Memories: A Husband to RememberNew Year's Daddy (Hqn)

by Jackson, Lisa

  “Not me. You don’t know, I could have a natural ability,” Bryan said.

  “It’s possible, I suppose, but my guess is that you might land on your backside more often than not on the first day,” Travis told him, setting his empty cup in the sink.

  Bryan rolled his eyes.

  “Don’t forget what I promised about the horses,” Ronni said, hoping to cheer the boy. “Anytime you’re ready.”

  “I’ll see you later,” Travis said, touching her arm in a familiar gesture that caused her pulse to race.

  “I’d like that,” she admitted, surprised at her reaction. How could this man she barely knew make her heart thunder, her mind wander to long-forgotten fantasies, her lips curve into a smile? She wondered fleetingly if she was falling in love, then gave herself a quick mental shake. Love was an emotion that had to be nurtured over the years, that came with respect and trust. No, what she was feeling was lust—basic primal chemistry between a man and a woman. Travis was a sexy man with an easy smile, quick wit and quiet charm. She’d just been too long without a man—that was all there was to it. Nothing more. She stood on the porch, letting the cold winter air swirl around her as she watched him drive away. Silly though it was, he seemed to take a piece of her heart with him.

  *

  “I’m going to be fine and the baby’s going to be fine, too. Just quit worrying,” Shelly scolded from her worn plaid couch. From her position, she had a clear view of the side yard and the swing set where all three kids, despite the snow, were playing. Dressed in snowsuits, boots and stocking hats, they ran in crazy circles around the slide and teeter-totter.

  “Worrying is what I do best,” Ronni admitted as she set a red poinsettia on the coffee table near the platter of cookies the kids had baked.

  “This is too much, you shouldn’t have,” Shelly protested, but she smiled as she fingered a silky scarlet petal.

  “No way.”

  “It’s not as if I can’t do anything for myself, you know.”

  “I know, I know, but let me pamper you, okay?” Ronni hesitated at the front door. “Besides, I owe you. There was a time when I was a basket case. If it wasn’t for you and Vic, I don’t know what Amy and I would have done,” she said, her heart squeezing when she remembered how Shelly, mother of two rambunctious two-year-olds, had put her own life on hold to help Ronni find herself in those brutal, dark days after Hank was killed. Vic, too, had stepped in awkwardly to provide whatever emotional support he could. “You just stay there on the couch for a second while I put a few things together,” Ronni said.

  She made a trip to the car and carried in a casserole dish filled with meat loaf and potatoes. After setting the timer and temperature, she shoved the dish into Shelly’s small oven on timed bake. “That should do it. There’s a green salad in the fridge, rolls in this basket and a chocolate cake on the counter.”

  “You’re too much,” Shelly said, her voice clogged with emotion.

  “I just want you to get better and, with that in mind, I brought you my own special brand of medicine.”

  “Uh-oh.”

  “Oh, believe me, you’ll love it.” She ran out to the car and returned with the latest edition of Shelly’s favorite movie magazine.

  “You know my weakness,” Shelly said, her eyes crinkling at the corners in delight. She’d given up her subscription when Victor had first been laid off.

  Ronni handed her the slick magazine and sat on the corner of the coffee table. “Now, the truth, how are you feeling?”

  Absently, Shelly thumbed the magazine, then looked across the room to a spot only she could see. “The truth?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Okay, I’m scared. I hate to admit it, but I am. I want this baby desperately but I can’t afford to be off my feet, and Vic—he needs me healthy. He’s coming around, though. The thought of losing the baby frightens him.” She glanced down at the magazine cover with a picture of one of her favorite stars. “He’s made a couple of calls to guys he knows who moved to California, because once the tree lot closes, he’s out of work and his unemployment benefits ran out a long time ago.” She let out a long sigh. “It’s just a rough time right now, but I tell myself that we’re all healthy—well, everyone else is, and this—” she motioned toward her belly “—it’s in God’s hands now, I guess.”

  “I might know of a job,” Ronni ventured, unable to hold her tongue.

  “For Vic? Around here?”

  She hated the hopeful sound in her sister’s voice. “I talked to Travis Keegan last night. He came over in the middle of our cookie-baking adventure.” She went on to describe most of her conversation with Travis and Shelly’s eyebrows drew together in concentration.

  “It sounds good—too good,” she finally said. “And if Keegan’s doing this because he’s seeing you, there’s no chance it will work. You know Vic, he’s prideful to a fault.”

  “Just have him talk to Travis.”

  Shelly rubbed her chin. “I still can’t figure out why his name sounds so familiar, but it does, every time I hear it, I feel like I should know something more about him, that I do know something, but I just can’t put my finger on it.”

  “If it’s important, it’ll come,” Ronni said. She spent the next hour chatting with her sister.

  By the time she was ready to pack Amy back in the car, Victor had returned from the tree lot with his check and word that he wasn’t needed any longer, at least not until next year. “Decent of Delmer and Ed,” he said, though his eyes gave him away and frustration clenched his jaw. “At least I’ll have a job next December.”

  “Maybe you won’t have to wait that long,” Ronni said.

  “Not if we move. Let’s see, what’s it gonna be? San Francisco or Seattle?” He found a coin in the pocket of his bib overalls and flipped it into the air.

  “Talk to Keegan,” Ronni advised.

  “Why?” Victor was immediately suspicious and Ronni felt as if she’d been caught meddling. He scowled as she told him the work Travis needed help with. He felt in his chest pocket for a pack of cigarettes that didn’t exist and scowled angrily. “I’ve always taken care of my family,” he said when she’d finished her spiel. “Haven’t taken a handout in my life.”

  “I know, I know. But just talk to him. If you think the job’s bogus, then forget it, but see what he has to say,” Shelly said, and the stubborn set of Victor’s jaw softened as he stared down at his wife.

  “All right,” he reluctantly agreed.

  “What have you got to lose?” Ronni asked.

  “My pride. And when a man’s pride and dignity are gone, he’s left with nothing.” He took off his old hunting hat and scratched his head.

  “Victor,” she reprimanded quietly.

  “Okay, okay,” he growled, snapping his hat against his leg. “You win. I’ll see what the man has to say.”

  *

  “So I’ll need someone to help me with some of the refurbishing and cleanup,” Travis told Victor as they walked through the third floor of the old house. It was filthy, some of the windows were cracked and rain and snow had blown in, destroying the hardwood floor. There were three dormer-style rooms tucked under the eaves and on the second floor, five bedrooms and three bathrooms. The interior in all cases was knotty pine, yellowed with age and battered by the elements where the wind and rain had permeated the old timbers. “The roof needs to be fixed, the moss killed, the gutters replaced. I could have a contractor do some of the work but I’d like to take a hand in it myself.”

  “I thought you were a businessman,” Victor said, running the tips of his callused fingers on the old railing that wound down the stairs.

  “I am…was, but I needed a break. Wanted to start a new life for Bryan and myself.”

  “This house is pretty big for just a man and a kid,” Victor observed, and Travis was vaguely uneasy. His wealth had come through hard work, but it was there just the same, where a man like Victor worked day in and day out to scrape togeth
er a living for his family. The house, if it hadn’t been in such disrepair, would have been ostentatious.

  “Yeah, I know, but I fell in love with it. I wanted something different with enough acreage that we wouldn’t feel cooped up.”

  “I don’t think you’ll have much worry about that.”

  The walk ended up in the front hall and the telephone rang. Travis excused himself and took the call in his makeshift den. Wendall was reporting in, offering suggestions on a new employee-benefit and health-care package and explaining about one of the smaller skateboarding companies that TRK, Inc. was planning to buy. He listened, offered his advice and glanced at his watch. He was too young to retire and yet the business had started to bore him. He needed something new and fresh in his life, something he expected to find here.

  Something or someone? his mind taunted. Someone like Ronni Walsh?

  He hung up, feeling restless and frustrated. Trapped in a skin he was anxious to shed. Whenever he was reminded of his life in Seattle, he was disturbed and he longed to just cut the whole damned thing loose. His life here with Bryan seemed so far removed from the rat race he’d left.

  He found Victor in the living room, staring through the windowpanes at the lake. “Just one thing I want to know about this job, Keegan,” he said, frowning in concentration as he worried the brim of his hat in his work-roughened hands. “I’ll work for you, do whatever it is you want done, but I have to know that I got the job because of me, not because you’re interested in Ronni.”

  “This has nothing to do with her,” Travis said. “This is business. I just happened to have met you through her.”

  Victor tugged on his lower lip. “All right then.”

  They discussed the terms of his employment and a smile of relief crossed Vic’s features.

  “Thanks, Keegan,” he said, extending his hand.

  Travis clasped his fingers over Vic’s callused palm and gave it a shake. “I’ll see you tomorrow at nine.”

  “I’ll be here.” Victor Pederson whistled as he left the old lodge and Travis ignored that irritating voice in his head that called him a fool for hiring Ronni’s brother-in-law. His relationship with her was rocky already. What would happen if he was forced to fire Vic? He’d hedged when he’d confided to Ronni that he was hiring Victor on gut instinct. It was more than that. He’d hired the man because of her, because he wanted to get closer to her, because he wanted to look good in her eyes.

  Damn it all, what was happening to him? In years past, he’d hired and fired men and women because of their qualifications and performance, nothing more. Sure, people had given him names, but he’d always been careful, aware that by hiring the friend of an employee he could inadvertently cause problems between the two employees or with him. Oftentimes, professional jealousy developed or worse, and one of the two had to be let go. He’d rarely ever hired one person on the recommendation of an acquaintance unless that person was in the business.

  But in one fell swoop of wanting to erase the silent worry in Ronni’s eyes, he’d given up his objectivity and hired her brother-in-law.

  He only hoped he didn’t live to regret it.

  Chapter Nine

  “A PUPPY FOR me and a new daddy for my mommy!” Amy announced. Clutching a candy cane in one fist, she balanced on the mall Santa’s lap and cast her mother a superior, knowing look. Ronni wanted to fall through the tiled floor and die of embarrassment. Her face flaming, she grabbed Amy’s little hand and led her away from the crowd that had gathered at the bench labeled North Pole at the south end of the shopping center in east Portland. She felt the eyes of other mothers watching her as she joined the clog of last-minute shoppers that bustled anxiously through the wide hallway outside one of the major department stores.

  Shifting her parcels into her other hand, she said, “I think we should get something straight, Amy.” She glanced down at her innocent daughter who didn’t seem to understand what she’d done wrong. “I don’t want or need another husband.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because…because Daddy was special.” Jostled by a group of teenage boys, she automatically said, “Sorry,” even though the bump wasn’t her fault. The kid that actually bumped her was six feet tall with shaved hair up the sides of his head, multiple earrings and a fluff of blond frizz on top. As he marched away in his army-style boots, he didn’t bother turning around or acknowledging her.

  Ronni ignored him.

  Amy wasn’t to be put off. “Just because he was special doesn’t mean we can’t have another daddy. Katie Pendergrass has two daddies, one that lives with her and one that lives…somewhere else.”

  “I know, but I just haven’t met anyone who could replace your father,” she said, cutting across the wide mall and through the undergarment department of one of the anchor stores. What was she doing having this conversation in the middle of a frantic throng of shoppers? “Come on, sweetie,” she said, tightening her hold on Amy’s hand as she shouldered open an outside door to the gray day. She searched the lot, trying to remember in which row her van was parked. Fortunately, the vehicle was big enough to stand out even in a filled parking lot and she dashed through the rain, keys in hand, packages rattling, Amy’s little legs flying as the little girl kept up with her. By the time she’d gotten her daughter into the front seat, she was soaked and a woman in a small import was holding up traffic, waiting for Ronni’s parking space.

  Somehow, today, in the gray drizzle of Portland, the Christmas spirit eluded her. Slate-colored skies, pushy shoppers, picked-over merchandise and the continual clink of coins and cash registers reminded her how commercial the most sacred holiday of the year had become.

  Easing out of the parking lot, she headed east, toward the mountains and home. Her shopping was done and, of course, the puppy, now weaned, was waiting to be brought home. Shelly had agreed to let Ronni put on Christmas dinner and she’d arranged her schedule at the mountain so that she had both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. Things wouldn’t get hectic with her mail-order business until after the first of the year when people already started ordering items for Valentine’s Day, but if Shelly wasn’t able to help her, she’d have to hire extra staff.

  Shelly. Ronni sent up a silent prayer for her sister and unborn baby. So far, Shelly was still pregnant and Vic had started working for Keegan. Things were working out, or so it seemed.

  Suddenly, Taillights flashed in front of her. Tires squealed. A black dog came out of nowhere, galloping across several lanes of traffic up ahead. Automatically she stood on the brakes. The van fishtailed in the rain, its tires screaming in protest. The van stopped just before she collided with the car in front of her. She braced herself as she checked the rear view mirror and caught a glimpse of a silver sports car skidding sideways on the pavement behind her. “Watch out,” she cried and the car missed her by inches.

  “Thank you,” she whispered in prayer. Adrenaline pumped through her and her heartbeat, normal only minutes before, began to throb wildly. “Oh, Lord.”

  “What happened?” Amy, round-eyed, her candy cane a sticky mess on her lap, asked.

  “I think a dog ran out in front of one of the cars up ahead. The first car stopped and the next one nearly ran into it starting a chain reaction.”

  “Is the dog okay?” Amy’s lower lip trembled and her worried eyes searched frantically through the foggy glass.

  “I think so. He took off through those houses.” Ronni pointed to the development just off the shoulder of the four-lane highway. Amy wiped away the condensation and her eyes searched the brush and path between the houses. “It’s not his fault,” Ronni said. “His owners should keep him leashed or fenced.”

  “But is he hurt?”

  “I don’t think he got hit.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I don’t, honey, but I saw him run past that fence. I think he’ll be all right.”

  Traffic started moving again and the silver sports car roared into the lane beside Ronni. The
driver laid on his horn, and when she looked at him, he glowered at her and used an obscene gesture before speeding away.

  “Merry Christmas to you, too,” Ronni muttered.

  “You know him?” Amy peered through the drizzle and approaching darkness to stare at the car’s bright taillights as they blended into the long stream of red beams ahead of them.

  “No, and I don’t want to know him. He’s rude.”

  Amy picked up her candy cane and started working on it again. Ronni was about to protest as the sticky peppermint was already on the child’s jacket and pants, but she kept her mouth closed and concentrated on the road that wound through the steep foothills. The suburbs gave way to rolling farmland dotted with smaller towns, then eventually the highway grew steeper and cleaved to the thick forest of the mountains. Rain turned to snow in a matter of miles and soon white powder piled high on the shoulders gave the dark night a small cast of illumination.

  Amy glanced at her mother. “I still want a puppy for Christmas.”

  “I know you do, sweetie.”

  “And a daddy.”

  “Oh, honey, I don’t think—”

  “What about Bryan’s dad? He gots no wife.”

  Travis. Funny, when she thought of marriage, his image always came to mind. “I don’t think he’s ready to tie the knot again—I mean, get married—either.”

  “Why not?”

  “Oh, honey, I’m not sure.” How did they get on this crazy subject? Amy seemed almost obsessed with thoughts of a father these days. The one thing Ronni couldn’t give her.

  With a theatrical sigh, Amy drew on the passenger window again, her small finger sliding through the condensation. “Everybody else has a daddy.”

  “Everybody? Like who?”

  “All the kids in school and I told you about Katie.”