Angel Mine

by Sherryl Woods

  Maybe that’s why he was almost relieved when Heather brought the dressing for his salad on the side—two kinds, French and the ranch he preferred. She also set down three tiny containers of cream for his coffee. She placed all of it on the table without comment and left him to make up his own mind about how far he intended to carry his stubbornness.

  He was about to give in and spoon the ranch dressing onto his salad when he sensed he wasn’t alone. He glanced down into green eyes that were unmistakably the exact same shade as his own.

  “Hiya,” Angel said.

  Todd swallowed hard. “Hi.”

  “I gots a doll. Wanna see?” She was already holding up a plump baby doll with golden ringlets and a real child-size diaper that almost swallowed it up.

  What was he supposed to say to that? Todd wondered. “Very pretty,” he said finally.

  “Her name’s Leaky.”

  Leaky? Maybe that was the reason for that diaper, Todd concluded, surprised to find himself beginning to smile.

  “Like my name,” she explained.

  “I thought your name was Angel,” he said, confused.

  She regarded him impatiently. “It is. Angel-leaky.”

  “That’s Angelique, baby,” Heather corrected her as she approached the table with the rest of Todd’s meal.

  “Ah,” Todd murmured, understanding finally. “That’s a lovely name.”

  “I read it in a book,” Heather told him.

  Suddenly Todd recalled her reading a set of dog-eared novels about a heroine named Angelique. He could remember the dreamy expression in her eyes, the deeply satisfied sighs when she reached the final page of each one.

  “I remember,” he said, wishing he didn’t. Because with those memories came others of the sweet intensity of their lovemaking when Heather had been off in some imaginary, romantic world for a few hours.

  Her gaze honed in on his, as if she knew precisely where his thoughts had strayed. Her expression softened.

  And then that blasted cowboy called out, “Hey, sugar, how about a little more coffee?”

  The moment was lost. It was just as well, Todd thought. Tripping down memory lane was the last thing he needed to be doing. Cold, hard logic, he reminded himself firmly. That was the ticket.

  “I sit with you?” Angel asked, startling him. “You looks lonesome.”

  Before he could reply, she slid in next to him, squeezing up against him until he shifted to make room for her and the doll she’d placed between them.

  “Know what?”

  “What?” he replied, reluctantly meeting her gaze.

  “I’m gonna see my daddy,” she confided, unaware of the impact her words were having. “Mama said.” She leaned closer and patted his cheek. “I really, really need a daddy. I never had one.”

  Todd’s gaze shot to Heather, who was still chatting with the cowboy. What the devil had she been telling Angel? Apparently she hadn’t identified him as the daddy in question just yet, but clearly it was only a matter of time if she was already prepping Angel for the big introduction.

  Suddenly his appetite, not all that great to begin with, vanished.

  “Let me out, Angel,” he asked, his voice choked. “I have to get going.”

  Angel stared at his plate, wide-eyed. “But you didn’t finish your dinner. Mama says I can’t leave the table till I eat every bite.”

  “And that’s a very good rule, I’m sure, but I’m not hungry.”

  “Mama’s gonna be mad,” Angel predicted, still not budging.

  Too impatient to wait for her to do as he’d asked, Todd awkwardly circled her waist with his arm and scooted Angel, Leaky and himself out of the booth, then set Angel back on the bench.

  “I’ll leave your mom a big tip. That should improve her mood,” he said wryly, tossing bills—way too many of them—on the table.

  He sidestepped Heather in the aisle, ignoring her surprise as he aimed straight for the door and the air he suddenly needed.

  Apparently defiantly clinging to his routine wasn’t going to be quite the snap he’d hoped it would be, not with Heather and his daughter right smack in the middle of it.

  “Was that Todd I saw charging out of here?” Henrietta asked when she came in to help Heather close up.

  “It was.”

  “He didn’t clean his plate,” Angel informed them both. She gazed up at Heather. “Maybe he should go to his room.”

  Heather grinned. “He’s a grown-up, baby. He doesn’t have to eat if he doesn’t want to. Besides, my hunch is that he’s already headed for his room.”

  Probably to make one of those infernal lists of his, she thought. If it couldn’t be quantified or analyzed or broken down into pros and cons, Todd wanted no part of it. Her arrival in town with Angel in tow had to be driving him nuts. She had to confess to taking a certain amount of pleasure in his discomfort. One of her favorite pastimes when they’d lived together was to rattle his sometimes scary, intimidating composure on a regular basis. Of course, nothing she’d done back then came even close to this.

  Henrietta was still staring at the door with evident concern. “That’s two nights this week that he’s disappeared without eating. Last night and the night before, he didn’t come in at all. Something’s definitely wrong. Normally that man is here like clockwork every night and he has the appetite of a horse.”

  Heather wasn’t about to enlighten her about what was likely wrong with Todd, but Henrietta was regarding her speculatively, clearly linking her arrival and Todd’s abrupt change in behavior.

  “This all started when you showed up here the other day,” she said slowly, her expression thoughtful. “I know I introduced you, but he latched on to you like a man with something on his mind. You two already knew each other, didn’t you? How well?”

  “That probably depends on which one of us you ask,” Heather replied, thinking of Todd’s insistence that she didn’t know him at all.

  “How well?” Henrietta repeated.

  “We dated for a while.”

  Henrietta’s eyes narrowed. “How long is a while?”

  “A few years.”

  The older woman’s gaze shot to Angel. Then she sat down in one of the vacant booths. “Oh, my. Don’t tell me…” Her voice trailed off.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this just now,” Heather said with a pointed look at Angel. Her daughter didn’t appear to be listening to the grownups, but with Angel you could never tell. She’d repeated an awful lot of things Heather would have sworn she hadn’t heard.

  “No, I suppose not.” Henrietta regarded Heather sternly. “But we will talk about it. Make no mistake about that.”

  Heather winced at her tone. Henrietta had been kind and generous, taking Heather and Angel in without giving it a second thought. But it was obvious that her first loyalty was to a man she’d known for months, a man she clearly liked and respected.

  “I’ll explain everything,” Heather promised. If Henrietta was going to continue letting her work here, maybe she did deserve to know the whole truth about what had brought Heather and Angel to Whispering Wind. She didn’t belong in the cross fire, at least not without understanding what was going on and deciding for herself if she was willing to be a party to it.

  “I’ll explain tonight, if you want,” Heather offered. “I’ll get Angel into bed and come back down.”

  “Tomorrow will be soon enough,” Henrietta said, then glanced at the remaining customer. “Looks as if Joe would like more coffee. If you’ll see to that, I’ll close out the register and get the bank deposit ready.”

  Heather wasn’t particularly anxious to serve Joe coffee or anything else. He was a friendly, nice-looking young man. With his coal-black hair curling over his collar, the chiseled planes of his face and his piercing blue eyes, he was every woman’s fantasy of a rugged cowboy, in fact, but she wasn’t interested.

  He, however, clearly was. He’d been sweet-talking her the past two nights in his shy, gentle way. While the attentio
n had been flattering, she was very much afraid he was starting to hope for something more than good service in exchange for his tip.

  “Why don’t you sit down and join me for a bit?” he suggested when she’d filled his cup.

  “We’re about to close. I need to help Henrietta.”

  “Henrietta’s been managing this place just fine on her own for a long time now. She can spare you. Come on, sugar, sit down and tell me about yourself.”

  “Sorry, I can’t. As soon as we’re finished, I have to get Angel up to bed. I don’t like her to get in the habit of staying up late.” Even when she’d carted her to the theater, she’d tried to make sure that she was asleep in the dressing room by eight when the show went on, so the stagehands would only have to peek in on her while Heather was on stage.

  “Looks as if she’s found herself a napping place in that booth over there,” Joe pointed out with a lopsided, engaging grin.

  Sure enough, Angel was curled up in the space Todd had just vacated, sound asleep, her doll snuggled next to her. Heather seized on the excuse.

  “Then I’d better carry her up right now.”

  Joe stood at once. “She’s too heavy for you. I could take her for you.”

  The man was solid muscle beneath his clean white T-shirt and snug-fitting jeans. He seemed like a genuinely nice man. She wondered why she wasn’t even the slightest bit attracted to him. Maybe, regretfully, it was simply because he was nothing at all like the man who’d once been the love of her life.

  Todd had changed some since he’d come to Wyoming. Knowing him, she realized he’d begun adapting to a new role, just as he did when cast in a play, just as he had when he’d first gone to work for Megan. They were subtle changes he probably wasn’t even aware of making. His hair was a little longer, for one thing. And he had a light tan from being outdoors more. But there was no mistaking the eastern polish and sophistication that had drawn her to him years ago.

  “Thanks for offering,” she said. “But I can manage.”

  Joe nodded and, to her relief, backed off. “Another time, then.” He dropped a generous tip on the table, then strolled over to the counter and paid Henrietta, pausing long enough to flirt outrageously with her until she laughingly told him to get out so she could lock up.

  When he’d gone, Henrietta regarded Heather intently. “You know, if you were looking for a fine husband and a daddy for Angel, you could do a whole lot worse than Joe Stevens. You’re the first woman I’ve seen him take an interest in since his wife died.”

  “He lost his wife?” Heather asked, shocked. She ignored the suggestion that he could be a stand-in for Angel’s real daddy. “He can’t be more than twenty-eight, twenty-nine. How old was she?”

  “He’s thirty-one, actually, but Marilee was only twenty-five when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It took her in less than a year. That was about two years ago. Joe’s stayed to himself since then. For a time he was like a lost soul. We were all worried sick about him. He was doing some hard drinking, but from what I’ve seen he’s pulled himself together and sobered up now.”

  “What does he do? For a living, I mean,” Heather asked.

  “He’s a rancher. Has a spread west of town. He’s been buying up land, expanding the ranch he inherited from his family. He’s breeding some of the finest horses in the state. He caters to the rodeo circuit. He spent some time busting broncs himself. Has a couple of championship buckles, but he gave it up to marry Marilee.

  “I have a lot of respect for that boy. He married her after she was diagnosed with cancer. Stuck right by her side. Wouldn’t let anybody else come in to help him nurse her. Wore himself out during that time. I think he blamed himself for not marrying her sooner, for taking the time to go off on the rodeo circuit the way he’d dreamed of doing since he was a boy. He made up for it, though. The way he loved her was something to see.”

  “How awful that they had such a short time together,” Heather said.

  “Not so short,” Henrietta replied. “The marriage was short, that’s true, but Joe had loved Marilee for as far back as I can remember. The expression ‘childhood sweethearts’ could have been coined for the two of them. They used to come in here when they were barely into their teens. They’d sit in that same booth where he was tonight, drinking sodas and laughing, planning their future. He was going to be a big rodeo star, then settle down with Marilee and raise horses and babies. I wondered if I’d ever see him in here again after she died, but he’s been coming back real regular the past few weeks. Until you came along, though, I hadn’t seen him laugh much.”

  “He’s such a hunk, I’m amazed some woman around here hasn’t snapped him up.”

  Henrietta chuckled. “Oh, believe you me, they’ve tried. One night he sat here and told me some of the tricks they’ve pulled. Said his freezer was still filled with all the casseroles and cakes they brought him. That’s normal enough, I suppose, when a man’s a widower, but they were offering a whole lot more, and some of them none too subtle about it. In my day, any woman who dared to go after a man so blatantly wouldn’t have been called a lady, that’s for sure.”

  Heather began to get Henrietta’s own none-too-subtle message. “You told me all this so I won’t do anything to hurt him, didn’t you?” she guessed.

  “Exactly. Like I said, Joe hasn’t shown any interest in another woman until you turned up. I wouldn’t want to see his heart broken.”

  “I’ll make sure he knows that I’m leaving,” Heather promised.

  “Either that,” Henrietta advised, then added pointedly, “or tell him your heart’s already taken.”

  “But—”

  “You can’t fool me, girl. Whatever history there is between you and Todd, it’s far from over.”

  Heather prayed Henrietta was wrong, but deep inside she couldn’t help wondering if the older woman hadn’t gotten it exactly right.

  6

  Todd hadn’t scheduled so many back-to-back meetings for himself and Megan since they’d moved the company’s headquarters from Manhattan to Whispering Wind. He was determined to fill every waking minute with work. Since paperwork left his mind free to wander, he’d concluded that meetings that forced him to focus on the subject at hand were safer. So far everyone was tolerating the shift in routine without comment, but both Megan and Peggy had started giving him speculative looks every time they walked through his office door. Right this second, Peggy was doing it again.

  “What?” he snapped finally.

  “Something’s up with you,” she said. “Want to talk about it? I know when things were real bad for me and Johnny, talking helped.”

  That almost drew a full-fledged smile. The woman was a chatterbox. “I’m not surprised,” he said wryly.

  “Okay, I know I babble sometimes, but I’m talking about real serious talk, you know? The heart-to-heart kind. Megan let me go on and on till I worked things out in my head. I’d be happy to listen to you.”

  “The only thing I want to talk about is Megan’s idea for this cooking show,” he said adamantly. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”

  She regarded him with obvious disappointment, but finally shrugged. “Okay, let’s talk about the show. I think the better question is whether you think I can do it. You’re the expert.”

  “Peggy, there is not a doubt in my mind that you could handle this and be wildly successful. The real question is do you want to?”

  “You’re worried that Johnny’s going to have a cow, aren’t you? Well, the truth is, he might, but you know what? That’s okay, because it’s something I want to do. For a long time, he expected me to get used to his running around with other women. That may be over, but it’s my turn now. He’ll have to get used to this.”

  Todd barely resisted the urge to chuckle at her defiant tone. “It’s hardly the same thing.”

  “No, but since I never wanted to run around with other men, it will have to do.”

  He regarded her worriedly. “Peggy, if this is some sort
of payback, if you’re not going into it with wholehearted enthusiasm, it’s a bad idea.”

  “To tell you the truth, it scares me to death. The whole idea of carrying a nationally syndicated show all on my own, who would have thought it? I am so grateful to you and Megan for giving me this kind of an opportunity. I won’t let you down. I promise.”

  “You can give it a hundred percent?”

  “Whatever it takes,” she said firmly. “I’m not afraid of long hours or hard work.” She grinned. “Besides, it won’t hurt Johnny to spend a little more time looking after the kids. It’ll keep him out of trouble.”

  “An interesting marital philosophy,” Todd observed.

  “I’m learning as I go,” she admitted. “A year ago I wouldn’t have given you two cents for our chances to turn our marriage around, but we have. Almost, anyway. I think the biggest lesson we both learned is that you can’t take a relationship for granted. You have to work at it, especially when it hits the rough patches.”

  “Something tells me you and Johnny will make it,” Todd said, all too aware that Heather had bolted at the first sign of difficulty. Now he was about to do the same thing.

  “If we do, maybe we ought to launch a marriage-counseling program. Goodness knows I could have used some down-to-earth practical advice the first time I found out he was cheating on me.”

  Todd chuckled.

  “You think I’m joking, don’t you? I’m serious,” Peggy declared.

  “If you keep this up, you’ll be the one with the media empire,” Todd told her.

  “Not me. I’m just an average Wyoming housewife.”

  “Peggy, there is nothing average about you,” Todd said, wishing he had the nerve to let her take a shot at counseling him. But he wasn’t prepared to let the world—or even this one kind, decent person—know about the situation in which he’d suddenly found himself. Years ago he’d been taught that a man faced his troubles all on his own. So what if he’d only been seventeen at the time? It was a lesson he’d never forgotten.