Teresa Hill (6 page)

“No,” he said. “I could never do that.”

“And she could?” Samantha found that difficult to believe.

He shrugged, the gesture holding a world of hurt. “Elena was indulged her whole life. Her parents have a lot of money. They made things easy for her. She always got whatever she wanted, and at some point, she decided she wanted me. I think I was part of the shock-your-parents phase, because at the time I didn’t have much more than I could fit in the back of the camper I was hauling behind my truck, and most all I ever did was follow the rodeo from one town to another.”

“You?” she said.

Joe nodded. “Elena went through a phase in the middle of her college education where she wanted to be a photographer. She came to take pictures of the rodeo one night, and one thing kind of led to another. Next thing I knew, she was in the truck with me and off we went. One rodeo after another. Her parents hated it.”

“I can imagine,” Samantha said.

“She was a lot of fun back then. We had a lot of good times together, and for a while that was enough for me. But we all have to grow up sometime. For me, it was when we got married and she got pregnant with Luke. The rodeo just didn’t cut it anymore. Texas wasn’t that appealing to her, either. We came to Virginia to tell her parents, and somehow we ended up staying here. I think she thought her daddy would step in and make everything all better then.”

“Better?”

“Money,” Joe said as if it was a dirty word. “We needed a house, one she approved of. And furniture and all kinds of baby things. I think Elena believed her father would cough up enough for all that. But he didn’t, and even if he had, I wouldn’t have taken it. He did offer me a job in his electronics firm, which I wasn’t at all qualified for and also refused to take.”

“Which didn’t sit well with Luke’s mother?”

“No,” he said. “She might have forgiven her father and me for the house. Or the lack of a house she approved of. But she got pretty steamed over the job offer I refused and all the money that came with it. We settled in here…” He glanced around the little house. “She grew up in a mansion. Or what I think of as a mansion. And this place…well, it’s in great shape now, compared to what it was when we first bought it. I’d done some construction work before, and I took a job with a local builder, worked on this place on the side. Luke came along. Things were a little rocky, and then Dani came along. And that’s when it got really tough.”

“Two kids are a lot of work,” Samantha sympathized.

Joe didn’t look a bit forgiving. “I know.”

“So what happened?”

“I think it was just too hard for Elena. Too much work for her. I mean, the money was part of it. She always resented the fact that we didn’t have as much as she thought we should, or that I wouldn’t work for her father, or that her parents wouldn’t give her more. But mostly I think she had no idea what she was getting into by having kids. You said it, it’s a lot of work.”

Samantha nodded. “It’s unrelenting.”

“Yeah. And Elena still wanted to have fun, to spend money, to see her friends. There wasn’t a lot of time for that with two kids. She was miserable, and I shouldn’t be so bitter about the fact that she left. She never would have been happy here, and the kids would have known that in time. She would have made them miserable, too. It never would have worked. I know that. It’s just hard to explain to a kid who’s lost his mother.”

“I’m sorry,” Samantha said.

“Well, now you know. And I guess I owe you an apology, too. I see red at the thought of another woman hurting my son. He’s cried himself to sleep too many nights already, and I…I’m afraid I was a little rough on you today, Doc.”

“It’s all right.”

“It’s just that I’m all they’ve got left,” Joe said. “The only one left to protect them and take care of them.”

“I understand. I’d growl at anybody who hurt them, too.”

“Thank you,” he said, relaxing just a bit for the first time since he’d found Luke sobbing in her office. “So what did Luke tell you?”

“He wants his mother back.”

Joe turned his head to the side and uttered a cry of frustration and pain. Samantha flinched at the raw power and the anger behind the carefully controlled sound.

“I can’t make her come back,” he admitted. “No matter how much Luke wants her.”

“Of course. I didn’t mean that you could. Or that you should. I was just telling you what he told me. And, Joe?”

“Hmm?”

“Luke has this ridiculous idea that I’m the tooth fairy, because he saw me in that silly costume I wear when I talk to kids at schools, and now he’s decided I can bring his mother back to him. He’s trying to collect a hundred teeth in that jar of his so he can use them to make a grand gesture to the tooth fairy in exchange for getting his mother back.”

“Oh, God,” Joe said, looking like he’d had the breath knocked out of him. “A hundred teeth?”

Samantha nodded.

“Well, that’s a problem.”

“I know. I tried to tell him I wasn’t really magic, but he saw me do those silly little magic tricks, and now he thinks I can do anything. That’s why he’s so mad at me—he thinks I could bring his mother back if I wanted to, that I just won’t do it.”

Joe sighed and shook his head. “Luke thinks the same thing about me—that I could bring her back, too.”

“I’m sorry.” She gave his hand a little squeeze, and when she would have pulled away, he turned his over and captured hers. “And sorry for giving him all these ideas about magic. For going off to school in that silly costume, pulling magic coins from behind the kids’ ears and talking to them about magic and fairies. I can’t believe I still do that.”

“I think it’s cute,” he said, that teasing smile of his returning, the charm coming on full force along with it. “I’d love to see you in your fairy suit. Why do you do it, Doc?”

“It’s silly,” she argued.

“So is all-out war waged with water guns and making mud pies and kissing Dani’s favorite doll good-night, but I do it, because it makes my kids happy. That’s why you do the tooth-fairy bit, isn’t it?”

“Part of the reason.”

“Tell me,” he said, easing back against the cushions, the leather creaking and settling as he did so.

“It was my father’s idea. He always went to schools to talk to kids about taking care of their teeth, but they didn’t always listen that well. So he decided he needed to spice up his act. And he started doing little magic tricks, and that worked. Then, one year for Halloween, I wanted to be the tooth fairy. And my mother made me this wonderful dress with stars on it and found me a magic wand and a wig with long blond hair, because mine was short at the time. And I had a blast. My father thought I looked perfect, and he had this idea to take me along with him the next time he spoke to a group of kids.

“So we did it. And he told them I was the tooth fairy and that they would make me happy if they would just take good care of their teeth.” She smiled, seeing her father now. “He said it was the best audience of first graders he’d ever had. And from then on he took me with him whenever he did his little talks.”

Joe laughed, that wonderful laugh from today on the phone. It made her feel good when he laughed—too good.

“We worked up an act,” she continued, “like a magician and his assistant. It was one of those special father/daughter things for us. I was still going to schools with him when I was in college.”

“He sounds like a wonderful father.”

“He was.” She couldn’t keep the tears from pooling in her eyes, but was determined not to cry this time. If she did, Joe might well take her in his arms again, and she couldn’t let that happen.

“You still miss him very much, don’t you.”

She nodded.

“I wonder if it ever stops. I wonder if Luke will ever stop missing his mother and asking me to bring her back.”

“She doesn’t have anything to do with the children?”

He shook his head. “Packed her things and left. She doesn’t even call and ask about them.”

“And what have you told the kids about why she left?”

“As little as possible,” Joe said. “At first I was sure she didn’t mean anything she said when she left. I was sure she’d come to her senses and come back. And even when she said she wouldn’t, I had to keep hoping for the kids’ sake that she’d change her mind. But it’s been more than a year now. The only time I heard from her was when she wanted a divorce, which I gave her. I can’t lie to myself anymore. She’s not coming back.”

“I’m sorry,” Samantha said again as Joe slid across the sofa until he was sitting next to her, his right arm lying along the back of the cushion. It would be so easy for him to wrap his arms around her, she thought.

No one had held her in the longest time. Surely that was why it felt so good to be close to him this evening in her office.

His hand came up to her jaw, taking it gently with his fingers and turning her toward him so he could look into her eyes. “I don’t know why, when I picked a woman to marry and have children with, I couldn’t have found someone more like you.”

Samantha froze for a second, then muttered, “You don’t even know me.”

“I’m a little smarter than I used to be. I know that you’re kind and generous and that you go to incredible lengths to make little children smile. And somehow I know you’d never hurt my children the way Elena did.”

“Joe?” she said, in a panic now, because he was coming closer, his gaze intent on her mouth. He was going to kiss her, and she simply couldn’t let him.

“It’s scary, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Scary?”

He nodded, so close she could almost taste him. “Because I’m very attracted to you.”

Samantha backed away as far as she could, until the cushions were flat against her back, but still he was coming closer, coming to kiss her. Samantha took both her hands and shoved Joe, who’d twisted around to face her, until he fell to the floor.

From his spot on the floor Joe looked up at her and tried to figure out how he could have so totally misread the situation. Baffled, he stayed where he was and watched her squirm.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Are you hurt?”

“Doc, I’ve been thrown from a bull before. You’re not going to hurt me by shoving me off my own sofa.”

Color flooded her cheeks, and he wished he didn’t find her so pretty.

Women, he thought. He’d never understand them.

He should have quit trying, should have left them alone, should definitely have left
her
alone.

“I’m sorry,” she said again, and he simply couldn’t leave things this way.

“All you had to do was say no. I’m not the kind of man who forces himself on a woman.”

“I know.”

“You do?”

She nodded, swallowed hard and looked everywhere but at him. Joe just didn’t get it. She liked him. He knew it. And he liked her. She was pretty, in this soft feminine sort of way. And kind and sweet. She loved kids and was heaven to kiss. What more could he want in a woman, even if he wasn’t supposed to want any woman?

“I think I should go,” she said, standing up.

Joe held out a hand to her, and she helped him to his feet, then pulled her hand away.

“I’m sorry Luke was so upset today. I…I didn’t know what to say to him, and nothing short of a promise to bring his mother back would have satisfied him. I knew I couldn’t promise that, so…”

“It’s all right,” he insisted. “I’ll take care of Luke.”

She nodded. “I’d better go.”

Joe walked her to the door. When she had it open, he put his hand on her arm, holding her there beside him when she would have left. “Just tell me one thing, okay?”

She looked down at his hand on her arm, not at him. “If I can.”

“What’s wrong?”

Samantha shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I thought you liked kissing me earlier,” he insisted.

“No, I—”

“Don’t even try to tell me you didn’t like that kiss. I know better.”

Her face turned toward the door, she said, “You’re not making this very easy.”

“It’s not easy for me, either, and then, in another way, it’s far too easy,” he said gently, because he knew it was easy to spook her. “But I don’t know about you. Tell me why it’s so scary for you.”

“You have kids,” she said haltingly.

“Yes. What do the kids have to do with this?”

“I can’t…I made a promise to myself. I’m not going to get involved with any man who has kids.”

“Why?”

“Because it complicates things…”

“Yes,” he said. It did complicate things. He’d met women who had absolutely no interest in having kids or being around them. In fact, he’d been married to one, except she hadn’t figured that out until after they already had two kids. But Samantha Carter loved kids. There was absolutely no question in his mind about that. So her explanation made absolutely no sense. Why would she even try to tell him that? She had to know he wouldn’t believe it.

“Doc, you love kids.”

She nodded. “But I’m around them all day.”

“So? You’re telling me you get tired of them? That all you want of kids is what you get in the office?”

“No,” she admitted.

“Have you ever been married?” He started firing off the questions.

“Yes.”

Something inside his gut clenched tight before he could get the next question out. “Divorced?”

“Yes.”

Thank goodness. “No kids?”

“No.” She took it like a punch in the stomach. “I don’t have any children.”

“Why not?”

“Joe?” She was near tears again, and she looked sad, vulnerable.

Who’d hurt her so badly?

He pulled her into his arms again. She came without any form of protest and he held her, doing his best to comfort her and not give in to his impulse to kiss her, which was hard. But he could do it. Because he was worried about her and he didn’t want to scare her off.

“Just tell me,” he said. “I’ve told you the worst thing that ever happened to me. Tell me the worst for you.”

“It hurts,” she said.

“I know,” he said tenderly, taking her face in his hands and kissing the tip of her nose. “Everybody gets hurt, Doc. Everybody. Who hurt you? Your ex?”

She nodded, her lashes flickering down, and Joe noticed they were dark and spiked together with the moisture from her tears. He kissed that away, as well, wishing he could kiss away the hurt just as easily.