She was trying to process that impassioned plea when she heard footsteps in the hallway and a moment later, Justin stuck his head in.
He looked incongruous in the girlie room, dark and gorgeous and uber-masculine, and her heart gave a foolish little thump just at the sight of him.
Ruby jumped into his arms. “Hi, Daddy. I’ve been telling Miss Barnes about all the fun things we do and how you’re such a good swimmer and a good horse rider. I bet she’d like to see you sometime.”
He raised an eyebrow and Ashley refrained from commenting that she had seen his particular riding style when he had nearly mowed her over the day before.
“Oh, and Miss Barnes thinks the playhouse you made for me is cool,” Ruby added.
He managed a smile. “Good to know. Uh, dinner is ready. I just checked on Lydia and she said she’s feeling a little under the weather tonight so it’s just the three of us, I guess. I hope you’re hungry.”
“I’m starving!” Ruby said with so much pathos in her voice, Ashley had to assume she had inherited more from her father than midnight-blue eyes and dark hair.
The little girl skipped ahead down the stairs, leaving the two of them alone.
She was intensely aware of Justin as they walked down the stairs. They didn’t say anything, but the thick awareness flowed between them, leaving her jittery and unsettled as they walked out into the moonlit night.
Chapter 13
DINNER WOULD LIVE ON FOREVER in her memory as one of the most surreal experiences of Ashley’s life. She was having dinner with Justin Hartford—and not just any dinner, but one he prepared with his own hands. The fourteen-year-old girl who—she was ashamed to say—still sometimes popped up in her psyche wanted to swoon.
She found the whole experience disorienting. It was extraordinarily difficult to reconcile her different images of him—sexy, intense big-screen hero, then disinterested father—with the man who cut his daughter’s hot dog and did really lousy impersonations.
Somehow they managed to put aside their discomfort over that awkward scene before dinner as they talked and laughed and listened to Ruby’s apparently endless repertoire of bad knock-knock jokes.
She was charmed by both of them. This Ruby was a far different girl at home than she had been the past three weeks. Here was the girl she had met those first few days at school and Ashley wanted to know why she had disappeared.
And Justin. Every once in a while she would find him watching her with a baffled kind of heat in his eyes and her insides would flutter and sigh.
She was doing her best to ignore it, but she had never been so fiercely aware of a man.
Her heart was in serious danger here. She realized it sometime before they finished eating and he brought out her cheesecake. The man across the table was exactly the kind she dreamed of now, and that scared the heck out of her.
“I’m all done eating,” Ruby said after she had all but licked her dessert plate clean. “Can I go change into my party dress to show Miss Barnes, Daddy? Can I?”
He looked reluctant but he nodded. “Go ahead. Hurry, though.”
Without the buffer of Ruby and her chatter, Ashley’s awareness of him became almost unbearable. She couldn’t shake the disbelief that she was actually sitting on a starlit deck with Justin Hartford, a man she was finding increasingly attractive.
Without thinking, needing only to move suddenly, she stood up and started to clear away the dinner dishes.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said. “We usually don’t make our guests clean up.”
She felt her face heat. “Habit. Sorry. With five kids in my family, we all had to pitch in to help. I don’t mind, though. Really, I don’t. This way you don’t have to clear them yourself later.”
He rose and started helping her, and they worked in a silence that would have been companionable except for the vibes zinging between them like the kids on the zip line at the school playground.
“The sheriff is really your brother?” he asked after a moment.
She nodded. “He’s always been good at telling people what to do. I guess that’s because he’s the oldest.”
“I’ve met him a few times. He’s a good man. Does that mean you grew up around here?”
She searched his rugged features for any clue that he might be patronizing her, but all she saw was genuine interest. “I’ve lived here all my life, except for the years I spent in college in Oregon. I suppose that must seem pretty provincial to someone like you.”
“Not at all.” He gave an almost bittersweet smile. “I envy you.”
Chapter 14
SHE BLINKED. “ME? I’M A boring kindergarten teacher. I’ve never done anything exciting in my life.”
Before tonight, anyway, she corrected to herself.
“Climbing over my gates doesn’t count?”
She smiled. “Well, there was that. And the time I drove my dad’s pickup over the mayor’s mailbox.”
His laugh did funny things to her insides. “I’m serious,” he said. “It must be wonderful to have roots in a nice town like Pine Gulch. When I was looking at property to purchase, I knew the moment I stepped into town that this was what I wanted for Ruby.”
“You didn’t? Have roots, I mean?”
He was quiet for a long moment, leaning against the railing of the deck with the stars spilling across the sky behind him. “No. I grew up living out of suitcases and cheap hotels and sometimes even the backseat of my mom’s old Pontiac. She was a wanderer who didn’t like to stay in one place very long. When I was twelve, she dumped me off with Lydia in Chicago and never bothered to come back.”
She heard the old pain in his voice and her heart ached with sympathy.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmured, leaning against the railing beside him. “But I’m glad you had Lydia. I’ve taught children with no one at all to call their own.”
“You’re right. I was lucky, though I didn’t think so at the time. Lydia tried. But by age twelve I had been basically on my own for a long time and didn’t want much help from her. I equated caring with smothering. I took off when I was seventeen and headed for sunshine. L.A. I worked odd jobs for a while and ended up doing some stunt work as a favor to a friend and before I knew it, I was in movies.”
She remembered the bones of his story from those early days when she used to scour People and Us Weekly looking for information about him, in the days before the internet would have put all those details at her fingertips. But, of course, she couldn’t tell him that.
“What about you?” he asked. “What led you to teaching?”
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I love children. I always have.” She smiled. “I was the world’s best babysitter because I could have done it all day for free just for the fun of it and everyone knew it. There is something so magical about early childhood, the innocence and the wonder and the sheer delight of it. I love watching them grow and start to test life. Setting them on a path to discover the world of possibilities waiting for them.”
Her voice trailed off and she flushed. “I’m sorry. I’m rambling again.”
“Not at all. I could listen to you all night.”
Her gaze flashed to his and the heat in the midnight depths sent those nerves twirling through her insides again. She swallowed hard and had time only to wonder if this could possibly be real, when his mouth captured hers.
Chapter 15
ASHLEY FROZE, THE BREATH CAUGHT in her throat and her pulse thundered in her ears.
Oh. Oh, my. His kiss was unbearably soft, almost tender, and she leaned into it, into him. Her hands rested on the hard muscles of his chest and she could feel the jump of his heartbeat beneath her fingertips. His arms slid around her, pulling her close, and she surrendered to the magic and wonder of his kiss.
She could definitely fall hard for this man.
His kiss suddenly deepened, his tongue licking at the corner of her mouth, and she lost any chance at coherent thought for several long, drugging moments.
“Okay, get ready!” she suddenly heard Ruby call from inside the house and the two of them sprang apart, both breathing hard, just as the girl burst through the door in all her finery.
* * *
What in the hell was he doing?
He invites the woman to dinner to talk about his daughter’s problems in school then ends up dumping his life story on her before all but jumping her on his back deck.
The crazy thing was, he wanted to do it all over again. The kissing part, anyway. Justin could still taste her on his lips, that subtle, sweetly erotic taste of raspberry and cream and Ashley.
It was crazy. He knew it was impossible, but he ached to taste her again.
Focus, he chided himself and jerked his attention back to the conversation between Ruby and her teacher.
“See how twirly it is?” Ruby exclaimed, her arms wide as she did circles around the living room, where they had adjourned since there was more light to show off the sparkles.
Justin wasn’t sure he was prepared for this primpy stage to start. Ruby was showing all the signs of someone who would be seriously girlie and he had no idea how to handle the rest of it. Just thinking about makeup and boyfriends and hair spray made him break into a cold sweat.
At least he had a few more years before he had to worry about that.
“You look just like a princess,” Ashley assured Ruby. Her color was high, he saw, and she didn’t look at him as she spoke.
Ruby preened, oblivious to the tension between them. “I’m going to wear it to a wedding. My friend Sierra’s mom is getting married next month and we’re going to Hawaii for it and I get to swim in the ocean and maybe see a dolphin.”
She had been delirious with excitement about the whole thing, from the moment Natalie Brooks invited them along. Nat was his first leading lady and one of the few people he stayed in touch with in Hollywood.
“I don’t get to be the flower girl because Sierra does,” Ruby went on, “but I can wear my new dress and maybe have a lei, too.”
Ashley gave a smile that looked forced and he would have given just about anything to know what was running through her head right about now. “How fun,” she murmured. “You and your father will have to take lots of pictures so you can bring them back for the rest of the class to see.”
“Okay. I will.” She looked thrilled at the idea for just a moment before she frowned and her excitement slipped away. “Um, I’ll have to see. I’ll probably forget.”
Right. Ruby remembered the names and birthdays and favorite colors of everyone she had ever met. This sudden reluctance was part of whatever game she had been playing at school. He sighed, knowing the time for socializing was over.
“Ruby, if you’re done showing off your new dress, we need to talk about what’s happening in school. You know that’s why Miss Barnes is here.”
Panic flared in her eyes suddenly, and she started edging for the stairs. “I better go change out of my dress before I get it all dirty.”
“Come back here,” he said, his voice stern. “We’re going to sit down right now and discuss how you’ve been acting.”
Chapter 16
“DO I HAVE TO?” RUBY ASKED, looking suddenly miserable.
“Yeah, you do, shortcake.”
“You’ll be mad.”
“Probably. But we still have to talk about it.”
She perched on the edge of a leather ottoman, her hands tightly folded on her lap. He sighed, not sure where to start.
“I thought you loved school,” he finally said. “You talk about it all the time. But Miss Barnes says you’re not doing your work and you’re not participating in class. What’s going on?”
“I was just pretending I didn’t like school,” she said, her voice small. She lifted her gaze to give her teacher a look of earnest entreaty. “I really do, Miss Barnes. I promise. I love playtime and I love circle time and I love snack time. My favorite is story time. I love, love, love story time.”
Ashley gazed at her, her lovely features baffled. “Why would you want to pretend you don’t like it? It’s wonderful to love learning!”
Ruby’s chin wobbled. “It was Sierra’s idea. She’s my friend in California. She said if I was bad in class, my dad would have to come to school for a conference. And then he would fall in love with you and you would get married like Sierra’s mom is getting married and then you could be my new mom.”
Okay. This was just about the most horrifying moment of his life. A dead silence greeted Ruby’s stunning declaration and Justin couldn’t think what to do, what to say. He risked a look at Ashley and saw her features had leached of all color. Not a good sign.
He knew he had to step into the terrible silence. “Ruby...” he began, then faltered as he found himself at a loss for words. “People don’t, uh, fall in love like that,” he said after a moment. “You can’t manipulate them into doing what you want just because you want it. Life doesn’t work that way.”
Sometimes it did, though. He had to be crazy, but he suddenly knew he was in serious danger of falling for this soft, sweet woman who loved children and smelled like a dream.
“But Miss Barnes already loves you, Daddy. You just have to fall in love with her.”
“What?” Ashley exclaimed. To his somewhat thunderstruck fascination, all the color soaked back into her cheeks in a hot, relentless tide.
Ruby fidgeted, looking almost as miserable as Ashley. “I heard Miss Weller in the school office talking to you about Daddy a few days after school started. I had a stomachache and went to lie down in the sick-kid place, and I heard her ask if you had met Daddy yet and you said no and Miss Weller asked if you would mention at parent-teacher conference that you had his picture in your locker in school and that you used to write Mrs. Justin Hartford on things.”
Chapter 17
HE HEARD A SOFT SOUND OF distress coming from somewhere in Ashley’s vicinity, but he didn’t dare look at her.
“So then I thought how nice you are,” Ruby went on, “and how I wanted you to be my mom but I didn’t know what to do. I told Sierra when we went to visit them and she thought I should be bad in school. It was really hard and I didn’t want to. But I wanted you to be my mommy really bad, so I did it, anyway. I’m sorry.”
After she finished, there was a long, terrible silence and all Justin could focus on was how much he would have preferred it if Ashley hadn’t known who he was back then. He had a wild, sudden wish that she had met him only the day before.
He wanted her to know only the man he was today, not some image on a screen that had never been real. His chest ached suddenly and he had to fight the urge to rub his hand against it.
Finally, he managed to speak. “That was very wrong of you, Ruby. I’m disappointed that you would be so deceitful. You’ve wasted three weeks of the school year for nothing and now you’re going to be behind all the others in your class.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“I don’t think I’m the one you need to apologize to.”
Her chin quivered but she rose and stood in front of Ashley, who looked close to tears herself. “I’m sorry, Miss Barnes. I do like you and I can be good. I promise.”
Ashley cleared her throat, still not looking at him. “Does this mean you’re going to do better from now on? No more of these...these crazy ideas?”
“I promise. You’ll see. I’ll be the best kid in the whole class! I’ll do all my work on time and I’ll raise my hand and everything.”
“Good. I’m, uh, certainly glad to hear that.” She rose abruptly. “I... Now that we’ve cleared that up, I
should go.”
“You don’t have to,” Justin said.
“Yes. I do.”
He couldn’t argue with the vehemence in her voice, and in truth he knew he would be relieved when she was gone. She still didn’t look at him once as he and a now-dejected Ruby walked her to her impractical little car.
“Ruby, I’ll see you Monday in school,” she said, with what sounded like false brightness in her voice. “Thank you again for dinner.”
She climbed into her car, started it and took off down the driveway. He hit the buzzer to open the gates just as she reached them, wondering if it could possibly be only a day since he had found her climbing over them.
As her taillights headed down Cold Creek Road, he held Ruby’s hand and watched them disappear.
How insane. She only blew into his life the day before, but he knew as he watched her drive away that she had left footprints on his heart. He would miss her laughter and her softness and her sweet, infectious smile.
He had to let her go. He had no choice. Anything between them was impossible. Even before he found out she had once been a fan of his movies, he knew he could never do anything about this terrifying tenderness growing inside him.
That didn’t make the regret any less bitter.
Chapter 18
SHE WAS GOING TO DIE—just pull her Bug over somewhere along the banks of the Cold Creek, curl up in the front seat and wither away from absolute mortification.
But Miss Barnes already loves you, Daddy. You just have to fall in love with her.
Oh, this was the most awful moment of Ashley’s life. It was bad enough that he should find out from his daughter about the crush she used to have on him. It was far worse that she had to be sitting three feet away from him when he did!
She forced herself to concentrate on the driving until she had reached the town limits and her own little white clapboard house. Once home, she pulled into her driveway and buried her face in her hands. She felt miserable. Completely wretched. All she could think about was the soft, seductive heat of their kiss and the way she wanted to lean into him and let him hold her forever.
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