Three Down the Aisle (5 page)

“I want you to do it,” Jessie insisted.
“Please!”

There was an unmistakable edge of hysteria in the little girl’s voice that caught Melanie by surprise. She glanced toward Mike.

“It’s okay,” he said. “If you don’t mind taking her, it might be easier. I’ll fill you in later.”

Melanie nodded. She smiled down at Jessie. “Okay, then. It looks as if you and I are on a mission, Jessie. Show me those seeds.”

When Jessie tugged her off in the direction of the seeds, Melanie glanced back and caught Mike’s expression. He looked almost as bewildered and dismayed as she felt.

“Over here,” Jessie said, giving Melanie’s hand another tug. “See? Look at all the pretty pictures.” She headed straight for a selection of vegetable seeds. She studied them as intently as another child might contemplate a video choice, then gave a little sigh.

“Is something wrong?” Melanie asked.

“I like these,” Jessie admitted, “’cause you can see what they’ll look like.”

“Is there a problem with that?”

“Daddy says the best ones are over there, in those bins,” Jessie explained. “There aren’t any pictures, so how can you tell if you’ll like them?”

“Experience,” Melanie said. “I imagine farmers know which ones produce the best crops, so they don’t need to see a picture every time.” Melanie took her over to the bins of seeds. “See, right here it says these seeds are for Silver Queen corn. I’ve had that, and it’s the sweetest and best ever. I don’t need to see a picture to know it’s good.”

Jessie regarded her with wide eyes. “We could grow corn?”

Melanie laughed at her amazement. “If you have enough room in your garden, you can.”

“Daddy never said that, and we’ve got lots and lots of room. I want some of those seeds,” she said at once.

Melanie filled a small bag for her, then labeled it. “Now what?”

“Read me another sign,” Jessie commanded. “One for beans.”

Melanie found several bins of bean seeds and read the labels.

Jessie peered at them worriedly. “Which ones do you think the bunnies will like best?”

“I imagine they’ll be happy with whichever ones you choose,” she said honestly. “But I’d pick these.”

“Okay,” Jessie said readily, reaching for the scoop and a bag that was way too big.

“Whoa!” Melanie protested. “Not so many. You just need a few.”

“But I told you, we got lots and lots of bunnies.”

“Even so, a few seeds will give you more than enough beans.” She handed the child a small bag. “Fill this one up. Then let’s go and find your dad.”

When they found Mike, he was pushing a cart overflowing with small plants and shrubs. Melanie eyed it warily. “You’ve gone a little overboard, haven’t you? We never talked about planting bushes.”

He laughed. “I do have other jobs,” he told her. “Some people actually hire me to do this.”

“Of course,” she said at once, chagrined. “Is any of that for me?”

“I picked out some perennials for you. I went by what I saw in the picture. These are hollyhocks,” he said, showing her a half-dozen plants. “And summer phlox.” He gestured toward a larger plant. “Foxglove. And back here are some daylilies we can plant in clusters. It’s not much, but it’s a start. I didn’t want to get too much until we’ve cleaned out more of the weeds and gotten some decent topsoil in there.” He met her gaze. “What do you think?”

“That I’m completely out of my element.”

“Which is why I’ll be around,” he said. “That is, if you want my help.”

She gave him a wry look. “I think we can both agree that it’s going to be a necessity. We’ll have to discuss your fees, though.”

“No charge,” he said at once.

“Mike, that’s not right. You’re a professional. I have to pay you.”

He returned her look with a stubborn gaze. “Let’s just say you’ve earned at least one afternoon of my time.”

She gave him a perplexed look. “How?”

He nodded toward Jessie, who was sitting on the edge of the large cart contentedly counting out the bean seeds. “Keeping her occupied was a huge help to me.”

“But all I did was help her pick out some seeds,” Melanie protested.

“Which you apparently managed to do without her having a tantrum,” Mike said. “I’ve never once accomplished that. In case you haven’t noticed, Jessie can be headstrong.”

“Most kids can be,” Melanie said. “It just takes a little finesse to work around that.”

“Finesse and patience,” Mike corrected. “Sometimes I’m woefully lacking in both. Let’s just say I’m grateful and leave it at that, okay?”

Melanie studied him and thought she detected sincere appreciation in his eyes. She wasn’t entirely sure she understood it, but it was clear he thought he owed her.

“Thank you,” she said at last. “I know wherever she is, my grandmother thanks you, too.”

He chuckled. “And Lord knows I can use an angel looking out for me. Now let’s pay for this stuff and get out of here while peace reigns.”

“How about I treat us all to ice cream on the way home?” Melanie offered.

Jessie’s head shot up. “Chocolate?”

“If that’s what you want,” Melanie agreed. “And if your dad says it’s okay.”

Mike grinned. “You’ll never hear me saying no to ice cream, especially not chocolate, right, Jess?”

“That’s ’cause it’s the bestest,” Jessie said solemnly.

“I agree,” Melanie said. She leaned down. “You know how it’s best of all?”

“How?”

“With hot fudge on top,” Melanie said.

Mike groaned, even as Jessie’s eyes lit up.

“Sundaes!” Jessie shouted.

“
You
are cleaning up the mess,” Mike warned Melanie, his expression dire.

“No problem,” Melanie said cheerfully.

He gave her a long, hard look, then chuckled. “That’s what you think.”

M
ike couldn’t get over the fact that Jessie seemed to have taken such an instant liking to Melanie. She’d been on her best behavior for most of the day. He knew from bitter experience, though, that her good mood could end in a heartbeat. Even as he parked in front of the ice cream shop, he had this gut-deep sense of dread that they were testing his daughter’s limits.

Still, once Melanie had mentioned ice cream, there had been no way to bow out of the excursion gracefully. That would have caused a scene, no question about it.

On the entire trip back to town from the nursery, Jessie had debated whether she wanted whipped cream and a cherry on top of her sundae. To her credit Melanie had shown endless patience with the drawn-out discussion. In fact, she’d seemed equally eager to decide on the merits of the extra toppings. Most people would have jumped screaming from the car after the first ten
minutes. Hell, Mike was about ready to leap from the moving vehicle himself.

“Have you two decided yet?” he asked hopefully as they went inside. Thankfully the weather was cool enough that not too many people were interested in ice cream to beat the heat. The three of them had the place almost to themselves. He’d been here far too many times when the line had been long and Jessie hadn’t been able to make up her mind which flavor she wanted. The decision-making process had taxed his patience, as well as that of most of the people in line behind them.

“I’m having chocolate ice cream and lots and lots of whipped cream on my hot-fudge sundae,” Melanie said at once. “How about you, Jessie?”

“Me, too,” The six-year-old responded eagerly, looking to Melanie for approval.

“Good choice,” Melanie praised. “How about you, Mike?”

Stunned by the success of her clever tactic, he said, “Let’s make it easy and make it three. You two find a table and I’ll get the ice cream.”

“No way,” Melanie said. “This was my idea and my treat.”

Jessie peered up at her. “But boys always pay when they take girls on a date, right, Daddy?”

“This isn’t a date,” Melanie said a little too firmly.

Her quick response made Mike all the more determined to act as if it were. “Close enough,” he insisted, then gazed into her eyes. “Unless you want to arm wrestle me for the honors.” He deliberately flexed his muscle, barely containing a grin as her eyes locked on his arm.

“Show-off,” Melanie muttered, tearing her gaze away with unmistakable reluctance. “I won’t create a scene
and humiliate you by taking you on.” She lifted her gaze to his. “But we will debate this later.”

He nodded. He had a hunch he’d pushed the limits of her independent streak today. There was a spark of fire in her eyes that he’d never noticed before. He figured that had to be a good thing, given her apparent despondency and lack of interest when they’d first met, but it was probably something he didn’t want to stir up too often.

Melanie led Jessie to a table and got her seated with an ease that once again surprised him. Maybe what Jessie had needed all along was a mother’s touch. Maybe he was the one at fault all this time, the cause of her tantrums. Lord knew he’d made a lot of blunders while he’d been getting a grip on being a single dad.

But even as the thought occurred to him, Mike knew he was being foolish. Melanie was merely a novelty. She was giving Jessie the kind of undivided attention the child craved. His daughter’s good behavior had nothing to do with Melanie’s parenting skills versus his own, he reassured himself.

But as reasonable as that explanation was, he still found it irritating that Melanie seemed to have some sort of knack for calming his daughter. Realizing he was actually jealous of the woman, instead of being grateful and admiring, he bit back a curse at his own stupidity.

When he arrived at the table with the ice cream, Jessie was chattering like a little magpie about school and her friends. Mike learned more in five minutes than he had on a dozen rides home. Once again that nasty little trace of resentment crept over him, but he forced it back down and concentrated instead on his sundae.

“I dropped it!”

Out of the blue, Jessie’s voice rose to a wail, drawing the attention of everyone in the shop.

“It’s okay,” Melanie murmured, wiping up the spoonful of ice cream that had fallen into Jessie’s lap before Mike could react.

“No, it’s all ruined,” Jessie insisted, throwing her spoon across the room. “I hate ice cream.”

She was about to knock her bowl from the table, when Mike snatched it out of reach.

“That’s enough,” he said firmly.

“But it’s mine,” Jessie screamed, trying to hit him.

For just an instant, Melanie looked stunned by the unexpected burst of temper. Mike waited for her to announce a sudden need for a trip to the bathroom or some other escape, but instead, she calmly pushed her own bowl of ice cream away.

“I’ve had enough, too,” she said as if more than half of her sundae weren’t still in the bowl. “Jessie, why don’t you and I go outside and wait for your dad?”

Mike started to protest, but she gave a slight shake of her head.

“Come on, Jessie. I think I saw some really cool books in the store next door. Want to go look at them?”

Jessie sniffed and blinked back tears, clearly torn between escalating her tantrum and the offer of a trip to the bookstore. She looked at Mike as if he might say something that would tilt the decision one way or another. Instead, taking his cue from Melanie, he simply waited silently for Jessie to make up her mind.

Eventually she scrambled out of her chair and tucked her hand in Melanie’s. “Can I get a book about crabs?” she asked hopefully.

“If they have one,” Melanie promised.

Jessie beamed. “They do. It’s a whole series. I have two, but there are more.”

“Then we’ll find one,” Melanie said.

And then they were gone. Mike stared after them, not sure whether to sigh or laugh. He couldn’t very well allow Melanie to bribe his daughter every time she threatened to throw a tantrum, but he had to admit that it had worked like a charm just now.

Or maybe it wasn’t the promise of a bribe at all, but simply the distraction. Melanie had taken Jessie’s attention off of her frustration and focused it on something else. Maybe there was a lesson for him in that, if he wasn’t too busy feeling jealous to learn it.

He contemplated that as he slowly ate the rest of his sundae, barely tasting it but enjoying the brief reprieve. How had a single woman gained so much insight into his daughter in such a short time, when he spent most of his life being totally at a loss?

It was the novelty of it, he concluded once more. It had to be. Melanie could have endless patience because this was the first time she’d had to deal with Jessie’s whims. His own patience was threadbare. Maybe he and his daughter needed to take more breaks from each other, but he’d avoided leaving her with sitters, mostly out of guilt. Without a mother in her life, Jessie needed his constant attention—or so he’d convinced himself. Could it be that he’d been wrong about that? Had she needed to be exposed to more people and more social situations than he’d permitted?

Whatever it was that gave Melanie such endless patience, he was grateful. Too bad she wasn’t sticking around. Summer was just around the corner, and he was in desperate need of day care. He’d hire Melanie in a heartbeat, if she were willing. Jessie had pretty much
worn out her welcome at every child-care center in the region, and taking her with him on jobs had proved to be frustrating for both of them.

The temptation to broach the subject anyway was almost too great to resist. What stopped him was the realization that it wasn’t all about Jessie. He’d been more at peace today than he had been in a long time. There was something soothing about Melanie’s company that worked its magic on him as well as his daughter.

And sharing the responsibility of caring for Jessie, even for a few hours, had shown him what life might have been like if things had turned out differently with Linda. He’d gotten a taste of being a real family, and the pitiful truth was, he’d liked it.

Was it possible that he’d been waiting all these years for someone like Melanie to come along? Someone who’d take them both on?

No, he said staunchly. Absolutely not!

But even as he mentally uttered the disclaimers, he could hear that they weren’t ringing the least bit true. On some level, something had shifted today. Seeing Melanie had stopped being all about fixing up the Rose Cottage garden and had somehow gotten to be about healing his and Jessie’s wounded hearts.

Jessie was a complicated and troubled little girl. Melanie had picked up on that even before Mike had hinted at it. The tantrum at the end of a long day wasn’t that unusual, but there’d been plenty of other signs, including the way Mike tiptoed around his daughter as if he’d do just about anything to avoid an outburst. Naturally Jessie, being a smart kid, had caught on to that, and she knew just how to play him and his single-dad guilt.

Despite all the problems, Melanie couldn’t help being
charmed by the six-year-old. She hadn’t been around many children, but she’d discovered today that she loved the way Jessie’s mind worked, the way her imagination knew no bounds. It was also a boon to her wounded pride to have the little girl regard her with undisguised adoration.

Of course, Melanie warned herself, it wasn’t healthy to get too attached or to allow Jessie to become too attached to her. This was a one-time outing, not the start of something.

Still, she couldn’t help liking the way Jessie snuggled against her as they sat on the floor in the children’s section of the bookstore and pored over the selections.

“I like this one best,” Jessie said, after they’d looked at a dozen or more choices. “Are you sure I can have it?”

“Absolutely. It’s a present,” Melanie said.

Jessie studied her worriedly. “You and my daddy are friends, right?”

“Yes,” Melanie said, not sure why that was relevant.

“Then it’s okay,” Jessie concluded happily. “I couldn’t take it if you were a stranger.”

Ah! “No, you couldn’t,” Melanie agreed. “But we can check with your dad, if that would make you feel better.”

Jessie eyed the book with longing. “He might say no,” she said hesitantly.

“Leave your father to me,” Melanie told her with a confidence she had no right to feel. She’d taken a lot for granted today. The mere fact that she’d insisted on bringing Jessie to the bookstore to avert a tantrum was probably more interference than some would have tolerated. But after an initial show of reluctance, Mike had actually
looked relieved. She had a hunch he’d been at his wit’s end with Jessie for some time now.

Suddenly Jessie jumped up and bolted, clutching the book. “Daddy, look at the present Melanie’s getting me!”

Melanie gazed up into Mike’s turbulent eyes and guessed that she’d overstepped. “It’s just a book. And she read me the first page all by herself, so I thought she deserved it.”

His gaze faltered at that. He hunkered down in front of Jessie. “You read the whole first page?”

“Uh-huh. Want to hear?”

“Absolutely.”

She plopped right down on the floor in the middle of the aisle and opened the book on her lap. “Chadwick,” she began, then looked at her father. “Remember him, Daddy? He’s the crab.”

Mike grinned, pride shining in his eyes. “I remember.”

Jessie went on to read an entire sentence, slowly but without a single mistake. She gazed up at Mike. “Is that right?”

His smile spread. “Absolutely perfect. I guess the book is yours, but I’m buying it.” He pulled some money from his pocket and gave it to her. “You take it up front where I can see you and pay for it.”

“Okay,” Jessie said happily and ran off.

“I would have bought it,” Melanie told him. “I’m the one who made the deal with her.”

“I know, but it’s better this way.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want her to start to count on you.”

“It’s a book, Mike, not a commitment.”

He regarded her with troubled eyes. “Not to Jessie.
Don’t make promises to her, Melanie. Not when you’re leaving.”

Suddenly she understood. “You’re comparing me to her mother.”

His expression turned dark. “You’re nothing like Linda,” he said bitterly. “But you will leave. You’ve told me that yourself. I have to protect her from that kind of disappointment. Kids tend to think abandonment is all about them, no matter how often you tell them otherwise.”

He walked away before she could think of anything to say. Besides, it wasn’t the time or the place to pursue the subject, so Melanie simply followed him as he went after Jessie.

They drove back to her house in silence. Jessie had fallen asleep in the back seat, so Mike left her there and unloaded the plants quickly.

“Keep ’em watered till we can get them into the ground,” he said when everything was out of the back of the truck. “I’ll be by to help when I have some time.”

“Sure,” she said. “Thanks for taking me along today.”

He gave her a curt nod, then strode back to the car and drove off, leaving Melanie to stare after him and wonder about the woman who’d hurt him so badly he didn’t trust Melanie not to do the same. Worse, she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t. The only way to be sure was to avoid getting involved with him and Jessie in the first place.

Melanie wasn’t all that surprised when Mike showed up on her doorstep on Monday morning, most likely right after dropping Jessie off at school.

“Do you have a minute?” he asked, looking vaguely uneasy.

“Sure. Come on in. I just made coffee. Want some?”

“Coffee sounds great.”

He took a seat at the kitchen table, but when Melanie had handed him his mug of coffee and seated herself across from him, he avoided her gaze. She could have let the silence go on, but it was beginning to get on her nerves.

“I suppose you came by to warn me again about getting too close to Jessie,” she said. “I’ve thought about it, and I can see your point.”

“Actually I came to apologize,” he said, meeting her gaze. “I made it seem as if you’d done something wrong, when you’d been nothing but kind to her all day long. Most people wouldn’t have jumped in to take charge when she was about to throw a tantrum. They’d have run for the hills.”