A Touch of Passion (boxed set romance bundle)

by Uvi Poznansky

  David reached over and placed his hand over his daughter’s. Suzette’s hand was still on Charity’s face. Both Suzette and Charity looked over at David. They studied him. Suzette with her light blue eyes, and Charity with her sparkling green eyes. Charity didn’t know what Suzette was thinking, and she wasn’t certain of her own feelings either. For some reason her heart missed a beat when David had placed his hand over Suzette’s, and by doing so, touched her cheek. Her thoughts were a jumbled mixture scattering through her mind so quickly that she couldn’t sort them all out. She was confused as to why his simple action had sent her heart thumping so, and found it even more confusing that she felt so bereft when he finally took it away. To keep all of these thoughts from showing on her face, she focused all of her attention on Suzette. “I guess I should take Suzette in for her nap. We are have a meeting in about twenty minutes.”

  David scooped his daughter out of Charity’s lap. “Let me carry her in.”

  Charity stood and wiped the loose grass from her clothes. “Sure. I think that I’m going to grab a sandwich or something to eat before the meeting.”

  “Why don’t we both get her settled in for a nap and then I will buy you lunch?”

  Charity looked at Suzette clinging to David’s neck. The baby didn’t know whether to be afraid of her view from the top, or to be excited. Excitement won over, and she let out a deep baby chuckle. Both David and Charity laughed from the cuteness of it.

  “Well you know how to really charm a lady don’t you? Buying me a lunch that’s already free. I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

  “Just say yes and when we have the time this weekend, I will spring for a real lunch on the town for my two favorite women.”

  Charity grabbed one of Suzette’s chubby feet and gave it a tiny tweak. “What do you think Suzette? Do you think he’s good for a meal or not?”

  Suzette gave a gurgling squeal and Charity laughed. “I think that’s a yes. Okay. Let’s get little missy down and we will see what’s on the lunch table today. Maybe it hasn’t been picked over too badly and there’s still something edible.”

  ❋

  The first week on the set flew by. Both David and Charity were exhausted from the meetings and all the arrangements for the new film. Saturday morning, Charity overslept for the first time in months. It was ten o’clock when bright sunlight reached her face and startled her awake. She sat straight up and looked around the room, trying to decide where she was. When she focused on the clock she realized Suzette must have been awake for hours. Panic set in and she tumbled out from under the bedcovers, and quickly put on her old robe. First she ran into Suzette’s room but found the crib empty. Her heart did a hard jump into the base of her throat before she realized David must have heard Suzette and gotten her out of the crib.

  Charity found both David and Suzette in the middle of the living room floor. Suzette had two fists full of his hair and what looked like grape jelly smeared all over her face. That would have explained why the rest of his hair looked as if he had stuck a finger in a light socket. There was nothing like a little grape jelly to add some body to the hair. Suzette had a piece of toast hanging out of the corner of her mouth. Every now and then she would turn loose of David’s hair in order to take the soggy bread out, study it, and then put it back in her mouth.

  It was nearly impossible not to laugh but Charity didn’t make a sound before slumping into the nearest chair. “I see that Suzette has had her breakfast.”

  David reached up and felt of his sticky hair. “I must have a gallon of grape jelly in my hair.”

  The look on his face was a comic mixture of uncertainty and grossed out. This time there was no way to contain the laugh that barked out without any warning. When David glared at her, Charity covered her mouth with both hands, but the giggles slipped right through her fingers and quickly gave way to laughter again. Charity fell out of the chair, rolled onto her back, and continued laughing like she hadn’t been able to do for so long. Suzette was happy for the company. She crawled over to Charity and offered to share her soggy toast. Charity pretended to take a bite and in doing so managed to quit laughing. She wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. David watched her. Her hair was a mess. The old yellow robe she had on must have been at least twenty years old from the looks of it, but he couldn’t remember when she had ever looked more beautiful. Even the night of the movie premiere when she had been dressed to the nines, she had not looked so good. When Charity regained control of herself, she saw that David was looking at her strangely.

  “What? Are my eyes caked in sleep or something?”

  David shook his head before finally blurting out. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare. I was just wondering how old that housecoat is.”

  Suzette tried to give Charity more of her toast. Charity declined as nicely as she knew how. “Thanks honey, but I’m not hungry.”

  Charity looked down at her old yellow robe. “It’s pretty old. I guess my parents bought it for me when I was sixteen. I’ve worn it before, and you’ve never mentioned that it looked old. Why the sudden interest in it now?”

  David stood up and picked a piece of toast out of his hair. He studied it as if he couldn’t understand how it got there. He finally laid it on the coffee table and he wiped his sticky hand on his pajama bottoms. “Look. If you don’t mind watching Suzette for a couple of minutes, I’m going to take a shower and wash the grape jelly out of my hair.”

  He turned and left the room without another word. Charity stared after him. She finally picked herself and Suzette up off of the floor. She bent down and whispered into Suzette’s ear. “Men. They’re dark and mysterious. Don’t ever try to figure them out, because it’s just not possible.”

  Charity was rewarded with a giggle. Charity laughed too. She snuggled Suzette’s neck with small noisy kisses. Unfortunately, grape jelly and soggy toast came with the package. Charity laughed when the toast finally fell out of Suzette’s mouth. Suzette looked at the fallen toast on the living room carpet and whimpered. “No. There’s no way that’s going back into your mouth. I’m going to give you a much needed bath.”

  Charity looked at the smeared jelly on her and her robe. “And then I’m going to take a shower. I guess I’m going to have to wash this robe now. I’m not sure that it will come out of the washing machine in one piece since it’s so old, but I don’t have any choice now.”

  Charity looked down the hallway where David had made his quick exit. She stared at the empty hallway in puzzlement. She finally shrugged her shoulders as if to say that some mysteries were beyond solving.

  Charity came back into the living room about forty-five minutes later. Suzette’s cheeks were still red from their much needed scrubbing, and Charity’s hair was still wet. They were now both dressed in red. Suzette had on an adorable one piece shorts outfit, and Charity wore a sleeveless red shirt with a matching pair of knee length shorts.

  David took Suzette out of Charity’s arms. “Are the two of you ready to hit the town? I’m thinking lunch and shopping. How does that sound?”

  For a moment all Charity could do was stare at David holding Suzette. Everything about the two of them together looked right. It wouldn’t be long now before he no longer needed her here to act as a go between him and his daughter. Suzette was growing to love him more every day. To swallow down the panic that thought caused, she tried to sound more chipper than she was feeling. “It sounds great! I’m thinking Mexican. What do you think? I would just love a big burrito for lunch, and the biggest bowl of salsa and chips we can fit on our table.”

  “Sounds good but what about Suzette? Is she ready for chips and salsa?”

  “I’ve got her lunch packed in her bag. I’m letting you feed her the green beans. It always seems like a never ending process to get the green stuff in her.”

  David held his daughter over his head. She squealed and reached for his hair for support. He cradled her back against his shoulder and looked accusingly at Ch
arity. “I know what you’re doing. You want all the chips and salsa to yourself. You know it will take Suzette an eternity to eat and I won’t have a chance at the chips.”

  Charity slung Suzette’s diaper bag over her shoulder and opened the front door. “You’ve got that right, buddy. When you take the ladies out to eat, you pay in more ways than one. Come on. Let’s get this show on the road.”

  David found a Mexican restaurant that had an outdoor patio. He was feeding Suzette the hated green beans, when a flash went off. Both David and Charity saw the reporter at the same time. David had his long legs threaded through Suzette’s high chair so he could get close enough to feed her. His position made it impossible to get his legs untangled before the reporter ran out of the restaurant. Charity still had a chip loaded with salsa raised to her open mouth. She set the chip back on her plate.

  “Well, that hasn’t happened in a while. I wonder what the headlines will be this time. Actress overeats?”

  David returned his attention to the green beans Suzette had spit out for the hundredth time. He patiently spooned them back in. “You might as well eat this young lady. Daddy is not going to give up as easily as you think he is. I can spoon them in as fast as you can spit them out.”

  Suzette tested his theory by spitting them back out.

  David finally took the time to look up. “What can they write? We’re just having lunch. I can’t imagine what they could come up with from that to be as bad as they have been in the past.”

  Charity took the spoon away from David and spooned the green beans back into Suzette’s mouth. She could see that he was suddenly too tense for the job at hand. She didn’t mean to add to his tension, but he had to know the truth. “You do realize that’s the same cameraman from Dallas. The one where if the cops ever asked, you didn’t destroy his film?”

  David took the chip loaded with salsa off of Charity’s plate. He looked where the cameraman had been before stuffing the chip into his mouth. It wasn’t until he’d chewed and swallowed that he answered. “I’m not letting it ruin our day out.” He grabbed another chip. “I know of a place near here that sells the best ice cream, and if you’re really nice to me, I will ask them to add sprinkles to yours.”

  Charity wiped Suzette’s face and beamed. “I love sprinkles. If you promise to have them add some whipped topping, I’m in.”

  They exchanged grins and then he did the strangest thing. He ran the pad of his thumb across the corner of her mouth and then he studied the spot, as if lost in a trance. When he finally looked down at his plate of food she reached up to feel if she had something on her face. When she didn’t find anything, she tried to shrug it off as just another thing about David that she no longer understood. But when she caught him looking at her again, and as if he had never really seen her before, her stomach did a strange little unsettling flip and for a second, she couldn’t breathe.

  Fortunately, the rest of lunch, and the trip to the ice cream parlor, went without further incident from the cameraman, or between her and David. Suzette fell asleep in the car on the way home, and as soon as they were in the house, Charity was able to get her tucked into bed without her even opening her eyes again. Suzette had such a sweet innocent expression on her sleeping face. Charity just stood and studied her for several minutes before finally seeking David out.

  When she found him in the living room he had made them both a tall glass of iced lemonade. He had a glass in each hand, and the moment he saw her enter the room, he nodded in the direction of the deck. “It’s nice outside so why don’t we go out and enjoy the view?”

  It was a simple question, but standing there and seeing how happy he looked for the first time in such a long time gave her pause. She studied his face for a moment before nodding and then following him out onto the deck. Once outside, he handed her a glass and then waited until she was seated before he sat in the chair next to her. There had been a time when she wouldn’t have noticed how close David sat, but something over the course of the week had changed between them. She tried replaying all the events over in her mind. Nothing stood out over anything else, nevertheless, there had been subtle changes that had somehow altered their relationship.

  When his knee accidently touched hers, in an absurd overreaction, she jerked her leg away as if the contact had burned her. To cover that up, she began bouncing her leg as if that had been her intention all along. She suddenly felt as if she had been transferred right back in time to junior high years when everything had felt awkward and overdramatized. Finally, to put some distance between them, she stood and walked over to the railing.

  That might have worked but after a moment he came over and stood next to her. He leaned his forearms on the railing and looked out at the ocean. “I love this view. When nothing else makes sense in my life, just looking at the ocean reminds me that I’m just a speck in the universe and my problems must be just as insignificant as I am.”

  She mimicked his stance and stared out at the ocean too. It was such a peaceful feeling to be there. After a moment, she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to absorb everything about this serene moment. So many things in her life had been so uncertain, but for some reason it felt as if maybe everything was falling into its rightful place and as it should be.

  She might have stood that way all night but David spoke. “A penny for your thoughts.”

  When Charity opened her eyes, he was so near and they were almost nose to nose. Instead of backing away, as she might have done with anyone else, somehow, she didn’t feel as if he was invading her space. She was so at peace with everything and it didn’t seem odd for him to be so close, but very companionable. “They’re not worth a penny, I’m afraid.”

  He flicked the end of her nose. “Then give them up, girl. You were a million miles away from here a second ago.”

  She grinned shyly and shrugged. “I feel safe.” She blushed and then quirked an eyebrow. “It sounds silly saying it out loud. I haven’t felt safe in a longtime, but for some reason, standing right here, I feel safe and I have no idea why.” She chuckled and rolled her eyes. Not able to meet his eyes any longer, she turned to stare at the darkening sky.

  He turned too, but bumped her shoulder with his. After a moment, he leaned over closer and whispered, “I feel safe too.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Charity felt Suzette’s forehead again, just to be certain her temperature was still down. If it was up again, there was no way she was leaving the house.

  David had the rocking chair from Suzette’s room pulled into the middle of the living room so he could rock Suzette and wait with Charity for Michael to arrive. Even though it had been his idea, he still barely looked in her direction. “No. No. Go on. We are doing just fine. I don’t want you to miss the award’s show. It’s not every day you’re nominated for an Oscar. Charles will be upset if we both miss the show and I want to stay with Suzette. She seems perfectly happy where she’s at. Let’s not rock the boat. She’s not crying and it’s been a couple of hours since she’s thrown up.”

  Since she hadn’t been asleep but a few minutes, they were speaking in low tones. Suzette was resting better and looked content enough, all snuggled into the curve of David’s arms. Charity was ashamed that she was envious of David and missing the days when Suzette had only ever been content if she was holding her. It was just another sign that soon she wasn’t going to be needed. Father and daughter had bonded. There was really nothing left for Charity to do but wait for a sign from David when he was ready to move on without her.

  Charity stood in the middle of the living room in her Oscar finery. David had insisted she go out earlier in the day to have her hair styled for the night’s show. Now there were long curls lying in shiny red ringlets down the side of her face while the rest of it was carefully arranged in tiny curls on the top of her head. Diamond stud earrings sparkled even in the low light of the room and her long shimmering black dress fit snugly into each an
d every curve. Black high heel shoes were no more than just delicate straps laced around her feet.

  Every now and then David would look at her as if he couldn’t get enough of the view, but then he would look away in embarrassment whenever she caught him staring. It might have been flattering if each and every time it hadn’t looked as if he hated himself for even looking. It was too confusing to try and figure out what he was thinking. Hesitation to show his true feelings pretty much described their entire relationship over the past several weeks. He would act as if he wanted to say something more but would then put as much distance between them as he physically could. It was totally frustrating to have him notice her existence and then act as if he hated himself for noticing.

  He grimly kept his eyes glued onto the television set like his life depended on it and clutched Suzette tighter as soon as the doorbell rang. What would he do if she refused to answer the door? She didn’t want to go with Michael to the Oscars. Everything she wanted was right here in this room. Somewhere along the way her feelings for David had changed from friendship to love. It was hard to accept but there she was caught in her own private hell. She was in love with a man stuck in the past. She could see he was in love with her, too, but was fighting it with everything he had. She loved David and Suzette, and was terrified that in a few weeks when they finished filming After the Glory, she would probably lose them both.

  When the doorbell rang a second time Suzette began to stir. Charity rushed to answer the door before Michael had the chance to ring it again.

  He let out a low whistle the moment she opened the door. “You are beautiful!” He took a step forward and slipped an arm around her waist. “I’m the luckiest man alive to be the one escorting you down the red carpet tonight.”

  Charity took a step backward out of the circle of his arm and closed the door. It was frustrating to have the wrong man so obviously enamored of her, but wasn’t that just her luck? “That’s very sweet of you to say.” She motioned for him to follow her into the living room. “Come on in and say hello to David before we leave, but we have to be quiet about it. Suzette has been sick the last couple of days and has just fallen asleep. I would hate to leave her crying.”