Unfortunately for Luke, his new and unexpected role as papa had made him desperate.

He needed somebody who knew anything about children—young girl children to be specific.

From what he’d seen so far, Marie fit the bill. Serendipity had brought them together and Luke was determined it would take them a whole heck of a lot farther. He was going to pick her brain until he knew everything she knew about kids. Then he’d walk away. Because getting involved with someone like Marie would be complicated. And he didn’t need complicated.

Decision made, Luke picked up his daughter and held her in his arms to keep himself from grabbing Marie and repeating the kiss.

Kissing Marie was dangerous, he’d just discovered. And he was not above using the child to help him keep sight of his goals.

Dear Reader,

March roars in in grand style at Silhouette Romance, as we continue to celebrate twenty years of publishing the best in contemporary category romance fiction. And the new millennium boasts several new miniseries and promotions…such as ROYALLY WED, a three-book spinoff of the cross-line series that concluded last month in Special Edition Arlene James launches the new limited series with A Royal Masquerade, featuring a romance between would-be enemies, in which appearances are definitely deceiving….

Susan Meier’s adorable BREWSTER BABY BOOM series concludes this month with Oh, Babies! The last Brewster bachelor had best beware—but the warning may be too late! Karen Rose Smith graces the lineup with the story of a very pregnant single mom who finds Just the Man She Needed in her lonesome cowboy boarder whose plans had never included staying. The delightful Terry Essig will touch your heart and tickle your funny bone with The Baby Magnet, in which a hunky single dad discovers his toddler is more of an attraction than him—till he meets a woman who proves his ultimate distraction.

A confirmed bachelor finds himself the solution to the command: Callie, Get Your Groom as Julianna Morris unveils her new miniseries BRIDAL FEVER! And could love be What the Cowboy Prescribes… in Mary Starleigh’s charming debut Romance novel?

Happy Reading!

Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor

The Baby Magnet
Terry Essig

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For my father, who actually read encyclopedias for entertainment.

Books by Terry Essig

Silhouette Romance

House Calls #552

The Wedding March #662

Fearless Father #725

Housemates #1015

Hardheaded Woman #1044

Daddy on Board #1114

Mad for the Dad #1198

What the Nursery Needs… #1272

The Baby Magnet #1435

Silhouette Special Edition

Father of the Brood #796

TERRY ESSIG

says that her writing is her escape valve from a life that leaves very little time for recreation or hobbies. With a husband and six children, Terry works on her stories a little at a time, between seeing to her children’s piano, sax and trombone lessons, their gymnastics, ice skating and swim team practices, and her own activities of leading a Brownie troop, participating in a car pool and attending organic chemistry classes. Her ideas, she says, come from her imagination and her life—neither one of which is lacking!

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter One

“All right now, let’s go through this once verbally before you actually try it.”

“Will you quit treating me like a baby?”

“I’m not treating you like a baby. I would never let a baby behind the wheel of a car. Trust me on that. Now backing out of a parking spot can be tricky. If you turn your wheel too soon you can sideswipe the car next to you. You have to back straight out for—”

Rolling his eyes impatiently, Marie Ferguson’s nine-years-younger-than-herself but still uncle Jason turned the key in the ignition and ground the engine. “I know how to do this, Marie. I’ve done it a million times before.”

“You’ve only had your permit for a month and to date have only had a handful of behind-the-wheel opportunities at your driver’s ed class. I sincerely doubt you’ve done this a million—Wait! No! Don’t gun it! Look out!” A sickening crunch accompanied Marie’s warning. “Oh my God, you didn’t check behind you. You hit somebody!”

Jason slammed his hand on the wheel and, in the manner of adolescents around the globe, prepared to defend himself by casting blame on the nearest adult. “It’s not my fault. If Dad didn’t have such a boat maybe I could maneuver it a little better. I told you to talk to him about trading this thing in. It’s a dinosaur. An antique. The driver’s ed car at school is this cool little—”

Marie sighed and tiredly massaged the ache in her temples with her fingertips. Pain had become her constant companion since taking over Jason’s care for her ailing grandfather. “You can harp on Grandpa’s choice in automobiles later. Right now we’re going to have to get out and exchange insurance information with whomever you just walloped.” Marie unlatched her door and struggled out of her safety belt. Then she prayed—out loud so the Almighty would be sure to hear.

“God, please don’t let this be somebody with a temper. The day’s not even half over and I simply cannot handle any more abuse, verbal or otherwise.”

Marie grimaced to herself as she stepped out on the heated blacktop and then concentrated on reversing her frown, doing her best to change it into an apologetic smile which she aimed in the direction of the car behind them. Her smile died before being truly born and Marie cringed at the sight of the ugly dent in the side of Jason’s victim’s car. The overall visual effect of the scene was greatly worsened by the fact that her grandfather’s rear fender was virtually embedded in the other auto’s side.

“Lord,” she moaned quietly to herself. There was a lot of damage and Marie doubted the recipient of all that damage would be willing to write it off as crash testing. The fact that his car was made of a metal that crushed easily was his problem but Marie didn’t think she should even bother bringing that up.

A man climbed out of the injured auto. A very large man, Marie couldn’t help but notice. An oversize intimidating male specimen hewn from granite by the looks of him. The sun was still on the ascendant. It had now reached a position directly behind Jason’s victim, making it impossible to distinguish facial features. Marie could, however, tell that his hair was both thick and dark. The mirrored aviator sunglasses he wore and his slightly overlong locks were paired with perfectly fitted good quality dress black, or maybe navy—it was hard to tell with the glaring nimbus behind him—pleated slacks, a white shirt that was crisp-looking even in this heat that stretched over yard-wide shoulders, and a red power tie. A modern-day pirate. Oh, God. “Jason,” she hissed. “Get out of the car and make nice to the man. Apologize. Grovel. Promise him your firstborn child. Do whatever you have to do to get us out of here alive.”

Oh, why couldn’t it have been a sweet, understanding, grandmotherly type? Somebody who’d raised children and understood what she was going through. If it had to be a guy, why couldn’t it have been somebody wimpy? Anybody other than this body-by-Schwarzenegger type with a face that looked like it would break if he attempted a smile.

Luke Deforest ground his teeth as he reached behind himself with one hand and slapped his car door shut. Damn, but he didn’t need this right now. Not that anybody ever needed a car accident, but today, when his temper was greased and he was running tight on time…Well, now was not a good choice.

Luke slammed his hood with his fist in frustration and turned away from the apprehensive duo approaching him. Get a grip, he advised himself. Accidents will happen. The kid hadn’t intentionally picked the worst day of Luke’s life to back into his three-month-old-interior-still-smelling-like-new-candy-apple-red car of his dreams—the little donkey’s heinie.

Luke’s knuckles whitened as he continued to list like a litany all the reasons he shouldn’t knock the little jerk’s head right into the middle of next week. But damn, he needed to make a good impression today. An awful thought struck and Luke ruthlessly pushed it back. Certainly the car was still driveable. Of course it was. Luke glanced down the side of his car. No, it wasn’t.

Luke took a deep breath, turned back to face the duo and pinned the driver of the offending vehicle with his gaze. Even through the glare of today’s strong sun, he looked young, Luke thought and was immediately appalled. When had teenagers started looking like such babies, he mused. Was it a sign of his own creeping dotage that had him wondering when they’d started allowing ten-year-olds to start driving?

Nah, he was only thirty-four. It wasn’t Luke getting old, it was just this child dressed in adolescent’s clothing pretending to be sixteen. No way. Luke directed himself to the woman who’d climbed out of the passenger’s side. He hadn’t gotten a good look at her yet, but she at least appeared to be of legal age. On the short side of average, she was slender and trim. Her hair glinted red in the sunlight, her skin was pale, and even from this distance he could see her eyes were blue. In fact, she bore a striking resemblance to his brother’s wife. He squinted and did a double take. Good God Almighty, it was Marie. Wasn’t it?

“Marie?” he checked.

Marie did her own double take. No. It couldn’t be. Then she sighed philosophically. Well, her life had certainly been going to hell in a handbasket of late. This would certainly be right in keeping. Somehow Jason had managed to ram her grandfather’s car right into her ex-brother-in-law. Wonderful. Wade’s brother had seemed to almost purposely avoid them after their wedding. She doubted he’d be any too happy to see her now.

“Luke?”

“Yeah. It’s me.”

“What are you doing here? I thought you lived up in Michigan somewhere.” And if he’d only stayed there Jason wouldn’t have hit him. Jason was right, the accident wasn’t his fault. It was Luke’s. Luke didn’t belong here in Elkhart, Indiana. He belonged far, far away. The farther the better. She didn’t need any further reminders of her previous life, especially not Wade’s incredibly handsome big brother who’d always made her feel like an adolescent with a crush. Thank God no one knew about that. She’d never breathed a word to a soul. She’d met Wade first and fair was fair.

Luke nodded his head toward Jason. “He old enough to be behind the wheel?” he asked. “I’m going to be mighty upset if you’re letting him drive around without any insurance coverage,” he warned.

Marie swallowed hard. If he was trying to be intimidating, it was working. She definitely felt threatened. She hastened to reassure him. “Oh, yes, he’s old enough,” Marie said. “Fifteen and a half, as a matter of fact. Jason has a learner’s permit rather than an actual license, but he’s permitted to drive so long as there’s a licensed driver in the car with him.”

Jason, obviously insulted at this slur to his character, had already produced his permit. He reverently unfolded it and smoothed out the crease before presenting it for inspection.

“Hmm.” Luke studied it and all but grunted. “You’ve got insurance?” He pinned Jason with a laser stare.

“Sure I do,” Jason retorted, then turned to Marie questioningly. “Don’t I?”

“Absolutely,” she assured him with a nod of her head. “I took care of that before I even took you over to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to get your permit.” She took a deep breath and approached Luke. “We’re definitely covered.” She extended her hand. After a brief pause, Luke took it. “How’s it going, Luke? It’s been a while.” Since your brother’s funeral to be exact, she silently added.

Luke’s handshake was quick and cursory, the amenities covered then forgotten. Good thing she hadn’t attempted a hug or anything else that would have really invaded his personal space. How could she have ever wanted this man? “You remember my, uh, uncle, Jason Fort. You met briefly at the wedding and again at the, um, funeral.”

Luke reluctantly nodded his head. “Jason,” he acknowledged. “First time I haven’t seen you all slicked up. Didn’t recognize you for a minute there.” Luke turned his head to glance significantly down the length of his car. “We’ve got ourselves a little problem here, Jason, old buddy,” he said as he viewed the wound in his red compact.

Jason nodded glumly. “Yes, sir.”

Luke and Jason stood there with their hands in their front pockets studying the damage with grim looks. They studied it so long, in fact, that she began to worry. Men, she’d noticed from her own relationships, tended to take damage to their automobiles as a personal affront. You’d think he’d be grateful nobody was hurt, Marie thought waspishly. But no, the way he was staring at his car’s backside, you’d think he felt its pain. “It’s not terminal, or anything,” she said. “I mean, it can be fixed. Right?” she asked a bit helplessly as she gestured to the ugly gash.

Luke grunted.

Marie took that for affirmation.

Luke never took his eyes off his scarred but still proud automobile. Finally, he drawled, “I suppose it’s fixable. It’s just not driveable in the here and now.”

“What’s that mean?” Marie asked suspiciously.

“It means I’ve got an appointment in Kalamazoo in a little over an hour.”

Marie looked at her own watch as if to verify his appointment. “You’re not going to make it.”

“I know. Especially if we don’t get a move on here. Well, I hope you and Jason don’t have plans for the rest of the afternoon. If you do, you’ll have to cancel them. I must have something in the trunk Jason and I can use to pull the metal away from the wheel. I’ll leave my car in the lot here. There’s no time to mess with it now. I’ll have to deal with it when we get back.”

Marie stared at her former brother-in-law in dismay. “What are you talking about, we? I’m not going anywhere except home to some extra-strength pain reliever and a darkened room.”

“That’s what you think. You wanted a nap, you shouldn’t have let Crash here behind the wheel of a car.”

“I didn’t know I was going to need to lie down until five minutes ago,” Marie muttered through clenched teeth. Men. She was surrounded by them and they were all bent on driving her insane. As soon as her grandfather was home from the hospital and operating without a walker she was joining a convent. For real this time.

Luke shrugged and glanced at his watch. Damn, it would have to be Marie. She was a hell of a looker and Luke had noticed. Man, had he noticed. It was one of the only times in his life he could remember being jealous of a brother whose life, in Luke’s estimation, had been pitiable. A shallow man interested only in the surface. It angered Luke that he himself found Marie’s surface interesting when she was very likely every bit as shallow as his brother. She’d married him, hadn’t she? Luke had stayed away as much as possible, disgusted with himself and the situation. Women watched soap operas with plots like this. He certainly wasn’t going to star in one. But today he had no choice.

“There’s a drugstore in the mall. Run in and buy yourself whatever you need for your headache. We’ve got a little under five minutes before I absolutely have to be on the road. Buy enough for two. Better make it extra-strength whatever it is. I seem to be developing a major migraine myself in the last few minutes.”

And men complained women were illogical. She’d like to see a researcher try to flow chart a man’s thought processes some time and see how far they got. “Luke, what are you talking about? I mean, I’m sorry if you have a headache and certainly I’ll be contacting our insurance company and we’ll take care of any damages but—”

“You’re down to three minutes,” Luke interrupted, checking his watch once more. “Then we’re leaving for Kalamazoo. And by the way, I’ll be doing the driving.”

“Kalamazoo!” Marie yelped. “I can’t—”

“Come on, Crash, give me a hand here. I think I’ve got a tool kit back in the trunk.” Luke popped his trunk and seemed surprised to see Marie still standing there when he glanced up. “Move, woman! My headache and my incapacitated automobile are both courtesy of you and your uncle. The least you can do is help me keep my appointment.”

Marie closed her eyes in defeat. Forget it. She’d never win. Her headache had reached such proportions she doubted anything would help. “Never mind,” she sighed but she doubted they heard, so engrossed was the twosome in debating the merit of one tool after another for its metal-bending properties. Marie trudged her way back to the driver’s side of her grandfather’s car’s. Climbing in, she turned the key in the ignition and gently, carefully pulled slowly forward, disengaging her grandfather’s bumper from her dead ex-husband’s brother’s car. Marie shook her head. Her life had hit an all-time low with this one. Surely things would improve from this point on. After all, they could hardly get worse. Could they?

They could.

And did.

Marie rested her head on the steering wheel while she waited. Evidently she was on her way to Kalamazoo. Brief moments later Luke opened the door behind her and threw a shopping bag into the rear seat. Jason slid in beside it. Luke then opened the driver’s door. “Move over,” he directed.

Marie thought about arguing, decided it wasn’t worth it. “Fine,” she muttered as she scooted over. “Let the macho man drive. God knows a mere woman can’t be trusted behind the wheel of a car.”

Luke wasn’t feeling overly charitable when he switched on the engine. “Glad you realize it. Saves time. Now, fasten your safety belt.”

“Yes, sir,” Marie grumbled. Even a poor pitiful specimen such as herself knew enough to strap in, for heaven’s sake. Especially when a close relative of the original kamikaze pilot was steering. Ah well, she was numb anyway. She probably wouldn’t even notice all the close calls. Provided they remained close calls.

“You can just drop me off on your way out of town,” Jason called from the back seat.

Like hell, Marie thought. Why should she be the only one to suffer?

“No time,” Luke said, denying the request before Marie could open her mouth. “It’s going to be close as it is.”

He had them out of the lot and headed toward Kalamazoo and away from home base before Jason could do more than sputter.

Marie couldn’t help but admire his style. And Luke was a surprisingly good driver. His brother, Marie’s ex, had driven like a maniac. Live by the sword, die by the sword, Marie thought once more. She was only grateful Wade had been alone the day he’d finally done himself in. Marie gradually relaxed as Luke competently handled the wheel. She rode in silence, head back, eyes closed, letting her headache ease as the car smoothly ate up the miles.

“Idiot,” Luke muttered as he was cut off. He braked sharply and the shopping bag he’d tossed onto the back seat tipped over.

Jason righted the bag and began stuffing the spilled contents back in. “Little old for stuffed animals, aren’t you?” he asked as he retrieved a plush teddy bear from the floor-board and tossed it back into the bag.

“Why’d you cut things so close if all you needed was a baby gift?” Marie asked irritated all over again that he’d been where he shouldn’t have been, thus causing the accident.

“It’s for the meeting,” Luke muttered while he checked his mirror, signaled and zipped around a slow-moving truck.

“What kind of meeting requires teddy bears?” She turned around in time to see Jason pick up a thermal-weave blanket with satin binding and bound into a neat bundle with paper tape and plastic wrap. “And baby blankets?” she inquired suspiciously. “What, you’re on the board of the Kalamazoo orphanage?” Somehow the image just didn’t fit with his current piratical, swashbuckling look and her former impression of him.

“I’m picking up my, uh, daughter,” Luke admitted grudgingly, his cheeks stained red for no reason Marie could think of. “I have to meet with some social workers first.”

Marie’s brows rose and her eyes widened as she considered that tidbit. Well, there was certainly little that could be said. First of all, she hadn’t even known he had a daughter. For sure Wade had never mentioned it and she’d never seen hide nor hair of a child in any of her previous encounters with Luke.

“How old is your daughter?” Marie inquired before caution got the better of her.

“Two. I think.”

He thought? He didn’t know his own child’s age? Marie sat back in her seat. Well, she’d figured out the Deforest family was seriously messed up about a month after her wedding. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that Wade’s older brother had to have his toddler released to him by a social worker. And she wasn’t exactly in a position to throw stones, was she? Her only family seemed to be specializing in the bizarre and unusual themselves, what with her taking on the task of raising her own uncle. Well, it was certainly nothing to her, Marie decided. She’d simply make sure she was out of the picture by the end of the afternoon. Luke could have the social worker come and live with him for all she cared. Marie just felt sorry for the poor, obviously neglected child.

“What’s her name?” she couldn’t help but ask.

“Carolyn.”

“Pretty.”

“It’s okay, I suppose.”

“You don’t like it?”

“Not particularly.”

“Then why’d you pick it?” Marie’s headache was beginning to flare up again.

“I didn’t. Her mother did. I had no say.”

The mind boggled. What was the mother, a female sumo wrestler? Marie couldn’t begin to imagine a circumstance, any circumstance where Luke Deforest wouldn’t have a say—wouldn’t make darn sure he had a say.

Marie decided not to pursue it, however. The answer was bound to only further confuse her. The entire day had taken on a surreal quality. Nothing was making sense. She’d read stories where people walked through mirrors or wardrobes and found themselves trapped in an alternate world. Under the circumstances, the best thing to do was go through the motions and pray for the sun to set. Maybe by the time it got around to rising again she’d wake up on the right side of the mirror.

One could always hope.

Unfortunately, more often than not of late, she’d found herself spending time on the backside of the mirror.

Actually, she was developing a certain bizarre fascination with life on the wrong side. One never knew what would pop up next. Rabbits with pocket watches, incredibly arrogant and macho—not that Marie was into macho, because she most certainly wasn’t—pirates in red sports cars. Who could predict?

“What do Jason and I do while you’re at this meeting?”

“I don’t know. Read a book or something.”

“What book? You hijacked us from the mall parking lot, remember?”

“Okay, so take a walk.”

“Is the area safe where we’re going?”

“I’ve never been there before.”

Marie threw up her hands. “Fine. Great. I’m taking a nap now. Wake me when the nightmare’s over. Good night.” And she leaned back, folded her arms across her chest and closed her eyes.

In the rear seat, Jason apologetically cleared his throat. “Ahem. Marie’s a little high-strung. You have to learn to just kind of ignore her like I do.”

Marie didn’t open her eyes, but she snorted her opinion of that.

Luke wove his way through a knot of cars. “Maybe you ought to listen a little harder, at least when she’s giving driving instructions.”

Amen to that, thought Marie and crossed her arms the other way.

Luke glanced at the boy in the rearview mirror. “And as for my learning to tune her out, we don’t see enough of each other to make it worth worrying over.”

Amen to that, too. And let it stay that way.

Marie actually fell asleep. When she startled awake, the car was parked on a shady street with the windows all left open a few inches for air circulation. She rubbed her eyes, sat up and looked around. Where was she?

Turning around to glance down the block, she found Jason in the back seat with earphones plastered on his head and his portable CD player making him deaf. He wiggled his fingers at her in a gesture of recognition as his head bobbed rhythmically. “Where’s Luke?” she mouthed and Jason pointed to the building across the street.

Marie briefly studied the building, but it wasn’t giving away any secrets so she turned her attention back to Jason. “You’re going to lose your hearing, you know,” she said.

Jason pointed to his ears and shrugged, indicating he couldn’t hear her over the noise being pumped in.

Marie sighed and turned around. At least he wasn’t sharing his musical choice with her. She should be grateful for small favors.

Marie tipped her head one way and then the other. She glanced at her watch. Good grief. She’d been asleep for almost forty-five minutes. No wonder she had a crick in her neck. To tell the truth, she was a little worried with the way she fell asleep at the drop of a hat lately. Her periods were off, too. It had to be the stress. Please, God, let it be stress.

Unfastening her belt, she opened the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. She needed to stretch out. At the end of the block she turned around and marched back up the street. By her fourth passby she’d developed a ‘glow’—her mother had always insisted ladies didn’t sweat—and all the kinks were well worked out of her legs. She strode quickly by Jason’s lanky reclining-yet-still-rhythmically-twitching form when suddenly her quiet humming was drowned out by ungodly screeching.

Startled, she swiveled about. Half a legion—at least—of women were being raped or abducted somewhere, but where?

She searched the area, and what to her wondering eyes should appear but Luke, coming down the steps of the building Jason had pointed out earlier. He held a toddler in his arms, but rather than cradling her up against his body, he held the little one out and away from himself, as though he wanted to distance himself from his own daughter, the source of all that noise. And he had an exceedingly pained expression on his face.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” Marie murmured and crossed the street to him.

“Hey, hey,” she said and rubbed the child’s back soothingly. At the same time she pushed the child up and against Luke’s chest. The pained look on his face became even more pronounced.

“It’s all right, sweetheart,” Marie crooned. “Daddy’s got you. Everything’s okay. Daddy will fix everything, won’t you, Daddy?” When Luke didn’t speak up quickly enough to suit her, Marie poked Luke in the ribs as a prompt to answer. It was her feeling Daddy shouldn’t have to think quite so hard before responding.

“Ouch! What’d you do that for?” He glared at her. Damned woman had been a pain since the moment he’d run—scratch that—she’d run into him.

Marie glared right back and gestured to the sobbing toddler. The noise level had dropped but people were still staring and they were still only a few decibels below eardrum shattering.

“Oh, right.” Luke cleared his throat. “Marie’s right, Carolyn. Dad’s got the situation under control.” He wished. “You can stop screaming. It’s not going to change anything, after all and if you’ll just stop and think for a minute I’m sure you’ll realize—”

Marie reached up and snatched the baby right out of his arms and hugged her to her breast. “Oh, for God’s sake. Come here, sweetie. Let Auntie Marie hold you.” Marie wrapped her arms snuggly around the baby so she’d feel secure, rested her cheek on the top of little one’s head and began to rock in place. “Shh, shh, Auntie Marie’s got you now and she won’t let anything happen to you.”

Luke rolled his eyes and muttered, “Oh, brother.”

Marie sent him an evil look and mouthed, “Go get the blanket you bought.”

“What? I can’t hear you. Carolyn, you’ve simply got to pipe down before you permanently damage our hearing. Now, what did you say?”

Marie refrained from kicking him in the shins. Barely. Very softly she instructed, “Go and get the baby blanket you bought.”

“You’re still mumbling,” Luke complained. “Did you say you wanted the pink blanket? What for? Marie, look at her. She’s all red and overheated. The last thing she needs is a blanket. She must be getting heavy. Let me take her back.”

She finally blew up. “So you can make her cry again? The blanket’s a comfort thing, you dolt! You probably had one yourself at her age. Or maybe you didn’t and that’s what’s wrong with you. Now would you just quit arguing and go get it?”

Luke backed away and made a calming gesture. “All right, okay, I’m going, see? But I’d just like to point out I’m not the one who made her cry again. If you were all that good with kids you’d know not to yell like that. It upsets them.”

Marie ground her teeth. For two cents she’d hand the child off to him and sit back to watch the show. Unfortunately they’d all be sharing the same car for the next hour and the screaming was already grating on her nerves. “There, there, sweetheart, I’m sorry. It’s just that men are such morons, sometimes your only option is to cut loose.” Marie continued to rub Carolyn’s back while she vilified all men in a soft croon. “You’ll see. Someday you’ll come to me and say, ‘Auntie Marie, I remember back when I was no more than two and you told me all about men. You were right, Auntie Marie. They are dolts.’ Now let’s go down to the car, all right, honey? I’ll introduce you to another of the species. Homo Sapiens Adolescenti, an absolutely pitiable group. The worst of the worst. You remember that when you’re sixteen and don’t have anything to do with them, okay, sweetheart? Save yourself all kinds of grief.”

By then they’d reached the car. Luke had finished unwrapping the blanket. He held it out to her.

“Just drape it over her,” Marie directed. “Make sure the satin touches her cheek.”

“Right. But I still say she’s going to suffocate.” Luke carefully covered his daughter, arranging the folds just so. “How’s that?”

Carolyn snuffled twice then turned off the spigot altogether.

Marie sighed. “Wonderful. In another hour or two the birds may even feel safe enough to begin chirping again.”

Luke reluctantly grinned. “Yeah. It was pretty scary, wasn’t it? I’ve got to run back in and get her car seat. I’ll be right back.”

“Coward,” Marie said, but she smiled and snuggled Carolyn while they waited.

Carolyn had so exhausted herself with all the carrying on, that she conked right out within minutes of the car being in motion. Blessedly, she slept the entire trip through.

“Well, that’s done,” Luke said as he pulled into his own driveway. “I think I’ve got enough time to make arrangements to get my car towed in and get a loaner. Tomorrow you can take me over to pick up a rental.”

Marie sighed. She supposed it would be mean-spirited to say no. The accident had been their fault, after all. “Sure. I guess.”

“Call your insurance agent when you get home. We’ll exchange insurance information and stop by the police station when I see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Right.” Man, she really didn’t want to do this. Besides having the personality of a prickly pear, Luke was a reminder of a painful period in her life. “Twelve o’clock?”

“Sounds good. See you then.”

“Right.” Marie put the car into Drive while she waited for Jason to get back to the car after helping Luke in with Carolyn’s stuff. She wanted out of there just as quickly as possible. She had a feeling that the longer she stuck around Luke Deforest, the worse off she’d be. And the effect he seemed to have on her was only the half of it. Luke Deforest was trouble with a capital T.

Chapter Two

Instead of sliding into the passenger side, Jason came around to the driver’s side. Marie sighed. She should have known.

“Scoot over, Marie. I’ll drive now.”

Only over her dead body. “Sorry, Jason, but I’m driving. One accident per day is about all I can handle.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. You can’t be serious.”

But Marie stood firm. She’d reached her quota of adolescent-style thrills and chills for the moment. It was either stand firm or flip out. Marie knew which one she preferred. “No. I’m afraid there’s no negotiating this one.” Ha, there was a misnomer if ever there was one. More like gross intimidation wouldn’t get the adolescent his way this time. Unfortunately for Jason she was too numb to be properly cowed by the prospect of one of his scenes. “I’m driving,” she assured him firmly. “Jump in and let’s go before Luke comes out to see what’s wrong.”

That threat worked. Luke was twice his size and not happy with the accident. Jason knew he’d gotten off easily. He still had all his appendages, was still breathing, wasn’t he? He moved. Not particularly graciously, but he moved.

He also scowled. He stomped around the front of the car, slapping the hood with his fist as he circled in front of it. He slammed the door when he got in and immediately began complaining. “Man, one little mistake and everybody’s all over you. Like I already told you, this wasn’t my fault. If Dad would just buy me a decent car none of this would have happened. He can keep this boat for all I care, but you could talk him into getting me something cool. I know you could.”

Marie rolled her eyes in resignation. Jason was on a roll. She was in for a good half-hour sermon on why Jason needed a new car, preferably a sports model with a trunk big enough for a mega stereo system complete with something called a subwoofer. Marie had asked around. It seemed that this subwoofer thing was for the hormonally impaired. It magnified bass sounds. It was what made your car shake when you were stuck at a red light next to some testosterone-challenged adolescent whose entire vehicle shuddered on oversize tires while emitting low boom boom de boom sounds. Allowing that thing into her house or car would be tantamount to dying and going to hell. She’d be permanently stuck at a red light that would never turn green, at least not for her.

No way. Not a chance.

Marie had never had an inclination to indulge in alcohol before but she was seriously thinking about taking up drinking. If she was declared unfit wouldn’t somebody else have to take over the job of seeing Jason through until her grandfather was back on his feet? Didn’t the Red Cross deal with disasters? Surely Jason qualified. There had to be somebody. Anybody.

When Jason showed no signs of letting up, Marie decided to break into his diatribe. “Even though the accident was clearly Luke’s fault for having the poor judgment to be behind you when you decided to back up, it’s your insurance premiums that will go up,” she informed him grimly as she gently eased the car into traffic. “You’re going to have to study a bit harder next semester. A 3.0 gpa will get you a good student rate and help counteract what just happened.”

Jason only shrugged. “The light’s changing. Better slow down.”

The attitude and running commentary on her driving put her back up. She’d rather deal with Luke Deforest—Why did her thoughts keep coming back to Luke? He wasn’t as blatantly handsome as Wade had been. No, his attraction was more insidious. It sneaked up and got you on a subconscious level. Rotten male. Marie tapped the brakes. “I know what color the light is and I’m serious here. For your information, teenage boys and girls in their early twenties have the highest rates. You can’t afford to make it any worse by messing around with your grades.”

“No skin off my nose,” Jason informed her. “Dad’s going to have to pay whatever it costs anyway. I sure don’t have the dough. That pittance of an allowance you talked him into doling out doesn’t cover more than a pack of chewing gum. You really fell down on the job there, Marie.”

Marie snorted as the light she’d stopped for changed and she again accelerated. “You buy mighty expensive chewing gum is all I can say. Like twenty dollars a pack. And maybe I could have talked him into more but I didn’t and I won’t. Twenty dollars is plenty for somebody your age.” She almost had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from telling him about how little she’d gotten when she’d been his age. It would make her sound too old. Too much like the parents who lectured their ungrateful kid about how they’d walked four miles each way barefoot through the snow to get to school, uphill both directions and furthermore, they’d liked it. Marie refused to permit herself to fall onto the wrong side of that generation line. She’d much rather be on the eye-rolling side even though the temptation was severe and she faithfully checked her hair every morning ever since her grandfather had shattered his hip to make sure none of the strands had grayed overnight.

But Jason wasn’t done yet. “You just don’t get it. I mean, were you ever young? It’s like totally demeaning to have to ask my niece for money, you know. None of the other guys have to do anything so lame. Their parents don’t give them stupid curfews of eleven o’clock on the weekend. They can stay out as late as they want and they all get however much money they want.”

“Yeah, right. Sure they do.” Marie turned a corner. She felt oddly bereft as she lost sight of the street Luke lived on. “Give it up,” she advised. “It’s not going to happen. The plan is, I’m going to discuss this with Grandpa and I’ll advise him to pay the equivalent of the cheapest insurance rates. I think he’ll listen, too. That means you’ll have to fork over the difference between that and whatever the actual charge is.”

“I don’t have any money,” Jason repeated slowly as though Marie were mentally slow and couldn’t grasp simple concepts. “No moola, get it? Zero dinero. Zip.”

Marie turned off onto another side street. They were almost home. Thank God. Maybe she could escape up to her room for an hour or two. “Guess you’ll have to get a job, huh, Jase?”

“I’m not sixteen yet,” Jason informed her smugly. “No one will hire me.”

Marie patted his arm bracingly. “Sure they will, kid. Ever hear of a work permit? If twenty dollars a week really isn’t enough to keep you in the style you’re accustomed to or you need extra cash ’cause you don’t qualify for the good student discount, why, I’ll be happy to get Grandpa to sign for one. No problem.”

“Think you’re so smart,” Jason muttered under his breath and braced himself. “Watch the kid on the bike.”

“I see him, I see him.”

“The speed limit’s twenty-five. You’re doing almost thirty. How come your hands are on ten and two? My driving instructor says they should be on nine and three so the airbag doesn’t break them if it goes off. Of course he’s only a total loser. His airbag probably goes off every day of the week and twice on Sundays.”

“Jason, I’ve been driving for eight years now. I think I can handle it.”

“Couldn’t prove it by me,” her uncle said under his breath. “There’s a car coming. Watch him.”

“I’m watching him, Jason, I’m watching.” Marie wondered how parents ever put up with getting their kids through to their licenses. Especially if they had more than one. If Jason corrected her driving one more time, she’d be forced to murder him. There wasn’t a judge in the country that would convict her, either. Not if they’d had any kids with learner’s permits of their own.

Marie knew better than to get drawn in. She absolutely did. She should just ignore him. That would be best. Ignoring Jason, however, was a bit like trying to ignore a nest of disturbed wasps. It was damned hard not to notice all the little pricks and harder still to keep from swatting back.

“Stop sign at the end of the block.”

Marie’s knuckles were white against the steering wheel when she blew. “Shut up, Jase,” she directed. “Just…shut the heck up.”

The car safely garaged once more, Marie called her insurance company, then retreated upstairs. She pulled the shades down and hid in her bedroom for an hour. Teaching Jason how to drive was going to make an old woman out of her in next to no time. She had to fight the urge to get up and go check her hair in the mirror.

Luke Deforest probably found gray hair a turn off.

What? How stupid. She didn’t—shouldn’t—care what Luke Deforest thought about her hair or any other of her body parts. Yes, she did. Well, she’d get over it. She’d see to it.

Marie took a deep breath and held it, then slowly exhaled. This was all Jason’s fault. He was making her lose her mind. After all, what did she know about dealing with an adolescent? Heck, she’d been one herself not that long ago. Finding herself so quickly and abruptly on the receiving end of all that adolescent garbage was throwing her psyche into shock, that was all.

Marie took another deep breath, slowly exhaled and dug out an old Paul Simon CD, curled up in her favorite reading chair over in the corner and vegged out while Paul crooned softly in the background. Of course she was damn lucky to hear him at all over the boom de booms emanating from just down the hall. Still, it was soothing. When Marie finally emerged, she went down to the kitchen confident she was once more in complete control. For sure she wasn’t going to give Luke Deforest another thought. Maybe she should bake some cookies and take them with her to their meeting tomorrow. See if she couldn’t soothe the savage beast. She could always say they were for Carolyn so he wouldn’t suspect anything.

Marie produced a small meat loaf for dinner which precipitated a lot of gagging sounds and threats to hurl up the meal, but honest to God, you couldn’t serve pizza every night, could you? Pepperoni was not exactly the best example of the protein group you could find. The salad was put away untouched except for the small portion Marie herself had taken.

Marie was pathetically grateful when, after downing half a container of double fudge brownie ice cream, Jason cleared out of the kitchen without offering to help or doing so much as clearing a dish. Frankly, she’d rather do it herself than have to put up with her uncle for ten more seconds. The sound of his bedroom door shutting—loudly—came as a blessed relief. And then the house began to shake. Boom boom de boom.

No way was she getting that subwoofer thing for him. Absolutely not. Why would any sane person pay money to make a bad situation degenerate to worse? She turned an oldies station on the radio all the way up to camouflage Jason’s exaggerated bass and sang along with Aretha Franklin, shaking her hips while she finished cleaning the kitchen. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Oh yeah, her and Aretha, they were both craving it, needing it.

Lord, she was obviously overtired. She was going to bed.

Shortly before noon the next day, Marie rang Luke’s doorbell. She’d spent time choosing her outfit, applying her makeup and had actually plugged in the curling iron and worked on her hair. She waited for Luke to answer, pleased that she could still pull herself together into a decent package. It had been months since she’d bothered to try. She’d settled for clean ever since assuming responsibility for Jason. Who was there to impress? One of his acne-riddled, fifteen-year-old buddies? No, thank you.

Luke, on the other hand, was fair game. He’d intimidated her the day before, looking better than any man had a right to, almost like some kind of male model for crying out loud. Except there’d been absolutely no sign of mousse in his hair nor had he stunk to high heaven of any kind of men’s cologne. No, Luke just naturally exuded everything that was masculine.

And all that was feminine in her cried out in response, which was really stupid. Did she have no self-protective instincts at all? Had she learned nothing from her marriage?

While she waited she thought about Carolyn. As far as she knew, Luke was a bachelor. Wade had never spoken about his brother having been married or having any kind of previous entanglement of the female kind—which Luke obviously had had since Carolyn existed—but then again, Wade hadn’t been one to speak much. Flex his biceps, yes. Talk, no. There’d been a time in her life when a guy’s pecs were recommendation enough to pursue a relationship. She’d naively assumed a well-built body wouldn’t embarrass itself by anything less than a sterling interior. Thank God she’d grown past all that.

Luke opened the door just as Marie was beginning to wonder if he’d remembered their appointment.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” Marie responded as she studied him curiously. He’d been impeccably dressed yesterday when Jason had whacked him. Now here it was, Sunday, almost noon and the man looked, well, disheveled, to be kind.

It was annoying that her heart rhythm picked up anyway. For the life of her, she couldn’t come up with an adequate reason why. His jeans were old, frayed, with his knees showing through the few remaining horizontal threads still there. He wore a collared white broadcloth shirt, but it was unbuttoned, untucked and wrinkled. The shirt was short-sleeved and his arms emerged from them thick, heavily muscled and furred. Dark hair curled out from the top of his undershirt, letting Marie know his chest was also furred. If she hadn’t seen his hair yesterday, she’d think he hadn’t combed it in a month of Sundays, so unkempt did it appear now. And Luke’s feet were bare. Bare. Marie shook her head. It was discouraging and ridiculous in equal parts that her heart still lurched at the sight of him. The vision of him now just didn’t fit with yesterday’s image. Nothing about him did.

Would the real Luke Deforest please stand up?

“Come in,” he invited, rather formally Marie thought, considering his attire.

Today’s Luke Deforest was living proof of the old adage that clothes did not make the man. Messed and mussed, this was still one fine-looking specimen of the male variety. Marie became determined not to show any signs of her discomfiture. “Thank you,” she replied, nodding acceptance of his invitation and stepping regally, she hoped, into Luke’s foyer. She had to thread her way around several shopping bags from stores whose names were familiar to her from her own trips to the mall. She recognized some of the bags from yesterday.

Calypso music drifted in from the back of the house.

Her eyes adjusted to the dimmer interior lighting.

The exterior of the house had been impressive. A warm-colored brick, the large two-story house sat on a wide, deep lot. The landscaping was minimal, a sign of both the newness of the home and its current owner’s disinterest in gardening, Marie suspected.

The inside appeared spacious and expensively if unimaginatively finished, with lots of moldings and wide, thick, intricate woodwork throughout. From what Marie could see, all of it seemed to be painted a basic, unimaginative white.

Luke led her through a very masculine-looking living room with white walls and tan carpeting accented by a supple black leather L-shaped sectional. The pink satin-bound blanket from yesterday and a stuffed green bunny about a foot and a half tall lay obtrusively on the couch and Dr. Seuss books lay on the brass-and-glass coffee table before it. Matching brass-and-glass end tables supported black lamps with black shades. They passed through the room, which had little by way of actual decoration, into—she wouldn’t have thought it was possible—an even more masculine study.

“Hang on a second,” Luke muttered and Marie stood, waiting until he came back with a kitchen chair for her to sit on. He placed the chair behind the massive glass-topped black desk, next to his brass-nail-studded black leather and far more professional chair.

He sank, rather gratefully Marie thought, into his chair and waved her into the other. “Sit,” he said and ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up all the more. “If I remember right from last night, we’ve got maybe ten or fifteen minutes before the movie ends. When I went to get your chair Ariel had already given up her voice to become human and the king of the mer-people was being turned into a newt or something equally repulsive by this evil overweight octopus. I’ve got to admit the octopus is pretty awesome, but I’m telling you, it’s wearing thin. The whole thing is wearing very thin. Hell, I’ve had the kid for less than twenty-four hours and I’ve already got the damn movie practically memorized.”

Marie was confused. Why was he so unfamiliar with his daughter and how come she’d never heard about Carolyn before? A long-ago divorce? How long ago could it have been with Carolyn being so young? How often did Luke get to see her? There had to be a mom somewhere, but where and how did she fit into the picture? After all, it took two to tango and Carolyn was living proof Luke knew how to dance.

“Are you divorced?” she asked. “Do you just get Carolyn certain weekends a month or something like that?”

Luke scrubbed his face with his hands. “I wish. No, it’s nothing easy like that. Carolyn’s mother died a little while ago. It’d been a while since I’d last seen her. Took them a while to track me down, I guess. Carolyn’s here to stay and neither one of us is at all sure how we feel about that.”

See? She was right. Men were jerks. Except for her grandfather who’d always been there for her, but he was a lot older. Maybe they improved with age. Sort of like cheese. Then again, didn’t some varieties just get stinkier the older they got?

“You’re the child’s father and you haven’t bothered to have any contact with her before now?” she questioned incredulously, forgetting in her ire how very large he was. “They had to track you down to inform you of her mother’s death? What kind of a man are you?”

“A tired one,” Luke informed her grimly. “A very tired one. Carolyn refused to stay in her own bed last night. She kept climbing in with me. And let me tell you, that child has the boniest elbows and knees you’ll ever run into. I know. I ran into them consistently and constantly all night long. Most restless sleeper in town, no, on the continent. No joke. She got me once in the throat. I couldn’t breathe. Thought I was going to die.”

“You evidently survived the ordeal,” Marie said without a great deal of sympathy. She was amazed by the man’s total lack of sensitivity. “I’m sure she’s just feeling insecure. For heaven’s sake, Luke, her mother just died and she’s been shuffled off to a father she doesn’t even know.”

Luke half rose out of his chair and pointed his finger at her. “Listen, lady, you don’t know what—” He stopped in midsentence, paused, shook his head, then sat back down. “No, never mind. It’s nobody’s business but Carolyn’s and mine. Just trust me on this. There are things I’m not free to discuss here. They’re between Carolyn and me and we’re the ones who’ll work them out. I hope.” He’d muttered that last and Marie barely caught it.

Puzzled, she stared at him. Luke Deforest, the man who only yesterday looked like he could take on the world and win suddenly looked like he’d gone a couple of rounds more than he should have. The man looked defeated. Marie felt the tug on her heartstrings and was confused and angered. He pulled on her in so many different ways how was she supposed to stay uninvolved here? Well, she’d done her share of mothering for this month. Maternal instincts, sexual instincts and any other kind of instincts that had her thinking about jumping on the bandwagon here were just going to have to forget it. Marie was currently unavailable. Jason was enough to deal with. She wasn’t going to take on Luke and his defenseless little daughter.

She was getting going while the going was good.

Once again Marie tried to rise. “It certainly sounds like you’ve got your hands full so I’ll just get out of your way. You’re not ready to leave and I’m sure the insurance company can deliver the loaner car to you if you ask. Here, I stopped and picked this up on the way over.” She tried to hand him a copy of the police report she’d filed. “I’ll leave this here for you to look over and I wrote down my phone number and insurance information so you can—”

“Daddy?”

If Marie hadn’t been looking right at him, she wouldn’t have noticed the slight recoil.

“Yes, Carolyn?”

“All done.”

“The movie’s over already?”

In other circumstances, Marie would have laughed at the look of sheer panic Luke wore. She was sure he’d never admit it, but he was so obviously clueless as far as how to entertain the child that it was almost funny. Funny in the abstract, that was. Funny only until you took a good look at the little girl. Yesterday Carolyn’s face had been buried in Marie’s chest. When the child had finally fallen asleep in her car seat, her features had been red, swollen and splotchy from crying.

Today, well my goodness, today Carolyn was a beautiful child not yet a yard tall with crooked wheat-colored pigtails cascading in curls to her shoulders and soft brown eyes framed with embarrassingly long lashes. There was a spattering of freckles running over her cheeks and bridging her nose. As Carolyn’s top teeth bit into her quivering yet pink perfect lower lip, Marie noted those teeth were small, white and charmingly askew. Luke would drop a quick five grand straightening those in a few years, Marie decided.

Oh, God, Carolyn was still virtually a baby and she was so forlorn and lonely-looking as she stood there uncertainly in the doorway. So lost and vulnerable appearing as she looked to Luke for guidance as to what to do next in this foreign house with this foreign dad in this foreign town.

Marie’s heart went out to the little waif. Marie was a goner.

Not liking this situation didn’t change it.

“It’s almost lunchtime,” Luke finally suggested hopefully after staring nonplussed for several seconds. “How about if I open a can of tuna fish and put it on whole wheat bread? Doesn’t that sound good?”

Marie did a double take and stared at him. He was kidding, right?

“Do we got any hot dogs? I like hot dogs,” the child offered hopefully.

“A hot dog.” Luke raked a hand through his hair. He’d never get it to lie flat again, Marie suspected. “Let me look. Maybe there’s a package in the freezer. A hot dog’s protein. Sort of,” he mumbled to himself. “But there ought to be vegetables. Kids need vegetables to grow right.” He snapped his fingers. “A salad. We could have salad.”

Marie shook her head. Luke was lost, no doubt about it. No two-year-old worthy of the name would willingly eat salad. The man was definitely out of his milieu. Of course it would be a month or two before he’d admit it.

“Uh, Luke?”

“Yeah, what?”

“What about grapes or a banana? Don’t you have some fruit you could cut up for Carolyn?”

“Yeah, I suppose.” He frowned as he mentally reviewed his grocery supplies. “Maybe.”

Tactfully Marie suggested, “That might be a better choice than salad. Maybe you could convince her to try a little bit of carrot if you cut it up into matchstick size, but you might want to hold off on the salad for a little while.” Like twenty years.

Luke frowned and studied the tot. “I don’t want her to develop bad eating habits.”

“No, no, of course not,” Marie quickly assured. “But it would be all right to work up to salad, wouldn’t it? I mean, you could start with cooked carrots with a little brown sugar on them and go from there, couldn’t you?”

Luke picked up the paper clips from the holder on his desktop and began pouring the clips from hand to hand and back. “I don’t know. I’m still not sure about this hot dog thing, either.”

“It might be easier. Just for today, you know. Until Carolyn’s a little more at home, that is.” Marie gave the guy a month, two tops. She, too, had prepared only nutritious balanced meals and snacks when she’d first taken over responsibility for Jason. There’d been a lot of tension, unhappiness, and sneaking out to the local fast-food burger place with friends until Marie had finally caved. She’d never regretted sinking to PB and J and pizza. The peace alone was worth it. Now she slipped him his grains and oatmeal in cookie format, his milk and calcium in pudding or tapioca. Veggies were still a sore point, but life, if not perfect, had at least been salvaged from the proverbial toilet, which was about all you could hope for with an adolescent on the premises, Marie had decided.

At the time, Marie had had her epiphany. She’d discovered that all of life was a balancing act, a compromise if you will. Luke would eventually discover the same truth, but it needn’t be quite the same rough journey she’d made.

“Then maybe, after lunch, if she doesn’t need to nap, you could take her to a park. There must be one around here somewhere.”

“Kiddie Kingdom’s not too far,” Luke said, thinking out loud. “That’s not a bad idea. Then maybe she could watch another movie while I got some work done. I’ve still got to unpack those few boxes they sent along with her and I bought her some stuff for her room, sheets and things that match, more for a little girl, you know? Barbie. My sisters used to play with her and what’s his name—Kevin, Kent, whatever. Amazing, but she’s still around. It’s all still in bags in the front hall.”

She’d noticed the bags. The front hall was probably right where Jason had dropped them. They’d made no progress since then. Marie rubbed her nose and considered the possibility that the bags’ lack of progress might be partially her fault. If Luke was frazzled, their accidental meeting yesterday might have something—not a lot—but something to do with it. She guessed it wouldn’t kill her to at least come up with a plan of action before she left.

“That’s a good plan,” Marie agreed tactfully. “But instead of another movie, after they deliver your car why don’t you stop at a home improvement place—you know, one of those glorified hardware stores—on the way home from the park and get a sandbox, a slew of sand, a bucket and a shovel? Then she could be playing actively instead of sitting passively while you work.”

Luke’s posture visibly straightened. He was definitely perking up. “That’s another decent idea, Marie. Thank you. I’d have eventually thought of it myself, of course, but this is good. Maybe a swing set, too. Kids like those, don’t they? Maybe I’ll get one of those fancy ones with a fort on one end and the sandbox underneath. There’s a house down at the end of the block with one like that.”

“They take time to assemble,” Marie warned. “It certainly won’t be done any time today. But I bet Carolyn would enjoy helping you open the packages you’ve got in the front hall and arranging her room with you.”

Luke was in a fever. Marie expected him to start taking notes any minute, although he kept his tone cool. “That’s good, Marie, that’s really good. I appreciate your input. Now, what do we do after that?”

What, he expected a minute-by-minute itinerary for the next fifteen years or so until Carolyn went away to college? Good grief. She thought fast. “Well, uh, walk up to the grocery store and get whatever you need for dinner. Walking will eat up some time and it’s good exercise for her. Help wear her out a bit for tonight, you know.” That should make it more appealing to him. “Stop in the school supply aisle and get her some construction paper, um, crayons—” Marie waved her hand expressively “—whatever else you see that looks interesting. She can color or mush that kiddie dough stuff while you get dinner ready. Hands-on experiences are very important for her age,” Marie concluded, hoping she sounded like she knew what she was talking about.

Luke was all admiration. “That is brilliant, absolutely brilliant.” He gave Marie a calculating look. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to—”

Marie concentrated on looking regretful. “Gee, I wish I could stay and help, Luke, but I’ve got to get back. Can’t leave an adolescent on his own too long. You never know what he’ll get up to. Why, right this minute he’s—” Marie swallowed her words as she thought. She wasn’t about to admit Jason wasn’t even home just then. “That is to say—”

But Luke wasn’t leapfrogging his way up the corporate ladder for nothing. He’d caught her slight hesitation, understood its meaning and pounced. “He’s what?”

“He’s at an audio equipment store with a friend who’s already got his license drooling over this outrageously expensive surround sound system he’s pressuring me to buy,” Marie admitted glumly. She’d checked out how long his friend had had his license and made sure Jason was the only other kid going to be in the car but still, she’d known letting Jason go out was a bad idea and here was the proof. She had no excuse now not to stick around and help Luke out.

Not only did she doubt it would be properly appreciated, she also had the issue of her own self-survival to consider.

Plain and simple, she didn’t want to be around Luke Deforest. He was too darn virile. Too appealing to that core of womanly essence deep inside her—the core she’d been sure had died an unnatural death a couple of months back. Marie shook her head in sorrow over her pitiful state. Basically, Luke made her ache. He made her yearn for things. Impossible things she’d long given up on having.

Luke was speaking. Marie shook her head to clear it and tried to catch up.

“—top of the line. We’ll have to get him over here and let him watch a movie or something—”

“You have surround sound?”

Luke gave her a puzzled look. “Isn’t that what I was just saying?”

“Do you have one of those subwoofer things?” Marie asked suspiciously.

“Yeah, sure. Of course.”

Marie slapped her thigh with her hand. She knew it. She just knew it. It was obviously a male thing. Some defect in the Y chromosome. She’d been right all along in her decision to have nothing further to do with the male half of the human race, relatives unfortunately excluded.

“You pwitty.”

Marie’s internal diatribe disturbed, she looked down. Little Carolyn had edged her way over and now stood right in front of her. Marie smiled. “Not half as pretty as you, sweetie.”

Carolyn turned to Luke for confirmation. “Her pwitty.”

Luke studied Marie for a disconcertingly long time before responding. “Yes, honey, she is. Very pretty.”

Marie couldn’t control her blush.

Carolyn caught Marie by the pant leg and didn’t appear inclined to let go. “Her have a hot dog too, Daddy?”

Luke smiled, a bit evilly in Marie’s opinion. “Absolutely. All we have to do is convince her to stay. Why don’t you ask her? I bet Auntie Marie couldn’t turn down a sugarplum like you.”

“Oh, all right,” Marie said, giving in. “I’ll stay. Just for a while. But I want the tuna fish on whole wheat.” And her capitulation had absolutely nothing to do with wanting to spend more time with Luke. Absolutely nothing.

Chapter Three

For a large man, Luke could move. He jumped from his chair, startling Marie. It was almost as though he didn’t want to give her time to change her mind. But that made no sense. He’d never made any pretense of liking her.

Then he said, “Tuna on wheat. Got it. Everybody out to the kitchen. Hup, two, three, four.”

Carolyn reached up and took Marie’s hand as they dutifully followed the leader. “Now,” Luke inquired scant minutes later as he waved the tin of fish in the air. “What do you want in the tuna? Pickle relish? Onions? Celery seed?” He’d found the appropriate can in the cabinet, the electric opener was at hand and raring to go. He even attempted a smile and Marie found those particular muscles hadn’t totally atrophied since yesterday afternoon after all. They still worked.

“Celery, the real kind not just its seeds, a small amount of onion—” not that she was going to be kissing anybody except maybe Carolyn “—and mayo, thank you,” Marie replied primly. Celery seed? Yuck. “And I want my bread toasted, please.”

Luke waved two slices of whole wheat across the room in the general direction of the counter with the toaster before handing the bread to her. “There you go.”

“Thanks,” she muttered dryly and wondered why Mr. Gracious had bothered to invite her at all. He never had been Mr. Hospitality. Ah, well, she was used to taking care of herself—and anybody else who came along. She could handle it.

Luke had heard the unspoken criticism in her tone but he didn’t bother to acknowledge it. None of his present circumstances were any of his doing. None. And he was not feeling the least bit gracious. “Milk, pop, juice in the fridge. The cups are in the cabinet over the dishwasher.”

Marie sighed as she dropped the bread into the toaster slots and pushed the lever down before going in search of the glasses. “Don’t have many guests, eh, Mr. Deforest? Your manners appear to be a tad rusty.”

“Ms. Ferguson, you did not pick a happy time to have your uncle ram my car. I’m feeling just a little bit persecuted myself right now and quite frankly, am not up to doing the congenial host bit. Now, Carolyn appears to have taken a shine to you and it would be a whole lot easier on me if she was happy sooner rather than later. The way I see it, you owe me. I didn’t break your uncle’s neck the way I wanted to, after all. And the payback I’d like most of all would be for you to get us on the road to happy familyhood around here. Do that and I will personally buy you the most expensive dinner at the swankiest place in town.”

Marie all but snorted. The accident had not been her fault, either. Let Jason teach Luke about the joys of family life. She herself knew only what she’d read about conventional happy families. Marie hadn’t seen her father since she was five when he’d had a doozy of a midlife crisis and taken off to “find himself.” As far as Marie knew, her father was still someplace out there hot on his own trail. Her mom had taken to drinking to fill the void. She’d ended up pickling her own internal organs and had died of cirrhosis of the liver.

Marie had been raised by her grandfather and stepgrandmother Pearl from the time she’d been eight. Jason had come along a year later. Pearl was much younger than her grandfather but still old for a first-time mother. She’d concentrated so hard on acquiring newborn parenting skills that she’d given Marie enough room to run a bit wild. Still, Marie gave Pearl credit. She hadn’t treated Marie like Cinderella. Not at all. In fact, Pearl had been a sweetheart who’d tried hard to never take undue advantage of her non-traditionally structured family’s built in baby-sitter. Then, two years ago, Pearl had died. Breast cancer hadn’t been detected until it was too late. Sometimes it seemed to Marie that she’d spent her entire life dealing with desertion and or death.

Her grandfather had always been there for her, bless his cantankerous, irreverent heart. He was a rock, but even rocks eventually wore down. Grandpa still struggled to do his best, but he was seventy-five now and no longer spry. It was taking his bones forever to knit themselves back together after this last fall. Marie would cut out her tongue before admitting it to anyone, but sometimes she was so scared. What if her grandfather never got his strength back? Who would she have then to help her deal with Jason? No one. It was a scary thought.

Marie refused to allow herself to dwell on the possibility. She’d made a conscientious decision to simply take each day as it came. The tables were now turned. It was payback time. Grandpa needed her care and her help raising his son. Marie wasn’t like her mother or father. Admittedly there had been a few years when Marie had been momentarily, uh, dazzled by life on the edge, but basically she believed in responsibility. She could delay finding herself for a few more years. Provided she lived through this current period with her mental faculties still intact.

Marie’s expression softened as she watched Carolyn carefully dunk diced hot dog chunks into the blob of ketchup Luke had dabbed onto her plate. Now this little sweetie was a piece of cake compared to Jason. The adolescent mind was a foreign land with few landmarks recognizable to anyone outside of the ages fourteen through about twenty. You did what you could to get them through this period alive. Psychological damage didn’t matter. So long as they were still breathing by the time they hit twenty or so, which was a definite challenge in and of itself, they could go see a shrink to undo any emotional damage you’d done in an effort to ensure mere physical survival of the species.

Of course by then, you were in major need of a shrink yourself.

Marie smiled fondly down. Yes indeed, this little munch-kin would be easy. All she really needed to flourish for the next ten or twelve years until she hit the dreaded fourteen was lots of hugs and kisses, large and small muscle activities, and plenty of sleep and food. Marie had no doubt that with that combination little Carolyn would grow and flourish just like a weed.

Luke became almost affable during lunch and to Marie’s surprise, he had some decent knock-knock jokes he shared with Carolyn, who didn’t get them at all. Marie, however, found herself chuckling a time or two. It was interesting to watch the tension leak out of him as the meal progressed. What did he have to be so stressed about? And why did he keep looking at Marie with those narrowed, considering eyes?

Carolyn munched contentedly on her hot dog pieces, banana chunks, and the scant handful of pretzels her miserly father had provided. She was tucked into a spot between the two adults and continually glanced from one to the other as if in need of reassurance that they were still there.

“More pwetzels? Pweez, Daddy?”

Marie watched in amusement as Luke nudged a small pile of matchstick carrots closer. “First finish your milk and eat some of these yummy carrots. Then we’ll see.”

Marie narrowed her eyes as the ploy worked. Maybe if you got them young enough…hmm. Of course, she’d eat anything Luke prepared for her, too. Even if he just got it out of the bag for you, there was something about Luke that made you want to cooperate. Heck, the average female would be so mesmerized by Luke himself, she probably wouldn’t even realize what she were doing until the deed was done. What a sad, sad commentary on the female of the species—to be so easily duped.

Carolyn seemed happy with the graham cracker she got for dessert—the young were so refreshingly naive and innocent, weren’t they? After cleaning up, they piled into Marie’s car and headed for Kiddie Kingdom. Kiddie Kingdom just happened to be right across the street from Potawatami Zoo, an act of serendipity if ever there was one.

Carolyn chattered the whole way home. “She’s worn me out,” Luke admitted with a groan after releasing Carolyn’s restraints and lifting the child out.

“Me, too,” Marie agreed and laughed when she couldn’t restrain a yawn. “I really have to go now,” she added. “My grandfather’s grass needs cutting. Jason was supposed to do it when he got back from ogling the displays at Media Central. I don’t understand this subwoofer fixation of his, but I suppose it’s better than finding girlie magazines hidden around the house.”

“As far as Jason’s concerned, it’s probably a toss-up between the lingerie catalog, the car magazines and the electronic supply warehouse,” Luke decided after briefly considering the age of the subject involved.

Marie made a mental note to go through the catalogs stacked on the sofa table in their small family room and pull anything involving underwear or lingerie. “You’re probably right. At any rate, I told him I was only going to ask once because I was tired of arguing every time I ask him to do something. If it didn’t get done, I said I’d do it myself but then I wouldn’t take him driving again for at least a week.”

Luke’s eyes widened. “Whoa, we’re talking hardball here.”

Marie was immediately defensive. “Well, I am tired of arguing.”

Luke held up his hands, palms out. “I’m not disagreeing.”

“The thing is, I know he’ll sulk for a while before he caves. At least until after the sun goes down so the neighbors will think I’m mean and evil for making him do it in the dark. I want to get home and cut it first so I have the next week free of experiences similar to the one I shared with you yesterday. My nerves can’t handle a whole lot more. I’m about to lose it, no joke. I need the week off. At the rate things are going, I’ll be twenty-five and look fifty—provided I live to see my next birthday at all.”

Luke stuck his hands in his pants pocket and jiggled his change while he studied her. He had stumbled onto a good thing here. He’d dreaded this afternoon, his first alone with Carolyn. In fact, the anticipation of it had caused him to wake up in a cold sweat around two in the morning. What did he know about entertaining a two-year-old—for the rest of her life? But instead of a nightmare, it had been a dream and—he’d never admit it out loud—mostly due to Marie.

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