The Man With The Money

by Arlene James

  The luxury sedan rocked over the rough ground and came to rest between a fifteen-year-old pickup with flaking paint and Charly’s own sensible, fuel-efficient import. Watching from the sidelines, she knew who it was even before Darren Rudd squeezed out of the car in the limited space. She felt a jolt of anticipation mingled with wariness the instant before an exuberant, near-sighted munchkin in baggy jeans and T-shirt bowled her over. At the impact, she stumbled backward and sat down hard. The child landed on top of her. The next thing Charly knew, she was staring up at blue sky, wondering how it was possible to drown on dry land, for, try as she might, she could not pull oxygen into her lungs.

  Suddenly the weight on her chest lifted away, and fresh, fortifying air rushed in. Then a number of faces came into view, most of them small and worried, one of them handsome and rather amused. Small, grubby hands patted her shoulders and head.

  “Miss Charly! Miss Charly!”

  Ponce shoved his way through the mob of children and fell on his knees at her side, his big black eyes revealing his fear. Curls bobbing, he leaned over her, the angelic features of his face striking her anew with sheer awe. He was a Michelangelo sculpture with café au lait skin and a froth of light, reddish brown curls that must surely hide a halo.

  “Mommy!”

  Charly fought up onto both elbows and found a smile for him, her heart swelling with love. “I’m okay, sweetie.”

  “Just had the wind knocked out of her, I think,” Darren Rudd said. Charly switched her gaze to him just as he let go of the child he’d scooped off her.

  The boy pushed his thick, too-wide glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. They slid right down again, and Charly made a mental note to buy the kid an elastic sport band to hold them in place. “I’m sorry, Ms. Charly.”

  “That’s okay, Calvin. No harm done. I was just about to call a break, anyway.” She sat up, and Darren Rudd offered her a hand, which she clasped without actually looking at him. He hauled her to her feet with athletic ease. Keeping her face averted so he couldn’t see her blush, she swiped at the surely grass-stained seat of her gray shorts, pushed up the sleeves of her white sweatshirt and addressed her team. “Guys, this is Mr. Rudd. He represents our sponsor, RuCom Electronics.”

  “Do you have one a’ them remote cars?” asked the tallest player, Kental, his black face shining.

  “Uh, I have one in my office,” Darren answered after a moment.

  “Man, them remote cars is cool,” Kental said to the dark-haired little girl next to him.

  “Juan gots one,” she crowed, referring to her older brother.

  “Uh-uh. The kind I mean costs a whole bunch.”

  “Mama bought it at the RuCom store!” Maria insisted.

  “Did not!”

  “Did, too!”

  “Kental, Maria,” Charly interrupted firmly, one hand idly massaging her sore abdomen, “we’re not here to discuss our toys. We have important matters to decide. We have to have a name for our team, and Mr. Rudd has come to help us decide on one. Now I’m open to suggestions. Anyone have any ideas?”

  The kids all looked at one another. Some shrugged. Others shook their heads. Then someone suggested, “Electrics! How ’bout the Electrics?”

  “It’s electronics, goofy,” Ponce explained. “RuCom Electronics, like computers and stuff.”

  “The Co’puters!” someone else cried.

  “How about the Comets?” Darren suggested mildly. “The RuCom Comets.”

  The kids looked at one another in question and confusion. “What’s a comet?” asked Sarah, pushing stringy blond hair from her eyes. Sarah was missing a tooth, and Charly was convinced that no four-year-old lost a tooth to natural causes, but Sarah clammed up whenever Charly asked what had happened.

  Charly bent down to bring her face closer to Sarah’s, smoothed a hand over her none-too-clean hair and explained, “It’s like a shooting star, honey, a big fireball that streaks across the sky. It’s real fast and real hot.”

  Kental nodded approval at Ponce, who nodded back. Calvin swaggered, thumped his chest and said, “Shootin’ star.” Maria giggled, and Sarah smiled her gap-toothed smile. Murmurs of “cool” and “sweet” went from one little mouth to another.

  “So what do you think?” Darren asked. “Is it the Comets, or does someone have another suggestion?”

  “Show of hands,” Charly directed. “Everyone gets to vote. In favor of calling our team the Comets, raise your hand. Against it, keep your hands down.” About twenty little hands went up, some voting twice. “The Comets it is,” Charly announced with a clap of her hands. The kids cheered as she turned to Darren Rudd. He was even more handsome than she remembered. The dark hair waving back from his forehead and temples called attention to those deeply set brown eyes. His angular jaw and chin bore the shadow of a beard that glinted rusty brown in the waning sunlight.

  “I’ll let the commissioner know tonight,” she told him. “Thanks for coming by, but you don’t have to hang around. I’m sure you have better things to do.”

  He shrugged. “Nope, not really.” He smiled, and his gaze scanned speculatively down her body. Heat blossomed instantly in embarrassing places.

  Quickly turning away, she clapped her hands at the children. “Okay, back on the field! Back on the field!” The kids ran to obey, bouncing off one another in the process. “Ponce, will you get the ball, please?”

  Ponce ran down the field and gathered up the single soccer ball while Charly attempted to set up a shooting drill. She wasn’t entirely sure what the objective was beyond connecting foot with ball, but she figured if they could accomplish that much, it would be an improvement. They seemed to have better luck kicking one another than the ball. She tried not to think of Darren Rudd watching with folded arms from the sideline as she placed the ball and directed Maria, who always seemed to manage to be first in line, to take a short run and boot the ball. She spent several minutes after that comforting the child, who had managed only to kick herself off her feet and land flat on her back, bouncing her little skull off the hard ground.

  When the first parents began to show up to retrieve their children, some walking from a nearby public housing sector and past several other soccer fields, Charly had accomplished little with the team and was somehow exhausted in the bargain. It was like herding geese. Their attention spans were shorter than she had realized, Ponce being the obvious exception, and while she worked with one, the others naturally scattered in pairs and trios to chase and tussle, draw in the dirt and even throw it. Charly was too busy to even think about Darren Rudd—until she turned, an arm draped about Ponce’s small, narrow shoulders, and headed toward the sideline.

  There he stood, talking to Kental and his mother, one large hand on Kental’s shoulder. The boy smiled up at him, rapture on his thin face. Kental’s mother shook Rudd’s hand, then turned away, tugging her son after her. Kental skipped happily, literally clicking his heels together at one point. One of his shoes flew off, and the pair stopped so he could pull it back on. Charly had noticed that his canvas shoes, though worn, were too large for him, but whether they were purchased that way in hopes that he wouldn’t outgrow them too soon or were inadequate hand-me-downs, she couldn’t say. Deliberately pushing Darren Rudd from her mind, she began mentally reviewing the practice.

  One thing was certain: she needed some help. Corralling sixteen little ones in an open field was an impossibility for a lone adult. Actually teaching them anything was another issue entirely. She wondered which of the parents she should ask first. None of them was likely to be of assistance. They all either had other children to be supervised or were working late shifts or second jobs. At least one of them didn’t even speak English. Still, she felt that she should ask them first. After that, she would ask the soccer commissioner for help, and if that failed she’d start haranguing her friends. Someone had to be willing to pitch in.

  Darren slid his hands into the pockets of his chinos and waited patiently for Charly and her son t
o join him, well satisfied with what he’d seen that day. Charly was so far out of her league that she’d have little choice but to accept his help. He was actually looking forward to it. “Helping” her coach the team would be like killing two birds with one stone. Not only would it afford him the perfect opportunity to get next to Charly, literally, but it ought to be fun. The kids were certainly eager, and she definitely had not overstated the needs of the children. Quite the opposite, in fact. Five hundred bucks obviously wasn’t going to address all the needs. He was already making a lengthy mental list of what they were going to need, including a whistle for the coach. He wondered if she realized how many times—and how ineffectually—she had snapped her fingers or clapped her hands for attention today. More than that, however, he wondered about Ponce, or rather, Ponce’s father.

  As soon as Ponce had called her Mommy, Darren had remembered that she’d mentioned having a five-year-old. It simply hadn’t registered at the time, perhaps because he’d been too intent on learning her marital status. He’d never dated a “mommy” before, not that he was dating one now, not yet. The fact that she had a child didn’t bother him particularly. He liked kids. He doted on his nephew. Still, he couldn’t help wondering about Ponce’s dad, though. He must be an exceptionally handsome man, because Ponce was one of the most beautiful children Darren had ever seen.

  His own curiosity about the man puzzled him. He wondered why Charly and Ponce’s father had parted and where the fellow was now. Could she still be in love with him? The need to know was like a splinter under the skin, not particularly painful but enough of a nuisance to constantly remind you that it was there. He resisted the urge to pick at it as she stopped beside him and lifted a forearm to wipe her forehead with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. The action left her damp bangs standing on end.

  Darren felt a definite tug in his groin. What was it about her? The woman should have been completely unappealing. Her athletic shoes and even her socks were filthy. Her shorts were stretched out and baggy, not to mention grass-stained. In spite of the cool, early-spring air, perspiration had soaked her shirt in spots and left her hair plastered to her head, what wasn’t sticking up. She wore no cosmetics, and a spattering of freckles was even now rising across the bridge of her nose. His palms itched to strip her where she stood. Instead he smiled down at Ponce.

  “You were a big help to your mom out there today.”

  “Absolutely,” Charly agreed, squeezing the boy’s shoulders. “And speaking of help, could you grab the ball and the cups for me, honey?”

  Ponce nodded and moved away with a glance in Darren’s direction. Darren hoped he wasn’t going to have trouble from that quarter. The kid was giving off hostile vibes. Probably wanted his parents back together. Darren put aside that issue and said, “I’m afraid you’re going to need more help than the boy can give you, however.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I’ll speak to the soccer commissioner about it tonight.”

  Something told him to tread softly, so he said only, “Well, if you can’t get anyone else, I might be able to give you an evening or two a week.”

  She gaped at him. “Really?”

  “If you can’t get anyone else,” he said, shrugging. She smiled, and her whole face lit up. She wasn’t beautiful, even now, but she was dazzling. He gulped and played his next card. “I, um, can see that the five hundred isn’t going to take care of all the team needs.”

  “The fees took most of it,” she admitted with a grimace, “but we’ll make do.”

  “I don’t see the point in that,” he said lightly. “Tell you what, why don’t we do a little shopping, figure out how much more is needed?”

  She considered briefly, then nodded. “Okay, I’ll check around and let you know.”

  He smiled and suggested mildly, “It’ll go faster if we just take care of it together. When can you go?”

  She looked off into the distance, and he knew that she was considering the wisdom of spending time with him. He let her consider, and finally she said, “I’ll have to let you know.”

  “How about tomorrow?” he pressed gently. “You busy tomorrow afternoon? I’ll meet you at Sports World. I hear they have the best prices.” He fished a piece of paper from his polo shirt pocket and added, “I got the kids’ shoe sizes as they came off the field, all but Ponce’s.”

  She was staring at him now. “Shoe sizes?”

  “They can’t play in what they’ve got,” he pointed out. “One little girl was out there in sandals.”

  Charly pushed a hand through her hair, leaving it in wild disarray, and his heart literally thumped. What was it? “I know,” she said, “but sponsors usually just provide jerseys and a few balls.”

  “You want them to be able to compete, don’t you? The other teams will have cleats and real uniforms. As they are representatives of RuCom, we want them to look as good as everyone else.”

  She stared at him a little longer, and then those unusual golden eyes warmed. “That’s wonderful!”

  Pure satisfaction flashed over him, but he shrugged it aside, saying, “It’s just good business, really.”

  “I don’t care what it is,” she told him bluntly. “All I care about is what it’ll do for those kids.”

  “So are you free tomorrow afternoon or not?”

  She bit her lip and then nodded. “I’ll arrange for my grandmother to pick up Ponce from day school. How’s four?”

  It was early, actually, but he nodded, already planning how he could stretch shopping into dinner. “I’ll be waiting out in front of the store. You do know where it is, don’t you?”

  “Behind the mall,” she said, naming a popular shopping spot in Plano.

  “That’s the one. You can give me Ponce’s shoe size then.”

  “Oh, that’s not necessary,” she said. “I’ll take care of Ponce. You just worry about the rest of the team.”

  He just smiled and tucked the list back into his pocket. They’d see about that. He wanted her obligated to him, but his every instinct warned him to go easy. Unlike most of the women he knew, Charly Bellamy was not looking for a man. Well, she’d found one, anyway. All that remained to be seen was what she was going to do with him. He had some very definite ideas about that, but Charly would have to think they were her ideas first. He could wait. Then, when the moment came, he’d make his move. Something told him it would be worth it. What he didn’t truly understand then was that Charly was going to define a whole new category in his catalog of conquests.

  Chapter Three

  Charly depressed the lock and slammed the car door, mentally girding herself for her next encounter with Darren Rudd, who, true to his word, was waiting even now on the sidewalk in front of the Sports World megastore. Tucking her handbag beneath her arm, she turned and strode smartly toward him, every step testing the narrow width of her coral-pink, knee-length skirt. The matching short, boxy, collarless jacket, which she wore open over a simple white, square-necked shell, made the outfit suitable for both the office and early spring, but she was well aware that it was also one of her more flattering suits, and she chided herself now for having chosen it.

  Attractive as Darren Rudd was, she had no business getting involved in romantic entanglements, especially not now. With her application to adopt Ponce at a sensitive place in the process, she wanted nothing to detract or even seem to detract from her commitment as a mother. Mostly, however, it was Ponce’s antipathy toward men in general. No, the last thing she needed just now was a man in her life. While a husband would have been a definite aid, a boyfriend would not. Besides, she was no good at the romantic stuff. Other things always seemed to get in the way. David had proved that.

  Still, if she was going to get involved again, she could do worse than a man like Darren Rudd. He seemed to have a genuine heart for those less privileged than himself, and that, in Charly’s experience, was extremely rare. It was just a shame they hadn’t met at another time. On the other hand, maybe not. Without Ponce and his future
to worry about, she knew that she’d have taken a stab at a relationship with Darren Rudd—and likely have gotten her heart broken in the process.

  Smiling because he was smiling at her, she stepped up onto the sidewalk and offered him her hand from sheer force of habit. Instead of shaking it, he clasped it and pulled her toward the building, saying, “Right on time. Can’t remember the last woman I knew who got where she was going when she said she was going to.”

  “You’re hanging with the wrong crowd then,” she told him coolly, reclaiming her hand. “All the women I know are as punctual and professional as any man.”

  He slid her a sharp glance and stepped aside as the door swung open. “What is it exactly that you do, Charly?”

  “I’m an attorney,” she said crisply, and left him standing with his mouth ajar. Satisfaction curved her lips into a tight smile. He was back beside her within steps.

  “I think you’re right,” he said. “Definitely the wrong crowd.”

  Charly laughed. She couldn’t help it. “Where do you want to start?”

  “Let’s start at the top and work our way down,” he suggested, leading the way toward the jerseys.

  It was not the simple shopping expedition that Charly had expected. For one thing, he seemed determined to spend a lot more money than she thought necessary. He insisted on choosing practice uniforms as well as game uniforms in the previously chosen colors of yellow and blue: jerseys, shorts, socks, elbow and shin guards, even shoes. They argued over whether or not she was going to pay for Ponce’s gear.

  “It’s not fair for Ponce to pay when the other kids are getting a free ride,” he pointed out.