Single Dad's Christmas Miracle

by Susan Meier

  Clark hustled over. She tugged on his shirtsleeve and he leaned down.

  She whispered something in his ear.

  He said, “Okay,” and went back to the coffee/cocoa maker. “We don’t have that flavor.”

  Her lips turned down in an adorable pout, as she slid her hood off. Her hair was as dark as her eyes. The pale pink coat she wore accented both. As pretty as a princess, she blinked at Althea.

  “I can help you with your coat, if you want.”

  Teagan’s gaze whipped to her dad. He walked over with a cup of cocoa. “I’ll get her coat. You just finish making your sandwich.”

  Teagan tugged on his shirtsleeve again. He leaned down. She whispered in his ear.

  Baffled, Althea stopped slathering mayonnaise on her bread. Not only did the little girl think it normal to talk only to her dad and only in a whisper, but also Clark was so accustomed to it, he automatically leaned down to listen.

  “Sure. We have marshmallows.”

  She almost asked Clark about it. But she knew kids hated it when adults talked about them as if they weren’t in the room. Any minute now she and Clark would go into the den for her interview. She could ask him then. Delicately of course.

  “Jack, do you want to make your sandwich now, too, so that I can put all this stuff back in the fridge before we go into the den?”

  Jack walked over, grabbed some bread and ham and fixed his sandwich without a word.

  Althea’s eyebrows rose. She’d taught middle school for six years. She knew twelve-year-olds. They were sassy, moody, and the boys were always hungry. They didn’t wait for an invitation to make a sandwich.

  What was going on here?

  Clark handed Teagan her sandwich then he brought over her cocoa, complete with marshmallows, and started the first cup of coffee. He made his sandwich and the second cup of coffee then he put away the bread, ham and condiments before he faced the kids.

  “Althea and I will be in the den. If you need me, just come back and get me.”

  Teagan blinked. Jack nodded.

  She followed Clark down a long hall off the front foyer to the den. He motioned for her to take the empty chair in front of the desk then sat on the tall-back chair behind it.

  “I think we should just get right to the point.”

  She nodded, knowing what was coming. With a housekeeper in the hospital with pneumonia and a wife who obviously worked, this job had morphed into babysitter/teacher. She might even have to cook. Or clean up. It was not going to be the piece-of-cake, easy-money job she’d expected. Not that she was above helping out. Plus, truth be told, taking this position was about more than money. Spending four weeks close to her sister, but not really in Maryland was a stall tactic. She longed to see her sister. But she was afraid to see her dad. So finding employment close enough that Missy could drive up and visit her here in Pennsylvania might have been too good to be true.

  That was usually how her life worked. Everything she thought was “perfect” ended up being a scam.

  She smiled slightly. “Sure. Let’s just get right to the point.”

  “My wife was killed in an automobile accident three years ago.”

  Her mouth dropped a bit. That wasn’t at all what she’d been expecting. From the casual way he’d mentioned her when she complimented the view, she never would have guessed his wife had died. She’d even suspected the poor woman was at work.

  “Jack did okay until this fall. Now suddenly he’s failing all his classes. He’s done so poorly that his former teacher quit. I need you to pack four months of learning into one month.”

  “That’s quite a job.”

  “He’s been over the material once already. Technically only the December material will be new.” He leaned back in his chair. “He’s not a stupid kid. In fact, he’s very bright. I’m sure he’s retained some of what he heard. This is more about getting him focused again and making him see that if he decides to slack off, there are consequences.”

  “Are you sure this isn’t about him grieving for his mom?”

  Clark sighed. “She died three years ago. He had two therapy sessions. One right after. One about a year ago. He has the techniques and tools to cope.”

  “But he’s in a new life phase. And I’m not a therapist—”

  “If you think he needs to begin seeing his therapist again, back he’ll go. But I think this is more about him getting soft than anything to do with his mom. Twelve is a normal rebellion stage.” He winced. “I know that because I went through one myself.”

  When she pictured rebellion, she didn’t picture silence. She envisioned anger. Pouting, sure. But not the control and quiet she’d seen in that kitchen.

  Still, he’d said if she believed his son needed to talk to someone he would get him help. She couldn’t argue that.

  “So, what makes you want a temporary job?”

  “As I said, I lost my job and I’m on my way to live with my sister in Maryland. I want the extra cash to give me more time to look for a teaching job.”

  He nodded as if remembering their conversation outside.

  “Plus, she has triplets and a new husband I haven’t yet met.”

  He frowned. “You haven’t met your sister’s family?”

  She shrugged that off easily. She could answer this without giving away any of her secrets. “California’s a long way from here. I didn’t have the money to just pop home and I also couldn’t take the time off work.”

  Accepting that, he shifted on his chair, getting more comfortable, a sign that the interview was going well from his perspective.

  “Since Jack’s original homeschooling program failed, I found three excellent replacement options you can use to catch him up on this semester, but there are also some incredible subject-specific websites you can use to reinforce the material.”

  “Sounds like you’ve done your homework.”

  “Being a single parent is something like a full-time job.”

  She inclined her head. She understood what was going on. He could easily handle the concrete and the obvious. Parental duties and tasks, things he could see. Insubstantial, delicate things like talking weren’t as easily handled as getting groceries, finding homeschool programs or making lunch. He might be ignoring warning signs because he didn’t know to look for them.

  He smiled. “Do you have any questions for me?”

  “Yes. I’d like to know about Teagan.”

  “Do you mean what will Teagan do while you teach Jack?” He tossed a pencil to his desk. “I was hoping she could color in the room you and Jack use for your class work.”

  “Actually, I’m more concerned about the way she only talks to you and then only in a whisper.”

  He laughed. “She’s three-and-a-half. She’s just shy.”

  Three-and-a-half? And her mom had died three years ago? The poor thing had been only six months old when her mom died. Technically, she didn’t know her own mother. And he thought she didn’t talk because she was shy?

  “Really? You think she’s just shy?”

  “Yes. She’s fine.”

  Althea took a bite of her sandwich to stop herself from saying something she might regret. Either this guy was in complete denial about his kids or he was right.

  If he was right, if Jack was in the throes of a normal twelve-year-old rebellion and Teagan was just shy, everything would work itself out. If he wasn’t—

  Well, if he wasn’t, these kids were suffering. They might not be huddled in a closet, desperately trying to block out the sounds of their dad beating their mom the way she and her older sister Missy had been, but they were suffering. And if their dad didn’t understand, there was no one to help them.

  She knew she might be reading too much into this situation, but after her own miserable childhood,
when every teacher, every neighbor, and even her grandmother missed the signs that she, her sister and her mom were in trouble, she couldn’t just walk away.

  “I’ll take the job.”

  He sat up. “Really?”

  The disbelief in his voice made her laugh. “You were afraid that when I’d realized I may also have to become your temporary housekeeper/babysitter this week, I’d refuse.”

  “I wasn’t going to ask you to do the housekeeping, but if you could at least tidy up after meals it would be a big help.”

  Drat. Her and her big mouth.

  “I have some projects at work that I should be attending to. If you could start today, I could get an afternoon of research in. I’ll work from here, of course, so you and the kids will have today to get accustomed to each other. But I really do need to catch up. I missed all of last week.”

  His hopeful voice made her shake her head. What the heck? She wasn’t doing anything else. And the sooner she sat down with these kids and tried to figure everything out, the better.

  “As long as I don’t have to cook.”

  “You can’t cook?”

  “No reason to cook when I lived alone.”

  “I’ll get takeout.”

  She glanced across the desk at him with a smile to confirm their deal, but he rose and extended his hand to shake hers. She stood up. When she took his hand, a bolt of electricity crackled up her arm. Their eyes met and from the quick glimmer in his, she knew he’d felt it as clearly as she had.

  Her gaze fell from his handsome face to his sweater-covered chest to his snug blue jeans and the crackle of electricity sparked again.

  She stifled the urge to yank her hand away. It was one thing to take a job as a live-in employee, knowing she was attracted to her employer. She’d always been able to ignore her hormones.

  But knowing he was attracted to her, too—

  Weren’t they tempting fate?

  CHAPTER TWO

  CLARK WALKED AROUND the desk. “Let’s get your things from your car and I’ll give you the grand tour of the house.”

  He motioned for her to precede him out of the den. She headed for the door and he followed, his gaze automatically dipping to her butt.

  With a wince, he forced his eyes back up again. What was he doing? Yes, Althea was pretty with her sunny yellow hair and big blue eyes, and, yes, he’d felt that zap of electricity when they shook hands, but she was now his employee.

  Even if she wasn’t, he wasn’t interested. He could have cited the usual reasons. Losing his wife so suddenly had been a shock. But discovering she’d been having an affair and that her lover was someone he’d considered a friend—that had about killed him.

  The echo of the pain of the first few months after her accident still lingered. Memories of consoling Jack, the chaos of caring for a six-month-old baby alone, the cool, empty feeling of his bed, all rose up inside him every time he thought about moving on. But none of those were as bad as the ache. The solid ball of grief that weighed him down, sat in his belly like lead, even as it competed with the hurt and humiliation of discovering she’d been having an affair.

  The woman he’d believed would love him forever, the woman who’d borne his children, had betrayed him.

  That kind of humiliation left more than a mark. It changed a man’s perspective. Caused him to make vows—and keep them.

  He would never be vulnerable again.

  Never.

  That’s why he wasn’t worried about his attraction to Jack’s new teacher. He was too smart to be tempted to even consider trusting someone again.

  Plus, her résumé might say she was twenty-eight but she looked twenty-two. He’d already been made the town laughingstock. He didn’t need to add chasing after a woman who looked too young for him.

  When he and Althea reached the front door, he opened it for her. She looked back at him with a smile. “Thanks.”

  His heart tumbled in his chest. Had he thought her pretty? He’d been wrong. When she smiled she was breathtaking.

  But he wasn’t interested. “You’re welcome.”

  They stepped out onto the snow-covered porch and he grimaced. “I should have gotten you a coat.”

  She glanced at him skeptically. “You have one that would fit?”

  He wanted to drown in her big blue eyes and for a smart man that didn’t make sense. He’d already set his mind not to trust again and that precluded falling in love, or even indulging an attraction. But how could he stop an attraction? The bubbly feeling that rose when she looked at him was natural, spontaneous.

  And annoying. He hated being out of control.

  “No, but even a too big coat would be better than an insubstantial hoodie.”

  She laughed.

  The sound skipped along his nerve endings, filling him with pleasure. Damn it! Why was this happening?

  She jogged down the steps. “Can’t argue that. But since we’re out here already, let’s just grab my suitcases and do the tour so you can get to work and I can spend some time with Jack.”

  He couldn’t argue that. With his hormones going haywire, the less time they spent together, the better.

  Her things turned out to be two suitcases, an overnight bag and a laptop. He carried the two suitcases. She carried the rest. He led her down the hall to the kitchen again, then to the suite of rooms behind it.

  “Mrs. Alwine stays here when I travel. But while you’re here, the suite is all yours.”

  She made a slow turn, taking in the big dresser and mirrored vanity, as well as the aqua-and-brown comforter and pillows that matched the aqua-and-brown print curtains.

  She faced him with a frown. “So in other words, if you travel while I’m here, I’m in charge of the kids overnight.”

  Heat crawled up his neck. He hadn’t even considered that might be presumptuous, then realized he’d done the same thing to Mrs. Alwine. The heat intensified. If there was one thing he prided himself on it was doing his fair share. Not leaving the kids to their own devices. But it seemed in being so careful of the kids, he’d been a little heavy handed with his employees.

  “I guess that depends on when Mrs. Alwine comes back.”

  She laughed and slid out of her jacket. A rust-colored T-shirt outlined perfect breasts and a small waist. With a quick shake of her head, her sunny yellow hair swirled around her and fell in place on her shoulders.

  His mouth watered, and he cursed inside his head. With her hoodie gone, she didn’t look twenty-two anymore. She looked all twenty-eight of the years he’d seen on her résumé. But instead of that making her less desirable, it made her more desirable. She was right in his age range—not too young for him as she’d looked in the hoodie.

  He pivoted to face the door. That kind of thinking wouldn’t do either one of them any good. He needed her help. She needed some money. For both of them to get what they wanted—what they needed—they had to keep this relationship strictly platonic.

  “I’ll round up the kids and you can do what you want this afternoon. Maybe let Jack have a hand in choosing the new homeschooling program.”

  She nodded, but he didn’t hang around. He bounded out of the room, found the kids, and got them set up in the den.

  When everyone was settled around the big desk, Jack behind the computer, Althea on the chair beside him, and Teagan on the opposite side with her coloring book, he said, “Okay. Now I’m going upstairs to my office to work.”

  He closed the den door behind him with a giant sigh of relief. But Althea faced his two quiet children with a sigh of confusion.

  Seeing the look of exasperation on Jack’s face, she clicked off the computer monitor. “I just got here. You just met me.” She smiled at Jack, then Teagan. “I don’t think we should work this afternoon.”

  Jack sai
d, “All right!” But Teagan jumped off her chair, scampered over to Jack and frantically tugged on his shirtsleeve.

  He leaned down, rolled his eyes, then caught Althea’s gaze. “She still wants to color.”

  “Oh, sweetie! You can color, if that’s fun for you. I’m just saying that neither your brother nor I was prepared to work today so I don’t think we should.”

  Teagan didn’t really pay attention to what Althea said. From the second the words, “You can color,” came out of her mouth, the little girl raced back to her chair and put her attention on a fat coloring book and a box of brightly colored crayons.

  The temptation was strong to ask Jack if she was always like this. Then she remembered Missy. She remembered how as older sister Missy had ended up assuming responsibilities that shouldn’t have been hers, and she pulled back her question.

  For all she knew, having to speak for his three-year-old sister could be part of the reason Jack was unhappy.

  “So, do you want to play Yahtzee or Uno or something?”

  Jack laughed. “Really?”

  “Well, we can’t just sit here and do nothing. Plus you can learn a lot from how somebody plays a game.”

  He slouched down on his seat with a huff and folded his arms across his chest. “You’re going to analyze me.”

  “No, I’m going to get to know you. And if you’re smart you’ll also use the time to get to know me.”

  He sniffed a laugh. “Right.” He sat up. “But I’d rather play video games.”

  She winced. “I’m not very good.”

  “Then I guess we’ll see if you have a temper.”

  This time she laughed. “You’re pretty smart for a twelve-year-old.”

  “Yeah. That’s why I’m failing all my classes.”

  It would have been the perfect opportunity to get into a discussion about his classes and what he thought might have caused his bad semester, but he gave the video game instructions so quickly she didn’t have time to ask. He handed her a controller and pointed at the spot beside him on the sofa. Thrust into a game she’d never seen before, she needed all her concentration just to work the controller.