“Picnic, yeah!” Faith called from high in Cole’s arms. “Can I have a cookie, Mommy?”
“After you eat your sandwich, yes.”
“Can I have two cookies?”
Laughing gray eyes met his as Dani reached for her daughter. “There’s my little bargainer. I think we need to save some cookies for your guest, don’t you?”
“You made lots of cookies, Mommy. Cole can have two, too.”
“Let’s have our sandwiches first.” Dani led the way inside the house.
Though small, the open floor plan made the most of the living room, dining room and kitchen combo. Cole admired the color scheme of amber and brown with bursts of red. It suited her, solid and calm with passionate depths.
He watched her put the picnic together with Faith’s help and soon they were returning outdoors, the backyard this time. Here Dani kept it simple, a green expanse of lawn off a covered patio. A few potted plants provided interest.
Faith raced to a play set with a swing and a slide. She climbed on to a swing.
The front was a place to dream, the back a place to play. Both were evidence of Dani’s total devotion to her daughter. She mourned the loss of her husband, Faith’s father, worried she wasn’t doing enough, but she shouldn’t fear. Love lived in this house, in this yard. And she was stronger than she thought.
“Push me, Cole,” Faith demanded.
“Faith,” Dani admonished.
“Please, Cole, will you push me?”
“Better.” Dani bypassed the table on the patio to spread a blanket on the grass. She glanced at him. “Do you mind pushing her? I want to throw together a couple of more sandwiches. Do you prefer turkey or tuna?”
“Turkey.” He shrugged out of his leather jacket and slung it over a patio chair. “And I was already on my way.”
“Thanks.” Her gray gaze caressed her daughter before returning to him. “I’ll save you in a few minutes.”
“Hey, Faith’s my girl. Take your time.”
Already turning to head into the kitchen, she stopped and shook a finger at him. “Not funny.”
He laughed and winked, and then went to push the princess.
Dani was such a good mother that watching her and Faith together sometimes made his throat tighten and his heart constrict. Dani made him remember how it felt to be loved, which threw him, because he was a man with a lot of love in his life.
He knew from Samantha that two years had passed since Dani lost her husband. But from the way she had closed the door on him the other night clearly she wasn’t ready for a new relationship. Plus he saw how it hurt her to see Faith seeking a daddy figure.
Then again, Dani didn’t kiss like a woman clinging to the ghost of her husband.
Maybe the two weren’t related. More than once Dani had mentioned difficulties in making decisions. If she was overanalyzing every thought and deed, then he could see the problem.
It was one thing to accept the natural process of moving on with your life, and another to consciously decide to put the man you loved, the father of your child, behind you so you could find happiness with someone new. Especially when your daughter had already made the leap and you were trying to hold on to his memory for her.
Stepping behind Faith, he gave her a big push, smiling when she shrieked with joy.
“Higher,” she called, lifting her face to the wind she created with each pass of the swing.
No complications or communication problems here. The daughter knew exactly what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to ask for it.
Maybe he and Dani should take a lesson from Faith, and go after what they wanted.
What they wanted?
Was he crazy? Was he suddenly thinking of picket fences and ready-made families? Exactly when had he gone off his rocker?
And why wasn’t he headed for the nearest exit?
All he knew was being here felt right. The constriction around his heart filled him with a warmth he wasn’t ready to let go of.
Her gaze on the view out the kitchen window, Dani slathered mayo on bread and then layered on turkey, lettuce and tomatoes.
She found it hard to believe Cole Sullivan was in her backyard. They were worlds apart, yet there he stood, patiently pushing her daughter on the swing. Not once had he looked up to see if she’d finished and would soon rescue him.
Her and her bright ideas. What was she supposed to talk to him about now that she’d forbidden discussion of the election and all things political?
She laughed to herself. Who was she kidding? Through the window she heard Faith chattering away. Dani and Cole would be lucky to get a word in edgewise.
Watching man and child, she experienced the oddest feeling of tranquility. He appeared to genuinely enjoy Faith’s company and Faith thrived under his attention.
Even as Dani worried about his presence building up unrealistic expectations in Faith, Cole kept slipping past Dani’s guard.
His potential to hurt Faith was huge. If Dani stopped and thought about it, no way would letting the two of them spend time together pass her exhausting decision-making process. Pretty much a given she’d say no.
So why was Dani skipping the process?
Hearing the trill of Faith’s giggles, seeing the joy and animation on her little face, Dani had her answer.
Faith’s happiness rated as Dani’s number-one priority, and Cole made Faith happy. For the first time in a long time, Dani let that be enough. He’d proved he cared for Faith by adhering to Dani’s ban of his company. And it hadn’t really made a difference, except Faith got mad at Dani.
Until he betrayed the trust he’d earned, the ban was gone for good.
Of course life was never that easy, and Faith had her own agenda.
Once Dani had organized the food on the blanket, she leaned back on her hands and called out, “Food’s ready.”
A moment later Cole carried an upside-down and protesting Faith toward the blanket.
“We can play again after we eat.” He told her as he set her on her feet next to the blanket.
“Promise?” she demanded.
“I promise.” He held up a hand as if swearing an oath, not that Faith understood what the gesture meant.
Still she nodded, happy to have his word. She plopped down next to Dani and leaned back on her hands, mimicking Dani. She grinned.
“I’m hungry. Can I have a cookie?”
“Uh.” Dani made a point of rolling her eyes. “What do you think?”
Faith sighed. “I think I have to eat my sandwich first.”
“That’s right.”
They both looked up to see a home-baked chocolate-chip cookie disappearing into Cole’s mouth. He froze, got a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look on his face.
“Sorry,” he said around a mouthful of cookie.
“Uh-oh, Mommy.” Faith giggled. “Cole was bad.”
“Cole is company. He doesn’t know our rules. We’ll cut him some slack this time.”
He swallowed. “Thanks.”
The three of them dug into the sandwiches and fruit, making their way to the cookies. Dani expected the conversation to be stilted; instead she laughed more than she had in forever.
Faith’s latest thing was knock-knock jokes. She brought a new one home from preschool every time she went. Of course she often got them wrong. Which didn’t matter, as Cole, being the next best thing to a kid himself, knew them all and more. They played off each other perfectly. And when she went off on a story or two about her classmates, Cole listened intently and asked all the right questions.
At some point Faith climbed into Cole’s lap. Dani should have been expecting it, but the fun they were having distracted her.
“Cole.” Faith tipped back her head to look up at him. “Do you ever want to be a daddy?”
His dark eyebrows flew up and his gaze collided with Dani’s. She blinked and offered a small shrug. If he meant to hang around, he’d better be ready for the tough questions.
His innate
charm saved him. “It seems to me your mama already has the best little girl ever, but someday I’ll have kids.”
She sighed.
“I hope you’ll be their friend.”
That perked her up. “I want to be their friend. You will be the bestest daddy ever.”
“I’m going to try.” His long, blunt fingers dug into her ribs, tickling her. Laughing, she wiggled this way then that, trying to escape his fingers.
“Didn’t you have some drawings you wanted to show me?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She hopped to her feet. “They’re beau-ti-ful.” She swung to Dani. “Mommy, can I show him my pictures.”
Faith loved to draw and Dani hung all her pictures on a bulletin board in her bedroom. Not one of the drawings made sense without Faith’s interpretation, but Dani loved them anyway. She knew the mess Faith would make taking down the pictures, but shrugged.
“Sure, baby. Be careful not to tear them.”
“I will.” Faith raced into the house, leaving Dani alone with Cole.
She should have known better than to doubt him. He hadn’t charmed women the better part of his life without learning how to counter an awkward moment.
He showed he’d listened, addressed the question in a global manner, and then used his questioner’s own interests to distract her from the original query.
Very effective.
“So you do want kids someday?” she asked.
“Sure. I like the little guys and I think I’d make a good dad.”
She angled her head, considering him. Yeah, she did, too. “Are you planning to have a wife, too, or just a few of the little guys?”
He shot her a mock glare. “Of course I plan to have a wife. I know how the whole family unit works.”
“Do you? Then you know it takes some serious stick-to-it-iveness.”
He met her gaze straight on. “Contrary to popular opinion, I have been in a few long-term relationships.”
“Really? How long? When?”
An arched eyebrow berated her for the rapid-fire interrogation. Surprisingly, he answered. “I was with the same girl most of my junior and senior years in college. And a few years ago I was in a relationship for over a year.”
“So what happened?”
“What do mean? Nothing happened.”
“So why didn’t you settle down with one of them, start a family?”
He rolled his shoulders, obviously ill at ease with the direction the conversation had taken. “I wasn’t feeling it. I liked both ladies—a lot—but not enough to build a family on. I didn’t love them, but I didn’t like hurting them either. Now I keep it casual and short-term. We have some good times and no one gets hurt.”
Dani studied him with narrowed eyes. Really? He expected her to buy a noble excuse for playing the field?
She found it convenient, but…unpracticed. Being in foster care taught a kid to read people early in life. From the sincerity in his eyes and the lack of tension on his face, Cole truly believed in his love-’em-and-leave-’em system.
Which made her wonder why he kept spending time with her. She had a child—already too attached to the man—and even before she had married and had Faith, Dani hadn’t done short and sweet.
Was she high maintenance? No, she didn’t think so, but commitment, yeah, she wanted to know the man was planning to make an effort. She’d had too many people come and go in her life for her to risk her heart easily. And she preferred no affection to the false affection of instant sex.
“If you don’t stick around and work at a relationship, how will you know when you’ve found the one?”
He looked around the yard, and she thought evasion, but he kept looking until he landed on her, sweeping his blue gaze over her hair until she felt the need to tug at her unruly ponytail. Then that intense gaze moved down, measuring the cling of her sweatshirt to her breasts and lower to the valley and curves of her body. When his eyes met hers, it took a blink to clear the fog from her mind. He made no effort to hide the awareness, the desire, in his.
“Oh, I’ll know. It won’t be work, for one thing. And being with her won’t be something I can walk away from. That hasn’t happened yet.”
“Sounds like you have it all figured out.”
“It’s working so far. Actually, this conversation reminds me I wanted to ask you for a favor. I want to have a thing—you know, a brunch or buffet thing, at my place, to celebrate the christening. Since I’m not currently seeing anyone, I wondered if you’d help me put something together.”
“Oh, but—” Dani sat up straight “—Samantha has done so much for me, I wanted to have something here.”
His assessing gaze rolled around the yard again. “This is nice, but we’re a big crew when the whole family gets together. With kids, cousins and friends, it would be a crush out here. Plus in late October the weather can be unpredictable. My place is bigger inside and out.”
She frowned, reluctant to give up her plans. “It wasn’t too crowded at Gram’s at Sunday dinner.”
“Sweetheart, that was a fraction of the people Sami will want at the celebration.”
Resigned, she asked, “What kind of help are you looking for?”
“Menu, decorations, preparations.”
“In other words, all of it?”
He grinned. “Pretty much. But I’m not looking for you to cook. I thought we’d cater, and I’m willing to help. Whatever you need. If I can’t do it, I’ll find someone who can. What do you say?”
“Okay,” she agreed, because she really wanted the day to be special for Samantha and her family. “It’s only a couple of weeks away. I need to see your place soon so I can start making plans.”
“Sure. We can go over there now.”
“Oh.” Dani hesitated, not sure she was ready to invade the intimacy of Cole’s home. The two weeks decided her. With campaigning added to her regular schedule, time flew by these days.
“Cole, I got ’em all.” Faith erupted from the house, waving her drawings in her hands, colorful pom-poms of artistic effort.
Cole winced and amended. “Actually, we can go right after the viewing.”
Dani nodded and reached for the used paper plates. “Just enough time for me to clean up.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
RIDING SHOTGUN in the front of Cole’s truck, Dani wondered about his home. No doubt it had a fabulous garden, or maybe not. Maybe after working with plants all day, he kept his yard simple and clean.
To her dismay she was alone with the man. Faith had fallen asleep in his lap, so Dani called the teenager next door to come over and babysit.
They rode in silence, not surprising. The easiness of it did throw her. Whenever she spent time in his company, her awareness of him hummed beneath her skin. It buzzed there now, a faint reminder she was alive and a woman. But mostly it felt good just to ride along in the peace of early evening.
He headed in the general direction of the nursery, turning a mile before the entrance. People tended to pick homes near where they worked for convenience’s sake. When she had worked as a nurse in Phoenix, she’d lived in a condo two blocks from the hospital.
After he turned, they began to wind up the side of a hill, threading through spearing pines, weaving steadily in the direction of the nursery.
“The nursery must be right in your backyard,” she said as they made another turn.
“Close,” he confirmed, and pulled into a long driveway, facing a large, sprawling house with rolling decks and a wall of windows. A spectacular view of the valley spread out before them. And Dani knew when she stood on the deck she’d be overlooking the nursery below.
He owned the house on the hill.
But wow. He’d said his place was big; understatement. The downstairs alone could swallow her little home, yard and all, and have room left over for dessert. And she couldn’t get over the view.
“My God, this is beautiful,” she breathed, hearing the awe in her voice and not caring. The setting sun reflected
off low-riding clouds. Pink and orange blazed across the sky, casting the hills and valleys of Paradise Pines in rosy hues. Heaven must look a lot like this.
“I want to see everything.”
“Come on, then.” Cole stood there holding out a hand.
She blinked in surprise. “Where did you come from?”
“Yeah, it still does that to me, too.” Wrapping an arm around her waist, he lifted her from the seat and set her on her feet. “Welcome to my home.” Taking her hand, he led her forward. “Come on, I’ll show you around and then we can make plans.”
Dani cherished her little place. It was hers, a safe haven for her to raise Faith. And she’d give it up in a heartbeat for Cole’s house on the hill. The open floor plan, the gourmet kitchen, the way the tall windows brought the outside indoors—she loved it all. The house spoke to her on an elemental level.
She couldn’t wait to play house.
Maybe she shouldn’t assist Cole after all. He already got to her more than she found comfortable. Now that she knew his master suite had a private deck complete with a spa, she may not be able to resist him.
His large, comfortable furnishings were dark brown and gold with touches of navy blue and a soft buttery-cream. A large island separated the family room from the kitchen, which was fashioned in dark cabinets, stainless-steel appliances and granite counters in rich amber.
Sighing, she watched him make coffee: decaf, though he’d made a face. Time to get down to business. She tapped a pen on the pad she’d taken from her purse.
“What type of food did you want to have?”
“My brothers are meat eaters, so I thought prime rib or ribs.”
She shook her head. “This is a christening. Ribs are too messy. Prime rib is better.” She made a note.
“I thought we could rent tables, set them up on the decks. And I want real tablecloths. This should be a classy event for them.”
Dani saw the day forming as they talked. This was so much better than she could have done alone. For all their differences they worked well together, quickly making plans for the special day.
And she’d only hesitated for a moment at his casual use of the word “we.”
Sparks Fly with Mr. Mayor Page 7
