“I… Sure, you did,” David said, not looking directly at her. “And you’re fine, healthy as a horse.”
“I’m not a horse,” she said, giggling. “I’m a girl.”
“Really?” David said, peering at her. “Well, so you are, and a very pretty one, too. And you’re very handsome, Tucker.”
“’Kay,” he said, shrugging.
“When you’re a teenager that will matter to you, Tucker,” David said, laughing. “Big-time.”
“Trevor’s a teenager,” Tucker said. “He’s the bestis swimmer you ever saw. We went with Aunt Emily and Uncle Mark to watch Trevor swim and he won the race. When I gets to be a teenager and can swim good will you watch me in the water, David?”
“That’s a long time from now, Tucker,” David said quietly.
“Yeah, but will you be there to watch me swim good?” Tucker said.
“I can’t promise that, Tucker,” David said, “but if it’s humanly possible I’ll be there.”
“’Kay,” Tucker said. “Can I have a banana, Mommy?”
“Magic word,” Patty said.
“Please,” Tucker said.
“One banana coming right up,” Patty said.
Patty peeled the banana and began to cut it into bite-size pieces by rote, her mind centered on the conversation between Tucker and David about an audience when Tucker was swimming way down the road.
Tucker was getting so attached to David, she thought. She’d invited David to stay here until his memory returned because it was the best thing for Sarah Ann. But had she made the wrong decision in regard to her son? Had she made a tremendous mistake in her role of mother?
Tucker had lost one father when Peter left them. Would her little boy feel deserted and betrayed again when David and Sarah Ann went to their own home? Would Tucker cry when David left, miss him so much it was heartbreaking?
Dear heaven, she couldn’t bear the thought of Tucker weeping in her arms. And she couldn’t bear the thought of it being her fault, a glaring error she performed as a mother. If she proved inadequate in that role she would have nothing left, would be an empty shell.
No. Now stop. David and Sarah Ann weren’t going to disappear off the face of the earth. The kids could have play dates, and when she went back to teaching they’d see each other every day at the Fuzzy Bunny.
Sure, Tucker would miss the Montgomerys when they first left, but he’d soon come to see that they were still a part of his life. Fine.
A part of Tucker’s life, she thought, as she placed the plate of banana bites in front of him. But David would no longer be a part of her life. The gift they had agreed to share was temporary, would end when David took his daughter home. She knew that. Wanted it that way. She had nothing more to offer than the short-term gift—also known as an affair—while David was living under her roof. So be it.
She would miss David when he left and Sarah Ann, too, of course, just as Tucker would, but she certainly wouldn’t cry about their going. She was an adult who understood the facts of the situation and was prepared to deal with them in a mature manner. Right?
“Right,” she said, not realizing she’d spoken aloud.
“Right?” David said with a burst of laughter. “Are you sure, or would you like to reconsider your answer?”
“What?” Patty said. “I’m sorry. I was mentally off somewhere. What did I just agree to?”
“Tucker said,” David said, smiling, “that if a family wanted a puppy it would be bestis to get one puppy for each person so they’d didn’t have to share it, take turns playing with it.”
Patty’s eyes widened. “Oh, good grief. Tucker, honey, no. One puppy per family is quite enough.”
“’Kay,” he said. “Can we get a puppy?”
“No, sweetheart, we can’t,” she said. “It wouldn’t be fair to that little bundle because he’d be alone all day.”
Tucker frowned. “We’re here all day.”
“I know, but after Christmas, Mommy is going to be teaching school while you go to the Fuzzy Bunny and Sophia goes to a place that tends to babies, and we won’t be here all day anymore.” Patty smiled. “See?”
“You won’t be at the Fuzzy Bunny with me?” Tucker said, his voice rising. “You were there before and I could talk to you and get hugs and… I don’t want to be there without you, Mommy. I don’t. I don’t. No, no, no.”
“Sarah Ann will be there, Tucker,” David said.
“I don’t care. I want my mommy with me at the Fuzzy Bunny.” Tucker’s bottom lip began to tremble.
“This topic should never have gotten this far,” Patty said. “Tucker, please don’t be upset. All of that is so far away in the future. It’s nothing we have to worry about now. Let’s just enjoy today, okay? Oh, look at the time. Grandma Hannah will be here very soon and you know how much fun you have with her.”
“Grandma Hannah can make hats from paper folded,” Tucker said. “Cool.”
“Very cool,” Patty said. “You can make a hat for you and Sarah Ann and a little bitty one for Sophia.”
“We’ll put stickers on the hats,” Tucker said. “I gotta find my stickers.” He slid off his chair. “Come on, Sarah Ann, we gotta look for the stickers.”
“’Kay,” she said, wiggling off her chair. “I want some stickers on my hat, too.”
As the pair ran from the room, Patty sank onto a chair with a sigh.
“Oh, my,” she said, shaking her head. “Shades of things to come. Tucker is going to have a difficult adjustment being at the Fuzzy Bunny without me. I hate this.”
“You’d do well to take your own advice,” David said. “Enjoy today.”
“I know, but I’m starting to get the applications for teaching positions in the mail that I requested over the phone. I’ll have no choice but to face the stark facts every time I fill one out and mail it back. I can’t hide from what the future is going to bring.”
“No, but you don’t have to dwell on it, either.” David chuckled. “Think about how many puppies you might want at one time.”
Patty laughed. “That was absurd, although if you’re three years old I suppose it would make perfect sense. A puppy for each member of the family so you don’t have to share. There you go.”
“That’s five puppies you’re talking about, which would mean a lot of puddles on the floor.”
“Five?” Patty said.
“Well, yeah,” David said, nodding. “One for you, me, Tucker, Sarah Ann and Sophia. That’s five any way you count it.”
“David, the five of us are not a family.”
“For now we are,” he said, looking directly into her eyes. “I can’t project the future very well because I’m lacking too much data from the past. So I’m living in the present, the moment, enjoying today, and today we are functioning as a family. Yes?”
A lovely, comforting warmth suffused Patty, pushing aside the chill that the visions of the future had created within her. She smiled at David.
“Yes,” she said. “And I’ll do a better job of remembering to enjoy the day I’m in. Thank you, David.”
He reached over and drew one thumb lightly over her lips, causing a shiver to course through her.
“You’re welcome, Patty.”
The doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of Hannah and Ted, and bringing Tucker and Sarah Ann running down the hall with shrieks of excitement. The noise woke Sophia who wailed her displeasure at being wakened. After a rather chaotic ten minutes, David hobbled out the door on his crutches and managed to maneuver himself into Ted’s vehicle.
“Off you go, Patty,” Hannah said, as she attempted to soothe a still-crying Sophia she had scooped from her crib. “Now don’t feel you have to hurry right home after your doctor’s appointment. Stroll through a mall, indulge in a hot fudge sundae, go to a museum, something just for you while you have the chance.”
“Oh, doesn’t that sound tempting?” Patty said, smiling.
“Do it,” her mother said. “Never turn down the
opportunity to get away with no little ones in tow. This is the voice of experience talking here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Patty laughed. “I always do what my mother tells me to.”
“Your nose is going to grow, young lady,” Hannah said. “Now, shoo.”
“I’m gone.” Patty kissed all three children goodbye, planted another kiss on her mother’s cheek and started toward the door. “Have fun.”
“Guaranteed,” Hannah said.
Two hours later Patty sat on a bench inside a covered mall licking a three-scoop ice cream cone.
Delicious, she thought. One scoop of ice cream would have been enough, but she’d decided to go for the gusto. That, of course, had resulted in the momentous decision of what flavors to stack up on the sugar cone, plus say yes or no to sprinkles on top. The order that the chosen treats were placed on the cone was important, too, and…
Patty sighed, then continued to lick the ice cream before it dribbled down the cone and onto her hand.
Well, she’d exhausted the topic of the proper procedure to follow when purchasing an ice cream cone ad nauseam.
She was, she knew, skittering around the fact that her doctor had declared her to be fit as a fiddle—and had said she could resume intimate relations if she chose to do so. That had translated in her panicking mind into the fact that she was now free to make love with David Montgomery.
Patty popped the last bite of sugar cone into her mouth and stared into space, oblivious to the growing number of shoppers surrounding her.
She had readily agreed to take that step with David, even titled it a gift they would be giving each other for the duration of his stay at her house. Yep, she’d just jumped right in and said, “You betcha, big boy”…more or less. It had been very easy to act all womanly and sophisticated then, because she hadn’t been in a position to do…it.
But now? Gracious. Now there were no excuses, nothing standing in their way, unless she wanted to grab hold of the age old “I have a headache” like a lifeline.
David was supposedly getting a smaller walking cast today, but if for some reason the doctor postponed that switch, she had a feeling that Mr. Montgomery wouldn’t allow the bulky, cumbersome cast he’d started with to keep him from doing…it.
What happened next, Patty mused, was up to her. She could lie and tell David that the doctor hadn’t released her yet. Or she could explain to David that she was very sorry but she’d changed her mind, just couldn’t carry out her part of the bargain they’d made.
Patty narrowed her eyes.
Why was she entertaining such thoughts? Because she believed she shouldn’t follow through on the plan since nice girls didn’t have short-term affairs? Wanton women did, but not ones who placed motherhood and apple pie on the top of their list of priorities. No.
“Well, forget that nonsense,” she said, getting to her feet.
“You’re right,” a woman said, causing Patty to jerk in surprise. “That gorgeous nightgown in the window isn’t even close to being practical. I guess I’ll stick to my flannel jammies.”
Patty marched to where the woman stood.
“You want that nightie?” Patty said. “Then you should have it. Forget practical. Forget the fact that you’ll probably get frostbite wearing it. Will it make you feel womanly, feminine? Yes, indeed it will, and we all deserve that once in a while.”
“You’re right,” the woman said, nodding. “I’m going to buy it.”
“Good for you.”
“What about you?” the woman said. “Are you going to purchase a present for yourself, too?”
“No,” Patty said. “I have a…a gift waiting for me at home and I intend to savor every lovely moment while it’s mine.”
“You have to give the gift back at some point?” the woman said, frowning.
“I don’t qualify to keep it,” Patty said, “which is a sad truth that I’ve accepted. Enjoy your beautiful nightie. ’Bye.”
Patty frowned as she turned into her driveway and saw a vehicle she didn’t recognize parked in front of the garage. It was a dark-green SUV with a temporary, new-vehicle certificate taped inside the back window. There was no sign of the car her parents had arrived in.
“What on earth is going on?” she said aloud, her heart racing with confusion edging quickly toward fear.
She ran across the yard, flung open the front door and entered the house. She stopped so quickly, she teetered, as she was met with a high-volume rendition of “The Bear Went Over the Mountain.”
David was sitting on the sofa feeding Sophia a bottle while Tucker and Sarah Ann sat cross-legged in front of him on the floor singing along with him. It registered in some far corner of Patty’s mind that David’s injured leg was not propped straight out on the coffee table, but was bent at the knee like any normal leg.
She made her way forward slowly, arriving at the sofa just as the song ended terribly off-key.
“Hi, Mommy,” Tucker said.
“Hi,” she said. “David…”
“Hey, hi,” he said, smiling at her. “Did you catch our singing act? We’re ready for one of those TV shows where they discover talent and make people stars.”
“David, where are my parents? Whose vehicle is in the driveway? What is going on here?”
David shrugged. “It’s very simple. I got my cast switched to this spiffy new model that I can walk on without crutches and, bless their doctory hearts, wear right into the shower.
“Then your dad took me to the car dealership and between us we finagled a smokin’ deal on that vehicle you see outside. The salesman called the insurance company. They agreed to send the check directly there and I drove that baby home.
“Upon arrival I assured your mother I could handle this brood, which prompted your father to invite her out to lunch. I fed the troops and we’re having a sing-along for a few minutes before their naps. And there you have it.”
Patty opened her mouth, closed it, then tried again.
“Oh,” she said finally.
Tucker yawned.
“Okay,” David said, getting to his feet as he popped the bottle out of Sophie’s mouth. “Off to bed.” He handed Sophia to a startled Patty. “Burp that one while I tuck the other two in. Let’s march, march, march, Tucker and Sarah Ann. Show me how you can march.”
Patty leveled Sophia up to her shoulder and patted her back absently as she watched, with a bemused expression on her face, the trio marching from the room, David moving exceptionally well in the new cast.
Sophia burped loudly, then lay her head down and closed her eyes. Patty made her way down the hall and placed the baby in her crib, hearing David telling Sarah Ann and Tucker they were to go right to sleep if they wanted Popsicles for their after-nap treat.
Patty fiddled with Sophia’s blanket, smoothing it to exacting order, knowing she was stalling for time and rolling her eyes in self-disgust because she was.
This was it, she thought, turning from the crib. David was no doubt back in the living room now and would ask her how things had gone with her doctor’s appointment. Oh, yes, this was most definitely the eleventh hour.
So why was she hesitating, not rushing to tell David her good news? Why was she questioning her decision yet again, darn it? This back and forth like a Ping-Pong ball stuff was driving her crazy.
“The gift,” she whispered. “It’s ours. David’s and mine and we’ll have it, just as we said. Yes. Oh, yes.”
Patty left the nursery, went down the hall and entered the living room. David was stretched out on the sofa, facing away from her and she stood just inside the doorway, deciding to speak her piece from there, rather than look David straight in the eyes while she spoke.
“David,” she said, then cringed when she heard the slight trembling in her voice. “David, I had a perfect checkup at the doctor and I am now allowed to… What I mean is, I can…if I want to…which I do, because we agreed to share our gift and it’s not wrong, it’s not. Oh, it’s so difficult for me to say all t
his and… David, I want to make love with you. There. I’m shutting up now.”
Patty clutched her hands on her stomach and waited for David to respond. And waited and waited…
A soft sound, something like a toy train running far in the distance, reached her and she inched her way toward the sofa to stand beside David. The toy-train noise was coming from his slightly parted lips as his chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm.
David Montgomery was fast asleep.
Chapter Nine
Patty sat down on the coffee table with a thud, staring at David, who continued to snooze. She narrowed her eyes as anger began to bubble within her, resulting in a flush staining her cheeks.
Oh-oh-oh, she was going to give this insensitive dolt a piece of her mind, she fumed, and at the top of her lungs, too, so he didn’t miss one word of what she had to say.
Patty glanced quickly down the hallway.
Bad plan, she decided. If she hollered her head off, she’d wake all three of the children and that would never do. So, okay, she’d just have to get her point across in a normal tone of voice. Fine.
Patty leaned forward and poked David in the middle of his chest with one finger.
“You…”
“What? What?” he said, his eyes flying open.
“…are…”
“Patty?”
“…despicable.” Patty lifted her chin and got to her feet. “I have spoken.” She turned and walked in the direction of the kitchen.
“Hey, wait a minute,” David said, struggling to sit up.
“No. And don’t you dare wake those kids.”
David stood and clomped his way after Patty, the walking cast leaving an impression in the carpeting. In the kitchen he found Patty sitting at the table with a glass of orange juice. He pulled out a chair and sat down opposite her.
“You’re mad as hell at me, aren’t you?” he said. “Could I have a clue, you know, just a hint as to why you’re ready to shoot me dead as a post?”
“Oh, it’s no big deal, David,” she said, plunking the glass on the table. “So what if I went to the doctor today to find out if I could… To be informed as to whether or not I…
Accidental Family (The Baby Bet: MacAllisters Gifts #14) Page 11
