No way in hell! Not his Lana!
He tossed aside the magazine, shoved to his feet, and made it one step in Lana’s direction before he stumbled back into his chair which almost flipped him backward into the sewing machine.
There she was—it was his Lana. He knew it was. But he barely recognized her despite that.
The blond girl who looked so sharp in her black and white track outfit was gone. As was the sad girl, as devastated by her mother’s abrupt departure as he’d been. In her place wasn’t some under-clothed vixen. It was Lana, become herself. She’d blossomed into a version of herself he’d never imagined.
Her dress was the graffiti-laden fabric he’d watched Kari working with just moments before. It was purple, with pale-orange lettering that looked hand painted. Quotes of great thinkers, silly faces, and words like: strength, passion, joy. It should have been garish—would have been if the shades and tones hadn’t been so carefully selected—instead it was pure teen chic.
It hung loosely without hiding that she was lean and fit. Below a narrow belt that made a tight gather at the waist, it flowed to mid-thigh. No slutty tease of a neckline about to slide off her shoulder, the sleeves added a softness that belied the hard lines of her dead straight hair and tall figure.
Calf-high boots in a cobalt blue shouldn’t have worked, but the tone matched the small purse slung low across her body on a thin strap and made her eyes shine. The only adornment, a thick copper bracelet tied her outfit together.
It wasn’t sexy. It wasn’t lurid.
But it also wasn’t his little girl. It was a confident woman who was no longer afraid and no longer cowed by a mother’s betrayal. Powerful in herself.
He staggered to his feet and went up to her, stopping half a step away.
“Daddy?” Lana asked him uncertainly. She hadn’t called him that in a long time.
“You’re magnificent.” He didn’t know what else to say to her. Didn’t know how to say how proud he was of her, so grown and so strong. So he did the only thing he could think of, he folded her into his arms and held her as tightly as he used to hold a little girl afraid of the dark.
He mouthed a thank you to Tammy who was doing a little victory dance.
Then he looked at Kari. She had her back to him, but kept wiping at her eyes, her hand coming away wet.
7
“A date?” Kari grabbed Tammy by the shoulders and shook her. “What am I going to do? Richard wants to take me out on a date.”
“Cool!”
“Don’t Cool! me, girl.”
“Why are you so wound up? Do you like him?”
Kari dropped onto a stool. It was evening, rain pattered against the darkened windows. The store and studio were empty, still echoing with Lana and Richard’s most recent visit. She and Tammy were the last ones here, waiting for Perrin to get back from her doctor’s checkup.
“Well?” Tammy stood in front of her with her fists planted on her hips like a school marm.
“Can you tell me one thing not to like?” She waved a hand helplessly. Over the last few weeks, father and daughter had come in several times. Kari had watched them closely. And it was as if he was rediscovering his daughter all over again. Tammy had made Lana look chic, smart, sassy, modest, and amazing in turn, without once hitting what Perrin called the “Slut Button.”
Throughout the fittings, Richard kept revealing facets of how deeply he cared about his daughter’s happiness. He hadn’t cried when Lana tried on about the most amazing prom dress Kari had ever seen, but he’d come close.
Then he’d taken Tammy’s hand and shook it with great respect. And when he’d taken Kari’s hand, he’d asked her out on a date. She never even saw it coming.
“Well,” Tamara finally answered her. “Dad likes him. Jasp and I have known him since forever. Jasp worships him.”
“Leave your little brother out of this.” Jasper Cullen was way too smart about people for a twelve-year-old boy.
“Richard is really nice to him. He’s always teaching Jasp lighting design stuff or letting him run the control board or something. I thought you’d like him. And he’s a real hunk for a grown up.”
Kari eyed Tammy.
“You thought I’d like him?”
Tammy’s jaw dropped, but she recovered it with a quick shrug and a sheepish grin, though not very sheepish, “Oops!”
“So this wasn’t about Lana? You set me up?” Kari felt an anger rising, but not very strongly. It was hard to be angry after seeing father and daughter together. After the last fitting, Lana had given both she and Tammy a huge hug before walking out holding her dad’s hand.
“I gotta help Lana with Francis. You see, if I do, then she promised to get Tony to ask me to—” Tammy clamped her mouth shut, slapped a hand over it, and blushed so fiercely that her golden skin went several shades darker.
Kari raised her eyebrows in question, torn between horror and laughter.
“You can’t tell Perrin or Dad,” Tammy mumbled through her hand. “She might be cool with it, but Dad would freak.”
“I’ll keep quiet under two conditions.”
Tammy nodded carefully. She was just as much a matchmaker as Perrin. Kari had seen Perrin do it to others. Kari already had dodged a couple of Perrin’s attempts. She didn’t want to be set up, she just wanted to…meet the right guy. But she hadn’t been watching out for Perrin’s daughter; even though not related by blood the imp was equally dangerous.
“First condition, if anything happens with Tony that you aren’t comfortable going to Perrin with, you come to me. That’s not optional.”
Tammy nodded but didn’t remove her hand from over her mouth.
“Second condition, I have no idea what to wear. You have to help me. Deal?”
“Total deal! I already picked it out. C’mon,” Tammy grabbed her hand and dragged her toward the front of the store.
Yep. A complete and absolute setup.
8
“Why here?” Kari felt as if she was crouching under the umbrella in order to disappear rather than merely to stay out of the rain. And she never should have let Tammy talk her into heels; she had to clutch Richard’s arm to not go down on the wet cobblestones of Pike Place Market. Or had that too been Tammy’s plan.
Oh no!
“Wait, don’t tell me. Your daughter said something like, ‘Tammy told me about this amazing Italian restaurant named Angelo’s’.”
Richard’s laugh was warm and welcoming, deep enough she could feel it rumbling about under the umbrella they crowded close to share. “I believe that’s a direct quote. Why?”
Kari sighed and indicated for him to open the restaurant door, “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you over dinner.”
They stepped in and Graziella greeted them, “Ciao, Kari. I didn’t know you were coming.”
Kari smiled back at the hostess. “Or you wouldn’t have if Tammy hadn’t already called you.”
Graziella’s smile didn’t even flicker as she shrugged, “Oh, there might have been something about saving the nicest table, the one that sits close by the fireplace. But I wouldn’t know anything about that.” She took their coats, which raised a whole other issue.
“Oh my god!” Richard simply stared at her.
The dress Tammy had chosen from the rack had been a simple drape of dark blue with a copper-red trim that accented lines and curves. It suggested and implied without revealing. It wasn’t blatantly sexy, because somehow Tammy knew she wouldn’t be comfortable in anything that was. But it certainly showed her figure to its very best possible form. It was a dress that she’d sewn dozens of for Perrin’s customers, but had never thought to try on for herself.
Graziella winked and escorted them in. Richard took her arm to escort her…after stumbling a bit, in a very satisfying manner.
“You look amazing,” his breath
was a warm whisper in her ear as he pulled out her seat.
“I’m guessing that’s your one suit, but you look pretty amazing in it yourself.” She wasn’t sure she’d ever sat across from such a handsome man before.
“Lady’s smart as well as gorgeous,” Richard was studying her face intently.
Kari wanted to brush at her hair, but Tammy had insisted she should leave it loose over her bare shoulders.
“I’m guessing you’ve been here before.”
Kari looked around at the cozy Tuscan elegance. The fire was already warming away Seattle’s damp evening chill. She wanted to wrap herself up here and never leave. The air was scented with basil and citrus and red sauce. The music was a bright Italian dancing tune, lively but soft enough to be comforting.
“My first time. This is a little out of my range. But we get together for these amazing dinners every week at the owner’s mother’s apartment. Perrin is best friends with the owner’s wife and his mother.” It was one of the true tests of a man or woman entering the “circle,” how they fit in at Mama Maria’s dinners. Kari expected that Richard would be as hand to glove.
“So,” Richard reached across the table and took her hand. The warmth that spread through her didn’t only come from the fire.
“You were going to tell me a story about a conspiracy involving two teenage girls.”
Kari smiled, “You’re clever, Richard Nyberg. Figure it out and I’ll tell you where you go off track.”
9
Richard didn’t realize quite how smart he was.
Not that first night when they had eaten pappardelle and laughed and flirted.
Not the fifth night when they had tumbled into his bed and both wept with the wonder of discovery.
His introduction to the entire crowd at Maria’s had been a huge shock and a wonderful one. Against his better judgment, he’d brought Lana as well—that was when he learned just how pointless it was to argue against a pair of fifteen-year-old girls with a plan. He’d been overwhelmed, but he’d watched Lana drink it in like a tonic. She needed family and friends—thrived on it.
By the time he took both gals—his daughter and his lover—back to Angelo’s Tuscan Hearth Ristorante several months later, he thought maybe he was getting a little wiser. And maybe his daughter wasn’t the only one who needed family. A whole family, with a woman who truly wanted to be there for them.
He’d watched the bond grow between Lana and Kari over Tammy’s continuing fashion experiments. Richard had come to enjoy the sessions when he could get away to watch.
Tammy’s eye was very good, but sometimes it just flat out missed. Every now and then he’d be witness to his daughter the goof or the nerd—though Tammy thought that a few of the “failure” looks might work on another model. A couple of times the clothes had edged too far toward racy for his taste, but Kari had insisted these were safely conservative.
When he’d been dumb enough to argue, Kari had taken him to hang out by the parking lot a couple of times when high school let out—thankfully not his daughter’s so he could retain some illusions. Then she took him to a Nickelback rock concert with the two girls—and two boys who he hadn’t counted on but rather liked by the end—and even those few vague illusions had disappeared. He’d stopped arguing with Tammy’s taste level after that.
Lana had also taken to using the sewing machine beside Kari. Her first efforts were…first efforts. But she learned. She didn’t have Tammy’s eye, but she learned to sew, to fit, and eventually to craft.
That was the unique thing that Kari brought to her work. She brought craft. That came from passion. And she had a passion that flowed through her work with Tammy, her patience with Lana, and the way she always shared so openly with him.
Tonight he had a beautiful woman on each arm as they arrived at Angelo’s. The brightly lit ferry boats slid across Puget Sound looking like floating birthday cakes. He held the door and bowed for the women to proceed him.
Kari blushed and Lana giggled.
As he and Graziella took their coats, Richard could only marvel. Kari, who had revealed her casual side on most occasions, was once again dressed to kill. Instead of a classic simple black dress, it had been a simple, sleek red one—a dark dusky red that offset and warmed her skin. Open neck, sleeveless, and ending mid-thigh. A copper bangle on one wrist reminded him of that first dress; he’d wager it was a Tammy touch intended to do precisely that. In this dress, Kari wasn’t merely gorgeous, she was also as warm and welcoming as the Tuscan ambiance.
Lana was dressed back in that first look that Tammy had made for her. She was wrapped again in words of strength, joy, and—across the top of either shoulder—passion. He’d questioned that word on his daughter’s body the first time. He didn’t any longer. Her wrist bangle matched Kari’s. The two women looked incredible together.
They sat back at the fireside table; this time he had been the one to make the request. It was a table for two, but it didn’t matter—he pulled a third chair up to the side with his daughter to his left and Kari to his right.
As close as family.
10
Tonight was different. Kari could feel it, and it wasn’t merely that they were at Angelo’s or that they were together. The three of them had eaten together dozens of times: at Richard’s house, at restaurants, or huddled backstage at the opera among lighting instruments and cables when Richard couldn’t get away for more than a few minutes.
Kari had found her hopes and her dreams, but she couldn’t ask for them to come true. Richard and Lana were the family unit—something far too precious, too fragile to risk. It was in such perfect balance that she only dared sit on the outside and dream of being inside.
Like her clothing designs that had never excelled. She could breathe life into Tammy’s ideas, create an exciting collaboration, but she couldn’t go off on her own and find success. She was meant to be a part of something else, something bigger. But she didn’t know how to get there from where she was.
“Kari,” Richard’s voice was a warm caress. It reminded her of how it felt every single time he held her, or she held him. It was hard to tell holder from holdee anymore; had been since the beginning.
His voice was also rough as if he was having trouble speaking.
“Yes?” She tried to take strength from the moment, but just as when she’d sat with Perrin the moment before she’d been promoted to help create Tammy’s design label, the nerves were winning.
Richard opened his mouth again, but no sound came out. He cleared his throat. Sipped some water.
Lana rolled her eyes at him.
Finally, it was Lana who reached across the table and took Kari’s hands which were chilled with nerves she could no longer hide.
“Dad will recover soon enough. I think it’s kind of fun that women can have that effect on boys, don’t you?”
Kari nodded, unsure what they were talking about. Richard affected her the same way; speechless with the wonder of the man.
“I don’t want a mom.”
And now Kari knew. It was a death knell that rang inside her. Those foolish family dreams that had been fluttering about in her head a moment ago, sank leaden into her stomach.
“But I could really use a friend.”
“What?” The word stumbled out. She was suddenly feeling stupid.
“Having a mom didn’t work so well. But I think you’re great and once Dad recovers, he’ll tell you that he loves you.”
“Lana!” He managed a protest.
Kari glanced at Richard. She knew that look on his face. It was the look of seeing his daughter truly herself for the first time, or the shock over the scantily clad teens at concerts; the look of total confusion.
Lana didn’t look at her father, but her grin turned about as wicked as Tammy’s.
“Frankly, I think you two should have another kid, just th
e way Perrin did. I’d probably think of her like more of a niece or something than as a sister, but I’d be cool with it if you decide. I just wanted you to know.”
Lana let go of her hands with a final squeeze.
Kari was still trying to catch up.
And then she’d remembered Tammy’s question when Kari had agreed to help with her clothing line. One word that had covered a world of hope and joy.
She turned to Richard who still appeared to be stunned speechless by the daughter who had inherited her frankness directly from her father.
Taking confidence from Lana’s encouraging nod, Kari was the one to reach out and take Richard’s hand.
“Really?” she asked as loudly as she could manage, which was little more than a whisper.
He nodded.
“Say you love her, Dad,” Lana prompted.
He nodded again.
Then he clamped down on Kari’s hand as if to make sure she wouldn’t leave before he recovered his power of speech.
Not a chance.
Now that she knew where she belonged, she wasn’t going anywhere.
Christmas at Henderson’s Ranch
I should have seen this coming, I really should have…
The two leaders of The Night Stalkers series, Emily Beale and Mark Henderson, also became the founders of my Firehawks series. I knew they had hired a nanny to take care of their child while they fought fires, but I didn’t give it any more thought.
When I set out to write Christmas at Henderson’s Ranch, it was just a small story. Beale and Henderson often talked about visiting Mark’s family ranch and I thought it would be fun to see it at Christmas time.
I should know by now that such stories are never that simple.
The ranch manager is gobsmacked the very second that the nanny steps off the plane. Suddenly these two background characters stepped to the fore. Instead of a quiet story set in a Montana ranch lodge around a warm fire and a fresh-cut Christmas tree, I had a prairie-crossing adventure on my hands with helicopters, horses, and all sorts of amazing adventures.
The Ides of Matt 2015 Page 24
