A Maverick and a Half

by Marie Ferrarella

  If that one was snapped up, there’d be another one to take its place, but saying so to his son in Jake’s present ramped-up mood seemed like an exercise in futility. Instead, he accommodated Jake and deftly swung his truck into the space—a space made somewhat smaller by a greedy 4x4 that had parked too far over to the left.

  Ready to bound out of the cab, Jake was already unbuckling his seat belt before the truck even came to a full stop.

  “Hold it, cowboy,” Anderson called out, grabbing the edge of his son’s jacket to keep him in place. “There’s nothing to be gained by a few extra seconds if you get hurt grabbing them.”

  Chastised, Jake sat back down in his seat. “Yes, sir.”

  Pulling up the hand brake, Anderson turned off the engine. “Okay, now you can get out of the truck.”

  Jake didn’t need anything more. He was out of the cab like the proverbial shot.

  Anderson expected his son to be halfway into the building by the time he got out himself, but he was surprised to see the boy waiting for him on the first step.

  “You waited,” Anderson marveled as he approached his son.

  Jake bobbed his head up and down. “I thought maybe you’d like to go in together.”

  Anderson smiled, pleased by the boy’s thoughtful actions. Maybe this father thing was going to work out after all.

  “I’d like that a lot,” he told Jake.

  The second Anderson reached him, Jake began moving quickly again. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that he’d outpaced his father again. “Can you walk faster, Dad?” Jake prodded.

  Anderson nodded. “I can do that.” To prove it, he stepped up his pace. So much so that he swiftly outdistanced his son.

  Because Anderson’s legs were so much longer, Jake had to fairly skip to keep up with him. Judging by his expression, Anderson estimated that the boy loved it.

  * * *

  Back to School Night, Anderson discovered, was basically an informal event. Parents were milling around the classroom with their fifth graders and their siblings.

  There were tables lined up in the middle of the classroom displaying reports written by Ms. Laramie’s students and, despite what Jake had said, there were also drawings and paintings done by the class—some of which Anderson thought were rather impressive—hanging on the walls.

  “Why don’t you show me your work?” Anderson coaxed his son as they wove their way in between the aisles.

  “My reports are right here,” Jake pointed out, drawing his father over to one of the tables. Within a couple of seconds, the boy had honed in on his folder and offered it to him.

  Anderson curbed the urge to just flip through the pages. Instead, because he knew how much it meant to Jake, he went through the folder methodically, giving each page the attention it deserved. He read everything under Jake’s eager, watchful eye.

  Preoccupied and focused, Anderson still became instantly aware of her the moment she approached him, despite the fact that it was from behind.

  “Good, aren’t they?” Marina asked. The next moment, she had circled around to face him. And then she smiled at Jake, who seemed to actually glow right before his eyes. “Jake has a very gifted way with words.” Raising her eyes to his, she said, “You should be very proud of your son, Mr. Dalton.”

  Anderson’s eyes met hers for just a moment. The split second was almost enough to make him lose his train of thought. Exercising extreme effort was the only thing that saved him.

  That and looking away.

  “I already am,” Anderson replied, looking at his son and smiling.

  “So,” Marina continued, the smile on her lips never wavering as she addressed Jake’s father, “now that you’re here, is there anything you want to ask me?”

  Yes, why are you messing with my head? And why can’t you look more like Mrs. Peabody, my fifth-grade teacher who stopped every clock she walked by? And why can’t I shake off the scent of your perfume? Why do I want to ask you out when that’s the worst possible thing I could do to either of us?

  The questions flashed through his head in an instant. Out loud, he said, “No, can’t think of a thing.” And then something did occur to him. He added the coda. “Unless you can think of something that might need improving.”

  Jake had momentarily gone off to confer with one of the new friends he’d been making at school. Marina took the opportunity to focus on Anderson and answer his question in a low voice.

  “Maybe our relationship.”

  Stunned, Anderson could only stare at her. “Excuse me?”

  “Our relationship,” Marina repeated, stressing the words even though they were hardly above a whisper. “Ever since you came storm-trooping into my classroom that day, you’ve been avoiding me.”

  “No, I haven’t,” he protested.

  Her eyes narrowed. “I saw you crossing the street the other day to avoid walking by me,” she told him.

  She’d caught him dead to rights, but he wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

  “I haven’t been avoiding you,” he retorted, then lowered his voice when he realized he’d attracted the attention of one of the mothers in the room, who seemed to lean over in their direction, undoubtedly to hear better. “I haven’t been avoiding you,” he repeated at a much lower decibel. “I just didn’t see the need to confer with you over every single little thing that Jake might have said at the dinner table.”

  Jake returned just then, incurring Anderson’s silent prayer of thanks. The woman couldn’t continue harping on this point if Jake was around to hear her—right? Okay, so he had been avoiding her and maybe that was cowardly of him, but it was definitely the easier way to go. A confrontation and all that entailed wouldn’t be any good for Jake, either.

  “You two talking about me?” Jake asked, a guileless grin on his thin lips as he looked from one adult to the other.

  No matter what kind of feelings he had about Marina Laramie, his son’s fifth-grade teacher was obviously doing the boy a world of good. Though part of him hated to admit it, she had drawn the boy out more in the last few weeks than he had on his own over the entire summer.

  If this had been a competition, Marina would have been the obvious winner, hands down. He was man enough to admit that, just not out loud. He hadn’t reached the point where he could say anything of the kind to her—yet.

  But, if the time came and he had to, then he would. Jake meant everything to him.

  “If you have no questions, nothing to share or point out, then this might just qualify as the shortest parent-teacher conference on record,” Marina conceded, willing to let it go at that.

  Even though she thought it would be beneficial to the boy, she was not about to force Anderson Dalton to talk to her—which he seemed no more inclined to do than he was inclined to have that in-depth conversation with his son she’d urged him to have.

  “Unless you count our first one,” Anderson reminded her.

  A competitive, combative streak shot through her, not allowing her to take his comeback at face value.

  “As far as substance goes, this was definitely the shorter one,” she informed him, her voice sounding just a little formal and reserved.

  “Does that mean that we have to leave now?”

  At Jake’s question she looked over at the boy, whose eyes were on her, not his father. His brows were knit in sadness.

  “Oh no, of course not,” Marina assured him quickly. “You definitely don’t have to leave. I was just giving your father a way out if he wanted to go.”

  Her eyes met Anderson’s fleetingly. She had no clue as to what he was thinking, whether he welcomed the reprieve or not. The expression on Jake’s face, however, had her continuing with what she was saying.

  “Your dad’s welcome to stay here, talk to the other parents, have some cupca
kes,” she suggested, gesturing at the plates of the dessert she’d made last night, strictly for this occasion.

  “Did you make them?” Jake asked eagerly, already claiming one.

  Marina tousled the boy’s hair. “Every last one of them.”

  Jake bobbed his head up and down as he swallowed the bite he had taken. “I thought so.”

  “Why?” she asked, amused.

  “Because they taste so good.” To prove it, Jake took another big bite of his cupcake, then grinned as he savored the taste.

  “You have a natural charmer here, Mr. Dalton.” Marina’s eyes were laughing as she regarded her student. “I’d watch him like a hawk if I were you.”

  Jake, Anderson thought, trying not to stare at the woman, was the only one in his life that he didn’t have to watch. She, on the other hand, was another story entirely.

  Chapter Six

  “I see you survived your first Back to School Night.” The breezy observation was addressed to Anderson by his sister as Paige stepped out of her Jeep.

  Anderson stopped working and frowned.

  It was a Saturday morning and he was out on the range, doing one of his least favorite chores: looking for breaks in the fence and mending them. He knew he could just order a couple of his ranch hands to do it, but Anderson didn’t believe in asking his men to do anything that he wasn’t willing to do himself. So here he was, out under a particularly warm September sun, repairing fences.

  He’d paused what he was doing when he’d heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. He’d assumed that it was Jerry, one of the hands, bringing Jake out to help him. His son had gamely volunteered his services at breakfast this morning and Anderson had thought it was a good idea. But he’d wanted to get started really early, so he’d told the ranch hand to bring Jake when the boy was ready.

  But instead of his son, he looked up to see his sister Paige, who, he had to admit, was looking every bit as fit as she used to when she’d worked right alongside all of them on the family ranch.

  Anderson studied her in silence for a second, then shook his head. “You come all the way out here to tell me that?” he wanted to know.

  “Of course I did,” she responded, tongue-in-cheek. “I’m your sister, or at least one of them,” Paige amended, “and I care.”

  “If you care so much, sister, why don’t you pick up a hammer?” Anderson suggested, holding one out to her. “Make yourself useful. I could use the help.”

  Instead of taking the hammer from him, Paige demurred. “Sorry, I’m afraid I won’t be here long enough for that. I promised Sutter I’d meet him in town in less than an hour.”

  “Convenient,” Anderson murmured, dropping the other hammer before getting back to work. “Say hi to my brother-in-law.”

  “What’s gotten into you lately, Anderson?” Paige asked, being deliberately cheerful in contrast. “You didn’t used to be so surly.”

  “Surly?” he echoed. “And here I thought I was being my usual charming self.”

  Following him as he moved down the fence, Paige shrugged. “Maybe you’re just reacting to the stress of being a new parent,” she conjectured. “You might think about getting some help dealing with Jake—just for a while until you get more used to being a dad,” she added quickly in case her well-meaning suggestion irritated her brother or set him off.

  Lately, she wasn’t sure just how to read Anderson. His behavior had been unusual. But she’d been observing him and now she had a theory. A rather rock-solid sort of a theory, in her opinion.

  Anderson glanced at her over his shoulder. “You volunteering?”

  “Me?” She stared at her brother, stunned. “Sure. In the three minutes I have left over when I’m not chasing after Carter, or helping out taking care of Jamie Stockton’s motherless triplets, or, oh yes, teaching a bunch of overenergized fourth graders. I was planning on using those three minutes to nap, but I can just pencil you in instead.” She looked a little exasperated that Anderson didn’t understand just how very busy almost all of her days were. “Of course I’m not volunteering, Anderson. I would if I could and you know that, but I’m practically sleepwalking through parts of my life as it is.”

  “And yet, here you are, looking in on me to see how I’m doing,” he said with a touch of sarcasm. Paige was up to something, he could feel it. He just didn’t know what yet. “They broke the ‘sister’ mold when they made you.” He paused to pick up another handful of nails before continuing. “So who’s this helper you’re suggesting I contact to assist me over the bumpy parts of being a first-time dad?”

  Paige stood behind him as Anderson hammered in the next board. “You could talk to Marina.”

  Anderson abruptly stopped working and stood up. Now it was starting to make sense. His sister was trying to play matchmaker.

  “Marina?”

  “Marina Laramie, Jake’s teacher,” Paige prompted cheerfully.

  “I know who Marina is. This is your suggestion on who should help me navigate through the maze of fatherhood?” he asked incredulously. He really would have thought that Paige would know better than to attempt to play matchmaker or meddle in any way in his life. Obviously, he’d given her too much credit. “In case you hadn’t noticed, she’s not a father.”

  “No, but she is a first-time parent,” Paige pointed out. “The two of you could pool your information, or maybe even—”

  “I don’t need to know how to diaper Jake,” he bit off, interrupting.

  “But you do need to know how to talk to him, how to reach him,” Paige said emphatically. “And from what I’ve seen, Marina’s pretty much got that covered. You could stand to learn from her.”

  “What are you, her publicity agent?” he asked, annoyed.

  Paige ignored the sarcastic question. She wasn’t about to get sidetracked. From what she—and their sister Lani—had observed, there was a spark between their brother and Jake’s teacher and in her opinion, the two made a very good pair. All she had to do was make her thickheaded brother aware of that.

  “Whether you realize it or not, you and she do have a lot in common,” Paige insisted. “You’re both first-time parents and you’re both single.”

  Okay, it was time to make his sister back off, he thought.

  “Is that what this is all about?” he demanded, forgetting about the fence repairs for the moment. “Being single?”

  “No,” Paige immediately cried, afraid that maybe she had overplayed her hand. She knew how Anderson felt about someone trying to set him up. “It’s about being alone in this parenting game and admitting that you need to pair up with someone who knows exactly what it’s like to be in your shoes.”

  His frown looked as if it went clear down to the bone. “I don’t want her in my shoes,” he snapped. “Besides,” he continued, his tone lightening just a little, “I’m not alone in this. I’ve got you and Lani and Lindsay helps when she’s not too busy at Dad’s firm, and I’m—”

  Paige threw up her hands. “No one could ever tell you anything.”

  Unfazed, Anderson responded mildly, “That’s because I’m older and smarter.”

  “Well, you certainly are older.” It was all that Paige was willing to concede. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. She’d learned long ago that yelling at Anderson never got her anywhere. “Seriously, big brother, Marina’s very good at her job.”

  “I’m sure she is,” he replied dismissively. Turning away from Paige, he got back to work. There was still a lot of fence mending left to do.

  Paige could all but see her words bouncing off her brother’s head, unheeded. But she wasn’t about to give up or go away without saying what she’d come to say.

  “And did you see the way Jake lit up around her at the town hall meeting?” she asked. “Every time she said anything to him, Jake p
ositively glowed. You had to have seen that.”

  Anderson paused for a second, but he didn’t get up and he didn’t turn around. “I might have noticed,” he allowed just before hammering in another nail. Hard.

  There were times when he could get her so angry, Paige couldn’t see straight. But this was important and she wanted to get her point across before she had to leave. “Look,” she began patiently, “it’s none of my business, but if you ask me—”

  “I don’t recall doing that,” Anderson told her quietly, knowing damn well that his sister was going to ignore him. She was good like that, ignoring whatever she didn’t want interfering with whatever point she was espousing.

  “If you ask me,” Paige repeated through clenched teeth, “I don’t think that boy was getting the right sort of attention he needed from Lexie.”

  This time, Anderson did get up and turn around. He had deliberately avoided asking Jake anything about his mother. Lexie’s behavior was a definite sore point for him, but he didn’t want to make either his son or his son’s mother think that he was attempting to drive a wedge between them. He knew Lexie would immediately accuse him of trying to gain permanent custody of Jake—something he wanted with all his heart even if he didn’t have an aptitude for parenting. He could learn how to be a good parent, but he needed to have his son around in order to learn that. Antagonizing Lexie would definitely cause him to forfeit his custody rights.

  “Maybe not.” It was all Anderson would concede.

  “Well, Jake clearly responds well to the attention that Marina’s given him. Given that, wouldn’t it make sense to have those two together even when he’s not in school?”

  Anderson frowned. Just where was Paige going with all this? “What are you suggesting? That I get Marina to adopt him?”

  There were times that her brother was so thick, she could just scream. “Of course not.”

  “Then what?” he wanted to know impatiently.