by Cathie Linz
“You’ve told me,” he agreed as she walked out the front door. “You have yet to convince me.”
The next night Jack called her at home to tell her that the doctor had given him the green light to go back to work. “I feel like celebrating, even if I am only going back to push papers for now. Maybe I’ll torment the new probie with a pop quiz on combating hazmats.”
“Hazmats?” she repeated. “Sounds like some kind of Eastern torture.”
“Hazardous materials,” he explained. “So when are you coming over?”
“What?”
“You and Ashley. I’m inviting you both over for dinner. I’m cooking. Irish stew.” Jack added each sentence as if it were the next level of temptation. “Come on,” he coaxed her. “What can happen with a three-year-old as a chaperon?”
“Plenty,” she replied, remembering all too well what had happened the last time Ashley had been there. Granted, Ashley had been asleep in the other room when Jack had kissed Kayla until she’d been a heartbeat from surrendering. But still, Jack had proved to be dangerous to Kayla’s self-control at a time when she would have thought she was temptation proof.
“Well, plenty won’t happen this time,” he assured her. “Unless you want it to.”
“Why me?” Kayla asked. “I mean, why us? Why choose us to celebrate with?”
“Because you helped me get back on my feet, or as back on them as I am. You’ve got to admit I’m much more graceful on those stupid crutches now than I was in the beginning. You helped in my recovery, and I want to show my thanks. It’s just dinner, Kayla. Not a lifetime commitment, okay?”
“Okay,” she reluctantly agreed. He’d sounded so darn cheerful about wanting to celebrate with them, she didn’t have the heart to turn him down. Not when he sounded that way so rarely. At least since she’d met him.
“Tell Ashley I got bear choclotts for Hugs,” Jack said.
“They better be the invisible kind,” Kayla replied.
“How did you know?”
“You catch on fast,” she said, congratulating him.
“I like to think I do. So I’ll see you here tomorrow night around five?”
“Okay.”
To her relief, Kayla didn’t have to convince Ashley to agree to go to Jack’s place.
“Jack had a spell on him, but I fixed it,” Ashley told her matter-of-factly.
“And how did you do that?”
“By being a princess. Jack was mean cause he was hurt. Just like ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ I want Belle’s dress. I’ll protect Jack. Can Hugs have choclotts now?”
Kayla grinned at the way her daughter’s thoughts bounced around like a basketball in a Bulls game, first this way then that and finally way over there.
“Hugs helped fix Jack,” Ashley added. “I won’t call Jack a monster. No one else better be mean to him.” She militantly stuck out her chin in a posture that Kayla recognized as her don’t-mess-with-me stance. “Or else because.” It was her own way of describing dire circumstances.
Kayla knew that her daughter had always been one to help an underdog. If there was a child in day care who got picked on by the others, that was the child that Ashley would take under her wing. The trait made Kayla so proud that she could only gaze at Ashley in wonder. How could this adorable little one have turned out so well from a marriage that had gone so bad? Kayla didn’t know, she could only be grateful for the incredible and always surprising gift that was Ashley.
“What do three-year-olds eat?” Jack frantically asked Sam over the phone.
“Nervous guys,” Sam retorted. “Would you just calm down?”
“They’re going to be here in fifteen minutes.”
“Your mom runs a day care center, why don’t you ask her?”
“Because she’s not home or I would have.”
“Would this three-year-old be the same little redheaded one who stopped by your place with a cute looking mom during that last snowstorm?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“And is she? Is this Kayla the one for you?”
“Why the inquisition?” Jack retorted in exasperation. “All I did was ask you a simple question, and you’ve practically got me hitched to the woman.”
“I just hate to see a poor sap like you running around loose, having a dozen busty women signing your cast, without a good woman to call your own.”
“I’m touched by your concern,” Jack retorted with sarcasm.
“Yeah, you sound it.” Sam laughed. “Just don’t give her spinach or turnips. Three-year-olds hate spinach or turnips.”
Jack groaned. It was too late. He already had turnips in the stew. Maybe if he fed Ashley some mint ice cream in the beginning... He could see that going over really big with Kayla.
The buzzer rang just as he hung up the phone.
“Yeah?” Jack said after pushing the Speak button.
“This is Ernie, your doorman.” He spoke with the speed of a centurion turtle.
“I know who you are, Ernie. What do you want? I’m busy.”
“You have two guests. A Ms. Kayla White and her daughter Miss Ashley White.”
“Kayla’s been coming here for nearly three weeks, Ernie, and you’ve never once announced her. Why are you starting now?”
“Those were service calls,” Ernie declared in his customary deadpan voice. “I always announce guests. I wanted your approval before sending them-up.”
Jack was tempted to run downstairs, broken leg and all, and wring Ernie’s thick neck. Instead he hung on to his temper and growled, “Send them up.”
Using the crutches, he propelled himself toward the front door like a pro. He was wearing a shirt and gray sweater along with the jeans that had one leg sliced open to accommodate his cast.
To Jack’s surprise, Ashley was the first to greet him, and she did so by walking right up to him and hugging his good leg. “Tell my mommy how you’s fixed now,” she ordered him, blinking her baby blues at him.
“Fixed?” His wary gaze shot over to Kayla’s laughing one.
“Fixed,” Kayla agreed with a grin. “Not as in spayed, however.”
“That’s a relief.”
“I’m a princess,” Ashley declared with a little pirouette. “I fixed your bad spell. Hugs helped. Are you going to hug us now, Jack?”
“It’s easier for me to hug when I’m sitting down,” he replied.
“That hasn’t been my experience,” Kayla couldn’t resist adding, her smile turning into a grin.
“I’d be more than happy to add to your experience,” Jack stated, his head-to-toe appraisal making his intentions clear. She was wearing black slacks and a black knit top with a turquoise blazer. She looked damn good. But she’d look even better in nothing at all.
Reminding himself there was a child present, he tore his eyes away from Kayla and did his best to be a good host. To his relief Ashley didn’t seem to notice the turnips in the stew. The kid seemed to have taken a hundred-and-eighty-degree change in her attitude toward him.
If he didn’t know better, he’d almost think Ashley was taking him under her wing. The strange thing was that he didn’t mind her fussing over him.
After dinner Kayla insisted on doing the cleaning up. “Why don’t you and Ashley go on into the living room,” she suggested as she filled the sink with warm water. Jack’s apartment didn’t come with a dishwasher.
“Let’s play. I’ll be the mommy and you can be the baby,” Ashley told Jack in the no-nonsense voice of a commander in chief. “You have to make baby noises.”
Jack shot a desperate look toward the kitchen and Kayla. “I’m not good at baby noises.”
His excuse cut him no slack with Ashley. “You can learn. Babies sound like this...waaahhh. That’s crying. Gagagagagagaaaaa. That’s baby talk. Now you do it.”
“Don’t you know any other games? How about I tell you about the place where firefighters live?”
“Do any princesses live there?”
“Not th
at I’ve seen.” His gaze traveled to the kitchen and Kayla again. “But I have met a princess.”
“Sure you have,” Ashley instantly agreed. “Me.”
She said it so matter-of-factly, Jack had to laugh.
The sound of his laughter warmed Kayla’s heart as she stole a quick peek at him over her shoulder while doing the dishes. The open floor plan allowed her to keep an eye on her daughter and Jack. He looked good enough to eat, the gray sweater he wore highlighting his exceptional eyes. And his dark hair had gotten longer in the weeks she’d known him, tempting her even more to run her hands through its rich thickness.
He didn’t seem to mind Ashley taking him under her wing and fussing over him. In fact, he seemed bemused by the entire thing and maybe just a tad delighted.
As Jack told Ashley a story about fire and the dangers of playing with matches, Kayla recognized it as one from a book at the day care center. She wondered if Jack had had a hand in it being there. She’d already noticed the safety precautions at the day care center, the state-of-the-art smoke and heat detectors as well as the recently installed sprinkler system.
That was one of the reasons why she’d selected it of all those she’d visited. That and their security about visitors. No unauthorized people were allowed into the area where the children were located. Kayla and all the other parents had an individual code they had to punch into the security system in order to gain entrance from the foyer to the center itself. It was a code Bruce didn’t have.
She didn’t want to worry about Bruce tonight. Not when she was witnessing magic—the magic of a tough guy like Jack being enchanted by a three-year-old.
“I’m telling you it’s an embarrassment,” Bruce peevishly complained as he came to pick up Ashley for the weekend. Today’s source of criticism was their daughter’s vocabulary and her use of improper verb tenses. “She says I’s instead of I’m. It’s humiliating. I have friends with children Ashley’s age who are already using words like hysterical in their conversation.”
Bruce made Kayla feel hysterical! Nothing was ever good enough for him. Absolutely nothing was good enough.
“And that bear she carries around is a disgrace,” Bruce continued. “The thing looks like a thrift shop reject. It belongs in the garbage. I pay you enough in child support to buy her new toys.”
“She has new toys, but she loves Hugs. Don’t you dare tamper with that bear,” Kayla warned him. “You’d break her heart.”
“You’re exaggerating, as usual. Ah, there you are Ashley. Come along now, or we’ll be late.”
“You’ll have her back here by four tomorrow afternoon?”
“Sure,” Bruce said, but he was already carrying Ashley to his spiffy new luxury car.
A visit from Bruce always left a bad taste in her mouth. Kayla tried keeping busy while Ashley was gone, giving the house a floor-to-ceiling cleaning. By Sunday afternoon she was pooped and ready to hug her daughter.
Four o’clock came and went. Bruce was late. That happened. Maybe traffic was heavy. She waited until almost five before calling him. There was no answer, not on his home phone or his car phone. She dialed his pager number but he didn’t return the page.
She tried again and again. Still no reply. Panic set in. What if he’d kidnapped Ashley? What if he’d decided to keep Ashley and not bring her back? Trying to stay calm, Kayla called Diane, needing to talk to a friend. But she got her answering machine instead. It was now after six. What could have happened? What if there had been an accident?
Her skin became clammy at the possibility of her little girl lying hurt in a hospital somewhere. She paced a hole in the carpet until almost seven, each minute taking an eternity. She’d just picked up the phone to call the police when she saw Bruce’s car pull up in front of her house.
Yanking open the door, it was all she could do not to race down the steps and grab Ashley in her arms. At least she wasn’t hurt.
“Hi, Mommy. Look what Daddy got me.”
“In a minute, sweetie. First I have to talk to your daddy. Go on to your room and I’ll be there in a minute.”
The minute they were alone, Kayla furiously confronted Bruce. “Do you know what time it is? You’re three hours late! What happened? Why didn’t you call to tell me you’d be late?”
“Chill out,” Bruce retorted. “We were out shopping and lost track of time. We took her to this great new toy store in Oak Brook and Tanya got a kick out of helping her pick out whatever she wanted.”
“And you didn’t think to call me to tell me you’d be late? Do you have any idea how worried I was? I thought something had happened.”
“Something did happen,” Bruce replied. “Tanya and I talked, and we’ve decided to start the legal proceedings to get full custody of Ashley.”
Six
“What did you say?” Kayla said unsteadily.
“You heard me,” Bruce replied. “I’m going to start the legal proceedings to get full custody of Ashley. Why the stunned look? I thought you’d be pleased, Kay.”
Kayla had always hated it when Bruce called her Kay, and he knew it. “Are you crazy?” she retorted. “Why would an announcement like that please me?”
“Because you’re totally wrapped up with this new project you went in on with Diane. If we had Ashley, you’d have more time to do that.”
“It’s a business, not a project.”
“Whatever.” Bruce’s shrug indicated his indifference. “The bottom line is it takes you away from Ashley. She told us how she’s at the day care center all the time.”
“She’s not there all the time,” Kayla protested.
“Look at it this way, Kay. Just figure that you’ve been taking care of Ashley for the past three years, and now it’s my turn. Mine and Tanya’s.”
“Forget it,” Kayla said curtly. “I’m not giving up custody of my daughter.”
“You may not have a choice. Which do you think the court would select as a better environment for Ashley? A single working mom who farms her toddler out to strangers, or a loving family with a stay-at-home wife willing to take the time and effort to raise Ashley?”
“I work because I have to,” Kayla shot back. “And if you were such a great parent, you’d have taken the time to show more interest in your daughter’s upbringing while she was still in diapers. Or were you just waiting until she was toilet-trained and it was more convenient for Tanya to take care of her?”
“Tanya loves Ashley.”
“That’s very nice. But that doesn’t mean that I’ll hand over my daughter just because you two can’t have kids of your own.”
“Like I said, you might not have a choice,” Bruce said on his way out before adding, “You know, being in business for yourself seems to have made you even more high-strung than usual.”
Unable to say another word without breaking into tears, Kayla slammed the door in his face.
“That was very adult,” Bruce yelled through the closed door. “You’ll be hearing from my attorney.”
The tears were ready to spill over when Kayla heard Ashley’s uncertain voice.
“How come you and Daddy was... were fighting?” she asked, correcting herself. “Was it about Hugs?”
“No, baby,” Kayla denied, going down on her knees to take her daughter in her arms. “What made you think it had anything to do with Hugs?”
“Tanya told me that Hugs was dis...dis...disgracedful. What does that mean, Mommy?”
“It means Tanya has no taste,” Kayla muttered.
“She and Daddy wanted me to throw Hugs away.” Ashley hugged the bear as tightly as she was hugging Kayla. “I didn’t want to. Do I have to, Mommy?”
“No, sweetie. You can keep Hugs forever and ever. And your daddy and I weren’t arguing about Hugs. It’s just that your daddy forgot to call and tell me you’d be late, and I got worried. Like you’d get worried if I was late picking you up at day care.”
Ashley nodded her understanding.
“Do you like going to day ca
re?” Kayla asked her, smoothing Ashley’s baby-fine hair off her forehead. She was getting so big. It didn’t seem like that long ago she’d been a baby, smiling her first smile.
“I like to play there, but I miss you.”
“I miss you too, sweetie,” Kayla whispered unsteadily before hugging her again.
Ashley squirmed out of her embrace to say, “Come see my new toys.”
As Ashley tugged her toward her room, Kayla vowed that she’d do whatever it took to keep her daughter.
“What do you mean she’s on vacation?” Kayla had placed a call to her attorney first thing the next morning. “I need to speak to her!”
“I’m sorry,” the secretary said. “She’ll be back in two days.”
This news only compounded Kayla’s jitters. She’d taken the morning off to spend time with Ashley. Diane had understood and had picked up the slack.
Looking at the pile of expensive new toys Ashley had brought home with her the night before, Kayla wondered if she was being selfish in wanting to keep Ashley with her. Bruce and Tanya could certainly give Ashley more material things than Kayla could. But they couldn’t give her more love, and that realization reinforced her determination.
That afternoon Ashley was eager to go to day care to tell all her friends about the goodies she’d gotten. Kayla hugged her about twenty times before leaving. Corky noticed this unusual behavior and quietly asked Kayla if there was something wrong.
“You’re still checking the list of people authorized to pick up Ashley from day care, right?” Kayla replied. “And you know that her father isn’t on that list. Neither is his new wife.”
“Are you worried your ex-husband might try to take her?” Corky asked astutely.
“He wants full custody of her. His new wife can’t have kids so they want Ashley.”
“Oh, Kayla...” Corky’s sympathetic voice was nearly her undoing.
“They can’t have her,” Kayla fiercely declared.
“I’ll keep an extra watch out on her,” Corky promised. “Don’t you worry.”
