As the door opened, Rachel, trying to peer past Connie, noted a tweed jacket and sky-blue shirt. She saw a hint of uncertainty followed by a smile when he spotted Rachel.
A rush of warmth. He was glad to see her.
“What a sweetie!” Connie cooed, and then Rachel saw the child on the porch beside Russ. Around the moppet’s face curled a mass of long, light-brown hair, as stylish as if she’d emerged from a salon. From beneath a white pea jacket peeked a pink blouse above a ruffled rose skirt and knee-high white boots. Certainly not a bedraggled-orphan type like the foster kids who landed on the Byerses’ doorstep.
“Rachel, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Lauren,” said Russ, who’d apparently already introduced himself to Connie.
“Hi.” Impossible to insert another word, with their hostess sweeping the arrivals inside and fussing over the darling pink-and-white outfit. Rachel retreated into the living room.
Nice of the ex-girlfriend to let Russ take their daughter for the day. But had he run out of activities already? Hard to imagine any other reason for him to drop by.
Ignoring Connie’s compliments, Lauren marched over to Rachel. “Dad says you’re a cop. Where’s your gun?”
“In the bedroom.” She’d have to make sure Lauren didn’t go exploring, Rachel thought.
“Show me how to shoot,” the little girl commanded.
Taken aback, Rachel shook her head. “A gun isn’t a toy.”
“She can’t do that, honey. Guns are dangerous,” Connie added.
“Not to me! Show me how to shoot now!” Her tone warned of an incipient tantrum.
Rachel wondered exactly what was going on inside that little head. Her best guess: this must be a power play, although why Lauren was directing it at her, she couldn’t say.
Russ touched his daughter’s shoulder. “Let’s find another topic to talk about, sweetheart.”
Lauren lifted her chin stubbornly. “Rachel, teach me!”
“Sorry, kid. No can do.”
Russ watched them cautiously, perhaps weighing whether to intervene further. Apparently he trusted Rachel, though, because he stayed silent. That he didn’t simply drag his daughter away seemed to indicate this interaction mattered, but she had no idea why.
“I don’t like you!” Lauren raged. “You’re mean!”
Rachel crouched in front of the little girl. Those big brown eyes sure were appealing, in spite of the rudeness. Besides, her emotions must be swinging wildly in response to losing her grandparents. She was trying to figure out where she fit into this new universe and, to her credit, didn’t intend to sink without a fight.
“My job is to do what’s right, even if I tick people off,” Rachel informed her. “Would you like me to tell you lies?”
“No.” A note of defiance.
“Or make promises I can’t keep?”
A shake of the head.
“Good. You can count on me to be honest and fair, even if people don’t like me,” Rachel continued gravely. “And I won’t let you do stuff that might hurt you, any more than your father or your mother would. Now, why do you want to shoot a gun?”
The little chin quivered. “’Cause I wanna be powerful.”
Rachel took a stab at mind reading. “A cop is the most powerful person you can think of, huh?”
“Yeah.” The girl folded her arms defiantly.
“The thing about power is, you have to use it wisely,” Rachel told her. “Besides, you already have power.”
“No, I don’t.” She sounded uncertain.
“Sure, you do. Somebody spent their hard-earned money buying you beautiful clothes,” Rachel pointed out. “Your daddy drove you all the way here to introduce you to his friends. You have power over people who love you. You should be careful not to misuse that power.”
“I don’t.” Lauren frowned. “Do I?”
“You called me mean. That hurt my feelings,” Rachel responded.
“You’re not mean,” the child conceded.
“How about me?” Russ asked. “That’s what you claimed when I wouldn’t buy you two desserts after lunch.”
“You wouldn’t? Now, that is mean,” Rachel cracked.
Lauren giggled. “Grandma let me have two desserts sometimes.”
Russ hugged his daughter. “Well, I have to use my Daddy-power carefully. I’m a doctor, which means I’m especially careful about your health. But as we get better acquainted, we’ll figure out which rules can be broken now and then.”
Connie had been observing this interchange with growing confusion. “Better acquainted? I gather I’ve missed part of this story.”
Rachel seconded that motion. She’d sensed since Russ arrived that his visit was more than casual.
“My daughter’s coming to live with me,” he told the two women. “Which is tricky, since we’d never met before today.”
“Permanently?” Concerned that her disbelief might upset Lauren, Rachel threw in a joke. “I see swimming pools aren’t the only things you dive into headfirst.”
“That’s actually more true than you realize. Which brings me to my point.” Russ glanced at Connie. “If it isn’t too much of an imposition, I’d be grateful if you could occupy Lauren for a few minutes while I talk to Rachel.”
Connie rose to the occasion, despite what must be intense curiosity. “Lauren, let me show you my doll collection. You can undress and dress them if you’re gentle.” When the child hesitated, she added, “There’s a policeman action figure. Want to play with him?”
The notion of putting clothes on and off toys sounded incredibly dull to Rachel. Lauren, however, rose to the bait. “Okay.” A short pause. “Can I, Russ?”
“Yes, it’s fine, angel.” He didn’t push her to call him Daddy. Rachel was glad, because attachments couldn’t be rushed.
Taking the child’s hand, Connie led her out of the room. She kept the dolls in a glass breakfront in the master bedroom, well out of hearing range if they spoke softly. Good, because apparently Russ had a private conversation in mind.
She’d be glad to help the little girl adjust to a new town. If that was all he sought, why did he seem so tense?
Self-consciously, Russ sank into a brocade chair. Rachel sat on the sofa, a stiff affair that fit the elegant decor, which included a golden filigree fire screen and, above the mantel, a gilt-framed oil painting of carnations.
The silence lengthened. Whatever the man had to say, she wished he’d spit it out. “This must be quite a tale,” Rachel remarked to break the ice. “The last I heard, you’d set your sights on occasional visits.”
His hands clasped his knees, a further sign of nervousness. “Janine had decided to search for an adoptive family. She’s engaged and hubby-to-be doesn’t want some kinder-gartner complicating his privileged existence.”
“So Janine just gave her to you?” A cavalier attitude, in Rachel’s opinion, but perhaps in the child’s best interest.
“I pushed hard,” he admitted. “She’s granted me a one-month trial period to prove this can work.”
“And you believe it can?” She didn’t mean to challenge his sincerity, only to point out what an enormous task he’d assumed. This was a bachelor with a living room full of video gear.
“It has to. I’m her father.” He released a long breath. “You should have heard her in the background last night, begging for attention. Lost and scared and…well, you get the picture.”
Rachel’s heart went out to the child. “She must have been her grandparents’ darling. And she’s a bright kid. She’d understand she was being given away.”
“Exactly.” He cast her an appreciative look. “The problem is…” He stopped.
She waited for his thoughts to unblock. No hurry. Besides, she was enjoying the electricity in the air and the guy’s low-key, yet unmistakable masculinity, a refreshing change from macho specimens like Hale.
“Janine insisted that Lauren belongs in a family,” Russ explained. “She remembers me the way I was five
years ago, not remotely ready for parenting.”
“How did you change her mind?” This ought to be interesting.
He cleared his throat. “I had to say I’m engaged.”
That was weird. “To who?”
“Well, you.”
“You’re putting me on!” Rachel had heard plenty of whoppers in her day, but this topped them all.
“I’m sorry. Janine was on the point of refusing, and I doubt I have any legal right to challenge her decision.” He leaned forward into a ray of sunshine that highlighted the pleading in his expression.
Rachel was still trying to figure out how this scenario worked. “So, like, you claimed you met me two days ago and I knocked you for a loop, or what?”
“I didn’t go into detail.” He uttered an uneasy cough. “She asked to meet you, maybe later in the week. That is, assuming you’re willing to pose as my fiancée.”
Rachel had never been much of an actress. “I’m guessing you didn’t think this whole business through.”
He ran his palms along his jeans. Must be sweaty. “I’d appreciate your help. This means a lot to me.”
The handsome, sophisticated doctor, who probably had to chase women away with a scalpel, had chosen Rachel as his intended. His imaginary intended. His trust was flattering, if misplaced.
She doubted she could pull off such a deception if her life depended on it. She was definitely not cut out for under-cover work. But if she failed, what would happen to Lauren?
Rachel had no quarrel with the idea of adoptive parents, given that the Byerses had saved her bacon. Even so, it had taken years for her to come to terms with the fact that her mother cared more about booze than about her own child. Rejection can play havoc with a person’s self-esteem.
“She understands that you’re her father and not some nice fellow who treated her to lunch?” she probed.
“Obviously, I’m not the man who’s been raising her,” Russ conceded. “But her grandparents gave her my photo and made me part of the family history. She recognized me the moment we laid eyes on each other.”
A promising first step, Rachel supposed. Still, they had a long way to go to establish a real parent-child relationship. “Foster kids tend to have a honeymoon period and then start acting up like crazy. Sure you can handle it?”
“One way or the other, I’ll muddle through, because I refuse to give up,” he insisted. “I’ve deeply regretted losing my daughter, and I won’t blow this second chance. Which brings us back to my request. Will you pretend to be my fiancée? Meet with Janine and play the part for as long as necessary?”
“I can’t pose as something I’m not,” Rachel said. “Also, I keep thinking of complications. Like, word’s sure to leak out, which means I’ll have to pretend to a whole lot of other people. Besides, I promised Lauren I’d never lie to her.”
Russ swallowed hard. “You’re entitled to say no.”
“What’ll you do?”
He rose and paced across the carpet. “Admit to Janine that I made up the engagement. I’ll have to convince her to trust me, anyway, which will be extrahard after I tried to fool her, but that isn’t your fault.”
He nearly collided with a large china dog that had been obscured by the sofa. He halted, then stood staring at the thing, mind undoubtedly working in so many directions he couldn’t focus.
Rachel’s heart squeezed for him and Lauren. Then a solution smacked her in the face. A totally outrageous, insane solution, almost as crazy as his announcing a pretend engagement. “Maybe you won’t have to.”
“Won’t have to what?”
“Won’t have to tell her you made it up.” Rachel resisted, barely, the instinct to bite her lip for courage.
“Why not?” He regarded her with fists clenched and jaw tight, as if afraid to hope for too much.
“Because,” Rachel said, “we can get engaged for real.”
Chapter Six
The first day of Russ’s internship, when he’d finally been assigned patients of his own, he’d experienced a disconnect. Despite years of training, he’d been tempted to glance around in search of the real doctor. The same sense of unreality came over him now.
His vision sharpened, lending hyperclarity to the room’s tones of ivory, turquoise and coral. Engaged? For real? Although he’d shared vivid experiences with the woman sitting across from him, they weren’t really even well enough acquainted to be considered friends.
Russ strained to unclog his throat. “Engaged means we’re planning to get married,” he protested hoarsely. “Diamonds, lace, wedding cake and so on.”
“Lots of people plan lots of things,” Rachel remarked as casually as if they were discussing what to order at a restaurant. “Our traffic sergeant was engaged for two weeks before the woman ran off with her ex-boyfriend. One of our dispatchers got married for two days in Las Vegas and had the whole thing annulled. She claimed she was too drunk to know what she was doing.”
Russ blinked. What bizarre stories. Fascinating, though. “Surely you don’t consider those two examples normal.”
She responded with a shrug. “Being a cop is hard on relationships, so for us, that stuff is normal.”
He wanted to be absolutely clear on the terms. “Are you saying it’s no big deal if we break it off later?”
She considered, wearing a solemn expression that went oddly with the two-toned hair and bare feet. “Let’s put it this way. There are worse reasons to tie the knot than to protect a child, but I’ll accept a trial period, kind of like Janine offered you and Lauren.”
Relief drained the tension from Russ’s muscles. “I can go for that.” Her statement rendered the pact little more than a formal approach to dating.
Then she added, “Maybe you can help me look at wedding dresses, just for kicks.”
How bizzare. His ability to keep Lauren might depend on how well he got along with a woman who, two days ago, had flung him against a car and infuriated him to the point of violence. A woman who rode bicycles around swimming pools and scarcely seemed to notice that she’d almost drowned. And who claimed engagements meant next to nothing, then discussed wedding gowns in the next breath.
The funny part was that he found her so invigorating, he might enjoy playing her fiancé. He only hoped that in the end she didn’t honestly expect them to walk down the aisle. The idea of being herded into marriage, whether by Janine’s demand or by Rachel’s rather peculiar principles, stirred the same anger he felt whenever someone tried to push him around.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, this arrangement was temporary. A person couldn’t be forced into marriage, and she’d made it clear that wasn’t what she intended.
“Well?” Rachel probed. “What do you say?”
“The part about a wedding gown is giving me pause,” he admitted.
“We can check out tuxedoes, too. You’d look cute in a penguin suit.” Her smile lit up the room. “Or a swimsuit. Or nothing—forget I mentioned that.”
The memory of the T-shirt plastered against her breasts sent a pleasant warmth through him. “I’ll be happy to overlook it, if that’s what you want.”
“I guess we’ll find out.” She didn’t so much as blush.
He might as well quit fighting the inevitable, Russ reflected. In the end, for Lauren’s sake, he had little choice but to go along. And the prospect of spending a few days or weeks in Rachel’s company wasn’t the least bit unpleasant.
That left a few important details to work out. “What are we going to tell people when they ask the reason for this hasty decision?”
She had a ready answer. “You’re the shiny knight who rescued me. We fell head over heels as I swooned in your arms. They’ll buy it. I do dumb things all the time.”
The last of Russ’s qualms dissolved in laughter. “Right now, Lauren and I are the ones who need rescuing.”
“Fine by me,” she responded. “I love kids.”
“She wasn’t acting very lovable when we arrived,” Russ noted. “Y
ou brought her around.” He’d appreciated the way she’d seen through Lauren’s bratty behavior to the vulnerability beneath.
“With everything that’s happened, I’m sure she feels out of control,” Rachel answered. “She’s going to test us until we earn her trust.”
“I’m aware that pushing the limits is typical of children.” Russ had advised a number of parents regarding such behavior. “Unfortunately, recognizing the dynamics doesn’t teach us how to change them.”
“The only kind of dynamics I’m good at usually end with somebody flat on the pavement,” Rachel replied ruefully.
“You were good with Lauren.”
“In my family, we had hot and cold running foster kids in the house,” she said. “If you didn’t figure out how to handle ’em fast, you were sunk.”
She’d certainly had an unusual upbringing. He was about to request more details when Connie fluttered into the room. “Lauren’s absorbed in the dolls, especially the cop. She seems to have developed a soft spot for him. What’ve you two been doing?”
Russ wasn’t sure where to start. “We have some news.”
“Yes?”
They exchanged glances, and now Rachel did blush. As for Russ, the right words eluded him.
“Well, what?” Connie demanded.
“We’re engaged.” Rachel plopped her feet on the coffee table, nearly dislodging a china St. Bernard dog.
The blonde’s expression wavered between amazement and doubt. “You’re not serious!”
If they were going to convince the world, Russ had to embrace the situation. “Rachel’s agreed to marry me. I understand your surprise, but we’re in earnest.”
“Oh, yeah?” challenged her friend.
“Double yeah with fried onions on it,” Rachel replied with mock childishness.
“Yesterday, you said you had to show a total stranger around town, so this obviously isn’t a longstanding affair,” Connie retorted. “We can eliminate love at first sight, since I heard about your rumpus in the parking garage. And it’s too soon for you to be pregnant. So what’s going on?”
Russ wavered. He still wasn’t certain exactly how honest they ought to be.
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