand on her leg, and just that made her take
a slightly deeper breath, the anticipation that was coiling within her
winding just

that much tighter. His fingers played idly with the hem of her skirt, and
she thought with a small smile how fortuitous it was that she'd worn a
skirt that night.
Zack pulled onto a dirt road and down a lane to where there was a stand
of trees. Though he'd been gone for years, he still remembered where
all the good places were to go parking. He shut off the engine and
turned to face Savannah, his expression inscrutable.
She realized that he was waiting for some sign from her and she
unbuckled herself, then leaned across to cup his face in her hands and
kiss him as if she'd been dying for the taste of him. It wasn't that far off,
she thought,

savoring the flavor of his lips, dipping her tongue into his mouth.
He unbuckled himself and then practically dragged her across the
center console to straddle his lap.
"Oh God, I missed you," he said shakily.
"I missed you too," she told him, tilting her head back as he drew a line
of kisses down her throat. When he reached the neckline of her shirt his
busy hands pushed it up by the hem and off. Then his lips returned to
her chest and she leaned back so that he knew exactly what she wanted,
her breasts in his face. He pulled one cup of her bra aside and laved her
nipple with his tongue. She whimpered, already so excited that her

pelvis began to rock against him. Behind the fly of his jeans he was
rock hard.
Impatiently, Zack unclasped her bra and pushed it down so that he had
easier access to her nipples. She pushed it all the way off and held his
head to her breasts, moaning and rocking against him a little bit more.
One of his hands reached down under her skirt and he found the elastic
edge around her thigh, his fingers probing under. She heard a rip but
didn't care. All that mattered was the way he was touching her, gently
moving up and down the inside of her folds before one long finger
delved into her, pulling out and then pushing back in again a few

times. She clenched, nearly ready to climax already, but he pulled his
finger out.
"Wait for me," he said against her throat.
She whimpered again. "Hurry."
He freed himself, then tore her panties the rest of the way so that there
was nothing between them and slowly, carefully, began to enter her.
"Oh, God, hurry," she panted.
His hands on her hips, Zack pulled her down sharply so that she was
fully impaled and she screamed, just a bit, with the sweet joy of it.
There was no stopping or slowing after that, Savannah's hips plunging
and Zack's coming up to meet each thrust, his hands

urging her on, pulling her down so that he went as deep as he could go.
"I'm going to--!" she cried out, just before she convulsed around him.
Zack let out a shout and gave into his own orgasm, pulling her down
once, twice more before holding himself as deep as he could go.
In the aftermath, Savannah lay limply against his chest. "Welcome
home," she said softly, earning a chuckle.
"If I get a welcome like that every time, you'll tempt me to leave more
often than necessary." He tilted her head up to kiss her softly. "It's good
to be home," he said against her lips.
She sat up and looked at the

two of them, realizing that he was still mostly dressed while she was
completely, wantonly naked, nothing but the skirt and ruined
underwear bunched around her waist. Self-conscious, she adjusted the
skirt over her lower abdomen.
Zack frowned. "What is it?" he
asked.
"Nothing. It's nothing."
"Now you've got me curious."
"It's just my scar," she explained.
"I'll let you see me naked if I can see you," he cajoled, kissing her neck
and Savannah relented.
He moved her hands aside and unbuttoned the skirt, then pulled it off

over her head. He tore the panties down the side and tossed them into
the floor well by the passenger seat, then moved her back to get a look
at her in the moonlight.
"It's ugly," she said of the six-inch scar between her hip bones. Thanks
to her active job she'd never had trouble keeping her weight down so
her tummy was toned and flat, but she felt that the scar marred it.
Zack traced the thin line, still pink and raised. "Why do you say that?"
She didn't answer except to shrug. Wasn't it obvious?
"It's not ugly," he assured her, kissing her neck while still feeling the
small ridge of her scar. When his

fingers began to rove lower she realized with surprise that he was
growing hard once again, still inside of her. "You're beautiful, all of
you," he said. "Sexy enough that I can't get you out of my mind. When
I go to sleep at night, I think of you, dream of you."
Becoming slightly breathless she reminded him, "You said something
about me getting to see you naked too?"
"Later," he assured her. "Right now, I want you again, just as you are."
It was just as good the second time around.
When they could think again, Savannah lifted her head from his
shoulder and

looked into his eyes, toying idly with the ends of his hair. "I didn't even
ask what you're doing here," she said, almost accusingly.
Zack grinned at her, anticipating her reaction when she heard, "I've
moved back."
She didn't act in quite the happy way he'd expected. Pushing back she
stared solemnly at him. "But what about your work, your apartment?"
The smile slid off his face. Had he read her wrong? Wasn't she happy
that he'd be around all the time? "I work with computers, and not the
hardware end, so I can work from anywhere. My boss and I arranged it
so that I can work from home, flying out to

the office once every other month and telecommuting the rest of the
time, doing meetings with my team over the internet. It's just
probationary to see if it works out, for six months."
"Oh." She melted against him once more and he couldn't see her face.
"Aren't you happy?" he grumbled. "I thought you'd want this
too."
She sat up and looked at him. "I do. It's just so sudden, and you didn't
tell me before showing up." She played with a button on his shirt,
which he suddenly realized he was still mostly wearing while she was
stark naked. "You did this for Chloe?" she asked timidly.

Suddenly realizing that she was feeling vulnerable rather than
disappointed, Zack tilted her chin up with a knuckle so that he could
look her in the eyes as he told her, "I did this for all of us. I want to be
here too. If my boss hadn't been so accommodating I would have quit to
find another job that would let me be here."
Savannah studied his face for a moment before a wide smile split it and,
impulsively, she hugged him around the neck. "Chloe's going to be so
excited," she predicted.
"And Chloe's mom?"
She rolled her eyes down to their state of undress and back up. "I think
it should be obvious how I'm

feeling," she answered wryly. Then, self-conscious, she moved off his
lap and began to pull on her clothes, at least the ones he hadn't ruined in
his mad rush to get inside of her. "Are you staying with your parents?"
she asked.
He shook his head, watching her out of the corner of his eye as he, too,
righted his attire. "No. I've got a small house I rented. If things work out
and I stay long-term, I'll probably buy a place at some point." He
caught her attention before saying, "I went almost straight to the bar
when I got into town. I dropped my stuff off in the garage, but I haven't
actually been inside the house and all I've seen are pictures. Want to go
look around with me?"

"I probably shouldn't. It's— what time is it, anyway?" She pulled out
her phone. "Oh my God, it's nearly five in the morning! No, I should
get home. Chloe's going to be waking up in just a couple of hours and I
should get some sleep tonight. This morning, I mean."
"All right then, home it is," Zack said, carefully not letting his
disappointment show.
Savannah put a hand on his arm when he made to start the car and
looking into his eyes she told him, "I really am glad that you're back. If
you wouldn't mind, maybe Chloe and I could come over in the
afternoon? That would give you some time to sleep and to get yourself
settled a bit."

He nodded. "I'd like that."
They helped Zack move in the next day, though without furniture there
wasn't much to be done. He had a lot of kitchen utensils however and
when Savannah commented on it he confessed, "I really like cooking."
"My, my, a handsome man who can cook? Chloe, your daddy is pretty
amazing."
"Yeah!"
Zack laughed, looking pleased by her comment, and they quietly went
back to unpacking his boxes. His bed was delivered while Chloe was
napping, crashed out on a pillow and a

few blankets in one room, and with a comical leer he invited Savannah
to help him break it in. Happily, she did so.
She realized that they hadn't used any protection the first couple of
times, out in his car, and tried to figure out if it was safe or not but her
cycle had always been unpredictable. She waited to see if Zack brought
it up but he never did, so she didn't think he'd realized. She tried to put
it out of her mind, telling herself that her luck really couldn't be that
bad, and it was easy enough to ignore her unease with so many
wonderful things happening.
They spent the week together, Zack asking her advice or opinion on
furnishings for his place, getting a small

bed for the second bedroom so that Chloe could stay there if she wanted
to, when they reached that point. Slowly it began to look like a home.
For Thanksgiving Zack invited them, Granny too, to spend it with him
and his parents. It was actually nice, a big holiday dinner with family.
Granny, who tended to be rather outspoken, kept herself in check and
stuck to appropriate topics. Zack's mother treated Savannah politely
and Chloe was, of course, the star of the show.
The whole holiday weekend was like a dream come true. They spent
most of it together, with Savannah only leaving to go to work in the
evenings. During the days she and Chloe hung out

with Zack and during Chloe's naps her parents had fun by themselves in
the other bedroom. No matter how often she told herself that it was
foolish, that she was working toward some serious heartache,
Savannah couldn't seem to stay away from him. She usually dropped
by once more after work and before heading home, unable to get
enough of Zack. The feeling was mutual, she knew, but she didn't
expect it to last and finally decided that worrying about the end was
foolish. She wanted to enjoy her time with him while she could.
After the holiday, though, they settled into a routine quickly, with
Chloe and Savannah trekking over to Zack's

place in the evenings after he'd finished his work for the day. They ate
dinner together and played and sometimes went to a nearby park. When
it snowed, Zack took them out to make snowmen and snow angels.
On nights when Savannah worked she always stopped by Zack's house
on her way home. She lived for the weekends, when she got him to
herself both during Chloe's nap and after work. It wasn't just the sex, it
was the companionship and the chatting she enjoyed. She realized that
she'd never actually had that with a man before, and it was like a dream
come true to have Zack be the man she found it with. They never
seemed to run out of things to talk

about, and they were always making each other laugh. They developed
private jokes and little things which made them catch each other's eyes
in shared humor.
It was idyllic and the only cloud which hovered over it all was when
Savannah remembered that they weren't really a family. Zack had said
that he wanted to be part of Chloe's life, and he certainly wanted
Savannah physically, but beyond that she had no idea what he felt for
her. He'd said that he missed her when he was back in California, but
he'd also been trying to get into her pants then. Was that what he
missed, or was it Savannah herself? And was it pathetic that she was

desperate enough to take whatever of himself that he'd give her?
The Monday before Christmas Savannah stopped hiding from herself.
She hadn't gotten her period since Zack had been back and she realized
what that meant. She took a pregnancy test and wasn't surprised when it
came back positive. She had a mini panic attack, then she got herself
together and booked an appointment with her OB, who also happened
to be her friend Molly.
"Well, you're definitely pregnant," Molly concluded. "Let's take a look,
shall we?" She squirted the ultrasound jelly on Savannah's abdomen
and expertly moved the wand until she found a tiny blob. "There it is."
She

took a few measurements. "Looks like you're between four and five
weeks along. Any surprises there?"
Of course her friends knew what she'd been up to with Zack, and she'd
confided in them about the lack of protection that one night, stressing
and seeking reassurance.
Now she flopped backward onto the crinkly, paper-covered table and
sighed heavily. "I have the worst luck in the world."
Molly laughed. "No you don't. Trust me. I've seen a few things."
"Who has sex only three times and gets pregnant twice? How is that not
the worst luck ever?"
"At least he doesn't have any

STDs, right? He could have gotten you pregnant and given you
something incurable, so that's something."
Savannah laughed. "Oh good, the bright spot." Then she covered her
face with her hands, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes to run
down into her hair and ears. "What the heck am I supposed to tell him?"
Molly sat down on her rolling stool and scooted close to lay a consoling
hand on Savannah's arm. "Well, I suggest you don't wait two years this
time."
Savannah gave a watery chuckle from behind her hands, wiping her
tears away. "It's just that, things were going so well between us. And

now this, and I have no idea how he's going to react, and I can't believe
I let this happen again. If I'd known he was going to be coming back of
course I'd have planned ahead and gone on the pill or something, but he
didn't tell me, he just showed up and I was overwhelmed and I'd missed
him so much and now I'm pregnant. Again. I am so stupid."
"You're not stupid. What you and Zack do seem to be is very potent, so
at some point remind me to talk to you about alternatives for birth
control so that this doesn't happen again."
"Thanks, Moll, you sure do know how to be a comfort."
Molly grinned briefly. "He's a good guy, and it is half his fault that

you're in this situation. The only thing you can do is tell him."
Savannah tried and failed to summon a smile. "Yeah."
When Savannah had mentioned that she had an appointment Zack had
offered to watch Chloe while she was there. It was the middle of a work
day and he was supposed to call in for a meeting, but Chloe was also
supposed to be napping while Savannah was at her appointment. She
napped at his house on weekends, so it couldn't be that hard, he told
himself.
He was wrong. She fell asleep but only for about twenty minutes before

a truck went rolling by, engine revved high and bass blaring, which
woke her up. Zack tried to get her back to sleep but she threw a fit,
screaming and kicking, until she was definitely awake.
"Mommy! Mommy!" she wailed, over and over again until Zack
thought he'd either go deaf or crazy.
"Mommy will be back soon," he assured her several times, but it had no
effect. He tried sounding stern. "Chloe, you need to go back to sleep."
"Mommy!" she wailed again, her mouth open and her eyes closed as
tears streamed down her cheeks.
Helpless, Zack watched her sobbing and tried to think what he should
do and drew a complete blank. He tried

to give her a pacifier but she threw it across the room. He checked the
time and he was supposed to be calling in right then. "Please calm
down," he begged her. He gave her her favorite stuffed animal, an
elephant, and she hugged it but didn't cease her crying.
"OK, I'm going to leave you in here until you calm down then," he told
her.
About the time he started the video call he heard with relief that Chloe
had calmed down, and he thought that the worst was over. Once again,
he was wrong.
He was in the middle of giving his status update when a chirpy voice
behind him said, "Hi!"

He turned around to see Molly waving at everyone she could see on his
screen. He heard choked laughter from them and a few waved back.
"Sorry," he said, "I've got Chloe right now and she was supposed to be
taking a nap."
"Hi!" Chloe said again, trying to crawl into his lap. He put her down
and she stomped her foot. "Up!" she yelled.
"No, Chloe. Anyway, as I was saying I—Chloe, stop!"
She was playing with his mouse and he worried that she was going to
end the call.
He heard Sara saying, "Zack, we can get back to you. Andrew, how

did you--"
Zack, starting to lose his temper with Chloe, picked her up and carried
her to her room. "This is time-out," he told her. "That was not good
behavior. You need to stay in your room right now. I will come and talk
to you in a few minutes, and then you need to go to sleep."
She looked right at him and hit him on the arm, her face mutinous.
She'd never hit him before, or anyone that he'd seen. It didn't hurt, of
course, but it shocked Zack and added to his growing anger. "No,
Chloe, we don't hit people."
She did it again.
"That's it!" he said, almost shouting. "You're staying in your

room." He took a deep breath and moderated his tone. "Go back to
sleep please."
He tucked her in bed and closed the door and she immediately started
wailing again.
"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"
He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to think. What would
Savannah do if she were here? He had no idea.
He went back to the call but Chloe's crying was clearly audible to
everyone and Sara finally said, "Zack, I'm sorry but this is just too
distracting. Call me back later at a better time and I'll fill you in."
When she ended the call Zack

sat there for a long time. Chloe didn't stop screaming and he wondered
how she could keep it up for so long. Surely she was about to pass out?
When he heard Savannah come in he strode out to meet her. She looked
up at him, clearly surprised.
"What's going on?"
"Chloe was woken up by a truck that went by and now not only is she
refusing to nap, but she ruined the meeting I had and she's been
screaming at me non-stop for almost an hour. I can't do this anymore,"
he said, meaning that he couldn't stand hearing her cry any longer.
Savannah paled. "What?"
"I can't do this. Take her home,

please."
Savannah gave him a look he couldn't read, then went to the bedroom
and almost immediately the crying stopped. Zack rubbed a hand over
his face.
He watched Savannah and Chloe get into Savannah's car and then
slowly walked back to his office area. He'd known that parenting was
going to be tough, but this was the first time Chloe had really
misbehaved for him. She'd thrown a couple of quick tantrums but
Savannah seemed to know the trick for calming her down quickly. He
knew Chloe was tired, but it was frustrating that she hadn't let him
comfort her in any way. Being screamed at that, basically,

he wasn't good enough and only Mommy would do was a blow to the
heart.
He took a moment to gather himself and called Sara's office.
"So how's fatherhood treating you?" she joked.
"I'm sorry about that. Savannah picked Chloe up so she won't interrupt
this time."
"I understand. Just don't let it be a regular thing."
"It won't be."
"So, what were you saying
earlier?"

Seven
Zack knew he'd messed things up royally. Savannah didn't answer any
of his calls on Tuesday or Wednesday and he cursed himself. He'd
overreacted to one bad day with Chloe, which made him feel like the
worst parent ever, and then he'd taken it out on Savannah.
He had to make things right. He'd realized over the past few weeks that
the reason he was so drawn to Savannah was simple: he loved her.
From her blond hair down to her red toenails, from her smarts to her
wariness, he loved every bit of her. She was the woman for him. He'd
gone and bought a ring the previous weekend, then Monday had
happened and now she

wasn't speaking to him.
He opened the box and looked at the ring again, hoping that it would
help inspire him, but he drew a blank. He had no idea if she wanted him
long-term or not. She certainly wanted his body, but not once had she
said a word of love or of the future. Did she even want something long
term? He was nervous. He could propose and have it blow up in his
face, in which case he'd made the move for nothing. The thought that
he'd uprooted his life on a whim, on a chance at having his own family,
put sheer terror in his heart.
Savannah wasn't the only one he needed to apologize to, either. Chloe
deserved as much from him too, for

yelling at her. He'd bought her a book suitable for her age, all about
dads and daughters. He hoped she liked it. It seemed a bit inadequate as
a Christmas present, but he didn't have any other brilliant ideas and
Savannah had just shrugged when he'd asked her what Chloe needed
for Christmas. He hoped that this book would help her to understand
him better, to maybe even love him a little, because he sure did love
her.
He spent most of the day before Christmas with his parents, then in the
evening he went over to Savannah's, heart in his hands. He knocked on
the door and it seemed a lifetime before it opened.

Savannah's grandmother stood there. "Come on in," she said. "Chloe
and I were just having a bit of supper. Savannah's at work."
"She's working tonight?" He felt deflated. He'd been counting on
seeing both of his girls.
"It's a Thursday, isn't it? She says that Christmas Eve is usually more
crowded than you'd expect, although the Tavern is closed tomorrow
and Saturday."
"That's good to know." He walked into the kitchen where his daughter,
covered in what looked like macaroni and cheese, was waving a spoon
around, more playing at this point than eating.

"Daddy!" she said.
"Hey, pumpkin." Zack eyed her warily, but she looked pleased to see
him, no hint that his yelling at her on Monday was something she
remembered. "I got you something."
She eyed the present in his hand with curiosity.
"I'll just get a cloth to wipe her hands then," Mrs. Roberts told him.
"Thank you."
He wiped Chloe down and then handed her gift over. She turned it over
and around, nodding to herself once in a while and pointing at the polar
bears on the wrapping paper. "Bears," Zack said.
"Bays," she tried.
"Close enough. You're

supposed to rip the paper, like this."
He got one edge started and she giggled, then set to with a will, clearly
enj oying ripping the paper. She got the book unwrapped, set it down,
and then kept ripping the paper. Feeling a little let down, Zack held up
the book and told her the title.
"See? There's a daddy, like me, and a daughter, like you." Chloe
pointed at the picture, then at herself. "Exactly." She smiled, so Zack
opened the book and read it to her, feeling a little self-conscious
because Granny Roberts, as she'd asked him to call her, was watching
the two of them together.
"You read out loud really nicely," she complimented him when he

was done. "Not everyone does." "Thank you."
She nodded. "If you'd like to put Chloe to bed that would be a real help
to me. My hip's acting up tonight."
"Sure, I can do that."
"Then I expect you'll want to go see Savannah."
"Yes, ma'am."
She smiled. "You've been real good for her. Not just to her, I mean
good for her."
"I hope so." He did not tell Granny Roberts about the ring in his pocket,
too nervous to confide in anyone.
He picked Chloe up and as he carried her through the living room she
pointed at the small tree in the corner

with brightly wrapped presents underneath. "Christmas tree," Zack
said.
"Yites!"
"Lights?"
She nodded and he turned so that they could both look at the tree, then
Zack looked at his daughter's face in the glow of the Christmas lights.
"It's really pretty, but not half as pretty as you are," he told her softly.
"Yeah," she answered just as quietly, and he grinned.
Savannah hadn't told anyone but Molly that she was pregnant again,
not even Granny. She'd been counting on

having Zack's help and support this time, but after what he'd said on
Monday she wasn't so sure she'd have it. What if he didn't want
anything to do with her, with any of them, anymore? She couldn't bear
to hear him say that he didn't want her, or rather them. She couldn't take
it if another man so important to her walked out of her life, just like her
daddy had. She didn't like to think that her no-account father had had
such an impact on her, but it was clear he did. Perhaps that was why she
hadn't trusted any man with her heart before now.
She'd gone and fallen in love with Zack. It was stupid in so many ways,
not least because he'd never mentioned wanting to be with her as a

couple. But she hadn't had any choice, it had crept up on her. He was, as
Molly had put it, a great guy. Handsome, sweet, smart, and funny. He
made her feel as beautiful as he told her she was. He was a great dad
and he'd really been getting along well with Chloe until Monday. She
still didn't quite understand what had happened there, but his words
echoed in her ears. "I can't do this anymore." Just when she'd come to
depend on him, to love him, he'd decided that he was done with them.
It was unfair to ignore him, she knew. She should just get it over with,
having him tell her that he wasn't actually ready to be a dad. But still
she stayed away.

On Christmas Eve, she worked. Howard had given her the option to
take that night off as well as the rest of the weekend, during which the
bar would be closed, but she'd decided to work. She knew from
previous years that Christmas Eve was always surprisingly busy,
alcoholics sneaking away after church and people coming in to have a
drink with friends after family time was over.
But it wasn't so busy that she couldn't stop to chat with people as she
wanted. Zack's group of friends, who came to the Tavern pretty
regularly, were off in one corner and she hoped that didn't mean Zack
would be there later.
"What'll it be, guys? A

pitcher?"
They ordered, looking at her more intently than usual. "Hey, you seen
Zack tonight?"
She looked over at Andy. "No. I expect he's with his family."
They all looked surprised. "He wasn't with you?"
"No, why?"
"Nothing, it's just that he's spent so much time with you and Chloe
lately, we thought he'd be spending the holiday with the two of you."
"I haven't seen Zack since Monday," she told them shortly.
"Trouble in paradise?" Robbie asked, but not unsympathetically.
Savannah just plastered a fake

smile on. "No, just busy, what with the holiday and all."
She left to go get their beers and glanced up when the door opened. It
was Elliot Toller. She hadn't seen him in quite a while, though he was
still in town. He'd gotten a job with the mine straight out of high school
and that was about the extent of what could be said in his favor. Usually
he avoided the Tavern, knowing that she was there. He leered at her
from just inside the door, a couple of his buddies crowding in behind
him.
Savannah went back to pouring beers, trying to act as if she hadn't seen
him. Howard knew who he was and though he didn't know the whole
story,

he did know that Savannah severely disliked Elliot so he made a point
of serving Elliot whenever he came in. It had never been an issue.
Savannah worked her tables, feeling like the evening was stretching out
interminably before her even though she knew they were closing early
because of the holiday. She just wanted to go home, rest her feet which
already ached, curl up in a ball and go to sleep for about a week.
The door opened once more and she looked up out of habit only to see
Zack standing there. He spotted her almost immediately, and a smile
bloomed on his face. Despite herself, Savannah felt an answering one
tugging

at her lips.
She made her way through the room over to see him. "I tried calling
you, but I guess you don't have your phone on you when you're
working," he said.
"No, I leave it in the office."
He nodded, looking unsure of what to say. He glanced around the bar
and nodded to his friends, then he looked back down into her face. "I
really wanted to talk to you tonight, but not here. Not like this."
She let out a breath. "I understand."
He searched her face. "No, I don't think you do," he said, but he was
smiling when he said it.

She had no idea what that meant. "I--"
But she was interrupted when Elliot walked over to them, already
drunk.
"Hey, Zack, how's it hanging
man?"
"Fine," Zack said with a faint hint of displeasure, his eyes flat and hard
as he stared at the other man.
Savannah saw out of the corner of her eye that Howard, frowning, was
starting to make his way toward them.
Elliot bumped Savannah with his shoulder and said, "I hear you two are
an item now. She still like it hot and hard? As I recall, that's how she
wanted it in high school."

Before Savannah could do more than open her mouth to tell Elliot off
Zack swung up and punched him in the jaw. Elliot went flying
backward, landing heavily on the ground, and all other action in the bar
ceased as everyone looked at the three of them, "Jingle Bell Rock"
clearly playing on the jukebox as the conversations halted.
Savannah, her mouth open in shock, looked at Zack. He shook his hand
and muttered, "Ow." Then he caught her glance and smiled faintly. "So
worth it."
She looked back down at Elliot, who was starting to pick himself up off
the ground. "What the hell, man!" he shouted.

Zack pointed a finger at him, his face once again darkening. "You utter
one more lie about Savannah and I'll do worse than that."
"Hey, fuck you!" Elliot said.
Howard reached them and he said to Elliot, "Get the hell out of my bar
and never come back. I don't need a troublemaker like you coming in
here and causing problems."
"Fuck you too," Elliot said as his friends came over to flank him. He
moved his jaw around and glared at the three of them, then stormed out
of the bar.
Savannah, her eyes wide, mumbled something and retreated to the
ladies' room to have a moment alone.

Zack watched Savannah walk away and could have kicked himself.
She'd looked really pale and shaken up.
"Well that turned out great," he muttered to himself, fighting the urge to
shake his hand out again. It hurt like a son of a bitch, and trying to play
it cool was difficult, but it had been so satisfying to exact a little bit of
revenge. For the years of bullying and rumors Savannah had endured
just because Elliot hadn't been able to take 'no' for an answer in high
school, a sore jaw was the least Elliot deserved.
Howard was also watching Savannah as she retreated. "Don't

worry. I think she's probably more upset that so many people were here
to witness that than she was about the violence."
Zack nodded.
"She loves you, you know." Zack looked at the older man.
"Yeah?"
"Oh yeah. I've never seen her look at anyone the way she looks at you,
except maybe Chloe." He shrugged, glancing around the room. People
were starting to turn back to their drinks and low-voiced conversations
sprang up once again. No one was close enough to hear them but still
Howard kept his voice down. "It's obvious to anyone with eyes that
she's been crazy about you

for years. Why do you think she never went out with anyone else after
Chloe was born? It wasn't for lack of opportunity. She's the sort of
woman men really notice, but she's only ever had eyes for you."
Zack stared at Howard, putting it all together. "You love her," he
accused.
Howard glanced at him balefully. "I'm nearly twenty years older than
she is."
"That doesn't mean you don't love her."
The older man glanced away. "All right. So what if I do?"
Zack didn't really have an answer for that. "Does she know?"

"No, and it's going to stay that way. I know I'm not the man for her, I've
always known it, which is why I've never once given her any indication
that I think of her as more than a friend and employee." He stabbed a
finger at Zack. "And if you know what's good for you, neither will
you."
Zack nodded, feeling unaccountably sad for the older man, and held out
his hand to him. Surprised and pleased by the gesture, Howard
hesitated for only a moment before taking it, an understanding passing
between them as they gently shook hands.
"Let me get you some ice for that," Howard said, indicating Zack's

swollen knuckles. "God, that was beautiful. Boom, and down he went."
Zack couldn't help the satisfied
grin. "Yeah."
His friends met them at the bar. "What was that about?" Jason asked.
Zack just shook his head. "Nothing. That guy's an asshole and he said
something way out of line."
"Well, yeah. That's what he does. But you're not exactly the bar
brawling type, you know?"
Zack laughed. "Don't worry about it."
Robbie tipped his drink at Zack as a sort of salute. "Nice hit, though."
They snickered but reluctantly changed the subject, asking him about

Chloe. He mentioned the book he'd gotten for her, then asked if they
had any other ideas about what to get a two-year-old girl. Each of them
drew a blank, though most of them were uncles. "I just buy whatever
my sister-in-law tells me to get for my nieces," Jason said, and the
others concurred.
Savannah came back out of the bathroom looking a bit better and went
right back to serving her tables. Zack watched her for the rest of the
evening, anxiously waiting for when the bar would close and he could
finally talk to her. She wore a green sweater which clung to her in all
the right ways, and her customary jeans which hugged her butt.
Considering the view, he didn't mind the

wait nearly as much as he should have. It also gave him a chance to
calm his nerves, though he refrained from the customary liquid
courage. He wanted to be clearheaded.
At long last, eleven o'clock rolled around and Howard kicked everyone
out. "You too," he told Savannah. She looked like she'd protest and he
said, "Go on. This poor bastard has been sitting here all evening
waiting for you. He even punched someone for you," he smirked.
"Don't keep him waiting any longer."
She glanced between the two of them and then began untying her apron
without saying anything. She wasn't smiling.

Zack took her elbow after she'd put on her coat. It was a natural gesture
for him, one he didn't even have to think about. She was wearing flats
rather than heels but it was slick outside with all the ice. Besides, he
liked touching her, even if it was through layers of jacket and sweater.
They got into the car and he looked over at her, their breath misting the
air. He started the engine and turned on the defroster.
"I missed you this week," he said. "Why didn't you call me back?"
Savannah just shook her head and looked away. The windshield
thawed enough, he began driving.
When they were nearly to his

house she asked him, "What did you mean when you said you couldn't
handle it anymore? Do you not really want to be part of our lives?"
Zack nearly let go of the steering wheel he was so surprised. "What?
No! I meant that I couldn't stand listening to her cry at me anymore.
Did you really think I didn't want to see you
guys?"
"Maybe."
"Nothing could be farther from the truth." He glanced at her, but she
was looking out the windshield, stone-faced. "In fact, I went over to
your place earlier to see both of you. I gave Chloe her Christmas
present, I hope you don't mind. It's a book about fathers and

daughters. I was hoping that it would help us, that it would help her to
know I love her."
"Oh," she said as he pulled into his driveway.
Her voice sounded oddly thick and he realized that she was holding
back tears. He turned to look at her and brushed a lock of hair behind
her ear.
"What is it?"
She took a deep breath. "You remember the night you came home from
California?"
"Vividly."
She nodded. "We didn't use protection," she said quietly.
He went cold. He'd known, of course, but she hadn't brought the subject

up so he'd figured that she was covered in some way. "Yeah?"
She took another deep breath. "I'm pregnant."
Zack took a minute to digest that, but when he did a wide smile broke
over his face. He hauled her out of her seat and into his lap, kissing her.
She answered, clinging to him.
"That makes what I have to say a whole lot easier," he told her when he
pulled away. She looked confused until he pulled the ring box out of his
pocket, then her eyes rounded. "I don't want to do this in here," he said,
opening his door and hauling her out.
He practically dragged her inside the house, over to his little

Christmas tree, which Chloe had helped him decorate. He turned the
lights on so that it sparkled and got down on one knee, opening the ring
box.
"Savannah Mills, I love you. I want to be a real family with you and
Chloe and anyone else who comes along. Will you marry me?"
She smiled, her lip wobbling a bit. "I love you too. Yes, of course
yes!"
Zack slipped the ring on her finger and stood up to haul her into his
arms. "I've got everything I wanted for Christmas now," he said, just
before he kissed her.

Epilogue
Zack smiled at his family, together for Christmas. It had become his
favorite time of year, since good things always happened for him in that
season.
This year he had even more to celebrate. He came up behind Savannah
and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing the side of her neck.
"We're waiting for you, wife," he said. They'd gotten married the day
before and he couldn't stop grinning about it. The ceremony had been
simple but perfect, with their families and close friends in attendance.
Savannah had opted not to go all out on a white dress but instead wore
a short gold one that seemed,

somehow, better. It made her hair seem brighter and brought out the
green in her eyes, which had been shining with love for him. That had
been the best part.
He smiled down at his son on the changing table and earned a grin and
coo in return. It had been absolutely astounding getting to be there as
his son grew in the womb, and when he was born. At times he got a
pang as he was forced to confront that he'd missed out on certain things
with Chloe, little things like feeling her clutch his finger when she was
only a few minutes old, but he didn't let it mar his happiness.
"We're almost done here," Savannah told him now, snapping the
jumper together. "There. We have a

clean boy."
Chloe came running into their room. "Mommy, Daddy! Nana says
dinner's getting cold if you don't huwwy."
Zack marveled daily at all the changes Chloe had gone through just
since he'd known her. She was, as she liked to tell people, a big girl at
three years old. She was certainly quite a bit taller. At least once a
month Zack looked at her and thought that, suddenly, she looked less
like a baby or toddler and more like a little girl. Soon, he knew, she
would stop looking like a little girl and begin to look like a teenager,
and then one day soon she'd be all grown up. It made him feel old just

to contemplate, but he wouldn't trade knowing Chloe for anything in
the world.
She loved being a big sister, helping out with her brother. They hadn't
been able to keep the second pregnancy secret for long because she'd
heard them talking and picked up the word 'baby' real fast. After that
she'd blabbed it to pretty much everyone, not that either Zack or
Savannah minded. They were happy, and that was all that mattered.
Zack picked her up. "We can't have that. A cold dinner? Whatever
would we do?" he asked with mock horror, making shocked faces at
her.
"Daddy, don't be silly."
"Why not?"
She stared at him seriously for

a moment. "That's my job," she said.
Zack roared with laughter and Chloe scrunched her face up, wondering
what she'd said to make him laugh that way.
They entered the dining room of their little house, the one they'd
bought last spring, and he grinned at his parents and Granny Roberts.
"The little man needed a change," he explained as he set Chloe down in
her place. "Shall we
eat?"

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About the author:
Eliza lives in the Pacific Northwest with her
husband and

daughter. When she's not writing, parenting, and spousing, she enjoys
biking, running, knitting, and cooking.

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