Angel Mine

by Sherryl Woods

  “Heather—”

  “Think it over, Todd. Are you willing to give a little girl sleepless nights, just because you’re a coward?”

  “Jeez, Heather, you are shameless,” he said, but amusement tugged at his lips. “Using that little girl—”

  “You work with what you’ve got.” She grinned unrepentantly. “See you, Todd.”

  “Tonight,” he agreed finally.

  Impulsively, she rested her fingers against his cheek, then stood on tiptoe and touched her lips to his. “I knew you’d see it my way.”

  Before she could step away, he captured her hand and held it in place, then slowly turned his head and pressed his own kiss to her palm. A shudder swept through her. Her gaze flew up and clashed with his.

  “What was that for?” she asked.

  His hands were jammed in his pockets again. He shrugged. “Old times, I suppose. Why’d you kiss me?”

  More shaken than she cared to admit, she couldn’t seem to find her voice at first. “Old times,” she finally echoed in a whisper.

  “Maybe old times for us are best forgotten,” Todd suggested.

  “Never,” she said vehemently. “Because of those times, we have a beautiful little girl.”

  “Something you’re not likely to let me forget,” he retorted.

  She regarded him with dismay. “Is that what you want? Now that you know she exists, could you really forget about her? Even if we left, would you be able to get the image of your daughter out of your head?”

  “I could try,” he said, a plaintive note in his voice.

  “But why would you want to?”

  “Because it would be for the best.”

  “You’re wrong,” she told him. “I might have made a mistake in not telling you about Angel from the very beginning, but if you turn your back on her, you’ll never forgive yourself.”

  Before she could say more, before she could express her disappointment in him, she turned away and headed for her car.

  “I’ll see you tonight,” he said quietly.

  “Whatever.”

  She noticed as she drove away that he was still staring after her, his expression troubled.

  7

  Todd stood outside the studio for several minutes after Heather had driven away. The woman was going to be the death of him. He’d caught sight of her driving up, guessed her intentions and bolted from his office, hoping to intercept her before she came inside. The last thing he wanted was for Megan to spot her and link Heather to the funk he’d been in. It was just bad luck that Jake had gotten to her first. Seeing the two of them with their heads together had been enough to make his stomach churn. If Jake was already in on the secret, then Megan would surely pry it out of him sooner or later, ethics be damned.

  Oh, yes, Heather was going to turn his life upside down, no doubt about it. She was going to keep right on poking at him until she got her way. If the stakes hadn’t been so high, the risk so great, he would have given in now, accepted a role in Angel’s life and been done with it.

  But he couldn’t and that was that. He would fight her as hard as he had to.

  When at last he walked back inside, he found Jake waiting for him in his office. Since Jake was seldom far from Megan’s side these days, Todd guessed the man had something serious on his mind. It wasn’t all that difficult to figure out what it was.

  “You want to talk about Megan’s schedule again?” he asked, hoping he was wrong and that it was something that simple and impersonal, something professional. He charged ahead, assuming that he’d gotten it right. “I’ve made it as light as I could and still keep her on the air. She’s champing at the bit because the pace of the tapings has slowed down. She seems to think we should be taping more, not less, so she’ll have shows in the can when she takes time off to have the baby. She has a point. Unless you want her maternity leave to last less than a week, we need a backlog of shows.”

  For once, Jake didn’t pounce on the suggestion that Megan return to a more demanding schedule. “This isn’t about Megan,” he said mildly.

  Todd’s hand stilled over the taping schedule he’d been about to pull from its place on the wall behind him. “Oh?”

  “It’s about Heather,” Jake said, then added, “and your baby.”

  Todd sank into his chair. “You know, then? I was afraid of that.”

  “I’m representing her. I thought you should know.”

  “So much for loyalty,” Todd groused. “Isn’t there a conflict in there somewhere?”

  “I don’t see one.”

  “Megan might,” Todd suggested, hoping that would be enough to get Jake to drop the case.

  “I don’t discuss my cases with my wife. And even if I did, are you so sure she wouldn’t want me to help a mother get what she deserves from her child’s father?”

  To be truthful, Todd wasn’t sure of that at all, but he did know that Megan would at least listen to his side of things before jumping into the fray. That was more than he could say for Jake, even though he considered him a friend—particularly these past few months when he and Jake had been united in saving Megan’s syndication deal and making her life easier.

  “Are you so desperate for clients that you have to take on a case that puts the two of us at odds?” he asked.

  “You know better,” Jake replied quietly. “Heather came to me with a legitimate legal matter. If there had been another attorney to send her to here in town, I would have done it.” His gaze narrowed. “Are we really going to have a problem over this? It’s not personal, Todd. It doesn’t have to turn into a fight. I know the kind of man you are. You don’t walk away from responsibilities.”

  “It seems damned personal to me. And believe me, if this is about me taking legal custody of that little girl in any way whatsoever, there will be a fight. It’s not going to happen, Jake.”

  “Todd, be reasonable. The girl needs a daddy. You’d make a fine one. I can’t see why you’re so all-fired set against it. How much time have you actually spent with Angel since the two of them got to town? You haven’t even given the idea a chance, have you?”

  “It doesn’t matter why I’m against it. I am, so let’s just start from there when you’re working your legal magic. You prove she’s mine and I’ll fork over whatever child support seems right. Beyond that, I won’t agree to anything. And since you’re Heather’s attorney, from here on out, I don’t think you and I should be discussing this at all.”

  Jake seemed taken aback by Todd’s unyielding attitude, but he nodded slowly. “Okay, you’re probably right about that. Once you hire an attorney, I’ll go through him.”

  “I have no intention of hiring an attorney.”

  “But—”

  “Like I said, if Angel’s mine, I’ll meet any reasonable request. I don’t need to have an attorney making this any more complicated than it is already. I’ll make my offer to Heather. She can run it by you if she wants, then we’ll sign whatever papers are necessary.”

  “She wants more than money,” Jake reminded him, despite Todd’s vehement insistence that anything else was out of the question.

  Todd felt besieged, especially since he knew that what Heather wanted was not an unreasonable demand. If he’d been a different man with a different past, he wouldn’t fight her. He’d want to spend time with his child.

  But there was no point dealing with what-ifs. He was who he was and there was no forgetting the past. God knows he had tried every way he knew how, but it was always with him. Every time he was behind the wheel of a car, it came back to him.

  “She’s not going to get it,” Todd said flatly.

  “Okay,” Jake said. “Let’s go about this one step at a time. I’ll schedule the blood work so we’ll know exactly what the situation is. Then we can go from there.”

  “You do what you have to do,” Todd said, just as Megan walked in.

  She stared first at Todd, then at her husband, clearly sensing the tension in the air. “What’s wrong?”
>
  “Nothing,” Jake said, leaping up to usher her into a chair. “Sit. You shouldn’t be on your feet.”

  “Jake, will you please stop it,” she begged with evident frustration. “If you two are arguing over my schedule again…”

  “We aren’t,” Todd said, inadvertently opening the door for more questions.

  Fortunately Jake stepped in. He whipped a sheet of paper from his pocket. “The doctor said you should take it easy. It says so right here.”

  Megan scowled at the paper. “Give me that.” She snatched it from his hand, balled it up and tossed it to Todd. “Burn that.”

  Todd grinned. “With pleasure.”

  Jake frowned. “I have more copies.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” Megan said. “I’m going to find the entire stash and burn those, too. And just for the record, it also says on there that I should continue to get a moderate amount of exercise, or have you conveniently forgotten that?”

  Jake shrugged. “I must have missed it,” he said without apology. “We’ll go for a walk later, if it’s not too chilly.”

  “Let’s get back to what was going on in here before I walked in,” Megan suggested. “Tell me the truth. Were the two of you arguing?”

  Todd knew better than to head down that path. “Nope.”

  “Just talking,” Jake agreed.

  “About?”

  “This and that,” her husband said. He latched on to Megan’s hand. “We’ve got to run. I’ll take care of that matter, Todd, and let you know the particulars.”

  “The particulars of what?” Megan asked, trailing after him reluctantly.

  “Nothing for you to worry your head about,” Jake told her.

  Megan rolled her eyes. “I’ll see you later, Todd, and be prepared. Whatever you two are up to, I will find out.”

  “Duly noted,” he told her. He knew he’d been living on borrowed time from the moment Heather set foot in town. Despite Jake’s claim to ethical considerations, his own determination to keep the matter private and Heather’s promise not to let word get out, too many people already knew—or had accurately guessed—the facts. Megan was not the kind of woman to stay out of the loop for long. Well-placed sources and timely leaks were how she kept her magazine and her TV show one step ahead of the trends.

  To her credit, she hadn’t asked about Heather’s presence in Whispering Wind, and by now she had to know about it. It was a small town, and Heather’s soap role would have brought her instant attention. But as far as he knew, Megan hadn’t caught so much as a glimpse of Angel. It was only a matter of time, though. Todd shuddered when he thought of what would happen when she finally honed in on the secret.

  Heather was on pins and needles waiting for Todd to keep his word and show up at the diner. Every time the door opened, she glanced over, then sighed with disappointment when another of the regulars entered.

  “You looking for somebody in particular?” Henrietta asked.

  “No.”

  “You’re a terrible liar, girl. Which man is it you’re hoping will show up?”

  “Which man?”

  “I notice Joe’s not here tonight. He’s been making himself scarce the last few days, same as Todd. You chase off any more of my customers, I’ll be out of business.”

  Heather winced. She certainly didn’t want Henrietta to lose business because of her. “Sorry.”

  “I was joking,” Henrietta soothed. “Must not be much good at it. Look around here. The tables are filled. I haven’t seen this many ranch hands in here in years. Word must be getting around that I have a pretty new waitress.”

  Yes, Heather thought, there did indeed seem to be an awful lot of men crowded into the booths tonight. Young, rugged cowboys with friendly smiles and twinkling eyes. She’d been so busy serving heaping plates of Henrietta’s spaghetti, she hadn’t paid much attention to the gender of the customers. None of them was Todd, that was all she cared about. She’d finally sent Angel upstairs with Sissy, who’d promised to read her a story and then watch her favorite video with her for the umpteenth time.

  The door opened again and Heather’s gaze shot to the latest arrival. It was Joe Stevens. He stared around in surprise at the crowd.

  “You giving away food in here tonight?” he asked. “Can’t think of anything else that would get these motley ranch hands to leave the comfort of the bunkhouse and their nightly poker games.”

  “They’re all paying customers,” Henrietta assured him. “You’ll have to join one of these gangs or sit at the counter. Unless you want to wait.”

  He shook his head. “The counter’s fine.” He slid onto a stool and grabbed a menu.

  “You take his order, Heather. I’ll get these plates over to table seven,” Henrietta said.

  Heather nodded, poured Joe a cup of coffee and set it in front of him.

  “Where have you been?” she asked.

  “Miss me?” he asked with a grin.

  “Henrietta did,” she corrected him.

  “Had to take a run down to Denver for a few days,” he said, then studied her with that impudent grin still firmly in place. “You sure you didn’t miss me even a little bit?”

  “I’m sure. But I was worried you might have taken offense the other night,” she told him candidly.

  “Sugar, it would take more than a brush-off like that to keep me away from Henrietta’s food.” His grin spread. “Maybe I’ll try again one of these days and you’ll be in a more receptive frame of mind.”

  “Joe—”

  “One of these days, Heather. No need to dig in your heels now. It’ll just make it harder for you to change your mind later.”

  She laughed. “Your ego’s obviously tougher than I thought.”

  He winked. “Keep that in mind, why don’t you.”

  Just then the door opened and Jake’s secretary came in, took one look around at the mostly male crowd and silently whistled. She took an empty seat at the counter, which hiked up her tight skirt, and grinned at Heather. “If I’d known you were going to start pulling in every bachelor in town, I’d have been over here sooner,” she teased.

  “They’re here for Henrietta’s spaghetti,” Heather insisted.

  “Yeah, right,” Flo said. “Henrietta’s been serving that same spaghetti since I came to town and I’ve never seen a crowd like this.”

  Joe’s gaze settled on Flo as if he’d never seen her before. Heather seized on that promising flash of masculine interest and introduced the two of them.

  “Are you both having the spaghetti?” she asked.

  “Suits me,” Joe said, without taking his gaze from Flo.

  He was looking at her as if she were some sort of fascinating exotic bird, Heather thought. Given Flo’s short skirt and snug sweater, Heather had a very strong feeling that she wouldn’t need to worry about Joe’s unwanted attention anymore.

  “Me, too,” Flo agreed, equally distracted.

  Heather headed toward the kitchen to place the order and ran into Henrietta coming out with a loaded tray.

  “Matchmaking?” Henrietta inquired.

  “Not intentionally, but it sure looks as if it might work out that way.” Something in Henrietta’s expression suggested disapproval. “What do you think?”

  “I think he could do better,” she said succinctly, then turned right around and went back into the kitchen, food and all.

  Heather followed her. “You don’t like Flo?”

  Scowling, Henrietta put the tray down. “I didn’t say I didn’t like her.”

  “But you don’t approve of her for Joe, right?”

  Henrietta sighed. “They’re both grown people. They’ll do what they want without my say-so.” She paused, then added pointedly, “Same as you.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Take it however you want,” Henrietta said as she grabbed up two more salads, added them to the tray and left Heather staring after her.

  “Now, what on earth was that about?” she asked.


  “She gets riled up when things don’t go to suit her,” Mack answered as he expertly flipped burgers. “It’ll pass. I ought to know. She spends most days riled up at me about one thing or another. If I experiment with some spice she hasn’t personally okayed, you’d think I was trying to ruin her business.”

  Heather chuckled at the cook’s disgruntled expression. “Remember the clientele,” she said. “These folks can’t take a lot of change all at once. You have to ease ’em along. Henrietta knows that.”

  “Henrietta’s worse than the whole lot of them.” He shook his head. “Talk about being set in her ways. But like I said, her moods pass.”

  Henrietta being riled up was plain enough, but what had set her off? Flo Olsen and Joe Stevens? Was she irked because she’d wanted something to happen between Joe and Heather? That didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Hadn’t she warned Heather to stay away from him since she intended to leave Whispering Wind? Or was it simply Flo she objected to?

  Well, standing around in the kitchen wasn’t going to get dinners served or solve the mystery of Henrietta’s mood. Heather picked up salads for Joe and Flo, then went back to serve them—only to discover that Todd had joined them at the counter. From the way Todd and Flo were chatting, it was obvious that they were well-acquainted. Heather suspected she had the same scowl on her face that was plain on Joe’s. Damn, but working here was getting complicated. There was more intrigue going on at the counter tonight than there had been on that soap opera.

  Fortunately it was so busy, she didn’t have time to dwell on any of it. It was eight by the time the crowd eventually thinned out. The three people at the counter, however, hadn’t budged. Henrietta had joined them. Heather suspected she had deliberately scooted onto the stool between Joe and Flo to keep them a safe distance apart. That left one stool for Heather, next to Todd. She was too exhausted not to take it. She was also too tired to do more than pick at the food she’d brought with her.

  “You have to eat more than that,” Todd advised. “Otherwise, you’ll insult Henrietta.”

  “I notice you cleaned your plate. Your appetite must be back. Did that have something to do with the fact that Angel was already upstairs when you got here?”