Aha. So she hadn’t been totally unaffected that evening. Well, hot-damn. He wanted to whistle “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” but didn’t know if she was a vegetarian. So he played it cool, ’cause he was a cool kind of guy. “Twentytwo. That’s right. You know, Diana, I saw a picture of your mother once. My dad had it hidden in his desk drawer at work. He was on one side of her, she was in the middle, and the person on the other side of her had been ripped out of the photograph. I’m assuming it was your father.”
“Probably. I have a photograph in my bedroom with my dad and my mom and someone on the other side torn out We should compare pictures. That’s if we ever see each other again.”
“Sure we’ll see each other again. Sometime.”
“Of course we will,” She didn’t sound as if she believed it. “Sometime.”
And if the truth were known, the way their families were at war, it would be pretty hard. But they’d had this morning, and he enjoyed her company. Jessica obviously loved her company. He wasn’t in any hurry to see the morning end. “How old was your mom in that picture?”
“About twenty-one. I’m twenty-four.”
“She looked just like you. Exactly. It was no wonder my mother was sending you dirty looks that night. You probably reminded her of your mom.”
“I wish I could have been like her, but I’m not My mother was perfect, and I’ll never be.” Her voice caught, and she stumbled. Nick took hold of her elbow until she regained her balance. “It’s the shoes.”
He nodded. He could tell she had loved her mother, and the conversation seemed to bring back memories. He didn’t know if they were good or bad. He didn’t know many people who had someone close to them die.
“I still miss her,” Diana said. “So does my father. He’s been trying to find a replacement for her ever since, and he’s failed. He’s on his fifth wife now.”
“No kidding. Harry? Does my dad know?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what anyone in your family knows. I’ve been going to school, all over the world practically, for the last six years.”
“I remember seeing you several years ago. I was working for my dad on Elm Street.”
Diana’s face had suddenly turned a bright shade of red, and she started taking in deep gulps of air.
“Are you all right?” he asked. “Do you have asthma? Need anything?”
“I’m fine,” she croaked. Pointing to a water fountain, and holding Jessica tightly in her arms, she ran over to it.
Once she’d calmed down, she walked back to where he waited for her, and said, “I remember that summer, too. It was right before I went to Paris.”
“Sugar Land’s such a small town, I would have thought our paths would have crossed sometime. But they didn’t And then of all places, to meet in an elevator.”
“It’s truly amazing. Almost like fate,” she said.
He slung his arm around her shoulders. Jessica gave him an evil-eyed look, but she didn’t start to scream. Which was good, because he didn’t want to take his arm off Diana.
When he first touched her, she stiffened, and then almost immediately relaxed.
The path through the park twisted in all directions. The squirrels were out in record numbers. The blue jays and sparrows made plenty of noise. Diana smiled at him. “If my father ever found out that you had your arm around my shoulder, and that I was holding your niece, he would get so bent out of shape he’d look like a baked pretzel.”
“The same for mine. I want you to know I’m not talking to you because that will make them mad. Even if I think their glass houses could use a few dings.”
When Diana’s arms begin to sag, he took Jessica. She swatted at his cheek, laughing and crying at the same time. Women. No matter what age they were, they were all the same. Confusing.
Jessica’s tears and cries didn’t bother him, at least not that he’d admit, but apparently they got to Diana. She stopped walking and held out her arms. Nick didn’t need a second invitation. He handed the baby back to her. From a safe distance of at least two feet, Jessica glared at him with her red-rimmed dripping blue eyes and wet clumpy black eyelashes. Her red button nose dripped, and her hands were wet from rubbing all that dripping wet stuff all over her face.
Nick hoisted the backpack higher, and the bottles shifted, which reminded him of what he had been planning to do in the first place. “I’ve got Jessica’s lunch in here, and Mel’s over there with his hot-dog cart. Can I buy you the best hot dog this side of New York City?”
Diana’s face lit up. “That would be great. Does he have coffee? I’m in desperate need of caffeine.”
“One hot dog and one coffee coming up. It’s the least I can do for you. You’re doing me a big favor.”
Diana seemed to hug Jessica closer. “It’s been fun,” she said softly. Her smile so sweet and innocent. Lovely, that’s what she was.
“Hey, Mel,” Nick greeted the vendor with a wide slap on his arm. “How’ya been.”
Mel looked at Nick and then at Diana and Jessica. “Fine, but apparently not as good as you. When did all this happen?” He waved his arm at Diana and Jessica.
“Nothing’s happened.”
“You didn’t get married and have a baby since the last time I saw you?”
“I saw you last Saturday.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right!” Mel punched Nick in the shoulder, then gave Diana the eye. “Hiya, doll.”
“Hi,” she said.
Nick said, “This is my niece, Jessica, and my friend, Diana Smith.”
“Only a friend. Well, hot-diggity-dog. Get it? Hot dog?”
“We get it,” Nick said.
“Is she single?”
“You don’t have to talk about me in the third person,” Diana said, smiling warmly at Mel. “I’m very single. Always have been. Probably always will be.”
“Well, I can take care of that. No problem.”
“Really?” she asked. “How?”
“This hot-dog stand is only a hobby. I also drive a cab. I can take care of a girl like you. What about dinner tonight?”
“Thank you. That is so nice. I think—”
“Hot dogs, Mel,” Nick interrupted. “We need some dogs, ol’ buddy.” Nick didn’t like the way Mel looked at Diana. And he sure as hell didn’t like that he’d asked her on a date.
“Listen, I don’t want to be forward or anything, but you know, I’m kinda new in town—”
“You were born and raised in Houston,” Nick pointed out.
“That’s not Sugar Land,” Diana explained.
“Yeah, that’s not Sugar Land.”
Nick knew where Houston was. He didn’t need Diana explaining they were located almost right next to each other. That wasn’t the point and they all knew it.
Jessica made a valiant effort to lurch out of Diana’s arms and into Mel’s. Diana handed the baby over to the hot-dog man. The scumbag who Nick used to consider a friend took little Jessica and held her.
His niece, a Logan by birth, a traitor in life, gave Mel the hot-dog man a smile without tears, screams or any twoletter words, namely N-O. Nick, the blood-relative uncle was ticked off to no end. “Can we get back to business here?”
To his own ears, he’d come off sounding slightly irritated. Too irritated. So he cleared his throat. Twice. He’d show them he wasn’t irritated. Not Nicky boy. Oh, no. He was above all that. Yessiree. “We came here to eat, so give the kid back, will’ya, Mel, and get us our dogs.”
“Okay, ol’ buddy. No problem. Here she is.” Mel handed Jessica to Nick. He opened the silver lid to the steaming dogs, and said, “So, Diana darlin’, did you know I was single? I don’t want you to think I was askin’ you out and I was a married man. I’m not. I’m single and available.”
“Nooooo,” Jessica screamed.
Nick hid his smile, all the while thinking his niece had great timing.
“Man doesn’t live by hot dogs alone. How about you and me, going out for dinner—”
&
nbsp; “Nooooo,” Jessica screamed once more. Nick grinned ear to ear, then quickly hid it when both Mel and Diana looked at him. He shrugged helplessly, as if to say, “Hey, I’m only a guy, what do I know about babies?” He couldn’t have choreographed Jessica’s part any better. Although now Nick would never know what Diana’s answer would have been.
“Let me take her back.” Diana reached for the baby, and Jessica didn’t waste time lunging into her arms.
Well, hell, he would have felt the same way, so he couldn’t really fault her. Diana was prettier than him. She was all soft-looking, so she was probably soft-feeling, too, especially to a kid like Jessica. Nick, on the other hand, was all muscle. Muscles were hard. If he were a baby, he’d rather sit on a pillow than a board.
“Hot dog with everything, extra onions for my good buddy,” Mel said.
“Hold the onions,” Nick told him.
Mel glared. “Sure thing, Nick.” He turned to Diana, swept his gaze from head to shoes, and lowered his voice. “What do you take on yours, you lovely specimen of femininity?”
“Catsup,” Nick called out. That’ll show ol’ buddy Mel. In a guy’s world, knowing about catsup was as good as staking a claim on a woman. Mel got the message, too.
Then it dawned on Nick what he’d just done. Answering for Diana had been done on instinct, done when one guy moves in on what could be the other guy’s territory. He didn’t want to stake a claim. Did he?
Ah, hell, maybe he wanted to stake a small claim. A get-to-know-you claim.
When Diana gazed up at him and gave him that sucker-punch smile again, the one that radiated from inside her, he knew he’d done the right thing.
As far as Mel’s dinner invitation, he’d bet the profit he was going to make on the Bertling home his crew had broken ground on last week, that she would’ve said no.
While Nick waited for the hot dogs, several of the grandmothers who lived in the Stratford, all of them wearing hotpink jogging suits with the slogan Gray Power Club embroidered on the back, had formed a semicircle around Diana and Jessica. “Oh, isn’t she an angel?” one lady said, poking her finger into Jessica’s side.
“Just a li’l precious pumpkin face,” another said.
“My granddaughter is cuter,” harrumphed a third. “You remember my granddaughter, don’t you, Sylvia?”
“Of course, Gertie, everyone remembers ah…ah…Cherry?”
“Chrysonoe. What’s so hard to remember?”
“It’s not like a Jane or a Susan.”
“Of course not,” Gertie sniffed. “Chrysonoe is the name of the daughter of Cleitus. My daughter-in-law told me that.”
“I don’t know any Cleitus,” Sylvia told her friend. “But I do know that it’s never wise to listen to any daughters-in-law. They steal things.”
“What things?” the first grandmother asked.
“Sons.” Sylvia turned and left in the opposite direction.
The women standing there shrugged at the uppitiness of their friend. “I’m not going after her, are you?”
“Not until after I get my hot dog.”
Jessica, from the protection of Diana’s arms, blew nose bubbles at Nick. In spite of her sniffling, hiccuping, yawning, crying and gulping for air, she acted happy, if that were possible. When she buried her little face in Diana’s neck, Nick’s own heart squeezed tight. That little kid looked good with Diana. Damn good.
“Jessica, what do you take on your hot dog?” Nick asked.
Jessica’s head hit Diana’s chin when she jerked it up to look at Nick.
“I don’t think she should eat a hot dog. Should she?” Diana asked.
Nick shrugged. Hell if he knew. He’d left Cathy’s babycare instructions at home.
Jessica’s big blue eyes were so serious, and her tiny pink mouth was forming a perfect quiet pout.
“Are you allowed to eat hot dogs?” Diana asked her.
The baby smiled for her and said a big “Noooooo.” A big, happy no with a big, happy smile. Not a tear to be seen. “I’ll share some of mine with her,” Diana said.
“You’re one lucky son of a bitch,” Mel conceded as he handed Nick the food, all the while casting Diana a look of abject longing.
“You know it.”
Nick followed Diana and Jessica to one of the park benches. She sat down, letting Jessica sit on her lap. He handed Diana her hot dog, and opened the lid on the disposable coffee container. “Cream? Sugar?”
“Both.”
He fixed her coffee, and left it in the cardboard holder Mel had given him.
“Thanks. For the coffee and the hot dog.” Diana unwrapped hers and held it in front of Jessica’s mouth. The baby turned her head the opposite direction. “I don’t think Jessica’s mouth is big enough to take a bite.”
“Her mouth is big enough. Don’t let the size fool you. You’ve heard her.”
“I’m pretty sure the loudness of her screams has nothing to do with whether or not she can take a bite out of a hot dog. Does she have any teeth?”
He held up two fingers. “She took a bite out of me this morning.”
“Oh. That explains why she’s not hungry.” Diana bit into her hot dog. “Good. Thanks again.” She tore off a piece of the bun and gave it to the baby. Jessica shoved it in her mouth and chewed.
“This morning she was screaming at me for no reason. She didn’t let up. Every time I got near her, it started again. Then she threw my football trophy and broke that. Maybe if I’d known she was coming, I could have found someone to take care of her. But I didn’t know.”
“Your poor trophy.” Diana had always thought he was the All American type, but didn’t realize he had trophies to prove it. He really was out of her league. She took another bite and gave Jessica more bun.
“She likes you,” Nick said again.
“I like her, too.”
“So, what are you doing the next week?”
“Are you looking for a baby-sitter?” She smiled at him.
“You betcha. Hey, I’ll take all the help I can get So, what do you say?”
“Are you willing to risk your parents’ wrath for the sake of a baby-sitter?”
“I wouldn’t be risking anything. My parents haven’t seen Cathy since the day she told them she was pregnant They’ve never seen Jessica. If they knew she was here, they’d stay away.”
Diana stared at him wide-eyed. She looked at Jessica and then back at him again. “How can they possibly stay away from this beautiful baby? Do they have so many grandchildren they can afford to ignore one?”
Nick’s anger at his parents for the way they had treated Cathy and Jessica felt as sharp today as it had been a year and a half ago. “Cathy had the baby without the benefit of a gold ring,” he told Diana. “Jessica is a symbol to them of how their daughter violated their morals. My mother felt a baby born out of wedlock would ruin her social standing. She chose to disassociate herself from her daughter and granddaughter, rather than risk the censure of her friends.”
“And your father?”
“He does what my mother wants.”
“Has he no backbone? No brain?” Abruptly, Diana reached out and grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry I said that I don’t mean to criticize your father. I took my own anger out on you, and I shouldn’t have. Especially you. I need to be more careful, what with your being a Logan.” Diana told him about her morning, leaving out the part Nick had played in her past She didn’t think it would be wise to reveal all her secrets.
“I’m sorry to hear that you and your dad are having problems.”
“It’s nothing that we can’t work out As soon as he divorces Sheila.” She smiled at him, but the smile was bittersweet
“At least your dad keeps trying. My dad is a great businessman. Your dad is a great businessman. But I lost respect for my father when he let Mother throw Cathy out. She needed her parents, and they deserted her. That’s when I quit working for my father and started my own company. I couldn’t work for him after what he
let happen to Cathy. He should have stood up to my mother, and he didn’t.”
Nick also needed his parents. He didn’t know the first thing about taking care of Jessica. Sure, it might be easy for Cathy now, but he was sure she’d had a rough time in the beginning, especially while trying to run her own business.
“If I could help you, I would, but you’re a Logan and…”
“You’re a Smith,” he finished for her. “So what? Will our parents drop nuclear bombs all over the place if you help me out.”
“I don’t think bomb is a good word to use around me.”
“Why?” he teased. “Are you the kind of girl that has one of those hair-trigger personalities?”
“No.” Diana took a sip of her coffee. “I have a bad habit of experimenting with chemicals that cause these little explosions.” She looked sheepish, and she shrugged her shoulders daintily. “So, Nick, did you say you had a bottle?”
“Yes.” He had to shake himself. She blew things up. Diana, that little package of femininity who held on to his niece so gently, blew things up. “I forgot about the bottle. I’ve got diapers, too.”
“Well, that’s the beauty of diapers, babies, friends and relatives. Guess which word doesn’t belong in that group?”
“Diapers?”
“Oh, don’t you wish that were true. It’s friends. They don’t have to change baby diapers when there’s a relative around.”
She leaned back in the bench, pulling Jessica against her, and sent him a smug look. Boy, he thought, she was really cute.
Diana took the bottle and gave it to Jessica, who promptly stuck it in her mouth and sucked down half the milk.
Jessica nestled against Diana, with her bottle pushed to the side of her mouth, and sipped a little slower. She batted her eyelashes at Nick. The kid had nerve. As if that would make him forget how she’d treated him for the last year. Diana took another sip of coffee, then said, “So, you’re a builder like your father and my father.”
“No,” he said adamantly. “Like myself. They do big buildings. I do custom homes, specialty homes, one at a time.”
“I blow things up, by accident, of course. You build things up. Interesting.” She sipped. “How come you live in the Stratford and you didn’t build yourself a custom home?”
Kidnapped / I Got You Babe Page 22
