His Valentine Surprise

by Tanya Michaels

  For Mark, the best moments were probably at night, when he and Vicki zipped themselves into the little tent they shared. When he tucked her in, she looked at him with hero worship. On Friday night, she informed him he was “the greatest dad in the world.” On Saturday night, she told him she’d had “the best day ever.”

  If other fathers could have seen the expression on her face, the school would be overrun with paternal volunteers hoping to make similarly good impressions on their own children. As a bonus, when Sunday morning rolled around, all of the girls seemed to be so tired that Mark wasn’t worried about the volume in his van for the return trip. He suspected most of his passengers would fall asleep.

  As the adults broke down camp, the girls took the opportunity for one last game of freeze tag in the nearby clearing. Mark kept half his attention on them and the other half on helping Shay dismantle her tent.

  “It’s not that I can’t get it down,” she said ruefully. “It pretty much fell down as soon as I touched it. I just can’t figure out how to get it all to fit back in the carrier properly.”

  He also helped her roll up her sleeping bag, pausing when he noticed Vicki and another little girl squatting down close to the ground. He thought it would be prudent to make sure they weren’t crowding something that could bite, claw or sting and was horrified for the half second that he thought he was seeing a red-and-black undulating snake. Turned out, to his vast relief, to be a throng of ladybugs crawling on a stick.

  Satisfied that everyone was safe, he headed back to his packing duties. Vicki surprised him by trailing after him.

  “Daddy, can the adults earn badges, too?”

  “Not exactly. I’m getting pretty butterfly pins for the volunteers who help us and I have a cool leader patch coming in the mail, but the badges are mainly for you girls.”

  “I thought Shay was working on her healthy habits badge like we are and that you were helping her.”

  “Oh?” Actually, for all that Shay was a first-time camper, she’d required very little assistance and he thought she’d enjoyed herself.

  Vicki nodded earnestly. “Ms. Julie and Ms. Kris said something about…the two of you playing doctor!” she declared, looking pleased to have remembered the wording.

  Mark halted midstride. They said what? No doubt the two women hadn’t meant to be overheard, but he didn’t care. “Would you excuse me, Bug? I have to get finished so we can get all these girls back home before dinner, especially this little girl.” He tapped her on the nose with his index finger. “Why don’t you go play with your friends?”

  “’Kay.” She skipped back to join the game of tag.

  Trying to keep his temper under control—though he couldn’t remember anything in the CG handbook expressly forbidding the flaying of volunteers, it was probably frowned upon—he stalked toward Julie and Kris. They were loading up a cooler to go in the back of Julie’s van.

  “Oh, good.” Julie straightened when she saw him. “We might need your help with… Everything okay? Did my daughter say something ugly to someone?” She sighed. “I’ll have a word with her.”

  “Maybe you should worry about what you say,” he snapped. “And the example you two set when you deride others.”

  Kris drew back, shocked. “I beg your pardon.”

  “‘Playing doctor?’” he flung at them. “Honestly, I would have expected better of you two.”

  Julie had the grace to flush deep crimson. “Oh, God, one of the girls overheard that? We were just, you know, being silly.”

  A month of frustration welled up in him. He resented that Shay had spent the early weeks of their relationship feeling like she couldn’t be with him because of that kind of “silliness.” He resented like hell that he could buy her dinner but felt like he wasn’t supposed to reach across the table and take her hand if any of the Woodside PTA members happened to be in the establishment. Shay took it to an extreme, was ridiculously circumspect in her behavior, but it was because of thoughtless gossip like this.

  “Do you know the phone calls I would have received if some little girl went home after this weekend and remarked to a parent that their troop leader was playing doctor with someone?” He kept his voice low enough not to draw the notice of the kids in the clearing, but even without yelling, his anger was palpable. “And don’t think we didn’t hear your comment about bringing along a date on Friday. Lay off.”

  He’d probably made his point, but he was on a roll and couldn’t stop himself. Someone needs to say it. Maybe these two would carry the message back to the other small-minded few who made him embarrassed to call himself a citizen of Braeden.

  “Shay Morgan is a hell of a woman—she stepped in at the last minute to make sure these girls didn’t lose their first trip that they’d been so excited about—and she’s a hell of a principal. Do you realize that our music department was just awarded a thousand dollars because of her? My sister-in-law says she’s the first principal ever to donate her time to nominating committee because she genuinely wants to help and wants to forge a good relationship with the PTA. She—”

  “Mark.” From behind him, Shay spoke ever so softly. “I think they get it.”

  He glanced at her, wondering how long she’d been there and if he’d embarrassed her with his ranting to Julie and Kris, who were both nodding frantically.

  “We do. We get it,” Kris promised. She looked past his shoulder. “We both like you a lot, Principal Morgan. We think you’re doing a real good job. We were just… You know how girlfriends joke around, right? It can get a little risqué sometimes.”

  Shay’s laugh was dry. “Geneva Daniels would agree with you. Water under the bridge as far as I’m concerned. Can I give you a hand with that cooler?”

  Mark told himself that he was giving the three women a chance to bond by fading into the background—not slinking away out of cowardice because he didn’t know whether Shay would wring his neck. After all, Kris and Julie weren’t just CG volunteers, they were parents that Shay might have to work with for years to come and he perhaps hadn’t been as tactful as he should have.

  So when Shay came up to him a few minutes later to get the keys to the van, he asked without preamble, “Mad at me?”

  “Mad?” Her eyes rounded with surprise. “Are you kidding? You made me sound magnificent. You…you not only defended me, you mentioned some of the stuff that I like the most about what I do, the things I’m most proud of. Mark, I—”

  “Yeah?” He placed the keys in her palm, surreptitiously holding her hand after he should have let go.

  “I love you,” she said simply. “How could I not?”

  A kind of delirious awe filled him. Could a man really get this lucky twice in one lifetime? “I love you, too. I—” He was cut off by a ringing sound and realized it came from the cell phone in his pocket. He had no intention of answering that when he was in the middle of one of the most important exchanges of his life.

  “Shouldn’t you at least check?” Shay asked ruefully. She gestured toward the girls giggling in the field. “It might be one of their parents. It could be important.”

  Damn, she was right. “Rain check on this conversation?” he asked as the phone continued to ring.

  “How about I come over tonight after you tuck Vicki in?” Shay offered.

  “She’ll be in bed by seven,” he said recklessly, flipping his cell phone open. “Hello?” It was hard to keep the exasperation out of his voice.

  “Boss, I have been trying to reach you. Didn’t you get my messages?”

  “Roddy?” Mark frowned. “I guess not. But this isn’t prime reception area and I’ve been surrounded by first-and second-grade girls who, as it turns out, aren’t exactly the quietest creatures on God’s green earth. Maybe I just didn’t hear the notification beep. Is there a problem at the store?”

  “Yes, and no. Bennett Coleridge is here, and he wants to see you. Immediately.”

  AFTER STOPPING AT WOODSIDE to deliver the girls to their parents and Sha
y to her car, Mark had phoned Mrs. Norris. She’d agreed to come have dinner with Vicki so that he could talk to Coleridge. Mark had offered to meet his employer at the store, but Bennett had insisted on buying him dinner. They’d settled on the Braeden Burger Shop at five-thirty.

  Mark had hoped to arrive first, to have a few minutes to compose himself and figure out what to say. He hadn’t been expecting Bennett to return to North Carolina for another three or four weeks, and he’d certainly anticipated some advanced warning. Was this a surprise inspection? Had Bennett come to town so that he could form his own opinions without looking at data Mark had gathered? Had Mark hurt his credibility by being away and semi-out-of-touch all weekend?

  Unfortunately, Bennett was already seated and waiting in a booth, studying the menu. Déjà vu all over again. This was so reminiscent of their breakfast meeting. Had it only been three months ago? It felt like a scene from an alternate dimension, from another man’s life.

  And yet…paradoxically, it also felt like the mere blink of an eye. He couldn’t believe three months had already passed, that his chance to prove himself was almost over.

  “Ah, Hathaway, there you are!” Bennett had spotted him. “Come sit down.”

  “Mr. Coleridge.” Mark shook his hand across the table before sliding onto the bench opposite him. “I apologize if you’ve been waiting on me. I wasn’t expecting you this weekend and I had an obligation to my daughter’s troop to—”

  “No need to apologize,” Bennett interrupted. “I like a man who’s got a well-balanced life and is loyal—he makes a better employee. If you told your daughter you were going to take her troop camping, then that’s where you should have been. I apologize for inconveniencing you. It’s only that I leave tomorrow and was determined to see you first.”

  “Are you still coming back next month?” Mark asked carefully. “Maybe we’ll have more time to talk then.”

  Bennett’s dark eyes were sad, reminding Mark of a basset hound. “Well, my wife and I will still be coming for her reunion—can’t seem to get out of that—but by then, what I need to say to you will be moot, son.”

  No. No, no, no. Was Bennett really planning to lower the boom, shut down the store before the agreed-upon evaluation period was even over? They’d been doing better! They would do better. Only earlier this afternoon Mark had decided that he must be the luckiest bastard in the universe to have his amazing life and a woman like— He couldn’t even think her name right now. It hurt too much.

  “I don’t understand, sir.”

  “I think you do,” Bennett said levelly. “I’ve had an offer to buy the building. It’s a solid offer but only good for a limited time. Since I was going to close the store anyway—”

  “Sales are up,” Mark interrupted, wishing he didn’t sound so desperate. You are yanking my life out from under me. “Comparatively, anyway.” And what about Roddy? He’d been working there almost as long as Mark.

  “Fact of the matter is, I’m as impressed as all hell over what you’ve managed to accomplish in a short period of time. It would’ve taken a miracle to keep the place afloat and miracles are in short supply in this economy. But what you have done is proven yourself to me, above and beyond. Which is why I’m promoting you and transferring you to Colorado.” Bennett kept talking while the waitress approached to take their drink orders, outlining some of the details.

  But all Mark could hear was a shattering sound as the shards of his happiness crashed down around him.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It wasn’t a warm night, per se, but Shay thought she could detect the underlying promise of spring as she climbed out of her car. Maybe Mark felt the same way, because he was seated outside on a padded porch bench. Or maybe he was just so eager to see her he hadn’t wanted to wait inside, she thought with an inward grin. It wasn’t so much arrogance as projection—she was always eager to see him.

  When they’d left the campsite this afternoon, he’d seemed tense after his phone call with Roddy but all he’d tell her was, “Work stuff.” Of course, shuttling four girls back to town wasn’t conducive to serious conversation. Then he’d dropped her off at Woodside with a promise to text her after Vicki fell asleep. So here she was.

  But Mark had yet to say hello or come toward her. He sat on the bench, his shoulders slumped as if in defeat. Was he simply worn out from the camping trip? Her heart skittered, missing a beat. What had happened to the ebullient man who’d declared his love for her earlier today?

  Don’t worry until you have a reason to.

  “Hey,” she said, suddenly feeling uncertain.

  He looked up at her and even in the darkness of the porch the bleakness in his expression was impossible to miss.

  “Mark, what is it?” She sank down next to him, her hands on his arm. “What happened?”

  “Coleridge is closing the store,” he said bitterly. “He’s selling the building and wants us to get the place ready for a going-out-of-business sale. He’s offering me a month’s severance pay and Roddy close to that. God.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “I haven’t told Roddy yet. I need to do it in person, so I decided to wait until tomorrow. I know he won’t be completely surprised, but…”

  She shouldn’t be completely surprised, either. The very first time she’d met Mark he’d been sagging under the weight of this possibility. He’d warned her—this was ultimately one of the reasons she’d decided to be with him, because who knew how much time they’d been given?

  So with all of this prior knowledge, why did she feel like she’d just been obliterated by an unexpected asteroid that fell out of the clear blue sky and turned her into a smoking crater?

  She swallowed hard. “Mark, I’m so sorry. What are…what are you going to do?”

  “According to Coleridge, move to Colorado. He wants to promote me, can you believe it?” Mark’s laugh was hollow. “He said over dinner that even though the Colorado stores are doing far better, there’s also more direct competition up there. He says I’ve shown a lot of initiative here and he’d like to see how I can apply it in other situations.”

  “You have done a good job,” she said loyally. “I’ve been proud of you. Not many people can balance work and family and a social life so well.” She seemed to be stuck on autopilot. The things coming out of her mouth were little more than platitudes, the kind of “there, there” or “where life closes a door…” comments she’d make to any parent in her office facing a major upheaval.

  She was in shock. After fighting it for weeks, she’d finally accepted the idea that Mark Hathaway and his adorable daughter were part of her life, a major part. And now she was losing them?

  “Wh-when are you going to tell Vicki?”

  “I suppose the sooner the better,” he said woodenly. “Give her time to adjust to the idea. And she’s going to notice that the store has Going Out Of Business plastered all over it and that Dee’s crying all the time.”

  And that the principal of her school looks like she’s just lost her best friend.

  “Shay?” He sat forward. “Shay, are you crying?”

  She sniffed, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. “I guess I am.”

  “Oh, honey.” He pulled her into a tight hug that expressed all the painful frustration they were both feeling. Against her hair he murmured, “I do love you.”

  She bit her lip, unable to say it back without crying harder.

  He straightened suddenly. “Marry me!”

  “What?” Shay hiccuped. “That’s not funny.”

  “I’m not kidding. I love you—you love me. Vicki—who is about to be ripped away from everything she knows—adores you. Give her the mom she so desperately wants and make me the happiest man alive. Come with us to Colorado.”

  “I can’t do that.” Shay couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “Sure you can.” He sounded manic now, so caught up in his make-believe scenario that he wasn’t even listening to her.

  “Mark.” She stood, putt
ing distance between them. “When we left the campsite today, were you planning to propose?”

  “Not consciously. But life’s unpredictable. I’m rolling with it, making the best of the situation.”

  An outraged gasp escaped her. “Making the best of the situation? I was fine with you comparing our physical relationship to getting in a pool, of all things, but that is the least romantic proposal I… It’s beyond unromantic. It’s insulting. The part where you mentioned Vicki being ripped away from Braeden and the people here? I’m not a consolation prize, Mark. I have a life here, too. And a career I’ve worked hard to build. I’m not a stuffed animal you can throw in the car to cheer her up.”

  On some level, Shay knew that most of the fury building in her was not directed at him. It was triggered by the untenable circumstances. However, she was genuinely aghast that he thought she should alter the entire course of her future because he’d had a bad day and didn’t know how to break the news to Vicki.

  “Don’t you want to be with me?” he asked.

  “Here in Braeden, yes! But I’ve only known you a couple of months. I’m not about to drop everything to accept a knee-jerk proposal you’re going to regret in the morning.”

  He jabbed a finger at her. “I’m not the one who’s constantly had doubts about us and doesn’t want anyone to know.”

  That stung. Maybe she’d questioned the wisdom of dating him at first, but that wasn’t “constant” doubts. They’d been very happy for the past month—or, at least, she had. It sounded as if he was bitter about a few things.

  “Look, you’ve just been handed a huge amount of stress that you’re going to have to deal with,” she said, trying to be empathetic. “Dinner at my parents is the day after tomorrow. Why don’t I plan to go to that alone?” Watching her mother fawn over Mark and try to push them down the aisle would be even more painful knowing that Mark and Vicki were about to go.

  “There you go again, distancing yourself!”

  “Well, hell, Mark, I’m not the one moving to Colorado! I think that’s going to put plenty of distance between us no matter what I say or do.” Calm down. She was trained in dealing with conflict, defusing emotional situations. Why was she yelling at the man on his porch? “Do you remember when you told me I did the right thing by not marrying Bryan, because he obviously didn’t understand my feelings or support my career? I could say the same things about you right now.”