His Valentine Surprise

by Tanya Michaels

  HAVING TUCKED VICKI IN for bed, Mark had just stretched out on the couch to catch part of a basketball game when his cell phone chirped, signaling a text message. He picked it up off the coffee table, surprised to see Shay’s name on the screen.

  You awake?

  He laughed. Granted, his social life hadn’t been a frenzy of wild and crazy parties for the past few years, but he wasn’t such a stick-in-the-mud that he was asleep this early.

  Yep.

  He held his breath waiting for his response. Yesterday, she’d asked for space. Did her contacting him mean she’d changed her mind? He tried to tamp down his rising hopes in case her texting was for something as mundane as a question about the Campside Girls or telling Mark she’d dropped an earring at his house last week.

  Been thinking. Offer still good of getting Dee to babysit?

  So that they could go out? His heart was thundering as he responded.

  Good on my end, have to confirm with her. Want me to call you after?

  An eternity passed in the second it took her to type: Yes.

  Okay. Talk soon.

  “Yes!” He wasn’t entirely sure what had changed Shay’s mind, nor was he sure he cared. He muted the basketball game then, with fingers that shook, dialed his sister-in-law’s phone number. “Dee? It’s Mark.”

  “Hey, stranger. I feel like we haven’t seen you enough lately. Sorry we had to cancel the weekly dinner tonight.”

  “Don’t be silly. It’s great that Bobby’s in a chess tournament. How’d he do?”

  They chatted for a few minutes about his nephew and about his first Campside Girls meeting and his enthusiasm for the upcoming campout and singing for the seniors. It had seemed rude to launch into asking her for a favor as soon as she picked up the phone, but Mark couldn’t wait any longer.

  “Dee, you know how you’ve always said you’d be willing to watch Vicki if I…wanted an adult night out?”

  His sister-in-law actually squealed. “You’re going to ask the principal on a date, aren’t you? Oh, Mark, that’s fantastic.”

  “How did you know it was Shay?” he asked, omitting mention of the fact that he’d already asked her.

  “Um…I don’t want to make you feel self-conscious, but there have been a few harmless rumors.”

  He let his head fall back against the couch’s armrest. “Wonderful.” No doubt that “harmless” gossip was fueling her reticence to see him. “I’m more worried about her feeling self-conscious, so if you could keep this to yourself?”

  “Got it. On the down low, my lips are sealed, it’s in the vault!”

  For his sister-in-law to be prattling nonsensically, she must be really happy for him. “Thank you, Dee. So any chance you’re available one night this weekend?”

  “Friday works for me if it works for you and Shay. Tell you what, you can have Vicki pack an overnight bag. You know, just let her fall asleep in one place and stay put instead of having to move her or wake her up if the two of you are…out late.”

  At the thought of an entire night with Shay, he almost had to put his head between his knees to force blood back to his brain. But having this conversation with Dee was incredibly awkward, so he cleared his throat, informed her, “I’ll get back you on that” and hung up the phone.

  He took several deep breaths before punching in Shay’s number and worked hard not to sound like an overeager fourteen-year-old when she answered.

  “How does Friday sound to you?” he asked. “We could do dinner or a movie. Or both, actually. Dee said she would just let Vicki spend the night if we’d like to stay out late.”

  Shay digested this information. “Or,” she said slowly, “we could get takeout and rent something and have dinner and a movie at my place.”

  Because she’d rather not run into anyone affiliated with the school or because she wanted to be alone with him as badly as he did with her? Choosing to believe it was the latter, he told her, “It’s a date.”

  “YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL,” Mark said once Shay had opened the door. “No surprise there, though. You always look beautiful to me.”

  She laughed. “That’s because you haven’t seen me sweaty and disheveled in my ratty workout clothes.”

  Would he sound disturbed if he told her he was pretty sure he’d think she was gorgeous even then? Keeping that opinion to himself, he handed her a small bouquet of white and blue flowers. Roses probably would have been more romantic, but the blue had made him think of her eyes.

  “Thank you.” She led him inside, smoothing a hand over her denim skirt. She’d paired it with a loose, scoop-neck violet sweater. Shay had mentioned once that she enjoyed playing Scrabble—with that neckline, she could beat him even if her only letters were a Q and six Es. “Can I let you in on a secret?”

  “Please.” He shrugged out of his jacket. Lord, it was warm in here.

  She grinned. “I changed clothes four times. Everything either seemed too dressy for an evening at home or so casual that it looked like I didn’t care. But I do.”

  He reached out, running his fingers through her hair and cupping the back of her neck. “Thank you for giving this a chance.” Bending down, he kissed her hello.

  It was a far superior custom than kissing someone good-night, knowing that your time with them had passed too quickly. This way, the entire night stretched ahead of them, the possibilities dizzying.

  Shay broke away from the kiss only for a moment. “Your hand! It’s not wrapped anymore.”

  “Went to the doctor today. I’m a whole man again.” Even though he was joking, truer words had never been spoken. He did feel whole. And alive. And excited. For too many months, he’d been going through motions—caring, perhaps, especially about his daughter, but not really trying. Now, he and Vicki were closer than they’d ever been. And while the store was struggling, he was excited by the challenge and invigorated by ideas. He was glad he’d signed on to be a troop leader.

  But he was especially glad for this woman in his arms and the way she’d changed not only his life but him.

  He pulled her tighter against him. “You are amazing. You know that?”

  She looked surprised but delighted by this declaration. “Yes, but pretend I don’t know and tell me anyway.”

  It was odd to be chuckling and kissing at the same time, but not unpleasant. She opened her mouth against his, letting him in, and as their tongues met and their bodies pressed closer together, the laughter faded, leaving something hotter and more intense in its wake. Distantly, Mark heard the flowers she dropped hit the floor. He felt Shay’s hands on his body, one on his neck and one fisted in the back of his shirt as if part of her wanted to tear his clothes off. Desire roared through him. He wanted to be touched everywhere, was hungry to touch her.

  It was the soft, urgent noises she made in the back of her throat that sent him over the edge. He scooped her up in his arms. “Bedroom?” It was both a plea for permission and a request for directions.

  She nodded, her eyes glazed and her lips swollen, pointing the way.

  As it turned out, they never did watch their intended movie. And they didn’t get around to reheating dinner until hours later.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “No, I see what you mean,” Mark agreed, leaning back in his desk chair. It was the last week in March—over the past month, he and Jeffrey from Hawk Summit had struck up not only an informal professional alliance but a legitimate friendship. So when Jeffrey had called that morning to ask if he could send over a press release he wasn’t entirely pleased with, Mark had said of course. “It definitely misses some of the points you wanted to make.

  “Tell you what,” Mark continued. “I have a couple of suggestions I’ll email back to you.”

  “I appreciate that. It’s damn frustrating paying PR consultants for work that I—or someone else—ends up having to fix,” Jeffrey grumbled. “When are you going to take me up on my offer?”

  As his way of saying thanks for Mark’s promotional efforts on beha
lf of the ski resort, Jeffrey kept inviting Mark to bring Shay up some weekend at a deeply discounted price. It was a very tempting idea. Then again, the idea of being alone with her anywhere sounded good.

  Mark adored his daughter, and Shay was fantastic with Vicki, but it was difficult to find quality alone time with your lover when you were trying to set a good example for a child. The only time Mark and Shay got to have a sleepover was when Vicki had one elsewhere, and since he didn’t want his daughter to think he was trying to get rid of her all the time, he—

  “You still there?” Jeffrey asked, sounding amused.

  “Yeah.” Mark cleared his throat. “Sorry. Guess I got distracted.”

  Jeffrey laughed. “I really want to meet this gal someday.”

  “You will, but this weekend, I am off to take eight little girls camping. Oh, and word of advice? When you do meet Shay, I wouldn’t call her a ‘gal.’”

  A buzzing came from among the papers on Mark’s desk, and he frowned, expecting to find some kind of large bug. It took him a second to realize that his cell phone, set to vibrate, was vying for his attention.

  “Jeff, are we all done? Someone else is trying to catch me on my other phone.”

  “No prob. Thanks again,” Jeffrey said right before he disconnected.

  Mark simultaneously hung up his office phone and fished out the cell. “Hello?”

  “Mark, it’s Susan.” Susan Webb was the science teacher from Woodside who’d agreed to act as the third necessary chaperone for this trip. He could run a meeting in the cafeteria alone if he absolutely had to, but Campside Girls took their liability very seriously. For overnight trips out into the woods at this age level, there was a one adult per two children ratio.

  As a bonus, because Susan was a science teacher, she’d planned a couple of fun experiments as well as stargazing Saturday night that would help them earn a junior astronomy badge.

  “Bad news,” she said, sounding shaky. “I threw up about half an hour ago. Left the school, I’m at home now.”

  But what about the campout? Mark pulled together just enough shreds of chivalry and plain human decency not to blurt the selfish question. “That’s awful.” On multiple levels. “I hope you feel better soon.”

  “Obviously this means I can’t— Gotta go!”

  The phone went dead and Mark stared at the cell in his hand. Poor Susan.

  All right, this was a setback, but they didn’t leave for the campground until after school let out for the day. He still had a few hours to find a replacement. He didn’t even bother calling Charlotte Wilkes—he knew the reason she hadn’t volunteered to come with Tessa in the first place was because she had something going on with her older daughter this weekend. So he tried another mom on the troop phone tree list and left a message. He’d call a few more and if nothing else, grovel to his sister-in-law, even though she didn’t have a daughter and had never actually been a Campside Girl herself.

  “Hey, boss?” Roddy’s deep voice came down the hall. “Someone up front to see you.”

  Mark tossed his phone back onto the desk, deciding it would be grossly unprofessional to make calls while helping a customer. Although clearly that philosophy didn’t extend both ways—more than once he’d been summoned to assist someone who continued carrying on a conversation. The worst were the customers with ear-pieces who wandered the store like crazy people muttering to—and occasionally arguing with—themselves.

  Before Mark even made it out of the back hallway, his visitor appeared, wringing a grin from him despite the unfortunate news he’d just been given.

  “Shay! What are you doing here?”

  “I am occasionally allowed to leave my office for lunch.” She came to him with an enthusiastic kiss that made all his troubles recede. Though it was hardly a secret in town that they were dating—it had been a month, after all, and Braeden wasn’t that big—she was still hesitant to make big public displays of affection. He savored stolen moments like these.

  “I was just talking about you a few minutes ago,” Mark told her, smoothing her hair away from her face. Her hair was already perfect, but he liked the excuse to touch her. “I was on the phone with Jeffrey again and he wants to meet you. Probably thinks you’re a figment of my imagination.”

  “Maybe we could skip the birthday meal with my family next week and go meet Jeffrey instead,” she offered, her eyes twinkling.

  He laughed. “I’m looking forward to meeting your parents.”

  “My mother is going to insist you call her Mom and my father will probably excuse himself between dinner and dessert to do a criminal background check on you. And the fuss they’re going to make over Vicki is probably going to freak her out.”

  “It will be fine,” he promised. “You want to wait here while I get my wallet and cell phone and I’ll take you out to lunch?”

  She shook her head. “Actually, I was hoping you’d take a few minutes to help me in the store.” She contorted her face into an exaggerated grimace. “I need to purchase a sleeping bag. I hear you need one if you’re going camping.”

  “You’re going camping? Wait, does this—”

  “You forget, Susan Webb is one of my faculty. I knew she was sick before you did, and I’ve decided to offer my services this weekend. I’m even a former science teacher. Unless,” she added somewhat shyly, “you’ve already found a replacement?”

  “No.” Mark pumped a fist in the air. “This is fantastic! But are you sure? You’ve never made any secret of the fact that you consider roughing it a place where they don’t leave mints on the pillows.”

  “Well, you are having dinner with my family Tuesday, so I owe you.”

  “Meeting your family is not a hardship,” he reminded her for the umpteenth time.

  “You say that because you haven’t met them,” she warned. “Come on, let’s go spend obscene chunks of my salary on camping gear so you can demonstrate to your boss what a charming and effective salesman you are.”

  “This is going to be great,” he told her. “You’re going to love camping.” He and Shay, together beneath a canopy of stars? The only thing that could possibly make it more perfect was if they were allowed to sleep in the same tent and didn’t have eight juvenile witnesses. Other than that, it fit his idea of paradise to a T.

  THIS WAS TURNING INTO the longest weekend of Mark’s life—and they hadn’t even made it to Friday night yet.

  Trying to get the girls sorted in the school parking lot into two groups of four had been chaotic enough. The plan was that he and Shay would take one group of four in Dee’s borrowed van, and the two volunteer moms, Julie and Kris, would take the other four in Julie’s SUV. As if it weren’t bad enough that Mark had to contend with eight first-and second-grade girls arguing about who got to sit next to whom and which one was the “cool” car, he’d noticed Shay’s face flame when Julie whispered just a little too loudly to Kris, “I didn’t know we were allowed to bring dates on this trip.”

  He’d assumed the trip would smooth out once they were on the road, but that was before Julie blew a tire, not to mention two separate potty stops in the last hour and a piercing shriek worthy of a wailing banshee that nearly sent him off the road. Apparently someone had told six-year-old Meghan that there were poisonous snakes living at the campground and that one would probably bite her in her sleep. After her initial screech, she’d burst into tears and was now hysterically sobbing, “Take me back, Mr. Mark, take me back!”

  Shay leaned close to him, her voice a whisper—not that any of the kids in the backseat could have heard her over Meghan anyway. “Are we having fun yet? Hey, girls, who wants to hear something weird about snakes?”

  She got a chorus of “me!” from three of them and a cautious sniffle from Meghan. For the next twenty minutes, Shay shared with them all sorts of strange trivia about different wildlife, from funny stories she swore were true to the kind of “eww, gross” anecdotes that made children giggle. Mark would have thrown his arms around her in gr
atitude if he weren’t busy steering.

  When they finally reached the campsite the girls spilled out of the van, all talking at once, to greet the other four as if they hadn’t seen them in a month of Sundays—and hadn’t all been arguing at the start of the trip. Mark took just a second to breathe deeply before he joined his charges.

  “You were great with them,” he told Shay.

  She paused, her fingers wrapped around the door handle, and teased, “Yeah. I should probably find some kind of job working with kids, don’t you think?”

  “Smart-ass,” he said affectionately. “But I’m too grateful to care. You can have anything you want for your birthday. Just name it, and I promise you’ll get it.”

  “That shouldn’t be too difficult a promise to keep.” Slowly she let her gaze drop down over him in suggestive perusal. “I know exactly what I want.”

  He grinned. “May I say, you have excellent taste.”

  EVEN THOUGH THERE WERE a few snags, the weekend was deemed a success. The nights were too cloudy for stargazing, but the chilly, overcast weather meant that there were no mosquitoes to bother anyone. It was easy enough for the girls to stay warm by putting on coats, huddling into fleecy sleeping bags or roasting marshmallows around the small fire. Shay headed up a nature hike, pointing out different kinds of plants and animals, and Meghan redeemed herself when a lizard crawled onto her arm and she thought it was “cute.”

  One of the oldest girls in the troop, a second grader who’d already had her eighth birthday, shrieked when Meghan turned to show off her new friend. Afterward, Meghan—who’d begged her mother in the school parking lot not to send her—couldn’t wait to get back and inform her parents and two brothers how brave she was.