Single with Children

by Arlene James

  “My God!” he gasped, sliding his mouth up her throat. “I’ve dreamed of having you in this bed.” He lifted himself onto his elbows, his hands smoothing the hair back from her face. “I want to make love to you,” he said, “when it’s right, when it can be perfect. I just don’t know how much longer I can wait.”

  “I know.” She sighed. “My nights have been…”

  He grinned down at her, golden eyes framed by short, thick rusty-brown lashes. “What?”

  But good sense was returning, and with it came embarrassment. Her cheeks turned pink. He laughed in delight.

  “You are precious! I can’t tell you how much I—”

  “Daaaddy!”

  “Oh, heavens! The children!” Laura began to squirm beneath him, wanting up, but her heart was pounding. What would he have said? Had he been about to tell her that he loved her?

  Adam hissed something sharp under his breath and rolled off her, folding up into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, his hands ruffling his hair. It had grown longer on the top, its thick mahogany locks displaying a tendency to wave. Laura managed to get her legs folded beneath her before the twins came pounding into the bedroom.

  “Daddy! Wendy won’t let us color in her book!”

  “Yeah, Wendy won’t wet us color in her book!”

  Adam leaned forward uncomfortably. “Well, um, Wendy’s working on a special project.”

  “But we want to color!”

  “Yeah, we wanna color!”

  Laura slid off the bed, holding out her hands to the boys. “Maybe we can find something else for you to color. Let’s go look, okay?”

  “Laura?” Adam sprang up and reached out a hand to her, but then he glanced at the boys and dropped it again, saying sheepishly, “I’ll, um, clean up that glass.”

  “Yes. All right.” For a long moment, she couldn’t look away, but then Ryan tugged at her hand and she realized that the boys were waiting, watching. She turned away reluctantly, pasting a smile on her face for the boys. “Maybe we could make some tracings from one of your favorite books, and you could color those,” she suggested.

  Robbie began to jump up and down, tugging at her arm. “Yeah! Yeah!”

  Before they were out the door, they were arguing over which book to choose. Laura tossed one final look over her shoulder before allowing them to tug her out into the hall.

  He was standing there all tense with frustration, one hand clamped to the back of his neck, but what thrilled her, what filled her heart to overflowing, was the poignancy of his smile, the tenderness in his eyes. The love. She couldn’t believe that it was anything else.

  “Who’s hungry?”

  “Me!”

  “Me!”

  “Me!”

  Adam left one hand on the steering wheel and glanced at Laura, one eyebrow cocked. “What do you think? Want to stop in at the diner?”

  Laura looked around her. He wondered what she was thinking as she recognized the little restaurant where he’d found her that day weeks and weeks ago. Wendy recognized it, too.

  “Look!” She stuck an arm straight out, pointing. “That’s where we got Laura!”

  “That’s where we met Laura,” Adam corrected. His gaze intercepted hers. “What do you think, hon? Want to stop for a bite?” He didn’t add that he’d very much like to tweak some noses.

  Laura bit her lip, then shrugged. “It’s all right with me.”

  Adam smiled to himself. Maybe it was wicked of him, but he couldn’t help wanting to show her off a little. He wanted them to see that she was happy and loved, not to mention that she’d worked miracles with this family. He figured that he was entitled, since he’d let Laura talk him out of reporting the manager to the owner. He swung the car into an empty space in front of the nondescript little place and killed the engine. He hooked an elbow over the back of the seat and twisted in place, looking at the kids.

  “Now listen to me. If you’re not on your best behavior in this place, Laura’s going to be embarrassed, and I’m going to be angry. Understand?”

  The mulish expression on Wendy’s face told him that she understood perfectly. “Is that nasty old man there?” she asked. “The one that got mad at Laura?”

  “I don’t know, honey, but if he is, we’ll make him be nice.”

  She nodded emphatically, obviously remembering all that had transpired that day. The boys, however, were just as obviously adrift. Adam took pains to explain, reminding them that Laura used to work here and adding only that her old boss hadn’t been very happy when she decided to come to work for them. “So look, guys,” he said, engaging their attention pointedly, “I expect you to sit quietly, eat neatly and keep your voices down while we’re in there. Understand me?” Both boys nodded enthusiastically. “I hope so, because if you misbehave in there today, everyone’s going to look at Laura and think it’s her fault. Know why?”

  Wendy piped up. “’Cause last time we were here, we were so bad that Laura had to come home with us and take care of us or else you’d of just…just…”

  Adam’s mouth curved. “That’s right, but Laura straightened us out, didn’t she?” Wendy nodded. “That’s why we owe it to her not to embarrass her,” he said to the boys. “Okay?”

  Both nodded again, and Ryan leaned forward to connect his gaze with Laura’s. “We be weal good,” he promised.

  Laura smiled. “I’m sure you will be, sweetie.”

  Adam managed a sedate unloading of the boys, while Laura helped Wendy out of the car, then led the way to the entrance. He stepped up and swung it open, keeping the boys close to his legs while Laura and Wendy slipped into the small glassed-in foyer. They followed the same procedure with the inside door, and then they were looking over the late lunch crowd for a place to sit. One of the waitresses recognized Laura immediately. There was an elbow in the ribs of a companion, and a whisper in the ear alerted another, and she hurried away, apparently to spread the news. Laura glanced at Adam uncertainly. He lifted a hand to the slope of her shoulder and left it there. “How about a booth? We could pull a chair up to the end of the table for Ryan.”

  “That’s fine.”

  They shepherded the kids across the narrow room and began the process of divesting them of their heavy coats. Laura tucked everything into the corners of the booth while Adam borrowed a chair from another table and fetched booster seats. Soon they were all seated. Out of necessity, Laura sat close to Adam’s side, their coats and Ryan’s tucked into the space next to her. The waitress appeared, her gaze sweeping over Laura curiously.

  “What can I get you?”

  Adam draped an arm casually across Laura’s shoulders. “What do you want, hon? I think I’ll start with coffee.”

  “Coffee will be fine. Kids, would you like some cocoa?”

  Ryan and Wendy went for the hot cocoa immediately, but Robbie wanted a soft drink. Adam insisted that it was too cold for colas, then negotiated a compromise in the form of a glass of milk.

  “Don’t make the cocoa too hot,” Laura warned the waitress. “Pour a little cold milk into it before you bring it out, please.”

  The woman gave her a disgruntled look, but the cocoa came back at a very drinkable, safe temperature. By that time, they had menus spread out before them. “We’re ready to order,” Adam instructed without looking up. Laura’s hand drifted over his knee and squeezed warningly. He looked up to find the manager hovering over him. He pulled Laura a little closer to his side and smiled up at the man. “Well, hello there,” he said, gushing with friendliness. “Remember me? Name’s Fortune, Adam Fortune. You must still be a waitress or two short, if you’re waiting tables yourself.”

  The man’s smile strained. “Ah, actually, I just wanted to be certain that you have adequate service.”

  “Well, how nice!” Adam went on blithely. “Must be lowering, though, waiting on tables—but you’ve still got your job, after all.” Laura’s hand tightened convulsively at the subtle dig. They all knew that Adam could have gotten
him fired. A simple phone call from a member of the Fortune family voicing a complaint would have been enough to see it done. Adam was just letting him know that it was still a possibility if he should get out of line again. He turned his attention to Laura. “What would you like to eat, darling?”

  Her lips quirked at his use of the endearment, but she studied the menu with determined calm. “Um, what’s the soup of the day?”

  “Split pea.”

  “Sounds fine. I’ll have that with an order of garlic toast, please—oh, and, a large plate of french fries for us all to share.”

  “I’ll have the soup, as well,” Adam said, “and a sandwich, I think.” He took his time deciding which one, then sat back and smiled pointedly at the harried manager while Laura negotiated with the children.

  Robbie got tired of the process and began swinging his feet, his heels thumping against the booth. Adam interrupted the proceedings with a cleared throat and said, “Rob, your feet, please.”

  The drumming immediately stopped, and Adam rewarded the boy with a proud wink.

  The order was completed, and the nervous manager began to turn away, but Adam stopped him with a negligent lift of his hand. “Aren’t you going to greet a former employee?”

  The man’s doughy face flamed beet red, but he inclined his head at Laura. “Lau—, uh, ma’am. D-doing well, I take it?”

  Laura smiled innocently. “Very well, thank you.”

  Adam smoothed back a silky lock of her hair. “An understatement if ever I heard one,” he said. “She’s worked wonders with this family. Hasn’t she, kids?”

  Wendy looked up at the man, her eyes narrowing dangerously. Adam almost laughed, thinking, not for the first time, that she was going to be every bit as formidable as Kate one of these days. “We love Laura,” she said, almost belligerently.

  “Indeed we do,” Adam added softly, for Laura’s ear alone.

  “And she loves us!” Ryan announced loudly.

  Laura smiled and lifted a shushing finger to her lips. Ryan subsided at once. Laura raised a conciliatory gaze to her former employer of one day. “It’s worked out for the best,” she said, and to his credit, he seemed almost pleased.

  “Glad to hear it. I’ve, uh, regretted the way…everything happened that day.”

  “I haven’t,” Laura said lightly, her gaze traveling to Adam’s face. It was all he could do not to kiss her, driving his tongue into her mouth with all the possession humanly possible. Instead, he turned a placid look up at the man who had once insulted her.

  “We’ll have those fries right away, please.”

  The man’s smile took on that strained look again. “Fine.”

  “Oh, and send someone over with a fresh pot of coffee, would you? I think Laura could use a refill.”

  Forty minutes later, they spilled out onto the sidewalk. Laura felt stuffed and warm, inside and out. Dessert had come “on the house,” and she had enjoyed it immensely. So, too, she thought, had Adam. The kids would be lucky if they didn’t have bellyaches, but she was almost too pleased to worry about it. They were at the car when Wendy clapped a hand over her mouth, giggling.

  “What’s so funny?” Adam asked.

  “That mean old man,” Wendy said. “He sure was nice this time.”

  “He’s smarter than he looks,” Adam muttered, opening a door for Robbie. Before the boy climbed inside, however, Adam passed a pleased look from face to face, around the car. “You all made me very proud in there. Thank you.”

  “I’m the one who should be saying thanks,” Laura said softly over the top of the car.

  Adam shook his head, grinning unrepentantly. “You’ll never know how much I enjoyed that. Now let’s go home.” With that, he helped the kids into the car and began settling them.

  Home, Laura thought. That word never failed to warm her, and yet unease shivered down her spine. Instinctively she turned her gaze back to the glass front of the diner. The same waitress who had hurried away at her appearance before was standing with arms folded, staring out at her. Laura hadn’t really known her, couldn’t even remember her name, and yet her interest seemed pointed. Why? But then Laura thought of the man belting his children into the car at her side and shook her head. Perhaps the woman was merely envious. After all, Adam was a remarkably handsome man, and a Fortune to boot, a fact which would weigh heavier with some women than anything else. Yes, of course, that was it. A man like Adam was bound to intrigue any woman, name or no. Feeling a certain kinship with the nameless woman, Laura pushed away the niggling prickle of alarm and got into the car, telling herself yet again how very lucky she was. In fact, she told herself as Adam flashed a warm smile at her before starting the car, lucky didn’t begin to cover it.

  Laura pulled the brush through Wendy’s soft red hair a final time, then bent and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

  “It’s growing, isn’t it?” Wendy said with undisguised pleasure, studying herself in the mirror above the sink.

  Laura fluffed Wendy’s freshly dried hair with her hands. “Certainly it is, and see how prettily it shines?”

  Wendy nodded, the corners of her mouth tucked up into the apples of her cheeks. “I want it to look just like yours,” she said, her golden eyes twinkling. For the first time, Laura glimpsed the lovely young woman she would become and felt an overwhelming compulsion to be here to see it as it happened.

  Please, God. I need to be here. She needs me to be here. This is where I belong. Home.

  She folded the towel that she had used to dry Wendy’s hair and draped it over the towel bar, then rinsed Wendy’s toothbrush again and dropped it into the holder. When she was done, to her surprise, Wendy raised her arms in a silent request to be held. Stooping, Laura took her into her arms and stood, Wendy wrapped around her like a vine of ivy. She was heavy, but Laura welcomed her weight as she carried her into her room and lowered them both to the side of her bed.

  “Laura?” Wendy said mistily. “You’re not like a real nanny, are you?”

  Laura blanched, uncertain what she was getting at. “Well, I didn’t have the formal training that some nannies have, but you know I grew up in a kind of orphanage, and I learned there how to…manage and entertain children. If there’s something that you wish I would do that I’m not, though, just tell me.”

  Wendy shook her head without lifting it from Laura’s shoulder. “I like you better than all those others,” she confessed, adding in a whispery voice, “They didn’t love us.”

  Laura closed her eyes, hugging her tight. “Well, then, that must be the difference,” she said. “I love you all.”

  Wendy put her head back at that. “Daddy, too?”

  Laura felt as if Wendy had reached into her chest and squeezed her heart with her little hand. “Daddy, too,” she confirmed softly.

  Wendy smiled. “Then are you going to be our new mommy?”

  Laura’s heart flipped over and swooned. “Would you like that, sweetie?”

  Wendy tightened her arms around Laura’s neck. “My old mommy went to heaven a long time ago,” she said.

  Laura felt tears start in her eyes. “I know.”

  “She won’t never come back,” Wendy went on solemnly.

  Laura blinked against the tears, her smile a thing of comfort. “She can’t come back, Wendy, but she left her love for you in your heart. That’s what Sister Agnes used to tell me about my mom and dad. And you know, it’s true that sometimes, if you’re very still and very quiet and you remember very hard, you feel her love here inside you.” She laid a hand over Wendy’s chest, but Wendy continued to stare up at her with wide golden eyes.

  “Do you think she would mind if you were my new mommy?”

  Laura bit her lip. “I think she would want you to be happy, Wendy, and for you to remember how much she loves you, and—”

  “I think she would like you to be my new mommy,” Wendy said. “I think you’d be the best mommy ever since her.”

  The tears spilled over without warn
ing. Laura hugged Wendy to her. “Thank you, sweetheart. Thank you so much.” She bit back the words to tell Wendy how much she would like to be her new mother. Those were words better left unsaid, for even if Adam should someday want to marry her, she didn’t know whether she could do it. Oh, she loved him, more than she had thought possible, and she loved this little girl snuggled in her lap and those two mischievous little peanuts in the room next door. But she could never completely forget that danger hovered somewhere in the background. Perhaps he would never find her, perhaps he no longer even wanted to, but how could she be sure? How could she take the chance? And yet, how could she go unless she knew that she must?

  For the first time, Laura saw how very much the children had at stake emotionally in this relationship. They needed her. She couldn’t just abandon them, but neither could she place them in danger. Oh, if only it were as simple as wanting to be Adam’s wife and the children’s mother! Her dilemma would be solved if what she wanted was the only criteria, for if it was left to her, she would never go. Even if Adam never spoke a word about marriage to her, even if he never said that he loved her, she would stay. She would always stay.

  Laura murmured soothing words to Wendy, saying something about no one knowing for certain what the future would hold but the present being all that really mattered, for love was an ever-present thing. Wendy seemed to accept whatever Laura told her, or perhaps she was just too sleepy to realize that Laura had never really answered her question. Without looking into the room and revealing himself, Adam couldn’t be certain, and he didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to risk embarrassing Laura or making her uncomfortable in any way. But he was pleased that he had stopped by Wendy’s room to say good-night, pleased that his young daughter was thinking along the same lines as her father. He was pleased, too, to hear the longing in Laura’s carefully worded replies to Wendy’s questions. He knew that she loved him. He could feel it in her every glance, her kisses, her touch, in the peace that enveloped them whenever she was at his side, but most of all he felt it in the fierce sexual attraction that pulled them together even when they were apart. It was unlike anything else he had ever felt, and he didn’t mean to lose it. No matter what she’d said in the beginning, he didn’t mean ever to let her go. Whether or not she eventually agreed to marry him, she was his, and he meant to keep her, one way or another.