“I’ll get the ice, Mom. It’ll make your wrist feel so much better, Zach.” Allison ran after her mother into the kitchen.
He stood alone in the middle of the yard. His wrist hurt like hell, but he felt wonderful. The warmth of Diana and Allison’s concern surrounded him with a kind of comfort he hadn’t felt in years, maybe not since before his mother and father had divorced when he was a kid. He liked the feeling,
Allison burst through the screen door with Diana right behind her. “I wrapped a towel around the bag of ice,” Allison explained as she ran toward him. “That way it won’t be quite so lumpy and cold. Hold it around your arm like this.” Carefully she placed the ice pack over his swollen wrist, and he smiled at her tender ministrations. “Better?” Her blue eyes begged him for reassurance.
“Much better, Al. You’re terrific.”
“Next time I’ll tie Beethoven up while you’re on the ladder.”
“Okay. But the accident was mostly my fault. The ladder was too close to the house, like you said.” He glanced at Diana and saw her puzzled look. Was she beginning to suspect he was all thumbs when it came to maintenance work? Still, he couldn’t let Allison continue to blame herself for the mishap.
Later, as Diana drove down the tree-lined street toward the medical center, she gave him the same puzzled glance. “About the accident —”
“By the way, I meant to ask you something, too,” he interrupted. Not now. This was not the proper time to have to admit his handyman inadequacies. When he finally told her, he wanted to be kissing her in between confessions. “What was all that about Allison staying home? Why couldn’t we leave Laurie a note?”
Diana pressed her lips together and stared straight ahead. “Allison and I left a note for Laurie when Jim had his heart attack and we took him to the hospital. I had no choice, and Allison begged to go with me. But Laurie was all alone, and…a note even slightly similar wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“I understand. You three had quite a rough time of it. You’ve adjusted remarkably well.”
Her silver gaze slid sideways then back to the road. “Have we? Sometimes I wonder. The girls have reacted to you like lost puppies. I’m becoming a little alarmed by their instant attachment to you. Especially Allison’s.”
“Well, I think it’s terrific. If I can fill a gap in their lives, that’s great.” He studied her profile, the deep-set eyes, straight nose, rosebud mouth. A mouth that hadn’t tasted a man’s lips in a long time. If only she would let him fill the emptiness that he knew lurked in her heart.
“So I’ve hired a man who can fix people’s troubles, as well as the kitchen sink?” She arched one slender eyebrow.
“I can try,” he said quietly.
She pulled into the medical center parking lot and shut off the motor. “How wonderful. You breeze into our lives, fill our days with sunshine and then take off for the beaches of California to work your magic with someone else. What more could we want?”
“Diana—”
She laughed mirthlessly. “I’ve gotten myself into a no-win situation. If I tell you to leave now, the girls will want to know why, and they’ll never agree that they could become too attached to you. We’d have a huge fight, I’m sure. But if you stay, I’m afraid they’ll be devastated when you go home. I can pay now or pay later.”
He didn’t answer. Perhaps she was right. He sighed. “I don’t want to hurt those girls. Tell me what you want and I’ll do it.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “I don’t know what I want. But as soon as I find out, you’ll be the first person I tell. Right now you’ve got a wrist that needs attention.” She flipped open the car door and stepped onto the asphalt.
An hour later they walked together toward the car. Zach held his forearm, wrapped securely in a compression bandage. “Two weeks,” he muttered. “Can you believe a lousy sprain will put me out of commission for two weeks? How am I supposed to take notes? How am I supposed to type?”
Diana’s gaze flicked over his scowling face and injured wrist. She began to laugh.
“You think it’s funny? I don’t appreciate the joke.”
“That’s because you are the joke,” she said, laughing harder. “I hired you as a handyman. How much work do you expect to get done now?”
Five
“I guess that makes me pretty useless, huh?” Zach didn’t sound particularly disappointed.
“For two weeks, it sure does.” She slid behind the wheel, and Zach settled himself in the passenger seat. “So much for my plan of keeping everyone busy.”
“I’ll take notes and type left-handed,” he said.
“Can you paint left-handed?”
He chuckled. “I doubt it.”
“Isn’t this wonderful.” She started the engine with unnecessary abruptness. “What good are you to me?”
“I’d love to answer that, but I’d probably get slapped.”
She glared at him, but her body had already begun to tingle. “You certainly would. You’d better find another way to justify your existence, and fast.”
“Maybe I could find some little jobs. I noticed the hinges on my door squeak. How about yours?”
“They squeak, which is the way I like them. Don’t you dare oil the hinges, Zachary Wainwright. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out why you’d want quiet bedroom doors.” She glanced over and caught him grinning. “Cut it out! Not five minutes after you’re on the disabled list, all you can think of is—”
“Can I help it if I’ve got the sexiest landlady east of the Mississippi? I don’t know what that perfume is you’re wearing, but you smell exactly like a bouquet of violets. They’re becoming my favorite flowers.”
“I’ll throw away the bottle.” She veered into traffic.
“Then while you’re at it, you’d better get rid of your soft silky hair. I’ve been dying to touch it ever since I saw you.”
“I’ll shave my head.”
“And that neat little figure beckons to me every time you walk into the room.”
“I’ll gain twenty pounds. Oh, Zach, this isn’t going to work! I think you’ll have to leave.”
“Will you tell the girls, or shall I?”
“God, I can see their faces now. They’ve been so happy recently that they practically dance around the house. I can’t tell them you’re moving out.”
“Then don’t,” he said quietly. “Let me oil the hinges.”
Her heart began to race. He was suggesting an affair. And she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t considered the possibility ever since he’d first stood on her front porch. But she wasn’t the sort of woman he was used to in California. He’d have to understand that. “No,” she said softly.
“We’ll be discreet. No one will ever suspect.”
“I disagree. Children, especially teenagers, have sensors like you wouldn’t believe. They’d pick up on an affair between us in a minute.”
“So?”
“They’re at a very delicate age, just discovering their own sexuality. Knowing their mother had a lover would embarrass them more than you could ever guess.”
“Funny, but that didn’t stop my mother.”
Her head whipped around at his muttered comment, and her heart wrenched at what he’d revealed. “Oh, Zach.” She returned her gaze to the road, but she could still see in her mind the aching vulnerability in his blue eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Yet you still remember how you felt.”
“I walked in on them, Diana. I wouldn’t allow that to happen with the girls.”
“You couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t happen. I won’t risk it. They need predictable behavior from me right now. The answer is still no.”
They were both silent for several minutes.
“Okay,” he said at last. “But tell me, Diana of the violets, if the girls weren’t in the picture, would your answer still be the same?”
Her skin warmed.
“
Your cheeks are the most delicious shade of pink. I bet you taste like strawberry ice cream.”
“Zach, really. This is an outrageous conversation we’re having.”
“But fun. Come on. I want to know where I stand. I bet you’ve never told a man point-blank that you wanted him, have you?”
“This is getting us nowhere. The girls are very much in the picture. They will be for several years.”
“All right. But say those years have flown away. Would you still refuse me?”
She remembered the way he’d looked stretched out half-naked on his bed the afternoon she’d brought him the electric fan, and her body began to hum with the same sweet longing she’d felt then. Her hands trembled on the steering wheel. “I don’t know. I’m a small-town girl with small-town morals.”
“Okay. Suppose no one would ever find out?”
“Then,” she said, her voice barely audible, “I wouldn’t refuse you.”
He shut his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to a woman I wanted, who wanted me back, without taking her in my arms. I think we’ve painted ourselves into a corner.”
“Was that supposed to be funny?”
“No.”
“So what do we do? We’re back at square one. If you leave, the girls will be unsettled, which I don’t want. If you stay…”
“We’ll both be candidates for sainthood, and I make a lousy saint.”
“Then you’re going to leave.”
He raised his head and looked directly at her. “Not unless you tell me to.”
“I have to be the villain.”
“Somebody does. You’re elected.”
“Whatever happened to chivalry?”
“Don’t you know your history? It died.”
“Great.” She found herself laughing in spite of her dilemma. Zach was fun. “Tell you what. Let’s see how we do for a few more days. If the strain’s too great, we’ll reconsider the matter.”
“Will we look at the problem from all angles?”
“Probably not.”
“Then by reconsider you mean reconsider my leaving, not reconsider oiling the hinges.”
“That’s right.”
“Too bad.” He sighed. “But I’m not dealing the cards. I’ll accept your plan, Widow Thatcher. Want to kiss on it?”
“Definitely not.”
“Damn.”
* * *
For the first three days of their trial period, Diana experienced the thrill of a schoolgirl with a new crush. The atmosphere in the house was charged with an electric excitement that gave her more ambition than she could remember having in years. Zach was right—a lot of work could be accomplished with rechanneled sexual energy.
Even the oppressive heat lifted temporarily from Springfield, and she sang her way through her daily chores. Zach laboriously took notes and typed left-handed during the morning hours then spent his afternoons chauffeuring the girls around in between trips to the library. The summer evenings found all four members of the household gathered around a card table for an ongoing game of Monopoly.
Diana watched the girls blossom in the steady glow of Zach’s attention. At times she was almost jealous of the camaraderie they enjoyed, the spontaneous hugs, the cheerful banter. Zach went out of his way to avoid touching her, and she did the same. At times their eyes would meet, and warmth would spread through her body at the message he sent her. But his outward behavior was beyond reproach.
By the sixth day, as the family gathered for Sunday breakfast, Diana admitted the tension of unfulfilled needs was getting to her. Her dreams at night had become increasingly erotic, and the man in every dream was Zachary Wainwright. Sitting across the kitchen table from him made it very difficult for her to concentrate on a feature story in the Sunday paper, but she kept trying.
Finally she glanced covertly in his direction. Apparently the subject of her fantasies was handling celibacy far better than she was. He lounged easily on the kitchen chair with his ankle propped across his bare knee and the sports page spread open on his lap. He seemed completely absorbed in the baseball standings, oblivious to her hungry gaze. And then he looked up.
“Hi,” he said softly, and his blue eyes touched the secrets of her soul.
“I just wondered how the Cubs were doing,” she fibbed, ducking her head.
“They’ve had an extremely frustrating few days, ah—I mean games.”
“Oh.”
“Mom, will you make Allison give me the funnies? I think she’s memorizing them.” Laurie stomped around the table and grabbed for the sheet of comics in her sister’s hand.
Allison snatched the paper out of reach. “I got here first, so you can wait. If you hadn’t spent twenty minutes on your precious hair, you might have gotten to the table before I did.”
“Well, at least I don’t look like I stuck my finger in a light socket, with hair sticking out everywhere.”
“At least I don’t swim like a dog.”
“That’s enough, girls,” Diana said.
“Yeah,” Zach agreed. “If you two don’t clean up your act, you might not get invited to the state fair next weekend.”
Allison whooped and dropped the comics. “The fair? Freaky! Oh, Mom, can we go?”
“Well, I…” She paused in confusion. If Zach was planning an activity a week away, he was automatically extending his stay at least that long. “Maybe Zach and I should discuss—”
“Please, Mom,” Laurie echoed. “We…we didn’t go last year.”
“No, we didn’t.” Diana could feel Zach watching her, waiting for her reaction. She looked at the eager faces of her daughters. Of course they’d go to the fair. Of course Zach would stay on, regardless of her dreams, of his frustrations. They were both civilized adults, not primitive creatures driven by lust.
“Zach would love the fair, Mom,” Allison said, her eyes shining. “We’ll take him to Happy Hollow and ride everything and go through the livestock barn and—”
“Forget the livestock barn,” Laurie interrupted. “It smells worse than your sneakers.”
“Listen, Supernose,” Allison shot back, “nothing smells as bad as your gross hair spray.”
“For two young ladies who want to be invited to the fair, neither of you is doing very well,” Diana commented mildly.
“Then we can go?” Allison cried.
“Why not?” Diana glanced across the table and met Zach’s wide smile. “Should be fun. Of course, any girls who can’t be friendly and courteous to each other this week may have to stay home.”
“Would you like the funnies now, Laurie?” Allison said with exaggerated politeness.
“It’s about ti—ah—yes, thank you,” her sister replied with a tight smile.
“I need you to help me rewind my bandage, anyway, Al,” Zach said, folding the paper and stretching. “It came loose again in the night.”
Diana averted her eyes from the play of muscles under Zach’s shirt as he moved. I am the mother of two adolescents, she reminded herself sternly. The lecture wasn’t working.
“There,” Allison pronounced with satisfaction as she secured the metal clip on the elastic bandage. “Is your wrist getting better?”
“I think the bandage can come off for the fair. How about that?”
“Perfect,” Allison said with a big smile. “I bet you’re real good at throwing baseballs and darts and stuff.”
“I don’t know, Al. Those midway games are tough.”
“They’re hard for me, but not for you. You could win something for each of us, even Mom.”
“How about that, Diana?” Zach glanced across the table, his smile teasing. “Want a big stuffed animal for your bed?”
She rolled her eyes and stood up. He knew damn well what she wanted for her bed, and she couldn’t have it. “No, thank you. You can keep your prize in your own room.”
That cracked him up, and she hid a smile behind her hand.
Allison gigg
led as she watched Zach wipe tears of laughter from his eyes. “What’s so funny?”
“Your mother.”
“She didn’t say anything funny.”
“Never mind. It’s kind of a secret joke.”
“It is?” Her eyes bright with interest, Allison looked from Zach to Diana. “You guys like each other, don’t you?”
Diana swallowed hard before glancing at Zach.
“Yes, we do,” he said soberly.
“That’s good.” Allison dashed out of the kitchen. Laurie followed grudgingly.
Zach and Diana stared at each other for several long seconds.
At last he spoke in a low voice. “Still think the girls would mind if we…?” He stopped and raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“Yes, I do. What Allison wants is friendship between us.”
“What I have in mind is very friendly.”
“Look, there’s a difference and you know it. I’m not taking chances with these girls’ psychological development by throwing their mother’s sexuality in their faces.”
Zach groaned. “God, Diana. This is more difficult than I thought it would be.”
“Want to forget the whole thing?”
“No. I may be miserable now, but I’d be more miserable by leaving and depriving myself of being around those little squirts.” He captured her gaze. “And you,” he added. “I like living here, even if we can’t…”
She regarded him steadily, realizing how important his presence had become to her, too. “But you’ll have to go sometime, when your work is done.”
“True. But sometime is a long ways away from immediately. I don’t have all the answers. I only know that next weekend I’d like to take you to the fair.”
“Okay. We’ll try another week.”
* * *
Except for a few forgivable exceptions, both girls showed remarkable restraint with each other during the days that separated them from their adventure at the fair. Diana couldn’t deny the conciliatory effect Zach’s presence had on her daughters, but she found herself walking a never-ending tightrope of emotion. Wherever she looked, Zach was there, his blue eyes beckoning her.
The August heat and humidity returned with a vengeance, and she gave the only working fan to the girls, who traded every other night. On Friday both Laurie and Allison chattered like little kids waiting for Santa Claus as they planned what would happen the next day.
The Fix-It Man Page 6