This Heart of Mine (27 page)

Yes!

Notes for Chik article,

"Do Jocks Only Want One Thing?"

Molly sat in the gazebo staring out at the cottages and daydreaming about last night instead of getting ready for the community tea she'd invited everyone to attend on the Common that afternoon. She'd driven into town after breakfast to buy an extra cake along with some soft drinks, but refreshments were the last thing on her mind. She was thinking about Kevin and all the delicious things they'd done.

A car door slammed, distracting her. She looked up to see the paragon he'd been interviewing settle behind the wheel of an aging Crown Victoria. Molly had caught a glimpse of her as she'd arrived for her interview and hated her on sight. Just one look at the no-nonsense reading glasses dangling from a chain around her neck told Molly this woman's cookies would never burn on the bottom.

Kevin appeared on the front porch. Molly automatically waved to him, then wished she hadn't because it made her seem too eager. If only she were one of those sublimely mysterious women who could control a man with the flicker of an eyelash or a single smoldering glance. But neither flickering nor smoldering was her strong point, and Kevin wasn't a man to be controlled anyway.

Roo saw him coming across the Common and scampered to meet him, hoping for a game of catch. Molly's skin grew hot just watching him. Now she knew exactly what every part of the body underneath his black polo shirt and khaki slacks looked like.

She shivered. She didn't doubt he'd enjoyed making love with her last night—she'd been pretty darned good, if she did say so herself—but she knew it hadn't meant the same thing to him that it did to her. He'd been so… everything—tender, rough, thrilling, and more passionate than even her imagination could have invented. This was the most dangerous, the most impossible, the most hopeless crush she'd ever experienced, and last night had made it worse.

Suddenly Kevin stopped walking in midstride. She saw right away what had caught his attention. A nine-year-old boy stood on the edge of the Common holding a football. His name was Cody. His parents had introduced him yesterday when they'd checked in to Green Pastures.

Kevin might not know they finally had younger guests. Between going up in the glider in the afternoon, then locking themselves in the bedroom at the cottage, he wouldn't have seen the children, and she hadn't thought to mention it.

He began walking toward the boy, Roo following along. His stride picked up as he got nearer, until he stopped in front of the child. Molly was too far away to make out what he was saying, but he must have introduced himself because the boy froze up a little, the way kids did when they found themselves in the presence of a well-known athlete.

Kevin rubbed the boy's head to settle him down, then slowly took the football from him. He tossed it back and forth in his hands a few times, spoke to the boy again, then gestured toward the center of the Common. For a moment the boy simply stared at him, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Then his feet flew, and he raced out to catch his first pass from the great Kevin Tucker.

She smiled. It had taken a few decades, but Kevin finally had a kid to play with at the Wind Lake Campgrounds.

Roo joined in the game of catch, yipping at their ankles and generally getting in the way, but neither of them seemed to mind. Cody was a little slow and endearingly awkward, but Kevin kept encouraging him.

"You've got a good arm for a twelve-year-old."

"I'm only nine."

"You're doing great for nine!"

Cody beamed and tried harder. His legs pumped as he ran after the ball, then tried unsuccessfully to duplicate Kevin's form when he tossed it back.

After nearly half an hour of this he finally began to tire, but Kevin was too caught up rewriting history to notice. "You're doing great, Cody. Just relax your arm and put your body into it."

Cody did his best to comply, but he began to dart yearning glances toward his cottage. Kevin, however, focused only on making sure this boy wouldn't suffer the same kind of loneliness he had.

"Hey, Molly!" he called out. "You see what a good arm my friend has here?"

"Yes, I see."

Cody's sneakers were starting to drag, and even Roo was looking tired. But Kevin remained oblivious.

Molly was just getting ready to intervene when the three O'Brian brothers—ages six, nine, and eleven, as she recalled—came running out from the woods behind Jacob's Ladder.

"Hey, Cody! Get your suit on. Our moms said we could go to the beach!"

Cody's face lit up.

Kevin looked thunderstruck. She really should have remembered to tell him that several of the families checking in yesterday had kids. She experienced a sudden, irrational hope that this somehow would make him change his mind about selling the place.

Cody hugged the football to his chest and looked uneasy.

"It's been nice playing with you, Mr. Tucker, but… uh… I have to go play with my friends now. If it's okay?" He edged away backward. "If you… can't find anybody else to play with, I guess—I guess I can come back later."

Kevin cleared his throat. "That's okay. You go on with your friends."

Cody was off like a shot with the three O'Brian boys following.

Kevin approached her slowly. He looked so disconcerted that Molly bit her lip to keep her smile within reasonable boundaries. "Roo'll play with you."

Roo whimpered and crawled under the gazebo.

She rose and walked to the bottom of the steps. "Okay, I'll play with you. But don't throw hard."

He shook his head in bewilderment. "Where did all these kids come from?"

"School's finally out. I told you they'd show up."

"But… how many are here?"

"The three O'Brian boys, and Cody has a baby sister. Two families have one teenage girl each."

He sank down on the step.

She held her amusement in check as she sat next to him. "You'll probably meet them all this afternoon. Tea in the gazebo will be a nice way to kick off a new week."

He didn't say anything, just gazed out at the Common.

She considered it a tribute to her maturity that only a small bubble of laughter escaped. "Sorry your playmate ran away."

He stubbed the heel of his sneaker in the grass. "I made a fool out of myself, didn't I?"

Her heart melted, and she rested her cheek against his shoulder. "Yes, but the world could use more fools like you. You're a very nice man."

He smiled down at her. She smiled back. And that's when it hit her.

This wasn't a crush at all. She'd fallen in love with him.

She was so horrified, she jerked away.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" She started to chatter to cover up her dismay. "There's another family. More children. Checking in today with… some kids. The Smiths. They didn't say how many—how many kids. Amy talked to them."

In love with Kevin Tucker! Please, not that! Hadn't she learned anything? She knew from her childhood how impossible it was to make someone love her, yet she'd once again fallen into that old, destructive pattern. What about all her dreams and hopes? What about her Great Love Story?

She felt like burying her head in her hands and crying. She wanted love, but he only wanted sex. He stirred beside her. She was glad of the distraction, and she followed the direction of his gaze across the Common. The O'Brian boys were chasing each other while they waited for Cody to change into his swim trunks. Two girls who looked as though they were about fourteen came walking up from the beach carrying a boom box. Kevin took in the kids, the boom box, the old trees, the sherbet-colored cottages.

"I can't believe this is the same place."

"It's not," she managed. "Things change." She cleared her throat and tried to block out her turmoil. "The woman you hired. Is she starting tomorrow?"

"She told me I had to fire Amy first."

"What? You can't! She's finishing all her work and doing everything you ask! Besides, that patronizing little twit's terrific with the guests." She shot up from the step. "I mean it, Kevin. You should make her cover up her hickeys, but you can't fire her."

He didn't respond.

Molly grew alarmed. "Kevin…"

"Relax, will you? Of course I'm not going to fire her. That's why that old biddy drove off in a huff."

"Thank God. What was her problem with Amy?"

"Apparently Amy and her daughter went to high school together and never got along. If her daughter's like her mother, I'm on Amy's side."

"You did the right thing."

"I guess. But this is a small town, and I've reached the end of a very short list. The college kids have all gone to work on Mackinac Island for the summer, and the kind of person I need to hire isn't interested in taking a job that's only going to last through September."

"That's your answer, then. Keep this place and make the job permanent."

"That's not going to happen, but I do have another idea." He stood and looked down at her, his eyes doing a sexy dance and his mouth curling in a smile. "Did I mention that you look real good naked?"

She shivered. "What idea?"

He spoke lower. "Do you have any animals on your panties today?"

"I forget."

"Then I guess I'll have to look."

"You will not!"

"Yeah? Who's gonna stop me?"

"You're lookin' at her, jock boy." She jumped from the top step and raced across the Common, glad for the excuse to run off her turmoil. But instead of heading toward the B&B, where the presence of the guests would keep her safe, she darted between the cottages and toward the woods where she'd be… unsafe.

Roo loved this new game and scampered after her, yipping with excitement. It occurred to her that Kevin might not be following, but she needn't have worried. He caught her at the edge of the path and pulled her into the woods.

"Stop it! Go away!" She slapped at his arm. "You promised you'd carry those card tables out to the gazebo."

"I'm not carrying anything until I see what's on your panties."

"It's Daphne, okay?"

"I'm supposed to believe you're wearing the same underpants you had on yesterday?"

"I have more than one pair."

"I think you're lying. I want to see for myself." He dragged her deeper into the pines. While Roo circled them barking, he reached for the snap on her shorts. "Quiet, Godzilla! There's some serious business going on here."

Roo obediently quieted.

She grabbed his wrists and pushed. "Get away."

"That's not what you were saying last night."

"Somebody'll see."

"I'll tell them a bee got you, and I'm taking out the stinger."

"Don't touch my stinger!" She grabbed for her shorts, but they were already heading for her knees. "Stop that!"

He peered down at her panties. "It's the badger. You lied to me."

"I wasn't paying attention when I got dressed."

"Hold still. I've just about found that stinger."

She heard herself sigh.

"Oh, yeah…" His body moved against hers. "There it is."

Half an hour later, just as they were emerging from the woods, a very familiar-looking Suburban came barreling around the Common. Kevin told himself it was just a coincidence as he watched it screech to a stop in front of the B&B, but then Roo barked and raced toward it.

Molly let out a squeal and began to run. The car doors opened, and a poodle that looked like Roo jumped out. Then came the kids. It seemed like a dozen, but it was only four, all of them Calebows who were rushing his not-so-estranged wife.

Dread pooled in the pit of his stomach. One thing he knew: Where there were Calebow kids, there were bound to be Calebow parents.

His steps slowed as the luscious blond owner of the Chicago Stars slithered from the driver's side of the car and her legendary husband emerged from the passenger side. The fact that Phoebe had been driving didn't surprise him. In this family, leadership seemed to shift back and forth according to circumstances. As he approached the car, he had an uneasy premonition neither of them would like the circumstances at Wind Lake.

What were those circumstances? For almost two weeks now he'd been acting crazed. Training camp was a little over a month away, but he was either laughing with Molly, getting mad at her, freezing her out, or seducing her. He hadn't watched any game film in days, and he wasn't working out enough. All he could think about was how much he loved being with her—this sassy, aggravating kid-woman who wasn't beautiful, silent, or undemanding, but a pain in the ass. And so much fun.

Why did she have to be Phoebe's sister? Why couldn't he have met her in a bar? He tried to imagine her in glitter eye shadow and a cellophane dress, but all he could see was the way she'd looked that morning in her underpants and his T-shirt. Her bare feet had been hooked over the rung of a chair, her pretty hair tousled around her face, and those wicked blue-gray eyes had shot trouble at him over the rim of a Peter Rabbit cup.

Now Molly hugged her nieces and nephew, apparently forgetting that her clothes were rumpled and she had pine needles in her hair. He didn't look much better, and any astute pair of eyes could see what they'd been up to.