Everybody's Hero

by Karen Templeton

  Maddie set her tea down on the end table and crossed her arms, her feet perched on the edge of the coffee table in front of the sofa. From the bassinet, the baby made little going-to-sleep snuffling sounds. "Does 'everybody' include you?"

  Mirroring her friend's pose, Taylor met her gaze. "That's a leading question."

  "That was the idea." Then her eyebrows disappeared underneath her bangs. "Ohmigosh—you two are foolin' around, aren't you?"

  Since this was her real reason for being here, Taylor had no choice but to nod. Maddie's grin collapsed. "Is this good news or bad news?"

  Taylor lifted her hands in a "beats me" gesture, then said, "The man is the most generous, selfless, noble man I have ever met in my entire life. Well, except for your husband."

  Maddie grinned. "But…?"

  "But selfless, noble men are major pains in the butt."

  "Tell me about it," Maddie muttered, then regarded Taylor steadily for a moment. "But if you love him, then you just gotta deal with that, right?"

  "I didn't say—"

  Maddie laughed. Taylor glowered.

  "But how? How am I supposed to deal with it when the man won't let me into his life?" She leaned forward, pushing her hair behind her ear. "How did you get Ryan to let you into his?"

  She grinned, a cute little three-corner number that was equal parts innocence and don't-mess-with-me grit. "I don't think he let me into his life as much as he finally figured out I'd already burrowed my way into his life deeper than the tick on your dog."

  "Yeah, except that tick paralyzed Oakley, remember?"

  "Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best analogy I could've used. But really, sometimes all you can do is to just keep lovin' 'em until they realize they can't live without you."

  "If only it were that simple," Taylor said on a sigh.

  "I know, honey," Maddie said, her expression sympathetic. "I know."

  Ryan and the kids returned at that moment, which more or less put the kibosh on any further conversation since the kids climbed all over their mother until she looked like one of those storyteller dolls from New Mexico. But for the rest of the day, and the day after, as Taylor tended her flowers and went grocery shopping and trekked clear up to Bartlesville with Jenna to some estate sale to pick up some more pieces for the new cabins, Maddie's words kept replaying in her head. The thing was, much as she wanted Joe to know she loved him and was there for him, being thought of as a tick did not appeal.

  Go figure.

  * * *

  Joe managed to get Taylor alone for about two seconds when he dropped Seth off on Monday morning, although since he couldn't touch her, let alone kiss her—or do anything else—he found the encounter somewhat less than satisfactory. But at least he had her smile all to himself for those two seconds, and while that wasn't nearly enough, it was something.

  "Who's that?" he asked as Seth made a beeline toward a knot of noisy little boys in the center of the room, where he started gabbing up a storm with a scrawny blond kid with big ears and a bigger grin.

  Taylor turned, her shirt collar shifting to reveal the fading love bite he'd given her more than a week ago, causing various and sundry parts of his body to stir with interest. And his mouth to tingle with wanting to freshen the bite up a bit.

  "Oh, that's Wade Frazier," she said, then turned back to him with a smile. "One of the Frazier brood. I think Seth and Wade have become best buds." Considering the way the boys were currently shoving and poking at each other, he'd say Taylor's assessment was dead on. "So I hear your boss finally put in an appearance last week?" Taylor asked, recapturing his attention.

  "Yep. He seemed pleased."

  "So life is good?" she said, her eyes twinkling.

  He felt his mouth stretch into a slow, sexy grin. And said, knowing there was far too much noise in the room for anybody to hear except the one person who counted, "Not as good as I'd like it to be."

  Something he couldn't quite figure out flitted across her features, but then she said, "Yeah. I know what you mean," and he thought—hoped—maybe he'd just imagined it.

  Then he said, "I gotta go," and she said, "We'll see you later," and he walked out feeling about as mixed up as a man could feel without the guys with the nets coming after him. In many ways, his life was better than it had been in, well, a very long time. Seth seemed to be coming around, the crisis with Wes seemed to have been averted, he had a lover—even if the loving part didn't happen nearly as often as he might like—and yet, he couldn't seem to shake this sense of foreboding, like the feeling animals got right before an earthquake.

  A sense that stayed with him all the way into Tulsa, when he walked into Wes's office to find Mary-Jo next door to hysterical.

  Chapter 16

  Joe had never seen Hank flat-out furious before. It was not a pretty sight.

  Of course, since Joe was every bit as furious, he didn't imagine he was any too pretty a sight, either.

  They were standing outside, staring at the crater in the ground where the swimming pool was supposed to go. Behind them, the original motel had been reduced to little more than walls and roof. As hot as it was, Joe could feel Hank's anger rolling off him from two feet away.

  "And you had no idea this was about to happen?"

  There was little point in revealing to Hank all the little, and not so little, signs that Joe had chosen to ignore over the past couple of months. He honest to God thought Wes would come through whatever this was, that he wouldn't be the kind of guy to leave his secretary of twenty years with an envelope with five hundred bucks in it and an apology that it couldn't be more. And then, for all intents and purposes, vanish from the face of the earth. His phones had been disconnected, his house was empty, his accounts closed.

  "I'm as flabbergasted as you, Hank," Joe said, then turned to look at the other man's hard-edged profile. "You saw him yourself, when he came up here a couple days ago. Did he sound like a man about to throw in the towel to you?"

  Hank glared at the hole in the ground for another second or two, then blew out a breath and shook his head. "No. And I thought I was pretty good at readin' people." Then he looked over at Joe. "Now what?"

  Yeah, he knew that question was coming. Too bad he had no answer.

  To say Joe was reeling was an understatement. He'd trusted Wes, dammit. Had gradually let himself believe he could count on him at a time when counting on people wasn't exactly an easy thing for him to do. And now he'd been lied to—left hanging—exactly like before.

  He hadn't thought it could hurt this bad, not a second time, not after all these years.

  He'd been wrong.

  But there was no time for self-pity, no more now than there had been then. So he looked at Hank and said, "First off, do you want to finish the project?"

  That got a dry, humorless laugh. "I maybe have enough cash to pay the people Wes left in the lurch, but unless I can swing a loan, or find another partner…" He muttered an obscenity, then said, "And here I thought bein' a cop was hard."

  They stood there for several moments, staring at that hole in the ground, trying to figure out how where to go from here when Hank said, "But what about you? You got any options?"

  He thought about Mitch's offer, wondered if the other man had gotten wind of something about Wes Joe hadn't known about. "Yeah, actually. As it happens, another Tulsa developer approached me last week."

  Hank glanced over at him, then back at the hole. "I take it the money'd be good?"

  "Supposedly."

  "And you'd have that security that's so important to you."

  Joe snorted. "There's an illusion for you."

  "Hey. You said it, not me." Several beats passed, then he said, "So I guess that means you wouldn't be interested in goin' in with me?"

  Joe's head whipped around. "Me?"

  "Yeah, you." Hank's gaze was unnervingly steady. "Give me one good reason why not."

  He could give him plenty of reasons. Yet, the only one that came out of his mouth was, "I'd alrea
dy made plans to move back to Tulsa, to be closer to my mother and sister."

  "So bring 'em here."

  "My sister—"

  "—can go to school in Claremore and get all the services she needs. But what am I saying? We'd probably have to take out a loan to get this done, and I have no idea whether that's something you could even do. Or would want to do."

  Joe knew how much it would take to finish the work. He also knew he had the money. Or could easily get a loan with his portfolio as collateral. More than a dozen years of socking it away had built up quite a nice little nest egg, a nest egg he'd always intended to use for Kristen. But he wouldn't have to use all of it, after all….

  "And I bet we could do a lot of the work ourselves," Hank was saying. "Not pouring the pool, stuff like that, but the cabins are more or less done, it's just a matter of redoing the lodge. If I can start taking reservations again on the cabins, that'd bring in a few bucks so at least we wouldn't starve."

  Joe turned to face the man he realized he thought of as a friend. But enough of a friend to trust again? "It's a big risk," he said, and he wasn't just talking about the money.

  "Yeah. It is. But hell, Joe, life's a risk, you know?"

  With a vague promise to think it over, Joe went back to his cabin, where he spent the rest of the day making about a million phone calls, assuaging subcontractors, doing what he could to link up the various people Wes had left in the lurch, including letting Mitch know there was a half-finished strip mall in Tulsa he might be interested in getting his hands on. And a secretary who desperately needed a job. In turn, Mitch reiterated his offer, telling Joe he could start work for him anytime, just let him know.

  Why Joe didn't immediately jump at the job, he didn't know. Certainly, there was nothing keeping him from taking it now. Except, when it came time to say, "Okay," the only thing that came out was, "Can I get back to you on that?"

  Mitch probably thought Joe was several sandwiches short of a picnic. Hell, so did Joe. Especially as up to this point, life had been pretty black-and-white, you know? Decisions had been clear, if not always easy. But now…now his head felt like somebody'd stuffed it with old socks.

  It was nearly six by the time he got to Taylor's to pick up Seth. She met him at the door, her face crumpled with concern. There was something peculiar about the house his muddled brain couldn't decipher at first, until he realized he was smelling something cooking.

  "I do a mean roast beef," she said.

  "With gravy?"

  "How else? And there's one of Maddie's peach pies, and potatoes which Seth helped mash."

  He looked deep into those compassionate green eyes and said, "You know?"

  "I ran into Jenna at Ruby's," she said, and took him by the hand and brought him inside, where he gathered her close and held on tight.

  * * *

  Seth floated on his back in the aboveground pool at camp, watching the clouds and wishing the icky feeling inside him would go away. But no matter how hard he tried, it just stayed there, like a dog that wouldn't go home.

  Joe and Taylor had acted weird the whole time they'd been at her house for supper last night, talking in whispers whenever he left the room, clamming up the minute he'd come back in. A couple times, he'd come right out and asked what the matter was, but they'd both said, "Nothing," with these funny looks on their faces, like he was too dumb or little to figure out they were full of it.

  Actually, they'd been acting strange all week whenever they were together, so he pretty much figured it had something to do with sex. Not that he was real clear on the particulars, but he'd heard enough here and there to get the general idea. Which meant his original hunch had been right all along—that Joe had what some of the older kids called "the hots" for Taylor. Whatever it was, he'd sure felt like odd man out last night, boy. Even when Joe'd put him to bed, he'd smiled at Seth like he didn't really see him….

  Water splashed in Seth's face, scaring the bejeebers out of him and making him sputter and choke until his feet touched bottom. As he swiped water out of his eyes, he heard Wade Frazier giggle. Since he'd done the same thing to Wade the day before, he guessed he couldn't get too mad.

  "Are we even now?" Seth asked, squeezing his nose until the stinging went away. Since the pool wasn't but three feet deep, he hadn't been in any danger of drowning, but Blair and Wade's sister Libby and them got mad anyway if they horsed around too much.

  "Yeah, we're even." The kid grinned, water droplets sparkling in real short hair practically the same color as his head. "You okay?"

  "Yeah, 'course."

  "Let's get out now, I'm bored."

  "Yeah, me, too."

  They got out of the pool and wrapped themselves up in their towels, then went to sit in the grass, in a sunny spot so they'd dry off quicker. They compared fingers and toes to see whose were wrinkled the most, then Wade poked Seth in the arm and said, "Hey—maybe you could over to my house for supper tonight."

  Seth was kind of surprised at this, since although he and Wade played together a lot at camp, this was the first time he'd suggested they hang out together afterwards. The icky feeling began to go away, a little. "You sure?"

  "Oh, yeah. Daddy won't mind." Wade grinned, showing off two of the biggest front teeth Seth'd ever seen. "He says we've already got so many kids, a couple more don't make any difference one way or the other."

  Seth smiled, wrapping his towel tighter around his shoulders since the sun had gone behind a cloud. But he felt so good inside he didn't care. Deciding maybe him and Wade were best friends now, which meant they could talk about stuff that bothered them, he said, "C'n I ask you something?"

  "What?"

  "Were you sad for a real long time after your mama died?"

  The other kid seemed to think about this for a while, his almost invisible eyebrows pushed down so hard that there were three bumps of skin over his nose. "I guess maybe I was," he said, poking a corner of his towel in his ear to soak up the water, then pulling it tight around his shoulders again. "But it was a long time ago. I was real little. Like in kindergarten. So I don't remember too much about it." He made a funny face. "I don't really remember Mama all that much, to tell you the truth, but I don't let on to Daddy."

  "So you feel okay now?"

  "Most of the time, yeah."

  That sounded pretty good to Seth. Even though he wasn't sad all the time anymore, it still kept coming back. Especially whenever Joe was grumpy about something or other. "You ever think about gettin' a new mom someday?"

  Shoulders even skinnier than Seth's popped up, then back down. The sun—which had come back out—flashed off his pale head. "Sometimes, I guess. But I don't think Daddy's much interested in gettin' married again."

  Seth perked up at that. "Yeah?"

  "Yeah. I heard him on the phone once telling somebody women just weren't worth the bother. That Mama'd been the only woman he needed, and now that she was gone and we'd all 'justed to her not being here, there was no sense upsettin' the apple cart by tryin' to train up somebody new."

  His friend's words playing in his head, Seth stretched out his towel on the grass and laid on his back to do some more cloud watching. He wasn't sure yet, but he thought maybe some of those Lego pieces in his brain were finally beginning to click into place.

  * * *

  "You sure you don't mind taking Seth?" Joe asked Sam Frazier that evening as the two boys—as well as several others of assorted sizes—barreled past them, Wade yelling, "You c'n sit by me!" to Seth. "Looks to me like you already have your hands full."

  Sam gave a low chuckle, his face creasing into a smile. "Which means I'll never notice one more. There's always extras at my place, anyway." Sam told Joe he'd swing Seth back home around nine, if that was okay, winked at Taylor, who was standing nearby, then followed his kids out to an old Econoline van parked out under an elm tree.

  "He winked at you," popped out of Joe's mouth before he even knew he was thinking it.

  "Sam winks at everybody," T
aylor said with an amused expression as she started to clean up a nearby table cluttered with books and stuff. Straightening, she lifted one eyebrow. "Jealous?"

  He lifted one right back at her. "Should I be?"

  "Unfortunately, no," she said on a sigh, carting the books across the room to toss them into a bin. "I don't think there's a woman alive who could break through the wall that man has put up around his heart."

  Joe frowned. "Why? He seems friendly enough to me."

  "Friendly's not the same as being open to love." She got her purse out of a nearby desk drawer, hollered goodbye to Didi on the other side of the room, then headed outside. Joe followed, blinking in the glare of the late day sun.

  "Why do I get the feeling we're not talking about Sam anymore?" he said when they got to their vehicles, parked right next to each other.

  She looked over at him, but all she did was tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear and say, "You make any major decisions today I should know about?"

  "I think that's called a non sequitur."

  "Not in my mind, it wasn't. Well?"

  They'd talked for a long time last night about his options. While she never once tried to tell him what she thought he should do, if she'd said "But what do you want?" once, she'd said it a hundred times. As if that made his decision any easier.

  "Still…trying to figure out what's best for everybody."

  "That may not be possible, you know."

  "Yeah. I know."

  "You haven't told Seth yet, have you?"

  Joe shook his head. "Until I have something concrete to tell him, there doesn't seem much point. Same with my mother. I don't want her to worry."

  Taylor looked at him for a long time, then said gently, "Don't take this the wrong way, okay? But maybe you're not giving her enough credit."

  "I just don't want to let her down."

  "I know," she said softly, then cocked her head, a knowing smile teasing her lips. "You know, it sure looks to me like somebody could use another…vacation."