Her Baby Dreams

by Debra Clopton

  Over the past few days, she’d started to realize Dan Dawson actually had layers she hadn’t seen before.

  “Hey, Ashby!” Lacy poked her head out from behind a half wall that had hidden her from view. She had soot across one cheek and portions of her pale hair had black tips. At her exclamation, everyone looked up and greeted Ashby. Dan smiled and made his way over to where she stood.

  “You did come to join the party,” he said warmly.

  “I would have been out sooner, but I had to work until noon.” She reminded herself that he smiled like this at all women. And that his eyes twinkled naturally.

  “I’m glad you came.”

  “So, what should I do?” Ashby asked Dan, ignoring the way her stomach flipped when he was near.

  “You could help over there, maybe.” He waved toward the washing line. “I wouldn’t advise coming in here. I’ve been trying to get the ladies to stay on that side of the site because of nails and other hazards. As you can see, there are two who have ignored me.”

  “Hey, I heard that,” Lacy called, peeking back over the wall.

  “I did, too,” Norma Sue shouted from the back corner of the house. “I’ll have you know I can look out for a nail as good as any man can. Being a woman doesn’t make me blind.”

  Dan chuckled and looked sheepish. “Can’t do a thing with those two. It’s a mess in here, though, so I would feel better if you didn’t cross the threshold.”

  “Ashby, you can come in here and help me,” Lacy called. Obviously, she had supersonic hearing.

  Curious about what her friend was doing, and ready to put some space between herself and Dan, Ashby stepped into the ruins despite his wishes. “I’ll be careful,” she said when his brows dipped with worry.

  “Okay, but watch yourself.” He took her arm as she stepped over a burned ceiling beam, and continued to grasp her elbow as she skirted water-damaged debris.

  Ashby wasn’t sure why they thought anything could be salvaged. The whole place was a disaster. She glanced up to find Dan watching her.

  “I know what you’re thinking. I tried to tell them it was hopeless.” He shrugged. “No one is paying any attention to anything I say. What’s a man to do?”

  His whipped-puppy expression made her chuckle again. “Poor baby. I guess you’ll just have to humor them.” Her teasing surprised her and elicited a smile in return.

  “Why, Miss Templeton, I do believe you just made a joke.”

  “Yes, I did,” she said. “And now I need to get busy, so don’t let me keep you from what you were doing.”

  “Okay, but really, be careful.” He sauntered off in that easy gait that was pure Dan.

  Ashby squatted down beside Lacy. “What are you doing?”

  Lacy showed her the pile of ash she was digging through. “I’m finding Dan’s mother’s jewelry.” With her free hand, she reached into her shirt pocket and pulled out a smoke-blackened necklace.

  Ashby gasped, watching Lacy tuck it back into her pocket. “He didn’t have it in a safe-deposit box?”

  “Men. They don’t think! He told me he kept her jewelry box in a drawer of his dresser. So I’m just digging around. I’ve found a necklace and a bracelet. They may be ruined beyond repair, but I feel good trying to salvage them for him. He said though she didn’t have a lot of it, he’d planned on giving it to his children someday. If he had any.”

  Ashby started to poke around in the grimy mix of ash and burned items. Until yesterday, she hadn’t even pictured Dan with children. But watching him play with the boys at the party had awakened her to the fact that he would be a good father if he ever decided to settle down. Which would be years, she reminded herself. Even he had tagged on if he had any to his statement.

  “Oh!” She felt positively giddy when she realized the black oval she was looking at was a ring. Picking it up, she held it in her palm and studied it.

  “Is it a wedding band?” Lacy asked, just as excited.

  “Maybe. There doesn’t appear to be any stones on it. Here, tuck it in there with the other pieces and let’s keep going. I might turn into a treasure hunter yet. We could even rent a metal detector before the bulldozers come in and take it all down.” If Dan’s mother had been anything like hers, there could be a truckload of jewelry in this pile of ash.

  “Nope.” Lacy shook her head. “He said she had two rings, a bracelet and three necklaces. So we’re almost done. One more each is all.”

  Ashby found herself curious about the woman who inspired that devotion. “He really loved his mother, didn’t he?” Their voices were hushed, both of them aware how their words could carry.

  “I think they had a hard life. He doesn’t speak about it. I was talking once about how hard it was sometimes without my dad in the picture for me and my mother, and Dan got this really sympathetic look on his face. He said something I’ve never forgotten—that it gave us an unbreakable bond. He understood, I could tell. He’s never been one to talk much about his past, so it makes me curious. Ya know what I mean?” She’d been digging in the ashes and now sent Ashby a sideways smile.

  Ashby pointed at the ground. “Stop it, and dig!”

  Her friend laughed. “Okay, but you aren’t fooling me. I know you noticed. And I know you’re curious, too.”

  She was, Ashby thought, glancing over at him. But she didn’t want to be.

  “Whoo-hoo and glory be!” Norma Sue shouted suddenly. “Pictures! Y’all come look.”

  Everyone made their way over to where the woman stood, with a Texas-size grin plastered on her face. Beside her was what looked like a two-foot pile of ashes.

  “I went to rake these up and the drawer front just fell off.”

  Dan reached into the cavity and pulled out the picture album Norma Sue had revealed. It was covered in soot, but when he opened the cover, the pictures inside were safe. “Would you look at that,” he said as he turned the pages. There was awe in his tone and his expression.

  Ashby felt her throat tighten with emotion, overwhelmed by the moment. He’d regained another connection to the past, which, yes, she was becoming more and more curious about. When he closed the book and engulfed Norma Sue in a bear hug, Ashby’s heart was touched.

  Tugging at his mustache, Norma Sue’s husband turned and surveyed the disaster. “I wonder how many more of these here piles have surprises in them.”

  An almost electric excitement infected everyone as they surveyed the heaps of ashes and debris.

  “Let’s get digging,” Lacy exclaimed, and with renewed energy, everyone set to work once more.

  Ashby met Dan’s gaze as she started to turn away, and she smiled at him. And for the first time since she’d known him, it felt totally sincere.

  Chapter Ten

  Dan stood at the end of the walk at Adela’s apartment house and surveyed the trucks waiting to be unloaded. He’d been blessed by the goodness of the community he lived in. Not only had folks spent all day today salvaging some of his belongings from the fire, but now they were donating things from their own homes for him to use in his temporary apartment. There would be no need for him to use money on furnishings until he was ready to move back into his house. Everything he could possibly need was here: couch and chair, bed, dresser, a box of cooking utensils, sheets and a spread. There was even a telephone sitting on top of one box.

  “Y’all didn’t need to go to all this trouble,” he said to the beaming group before him.

  “Sure we did,” Norma Sue said. “What are friends for if not to help out in situations like this?”

  “You would have done the same,” Clint said, letting the tailgate down and hopping up into the back of his truck. “Now, if you’ll just grab that end, we’ll get this couch upstairs.”

  “I’ll get the door,” Ashby called, and headed up the steps. Dan watched her go, then grabbed the end of the beige couch. He’d found himself watching her off and on all afternoon. She’d worked hard, looking for anything in the ashes that might be cleaned up. Though
they hadn’t found much other than the picture album and the jewelry, he viewed both as an act of God. How else could they have survived? The townspeople weren’t aware that he’d been through this once before, when he and his mother left their home in the middle of the night with nothing but the clothes on their backs. He understood things were only things. But when Ashby had placed the soot-covered jewelry in his palm, he’d realized how much it meant to him. He’d found himself choked up as he gazed down at the items.

  When he looked up to find Ashby watching him, he’d been startled by the expression of understanding he saw in her eyes. He’d felt a connection with her in that moment. The rest of the day they both stayed busy. While she’d really dug in and worked as hard as anyone, he’d caught her watching him sometimes…caught her because he’d been watching her most of the time. And though it might have been wishful thinking on his part, he thought she might finally have begun to see him in a better light.

  “Be careful and don’t trip,” Esther Mae called, bringing his thoughts back to the moment at hand. He backed up the path, glad he hadn’t tripped while his mind wandered.

  “This is a great couch, Clint,” he said, stepping up onto the porch before angling the heavy sofa through the doorway.

  “It was mine before Lacy and I got married. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my wife isn’t into neutral tones.”

  Dan laughed. “That’s for sure.” Lacy wore some of the brightest clothes he’d ever seen. Not only had she painted her salon hot-pink, but she’d inspired others to become creative, to the point that Mule Hollow was starting to look like a rainbow. “I can’t picture this tan couch, as nice as it is, in a home with Lacy.”

  “Yup, she said that it was the perfect couch for a bachelor. Hope you don’t mind if I sneak over every once in a while to visit it.”

  Dan was backing up the steps now, and he paused to glance down at Clint. The man’s happy marriage was inspiring to a guy like Dan, who’d lived in such a messed-up home. “You are welcome anytime, but somehow I don’t think you’ll miss it.”

  The couch wasn’t going to fit.

  Ashby shook her head and watched as a cute and frustrated Dan, with the help of Clint, wrestled with the sofa. It wasn’t going in, not the way they were trying to manhandle it through the doorway. To be fair to the couch, it wasn’t the width that was the problem. She thought she’d found a solution, but Dan was so entertaining in his macho determination to impress her that she couldn’t bear to interrupt. And impress her was clearly what he was trying to do. She was actually enjoying watching the way his forehead creased with consternation.

  The hallway had long since grown congested with people waiting to carry their armloads into the apartment, and suggestions began to ring out.

  Norma Sue suggested standing it up on end. That didn’t work.

  Esther Mae pointed at them with the floor lamp she was carrying and recommended taking the door off. “That’s what we had to do last year getting my new hutch into the kitchen. I thought Hank was going to blow a gasket on that one.”

  Hank grunted. “She’s not telling a story on that. I was ready to haul that hunk of wood back to the antique store. Pronto.”

  Ashby couldn’t stand it any longer. “Try turning it upside down.”

  “Upside down?” Dan asked.

  He was standing close to her, since he’d set the couch down to study the doorway, and she realized she was enjoying his nearness more than she wanted. “It’s a different dynamic like that. Flip it upside down and then angle it. I think it’ll work.”

  He looked from her to Clint. “It’s worth a try.”

  They picked it up again, and Ashby and Lacy grabbed the cushions. With Ashby directing them on the right way to angle the couch, they walked it through the door, no problem at all.

  “Well, what do you know.” Esther Mae harrumphed. “Look, Hank, all you had to do was turn my hutch upside down!”

  Everyone laughed when he rolled his eyes.

  “Thanks, neighbor.” Dan grinned at Ashby and was rewarded with a smile. “So, you got it in here. Now where should I put it?” He and Clint stopped in the center of the small living room.

  His midnight eyes met Ashby’s. “Come on, don’t be shy. I know you have an opinion. Don’t you watch those shows on television that tell you how to do all this kind of stuff?”

  “No, I don’t. But set it here,” Ashby said, pointing at the floor in front of her. “This way the couch will act as a partition to the traffic coming from the doorway and the other rooms of the place. We’ll put the chair there, and the television in that corner. Don’t you agree, Lacy?”

  She nodded, coming around the bar from the kitchen. “Move it, boys.” She clapped her hands, grinning at them.

  Dan and Clint picked the couch up from where they’d set it between them and placed it where Ashby indicated. Then they backed away and studied their handiwork. “A woman’s touch is a good thing,” Dan said. “I may have to get you to help me when my new place is ready. I’d have had all the chairs and the couch up against the walls.”

  “My furniture is up against the walls,” Esther Mae said, as she stepped out of the bedroom. “Oh, I like that. I see what y’all mean.” She stared at the couch critically. “I want you and Lacy to come out to my place to rearrange my furniture.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with couches up against the wall,” Ashby protested. “But if that’s what you want, we’ll come.”

  Dan and Clint exchanged looks. Women.

  “This will be fun,” Lacy said, leading the way out the door for another load.

  “Not for me,” Hank groaned, following his wife. “That means I’ll be hitting my toes on table legs when I get up in the dark.”

  “You’ll live,” Esther Mae said, shooting him an arch look over her shoulder. “We’re outdated and these girls can bring us up to par.”

  Everyone trailed out the door, chattering as they went. Ashby and Dan brought up the rear.

  He studied her as they walked shoulder to shoulder down the stairs. He was enjoying himself immensely.

  “I like your way,” he said. “The place is going to look homey.” He was a guy. It didn’t really matter to him all that much, but he figured there was nothing wrong with things looking the best they could. Especially if it meant being around Ashby. They were alone at the bottom of the stairs and he stopped. “I might have to cook you dinner to show my appreciation.”

  Ashby looked at him with a twinkle in her eyes. “Maybe you will.”

  Dan was so surprised by her positive answer that he made the biggest mistake ever—he kissed her.

  Pull away. Walk away, the leftovers of Ashby’s sane brain were screaming, as Dan lowered his lips to hers but…his lips were firm, unhesitant and oh, so wonderful.

  As he pulled her close, his heart pounded next to hers. When his arms settled securely about her, with such practiced perfection, Ashby really wanted more than anything to pull away—but she was trapped. Trapped by the fact that his kiss was perfect, and so achingly sweet, Ashby felt as if she were floating…. How could she possibly pull away from such bliss—

  “Hallelujah! I told you love was in the air!”

  At the sound of Esther Mae’s gushing exclamation, Ashby yanked herself out of Dan’s arms, stumbling up against the wall. What had she done? She grabbed the banister for courage as much as for support. Not only was Esther Mae standing in the doorway, but Norma Sue and Adela, as well. All three were beaming at her with delight.

  “Esther Mae, don’t jump to conclusions,” Adela warned, overcoming the astonishment she and the others must have felt, coming upon Ashley and Dan locked in an embrace.

  Ashby pushed all thoughts about it out of her mind. She was mortified, barely able to glance at Dan. He, on the other hand, was tickled pink. Literally. She looked closer at him, and found the cowboy’s sun-bronzed skin was actually looking flushed.

  Ashby wanted to wring his neck. She did, she really did.

/>   But that wouldn’t do at all.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Now, ladies, don’t get your hopes up. That was just a friendly thank-you kiss to Ash for all her help today.” Dan had messed up royally, and he was trying as calmly as he knew how to deter the matchmaking fervor before him.

  But his head was fuzzy and Ashby was as purple as an overripe plum. He understood that perfectly, since it was about two hundred degrees where he was standing.

  “I suddenly have a pain in my head,” she muttered between clenched teeth “If you’ll excuse me, I’m sure you can finish this without me.”

  Dan’s temperature plummeted as he and everyone else watched her march stiffly up the stairs. Okay, he’d been right; he had messed up.

  Just when he’d thought he had changed her perception of him, he’d gone and lost his good sense. He should have backed away the moment he realized he was going to kiss her.

  But he hadn’t been thinking—she’d just looked so cute accepting his dinner invitation, or at least alluding to it. He’d reacted out of his astonishment and kissed her. And she’d kissed him back. True, the minute his lips had touched hers and she’d responded so sweetly, he’d not been thinking about anything but how perfect she felt in his arms…when he should have been realizing she was just startled by his reaction. After all, she might have been totally teasing him and hadn’t expected some overbearing oaf to kiss her! What a jerk he was—he didn’t normally lose control of the situation, but where Ashby was concerned, he didn’t seem to be in control at all anymore.

  The overbearing, too-confident-for-his-own-good cowboy had kissed her, then acted as if it was no big deal.

  And it wasn’t. That’s what she told herself as she scrubbed her kitchen counter. The sink. And again as she started on the cabinets of her already spotless kitchen. Seething, she glanced at the brass clock hanging over the stove. It had been exactly three hours since he’d kissed her. Three hours. The ill-mannered, uncouth man hadn’t apologized yet, proving every bad thing she’d thought about him.