Darcy put her hands to her suddenly too-warm cheeks. “You poor man. Yes. She thinks I need a man and Montana needs a father. Well, one who wants to stick around, I should say.”
Tom regarded her silently. Darcy thought maybe he was going to declare himself. An accompanying thrill raced through her, one she couldn’t quite put a name to. Good thrill or bad thrill? But Tom saved her from having to explore that feeling. “I see. So who was Bachelor Number One? That skinny man in the shiny suit?”
“You mean Vernon?” Darcy laughed. “You make him sound like a mobster. Which is probably the most exotic thing that’s ever been said about him. But yes. Vernon. Who lives with his mother.”
Tom seemed to be enjoying Darcy’s discomfort a little too much. “Any other competition I should know about?”
“Unfortunately, I won’t know until she trots them by. But for now it’s just you and Vernon.”
“Good. I think I can take him.” Tom’s gaze slowly traveled over her face. “How’re you doing, Darcy? I mean really.”
The genuine concern in his voice disconcerted her. “We’re not talking about my bottom again, are we?”
Amusement sparked in his eyes. “No. But we can, if you like.”
She shook her head. “I don’t like.”
“I didn’t think so. But what I meant was…you look tired.”
“Great.” Darcy made an ineffectual swipe at her hair, trying in vain to brush back her tangle of shoulder-length curls. “Will the day ever come when I look presentable again?”
“You look just fine right now.”
Darcy scoffed. “Yeah, me and my leftover maternity clothes. Yuck.” She pulled at them. “And I look tired, too, remember?”
“I didn’t mean anything by it. Hell, you have every right to be tired. You just had a baby a few days ago…well, I guess you know that.”
Darcy dramatically shifted her stitched-up nether-region on her bed. “Good. We’re back to my bottom. Finally.” Then, belatedly, she realized how that sounded and to whom she was speaking. The man had been right there and had seen everything. “I mean, I…” She gave up. “Oh, the heck with it. You’re right. I am tired. Very tired. It’s been an exhausting day so far. For me and for Montana.”
“I expect it has. It’s hot outside. That’ll sap your strength. And then there was that long drive out here. You probably could both use a good nap about now.”
Something inside Darcy grew soft. Had there ever been a more sympathetic soul on the face of the earth than this man? Just his way of talking, so slow and calm, and his constant concern for her, was enough to make her want to crawl into his lap. And put her arms around him and her cheek against his chest so she could hear his heart beating and then just lay there against him and soak up—
“Darcy? Did you hear me?”
Blinking, embarrassed, she snapped back to the moment. “Oh. No. I’m sorry. I didn’t. What did you say?”
“I said I closed the deal today on my grandfather’s land.”
Darcy froze. She felt as if she’d just been slapped. “Oh, you did? Well…that’s great. Good for you. I guess that means…you’ll be going home soon.”
Distractedly twisting and turning the screwdriver around in his hand, he stared her way and nodded. “It does.”
Darcy looked down at her lap. She couldn’t imagine why the thought of him leaving upset her so much. But it did. It made her want to cry and left her feeling alone and scared. Immediately, she chastised herself for being so silly. She looked up at him. He was studying her. Darcy tried a smile, but it wouldn’t quite hold. “So. When are you leaving?”
“I don’t know. There are some details to see to and some papers to be drawn up and signed. I figure about the middle of next week.”
This was Friday. “Wow. As soon as that?”
“Yep. As soon as that.” He casually tossed the screwdriver into the tool box. It clanked against several other metal pieces and sounded unusually loud to Darcy. She watched Tom turn back to putting the crib together. “I got a good price for the land. The developers want to turn it into a golf course.”
“Well, you can’t have too many of those out here in the desert.”
Tom turned and eyed her. “You don’t approve?”
A shrug accompanied Darcy’s words. “I don’t have an opinion either way. It’s your land. Well, it was your land.”
“It was. Now it’s Montana’s.”
Darcy snapped upright, her soreness and tiredness forgotten. “Montana’s? I hope you mean the state of.”
He shook his head. “No. Your Montana. All the corporation’s land payments, her share of the profits, everything…it will all come to her. That’s the trust fund I told you about. Oh, and you’re the conservator. You’ll have to sign some papers.”
“I have to—?” Darcy realized she was shaking her head. “You shouldn’t have done that, Tom.”
He frowned. “Why? It’s only a simple matter of paperwork.”
“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the money. I can’t even begin to imagine the amount.”
“Well, it’s a lot all right. Up into seven figures. To begin with.”
Darcy had difficulty swallowing. Words would not come out of her mouth, no matter how hard she tried to form them. She couldn’t believe it. Tom had just changed her life forever, and he acted as if he had no idea that he had. Why, the magnitude alone of the gift he’d just bestowed was mind-boggling. So why wasn’t she happy? Well, because this gift, if she accepted it, obligated her and Montana to him forever. Forever. And the part of her that remembered her fiasco of a relationship with Montana’s real father reminded her that this could be a complication. That his gift might be a claim on her and Montana—even after he’d promised at the hospital that he wouldn’t make any. But how could she refuse it, either? The gift was for Montana, not her. Could she deny her daughter this wealth?
Darcy simply wasn’t sure how she felt about any of this. So she sat and stared at Tom, certain she could feel each and every nerve ending tingling inside her. Finally, another thought came to her. “But you can’t, Tom. Your family. What about your family? What will they say?”
He shrugged. “The only family I have to consider is my sister. I ran it by her. Not that I had to. The land is mine. But still, she’s happy with what I’m doing.”
“That’s awfully generous of her.”
“That’s how she is.”
“Well, I like her already. But what about your future children? That land was their legacy, too.”
“If I have any kids down the road, they’ll have plenty of legacy.” Then he grinned, obviously trying for lightness. “Try not to worry so much, Darcy. I want this for you and Montana. I thought you’d be happy.”
Darcy put a be-still-my-heart hand to her chest. “Happy? Tom, I’m reeling. It’s a good thing I’m already sitting down. That’s just so much money. I don’t—”
Tom waved off her concern. “Oh, hell, it’s not that big a deal. And it’s not like we’re going to give it to Montana when she’s two years old. I set it up for you to draw regularly on the interest and to determine when she’s ready to take the reins herself. Who better than her mama to know that?”
Darcy could only stare at this man. “Wow. You put a lot of trust in me.”
He smiled warmly. “I don’t think it’s misplaced. You appear to be the honorable type to me.” With that, he stretched up to his full height and turned to inspect his handiwork, running his hands over the crib’s wood and jiggling it to make certain of its sturdiness. Apparently satisfied, he then hefted the baby mattress into the crib, lowered it onto the boxspring and wedged it down tightly into position. “There. All done.”
Watching him, drinking in his handsome masculine profile, and lingering over the lines of his tall, long-muscled body, Darcy had to remind herself to take a breath. “Why are you doing this?”
He looked her way. “The crib? Your mother asked me to—”
“No
t the crib, Tom. The trust fund. I mean, I can’t believe you. You act as if you’ve just given Montana a little toy…and not a Phoenix golf course, for crying out loud.”
“Well, it’s not a golf course yet. But it will be. And I didn’t sell the land. Just gave the developers a long-term lease. So the money and the profits will keep rolling in. Ought to be a nice little college fund for Montana by the time she reaches eighteen.”
Darcy couldn’t decide if he was humble or arrogant. “Tom, by the time she’s eighteen, with that kind of money, she can buy her own nice little college. In Europe.”
“I suppose she could, if she chooses to. I admit that. But it’s just a simple land deal.”
“And the Rocky Mountains are just a bunch of hills.”
He frowned at her. “You really aren’t happy about this, are you?”
“Happy? I don’t know. But I am overwhelmed, I’ll say that much. I mean, it’s like you’re Elvis and you’re giving away Cadillacs to startled strangers who never had any hope of owning one.”
Tom shifted his position, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “Well, it sounds downright arrogant of me when you put it like that.”
She knew better. “I don’t think you’re arrogant. Maybe…overly generous. But this gift of yours still changes everything for me, Tom. Everything. Where I’ll live. What I’ll do. How I’ll raise Montana. How I’ll instill in her a humility and respect that should go along with such riches. And if I should even sign the papers. Things like that. Do you understand?”
He nodded, still looking thoughtful and…could it be?…proud of her. “Now see there? What you just said tells me I did the right thing, that I judged you correctly. Most people wouldn’t even hesitate. They’d jump on that money right off. But not you. You worry about the right things, Darcy. You’re a good person. And you’ll raise Montana just fine.”
Darcy made a self-deprecating sound. “I wish I had as much confidence in me as you do, Tom.”
“It’ll come. But, hell, Darcy, I never meant for the trust fund to give you such fits. It was just a sudden brainstorm during one of my meetings yesterday. I only wanted to do something nice. For you and Montana.”
Darcy chuckled. “Tom, a big bag of disposable diapers would have been something nice for me and Montana.”
He stood alert. “You need some? I’ll go to the—”
“No, Tom. I don’t need any. Well, I do. No, Montana does—or at least, she will soon, if Mom doesn’t quit changing her every ten minutes. But you don’t have to do that. It’s not your place.”
His expression sobered. He looked hurt. “I know I don’t have any place here, Darcy. I just want to…” His words trailed off. He exhaled and looked down at his boots.
“You want to what, Tom?”
He looked up at her, surprising her with the fierce longing evident in his eyes. “I don’t know what I want, Darcy. I promise you, though, I’m not some crackpot millionaire who goes around throwing his money at folks. I’ve never done anything like this before.”
Darcy folded her hands together in her lap. “I believe you. Tom, you are the sweetest man I’ve ever met. But your timing is just all wrong.”
“How so?”
How so, indeed. “I don’t mean to cause you any trouble legally with your land deal, Tom. And what you did was the most wonderful thing that I’ve ever heard of. It’s the stuff of dreams.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “But?”
“But I’m not going to sign those papers. I just can’t let you do this.”
His blue eyes glinted. “Why not?”
“Because I would have no way of explaining it—or you—to Montana. It’s the same argument we had in the hospital over putting your name on her birth certificate. What would I tell her when she asks me who you are? Or why you would do such a thing? She’ll want to know.”
“Well, just tell her, then. Would that be so awful? I mean, hell, I’m not the father who abandoned her. I’m the one trying to help her.”
Darcy sat there, stunned. Insult warred with anger inside her. “You’re the one trying to help her? What about me?”
Tom’s expression bled to an apology. “Oh, hell, Darcy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.”
Tears sprang to Darcy’s eyes, tears that played on every insecurity she had about parenting Montana alone. “Yes, you did. You meant it. Just like my mother’s friends with all their advice and their bachelor sons. Apparently no one thinks I can raise my child by myself.”
Tom covered the distance between them. He hunkered down in front of her, taking her hands in his. “Darcy, you know that’s not true. I already told you different. You’re overreacting here.”
Darcy looked into his sincere, blue eyes, and felt awful. “Am I?” She pulled a hand free and rubbed at her temple. “I could be, Tom. I don’t know. God, these hormones of mine. One minute I’m up, the next down. I’m either crying or sleeping or depressed.” She flopped her hand down to her lap. “Even Montana hates me. I don’t blame her.”
Tom instantly took her hand again and squeezed it affectionately. “She does not. She’ll love you best in all the world, Darcy. All her life, she’ll only have one mama. And that’s you.”
“And that’s what scares me, Tom. I could completely screw her up.”
“You won’t. Because you love her. And every decision you make, you’ll make with Montana in mind.”
Darcy stared at the man in front of her…and finally understood. “Either I’m Cinderella and you’re my fairy godmother. Or you have twelve kids you haven’t told me about, and have learned to be this wise the hard way.”
Grinning, he shook his head. “Neither. I just—well, I just care, Darcy.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. She’d meant it when she said she wanted to raise her daughter on her own. Or at least be alone for a while with her. But Darcy couldn’t help but realize, even with her hands in his, even with her childbirth-battered body already responding to his nearness, what an eye-opener this conversation was. Apparently, despite the nice things he’d said, when it came right down to it, not even this man—a stranger to her—thought her capable of raising her child without his help—or his money.
Do I really come across as that pathetic? She feared she did. Well, no more. Darcy squeezed Tom’s hands and smiled. “Tom, I appreciate everything you’re trying to do here. I really do. But I have to decline your generous offer. See, it’s important to me to know that I’ll be the one providing for my daughter. Whether it’s diapers or a college fund, I want to provide it. And—” Darcy took a deep breath as she set about cutting off her nose to spite her face. “—not you or anyone else.”
Tom came to his feet and looked down at her. “I understand your feelings, Darcy. And I have to respect them.”
Darcy’s chin came up…and a tear spilled over, one that begged her to reconsider. But she couldn’t afford to listen. Because if she did, she’d be in Tom’s arms in a heartbeat…and she’d lose all respect for herself. “Thank you,” was all she managed to get out as her throat constricted.
Still, Tom stood there…as if rooted to the spot. Like storm clouds passing rapidly over a desert, some emotion flickered across his features…and then was gone.
Finally, he exhaled sharply. “Well, then, this is goodbye, Darcy. Take care. I wish you the best of everything, you and Montana.” With that, he walked out of her bedroom.
As soon as he left, Darcy looked up to the ceiling, willing away the ever-present tears that lurked in her eyes of late. I can do this, she told the overhead fan. I can.
“I CAN’T DO this.” Darcy threw her hands up. She’d already ruined four disposable diapers, trying to fit them to Montana’s tiny hips.
The problem was, the child had too many moving parts and was built like a frog. And the diapers! Forget them. If Darcy didn’t fold them in half, they were up to Montana’s neck. Or if she did successfully get the diaper on, the baby would draw her legs up, catch her tiny feet
in the folds, straighten her legs…and yank the diaper off her body. Or the tabs wouldn’t stick. Even if they did, when Darcy picked her daughter up, no matter how carefully she held her, the darned thing eventually slid off. And once already, as soon as Darcy had gotten the obnoxious thing taped just right, Montana had, well, soiled it. Soiled it good.
And now, on this bright Sunday afternoon, Darcy was in a lather. Sweaty, exhausted from a lack of sleep and needing a bath, she was ready to throw in the towel. Montana—who hated her, Darcy was sure of it—was crying…no doubt, over her mother’s inadequacies. Darcy, in turn, wanted her own mother, who stood next to her. “Could she be more helpless? And these diapers! Are you sure they’re the newborn size? I swear they’d fit a pony. And how am I supposed to keep that hideous navel-thing dry and exposed to the air, Mother? It’s been four days, and I still can’t even do one single thing right—”
“Darcy. Stop it.” Margie took a hold of Darcy’s arm. “You’re getting yourself in a state. And that won’t do you or your daughter any good.”
Darcy’s chin trembled. Her mother immediately wrapped her in an embrace. “It’s okay, baby. What you’re feeling is normal. All new mothers go through this. I sure did. I was certain that I’d break you or forget where I’d left you. I swear, the only time you didn’t cry was when your daddy was holding you. Then, when things got to their worst point, it never failed that my mother, bless her heart, would choose right then to call and ask me something crazy, like had I remembered to feed you that day.”
Darcy pulled back and swiped at the tears on her cheeks. Her mother had never shared such things with her. Of course, there’d been no need before now. But still, they made her feel better. “Grandma would do that?”
“You bet. I was sure I was the worst mother in the history of the world.”
Darcy impulsively hugged her mother tightly. “You were not. You were—and still are—the best mother ever. I love you.”
After a moment, her mother tugged herself out of Darcy’s embrace. Looking about ready to cry herself, Margie eyed the baby in the crib. Darcy did, too…and swore Montana glared back suspiciously. Her mother turned to go. “Well, I’ll just leave you to it, honey.”
Drive-By Daddy & Calamity Jo Page 8
