by Tina Leonard
The children didn’t understand this. Amelia and Curtis only wanted a family, and were she in their circumstance, Poppy probably would have reacted the same way. But even if she was looking for marriage, the right man did not simply drop from the sky. Hunting for The One took effort and kissing lots of frogs.
She had an aversion to smooching frogs.
“You two must stop,” she said now to Amelia and Curtis. “Please try to be satisfied that, for now, we are a family. And a good one. We’re making it, aren’t we?” she asked, bending down to look in their faces.
They nodded slowly, not convinced.
“The judge said it would be better if we were placed in a two-parent home,” Amelia reminded her. “He said he’d examine our progress in a month.”
“He doesn’t like the fact that we travel with you in a circus,” Curtis said, his blue eyes round. “He said it wasn’t stable.”
“True,” Poppy agreed. “It’s something to consider.”
The judge certainly had been put off by her stage name and gypsy lifestyle. His suggested alternative was that the children live with Poppy’s parents. Though they were far past the age of wanting to be responsible for children, the judge knew her parents personally and felt more comfortable with the stability he thought they would give the children.
It would be better for everyone if she could find a way to settle down, Poppy knew. And she was trying. “I will try harder,” she said slowly. “I guess I could give marriage some consideration. But not to that man,” she said quickly, dimming their suddenly hopeful faces. “He’s just not for me.”
They nodded, accepting her reason.
“We like living with you, Aunt Poppy,” Amelia said. “We just want to stay with you.”
“Maybe I should give up the land of make-believe and take a job as a teacher. It might impress the judge.”
Surely it would. A sense of permanence was what he’d seen lacking in her résumé. The only reason she’d been temporarily awarded custody of the children was that she was the only family member who’d come forward at the time of her sister’s death to claim them. Frankly she felt her family’s matters were none of the court’s business, but in order to adopt the children, she’d had to file for custody.
The judge had taken exception to her, preferring, he’d said, the security of her parents’ home. Or for Curtis and Amelia’s father to reappear.
Old goat, Poppy thought angrily. “What does he know about me anyway?” she said. “I’ve been in the same job for ten years. I have a master’s degree in English and a minor in business. A degree and job stability should speak favorably for me.”
“It was the magic,” Curtis said. “I think it bothered him.”
Certainly it had bothered Mr. Jefferson. She had seen him visibly step back from her. If she was a teacher maybe none of this would be a problem. She’d have the children as hers. They would be a family.
“Excuse me,” Last said, making his presence known and looking better than any man should in those long swim trunks and nothing else. “Before I head off to my next adventure, I couldn’t help but overhear… I think I could help you out.”
“No, we don’t want help from you,” Poppy said, thinking of the children’s marriage schemes. “You’re too much like me. Unstable.”
“I’m not unstable,” Last said cheerfully, “but I will admit to being churlish, immature at times and living like the old cliché of the bachelor male.”
“Which cliché would that be?” Poppy asked.
“Bitter and distrusting of women. Due to the fact that I was romanced and then sued by one. It’s all fine now, but I’m holding on to the bitter and distrusting part as a cautionary reminder of what a female can do to a man. Sort of a souvenir.”
Poppy couldn’t help but laugh. “Goodbye, Mr. Bitter and Distrusting. We appreciate your offer of help, but you’re a stranger and we have to think about our future.”
“They seem to have a wedding in mind,” he said, nodding toward the children, “but I’m really not the marrying kind.”
“I didn’t ask you,” she said, annoyed.
“And except for my oldest brother Mason, I’m out of single brothers, so I can’t even play match-maker for you.”
“Not necessary,” Poppy snapped.
“But it’s clear you’re in a bind,” Last continued, “and I’ve always been partial to coming to the rescue.”
Poppy gasped. “I do not need rescuing!”
He winked. “Clearly you are on the railroad tracks of instability, ma’am, in the path of an oncoming judge-driven train. Here I am to save the day!”
“How do you propose to do that?” Poppy asked.
“You could go live on my ranch in Texas,” Last said. “The mother of my child has vacated the house she was using. She’s now living in town with my brother, Crockett. The house is empty, waiting for a happy family. Think about it,” he said, “a Texas ranch, a job in town—it’s the very image of stability.”
Curtis’s and Amelia’s eyes glowed.
“It’s not matrimony, but it would be a form of security. Mason is about to get roped into running for sheriff, I believe, by his dearest friend and enemy, Mimi.” Last shook his head. “I don’t know that Mason can worm out of Mimi’s grasp on this one. Other than my brother Bandera, who lives in the house next door with his crew, and my brother Calhoun, who lives below the windmill with his, there’s just horses, cows and sheep to liven up the days.”
Poppy had to admit the picture was a tempting one. “Cowboys,” she murmured.
“Nobody would mind you living there. Olivia—Calhoun’s wife—used to travel in a gig with her horse, Gypsy, and her father-in-law, who was a rodeo clown. Right up your alley, huh?”
Poppy hesitated. She wasn’t sure anymore what was “up her alley.” The children had changed her life. That was all she did know.
“What made you become a magician anyway?” he asked.
“My master’s thesis was about beliefs. Ninety percent of people want to believe in something magical. Good fortune of some kind,” she murmured. “I decided to test the theory.”
“So you’re in the circus because of your thesis?”
She looked at him thinking that he alone was enough to make a woman believe in good fortune. Strong-muscled and tall, the dip in the ocean had left his skin gleaming. She shivered. “I may pursue a doctorate one day. It’s good to collect more data. Can I make people believe?” An unwilling smile touched her lips. “You’re certainly a doubter.”
“Yeah, but I’m hardheaded by nature. I don’t want to believe in anything that I can’t rope or ride.”
Poppy nodded. “I understand. That’s how the majority of people sampled felt. Put, of course, in different terms than yours.”
“But I’m always up for an adventure,” he added with a devilish grin. “And that’s what I’m offering to you, Professor.”
She looked into his chocolate-brown eyes. “I don’t even know you.”
He grinned. “But don’t you feel the magic?”
Curtis and Amelia looked up at her. “Do you?” Curtis asked.
“Aunt Poppy?” Amelia said.
Goose pimples raised on her arms. “Children, it’s time to go. The sun is setting, and that means a bit of a chill this time of year. Goodbye, Mr. Jefferson. Good luck to you on your adventures.”
She escaped, her heart pounding. Oh, she had felt the magic.
It was the one thing she never wanted to feel again.
Chapter Two
“It’s okay to be a fake,” Poppy said under her breath as she and the children walked up a small set of steps to get to her car.
She didn’t believe in real magic any more than Last Jefferson did. She only believed in the kind she could produce under the big top, wearing a foxy bikini, a skirt with sequins and some fishnets.
The children should never know. They clung to her stories of magic, believing in fairy princesses and air-hung castles and all good thi
ngs that could be found if one just wished for them.
“I could be wrong,” she said, “but it seems appropriate to encourage imagination and creativity in you two. What else are myths, fairy tales and legends for?”
Curtis and Amelia looked up at her, their dear faces round and sweet. Poppy just wanted Curtis and Amelia to have the joy of being children.
Drat the cowboy for making her wonder if reality would be better for them. Esme indeed.
“I am certain Mr. Jefferson just recited some cowboy tall tales to us,” she said. “Perhaps he doesn’t even live on a ranch. Why would a true cowboy want to fly off a cliff?”
Amelia’s eyes widened. “The same reason someone wants to walk on the moon?”
Poppy shook her head. “I do believe the gentleman was yanking our chains. Let’s forget about him.”
“I’ve never met a real cowboy before,” Curtis said. “I wonder if he has a holster.”
“Oh.” Poppy crossed the street, protectively watching for traffic. “Westerns are not reality.”
“But when John Wayne—”
“We know,” Amelia said impatiently. “No more discussions about the genius of John Wayne, Curtis.”
Poppy stopped when they were on the opposite corner of the street. She glanced down at her niece and nephew. “It may be time for you two to be enrolled in public school.”
They looked at her.
“Why?” Curtis asked. Amelia stared silently.
“Because. We may have veered too far into the land of make-believe. It’s possible that the judge is right.”
“You called him an old goat,” Curtis reminded her.
She sighed, regretting the moment of her quick tongue filing its nervous complaint. “I did. But he may be right about the stability issue.”
“Why?” Amelia asked. “You said stability was for people who accepted that adventure was dead. That fortune wasn’t built nor determined by people who wouldn’t take a chance.”
“True, but I may be working on a new hypothesis. Children who are taught the realities of life do not end up flying from cliffs.”
Their eyes went wide.
Poppy shrugged. “It’s something to consider. And I must always consider your welfare, first and foremost.” She squeezed their hands. “Kids, look. I have no experience as a mother. I don’t even know what I’m doing. It’s possible the judge has reason to be concerned about the way I’m raising you.” What was so great about life under a big top or on a stage anyway?
It could be time to stop doing research. She’d made a lot of people believe in her magic. She’d proven to herself that people did want to believe, if only for the moment, and that taking their cares away for a while was a gift. Maybe that was the only magic she could really believe in. “And it could be that your mother wouldn’t have wanted you to live such a bohemian lifestyle.”
“Excuse me, for the last time,” she heard from behind her. “I swear.”
The cowboy had followed her and the children across the street. Bare-chested still. Her breath left her. If he was a stalker, he was a very handsome one.
“I need to clarify one thing,” Last said. “Just in case you ever decide to take me up on my offer.”
“I won’t.”
“I’m not planning on being around there much, at least for a while,” he admitted.
She gazed at him.
“If I’m the reason you might not consider it, that is.”
“I don’t know that the judge would approve of us picking up and leaving the state at this time. Also, my parents really need me—or at least I tell myself they do.”
Last nodded. “I understand. And to tell you the truth, while life on a ranch can be stable, we Jeffersons do not have a reputation for stability.”
She put a hand on her hip. “I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“But the ranch is in a town populated by very nice characters. Again, something to consider, just in case you change your mind. It’s the Jefferson ranch in Union Junction, Texas, better known as Malfunction Junction.”
The kids grinned. Poppy did not. “The ranch, not the town, is better known as Malfunction Junction?”
“Specifically the nickname refers to my family,” he said softly in a voice that sent silken shivers over Poppy’s skin. “It’s the bane of our existence. We are a malfunctioning crew, whether we admit it or not.”
He was a rogue and a daredevil, she realized. Perhaps a bit crazy.
Everything she did not need in her life.
“We’re late,” she told the cowboy. “I hope to never see you again.”
He looked hurt. She shook her head, turning to walk away. The kids peered over their shoulders at him.
“Oh, he looks like a puppy,” Amelia observed. “Poor cowboy.”
Poppy sighed.
“Why don’t you like him, Aunt Poppy?” Curtis asked.
“I have to be very careful,” she said, specifically thinking about rogues and daredevils who made a woman do stupid things…bedroom things.
Last was a delicious specimen of male. No illusion of magic was required to make him more visually desirable than he was.
“Malfunction Junction sounds like fun,” Amelia said.
“What we don’t need is another circus in our lives,” Poppy said firmly. “And that’s exactly what it sounds like to me.” After another moment of brisk walking, she asked quietly, “Is he still following?”
“No,” Curtis said. “He turned around and walked away a few minutes ago.”
“After waving goodbye,” Amelia said. “You know how you always tell us not to talk to strangers?”
“Yes,” Poppy said. “And now you see why.”
There was no reply for a second.
“Well,” Curtis said, “at least I finally met a real John Wayne.”
“We don’t know that,” Poppy stated. “He wasn’t wearing a hat or boots.”
“I know that,” Curtis said. “A real cowboy doesn’t need his hat to be real.”
“When the lion tamer offered to marry you, you said he was too wild,” Amelia pointed out. “When the ringmaster offered, you said his hat was too tall and you weren’t sure what was under there. The cowboy only offered us his ranch, and he won’t even be there. Wouldn’t that mean we can trust him?”
“I don’t know,” Poppy said with determination. “And I love you two too much to find out.”
“Do you like any man, Aunt Poppy?” Curtis asked.
“Yes. I like you. Now forget about the cowboy, children, and let’s think about tonight’s performance.”
But she knew why he stayed on their minds. Brave, daring, somehow vulnerable—he was a very appealing character to two young children who were growing up needing a fairy-tale hero. And to the woman learning to be their mother.
LAST JEFFERSON KNEW when he’d been given the winter-frozen shoulder. No meant no, and that little lady had just handed him a very firm no.
Too bad. The kids had been cute. Whistling, he went to pick up his hang-glider, trying to decide if he had enough daylight left for another go at his technique.
Or he could go attend this “show” the children had mentioned. Tickets were public, weren’t they? And he could just look up the location on the Internet. Poppy would never know. He wouldn’t mind seeing a bit of this “magic” hocus-pocus they’d talked about.
Then again, why did he care? He’d gotten himself in enough trouble once, a long time ago, by drinking a bottle of a supposedly mystical potion. “Surely I’ve learned from my mistakes. Mystical things are bad for me.”
He should know better. He didn’t need a woman, no matter how alluring. His daughter didn’t need one more person introduced into her life in a parental role; right now assimilating her new family of Crockett and Valentine would be challenge enough.
He needed to think with his mind and not his heart—or that more traitorous region of his body.
More time in the air hanging from something should clear his mind
.
And yet, he would love to make Esme change that formal, snippy tone she’d used when she’d said, “Mr. Jefferson,” to a gasping, grateful, Oh, Mr. Jefferson!
He couldn’t afford to indulge the fantasy.
“One more go?” asked the hang-glider attendant.
“I think not,” Last said. “Thanks, though.”
After changing into jeans and a shirt, he got into his truck. Two weeks driving the scenic route in north California, then heading to Africa for bungee jumping had felt like the right decision when he’d left Texas. The trip had been the perfect excuse for giving his brother and his new wife some family time.
No one knew, but it was really hard on Last to think about the new little family, no matter how much he loved Crockett. He wanted to be Annette’s only father, even if he knew that wasn’t possible. Damn lucky he was that her stepfather would be Crockett.
Still, it stung. His lips drew into a tight line, his gaze catching sight of brightly colored red tents as he drove only a few miles up the road. The tents could signify only one thing: the circus was in town and very near. He’d bet this was Esme’s gig.
He couldn’t resist.
In fact, he wouldn’t even try, he decided, parking his truck on the grounds and buying a ticket. Sneaking into the big top, he noted that his seat was far up and away from where Poppy or the children might spy him. The elderly gentleman seated beside him seemed harmless and likely to mind his own business, so Last was satisfied.
Checking his ticket stub, he realized he had about an hour to wait. He began dozing under his hat, somewhat bored by the lack of bulls and bucking broncs.
“The hottest magician on planet Earth,” he heard the announcer yell, making him sit straight up. “Poppy Peabody!”
Last’s jaw dropped as Esme rode into the arena on the back of a white pony, wearing a bikini-type garment so sexy he could only call it delightful.