Well, there it is, Angelina thought. She tried to answer as though the question were no more significant than the dozens of other questions Lily asked her every day. “I might, if I met the right man.”
“And then I’d have a new daddy?”
“Well, if I got married, you would.” She let Lily ponder her answer a while before asking, “What would you think about that?”
It seemed like a very long time passed before Lily sighed and replied, “It would be okay, I guess. As long as he was nice.”
“As long as who was nice?” Mike asked, passing out ice-cream cones.
“My new daddy,” Lily said.
Mike took three seconds too long to cover his initial reaction. Sliding onto the bench next to Lily, he said, “Are you going to get a new daddy?”
He cast Angelina a curious look while Lily took what seemed like an inordinate amount of time licking her ice cream before saying matter-of-factly, “I will if Mommy gets married again.”
“Quick, Lily! The other side of the cone!” Angelina said, silently giving thanks for ice-cream drips, even as she flashed Mike a look that said they’d discuss it later. For the time being, the subject was dropped while they speculated whether Lily could really eat two whole scoops and whether caramel turtle was really the most delicious flavor of all time.
* * *
ANGELINA’S FIRST opportunity to introduce the subject again was after she’d returned to the living room after tucking Lily in bed for the night. “She’s got all her plastic animals lined up beside her under the covers,” she told Mike.
“I’m glad she enjoyed the zoo.”
“Why wouldn’t she, when she had her own private guide?”
“She’s so interested in animals,” he said. “She soaks up information like a sponge.”
“That’s the way seven-year-olds are,” Angelina said. “You were great with her, by the way.”
“I loved it as much as she did.”
“I know.” She grew very still. “Mike...”
“What’s this I hear about your getting married, Mrs. Winters?” he asked dryly.
Angelina frowned. “Lily’s still working all this divorce and marriage stuff out in her mind. When she brought up the idea of my getting married, it was...it wasn’t anything I said. It was—”
“And here I thought you’d told her to size me up for daddy potential.”
“Please don’t joke about this.”
“I’ve dated women with children before. Don’t you think I realize that kids come up with things on their own?”
“I don’t even think she picked up on anything between you and me. I think it was sheer...opportunism.”
“You’re going to have to explain that one,” he said.
“Lily lost most of the advantages of having a father when Thomas moved out. And to be perfectly frank, she didn’t gain much when he married his second wife. It’s not as though she got a second mother who adored her. She got a harried stepmother who tolerates her.”
She paused to catch her breath. “On the other hand, her stepmother’s boys got all the advantages Lily lost. They have her daddy full-time now, while she’s only a visitor. Today—from Lily’s perspective, it was like having a daddy again, and it must have occurred to her that if I...well, that if a man came into our lives, she’d be the one getting the attention. I don’t think it had ever occurred to her before that I might...bring a new man into our situation.”
“You’ve never discussed the possibility with her?” he asked.
Angelina shook her head. “I didn’t see any reason to. She’s had enough on her mind without the prospect of another major change hanging over her head. And frankly, I didn’t expect—”
She was conscious suddenly of his eyes on her face, of his thoughts far removed from the subject under discussion.
“I haven’t kissed you all day,” he said.
“Oh, Mike,” she said, desolate because she wanted so badly to have his arms around her, but sure that they needed to deal with the issue of Lily and how their relationship might affect her before getting distracted.
But she didn’t draw away as he leaned forward, didn’t stop him from putting his arms around her, didn’t resist as his mouth joined hers. Instead, she leaned toward him, slid her fingers into his hair, parted her lips under his. Reason and purpose fled from her mind. There was just Mike and pleasure and magic.
“Mommy?”
Angelina leapt guiltily away from Mike and stared dazedly at her daughter. Lily, angelic in her mermaid-print nightie, stared back with large sleepy eyes.
Gradually, Lily’s eyes became less sleepy and narrowed in suspicion. “You’re kissing my mommy,” she told Mike incredulously.
“Yes, I am,” Mike said.
“Why?” Intense curiosity.
“Because I like her.”
Lily’s face screwed up in concentration. “Oh.”
Angelina recovered enough from the surprise of the situation to ask, “What is it, sweetie? I thought you’d be asleep by now.”
Lily pouted sheepishly. “I want Dr. Mike to tuck me in.”
Angelina raised an eyebrow as her gaze met Mike’s.
“I just happen to be an expert tucker-inner,” Mike said. “But I do have rules, and one of them is that I couldn’t possibly tuck a little girl in unless she rides piggyback to bed.”
“I can ride piggyback!”
Chuckling, Mike rose, then knelt in front of Lily. “Well, then, hop aboard, Miss Piggy!”
Angelina listened to the music of her daughter’s giggles as Mike carried her out of the room on his back. Then she was left in sudden silence to contemplate the significance of her daughter’s wanting Mike to tuck her in.
She was still immersed in deep thought when Mike returned to the living room a few minutes later. Sensing her mood, he sat down next to her on the sofa and wrapped his hand around hers.
“Did she say anything about...us?” she asked after a while.
“Not a word. She seemed okay with it.”
“We made a mistake bringing her into this,” she said.
“We were kissing. People kiss all the time.”
“I don’t kiss men all the time. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about...the zoo and the ice cream and the cozy little dinner we had and the walk we took with the dog.”
“I don’t understand,” Mike said. Usually, women were grateful that he treated their children like real people. From what he’d gathered, most men behaved as if children carried bubonic plague. “I thought we got along famously.”
“Famously,” Angelina said.
Mike harrumphed his disbelief. “You can’t be jealous!”
“Don’t be ridiculous! It makes me feel good all over to see her so relaxed and happy, but it frightens me, too.”
“Pardon me for being dense—”
“I don’t want her hurt!” Angelina said intently. “I don’t want to give her something and then take it away from her.”
“We took her to the zoo,” he said.
“It was too much like a family day,” she said. “Mike, her heart is wide open. We’re too...new to be giving her the impression that we can be a happy little family. She doesn’t understand that things between men and women are ten times as likely to fall apart as to last.”
A frown slowly formed on Mike’s mouth as he thought over what she’d said. “Ten to one? Those are heavy odds. Do you think our relationship is that tenuous?”
Angelina’s face crumpled into an expression of total bewilderment. “How am I supposed to know? I met my husband when I was eighteen years old, and you’re my first affair.”
He grasped her shoulders gently. “I don’t think the odds are all that heavy.”
He saw the panic in her eyes. And the vulnerability. “When you look at me, or touch me,” she said, “I’m so...awed...that I want the fairy-tale ending. I want to believe that it’s...predestined, and that it’ll go on forever. But when I’m...when w
e’re not...I know it doesn’t make any sense to expect it to be any more than a pleasant interlude.”
“It’s already more than that.”
“Yes, but—how do we know what to expect? We could be like—”
She threw up her hands in frustration over not being able to express herself succinctly. “We could be just an illusion. A trick of lights, a diversion or a sleight of hand that makes everyone ooh and aah and then—”
Her eyes narrowed with intensity. “If what we have isn’t...forever, if it turns out to be an illusion, then I don’t want Lily bitter and hurt. I don’t want her thinking that she can’t trust adults. So, from now on, what we do together will have to be on my time, and not the time I usually give to Lily.”
“And if they overlap occasionally?”
“Then they overlap. I just don’t think that it’s in Lily’s best interests for the two of us to plan special things for her as if—”
Concern for her daughter was etched in her face. Mike loved her for that concern, for the unselfishness in her character that implored her to put her daughter’s needs first. “Are we on your time now?”
She exhaled softly. “More or less. But Lily’s already found us kissing, and I wouldn’t be comfortable...I wouldn’t want to risk her discovering us in any situation that would raise even more questions in her mind.”
Mike frowned. “I take it we won’t be retiring to your bedroom.”
“Not with Lily across the hall.”
“Too bad. I was hoping to make love to you so passionately that the neighbors three houses down would hear your cries of ecstasy.”
“Mi-ike!” she whispered, breaking the word into two syllables and rolling her eyes.
“No one’s listening,” he whispered.
“I am!”
Chuckling, Mike said, “Well, if that’s out, how about coming over here and cuddling up next to me a while. I’ve got some things I want to say to you.”
“Like what?” she said, settling her cheek against his chest as his arms encircled her.
“Like the fact that I don’t want to see your daughter hurt any more than you do.”
She murmured a contented, “Mmm.”
“I’ll respect your concern, and we won’t rush anything. We’ll keep us between us until you’re comfortable easing Lily into the idea.”
A mellow silence followed. Mike rested his chin on her head, relishing the richness of having her next to him. “Aside from your bed, I can’t think of anywhere else on earth I’d rather be right now than right here, holding you like this,” he said.
“It feels so good it’s scary,” she replied softly.
After another silence rich with contentment, Mike said, “I’m not promiscuous, Angelina, but I’ve had my share of experience. The whole man-woman thing is a crapshoot at best, a long, convoluted process of trial and error. God knows I’ve tried, and I’ve damn sure erred.”
His arms tightened around her. “All that trial and error gives a man perspective, Angelina. Especially the error part. But it feels right with you. Different. I think it could work for us.”
She tilted her head back until her eyes met his beseechingly. “I want that to be true so badly that I don’t trust myself to know whether or not I should believe you.”
“Believe me,” he said, and sealed the pledge with a kiss.
11
ANGELINA GLANCED at the kitchen clock as she dashed to the ringing phone. Nine-thirty. The movie Lily and three of her friends were watching would be over soon, and Angelina wanted to be around to keep the high jinks to a minimum while the videotape was rewinding, so she hoped the call wouldn’t be a long one or involve anything too complicated.
“Sorry to call so late, but—”
“Mike?” She was delighted to hear his voice.
“I know I’m on Lily’s time, but I have an emergency, and I...” She heard him exhale. “Do you know how to sew?”
“You don’t want me to stitch up anything alive, do you?”
The sound of his laughter was rich, even through the telephone receiver. “Inanimate, I assure you. It’s the tux.”
“For your sister’s wedding.”
“Yes. I picked it up at the mall on the way home and decided to try it on. And the pants...well, let’s just say that if I bend over, I could get arrested.”
“I see.”
“The rental shop is closed and I have to leave for Gainesville first thing in the morning.” He paused, obviously waiting for her to say something, but she remained silent. Finally, he said, “Can you fix them?”
“I’d have to look at the seam. If the stitching’s come loose, it’ll be easy. If it’s a rip or a tear...I’ll just have to see it.”
“I could bring them over now. If you’re not too busy.”
A cacophony of little-girl giggles punctuated by the puppy’s bark signaled the end of the movie. “I’m not too busy,” she said. “Bring them over.”
She managed to get the girls settled down in front of another movie with a bowl of popcorn by the time Mike rang the doorbell.
“Who’s that?” Lily said.
“It’s Dr. Mike,” Angelina said on her way to the door. “He has something he wants me to sew for him.”
“What?” Lily said, running to the entryway to greet Mike.
“A pair of pants.”
Angelina opened the door. Mike entered, and Lily rushed him with a bear hug.
“I’d better take those,” Angelina said, rescuing the pin-striped trousers he held neatly draped over a wooden hanger. “Lily, at least let Dr. Mike get inside the house before you knock him over.”
“Are those the pants you want Mommy to sew?” Lily asked.
Mike nodded, and Lily giggled. “What kind of pants are they?”
“They’re part of a tuxedo,” Angelina answered for him. “That’s a fancy suit men wear at weddings.”
Lily’s jaw dropped momentarily. “Are you getting married?”
Mike chuckled good-naturedly. “No, sweetheart. My sister’s getting married. I’m just giving the bride away.”
Angelina opened the waistband of the pants and examined the inside seams.
“What do you think?” Mike asked anxiously.
Angelina put her hands inside the pants and spread her fingers, revealing a gaping slit in the center. “I think if you wear these, you’ll catch cold.”
“Catch cold!” Lily said with a giggle.
Mike’s mouth hardened in exasperation briefly before he said, “What’s the prognosis?”
“The stitching has come out,” Angelina said. “All that cleaning and pressing wears out the thread.”
“Is it fixable?”
“I just have to run it through the machine.”
“Thank goodness,” Mike said, visibly relieved.
“Princess can shake hands now,” Lily told him, cradling the dog in her arms as she and her friends surrounded Mike.
“She can?” Mike replied.
“Uh-huh,” Lily answered. “Ashley taught her how.”
“Who’s Ashley?”
“Me!” said one of Lily’s friends, a gamine child with long red hair and a riot of freckles dotting her nose and cheeks.
“You taught Princess a trick?”
Ashley nodded.
“I helped,” said a golden-haired pixie.
“Me, too,” said the last girl.
“Sounds like you guys have been busy,” Mike said. His eyes met Angelina’s over the heads of the children, and their gazes locked in a significant exchange. An adult exchange. The silent exchange of lovers.
“Don’t you want to shake hands with Princess?” Lily asked.
“I’ll, uh, take care of these while you’re playing with the puppy,” Angelina said, abandoning him to the mercy of the girls.
It took Angelina a bit longer than anticipated to repair the seam because she had to change thread colors and fill a bobbin with black thread before she could begin. When she returned to the
living room, she found Mike seated in the overstuffed armchair with Lily and the puppy in his lap and Lily’s friends perched on the arms of the chair while they all watched a video.
Angelina’s breath caught in her throat as she took in the tableau. He probably didn’t even realize that he was in daddy mode again; it was as much a part of his nature as his easy smile and his gentle touch with animals.
Heartbreaker, she thought. It wasn’t fair. He didn’t even have to work at it. All he had to do was...be himself, and she—
What a fool she’d been to believe she could enter into a relationship so intimate and remain emotionally aloof! She’d told herself it would be fun—just a little fling, a brief affair. Companionship and physical fulfillment without strings or lasting repercussions. Convenient. Temporary. Uncomplicated.
Thinking back on it, she was awed by her naiveté. She’d dated only casually before she met Thomas, and they’d become lovers only after they were engaged. She hadn’t been on a date since her divorce. What had made her believe, even for a moment, that she could do an abrupt turnabout and treat a relationship as though it were nothing more than passing a few hours in a man’s company?
Although she’d been fighting the idea—it was just too serious, and too scary—she could no longer deny that she had fallen in love with him. Love was the only word with the capacity to define her feelings for him: the catch in her chest when he smiled at her; the warmth that tingled through her when she thought of being with him; the contentment that filled her when he put his arms around her.
The lovemaking was thrilling and sweet, but her attraction to him wasn’t just physical. She was drawn to his kindness as surely as she was to his maleness, to his gentleness as surely as his strength.
He caught her watching him and grinned sheepishly. She held up the hanger and gave him a thumbs-up. Then she gestured toward the kitchen with a tilt of her head.
Mike whispered something in Lily’s ear that made her giggle, then he rose, easing Lily, with the puppy in her arms, down into the seat of the chair.
In the kitchen, Angelina draped the folded pants over the back of a chair. “These are good as new.”
He was looking at her face intently, and his smile, warm and sensual, made Angelina aware of his maleness. It turned into a grin. “Thanks for rescuing me.”
Not This Guy! Page 14