by Tina Leonard
“Come on, Crockett,” Velvet said. “We’re getting good at this wedding shower stuff. We’d like to throw one for Mimi, too.”
“You’re gonna have to give him a kick in the ass and a slap upside his stubbornly concrete head,” Crockett said. “That’s pretty much what worked with me.”
“Okay,” Mimi said, rising. “I need to have some dignity. It’s not like I think Mason and I are the perfect match or anything. I thank everyone for their kind thoughts on my behalf. I’ve had advice as simple as slapping him, giving him space and catching him. However,” she said with a smile, “when something is right, it is right. And I can’t overlook the fact that while Mason and I may have some attraction to each other, and while we may be friends, we are not inclined to wedded bliss. It’s just as much my issue as his.”
“We didn’t mean any harm, Mimi,” Marni said.
“I know. You didn’t! In fact, I really appreciate everyone being so concerned about my happiness.” She smiled at them. “I’m really blessed. If you think about it, my life is perfect. I have a wonderful father, a beautiful daughter, all of you, and Mason’s friendship. This is just a new page in my book with Mason.”
“Well, it’s a thriller,” Carly said. “We’ll keep reading.”
“I know,” Mimi said with a laugh. “That’s why I love you all so much.”
All of them, every single one of them, had tried to help, and Mimi left feeling much better.
It was true—she did have everything. The past few years her life had been filled with many challenges, but she’d withstood them. She was strong enough to be a single mother and to accept that her teenage dreams of a starry honeymoon with Mason were nothing but fairy dust.
Twenty minutes later, she was back at the ranch. Nanette and Annette were playing in a sandbox that Mason and Crockett were busily filling with soft, white sand.
The fact is, Mimi told herself, he is an awesome father, just like Maverick was. Nanette will never know a moment of uncertainty as long as Mason is around.
Her heart filled with understanding, both of her own feelings and for Mason. It was going to be all right.
“Hi,” Mason said as she walked toward them.
“Hi,” she said with a smile for the brothers and the little girls. “What a beautiful sandbox.”
Nanette took a bucketful and poured it over Annette’s stubby legs. Mimi smiled at Mason. “This is a great idea.”
“It was your father’s,” Mason said. “He said you’d always wanted one when you were growing up, and that he’d been busy sheriffing and raising a child alone, so he never got around to it. Kept telling himself he had plenty of time, and then, he said, one day you were all grown up. The time for sandboxes had passed.”
Mimi stared at Mason. A lump grew inside her throat that felt strange and heavy with sentimental emotions. She wanted to say thank you for caring about Nanette or I never knew my father felt that way, but there was really no reason to speak. It was enough to know that something as simple as a sandbox mattered that much to Mason.
Chapter Six
Mason watched, astonished, as Mimi turned and went inside the house. “What just happened?” he asked Crockett.
“Girl stuff,” Crockett said. “Not to oversimplify, but you hit her in the female zone. It’s even better than giving her flowers. You got her all choked up and misty, and now she’s not going to be mad at you anymore for luring her into bed like Calhoun told me you did.”
Mason blinked. “I did not lure her. And why does everything in this family have to be a topic of discussion?”
“Because we’re cool like that. We care about each other. And mainly, you shocked Calhoun so bad that he almost needed therapy. He would have been less surprised to see a dragon on the other side of that door. I mean, you and Mimi haven’t exactly—”
“All right,” Mason said crossly. “I get the picture.”
“In fact,” Crockett said, “since you’ve never had a woman to the ranch, or a girlfriend, we were beginning to think you were, you know—”
“No,” Mason said, “I don’t. Fill me in.”
“Well, disinterested is the first word that comes to mind.”
“Let it be the last word,” Mason said. “Just because I didn’t carry on elaborate plans to bed women doesn’t mean I wasn’t interested. I was setting an example for my younger brothers. That’s why I went to the trouble of creating a jingle I called the Condom Song—I needed something simple for you boneheads to remember whenever you got your urges.” Mason grunted. “Not that it did any good for most of you.”
“Nor you, apparently,” Crockett said. “But we love our little niece.” He grinned at the kids in the sandbox. “Anyway, what I was getting at is that you just made Mimi real happy with the sandbox and the ooey-gooey story about her dad wanting her to have one. You shouldn’t have any trouble getting her back into the s—”
“Crockett,” Mason said, “life is not all about sex.” He dumped the last of the sand into the box and looked at it with satisfaction. “Maybe we should have had one of these when we were young.”
Crockett slapped him on the shoulder. “If we had, you would have been forever wheezing about sand in the washing machine, bro. I gotta go. I’ve got a Valentine to get home to.”
“Yeah. Sure,” Mason said, watching as his brother walked toward his truck after kissing the little girls goodbye. “Thanks for helping me put this thing together.”
Crockett was gone and the girls weren’t paying Mason any attention, too delighted with their new toy to look up. Mason sat down on the ground, enjoying their pleasure, with only Crockett’s words to prick at him.
They pricked like cactus needles, forcing him to try to find the source. He knew the source was Mimi, but it was more than that. The anger had passed. So had the shock. A curious sense of what-if was left in its place.
He had made so many mistakes. Heeding Sheriff Cannady’s words, Mason didn’t want to look back with regrets.
She was the most beautiful woman he had ever known. She made his heart sing and his blood crazy, and she’d given him a child.
He was really afraid of himself. What was he supposed to do—fall for a woman and then hope he didn’t end up heartbroken one day? Heartbreak was mean and nasty and tore families apart.
“Hey,” he heard a voice say.
Glancing up into the warm sun of summer, he saw his friends Hawk and Jellyfish had sneaked up on him. They were so quiet, in fact, that the girls sat in their sandbox, still giggling and running sand over the edge of the sandbox, completely engrossed.
Hawk and Jellyfish had been investigating Mason’s father’s whereabouts and they wouldn’t be here if they didn’t have something to discuss. Something that would require a decision on his part, or that would change the fabric of their family. One shock at a time was all he could take.
“Howdy,” he said, standing. “Good to see you, friends.” He nodded toward Nanette. “That’s my daughter. Her name is Nanette.”
Hawk and Jellyfish glanced at the child, studying her as she completely ignored them.
“Mimi’s daughter,” Hawk said.
“And mine,” Mason said.
The two men nodded.
“Congratulations, Dad,” Jellyfish said. “It must be groovy to have family you didn’t know about.”
Mason stared at him suspiciously. “Would that be a lead-in?”
Hawk silently handed him a journal. Leather-bound and small, no bigger than six by eight inches, it had seen better days. The pages were yellow, the brown leather as worn as well-beaten cowhide. Mason didn’t open it. He didn’t want to. He raised an eyebrow and waited.
“It’s your father’s,” Hawk said unnecessarily. “It was sent to us by Mannie, the woman of Inuit descent he stayed with for some years. She found it hidden in a box of old clothes.”
Mason swallowed. The small book would reveal the private thoughts of a man Mason had never stopped missing. He felt somewhat naked and expos
ed suddenly, with Hawk and Jellyfish watching him, and he quickly drew an expressionless curtain over his face.
“Daddy?” Nanette said, startling Mason so bad that his legs began to tremble. He stared at her, and she looked back at him with Mimi’s guileless blue eyes. A hard knot of emotion fused his throat until he could barely draw a breath.
She called me Daddy. She’s not supposed to know, because Mimi and I haven’t told her. But I’m not Uncle anymore.
I’m Daddy.
Pride dashed through him, and the past rolled away. He kneeled down to hug his daughter, barely remembering he was still holding the journal filled with his father’s handwriting. Someday he would deal with that. But not now. Right now, he was a father. “Go on up to the house, boys. Helga will get you something good to snack on.”
They didn’t say anything, but he knew Hawk and Jellyfish were gone. Maybe they’d left before he’d even said anything; those two had their own communication style. But the little arms around his neck right now were the only kind of communication Mason wanted.
MIMI WAS STARTLED when Hawk and Jellyfish appeared in the kitchen. “Hi!” she exclaimed. “When did you get here?”
“Not more than five minutes ago,” Hawk said.
“Is Mason coming in, too?” Mimi asked, while Helga put food on plates for the men.
Jellyfish grinned. “He’s chilling with his little girl right now.”
“Oh.” Mimi looked at the men uncomfortably. “Mason told you that Nanette was his daughter?”
“Yes.” Hawk looked at her curiously. “And Nanette called him Daddy.”
Mimi’s eyes widened; her earth felt strangely off its center. How would Nanette have known?
“Someone in your family has strong powers of perception,” Hawk said. “She’s young for that, but it’s a good thing.”
“What?” Mimi said, her mind racing madly as she wondered about her daughter’s welfare. If Nanette knew Mason was her father, then one day she was going to ask the question Why aren’t you and Daddy married? Why did you never marry? These were questions Mimi hadn’t previously considered. They scared her. The whys were complicated. Even she didn’t understand them.
If she were a better, more organized mother, perhaps this wouldn’t be so messy. For Nanette’s sake, she wished she could have made everything neater in their lives. “Ugh,” she said. “I need my own powers of perception to figure all this out.”
“No.” Hawk smiled appreciatively at the plate Helga put in front of him. “You already have them.”
Jellyfish nodded. “Nanette would likely get them from you. None of the Jefferson men are particularly perceptive.”
Hawk held up his fork and pointed at Jellyfish. “Or they are, but they just conceal their powers until they are overtaken by some life-altering event.”
“Such as meeting their life mate,” Jellyfish said, his brow wrinkling.
Mason and the girls came into the kitchen. Helga hugged the girls and took them upstairs, while Mason fixed himself a plate and sat down across from Mimi.
“So what are you going to do with the journal?” Hawk asked.
“Journal?” Mimi said, looking at Mason.
Mason shrugged. “I don’t know. For now, I put it in a safe place.” He looked at his friends. “I suppose you read it? For info-gathering purposes?”
Hawk looked horrified. “It is not good to read someone’s private words. I don’t read your mail, do I?”
“Sorry,” Mason said. “I didn’t think about that.”
“It all comes down to powers of perception,” Hawk said.
Mason’s eyebrows rose. “Powers of perception?”
“Yes. You’re suppressing them. You seek answers, but you don’t really want them. For anything in your life.”
“Oh.” Mason sent a guilty look toward Mimi. “Now look, you fellows must be hungry. You’re off the case for now, so just enjoy Helga’s dinner.”
Jellyfish looked at Mimi. “I would marry you,” he said kindly, “but I never settle in one place for long.”
Mimi looked at the large hippie throwback with some concern. “Thank you. But I’m fine. Really. Nanette is fine.”
“What’s wrong with Nanette?” Mason demanded, his head rearing.
“Nothing,” Mimi said hastily, realizing that this topic was likely to provoke Mason.
“She has strong powers of perception,” Hawk said. “She needs you to understand.”
“Understand?” Mason’s brow furrowed. “Nanette is a little girl and she’s going to be just fine as long as she lives under my roof where I can protect her.”
Hawk and Jellyfish looked at Mason for a moment, then they looked at Mimi, before they went on with eating their food, making no comment. But Mimi thought Jellyfish and Hawk were on to something. Mason was suppressing. He was ignoring his feelings and everyone else’s. It didn’t matter what past he had to bury or what emotions he denied, no one and nothing was going to get under that cowboy’s protective layer.
He was so well defended from pain that he would likely never make the self-discovery his brothers had. It was going to be his way or no way. The new sheriff had a head of concrete, as Crockett had noted. And Mason was determined that his heart be fashioned of the same material.
She looked over at Mason, completely understanding why he was who he was, and knew she was the same as he.
It didn’t matter. She still loved him. Though a lot of good that would do her.
“I think I’ll go to bed,” she said, standing. “Good night, gentlemen.”
She put her plate in the sink and went upstairs. Nanette was in a bubble bath, blowing bubbles. Mimi tied up her hair and sat next to the tub, smiling at her daughter.
“Hi, Mommy,” Nanette said with a cherubic smile.
“I love you,” Mimi said.
“I know,” Nanette said. “Ms. Helga says I can have cookies after dinner.”
“She’s good to you.”
Nanette stared at the colors in a bubble, the translucent opalescence catching her attention. She was secure because of all the people who loved her.
“Mimi, can I talk to you for a minute?” Mason asked from behind her.
Chapter Seven
Mason looked at Mimi with strangely serious eyes. She felt her stomach jump with nerves. “Do you want me to towel Nanette off and get her dinner first? I need to get the sand out of the tub. Then Annette needs her bath,” she said, pointing to the little girl waiting patiently for her turn.
“I’ll help you. Come on, Nanette,” he said, lifting his daughter from the tub. “Let’s get you dried off.”
Ten minutes later, they had two previously sandy girls cleaned off and changed and sitting at the dinner table. Hawk and Jellyfish played cards, shuffling them with quick rat-a-tats of movement. Helga filled two little plates, grinning at the men’s antics as they deliberately showed off their card skills.
“We learned a lot while we were on the road,” Hawk said, grinning at his giant partner. “Jellyfish can really charm the ladies out of their secrets.”
“Hmm,” Mimi said, “maybe a conversation for another time.”
They laughed, but Mason grabbed her hand, pulling her out onto the porch. “Now we need to discuss some things.”
“All right,” Mimi said, amazed by his sudden tenacity. She’d been in the house for a few days and he hadn’t seemed to possess a great urgency to communicate with her.
“First of all,” Mason said, “I did not tell Nanette that I was her real father. I was completely agreeable to the two of us telling her together. In fact, I thought that was the right thing to do.” He watched Mimi’s expression. “She surprised me. She called me Daddy and I…I couldn’t deny it.”
“It was time,” Mimi said softly. “I only wanted us to tell her together so that she’d be less traumatized or confused. Apparently, she is neither, and knows exactly who you are.” Mimi smiled. “I’m glad.”
Mason scratched his head under his hat.
“I am, too.”
“Is that all you wanted to talk about?” Mimi wasn’t certain she could stand any more heart-to-heart with Mason. It wasn’t a part of their relationship she was comfortable with now that they were at odds.
“Part of me thinks it’s better that you’re living in my house,” Mason said. “A big part of me believes you’re doing the right thing.”
Mimi frowned at him. “I’m never going to be separated from my daughter.”
“I wasn’t implying that,” Mason said hastily. “I was trying to figure out how we could make this less awkward between us. Housemates should have a reasonable amount of comfort around each other.”
“No,” Mimi said, feeling somewhat shattered that Mason thought he had to try to get along with her. “My comfort level’s fine.”
“Oh.” Mason looked at her. “Sometimes I miss our old friendship.”
Mimi nodded. “I know what you mean.”
He smiled. “You do?”
“Yes. I think to get it back, you need to let Nanette and me move back to our own little house.”
He shook his head. “That’s not what I had in mind.”
“What did you have in mind?” Mimi was amazed at the depth of thought Mason was expressing. “It’s hard to get something back once it’s gone.”
“Yeah.” Mason shifted. “I suppose that no matter what, our friendship has changed.”
Mimi nodded. “I’m sure you’re right.”
“So since the old friendship can’t come back, I would like for us to work on making Nanette’s childhood as normal as possible.”
“I’m okay with that. In fact, I’m grateful that you’re so interested in getting along with me.”
“I am. Mimi,” he said, his gaze narrowing on her, “why did Jellyfish say he’d marry you if he was more the settling kind?”
“I don’t know. Jellyfish can be very random. You know that. His mind is always working.”
Mason put big hands on her shoulders. An instant feeling of security swept over her as she stared at the Jefferson acres and felt this strong Jefferson man behind her.
