Mrs. Flannagan waited while Joanie relocked the laundry door. “You off tonight?”
“Yes. What about you?” Joanie fell into step beside her. “Do you have plans?”
“I’m going to have dinner with some of the women I met at the bridge tournament.” Mrs. Flannagan glanced at her watch. “Which reminds me, I better get going.”
“Have a nice time.” Joanie waved her off.
“You, too.” Mrs. Flannagan headed in the direction of the hotel.
Joanie paused just outside her quarters and looked through the window. Emily was seated on the floor talking animatedly on her toy telephone. Steve was sprawled on the floor next to her, his back against the sofa, his long khaki-clad legs spread out in front of him. He had a paperback in his hand and was reading.
Both looked so happy and content Joanie found herself smiling. Maybe she was making too much of this, she thought, expecting happy endings right away. Maybe she should just accept what Fiona had done, in leaving Emily with Joanie, and take it one day at a time. After all, Emily’s presence had shown her a whole new side of Steve and had given them something mutual to care about, to boot.
Still smiling, Joanie walked into her unit. To her surprise, Steve’s hands were empty and he appeared to be doing nothing at all. That was strange, Joanie thought. She had just seen him reading. “Where’s your book?” she asked.
A beat of silence was followed by his too-innocent look. “What book?” Steve asked.
Joanie knew that look. If she wanted to know what mischief he’d been up to, she would have to discover it for herself. She grinned, her own senses igniting, as she said, “The book you were reading just now. Where is it?”
Steve’s brow furrowed. She knew he was feigning confusion.
Yes, something was up, something he’d rather she not know about. She gave him an admonishing look. “Steve, I saw you.”
“Oh. Yeah. The Cat in the Hat.” He reached up to the sofa seat and brought the Dr. Seuss to his lap. “Yeah, I was looking at this a while ago,” he said.
Joanie knew he’d been reading a thick paperbook, not Dr. Seuss when she glanced through the window. “Uhhuh.” She sat down in the rocking chair opposite him, still trying to decide what to do.
“Want me to read it to you?” Steve offered.The laughter in his eyes charmed her, but she told herself sternly that she had to resist him. They were together now for Emily’s sake. Nothing more. At least not yet. Not until she was sure she could trust him to actually be all he seemed. “Sure now?” he teased, in a parody of a Southern drawl. “I’m a very good reader.”
Joanie shook her head and tried not to laugh. “No thanks.”
Emily scrambled to her feet and toddled over to Joanie. She thrust her toy phone into Joanie’s hand.
Joanie grinned and put it to her ear. “Hello! Hello!”
Emily giggled riotously and pulled the phone back. “’Lo! ‘Lo!” she parroted into the receiver.
“Want me to go down and stay with the clothes while they finish?” Steve asked, bracing one strong arm over his bent knee.
Again Joanie shook her head. “The clothes are in the staff laundry room, which is accessible only by key. They’ll be okay.”
“Do you want to give Emily her bath now?”
“It’s a little early yet.” What Joanie really wanted to know was where he had put whatever it was he’d been reading. Inspired with a way to find out and simultaneously solve a problem she’d run into earlier, she got up from the rocker. “By the way, have you seen a puzzle piece that has a duck on it? Emily seems to have lost it.”
“No, but it’s got to be here somewhere,” he replied.
While Steve looked beneath the end table and around the base of a potted plant, Joanie searched behind the pillows on the sofa. It wasn’t there. She felt between the cushions. Not there, either. Nor was there any thick paperback book. “Would you mind looking beneath the sofa for me?” she asked.
“No problem,” Steve got down on his hands and knees and lifted the sofa skirt. “Nothing here,” he said.
“You sure?” Joanie got down on her hands and knees and looked, too. She scowled in frustration. She’d been sure that was where he’d stowed his book. Abruptly Steve grinned. He withdrew the missing puzzle piece from inside Emily’s shape sorter. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Now what? She still hadn’t found his paperback.
“Listen, if you don’t mind—” Steve stood “—I want to go over and check on something in my place.”
“No problem,” Joanie said, watching as he pivoted and headed for the door. And it was then, as she noticed the hem of his shirt flapping over his belt, instead of tucked neatly inside it, that she knew where he’d put the book.
“Oh, Steve?” she said, dropping her voice to a comehither whisper just as he got to the door.
“What?” He turned, his expression surprised but wary.
Joanie glided forward. She wrapped her arms about his waist, her fingers closing on the thick paperback book. “What’s this?”
Eyes alight with mischief, he grinned, reaching behind him to capture her wrists, but that didn’t stop her, because she already had a hold of the book. She tugged it out of the waistband of his khaki trousers. Before she could bring it around to look at it, he gripped her forearms and forced her hands back behind her, so that the length of her body was pressed against the length of his. The feeling was almost more than Joanie could bear. Ribbons of sensation shot through her.
“Let go,” he said.
She shook her head even as she felt the traitorous weakening of her knees and the heavy thudding of his heart. He was affected by their sensual tussling, too.
“You let go,” she said breathlessly, angling her head and chest back as best she could.
Unfortunately her movement only served to plant her hips more firmly against his. Her face burned at the evidence of first his desire and then her own. Oh, no. No…
“Joanie…” he said warningly.
She wasn’t going to let him dissuade her. “I want to see the book.”
She struggled to free her hands, but he tightened his grip, still holding both her wrists and the book behind her. “No.”
“I—”
“No,” he said more firmly, and then his lips came down on hers, and she was kissed into silence, seduced by the tender magnetism that had made her his in the first place.
Joanie groaned, as the bright, energizing sensations overwhelmed her, and then his kiss turned warm, gentle, coaxing. She melted against him, sure she must be dreaming, yet knowing this kiss…this man…this moment…was all too real. She wasn’t merely resurrecting a memory from the past—she was making a new memory. A memory she sensed she would hold on to for a very long time to come.
Shaken by the thought of how hard and fast she was falling for him again, she caught her breath and drew away.
He drew her back. His lips fastened on hers once more, commandingly this time, assuming control. No longer important, the book slipped from her fingers and thudded to the floor. He let go of her wrists. She moved them up, over his chest, around his neck. She held him close, wanting so much more…
Steve felt her surrender in the way she opened her mouth to his, in the way she gave in to the passion with a soft sigh. Holding her in his arms was like coming home again, like being home, and he wanted only for it to go on and on and on. Feeling as if they’d waited too long, wasted too much time, he wove his hands through the silk of her hair and brought her closer yet. It felt so right, kissing her like this. It felt so right, holding her in his arms, feeling the eagerness of her body close to his.
Emily, tugging on their legs, brought them out of it. Slowly, wonderingly, they broke apart, looked at each other, then looked down.
Emily was watching them with a cheerful, inquisitive look. “’Lo, ‘Lo?” she said brightly, then handed the phone up to Steve.
Steve used his free hand to accept the phone. He kept the other wrapped s
nugly around Joanie’s waist. “Hello, yes, I’m here. Having a great time, thanks. Want to talk to Emily? No problem. It’s for you, Emily.” Pretending the call was urgent, he handed her phone back to her.
Emily giggled and putting the receiver to her face in a lopsided manner, toddled back to the sofa and began to chatter away again.
Meanwhile, Joanie looked down at the floor and caught sight of the book Steve had been working so hard to hide. Quickly she scanned the title. “Parents’ Encyclopedia of Child Care?” she asked, amazed.
Steve nodded and thought that maybe he didn’t need to devise ways to wrangle his way into her life, after all. There seemed a chance it would happen naturally. “I found it in town, in the book section of the general store.”
She considered him a moment. “Why didn’t you let me know you had it so I could read it, too?”
Steve shrugged, feeling even more inept. “Because if you’d had the book, you wouldn’t have needed me,” he said, caressing her shoulders gently as he pulled her close once again. He pulled her even closer for a brief, hard kiss. “And I wanted you to need me as much as I need you.”
It took a moment for Joanie to take in what he’d said. Another before she could find her voice. “Oh, Steve…” Joanie said softly, searching his eyes and finding a confusion and desire that mirrored her own.
“I know.” He shook his head, stunned at the lengths he would go to have her back in his life for good this time. “It doesn’t make any sense. It’s too soon. It’s too late. It’s too crazy. It’s all of those things and more, and it’s also the way I feel, Joanie—” he took her hand and placed it over his heart “—in here. I want to be with you,” he whispered urgently. “I want to be Emily’s daddy.”
Joanie marveled. Because you wouldn’t have needed me…and I wanted you to need me as much as I need you. She’d longed to hear those words from Steve for such a long time. She’d just never dreamed they would be paired with his request to be Emily’s daddy. This situation was incredible. It was also impossible.
“Oh, Steve…” Joanie said again, waiting for her heart to flutter back into place.
“Don’t say anything now.” He placed a finger against her lips. “Just…think about what I’ve said.”
And once again, they were interrupted. “Hungee!” Emily shouted, looking up at them and pointing at herself. “Hungee!”
“NOT EVEN TRUCK DRIVERS eat this much,” Steve said half an hour later as Emily polished off some diced chicken, pureed peas, corn-bread stuffing, cooked pears, a homemade biscuit filled with strawberry jam and two small cups of milk.
Seeing Emily was finally finished, he wiped off her hands and face and lifted her out of the high chair he’d brought over to Joanie’s unit.
Beside him, Joanie cleaned up the room-service tray that had held Emily’s late supper. “I guess your encyclopedia is right. Children will eat when they’re hungry. And eventually they all get hungry.”
“Right. We just shouldn’t make a big deal of it when she doesn’t, I guess,” Steve said.
“You’re probably right,” Joanie said with a smile. “Maybe if we did a little less hand-wringing, she’d be a little easier to please sometimes.”
“Maybe,” Steve said. Again their eyes met. Joanie felt the tension in him mirror her own. What would have happened if Emily hadn’t been there to interrupt them when Steve was kissing her earlier? Would they have made love? Joanie wondered, her emotions in turmoil. Would it be wise if they did? Or was she being a fool about him all over again?
“Do you think the clothes are dry?” Steve asked.
Joanie wondered at how fast and easily the two of them had become a team. But she shrugged and said, “Probably. If you’ll go down to the laundry room and get them, I’ll put Emily in the bath.”
“Be glad to,” he replied.
Joanie had already run the water and put Emily in the tub when Steve returned. Halfway through her shampoo, Emily began to yawn. Figuring the little girl had to be exhausted, Joanie hurriedly finished her bath and got her out of the tub. Steve had a T-shirt, night-time diaper and some footed flannel pajamas still warm from the dryer waiting when Joanie carried the towel-wrapped Emily into her bedroom and set her down in the center of the double bed to put her in her pajamas.
“Fine gak Mama?” Emily said, her eyes troubled as she looked up first at Joanie, then at Steve. She struggled to sit up before they’d even finished diapering her. “Bye-bye now!” she announced querulously.
“No, honey, it’s time for a story and then time for bed,” Joanie said, efficiently finishing the last of the snaps on Emily’s pajamas and then helping her to her feet.
“No.” Tears gathered in Emily’s eyes. Her bow-shaped lower lip thrust out in a pout. “Me fine!”
Wordlessly Steve disappeared into the other room. He returned with Emily’s blanket and her teddy bear. “Here you go,” he said.
Emily clutched both to her chest. She looked past them, then back at them. “Fine gak Mama!” she sobbed, rubbing her eyes.
“Any idea what she’s saying?” Steve said as Emily gave up trying to communicate with them and began to wail in earnest.
Joanie shook her head. She only knew that the depth of Emily’s distress was bringing tears to her own eyes. Her heart going out to her, she gathered Emily close and tried to comfort her. But Emily wiggled out of her grasp. She climbed off the bed and went to the window, dragging her blanket and teddy bear with her. Tears streaming down her face, she looked longingly out the window.
“Fine gak Mama!” she whimpered over and over again.
Steve got down on his knees beside her and held out his arms. For the first time, Emily refused to go into them. Undeterred, he patted her shoulder gently. “Emily, let’s rock.”
She shook her head and continued to stare longingly out the window. “Gak Mama…gak Mama…” she said.
Tears glistening in her own eyes, Joanie looked at Steve. “What are we going to do?” she whispered when again Emily shrugged off their attempts to comfort her.
Steve disappeared into the other room and came back with Emily’s jacket, another blanket, and her cap. His expression was hopeful. “I’ve got an idea.”
Chapter Seven
“I think she’s finally asleep,” Joanie whispered as Steve drove the golf cart sedately over the moonlit golf course. Emily cuddled against Joanie’s chest, her blanket and teddy clutched tightly in her hands.
“Want me to turn back?” he asked.
Joanie guessed they were a fifteen-minute golf-cart ride from the converted stables. “I think you’d better.”
As Joanie dried the last of Emily’s tears with the hem of her blanket, she thought about the contentment she felt whenever she held the little girl in her arms. The contentment she felt whenever she was with Steve. Was this what it would be like to be married and have a child of her own? A lot had happened over the past few days. Tumult had entered her previously serene life, but strangely enough, she didn’t want to undo any of those changes.
“Steve?”
“Yes?” He turned toward her in a drift of masculine cologne.
“What’ll happen if we don’t find Emily’s mother?”
“You mean if she doesn’t come back for her?”
“Yes.” Joanie’s voice trailed off as she cuddled Emily even closer. “I was thinking I’d adopt her myself.”
“That’s great.” Steve steered the cart with his left hand and curved his right arm around her shoulders.
“There’s only one problem.” Joanie sighed and leaned into him. “Tonight has shown me that being a single mother wouldn’t be easy.” She buried her face in the warmth of his brawny shoulder. “It’d be one thing if I had parents I could rely on to help out, but I don’t.”
“You’ve got friends, though.” Steve stopped the cart and turned toward her. “And people—like me—who’d be all too happy to help out.”
That was true. But right now she had to think about Emily, J
oanie told herself firmly, and the possibility that Fiona had left the precocious toddler’s life for good. Why? Because Fiona thought, as did many other people, that Emily belonged with Joanie for now and perhaps forever. “So you think I should go for it—if it comes to that?” Joanie asked Steve uncertainly. “And publicly make Emily my own?”
Turning abruptly serious, he said, “Yes, I think you should do everything in your power to keep her.”
Joanie sighed. She had the feeling all this sounded a lot easier than it ever would be to pull off. And yet she liked the idea. Emily needed her. And Steve, well, somehow he seemed to be a part of this equation, too.
But she didn’t want to be too hasty. She’d gotten herself in trouble before by following her heart, instead of her head. “Assuming of course that Fiona doesn’t come back for her,” Joanie amended quickly.
Steve nodded, but it was clear from the skeptical curve of his lips that he didn’t see that happening, not with the way events were unfolding. “You can count on me, Joanie. I promise you that.”
He leaned forward to brush a light kiss across her lips, a kiss that seemed to say she could count on him, not just now, but for a long time to come. Shaken, Joanie drew away. Once again, he was moving too fast for her, but very much in a direction she wanted to go. She wanted a family of her own. She wanted Emily. And Steve.
Looking more content than Joanie had ever seen him, Steve started the cart up again.
As they rode in silence, past the golf-course clubhouse toward the staff quarters, the direction of her thoughts brought Joanie up short. Taking care of Emily with Steve was fun, challenging and satisfying in a way unlike any she had ever felt, but it wasn’t a situation that was bound to continue for the long haul. Not like this, anyway. She had to remember that, she cautioned herself firmly, and not turn this into something more than what it was—a temporary crisis, generated by Fiona. Emily already had a home, a home she missed desperately, as evidenced by her crying jag tonight.
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