Daddy Lessons

by Stella Bagwell

  Gloria wrinkled her nose at her husband. “Well, we’ll see who cooks your breakfast in the morning,” she warned playfully.

  Savanna smiled to herself. It was was wonderful to see her father so happily married. At fifty, with dark brown hair and a slim, petite figure, Gloria was still youthful and pretty. But more importantly, she was a sweet, giving person. She adored Thurman and made it her job to make him feel wanted and loved.

  Sadly, that hadn’t been the case with Savanna’s mother, Joan. She’d been a discontented woman and no matter how hard Thurman had tried to please her, she’d never seemed to be truly satisfied. Joan had always wished for things, but she’d been unwilling to bend and work to get them.

  Savanna had grown up vowing not to make the same mistakes her mother had. Whatever she decided she wanted in life, she was going to go after it full force. If she had to deviate from her plan at times, she would. But she’d never give up her dreams.

  And she hadn’t given up that vow to be happy, Savanna thought as she placed silverware beside the three plates. But she’d certainly learned the hard way that determination alone wasn’t quite enough to make all her dreams come true.

  In her senior year of high school she’d fallen in love and had become engaged to be married shortly after graduation. But only days before the wedding Bruce had left town with another girl.

  The betrayal had angered and humiliated Savanna, but she’d resolved not to let it sour her outlook on love and marriage. By the time she’d entered college the following fall, her heart had mended and before long she’d met a young man in one of her accounting classes. Terry had been charming and had seemed to genuinely love her. After a few months of dating Savanna had been certain that she’d found her true soul mate this time. They’d become engaged and had begun to plan their life together. But fate had stepped in once again and Terry had been killed in a car accident a month before their wedding day.

  Savanna had been devastated. Not only had she lost the man she loved, but Terry’s death had made her look at life with new eyes. And it was clear to her that marriage and a family wasn’t supposed to be a part of her life.

  Then a month later her mother had died. And suddenly love and marriage didn’t matter to Savanna anymore. Her father was grieving, she was grieving and they needed each other.

  That had been five years ago, and even though she’d put all the pain and loss of that time behind her, Savanna wasn’t ready to put marriage back into her hopes and dreams. She’d learned that loving a man and having him love her back didn’t make for any sort of guarantees. One day she’d been deliriously happy, the next her whole world had shattered.

  No, Savanna firmly told herself, unlike her mother she was going to be happy. Only now she was going to find happiness in something more predictable than love and marriage.

  A few minutes later the steaks were done and the table set. As the three of them filled their plates Thurman asked his daughter, “How was your first day on the job, honey? Think you’re gonna like it?”

  Reaching for her glass of soda, Savanna groaned, albeit good-naturedly. “I don’t know whether like is the right word. Maybe you should have asked if I was going to be able to endure it.”

  Gloria looked at her stepdaughter with concern. “Was it that bad? I was hoping this was going to be an interesting job for you.”

  Savanna shrugged as Joe McCann’s face floated in front of her eyes. “Well, I suppose you could call it interesting. Tense, but interesting.”

  “What about your new boss, is he a nice man?” Gloria questioned.

  Unconsciously Savanna drew in a deep breath then let it out slowly. Throughout the day she hadn’t been able to forget that her boss was sitting only a few feet away from her. Every few minutes she’d found herself forgetting her work and glancing over at him.

  To make matters worse, each time Savanna had looked, Joe McCann had lifted his head and their eyes had clashed. Exchanging glances with the man had been unsettling, to say the least. It was as if arcs of electricity had passed between them and she didn’t know why. Her boss hadn’t so much as given her a smile!

  Yet she’d been home for several hours and still couldn’t get her mind off him. It was crazy! A part of her dreaded the morning and seeing him again, while the other part was eager to be back in his company.

  Savanna grimaced. “If he’s nice, he keeps it well hidden. At best, I’d describe him as sober.”

  “Look, baby,” her father said as he sliced into the juicy beef, “if the man is that bad, you don’t have to work for him. I can give you enough money to tide you over until you find something better.”

  Savanna had stopped taking financial help from her father a long time ago, but he never ceased offering, anyway.

  “Thanks, Dad,” she told Thurman, “but I have no intentions of quitting. In fact, the drilling business is far more interesting than I thought it would be. So far today, I’ve learned it takes all sorts of people to drill for gas or oil. Geologist, seismologist, construction crews, truck drivers, drillers, tool pushers, rigworkers, roustabout crews and especially some rich financier to back it all. I think it will be a good learning experience to find out just what these people do to get petroleum out of the ground.”

  “Well, perhaps your boss simply had a bad day. It might be that tomorrow he’ll loosen up and you’ll be able to enjoy your job,” Gloria put in hopefully.

  Joe McCann loosen up? Savanna had held hopes for that this morning. But after spending a whole day with him? Well, she was still trying to figure out just exactly what it would take to put a smile on the man’s face.

  “I don’t know, Gloria,” Savanna said doubtfully. “I have a feeling every day is a bad day for Mr. McCann.”

  Across the table Thurman chuckled. “If anybody can loosen him up, it’ll be you, Savanna. He’ll think a hurricane has hit his office before you get through with him.”

  Savanna laughed along with her father. She might as well. It was too late to fret now. She’d stayed at McCann’s this morning in spite of the shaky start she’d gotten off to with her stern-faced boss, and in doing so, she’d committed herself to the job. Savanna had never backed out of a commitment for any reason and she wasn’t about to now. She only hoped Joe McCann didn’t make her regret it.

  Chapter Four

  McCann Drilling was located on the west edge of Oklahoma City and several miles from Savanna’s apartment.

  The next morning Savanna made doubly sure she had plenty of time to drive to work and, if necessary, change a flat. In fact, she got to McCann’s so early she discovered the door to the office building still locked and Joe nowhere in sight.

  Deciding she didn’t want to sit in her Volkswagen until he arrived, she climbed out of the car and walked over to a high chain-link fence. It started at one end of the office building and stretched far into the distance. Behind the fence, more than a hundred yards away, several men were already at work loading a mammoth piece of iron derrick onto a long flatbed trailer.

  The work yard appeared to cover at least five acres of land. Savanna knew practically nothing about the petroleum industry, yet in spite of her ignorance, one thing stood out loud and clear. McCann Drilling wasn’t busy.

  A long line of blue-and-white transport trucks were sitting idle, mountains of drilling pipe lay stacked on its sides, while pieces of derrick were piled end upon end of each other, lying in useless wait. The rows of huge motors, which she guessed were used as power to turn the drilling pipe as it worked its way into the ground, were all quiet. How long had it been this way? she wondered.

  “I see you made it safely to work on time this morning, Ms. Starr.”

  At the sound of Joe’s voice, she turned away from the link fence to see him walking down the sidewalk toward her. As her eyes drank in the sight of him, her heart began to thud like a bass drum.

  He was dressed all in blue denim this morning. The jeans were obviously worn and faded to a lighter shade than the shirt and clung to hi
s long, muscled legs like an old familiar glove. Like yesterday, the sleeves on his shirt were rolled back against his forearms. A thin gold watch circled his left wrist, but other than that he wore no jewelry.

  Savanna had never worked for a man who dressed as if he were part cowboy. But then, she’d never really lived in the Midwest before, either. Maybe the men here were different. Or maybe Joe McCann had his own ideas about business clothes. Whatever the reason, she found it very hard not to think of him as a man, when every inch of him looked tough and masculine. Right down to the laced boots on his feet.

  Once he finally reached her, she smiled and said, “Fortunately, I didn’t have a breakdown this morning.”

  “That’s good. I didn’t want to have to go after you in one of the gin trucks.”

  Was he actually teasing her? Savanna quickly studied his face, then felt strangely disappointed when she found nothing there. Not even the merest hint of a smile.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to plead my ignorance. I don’t know what a gin truck is.”

  Joe pointed to a truck the workmen were using to hoist up a piece of derrick. “The one that looks like a big wrecker.”

  She nodded that she understood, then glanced back over to him. “I’ve been standing here trying to figure out what most of this stuff is,” she said, waving her hand out toward the work yard. “You have so much of everything. McCann Drilling must be a big operation.”

  The corners of his mouth twisted wryly. “It’s not Exxon or Texaco by any means.”

  “Lucky for you.”

  Frowning, he looked at her. “What do you mean, lucky for me?”

  She laughed at his nonplussed expression and Joe was struck by the freshness of her face, the vibrancy of her voice. She was wearing a sundress printed with large black-eyed Susans. It had a full skirt and two little straps over each shoulder. It wasn’t a dress he considered fitting for a secretary, but on Savanna he had to admit that somehow it managed to look sexy and charming at the same time.

  “I meant it would be terrible to be saddled with something that big,” she told him.

  He grunted as though her remark was addlebrained. “Every oilman dreams of making it big someday.”

  Since Savanna had moved to this city, the wind had never ceased to blow. Now she watched it tug strands of Joe’s tawny blond hair across his forehead. “Are you an oilman, Mr. McCann?”

  Obviously from the droll look on his face, he thought Savanna’s question a waste of time. “That is what I do, Ms. Starr. I search for oil or gas.”

  “But is that what you really strive for, to make it big in the business? Do you want to be able to look up some day and say I’m the new king of the American road?”

  From the moment Joe had met this woman yesterday morning she’d put him to thinking about things he’d never stopped to examine that closely before. First his daughter and now his work. What was it about her, anyway? Was she trying to practice psychology on the side and using him for a new patient?

  “As far as I’m concerned I don’t think Texaco has anything to worry about. Hell, just look out there, Ms. Starr. You see all those stacked out-rigs? That’s not a work yard anymore, it’s a damn graveyard.”

  She followed the line of his vision. “Well, I do know that the price of raw crude is down now. I guess your work is constantly affected by supply and demand.”

  He grimaced as he continued to watch the skeleton crew of men at work. “You’re right, Ms. Starr. And this past year demand has been at rock bottom.”

  So business had been bad for a whole year, Savanna concluded. Was that the reason he’d forgotten how to smile? The question made her look at him and wonder what kind of man he’d been before business had gone downhill. Was it possible that he’d actually been a happy, carefree man back then, or had something other than his business stepped in to change him? A woman? His daughter?

  Savanna, stop wondering about your boss, she silently scolded herself. It shouldn’t make any difference to her if the man used to be a stand-up comedian. He was simply her boss and a few weeks from now, when her job for him had come to an end, he’d merely be a man she used to work for.

  But it did matter, a part of her argued. She could see dark clouds of weariness in his eyes and the sight of it saddened her. She knew what it was like to wake up each morning and feel as if a dreadful weight was hanging around her neck. She wanted to help him. She wanted to see him laugh. She wanted him to be able to face whatever problems he had to face with a light heart and a hopeful smile.

  “Things will pick up,” she said with bright encouragement.

  “I’ve been telling myself that for a long time now.”

  She turned away from the fence to look at him squarely. “Well, you know how the old saying goes. You can get a good man down, but you can’t keep him there.”

  Turning, Joe folded his arms across his chest and stared down at her like an infuriated drill sergeant at a green recruit.

  “My father was the good man, Ms. Starr. When he was alive and running the company, this place was going twenty-four hours a day. We couldn’t drill fast enough. He knew where to find revenue, he knew how to convince people to drill another hole when there were already two dry holes in the same section of land. People believed in him and were willing to take a gamble.”

  Savanna didn’t know why he seemed so angry about it all. She’d only been trying to make him feel better. But apparently he didn’t want to do anything but growl.

  “And people don’t believe you’re capable of finding crude?” she came back. “Well, Mr. McCann, have you ever asked yourself if you’re in the wrong business?”

  She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but his face seemed to grow even harder. “I think what you should do, Ms. Starr, is mind your own business.”

  Resisting the urge to grind her teeth, she drew up her shoulders and brushed past him. “Fine. If you’ll be kind enough to open the office door, I’ll get to work minding my own business.”

  Suddenly bemused by her quick change in temperament, Joe turned and watched her retrieve her purse and lunch bag from the passenger seat of the orange Volkswagen. As she walked to the front entrance of the office building, her black high heels clicked angrily on the sidewalk. At that moment everything about him, his father and the business fled his mind. All he could think about was the wind catching the hem of her dress and lifting it away from her legs. They were gorgeous. He’d noticed that at least a hundred times yesterday when she’d had on that skimpy little yellow thing. It was only normal male instinct that he wanted to see them again.

  Too bad her mouth wasn’t as gorgeous as her legs, he thought irritably as he pulled a ring of keys from his jeans pocket and started toward her. Hell, Joe, her mouth is as luscious looking as everything else on her, a little voice inside him pointed out, you just don’t like the words that come out of it. And apparently she didn’t like what came out of his.

  Well, that was all right with Joe. As long as the two of them disliked each other, he wouldn’t be tempted to think of her as a woman. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to kiss that mouth of hers shut.

  Moments later Joe had the plate-glass door open. Savanna hurried in ahead of him, then quickly realized she had to wait for him to open the door leading directly into the office.

  Standing to one side of the narrow corridor, she watched him flip through his key ring. “When does the mail arrive?” she asked coolly.

  “Soon.”

  Savanna impatiently tapped the toe of her high heel and prayed for him to hurry. She didn’t like being this close to him. Everything about him, from the crisp scent of his after-shave to the tawny blond hair covering his forearms to the broad width of his shoulders, made her feel like a woman. More of a woman than she’d ever felt in her life. And the realization shook her.

  Joe finally found the correct key, yet before he jabbed it into the lock he paused and looked over at Savanna. “By the way,” he said, “my
daughter likes you.”

  His words took her by surprise. Unconsciously her lips parted as she met his gaze. “Oh?”

  She was wearing red lipstick today and little black drops in her ears that jiggled each time she moved her head. Until Savanna had whirled into his life yesterday morning he’d never met a woman that made him aware of every little thing about her. But she did. She made a mess of his thinking. In fact, when he looked at her, he found it difficult to think at all.

  “Yeah. She says she’d like to get to know you.”

  He said it as if he found it incredible that anyone could actually like her. Savanna bristled like a cornered cat. “Well, it’s obvious she has different taste than her father.”

  A crooked grin suddenly spread across his face. The sight of it was so transforming and so shocking she drew in a sharp breath that hissed between her teeth.

  “Why, Ms. Starr, I do believe you have a temper.”

  Instantly Savanna decided it didn’t matter what he’d said to her. The man could smile. Somewhere buried inside him there had to be a bit of humor. If she did anything while she was here at McCann Drilling, she was going to find it.

  “For your information, I have to be very provoked to lose my temper.” She didn’t go on to tell him he’d already done a good job of rousing her ire.

  “So you’re telling me you normally have a sweet, placid temper?”

  She gave him an impish smile. “Can’t you tell?”

  With a wry shake of his head, Joe stuck the key in the lock and pushed open the door. She swished past him and just for a moment, as her sweet scent drifted to his nostrils, he had the insane urge to grab her arm and tug her up against him. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to see those snappy brown eyes of hers go all soft and sexy.

  Thank God he caught himself just in time. The last thing he needed to be doing was kissing Savanna Starr. He had a drowning drilling business to take care of and a daughter who desperately needed guidance. Sex wasn’t on his agenda, even with a woman who looked as delicious as Savanna.