Daddy in the Making

by Crystal Green

  “Lookout Point.”

  “We’ll see if you’re right about that soon enough.”

  He pulled the truck into a spot near some flat rocks, cut the engine, then went around to her side. After opening the door, he aided her in getting out. This dress showcased her belly, and he was itching to put his hand on the curve of it.

  Was that weird, or did it just mean he was father material?

  “I thought,” he said, “that this might be a peaceful place to talk, away from any ears.”

  Since the November weather still hadn’t turned cold, she had brought a thin, sheer wrap, and she wound it around her. “Do you know the stories about this place?”

  “I’ve heard a few rumblings in town, that’s why it caught my attention. There’s something about how Tony Amati used to come to this very spot when he got here in the 1920s, and he would look down on the land that would hold his town someday. He used to picture it, dream about it, until it came to fruition.”

  They started walking through the trees, their shoes crunching over pine needles, toward a place where the branches opened up over a mild drop-off where you could see St. Valentine down below in the near distance. The white church seemed to gleam in the center of the old part of town while, on the east side, mansions and pools waned under the softening gaze of the sun.

  Rita took a seat on a rock that boasted a flat surface, as if it’d been sat on so many times that it had been shaped for just such a thing.

  Except Conn noticed there was room for two.

  “They also call this Heartbreak Hill,” Rita said, hugging her wrap around herself. “Supposedly, there were doomed lovers who used to meet here.”

  Was she giving him some kind of warning? “Who were they?”

  “The old-timers will tell you it’s the same couple who haunts my hotel. If you believe the stories.”

  Conn leaned his shoulder against a tree. “Sounds as if you know a few of those stories, seeing as it’s your hotel.”

  “Oh, they’re mostly legends. The couple consisted of a gentleman passing through town on his way west to seek a better future and a good-time girl who liked her booze and boys. They got caught by her husband and gunned down.”

  “So those are your resident ghosts?”

  “Right. Every once in a while, we’ll get some nervous Nellies who come in and tell tales about spirits materializing by their bed or touching their shoulder while they were shaving. Funny thing is, though, that it’s never in the room where the deaths supposedly occurred. But it’s good for business. It draws in the curious, especially nowadays with the Tony Amati story.”

  Conn chuckled. “If I’d known this was a spot for the doomed, I would’ve kept away from here.”

  Rita paused, then hugged herself even tighter. “I’m hoping our doomed phase has passed, Conn.”

  What exactly did that mean? They’d had such a bumpy conversation at the wedding that he wasn’t sure just where he stood with her right now. That’s why he’d wanted to talk to her afterward, for some clarification.

  All he knew for sure was that he’d meant every word he’d said to her about being the man he felt he was today. It was as if he’d been born to say such things to her, to make such promises about being responsible.

  And when she’d asked if he was overlooking the reality of truly being a father, he’d at first been taken aback, wondering if she had a point.

  Was the baby quite real to him yet? Or was he chasing some dream?

  His gaze strayed to her again, as it inevitably did, time after time. Without even planning to, he took a step closer to her. “What’s it going to take to win you over, Rita?”

  A hitch of breath, a quick look. “Win me over?”

  “That’s right, because the more I’m around you, the more I wonder what that night truly meant to me. I feel like I was really going to come back for a second night with you, you know.” He didn’t add that he wasn’t sure how long he would’ve stayed. Because, with the way he was feeling now, it could’ve been forever.

  If he could depend on his gut instinct.

  Her eyes were pools of gray, glassy with a wariness that he would do anything to vanquish. “I just don’t know how far to trust you. Or...me.”

  “That’s understandable.” He came a step closer.

  “I’m not even sure where to start.”

  “You started by saying yes a few times today. Dancing with me, coming out here with me, introducing me to Violet when you went to the wedding table...”

  It hadn’t been a long greeting, but it had meant something to him. An acceptance of sorts, as small as it was.

  “I don’t know how many yeses will get me in trouble,” Rita said. “It seems that they always do.”

  He bent to a knee by the rock. “The trouble has to end sometime. And it sounds to me like you have the talent to turn a tough situation into something good, like you did with Kristy.”

  Rita sighed as the sky blushed to orange over a darker blue.

  “Maybe it’s just a matter of us spending more time together,” she said. “Getting to know each other, since you’re so hell-bent on sticking around.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “Would you?” She gave him a challenging look. “Then there’s an event tomorrow at the high school. The Chamber of Commerce sponsors a lunch for a lot of natural-gas field employees coming home for Thanksgiving week.”

  She’d snagged a bit on the last part, and he guessed it might be because her ex had been one of those employees who’d returned from the fields at this time of the year.

  She composed herself. “In the past, more than a few employees would save vacation time to come home, and for the past few years the town has thrown this lunch to promote a sense of community. Not that there was ever much of one before.”

  “What happened to change that this year?”

  “Davis Jackson’s attempts to strengthen the economy are finally paying off. And Violet’s done a lot to help, especially when it comes to promoting St. Valentine with the Tony Amati story. I think people saw that if a guy from the rich part of town and a miner’s girl could come together, everyone else should give it a shot, too.”

  “Well, you can count me in for that lunch,” he said.

  “Even if they ask you to serve tables?”

  He lifted an eyebrow.

  She shrugged. “I’m a volunteer, since I’m a member of the Chamber of Commerce, so you might get pressed into service, too.”

  “It won’t be a problem.”

  It seemed as if he’d said just the right thing to her. She gazed at him, then smiled, absently resting a hand on her tummy, as he noticed she often did.

  He watched her, imagining...

  As if in surrender, she took him by the hand. “Jeez, you’re killing me. Here.”

  When she placed his palm on her belly, saying “yes” to him yet another time today, his world expanded with the force of a bursting heartbeat.

  God, this felt good, and he couldn’t say exactly why. Maybe it was more intimate than he ever remembered being with anyone. Maybe it was because he could picture the baby inside, a child who already had his eyes, his nose.

  Now, more than ever, as he imagined everything else about this child, he knew he’d made the right choice in coming back to St. Valentine.

  He just had to make sure Rita came to realize it, too.

  * * *

  On the way home, Rita felt a hum of awareness between her and Conn, almost as if it were some sort of force field that was rising up from the truck’s seat. It didn’t help that the buzz of tires on the road filled her head, adding to the illusion.

  But hadn’t most of the day been something like a dream? Him showing up at the church this morning, then the reception, then the both of them going to Heartbreak Hill, where she’d let him touch her baby bump?

  She wasn’t sure what it was about Conn that made her act so impulsively sometimes. When she had seen him looking at how she was rubbing the slig
ht mound of her tummy under her bridesmaid’s dress, her blood had shot straight to her heart, and she had thought, What would be the harm in just indulging him for a second?

  And she had brought his hand over to her stomach, holding back a long, sharp sigh as the imprint of his fingers, his palm, seeped into her.

  After that, she had played the moment off, laughing awkwardly, telling him that the baby would be happy that he had said his first hello. All the while, Conn had smiled, as if Rita had given him something that he would never get again—or had ever gotten.

  Not that he would know that for certain, though.

  They were approaching Piell’s Gas Station on the road into town, with its old Phillips 66 and Pumps Are Open signs lit under the fallen night.

  “Mind if I stop?” Conn asked. “My tank could use some gas.”

  “Fine with me.”

  Stopping would give her a breather from that electrified force field that was still trying to pull her closer to him, so she was all for it. But as he stopped the truck, climbed out and went inside to pre-pay for the gas, she didn’t get a break of any kind—not as she watched the way he ambled toward the convenience store, the way his jeans molded to his legs, his slim hips flaring up to a broad back and wide shoulders under his blue shirt.

  Once upon a time, she had pressed her bare chest against that back, luxuriating in the feel of her breasts against corded muscle and smooth skin. It had been a long time since she had been that close to a man. Her, a woman who had been intimate with only one other guy her entire life.

  But she had known that Conn was it for her in that moment.

  Had she been so wrong?

  Pushing away the question—she knew better than to give in to him again—she blew out a breath, grabbing the beaded clutch she had brought to the wedding so she could put a coat of lip balm on. Then she got a glimpse of her phone screen, and she saw that she had missed a text from Violet.

  Disappeared with Conn just as soon as you could, didn’t you? :)

  It had come through about an hour ago, when Rita had been on Heartbreak Hill with Conn. She texted back.

  Aren’t you supposed to be going on a honeymoon?

  Violet must’ve had her phone handy, because Rita’s rang. Leave it to a reporter to jump on a breaking story.

  “We’re leaving for the airport in a half hour,” Vi said just as soon as Rita answered. “So that gives me time to bug you.”

  “I can’t talk long.” Rita could see Conn through the window of the convenience store. Ori Piell, who had his Pennzoil cap on backward, was talking Conn’s ear off, and Conn’s manners were obviously too good to cut the bearded man’s conversation short.

  Rita added, “If you’re calling to make sure I haven’t done anything stupid with Conn yet, you’re in luck. I’m holding strong.”

  “I’m impressed. He’s cute, Rita.”

  She glowed with something like blushing agreement. “In spite of all the baggage, you mean.”

  “He seemed to be keeping everything together when I met him at the wedding.”

  “That’s because Conn is as charming as they come. I can tell you firsthand that he’s able to make a girl believe anything he wants her to.”

  Rita frowned at her own words. Was that what was happening with him now? Was she falling into a “Conn trap,” snagged by his charm for the moment and setting herself up for a fall in the end?

  “Well,” Vi said. “I’m just altogether impressed that you’re dealing with this head-on.”

  “I’ve only yet begun to deal. Kristy’s going to be real curious about him, and I’m not sure how to approach that whole scenario yet.”

  “Because she’s never really had a man in her life, and Conn’s the first one who’s going to be in it.”

  “Wait—I don’t know how much he’s going to be a part of my life. It’s too soon to tell. We still have to work out the details about how this baby will be raised.” If he stayed the course with all the promises he was making.

  Vi apparently heard the doubt in Rita’s tone. “You’ll figure it out. You always do.”

  “Thanks. But in the meantime, I’ve got to think of a way to keep Kristy from getting her hopes up when she sees me spending time with Conn. She’s already giving him puppy-eyed looks, like she’s measuring him up.”

  He was coming out of the convenience store, and Rita quelled a blip of adrenaline that shocked her through and through.

  “I should go,” she said as he got to the truck and started to put gas in the tank. “And you should, too, Mrs. Jackson.”

  Vi and Davis had planned to stay in a few Scottish castles as they explored the country for the next week and a half. What a life.

  “Mrs. Jackson,” Vi said with a sigh. “I used to secretly write that all over my high school notebooks when Davis and I were kids. Now it’s real.”

  “Lucky.” Rita smiled, happy that her friend’s dreams had come true. “Travel safe, and say hi to the groom.”

  “Will do. And Rita?”

  “You don’t have to say anything more about sucking it up and taking a chance.” Rita watched Conn in the sideview mirror. “I’m taking more of them than I ever imagined.”

  They said goodbye, and soon, Conn was done, getting into the truck and tipping back his hat on his head.

  “That Ori fellow?” he said, motioning toward the convenience store. “Nice as can be, but he could talk a donkey’s hind leg off.”

  Rita laughed. She hadn’t expected much humor tonight, but sometimes Conn had a way about him.

  He started the truck up. “Sorry it took me longer than it should’ve.”

  “No sorries required.”

  He drove the short distance back to her hotel, where a hint of stars twinkled in the night sky. He pulled up in front of the boardwalk, then insisted on opening the passenger-side door for her, reaching out a hand to help her to the ground.

  The gesture was so gentlemanly, especially with her in this long satin dress, that Rita almost felt as if some old-fashioned courting was going on.

  And, God help her, she liked it.

  When he started to bring her to the empty boardwalk and the front door, Rita stopped him.

  This wasn’t a date, after all.

  “It was nice to get a few things in order,” she said.

  “It was a start.”

  Conn was so tall that she had to look up at him. His height—and his wiry strength—made her pulse flutter.

  She cleared her throat. “I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon at the high school gym for the Chamber of Commerce lunch then?”

  “Definitely.” He said it again, as if he was determined to show her just how reliable he could be.

  That should’ve been the capper on the night, yet, for some reason, she wasn’t going anywhere. It was as if he still had a pull on her—that magnetic force that wouldn’t allow her to leave.

  As she looked up at him again, she lingered on the shape of his mouth. She had said yes to him several times today, so what if she just leaned in a little closer...?

  It seemed as if he were thinking the same thing, because he came a bit nearer, close enough so that she could hear him breathing.

  And every breath made her go a little weaker.

  But then, as if he remembered why he was here—to prove that he was more than that scattered playboy—he backed away toward the truck.

  “’Night, Rita,” he said.

  She blinked, her skin heating.

  Had that just been her, inviting a kiss?

  “’Night, Conn,” she said quickly. Then she climbed the couple of steps leading up to the boardwalk, wanting to get inside as soon as possible.

  Yet she couldn’t stop herself from glancing back at him, finding him still standing there by his truck, as if he didn’t want to go anywhere, either.

  Rita opened the lobby door and shut it firmly behind her, before she could change her mind and say yes to him one too many times.

  Chapter Seven


  “When is Mr. Conn coming?” Kristy asked as she held Rita’s hand on the way into St. Valentine High School.

  “He might already be here.” Rita had to tread lightly as far as her daughter was concerned. At four years old, Kristy had never been around men much on a personal level, except for her uncle Nick. One of Rita’s biggest fears was that Kristy might be so hungry for a father figure that she would attach too easily to any man Rita brought home.

  As they walked through the high school’s brick lobby, the musty smell of days gone by got to Rita. This was where she had laid her head on Kevin’s shoulder while they sat on the benches before school. This was where she’d thought she’d fallen in love.

  Kristy pulled Rita out of her painfully nostalgic fog by tugging on her hand, then yanking her into the gym, which was empty, since they were early for the Chamber of Commerce lunch.

  “Come on, Mommy!”

  “I’m right behind you.” And her stomach was gnarled in knots, anticipating Conn waiting for them.

  At first, when they entered the gym, Rita only saw row upon row of linen-covered tables set with heavy paper plates, plastic silverware and ruffled turkey centerpieces that the high school Future Homemakers of America club had already put out.

  Kristy stood in the center of it all in her red velvet dress and tights, her hands on her hips as she peered around for Conn, disappointment written all over her face.

  Rita’s chest clenched. If Kristy had been old enough, this was what she might’ve looked like on the night her father had left, if she had come into a room and tried to find him.

  “He’s just not here yet,” Rita said, going to Kristy and giving her a big kiss on the forehead.

  But then she heard a voice echoing off the gym’s walls.

  “Who’s not here?”

  Conn. And as Rita and Kristy spun around to see him, Rita wanted to run over, throw her arms around him and thank him for keeping his word.

  Sure, this was only a casual meeting but... Well, it was more than that, too. More than Rita was used to from men.