“Blame my sisters,” he said with a chuckle, running a finger down her nose. Her skin was all dewy soft and creamy ivory. Now that he’d actually touched her, tasted her, he knew he had to have more.
“Your sisters?” she repeated in surprise, glancing up at him.
“Yep, my sisters.” Joe blew out a breath, hoping to dispel some of the tension tearing through him. One kiss had knocked him for a loop. “Growing up, my sisters would bring their girlfriends around so they could practice their flirting on me. I was their friendly guinea pig.”
“So they weren’t flirting with you?” she asked in surprise. Youthful blindness, she decided. Had to be. What woman still breathing wouldn’t want to flirt with him?
He laughed, lifting a finger to rub his forehead. “Uh…no, hardly. I was the proverbial…friend.” He laughed. “Boy, do teenage guys hate that word. My brother Sal, now, he was the gorgeous heartthrob, the one every girl in town was swooning over. Anyway, all of my sisters’ friends practiced their flirting on me, hoping for a chance to really use their skills on Sal. Then they’d feed me the lines they hoped to hear in return. I’m no dummy, I managed to pick up a thing or two, not that it did any of them any good. Sal wasn’t interested in any friend of our sisters’ since he’d already had his eye on a life mate, and they all knew they couldn’t compete with my one true love.”
“And she was?”
“Baseball,” Joe admitted with a grin. “Stole my heart and never let go.”
Mattie couldn’t help it; she laughed. He’d done it again, she realized. Diffused her discomfort with humor. “I imagine that left quite a few brokenhearted teenage girls.”
“Not really. They still had Sal to work on, and trust me, they made his life miserable. At least for a little while anyway.” Joe glanced at his watch and flashed her a smile of regret. “Mattie, I’ve got to run. I’ve got to get Angie to the doctor, but I wanted to drop off those papers for you to sign. Don’t forget we have a parents’ meeting tonight at the town hall.” He closed her sketch pad and handed it back to her, then bent and kissed her nose. It was so quick, she didn’t have time to object. “I’ll see you tonight.” He turned and headed toward the door, wondering why the hell his own knees were shaking.
Mattie sat there, stunned and stupefied, too weak and shocked to do little more than watch him walk through the gallery and out the door.
Touching her still-tingling lips, Mattie took a long, slow breath, then carefully let it out. Clamping her teeth together in determination, she took one final glance at the sketch of Joe and slammed the sketchbook cover closed, determined not to even think about the taste or the impact of Joe’s lips.
Promptly at three, the school bus chugged to a stop across the street from the gallery. With the Calhoun painting already en route to its new owner, Mattie went to the front door and watched the boys cross the street.
“Mom, Mom, guess what?” Connor yelled, waiting for the light to change before barreling across the street toward her. “Guess what?”
“She’ll never guess,” Cody said, barreling behind his brother and nearly skidding into her in his excitement.
“Whoa, whoa.” Mattie held out her arms to stop their momentum, then led them by the hands inside the gallery. “What’s got you two so excited?” she asked with a delighted laugh.
“You’ll never guess what Amy Bartlett did today.” Cody was bouncing up and down. He’d already dropped his book bag and was looking longingly toward the small refrigerator behind her desk where she kept their after-school snacks.
“Amy again?” Mattie said with a slight frown. “Please don’t tell me she threw up today.”
“Maaaaaaa!” Cody rolled his eyes in exasperation.
“Nah, she didn’t throw up,” Connor said, letting his own book bag slide to the floor. “This was even better.”
“Much better,” Cody said, bouncing up and down again.
“Well, thank heaven for small favors,” Mattie said with a grin, ruffling Cody’s hair. “So tell me,” she said as she ushered the boys through the gallery and toward her desk. “What did Amy do today that was better than throwing up?” She could only hope it wasn’t anything too gross. “Cody, don’t touch that sculpture, you know the rules,” she scolded gently, grabbing his hand before he could touch anything else.
“She gave out party invitations,” Cody said, eyes glittering as he grinned up at her.
“Yeah, it’s her birthday next week.” Connor announced, pushing his glasses up higher on his nose. “She’s gonna be six. And she invited us.”
“Both of us,” Cody said, clearly pleased, excited and still bouncing.
“Can we go, Ma, huh, pul-lease?” Eyes wide, Connor came to a halt to look at his mother expectantly.
“She invited everyone in the whole class.” Cody scratched a mosquito bite on his elbow.
“Even Bobby Dawson,” Connor added, giving his brother a poke. “Right?”
“Right.” Cody stopped scratching long enough to look at his mother imploringly. “So can we go? It’s our first birthday party since we moved here, Ma.”
Well, well, well, Mattie thought, feeling a surge of pleasure. Perhaps the boys were beginning to fit in at school better than she thought. It was, she realized, something to be grateful for. If the boys were happy here, that’s all she needed to be happy.
“Well, I don’t see why not. Let me see the invitation.”
Both boys scrambled to grab their book bags while Mattie retrieved two bottles of orange juice from the refrigerator, popping off the tops for the boys. She also retrieved a couple of containers of yogurt, knowing it wasn’t the boys’ favorite snack, but knowing they’d be hungry and would need something to hold them until dinner.
“Here, here.” Cody shoved a wadded-up piece of paper at her. “Here’s the invitation.”
She handed him his juice and the container of yogurt. “There’re spoons in my top drawer, honey,” she instructed as she took the paper from him. Opening the gaily decorated note card carefully, she read it. Amy’s birthday party was next Monday, right after school at the local ice-cream parlor.
“So can we go, Ma?” Eyes shining, Connor guzzled his orange juice, ignoring the little bit that dribbled out of his mouth and down his chin. “All the kids will be there.”
“I think so, honey,” she said with a smile as he wiped his chin on his school shirt. “You know we’ll have to go shopping for a nice present.”
“But she’s a girl,” Cody protested, scowling at his mother. “Do we gotta buy girl presents?”
“Do you get presents on your birthday?” Mattie asked with a lift of her eyebrow.
Cody scratched his head, thinking about it. “Yeah, but we don’t know nuthin’ about girl presents, Ma.”
“Yeah, Ma,” Connor piped in. “They don’t like bugs, they don’t like worms or any other good stuff.”
“They don’t even play baseball or race cars or do anything else fun.”
“Yeah, Ma, they’re boring.” Connor giggled and gave his brother a poke in the ribs with his elbow. “I’m glad I’m not a girl. They don’t got nuthin’ fun to play with.”
“Girls are not boring, sweetheart,” Mattie corrected. “Just…different.”
“So what do we gotta get?” Cody asked, rubbing the freckles on his nose.
“Well,” Mattie said thoughtfully. “I suppose you could buy Amy some nice stationery.”
Both boys looked at her with identical, clueless scowls.
“What’s that, Ma?” Cody finally asked for the both of them, making Mattie laugh.
“It’s pretty paper to write notes and things on.”
“Paper?” The boys broke into fits of giggles, hugging their stomachs. “You want us to buy Amy a piece of paper for her birthday?”
“Ma, that’s…stupid,” Cody said, frowning. “Everyone will laugh at us.”
“It was just a thought,” Mattie said, realizing she was probably going to have to be more inventive in o
rder to capture the boys’, and of course, the rest of their peers’, imagination. The last thing she wanted to do was have her sons laughed at, especially at the very first birthday party they’d been invited to. “Let me think about it,” she said with a smile. “The party isn’t until next Monday after school. You don’t have baseball practice on Monday, so you can go to the party with your friends.”
She waited for the explosion of excitement she was certain was coming. The boys had been sleeping when she got home last night, and this morning before school had been as chaotic as usual, so she’d decided to wait until after school to tell them.
Both boys stopped what they were doing. They exchanged looks with each other, then turned their attention to her.
“We can play?” Connor asked in disbelief.
“You’re gonna let Officer Friendly teach us to play baseball?” Cody asked with a bit of disbelief of his own.
“Yes, and yes,” Mattie said, watching as her boys jumped in the air, whooping and high-fiving each other. Laughing, she tried to quiet them a little. “Boys, boys, quiet down. Mr. Clancy’s working in the back room.”
“Nay, lass, not anymore.” Grinning, Clancy, clad now in a paint-splattered plastic apron over his jeans, stood watching the boys screech and jump around in joy. “So the little lads are excited about something, I see.” Eyes twinkling, he wiped his hands on a rag he’d pulled from his back pocket. “So what is it you’ve done, lass, to make them so happy?”
“Mr. Clancy, Mr. Clancy. Guess what?” Cody rushed up to him, nearly bowling the man over in his excitement as he bounced up and down in front of him. “Me and my brother, we’re gonna learn to play baseball!”
“Is that so?” Clancy said, bending down until he could see the lad’s freckles, then ruffling the boy’s unruly mane of strawberry-blond hair.
“Yep. And Officer Friendly is gonna teach us,” Connor added, rushing up to put his two cents in. “Mom said it was okay.”
“She did, did she?” Clancy’s grin widened as his gaze shifted to Mattie. “Well, then, I’d say you’ve got a gem of a mum, then, hey, boys?”
“Yeah, and maybe sometime you could come to watch us play.”
“When you’re not busy painting your hands,” Cody said.
“Painting my hands, huh?” Clancy laughed, then wiped his fingers on the rag again. “Aye, son, I can see how it might look that way to you, but occasionally, just occasionally, mind you, I do manage to paint something other than my hands.”
“You paint good, Mr. Clancy,” Connor, always the diplomat, said. “Our mom showed us one of your pictures once.”
“Do you wanna come and watch us play sometime, Mr. Clancy?” Cody asked, tilting his head back. “We’re real good learners, right, Connor?” He elbowed his brother for confirmation. Connor bobbed his head up and down, nearly dislodging his glasses.
“Well, my little lads, that’s very kind of you to ask. Very kind, indeed, and I just might take you up on your offer,” Clancy said as he frowned at the substance the boys were eating. “What on earth have you got there?” he asked, picking up Cody’s container of yogurt and giving it an inelegant sniff, then wrinkling his nose.
“Yogurt,” Cody said with a scowl and a shudder. “Banana yogurt.”
Clancy was still studying the container, his face almost a mirror of young Cody’s. “Banana yogurt you say? Hmm.” He lifted his gaze to Mattie. “Do you mind, lass, if I borrow the little lad’s…yogurt? It’s just the right color of yellow I’ve been searching for.” Before she could respond, Clancy slipped two chocolate bars from his back pocket. “Here, my little lads, I’ll make you a trade.” Cody and Connor quickly gave up their yogurt for the candy. “Now, it’s back to work for me.” Yogurt containers in his hands, Clancy winked at the boys. “Congratulations, lads.” He tipped an imaginary hat to them. “I’ll be seeing you at the ballpark. Enjoy your chocolate.”
“Mr. Clancy’s neat, Ma,” Connor said, ripping the wrapper off his candy bar, preparing to take a big bite.
“Yeah, even if he does talk funny,” Cody added with a grin.
“He talks that way because he was born in Ireland, honey,” Mattie explained, reaching out and snatching the candy bars from both boys before they could take a bite.
“Dinner is in less than two hours.” She broke one candy bar in half and slipped the other in the top drawer of her desk. “You can share one.”
“Aw, Ma,” Cody complained, rubbing his stomach. “I’m starving.”
“Good.” She smiled and handed him his half of the candy bar. “That means you’ll eat your dinner then.” She handed Connor his half as well. “Now, I’ve got a few things to do before Aunt Maureen gets here, so you know the rules. You can sit at my desk and draw or read until it’s time to go home.” She lifted the boys’ book bags from the floor. “Do either of you have homework?”
“I got vocabulary words,” Cody said around a mouthful of chocolate.
“Okay, go to the bathroom, Cody, and then Connor can help you with your vocabulary.”
“But I don’t have to go to the—”
“By the time you get there you will,” Mattie said knowingly, pointing toward the rest room. With a sigh, Cody slunk off, head down as Mattie watched him, her heart full of love.
“Ma, why you smiling?” Connor asked, clambering up on her chair. She turned to him, her heart overflowing.
“Because I love you guys.” Ruffling his hair, she bent and planted a kiss on his cheek, then wrapped her arms around him tightly, burying her face in his neck, savoring his little-boy smell. “Just because I love you.”
Chapter Four
“Mattie, I’ve been trying to get Joe Marino naked since the moment I laid eyes on him.”
“Aunt Maureen!” Mattie flushed to the roots of her hair, still surprised by her aunt’s outrageous way of always speaking her mind.
At seventy-three, Maureen McBride was artistic by birth, outrageous by choice, and eccentric simply because it delighted her to be. And Mattie adored her.
“I wasn’t trying to get Joe naked—”
“Pity.” Maureen smiled at her beloved niece over the rim of her coffee cup. They had just finished dinner and were sitting at the kitchen table, chatting over a last cup of coffee.
“W-we just shared a pizza last night,” Mattie stammered. “With our clothes on,” she specified nervously.
“I can think of a lot more exciting things a woman might share with Joe Marino than a pizza,” Maureen said, patting her head of platinum hair, which was scraped back tightly against her head and coiled into a sophisticated chignon. “A lot more indeed.” Propping her chin on her hand, Maureen sighed dreamily. “Joe has that wonderfully incredible body with all those planes and angles. Not to mention those muscles.” Maureen batted her false eyelashes theatrically. “Now, if I were twenty, dear, no, perhaps thirty years younger, I just might give you a run for your money.”
“I’m not interested in Joe that way,” Mattie protested, not wanting her aunt to get the wrong idea. She wasn’t about to mention the fact that she’d kissed Joe at the gallery this afternoon. Or rather, Joe had kissed her. Well, maybe they’d kissed each other.
Even though she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that kiss, Mattie was certain it wasn’t going to happen again, so why bother talking about it.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t even notice the man’s body?” Shock filtered across her aunt’s face, then her eyebrows drew together. “Maybe I’d better check you for a pulse,” she said with exaggerated concern, laughing at Mattie. “Don’t look at me like that, dear. I’m an artist. The human body is supposed to fascinate me. Besides, I may be old, but I’m certainly not dead.” Her blue eyes twinkled as she patted Mattie’s hand with her own. “And I’d say Joe’s body is more than fascinating for any woman at any age.” Maureen paused to sip her coffee, smoothing down her flowing blue silk caftan. “It’s a pity you didn’t take more notice.”
“Oh, I noticed all righ
t,” Mattie finally admitted, trying not to grin.
“You did?” Maureen beamed at her. “Well, good for you, dear.” She patted Mattie’s hand in approval. “Perhaps there’s hope for you after all.”
“Hope?” Mattie repeated suspiciously, making Maureen sigh.
“You know, there are a lot of women who have had bad first marriages.”
“Aunt Maureen—”
“No, let me finish.” Maureen held up one scarlet-tipped hand. “Even though you’ve never discussed it, I know that things weren’t…easy with Gary, even before he died. And I know, too, that you and the boys had a very hard time of it afterward.” Maureen sighed, then fiddled with the gold cross around her neck. “I will always regret not being there for you, dear. It was unforgivable.” Tears swam behind Maureen’s false eyelashes and she sniffed elegantly, extracting a silk monogrammed hankie from the pocket of her caftan to delicately dab at her eyes.
“Aunt Maureen, don’t,” Mattie said softly. “Don’t blame yourself. You had no idea what I was going through, because I chose not to tell anyone.” Especially her aunt, because she knew how her aunt would worry.
“Pride, my dear, can lead to ruin,” Maureen cautioned, waving her hankie in the air. “Anyway, as I was saying, one bad experience shouldn’t put you off men forever. I mean, really, dear, if you get a bad hamburger do you swear off beef for the rest of your life? No, of course not. You simply chalk it up to experience and go on, learning from your mistake.”
“Aunt Maureen, a husband isn’t exactly like a hamburger,” Mattie said, trying not to grin.
“You’re quite right, dear. At least a bad hamburger can be tossed out and replaced with something of quality rather quickly.”
Now Mattie did laugh. “Well, there is that. However, if you get a dog from the pound and he turns out to be rabid, why on earth would you willingly go back and get another?” Mattie grinned simply because her aunt looked so troubled. “Besides, I’ve already got two wonderful males in my life.” Mattie glanced behind her, toward the kitchen window where the boys were out playing in the backyard. “They fill my life completely.”
Daddy Patrol Page 8
