by Anne
"Sara!" he protested.
"Say, buddy, are you really Captain Wonder?" The attendant came running out of the station as the kids came pouring out of the car. The place seemed to be swarming with Captain Wonder Warriors and she was quite willing to leave to make room for more. She shoved the ten-dollar bill into the attendants hand.
"Sara, wait!" Mike cried, but she was going home. She had a million things to do—make dinner, do the laundry, have a good cry.
"Are you okay, Mommy?" Megan asked quietly.
"I'm fine," Sara said, and brushed the tears away with the back of her hand. She grabbed an onion from the basket and began peeling It. "It's the onions. They always make me cry."
Neither girl mentioned the fact that she had been crying since shed returned to the house, long before she'd started peeling any onions, but Sara knew they were thinking it.
"Want to get me a can of tomatoes and a can of tomato paste?" she asked, forcing brightness into her voice. "I have a taste for spaghetti tonight."
The excitement that usually followed such an announcement was missing. The girls got the cans for her, but their eyes were worried.
"Did you see Mike today?1' Karl asked.
"You mean Captain Wonder? Yes, I did." Sara dumped the chopped onions Into the pot and stirred them briefly. There was no Mike, she thought. Just a character some scriptwriter had created. By the time she looked back at the girls, though, she had put a smile on her face. "He was at the gas station the same time I was. Wasn't that a coincidence?"
"Is he going back home soon?"
Sara began to brown the meat carefully, keeping her eyes on the pot so she could blink back the tears as they came. "I imagine. He can't stay here forever," she pointed out briskly.
"I wish he could."
So did she, but she forced back the thought and concentrated on her spaghetti sauce. Maybe she'd make some brownies for dessert too. Calories were good for fighting depression. By the time the sauce was simmering slowly, the girls had gone off to the living room, and she started on her brownies.
She knew the girls were upset. They were as fond of Mike as she was. She stopped and frowned. Hell, why not be honest? They all loved him. He was something they all needed in their lives. But not on his terms. If she had only herself to think about, she might consider his suggestion, but she wasn't alone. She had the girls and that was no sort of life for them. They needed security, needed to be loved by someone who wouldn't abandon them.
She was measuring cocoa when the doorbell rang. She froze, listening as the girls went to answer it.
"Hi, Mike." The door closed.
"Your mom here?"
"Yep." She could hear the uncertainty in their voices.
"She still mad at me?"
She had never been mad at him, that was the problem. She loved him too much. She had been hurt, that was all, and she didn't want to be hurt anymore.
I know you girls told me she didn't like Captain Wonder, but I forgot. I thought maybe she had changed her mind."
"I don't think so," Megan said slowly. "She hasn't watched Captain Wonder since we got back."
Kari agreed. "She likes you a lot, but she thinks your show is dumb."
Sara closed her eyes. When did discretion become a natural tendency? she wondered. She grabbed the bag of nuts and began to chop as the sound of footsteps came closer to the kitchen.
"Hi." Mike's voice was quiet, uncertain, and he was no longer in his costume.
"Hi." Her voice sounded harsh from the effort not to cry. Two tears slipped out, though, and she kept her head down. Maybe he wouldn't notice them.
"The onions are making her cry," Megan pointed out helpfully.
'Oh."
She kept on chopping, hoping he wouldn't notice they were nuts, not onions. After a moment she gained a small measure of courage. "Girls, why don't you go outside and play?"
"That's okay, Mom. We'll stay here and help you."
Help her how? Throw Mike out if he made her cry again? Her heart warmed and she was able to smile at them.
"That's all right, girls. Dinner won't be ready for another hour, and Mike and 1 have some things we need to talk about by ourselves."
They hesitated. Then they threw Mike a warning glance and came over and gave her a hug and a kiss before they left the room. Sara's eyes misted over.
"I guess I've been warned," Mtke noted.
"They're just worried. Mothers aren't supposed to get upset.”
"1 thought it was the onions."
"Right," she said with a weak laugh. "I always put onions in brownies."
Neither of them spoke for a long moment. She went on with her mixing, while he watched.
"Any chance that the girls are right?" he asked quietly.
"About what?"
"That it's Captain Wonder you're mad at, not me."
She gave him a look and went over to the refrigerator for some eggs. "I'm beginning to wonder if there's a difference."
His smile was tentative. "Sure there is. He's the jerk that specializes in saying the wrong things. He's just so used to having his lines written out for him I guess he can't think for himself."
"Right." She broke the eggs into the bowl and threw the shells Into the garbage. The room seemed very quiet.
"I guess I really blew things, didn't I?" he said after a moment.
She didn't know how to answer that, other than with a resounding yes, so she just began to stir the batter briskly.
"Would it help to say I'm sorry?'"
"It doesn't matter," she said quietly, knowing that it was a lie. It had hurt. A lot. She stooped down to get a baking pan, but also to hide the sudden tears that had come to her eyes. When she stood up again, Mike was right behind her.
"I just had this crazy idea," he went on, his hands sliding gently over her bare arms, his breath soft and warm against her hair, "I thought I would come here and do things right. When we were in that damn camper, everything was wrong. I couldn't say or do the things 1 wanted to. Partly because the kids were there, but then. too. because I was your guest. I was supposed to behave."
She smiled slightly, but said nothing.
"When we got to my place, everything seemed to explode. There wasn't any time for taking you out or trying to show you how I felt." His arms slid around her, pulling her closer to him. "We just. . ."
"Made love," she finished for him.
"Yes." He was silent again for a time. "Then, when I got the invitation to the girls' party, it seemed like I was getting a second chance. I had this stupid idea that I would come here and court you—bring you flowers, take you to dinner, the whole bit, instead of just jumping into bed. I thought things were going pretty well until this afternoon. What did I do wrong?"
She turned in his arms, resting her head against his chest. "Oh, Mike," she said, sighing. 'We're just too different. The worlds we live in are too far apart,1'
"They don't have to be." His hand touched her hair gently, in a caress of such tenderness that it almost hurt. But it didn't change things.
"Sure. I could quit my Job, sell the house, and move in with you." Her voice was bitter. "Except that wouldn't solve our problems."
"No, but I'm not asking you to make all the sacrifices. I've already talked to a realtor about selling my house."
She pulled back from him and stared up into his face. "The home where you grew up? Why?"
"It's not exactly filled with happy memories," he said. "And I'm not sure that it's the best place for kids to grow up."
She was so astonished, she didn't know what to say.
"I looked at a couple of places outside the city. Ten-to-twenty-acre spreads where the kids could even have some horses, but it would still be pretty close to the studio."
Horses? Lord, she was lucky the girls weren't around to hear all this. "Mike, I really do appreciate all that you're willing to do," she said slowly, stepping back so that she was out of his arms. "But it still wouldn't work. I'm old-fashioned, 1 guess,
but I need more than a ten-acre piece of property, and so do the girls. We need security and commitment more than horses."
He looked confused. "Hell, what do you think I'm offering? Ill admit that marriage scares me after seeing the way my parents lived, but 1 need a commitment too. Damn, you don't know what it was like to come home from the studio that day and find you gone. I never want to go through that again."
He looked so hurt that she went into his arms without thinking. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. "I had to go," she whispered. "The girls had grown too dependent on you, and so had I. 1 needed to keep them from getting too hurt."
'i didn't even know your address,' he said. "All I knew was that you lived in Kansas City, and since 1 couldn't find you listed in the phone book, I told my publicity manager that I wanted to schedule a whole bunch of personal appearances here. I figured you and the girls would have to show up at one of them. Then I got the party invitation from Kari and Megan. I'm forever in their debt."
"I think they'll settle for horses." she said dryly.
He stood very still, then looked at her with loving eyes. "Does that mean you'll marry me?" he asked.
"Of course I will," she said with a smile. "I love you so much, it hurts, but—"
She was interrupted by a long and thorough kiss that made her heart race and her knees weaken. She clung to him for support even as she pulled her mouth away. It was a moment before she had breath to speak.
"It would have been a lot simpler if you had just come here like a regular person and asked me to marry you," she said. "I thought you just wanted me to move in for a while, and I couldn't do that with the girls."
He grinned sheepishly. "I told you I'm better when someone writes my lines for me. And I only came as Captain Wonder to impress the girls. I thought that if they were on my side, maybe you'd come around faster."
"That's sneaky."
He turned serious. "I never realized I could love or need someone as much as 1 do you. I was even considering taking out ads telling all of Kansas City that you had stayed with me in Los Angeles, hoping to create a scandal that would force you to marry me."
"And I thought Captain Wonder was supposed to be honorable."
"He will be from now on," Mike promised. "Hell do anything If you'll stop being mad at him."
"I was never all that mad," she admitted. "In fact, my Captain Wonder nightshirt Is getting worn out from all the use It's been getting."
"Are you wearing it inside out?"
Her blush was apparently enough of an answer for him. He laughed loudly and pulled her back into his embrace. His lips met hers, and she could barely believe that her dreams were all coming true.
There was a small explosion of giggles behind them. "Does this mean you aren't mad at Mike anymore?"
They pulled apart, and Sara smiled at the girls. 'Yes."
"Then can he stay for dinner?'
She nodded, smiling at Mike. "In fact, I think you'd better get used to setting four places at the table from now on."
There was a whoop of pure joy and then the girls flew at them, hugging them both.
Sara's eyes met Mike's over the top of the girls' heads."Looks like we all love you, Captain Wonder."
