Safe in His Arms by Dana Corbit Page A

which sister would live, but that he’d refused to listen when she’d begged him to save her sister instead. He had to tell her; that was all there was to it. He just had to find the right time.
    As Lindsay finished with the towels, Joe grabbed the blanket, shook it out and folded it over his arm.
    â€œHere, let me get those.” He reached for the pile of towels stacked on the sand, and then he took the ones she was already carrying from her arms.
    â€œI am perfectly capable of doing this stuff myself.”
    â€œI know you are.”
    She’d taken a few steps toward the parking lot, but she stopped and looked back at him with a guarded expression, as if she expected him to make a joke. “I might move at a snail’s pace, but I eventually get there.”
    â€œYou’re doing just fine.” He meant more than about navigating a day at the beach, and she must have guessed that because she nodded, her gaze off to the side rather than meeting his. “You were doing just fine without any tips from anyone. Even me.”
    â€œThanks.”
    Something must have caught her attention because her head turned and she focused on a bank of trees. Within seconds, a pair of runners emerged from the wooded area on the bike path, matching each other’s stride.
    â€œThey’re moving at a fast clip,” she said when she caught him watching her.
    â€œYou really miss it, don’t you?”
    â€œRunning?” She shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do about that, at least until I’ve healed more. What am I supposed to do, try to run using a cane? That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.”
    â€œBut would you start running again if you could? And you did say that you’re relying on your cane less and less, right?” He glanced at the sandy beach and looked back to her. “Except at the beach.”
    â€œIt just isn’t a possibility right now. I’m not confident enough in my balance to even attempt to run. And if I were ready again, I would still have to find child care for Emma while I ran. I don’t know my neighbors that well, and after last night, they’re probably not going to volunteer to baby-sit.”
    â€œBut you would if you could, right?”
    She gave an exasperated sigh. “I would if I could.”
    Her face was so sad that he was sorry he’d mentioned it and even sorrier that he’d pushed the issue. He’d rubbed salt in one of her open wounds from the accident, this one on the inside where no one could see. She must have wanted to escape the sting of it because she suddenly took a few steps away from him, stopping where Emma had set her bags of toys and was playing again in the sand.
    â€œOkay, sweetie. We’re really going to go now.” She looped the mesh bag over her shoulder and took Emma’s hand, relying a little on the cane in her other hand.
    Joe helped them load the car and followed them in his truck to the ice-cream stand just outside the park entrance. He hoped they would make their stop a quick one. It wasn’t as if he suddenly wanted to put some space between them, but the idea he’d just come up with was going to require him to be away from them for a while.
    No, he couldn’t take back the accident or restore Lindsay’s family, but there was one thing he could return to Lindsay that she’d lost that day. He would help her to run again…with him. And maybe somewhere along the way he would find the courage to tell her the whole truth.

Chapter Eight
    L indsay closed her eyes as she sat on the front steps of her condo and tilted her head to feel the sun’s warmth on her face. She relished a brief moment of peace. Today had been a series of rushes added to the serial scrambles of the past few weeks, from home to the day-care center to work, and the same list of stops in reverse.
    So this was what parenting was really like. Not those tissue-inspiring moments,