by Dana Corbit
But as Joe’s gaze met Lindsay’s pale blue one across the table, his worries melted away quicker than an ice cube would have that afternoon on the sidewalk in front of Lindsay’s condo. This wasn’t too soon to be with Lindsay; it was the perfect time. He hadn’t known what he was looking for until she’d crashed literally into his life and his focus had shot off in as many directions as the shards of metal and glass had that tragic night. At first, that change in his focus had seemed as awful as the accident, but things had changed. Now he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Chapter Fourteen
“Look who’s already back to sleep,” Lindsay said several hours later as she looked over the truck’s center console to the child strapped in her safety seat. Emma’s tiny chin was tucked up against her chest, and her twin ponytails fell forward over her cheeks.
“I told you she’d be out for the count before we made it to the end of the street.” Joe turned in the driver’s seat to look into the backseat. “I wasn’t expecting it before we were even out of the driveway.”
He had just turned on the ignition when the two men from inside the house, one with a full head of white hair and the other whose salt-and-pepper look wasn’t far behind, stepped out on the porch and waved at them.
“Look at those two.” He shook his head. “You’d think they’d never met a woman before.”
“You mean they’re not usually big on long goodbyes?” She grinned, rolling down the automatic window. “Good night, you two. Thanks, again. We had a great time.”
“Don’t forget, you’re welcome to visit anytime,” Joe’s grandfather, Gino, called out.
Joe leaned across her and answered for her. “She won’t, Grandpa. You’ve reminded her three times. Don’t worry. I’ve got this under control.”
“Make sure that you do,” Leo said.
“Thanks, Dad. Good night.” He shook his head as he moved back into his seat, rolling up the passenger window with the automatic control.
“They’re great,” Lindsay said as she watched the two men return inside the house.
“I can see how you would think so as much as they were fawning over you. They probably would have traded me off in a split second if it meant they could keep you.”
“It wasn’t like that.” But his words still made her smile. “Anyway, I’m glad that’s the place you picked to take us for dessert. Those were the best chocolate-caramel sundaes we’ve ever had.”
Joe didn’t look at her as he backed out of the driveway onto the narrow Brighton street. “You weren’t so sure when we first showed up.”
“I just wasn’t expecting a command performance.”
“You mean you don’t think that meeting the parents and the grandparents was a fitting end to what we both have to agree was an unusual evening?”
“It was a fitting end, all right.” One that had nearly sent her into a panic attack when he’d told her just who lived in that three-bedroom ranch.
His bringing her to his father’s house couldn’t have had as much significance as she’d given it, but that didn’t stop her from imagining the little family she, Emma and Joe would make together. Didn’t stop her from dreaming.
To keep herself from starting again, Lindsay glanced to the sleeping child in the backseat. “She stole all of the Rossetti men’s hearts, didn’t she?”
“She wasn’t the only one.”
Lindsay smiled into the darkness. He always said the right things. “We probably shouldn’t have stayed so late, though. We should have gone home at Emma’s bedtime.”
“And just have accepted defeat in Grandpa’s checker tournament when you already had two kings?” He chuckled at his own joke. “Come on. Emma was fine. She went right to sleep in the guest room and didn’t even ask for a second drink of water.”
“I know, but she should have been in her own bed.”
“You worry too much. Have I ever mentioned that you should relax and give yourself a break sometimes?”
“A time or two.”
“Well, this time I’d say Emma is doing just fine.” He paused, glancing in his rearview mirror. “Except maybe for the crick in her neck from sleeping like that.”
Lindsay made a sound in her throat, not convinced, but she decided to change the subject. “I liked their house. Tricia was right. Their state police room was like a museum.”
“A memorial, you mean. And they’re still alive.”
“I thought the rest of the house looked like a celebration of family, too. There were so many pictures of you and your brother, your brother’s family, plus an amazing number of your grandmother and mother.”
As she pictured that long wall of photographs, she couldn’t help asking, “So neither your grandpa nor your dad ever considered remarrying?”
He shook his head. “They’re just a pair of merry widowers. It’s part of the Rossetti men’s tradition. Great marriages to women who are the loves of their lives. After my fiasco with Chelsea, I never expected to find mine.”
Joe didn’t say more, and he didn’t look her way, but his words remained between them. Lindsay swallowed her shock. What was he saying? That he’d found someone who he thought could be his lifetime love? He couldn’t be talking about her, could he?
The truck cab was quiet for the rest of the drive back to Wixom, except for the country music playing softly on the radio. Lindsay found herself resenting each mile they covered. When they reached her home, this amazing night would be over, and she didn’t want it to end. Still, too soon, he pulled into her driveway.
Joe turned off the engine. “I’ll carry her in.”
But Lindsay rested her hand on his shoulder as he reached for the door handle.
“I wanted to thank you first for tonight,” she said. “It was amazing.”
“Which part? The dinner for three, the pizza or the dessert? Didn’t I tell you that Leonetti’s was the best?”
“All of it,” she said simply because it was true. “It was the best first date I ever had.”
“That isn’t exactly high praise when you’ve had nothing to compare it to.”
“True,” she said, smiling. “But even if I’d been on a different first date every Friday since I was eighteen, I would still say the same thing about tonight.”
“Why do you do that?” His bright teeth shone under the streetlight filtering in through the truck’s rear window.
“Do what?”
“Make me want to kiss you every time you smile or laugh or say something clever. Although it was going to be tough, I’d planned to wait until I walked you to the door before taking you into my arms again so I could get this dating thing back in its proper order, but you’re making my plans impossible.”
“Impossible?”
Somehow, she managed not to giggle like a seventh-grader, but the nervous and giddy part she didn’t have a chance of preventing. Yes, he’d kissed her earlier, but that might have been an impulse, just a reaction to all of the romantic tension that had been brewing between them for days. If he kissed her again now, then his action would involve planning and purpose. She was having a tough time sitting still, waiting for him to choose.
“Don’t you think we’ve made enough of a front-porch scene today and given my neighbors enough fodder for backyard-fence gossip?”
“Oh.” His voice was filled with disappointment, but then he turned his head sharply toward her. “Oh, you mean…”
He didn’t finish whatever he’d been about to say, as instead, he leaned across the console and lifted a hand to brush his fingers through her hair.
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” he said. “Always knew it would be that soft.”
With infinite care, he tucked a strand that had fallen forward over her cheek back behind her ear. Then he leaned even closer, until his cheek touched hers, his five o’clock shadow scratchy against her sensitive skin.
And just when she’d convinced herself he would never do it, Joe slid his arms around her, turned his head and brushed hi
s lips over hers in the lightest whisper of a kiss. Her lids had barely fluttered closed, and he’d already lifted his head away.
She didn’t even think before she reached out and slipped her arms around his neck, pulling him close again and kissing him with the kind of joy she’d never expected to experience again after her sister’s death. Her mind was muddled and her lips were tingling when Joe took her by the shoulders, gently setting her back from him and leaning in to touch his forehead to hers.
“Sorry, but I’m trying very hard to be a gentleman here.”
Lindsay shook her head, having to wait a few seconds for her mind to clear. “I didn’t mean to— I didn’t intend—”
But he only shook his head, smiling. “It’s never been more important to me that I be a gentleman with anyone. It really matters this time. You matter.”
“Thank you,” she managed to say over the emotion filling her throat. If she hadn’t already been crazy about Joe Rossetti, she would have fallen in love with him right then. No one had ever made her feel more special. “Well, I had better get her inside.”
“Here. Let me help.” He reached for the door again.
She shook her head. “It’s not necessary. I can carry her. I can handle it. Really.”
“I know you can handle it. You always could.”
“Thanks.” Lindsay smiled at him again. He’d helped her in more ways than he could ever know. His belief in her had helped her to believe in herself and helped her to become the kind of guardian Emma could count on.
“Just unlock your car and I’ll strap her seat back in it and lock it up again,” he told her.
Because she realized she wouldn’t be able handle both the child and the seat, at least not in one trip, she relented. She reached in her purse and clicked the remote lock for her car. Then she touched the door handle.
“Lindsay, wait.”
Feeling his touch, she looked down to see his hand on hers. She stared as he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, and when he lowered it, he laced their fingers together. Lindsay found herself holding her breath, not knowing whether to anticipate or dread what he was about to say.
“It’s too soon for any of this,” Joe began.
Lindsay drew in a breath, her heart squeezing, and she hadn’t even heard him out yet. “Joe, you don’t have to—”
“I know. I probably shouldn’t even say it.” He shook his head, still holding on to her hand. “But I have to anyway. I’m falling in love with you.”
“Oh. Wow.” Lindsay took several deep breaths, not sure at first she’d even heard him right. Why was it that she’d automatically braced herself for the worst, even after the wonderful day they’d spent together?
He was watching her closely. Too closely. “Well, that’s one reaction, I guess. Not the one I was going for.”
“I’m sorry. I just…” She paused, not knowing what else to say.
“It’s okay. I’m not expecting anything. I mean I don’t—you don’t have to say anything.”
He was stammering, nervous—the way he made her feel sometimes—and all she wanted to do was to make him feel confident in this one thing.
“That’s just it. I do have to. I have to tell you that I love you, too.”
Immediately, he crushed her to him, cradling her against his chest, her head resting against his shoulder. Feeling so warm, so safe there, encircled in his arms, Lindsay found it easy to give him the gift of her heart.
Lindsay wasn’t sure whether she ever touched the ground as she climbed the steps to her condo, balancing a heavy, sleeping child against one shoulder and holding the key in her opposite hand. Joe loved her; he’d come right out and said it. And even though these feelings were new, and every bit as terrifying as they were exciting, she’d told him she loved him, too. Because she did.
She was still thinking about just how crazy she was about him while she put the key in the lock, but a ringing phone planted her feet back on the ground with an abrupt thud. Lips that had so recently been kissed pressed together in a tight line of frustration.
She pushed the door open, her stomach clenching as she caught sight of the wall clock. It was well past eleven. Her first temptation was to run and pick up the handset, but she shook her head at the thought.
“It’s not going to make any difference if I get it now or ten minutes from now,” she said under her breath.
She wouldn’t have to check caller ID to know whose call she’d missed. Most people called on her cell instead of her landline these days, and no one else would have phoned so late at night. Instead of answering, Lindsay started up the stairs, making slow progress with her heavy load.
“Aunt Lindsay,” Emma moaned, her head bobbing on Lindsay’s shoulder.
“Shhh. We’ll get you right back to bed, sweetie.”
“The phone is ringing,” the child said, her eyes halfway open.
“They’ll call back.” She had no doubt about that. “I just want to get you all tucked in.”
They’d only made it halfway up the stairs when the phone stopped ringing. All of a sudden, her decision not to worry about it when her cell battery had died while they were still at the restaurant seemed like a bad one. She should have worried.
Flipping on the light in Emma’s room, she helped her into her pajamas and dumped the laundry in the hamper before carrying her into the bathroom so Emma could brush her teeth and make a potty stop.
“I had fun tonight,” Emma said, as Lindsay tucked the summer blanket up to her chin.
“Me, too, sweetie.” She bent and pressed her lips to Emma’s forehead.
The phone was already ringing again by the time that Lindsay made it back downstairs. She reached it by the third ring.
“Hello?”
“Lindsay Renae Collins, do you have any idea how late it is?” Donna said, not bothering with a greeting.
Lindsay swallowed the dread in her throat. “Yes, I know what time it is.”
“I’ve been calling every fifteen minutes for the past four hours, and I—”
“Why were you calling?” Lindsay tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice, but even she could hear it. Her parents always checking up on her had bothered her more than she’d realized. Didn’t they recognize that she was an adult who was capable of making her own decisions?
“What?” Donna paused at the interruption to her tirade. “It doesn’t matter why I was calling.”
“I just wondered if something was wrong.”
“What’s wrong is that unless your home phone and your cell phone have been out of service, then you’ve been out all night, and you’ve had our Emma with you. What were you thinking, keeping a three-year-old out until eleven o’clock?”
“Look, Mom. My cell died, and Joe and I were just—”
“You were with that man?” Donna’s voice built with each word until the last one came out in a shriek. “That’s your excuse for traipsing around with my granddaughter all night? I was ready to start calling police stations and hospitals, and you were on a date?”
Her mother made “date” sound like a nasty word. How could the best night of her life have been a bad thing? “Please, Mom, listen.”
But Lindsay had already heard what her mother had said, and those words were convicting her as surely as a jury handing down a sentence. Guilt became a chill that flooded her veins. She couldn’t allow herself to be annoyed with her mother for checking up on her when her parents had already lost one child. Of course her mother would panic when she couldn’t get in touch with her.
“I’m sorry about the phone. Really. I’d forgotten to charge it, but I didn’t think it would be a problem. Anyway, Emma had been in bed for hours at…a friend’s house.”
She couldn’t explain why she was reticent to talk about her visit to Joe’s dad’s house when she’d been so pleased before that Joe had taken her to meet his family. It made no more sense than her trying to defend herself to her mother, who had no intention of listening, but she s
till had to try.
“Then she slept all the way home and went right back to sleep as soon as she was in her own bed,” Lindsay said.
“I don’t think I want to know where you were.”
At her mother’s unflattering insinuation, Lindsay gasped. Her mother must have heard it, too, because when she began again, she didn’t push the suggestion farther.
“You can make all the excuses you want, but the fact remains that you continually make decisions that don’t just suggest, they announce, that Emma isn’t important to you.”
“You’ve got to know that isn’t true,” Lindsay said. “Just because I went on one date—one where he happily included her—doesn’t mean Emma isn’t the most important person in the world to me.”
Her mother clucked loudly, the way she always did when she was disappointed in her. “You are always putting your social life ahead of her, and that tells me that Emma is not your top priority.”
“That’s not fair, Mom,” she said, even as questions hounded her inside. Could she say she was concentrating on Emma when she’d been busy falling in love with Joe? Hadn’t her attention been divided at best? Just as Jesus said that no one could serve both God and mammon, had her divided focus not been in Emma’s best interest? No, she couldn’t believe that.
“You know what isn’t fair?” Donna said. “That Emma lost her mother. That we lost our daughter, when that isn’t the natural order of things.” She’d been close to shouting by this time, but now she spoke in a quiet voice. “We should have gone first.”
Emotion made Lindsay’s throat burn, and her eyes flooded with tears she hadn’t cried in a long time. “I’m sorry,” she finally managed. “I know you’ve lost a lot. We all have. But I want you to know that, even though I’m dating Joe, I’m still focused on Emma. I love her, and Joe loves her, too.”
Lindsay paused and then plowed forward again. “Mom, I love him. I feel like God has a plan for us. I think that together we might be able to build the kind of life for Emma that she deserves.”
“I’m sorry, too.”