Sugar Springs

by Kim Law

  Tomorrow they would pour, and then Friday Candy could play on it. He was almost as nervous for her to see what he was doing as he had been when he’d first met them. He might be completely wrong in his assessment, but he felt like this was spot-on what he needed to do to start winning her over.

  And he had to win her over. He couldn’t have one daughter thinking he liked the other better.

  “What about this?” one of the workers called out. “You want to save it or just rip it out?”

  It was a bush, and not a very pretty one at that. He started to tell the man to toss it, but then thought about the fact it was Lee Ann they were talking about. Likely the bush had a purpose. A reason she’d put it in the yard.

  “You’d better save it, I suppose.”

  He glanced around the nearby area, trying to figure out where she might want it replanted, and caught sight of the Christmas lights and decorations that had been strung up along the front porch. He’d noticed them the afternoon before, along with a tree sitting inside the wide front window, and his first reaction had been annoyance that the three of them hadn’t asked him to help. They’d apparently done the decorating when he hadn’t been around on Sunday.

  But then it had occurred to him that his coming back had been a lot of change for Lee Ann in a very short amount of time as well. She might have needed to have her normal traditions just to feel like she wasn’t completely losing control. He could give her that. For now.

  All in all, she’d been a trouper with the changes, letting him tag along and be a part of so much, so—yeah—he could give her the lights. Things would be different, though, next year. He wasn’t sure quite how yet, but he did know he wouldn’t be as easily pushed aside.

  Reba came out of her house and crossed the yard. She wore boots up to her knees and a skirt that looked like a patchwork quilt, and he couldn’t help but smile at the picture she made. He was never let down with her attire.

  “Afternoon, Cody,” she greeted him. “You’ve got quite the project going on here.”

  He gave a quick nod. “It’s for Candy.”

  A curve lit her lips, and he couldn’t help thinking that Lee Ann would age well. She and her mother were both beautiful women.

  “Candy will love it.” She motioned to the shallow, square hole the men were digging. “Sure hope you talked about this with my daughter first, though it would be highly fun to watch if you didn’t.”

  Laughter rolled from his gut. “Yes, Ma’am. Talked to her just this morning. It was either this or pave her drive. The woman’s too stubborn to let me pay for that, though.”

  “That sounds about right.”

  They stood in companionable silence for a moment before he pointed to the ugly bush the man had just carefully pulled from the ground. “You know anything about that?”

  She nodded. “The girls brought it home from school in kindergarten. Each kid got a plant during conservation week. Candy’s died, so they all threw their energy into making this one live.”

  Uh-oh.

  “Lee Ann has far from a green thumb, but she worked hard to keep this thing alive.” She cocked her head, studying it. “It’s done well until now.”

  “I’m a dead man.”

  “Nah.” She reached out and patted him on the arm. “You’re giving her girl a basketball court. You’ll be okay.”

  He eyed her, trying to figure out if she was pacifying him or not. “You think so?”

  Blue eyes matching Lee Ann’s glowed back at him as she nodded. “I think so. The fact you had him dig it up and save it is all that will matter.”

  “I would replant it if I knew where she’d want it, but she won’t be home until later tonight, and chances are good I wouldn’t choose the right spot on my own.” When Lee Ann had told him she planned to spend the afternoons this week away from the house, it had bothered him more than he’d imagined it would. He was thrilled to have the time with the girls, but he’d discovered that he wanted that time with Lee Ann as well.

  Planting a kiss on her had done nothing to change her mind about sticking around in the afternoons, either. Though if he had to guess, it would ensure she stayed out even later each evening.

  As the kiss replayed in his mind—as he thought about how her lips had moved under his, about how she’d moaned and instantly curled her body into him—he couldn’t be sorry. Even if it did make her try for more distance. He only wished he’d gotten his hands on her as well.

  But he’d intended solely to get a taste. He’d needed to see if what he was feeling was only old high school fantasies or if there was more to it—if the chemistry was what he suspected. And he’d needed that with the force of nature after he’d gotten a glimpse of her watching him.

  He’d been shocked to find her at his door as he’d finished his morning routine, and even more shocked that she hadn’t turned tail and run when he’d caught her looking. When she’d stayed, the timing had struck him as perfect. He’d been thinking about her. Wanting her. And then she was there.

  And now he knew there would be more kisses.

  “Heard she stopped by your place this morning,” Reba stated. The woman was not subtle in her probing. “Had the door closed tight. For a few minutes anyway.”

  He chuckled as he tucked the memory of the kiss back into his mind for additional scrutiny later. “You’re getting nothing out of me, Reba. Whatever you and Ms. G have dreamed up will likely be better than what actually happened anyway.”

  “Hmmm...So something did happen?”

  He didn’t mean to, but he shot her a quick glance. Apparently she read the truth, because she clapped her hands and laughed out loud. “I knew it,” she yelled.

  “You know nothing.”

  “Au contraire, good man, I know my daughter, and I know a look of guilt when I see it. All I need to figure out now is if you instigated it or she did.”

  He was saved from additional embarrassment and possibly inadvertently giving away even more details when Candy and Kendra appeared around the corner of the school. They were talking, not paying attention to anything but their own conversation, and Boss saw them and took off at a run.

  At the sound of the dog bearing down on them, both girls looked up and smiled broadly. They greeted Boss with hugs and loving scratches between the ears, letting him kiss them across their faces. Boss ate it up. Candy may not have been the animal lover her sister was, but she did like his dog. And that warmed his heart.

  “Hey, Dad,” Kendra shouted as she hurried the rest of the way to where he stood. Candy followed along a bit more slowly, scrutinizing the area where the grass was being scraped from the soil.

  “Hey, kid.” He hugged Kendra. “How was school?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Boring,” she said, dragging the word out to express her point.

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “I remember those days.” He turned his gaze to his other daughter and held his breath with anticipation. She didn’t stop close enough that he could hug her, so he didn’t make the move to close the distance. “How was your day, Candy?”

  “Fine,” she mumbled as she continued to eye the spot in front of them.

  “What are you doing with our bush?” Kendra asked. She sounded more curious than upset. She really was very much like her grandmother. “We planted that right after we started school.”

  “I know,” he began. “And I’m sorry. I didn’t realize—”

  “He’s pouring concrete for a basketball goal.” This came from Candy, said with a slight air of awe. She looked up at him. “That’s what you’re doing, isn’t it? Putting up a basketball goal?”

  He nodded. The look on her face said this was a good thing, but he waited, needing confirmation.

  “And Mom said you could?” she asked.

  “Mom said I could,” he stated. “It’ll be ready to play on by Friday.”

  Her eyes began to brighten then, and a smile stretched across what seemed like the entire width of her face. The unbridled happiness glowing from her l
oosened another part of his heart, and it took everything he had not to scoop her up in his arms.

  He soon found he didn’t have to, as she flung herself at him, thin arms wrapping tight around his waist.

  “Thank you,” she said, breathing the words. “Thank you. I love it.”

  Emotion stuck in his throat as he stood in the middle of the yard on the crisp late-fall afternoon and held his daughter close. The two of them may not have been perfect yet, but he had broken through. He’d taken a giant leap forward.

  Kendra scooted over and accepted a kiss on the cheek from her grandmother, then smiled sweetly over at him as he stood there holding Candy close. It was a big moment.

  “You’re welcome,” he said. Gratitude filled him for the life he’d found since coming back. He had two wonderful daughters and a woman he was about to chase with a very directed purpose. He wanted them. He wanted them all.

  “It’ll be okay if we replant the bush somewhere else?” he asked Kendra.

  She nodded, her face glowing as much as Candy’s. It was as if she, too, realized what it was she was witnessing. He wasn’t taking no for an answer anymore from any of them. He was a man with a purpose, and he had three females to win over.

  “When’s Dad coming over?” Candy dropped her backpack and basketball to the kitchen floor and headed for the pantry. Lee Ann’s jaw unhinged as her daughter disappeared into the connecting space. She stared after her. When had she started calling her father “Dad”? Geez, what had she missed during the week?

  It was Friday afternoon, the girls were just getting home from school, and they were all expecting Cody any minute. The basketball goal was supposed to be ready for use today, but everyone had agreed not to go near it until he arrived and checked it out.

  Lee Ann eyed the backpack on the floor but didn’t have the energy to point out that Candy needed to put it where it belonged. Her daughters would be teenagers in a week. That meant they wouldn’t always do what she wanted, right?

  She had to get used to that.

  Just like she had to get used to Cody disturbing her life. She glanced out the kitchen window to the patch of concrete in her yard and shook her head with amazement. He had a way of talking her into things she would swear she didn’t want. Only, when she’d seen the excitement on Candy’s face Tuesday night, she’d realized that putting up the goal had been the exact right thing to do.

  She returned to putting away the dishes and answered her daughter’s question. “I haven’t heard from him today.”

  Except at the diner that morning. He’d made it a point to sit in her section every morning that week and had come up with one question after another, as if seeking excuses to keep her at his table. And everyone had noticed. The amount of speculation concerning them had reached a new high, as had the whispered comments saying that Cody was dating Holly at the same time.

  She didn’t think he was. They talked like easy friends when she saw them together, but then, she had been fooled before. She’d once thought he’d loved her and would do nothing to hurt her. That had certainly proved to be a mistaken belief.

  Candy poked her head out of the closet, a box of animal crackers in her hand. “If he doesn’t show up soon, can I go up to his apartment and get him?”

  Lee Ann smiled, so proud of her daughter. Candy may have been more hesitant than Kendra to step in and take what she wanted, but when she made up her mind, apparently she wasn’t going to sit around and wait.

  “Absolutely.” Lee Ann glanced back out the kitchen window. “Where’s your sister?”

  “She was talking to some boy and I didn’t want to wait for her.” Candy rolled her eyes. “Derrick.”

  “Your sister likes a boy?”

  Candy shrugged. “Yeah. She’s been writing his name on her notebook all week. I think he might be more into Jenna Hopkins, though. Jenna thinks he is.”

  “Oh.” Lee Ann’s heart thudded. She didn’t want Kendra to get her hopes up and be crushed. Not so soon in her life. “Maybe I’ll talk to her.”

  “Mo-om.” Candy made the word two syllables as if to get her point across better. “It won’t help. She’s got it bad.”

  A soft rap came from the front door, and Candy tossed the box of cookies to the counter. “That’ll be Dad.”

  She was gone before Lee Ann could remind her to put the box back in the pantry. Instead of calling her back, Lee Ann put away the cookies herself. Next she grabbed the backpack off the floor and hung it on the stairwell pedestal as she made her way toward the sexy rumble of Cody’s voice.

  Catching the tail end of a hug, she hung back and watched two of the most important people in her life and wondered when Cody had once again become so vital to her. And why. Was it simply because he’d kissed her stupid?

  No. She shook her head a fraction. He’d merely wheedled his way back into her life and back into her heart. He meant something to her again. And if she weren’t careful, he would crush her once again on his way out. This time could even be worse.

  Candy spun around. “Dad says I can try it out,” she said. “Can I go now?”

  She met Cody’s eyes and saw by the shock in them that he’d picked up on the fact she’d just called him “Dad.” The emotion on his face almost stopped her heart. The man did seem to want to be a dad to his girls. At least something good would come of all of this. He might not be around full time in the future, but Kendra and Candy now had a father they could talk to and share things with.

  “Sure, hon,” she said, then peeked back at Cody. They were about to be alone, something she’d avoided since he’d laid that wow of a kiss on her Tuesday morning.

  “Woot!” Candy shouted as she raced back through the house. Within seconds, the back door slammed shut, and Lee Ann and Cody stood facing one another. The house creaked as if pointing out what a bad idea their being alone together was.

  “Let’s sit on the porch so we can watch.”

  Cody nodded and followed her out to the repetitive thumping of the basketball on the new concrete. She sat on the swing, realizing too late that she should have chosen a chair. Cody followed her down, his weight tugging against the chains as he sat, making her want to scoot in close, as she once had so willingly done. Moving in the other direction instead, she put a few inches between them.

  Kendra came down from the school, saw Boss and Candy at the goal, then dropped her stuff to the grass and joined them with a squeal.

  “Looks like you did good,” Lee Ann said.

  Cody smiled, a totally relaxed and happy look, as he leaned back and pushed off on the floor. “We did good.”

  The swing set off in motion, and she couldn’t help studying his posture. She’d noticed a similar contentment in him throughout the last few days—one that hadn’t been there before.

  “We missed you this week,” he said, his voice quiet and deep. It made the back of her neck tingle.

  “You saw me every night. And every morning.”

  He eyed her, letting her know that neither had been what he’d wanted. “Only long enough for you to kick me out the door and shoo me home.”

  She couldn’t help laughing, the sound light. It was easy sitting out there with him like that. “I beg your pardon,” she teased. “My foot never lifted from the ground.”

  “Hmmm...good idea.” He reached down and grabbed her ankles, lifting her feet to his lap and trapping them there before she had the sense to stop him. “The proverbial kick in the rear, then, but it was there nonetheless.” He stroked the skin beneath the hem of her jeans. “I missed you. I missed talking to you.”

  She licked her lips and glanced back at the girls. She wanted to tell him that she’d missed him, too, but that would only wind up hurting her worse in the long run. Some things a girl just had to keep to herself. But she did leave her legs in his lap, because also, some things a girl just had to take. And she liked sitting there like that.

  As they both watched the activities in the yard, Kendra moved to the edge of the grass to b
egin practicing a cheer, Candy dribbled and shot in a continuous pattern, and Boss loped back and forth between the two, tongue lolling out, looking as happy and content as did the rest of them.

  Lee Ann caught her mom peeking out her kitchen window and tossed her a little wave, but appreciated it when she didn’t come out to join them. It seemed like an evening for only the four of them...and Boss.

  “You should have been here Tuesday afternoon,” Cody said. “I’d been so worried I wouldn’t ever win her over, but when she realized what the workers were doing, and that you weren’t going to scalp the both of us for tearing up the yard...” He paused, shook his head in amazement and gazed out at his girls. “I swear, Lee, I thought her wrapping her arms around me that afternoon was the best thing ever, but she called me ‘Dad’ today.”

  Goose bumps lit her arms. “I saw.”

  She didn’t say “heard” because it had been more than that. She’d seen what it had meant to him. And she’d loved it for him.

  “Just remember,” she said. “You don’t need to give her things to make her love you. You can’t buy it, Cody.”

  He cut his gaze back to hers. “You saying I still screwed up?”

  “No.” She gave him a gentle smile and reached to lightly touch his jaw. She liked feeling the roughness of the day’s stubble under her softer skin. “Not at all. The basketball goal, and the concrete, were perfect. Both of them. I’m just saying don’t make a habit of it, okay? Otherwise...well, they’re kids; they’ll take advantage. That’s what kids do.”

  Without warning, the past crowded into her head. Her. Cody. Stephanie. They’d all been barely more than kids themselves.

  As if his thoughts had followed the same path, tension became a thick cloud surrounding them. He snagged her hands and held them between both of his. “I made a lot of mistakes in the past, Lee, and hurting you...”

  She shook her head and shifted to move her legs off of his lap, but he put a hand on her shin to keep her in place. “Don’t,” he urged. “We can’t go forward without talking about it.”