by Susan Crosby
Donovan wiped the water from his face, kissed Nana Mae’s cheek, then sat in the empty chair next to her. She wore a new hairstyle, a frequent occurrence now that Dixie was there to fix her hair every morning. No more mass of permed curls, but stylish, chic looks that took ten years off her.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” she stated.
“Guilty.”
“Am I so formidable?”
He sort of laughed. “You even have to ask?”
“I don’t mean to be.” She looked puzzled by the very idea of it.
“You don’t know the reach of your power, Nana Mae.”
“Power? Me?” She thought it over for a minute. “Okay. I’ll accept that, since I think you’re really talking about respect. Anyway, that’s no excuse for ignoring me.”
“I have no legitimate excuse, except I’ve been busy.” He leaned back, keeping an eye on Laura and Ethan as they held hands and jumped up and down. Maybe she’d had the notion that by wearing a one-piece black suit, she wouldn’t draw anyone’s attention, but seeing her jump like that? If he was alone, he would salute.
“Yes, dear, I know you’ve been busy, which is why I’m not going to pester you about it. But as soon as Jake and Keri have moved into the house, and you’ve moved into the cabin, I expect to see you.”
“I’ll take you to the Lode for lunch.”
“That would be lovely.”
“I’m sorry I disappointed you,” he said then, getting the worst of it out of the way now, not wanting to have it festering between them.
She settled her purple cane in front of her, resting both hands on the crook, looking thoughtful. “I know the McCoy legacy carries with it a lot of pressure, Donny—no children out of wedlock and no divorces. But I think the very fact that legacy exists has made us all more careful, more responsible. Even the ones who marry into this crazy clan feel a different expectation for themselves. It doesn’t hurt.”
“And I didn’t live up to that expectation. No one regrets that more than I do, since I missed five years of my son’s life. I didn’t get to see his birth, or celebrate all those firsts.”
“Do you think marriage to Anne would have worked?”
“I would’ve made it work.”
“She seems very selfish.”
“Self-protective, I think. And angry. But also selfish,” he decided. “So was I.”
“You still would’ve done your duty.”
Yes, he would have. But would he have been happy? Content? Enjoyed forever-after love? They were questions without answers. He was into fact, not speculation. “I’d prefer not to discuss Anne anymore. What’s done is done, and she’s not here to defend herself.”
His grandmother stared into his eyes for a few long seconds, then patted his cheek. “You’re a good boy.”
“Thank you.”
“And you’ve got eyes for Laura Bannister, I see.”
“I’m male.”
She laughed, then looked toward Laura. “That girl could use a good, strong partner at her side.”
“That girl is stronger than most men.”
“Maybe. But don’t equate strength with need. She needs the same things that everyone else does.”
He didn’t want to get into it with his grandmother. He didn’t even know how he felt about Laura, except he wanted to strip her naked and not let her out of touching range for, oh, say a year or so. “How about letting me figure out one life crisis at a time?”
Her eyes twinkled. “I believe I can do that.”
“Your hair looks very nice,” he said, turning to another subject. “Must be nice having a live-in hairdresser.”
“I’d rather she and Joe got back together. I’ve tried to talk to her about it, but she threatens to leave whenever I bring it up. And it’s not that I need someone living with me, you know, but I do enjoy her company. Plus, the reason she came to stay with me in the first place was to be able to go to school full-time. She’s so close to finishing.”
“Here’s your prune,” Laura called out, sending Ethan toward Donovan, who grabbed a towel and wrapped him up. As warm as the evening and the pool were, Ethan was shivering, his body having had enough of the water.
Taking a chance, Donovan lifted Ethan into his lap and held him close. For once, he didn’t even squirm, making Donovan very happy. How could he love someone so fast, so completely? It hadn’t taken more than a minute and would last a lifetime.
As they waited for Ethan to stop shivering, Nana Mae tried to talk to him, but she was the only person who turned him shy. He would nod or shake his head to answer a question. He spoke if he had to, but with as few words as possible.
Laura climbed out of the pool then, emerging like some kind of water goddess. She tilted her head to one side and wrung out her hair. Her bathing suit gaped just enough to tease.
“You should get Laura a towel, Dad, and let her sit on your lap for a minute. I’m all warmed up.”
Nana Mae laughed quietly. Donovan didn’t dare look at her.
“She’ll be fine, bud. She wasn’t in the water as long as you.”
“Oh. Can I get a cookie?”
“Just one. We need to leave pretty soon.”
“Aw, man.”
Donovan didn’t know how he felt that Ethan had learned that particular phrase from his teenage cousins. He didn’t want Ethan growing up too fast.
Ethan slid off Donovan’s lap and scurried over to the food table, choosing a cookie about the size of his face, it seemed, and probably the equivalent of four cookies.
The pool emptied out, the long, hard workday catching up with everyone. No one asked if they could help clean up, they just did, even as Laura kept trying to tell everyone to leave it. Hadn’t she been around his family enough to know that wasn’t how they did things?
He saw her finally give up and accept their help. She’d tied a brightly colored skirt around her waist that undulated as she moved. He caught her looking at him several times as he and Joe moved patio furniture back in place, while at the same time keeping an eye on Ethan, who had curled up on a chaise.
Laura grabbed a dry towel from a stack she’d put out and tucked it around him, bending to whisper something in his ear. He smiled, but his eyes remained closed.
“Looks like they’ve bonded,” Joe said.
“I think she’s a safe haven in a sea of rowdy McCoys. He’s still working at sorting us all out.”
“Either that or he’s as infatuated as you are.”
Infatuated? Was that it? Donovan was on fire for her, certainly. And he got a kick out of riling her to see her reaction. She smelled good, too, which always drew him closer. He liked when she stood her ground as much as he liked that she sometimes got nervous enough to back away. Infatuated? It was a good enough description, he supposed.
Joe dropped a hand on his shoulder, bringing Donovan out of his stupor. “I’ll give you a ride home. Looks like Ethan will be deadweight to carry.”
“Thanks. I need to tell Laura goodbye first.”
He tracked her down in the kitchen, alone, everyone else gone except for Joe. She was bent over the dishwasher, adding silverware, her very nice rear in his direct line of vision. She sure made it hard to resist her. He must have made a noise, because she spun around.
“I figured you’d already gone,” she said.
“Without saying goodbye? My mother raised me better than that.”
“According to your mother, you were the most stubborn, independent, doesn’t-play-well-with-others child she bore.”
“That’s probably true. But I still learned manners.” He moved closer. “To say please. To hold doors open. To tell the hostess goodbye.”
She didn’t say anything, just watched him suspiciously.
“And to say thank you.” He bent close and kissed her cheek.
She went absolutely still. He felt a moment, just the tiniest moment, where she leaned into him, her hand brushing his arm as if to steady herself.
He moved back.
Their eyes met. Hard to resist, for sure.
“You’re welcome,” she said in slightly more than a whisper. “I had fun, too.”
“See you tomorrow?”
She found her voice. “I imagine so. I told Keri I’d put new shelf paper in the kitchen cabinets.”
“I’m in charge of installing the new toilets.”
“Sounds fun.” Her eyes twinkled.
“I’m flushed with anticipation.”
She laughed then, and he decided to leave on that note.
He was aware of her following him into the backyard and saying goodbye to Joe. Donovan lifted the sleeping Ethan into his arms, then headed for the front door. Joe preceded them, so the door was already open. Donovan stopped to give Laura one last look. She ran a hand over Ethan’s hair. Donovan felt her other hand slide down his spine, stopping at the small of his back, as he had done to her a few times.
Get the damn paperwork finished up, he ordered her silently. He wanted to see where this relationship could go.
She smiled as if aware of his thoughts and her own power, maybe even happy to be causing him discomfort? “Good night, Donovan.”
Like hell it was going to be.
Chapter Nine
A week passed, during which Donovan ran into Laura now and then, usually at Jake and Keri’s house. Every time, he would ask how the paperwork was coming along. Every time, she would say, “Patience.”
The anticipation was killing him, was even interfering with the decisions he needed to make about his future. Consequently, for the first time in his memory, he was procrastinating. He and his brothers generally took after their father, a man who’d worked hard, never missing a day on the job until he keeled over and died of a heart attack at the age of sixty-one. Donovan was twenty-three when it happened, and every year the loss grew bigger.
“Daydreaming?” Jake asked, coming up behind Donovan as he finished installing a new medicine chest in the master bathroom, the last job on his to-do list. Tomorrow the new furniture would be delivered, and they could begin to settle in and make it theirs.
“Thinking about Dad.”
Jake leaned a shoulder against the bathroom doorjamb. “He’s been on my mind a lot, too.”
“How does it happen that I miss him more now than ever?”
“You’ve been too busy until now? You’re a father yourself?” Jake looked around. “He would’ve loved working on the house with us.”
A carpenter turned general contractor, John McCoy had lived for moments like this—family helping family. Pitching in. Getting the job done quickly, but doing it right.
“Do you think he was happy?” Donovan asked.
“Who?” Joe asked, coming up beside Jake and peering into the now-completed bathroom.
“Dad,” Jake and Donovan said at the same time.
“Of course he was happy.” Joe stepped around Jake and into the room. “What a change. Does Keri like it?”
“Keri is thrilled,” the woman in question said, joining them, sliding her arm around Jake’s waist. He pulled her close. “It’s sparkling clean, too. Did you do that?” she asked Donovan.
“Your husband did the honors.”
She angled closer to Jake, setting her hands on his chest. “I find that incredibly sexy.”
Jake laughed, then kissed her.
Donovan hadn’t had that kind of relationship in a long time, if ever. That playfully sexy banter and teasing-foreplay kind of rapport. His longest relationship had been with Anne, and it’d been intense and serious.
“Hey!” Donovan said. “I put up the cabinet. Don’t I get a kiss for that?”
“Get your own girl,” Jake said, tucking his wife against him.
“I can think of one,” Joe said.
Keri smiled. “Me, too.”
Donovan felt like a teenager, but he asked anyway. “Does she talk about me?”
“Not one word.”
He tried to swallow his disappointment.
“She’s very good at keeping confidences, you know. Comes in handy in her profession.”
“I agree, but how does not saying anything mean she’s interested?”
“It’s something she could talk about. She chooses not to, which gives it more importance, at least in my book.”
“Plus there’s that whole X-rated-look-in-her-eyes thing,” Joe added.
“That, too,” Keri agreed lightly.
Donovan’s cell phone rang, displaying Laura’s office number. “Are you ready to toss ethics to the wind?” he said instead of hello.
A beat passed. “Well, not today, but I’m free tomorrow.”
Crap. Not Laura, but her mother. “Hi, Dolly.”
“Hey, sugar.” She was laughing like crazy. So were his brothers and sister-in-law.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Laura wanted me to notify you that your papers are done and ready to be signed. If you want to stop by and pick them up, you can have the weekend to read through them. Then we’ll arrange for some witnesses when you sign on Monday or Tuesday, or whenever you want.”
“Okay, thanks. Sweet ’ums,” he added.
She laughed as she hung up.
He looked at his watch. “I finished my official to-do list,” he said to Jake. “Anything else you can think of?”
“I’m sensing there’s somewhere else you’d like to be.”
Donovan shrugged. “Only if you really don’t need me for a few hours.”
“Take the whole day, if you want. You’ve already done more than I would’ve thought humanly possible.”
Donovan had pushed himself all week—as a distraction, as a way to vent frustration, and, of course, to help Jake and Keri get moved in as soon as possible. As much as he loved his mother, he was ready for his own space, and to build his relationship with his son.
On his way home, he stopped by Laura’s office, making a detour next door first.
“Hey, there, sugar,” Dolly said, grinning.
“Hey yourself, sweet ’ums. I brought you a bribe.” He handed her a strawberry ice-cream cone.
She reached for it. “I’m taking a lick first, just in case I can’t go along with whatever favor you’re going to ask and I have to give it back.”
He smiled. He didn’t know Dolly well, but he had, on occasion, wondered how such a gregarious woman could be Laura’s mother. Or maybe the point was that he didn’t know Laura well enough.
Donovan started to speak, but Dolly held up a finger. “One more.”
He sat in the chair across from her desk. “Go ahead and finish. I’ll wait.” He whistled tunelessly, looking around the room.
With one bite left, she hesitated, the bottom inch of the cone in hand. “What do you need?”
“Laura’s in her Sacramento office today, right?”
“Right.”
“I need for you to get me an appointment with her late this afternoon.”
“That’s all?” She popped the final bite into her mouth. “You didn’t need a bribe for that.”
He leaned back and crossed an ankle over his knee. “Well, there’s a little more to it.”
Her brows arched high.
“I don’t want her to know I’m coming.”
“Afraid she won’t see you otherwise?”
“Sure of it.”
She drummed her fingers on her desktop, studying him, then stopped abruptly. “Okay. Under what name?”
“Cory Spondent.”
It took her a second, but then she laughed, a big shout of appreciation. “You don’t think she’ll figure out it’s you?”
He grinned back. “Not until it’s too late, I hope.”
“She’s pretty smart.”
“It’s something I admire about her.”
“I figured you would. Okay. So, what reason can I give her assistant for your appointment?”
“Trust.”
“That you want to have her put a trust together for you?”
“No. Just trust.”
“Good to know.” He stood. “Thanks, Dolly.”
“Donovan? She’s put up some pretty solid walls.”
“I’ve noticed. Patience isn’t usually a virtue of mine.”
A thoughtful look came over her face, as if debating what to say. He waited. Sometimes he could be as patient as Job.
“I’m going to paint you a picture,” Dolly said finally. “Do you know that house on Denton, the big old white Victorian?”
“Sure. Wraparound porch. West windows face the park. In complete disrepair.”
“Exactly. When Laura was a little girl, we used to walk by there on our way to the park, and she would always stop and stare at it. She called it the It’s a Wonderful Life house. Not because it looked exactly like the movie one, but because she thought having a house like that would give her a wonderful life.”
He got it. She might appear to be sensible and logical, but inside there was a dreamer, too. He needed to remember that.
“So,” Dolly said. “Even though patience isn’t one of your virtues, try.”
Or leave her alone. He heard the unspoken request as clearly as if she’d said it.
What she didn’t know was he’d never wanted like this. And he wasn’t about to deny himself unless Laura said no.
He didn’t think she would say no.
“Your last appointment is here.” Moses stood just inside Laura’s door.
She glanced at her computer, pulled up her daily calendar. “Did you already give me a file on…” She read the name, Cory Spondent. “Cory. It’s a him, I assume?”
Moses, twenty-six, tall and as skinny as a birch tree, looked flustered, a first for the usually cool, easygoing man. “I forgot.”
Speechless, she stared at him. He never forgot anything. Ever. “Are you okay?”
