Touched by the profusion of love, Kennon drew back slightly, although she kept one arm tucked around each little girl. She tried to make sense out of what Madelyn was saying.
“Your dad’s not here?” Even as she asked, Kennon scanned the room. Disappointment burrowed through her.
In response, Madelyn peered around her torso and tilted her head as she looked outside the door. She answered Kennon’s question with another question. “He’s not coming with you?”
“No. Why?” Kennon did her best not to sound as nervous as she felt. “Did your father say he was going to?”
She looked up at Edna for an explanation.
“Dr. Simon told the girls that he was going to go see you.” Edna paused for a moment, then lowered her voice as she moved in closer, trying to share her thought with only Kennon. “My guess is that he was coming to apologize for doing whatever it was that he did to make you leave.”
“He didn’t do anything,” Kennon said, feeling guilty that he’d even thought he had. “It was my fault,” she admitted, then delicately extricated herself from her two biggest fans. “I’d better try to catch him.”
Rather than agree or wish her luck, the tall, sturdy woman placed a large hand on Kennon’s shoulder and held her in place.
“My suggestion is to stay right here. Dr. Simon does have to return home at some point, and if you leave and try to catch up with him, I can see the man doing the same the minute the little ones tell him you were here.” She eyed Kennon sympathetically. “The two of you could spend an entire lifetime missing one another, just like in that old, frustrating poem, Evangeline. Why don’t you just stay here with us until Dr. Simon comes back?” she suggested, with the confidence of a woman who knew she was right.
It made sense, Kennon thought as she nodded. “All right, I’ll stay here and wait.”
The second that was settled, Meghan piped up, “Did you miss us?”
With children, there was no need for games, or secrets. Children responded well to the truth. “Terribly,” Kennon assured both girls. Once again she put an arm around each set of small shoulders. “More than you can possibly ever know.”
“We missed you, too,” Madelyn reported solemnly. For good measure, she crossed her heart.
Hopefully, Simon had missed her, too, Kennon thought. She did her best to focus only on the girls and not let her mind drift over to thoughts of Simon and questions that began: “What if—?” She’d find out “what if” soon enough.
Simon swallowed the curse that hovered on his lips.
Kennon’s shop was closed down for the night when he got there. Looking in through the showroom window had yielded no telltale back-office light, no light at all to indicate that she might be somewhere on the premises.
He was confronted with the same dead end when he arrived at her house. There wasn’t even a front porch light on to indicate that she was coming back this evening.
Could she have taken off on a trip somewhere? Just like that? he asked himself uneasily.
Was there someone else?
Simon tried her cell. It went to voice mail after four rings. Three frustrating times.
Calling her landline yielded another runaround episode. This time he got to listen to her voice on the answering machine. “If you’d like to leave a message—”
“No, I wouldn’t like to leave a damn message,” he growled under his breath. “I want to talk to you in person. I want to hold you and make love with you until you realize we belong together.”
Suddenly aware that the answering machine was picking all this up, he slapped his cell phone shut, terminating the call.
Great. Now she would think he was crazy and take out a restraining order against him.
Frustrated, Simon paced in her driveway and debated waiting in front of her house until she finally came back, but if she was off on a trip somewhere, heaven only knew how long she’d be gone. He couldn’t just wait out here like some mooning, lovesick teenager. He had a life to lead. A life that didn’t feel as if it was a proper fit anymore, not without her in it.
Simon sighed, dragging his hand through his hair. He had to be getting back to the girls. Somehow, he was going to have to find a way to explain to them why he wasn’t returning home with the woman all three of them had fallen in love with.
There, he thought, starting up the car again, he’d said it. Admitted it without having his arm twisted, albeit silently and to himself, but it was a start. He loved Kennon. And he wanted to have a chance at spending forever with her.
But first, he told himself, he had to find her.
After he got home and talked to the girls. He didn’t want them waiting and worrying.
Lost in thought, Simon didn’t register the car at the curb as he glanced toward it without seeing it. He pulled into the garage and depressed the garage door remote. The door was on its way down when he realized what he’d seen. Springing to life, he darted outside. The garage door came within a hair’s breadth of closing on him before it stopped moving, shuddered and then went back up again.
That was Kennon’s car. He recognized the make, as well as the license number.
Was she here? Had she come looking for him while he’d been out trying to find her so that they could talk?
Or was there some other reason Kennon was here?
He didn’t care about the reason. Whatever had brought her back was fine with him. All he wanted was to make use of the opportunity and talk her into reconsidering walking out of his life.
Most of all, he wanted to talk Kennon into giving him another chance. He wanted to be able to make the right sort of impression this time around, to change her life the way she’d changed his—and the lives of his girls.
The moment he opened the door leading from the garage into the house, his daughters came running over to him, excitement pulsating through them as well as the atmosphere they generated around them.
“She’s here, she’s here!” Their young voices melded together as they excitedly shouted out the announcement to him.
Each girl grabbed one of his hands and pulled mightily, leading him into the living room.
Simon didn’t remember walking. One second the girls were coming at him, the next he was in the living room, facing Kennon, wanting nothing more than to sweep her into his arms.
Well, maybe one thing more. But if he kissed her now, he might not be able to stop, so he refrained.
Kennon watched him a little uneasily, not quite certain how to gauge his reaction to her being here. “I didn’t mean to barge in—”
He spoke over her. “I went to your store. Then your house—”
Two voices undercut one another, dueling for space and to be heard exclusively. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean what I said—”
He shook his head, negating the part he heard her say. “I should have come to you sooner—”
They continued talking over one another, mixing words, sentences, emotions. The two little girls looked at one another, clearly frustrated.
Madelyn stepped in between them, pressing a small hand against each of them. “Stop talking and kiss each other,” she pleaded.
Mutually struck by the absurdity of the situation—and how confusing it had to seem to the girls—Simon and Kennon stopped talking and laughed.
Kennon glanced at the man who had won her heart without even trying. “You have a very smart daughter.”
She’d get no argument from him. “I’m just beginning to find that out.”
Tired of being on the sidelines, Meghan got behind Kennon and pushed her toward Simon.
Not to be outdone, Madelyn got behind her father and pushed him toward Kennon.
Neither had to work too hard to achieve their goal.
“Ask her, Daddy. Ask her!” begged Meghan, a budding matchmaker.
“Yeah,” Madelyn chimed in. “Ask her before she changes her mind again.”
He hadn’t intended for his confrontation with Kennon to be a group effort. And he certain
ly hadn’t intended for the two pint-size women in his life to steal the thunder of what had been hovering in the back of his mind for the last week, especially as he began mourning the demise of a relationship that had never been allowed to flourish and take serious root.
Impatient that her father wasn’t being fast enough, Meghan took the lead and put the all-important question to Kennon. “Will you be our mommy?”
Stunned, Kennon felt a wave of heat pass over her even as a sense of longing, mixed with joy, surged through her.
But the question wasn’t coming from Simon, it was coming from his daughter, she reminded herself. All the man probably wanted was just some sort of a temporary relationship. But at least it was a relationship. And that was a start.
Simon looked down at his younger child and did his best to sound stern. Before Kennon had come into their lives, it wouldn’t have taken any effort at all to sound that way because he was stern. She’d mellowed him. And he was grateful.
“Meghan, you can’t put Kennon on the spot like that,” Simon told her.
Madelyn came to her sister’s defense. “But you’re not asking her, Daddy,” the older girl complained. “So we have to help.” She took her place beside Meghan and turned large, luminous and, above all, pleading eyes on Kennon. “Will you?”
With all her heart, she wanted to shout yes, but she was afraid that if she showed too much enthusiasm, it would make Simon back off again. So she chose her words carefully.
“I can tell you that I’ll always be there for you when you need me,” Kennon hedged.
Meghan shook her head. “But you gotta marry Daddy. That’s part of the deal,” she stressed.
Chagrined, Simon didn’t know where to begin. He looked at Kennon and apologized.
“I’m sorry about putting you on the spot like this.” He looked at his daughters, but for the life of him, he couldn’t be stern right now, especially since he understood how they felt.
Because he felt the same way.
“Don’t be,” she told him, then looked away in case he saw too much in her eyes. “It’s nice being wanted that much.”
He’d never get a better opening than that, he thought. “Well, in that case…”
She could have sworn her heart hitched in her chest just then. “Yes?”
He’d always been the type who’d known what he wanted when he finally saw it. Granted he’d been a little slower this time around, but that was because he was still coming to terms with the upheaval in his life. But now that was settled and he was focused again. He knew that Kennon was the woman he wanted to be with. Knew it the way he’d known when he’d first been with Nancy.
And what made it feel even more right was that he felt certain Nancy would have approved. She’d always wanted him and the girls to be happy. And Kennon made them happy. More than that, Kennon had succeeded in making them a real family again.
“If I asked,” he said slowly, “what would your answer be?”
Oh no, she wasn’t going to expose herself like that, not without Simon saying something more binding than that. “Depends on what you asked,” she told him.
All right, she’d taught him about what it took to be a family, about the importance of being together, and all that was well and good. But there were some moments that needed privacy, without a cheering section.
He turned to his older daughter. “Madelyn, take your sister into the family room and play with her, please.”
Madelyn gave every impression of being right there for the long haul. “We don’t want to play anything, Daddy, we—”
Edna swept into the room seemingly out of nowhere. “You heard your father, girls, you need to leave Miss Kennon and him alone for a bit.” As she spoke, she began to usher the two sisters out of the room quickly.
Meghan gave in to the inevitable, but she looked over her shoulder at Kennon as she was being led out of the room. “Will you still be here later?”
Kennon stole a covert look at Simon, then shifted her eyes back to Meghan. “I think there’s a very good chance I might be,” she told Meghan. As they were taken from the room, Kennon dropped her voice and asked Simon, “Does Edna always materialize that way, just at the right moment?”
He nodded. “Pretty much. It’s written into her contract.”
The corners of Kennon’s mouth curved. “You’ve developed a sense of humor.”
“That was your doing,” he admitted. “As was my learning to spend more than a few minutes at a time with the girls.” Simon paused. “I’m getting sidetracked again.”
“And what’s the main track?”
“They want you to be their mother.”
And? her mind whispered. “I know,” she said out loud. “I was listening.”
And he should be talking, Simon thought. He took a breath, then let it out slowly. “I’ve only done this once before and I’m not very good at it.”
Mentally, she crossed her fingers—and prayed.
“Give it a shot,” she said encouragingly. Though she knew she shouldn’t let herself get carried away, at this point she couldn’t keep from hoping that this was going where she so desperately wanted it to go.
Here goes nothing, Simon thought. “You not only made me find a sense of humor and taught me how important it is to be part of a family unit, how important it is to be a father to my daughters, you also brought me back from the dead.”
She felt herself growing nervous again. “And all before breakfast, too,” she quipped.
He found that he could read her. The thought was comforting. “Now, that’s nervous humor.”
Kennon nodded. “That it is.” She waited. The pause grew longer. “Are you trying to ask me something?”
“No,” he answered seriously. “I’m trying to tell you something.” He watched her expression as he continued. “I’m trying to tell you that I love you. That your coming into our lives made everything I just said possible. I know that I have no right to put you on the spot any more than Meghan did—”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” she said, interrupting him. “Some of us work best when we’re put on the spot. Go ahead,” she urged.
“Okay.” Why was his mouth so dry all of a sudden? “Will you marry me?”
“Could you go back to the ‘love’ part?” she requested with a warm smile. “I like hearing that part.”
The request made him realize something. “I haven’t heard you say anything about love.”
“Then you haven’t been paying attention.” Because she realized she’d been conveying just that message with every fiber of her being for a while now. She’d told him without the benefit of actual words.
Kennon wove her arms around his neck. “But for the record, yes, I love you. Yes, I love the girls—and I even love Edna, too,” she threw in for good measure. “And, yes, I will be their mommy and, yes, I will marry you,” she concluded, letting out a long breath. “Does that cover everything?” she asked with a wicked smile.
Simon drew her closer and could feel the heat of her body against his. “Does for me.”
He had only begun to kiss Kennon when his daughters came running back into the room, squealing and cheering loudly.
“I thought Edna took you to the family room to play,” he said, looking at them over his shoulder. “Were you standing outside the room and listening?” he asked. He did his best to look at them as sternly as he once had.
“No, Daddy,” they protested in unison.
“It has something to do with vents,” Kennon told him just before she turned his head back toward her. “C’mere, you. I’m not finished with you yet.”
And she wouldn’t be, he thought as he sealed his lips to hers. Not for at least a lifetime. Maybe more.
And in the background, he thought he heard Meghan ask, “Now can we go to Knott’s Berry Farm?” He could feel his heart smiling.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-0199-6
A MATCH FOR THE DOCTOR
Copyright © 2011 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
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**Talk of the Neighborhood
~Kate’s Boys
¤¤The Baby Chase
¶Matchmaking Mamas
°The Fortunes of Texas: Lost…and Found
*Cavanaugh Justice
§§The Sons of Lily Moreau
†The Doctors Pulaski
°°The Wilder Family
††The Fortunes of Texas: Return to Red Rock
A Match for the Doctor Page 17