by Scott, Lisa
“Let’s tie her up,” the little one said.
Jeanne sprang up from the floor. “No, no. Let’s not do that. How about a book? Let’s read a nice quiet book.”
“Yuck,” said Max.
“Blocks?” Jeanne offered.
That earned a pair of gigantic eye rolls. Then they dashed out of the room, and she heard a door slam.
“Boys?” She ran in their direction and tried the knobs on all the doors until she found the locked one. “Let me in, guys.”
The sound of running water whined on the other side of the door.
She tried the knob again. “This isn’t funny. Open up. Guys, what are you doing in there?”
“Making an ocean. Go away.”
Scenes of an overflowing tub sent her heart racing. Holding an immobile infant was so much easier than this. She thought about calling Jeff, but didn’t want to interrupt his business dinner. Clearly, the man had enough on his hands. She didn’t want to be responsible for a deal gone bad. Brad would know how to handle these two. He had nieces and nephews—all under age five, but still. He’d been a hellion himself. He could probably unlock doors in his sleep.
She dashed to her purse and dialed his number while running back to the bathroom. His phone rang and rang.
“Come on, come on,” she whispered to herself, keeping one ear pressed up against the bathroom door.
“Jeanne?” Brad finally answered. “What’s up? Aren’t you on your date?”
“Yes, well not exactly. How do you pick the lock on a bathroom door?”
He was quiet and then laughed. “Don’t tell me your date’s barricading himself in the bathroom. What did you do?”
“Trust me, I’m the one who should be locked in a bathroom.” Jeanne tried the doorknob again, just in case. Nope, still locked. “And it’s not my date, it’s his sons. Turns out he didn’t exactly ask me on another date.” She nudged the door with her hip. “He asked me to babysit for him, but you were … distracting me when he called, and I didn’t catch everything he said.” Heat crept up her neck just thinking about Brad’s abs again.
“Time out. Mr. March has you babysitting his kids?”
“Yes, another spectacular set up, Mr. Larsen. Now tell me how to get these kids out of the bathroom before they make a mini-Niagara Falls in there.”
“Let me come over and get them out. You’re at his place in Whitesville, right? I’m at my brother’s. Give me his address, and I’ll be right over.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, we were just hanging out. Hey, want me to go downstairs and say ‘Hi’ to Sam for you?”
“You’re the funniest guy I know. How do you manage it?”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
She gave him the address and tried shouting to the boys through the door, but they either couldn’t hear her or were totally ignoring her. Probably the latter. She pinched the bridge of her nose and pounded on the door a few times, but nothing. Slumping onto the floor, she tried to calculate how long it took to fill a tub to the top when the doorbell finally rang.
“Thank God you’re here,” she said, flinging the door open.
“Wow, you must be hungry, lady.” The skinny teenager handed her the pizza. “It’s all paid for.”
She grabbed a few bills from her wallet to tip him and wondered if the aroma of hot pizza would get the little buggers to come out. She carried the box to the bathroom and knocked again. “Oh boys, the pizza is here. Better get a slice before I eat it all.”
Still nothing but the sound of running water. “Guys, are you okay? I’m serious. Answer me.”
Nothing. It suddenly occurred to her that maybe something bad had happened. Maybe the boys had slipped under water. There might not be time to wait for Brad. She might need to call 911. She looked at her watch. Ten minutes had passed since Brad promised he’d be there. She let out a shriek when cold water oozed around her toes.
“Boys?” She shook the doorknob.
She ran to the kitchen with the pizza and grabbed her cell again, this time calling 911.
“911 what’s your emergency?”
“Two boys are locked in the bathroom with running water, and they’re not answering me.”
“What’s your address?”
Jeanne chewed on her thumbnail and glanced nervously out the window as she answered.
“How old are your boys?”
“They’re not my boys they’re my … date’s. I don’t remember. Little. Seven and four I think.”
“Where’s your date?”
“Out to dinner?”
“Without you?”
“I’m babysitting for him.”
“Babysitting for your date?”
“Stupid, I know.”
“Someone will be right there to help the boys, ma’am, but I’m not sure who’s going to help you. Babysitting for your date while he goes out …”
Jeanne rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. If there was a 911 Relationship Hotline, I would have called it ages ago. Thanks for your help.” She ran back to the bathroom. Water was still flowing under the door. “Guys! Guys are you all right? Turn the water off!” Her anger had morphed into bone-chilling fear.
She heard the distant blare of sirens and ran outside to the end of the driveway to flag down the fire department. She was waving her arms madly when Brad pulled up and parked on the side of the road. He hopped out of his truck and ran over to her. “What are you doing out here? Did they run away on you?”
Tears streamed down her face, and she pushed her hair out of her eyes. “No, they’re not answering me, and water is rushing under the door. I called the fire department because you weren’t here yet.”
“I was gathering up tools from my brother, but of course nothing was where it should be.” He grabbed her arm. “I’ll go in and get them out. J, it’ll be okay. I promise.”
She nodded and started sobbing after he ran off, realizing the boys could be in serious trouble. The fire truck appeared at the end of the block, and she stepped out into the street jumping and waving.
“Over here! Right here!” she yelled, knowing of course that they couldn’t hear her. She saw an old lady peeking out from her curtain across the street, and realized she was going to have to explain this all to Jeff. No doubt there wouldn’t be any more phone calls after tonight, which was fine with her.
The fire truck pulled up ahead of Brad’s truck, and two firefighters jumped off.
“Are the kids still in the bathroom?” one asked.
“I think so. My friend is trying to get them out.” She ran inside and they followed, and Jeanne saw Brad fling the door open. “Brad? Are they okay?”
Brad froze in the doorway. “I don’t know.”
The firefighter pushed past Jeanne, and she spotted a dark head floating in the tub. A scream caught in her throat, and she started sobbing. “Oh, my God, oh, my God.” She wrapped her arms around herself and prayed that the firefighters could help the boy.
Brad scooped up the smaller boy, Zach, who was standing there, frozen, wrapped in a towel. The firefighter pushed past him and picked up Max, floating on his stomach. The firefighter lifted him out in his arms, and Max started sputtering and gasping and then laughing.
“Tricked you! You thought I was dead, didn’t you?” He smiled, showing a gap-toothed grin.
Jeanne’s hammering heart slowed down a bit as she realized she’d been had. Big time had. “You rotten little—”
“Now, now, let’s be glad the little tyke is fine, Jeanne,” Brad said, putting his arm around her, squeezing hard.
Zach laughed, and Jeanne stomped off, her feet sloshing in the wet carpet.
After checking out Zach and declaring him fine, if not a mischievous little devil who should be watched a bit more closely, the firefighters left, and Jeanne slumped on the couch across from the two boys bundled up in towels and munching pizza like nothing strange at all had happened.
Brad sat between them, grinning wid
ely for some reason, and she just crossed her arms in a huff, angry that she was rattled and he was not. The boys totally adored him.
Yeah, the guy who didn’t want kids. Totally unfair.
“We should see if Jeff has a shop vac and try to dry out that rug a bit. Does your daddy have a great big vacuum?” he asked them.
Max nodded. “He cleans his car with it, and sometimes I can help.”
Zach dropped his pizza and ran for the garage. “I want to help, too!”
And that’s how Brad got the kids to clean up the carpet and make it seem like fun, like they were treasure hunters searching for gold buried in the rug.
They even asked Brad to read a book to them before bed, and by nine they were tucked in and asleep. Since no girls were allowed, Jeanne waited on the couch, flipping through 435 cable channels.
Brad finally flopped down next to her and laughed. “They remind me of Tommy and me, but add in two more hellions, and that’s what my folks had to deal with.” He patted her knee. “You got off easy tonight with just two of them.”
“Got off easy? I had to call 911!”
He rubbed her back, like he was trying to soothe an angry dog. “Everything ended up fine. No harm done.”
Her eyebrows shot up.
“We had fun like that all the time.” His grin faded. “Before things went bad, anyway.”
“Zach scared the tar out of me, pretending he was dead. How was that fun?”
“Don’t forget his mother died recently. Kids do weird stuff when their parents die.”
She slumped back in the couch. “Yeah, I seem to recall that. Becca wouldn’t eat anything crunchy for six months, and we had no idea why. She finally told us it sounded like a car smashing in her mouth.” Jeanne shook her head. “No wonder she was anorexic in college.”
Brad’s smile was gone. “I never really thought about how hard it must have been for you guys growing up. I always just thought about how my family was the dark sheep of the town.” He shrugged. “I was actually mad at all you Clark girls for a while. Usually after my father had done a number on me. Somehow I found a way to blame it on you guys. Like, if only your parents hadn’t been out that night, my father wouldn’t have reason to hit anyone. Mom would still be alive, and my father wouldn’t be a raging drunk.” He shrugged, looking like a little boy with wide eyes.
All the hardness in her heart was melting away. “I’m sorry for how things turned out for you.” She wrapped her arms around her crossed legs. “I was always fascinated by you in school. You were older and kinda dangerous. You got in trouble all the time.”
He shrugged. “What did I have to lose?”
She rested her hand on top of his and squeezed. “Weren’t you worried about what your father would do to you?”
Brad let out a soft snort. “He was going to do it anyway. And once I got big enough to fight him off, he’d usually just pass out from drinking and fighting with me, and I’d be all right.”
Jeanne sniffed, her throat thick. “You picked up some good parenting skills somewhere.” She pointed towards the boys’ bedrooms. “You were great with them. Doesn’t that show you that you would be a good father? You didn’t even raise your voice in all that ruckus. I’m impressed, really. I feel like a total schmuck. I totally didn’t know how to handle that. And I’m the one wild about having kids.” She rolled her eyes.
“Stepping in to save the day is no big deal when it’s not your kids. Who knows how I would’ve reacted if those were my children? I’m not willing to find out. I get to drive home tonight and never see them again and tease you about this until you die.” He grinned at her.
“I think you’re going to regret not being a father, Brad.” She just couldn’t understand how he could be so adamant about it, especially when he was so comfortable around them. Maddening.
He sighed. “I’m going to regret getting into this argument with you again. Come here.” He put his arm around her, and she leaned into him.
“So if you didn’t like me in high school, how did we ever become friends when we started working together at The Hideaway? Why don’t you still hate me?” The very notion made her sick to her stomach.
He brushed her hair off her cheek with the back of his hand. “I think I always wanted to be your friend and hated that it could never happen. Not after our families’ history. And when I’d catch you looking at me with those big green eyes, and you were just so beautiful …” He snapped his mouth shut. “I’m just glad we started working together because I can’t imagine life without you. Without my best friend.”
She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. It always came back to this: friends.
IT WASN’T LONG before Jeanne was asleep, and Brad liked the feel of her against him, her cheek pressed against his arm. Lately, he’d been wary of touching her because of what it ignited in him. He didn’t want her to sense it. But with her asleep, he didn’t worry about sliding his arm around her, pulling her closer, smelling the clean, sweet scent of her. Somehow, this Man of the Month thing was backfiring because Brad only wanted her more.
He thought about what she’d said, how he’d been with the boys. It was easy to handle kids for a few hours. He knew he was going home later. It wasn’t his wet rug to deal with, although they had cleaned up most of the mess. But he couldn’t do this every day. Not without losing his patience, or worse. No, he would certainly disappoint them in some way, and he wouldn’t be able to stand the way Jeanne would be sure to look at him when he did. Messing up a child was far too big a risk to take. So was losing Jeanne’s respect.
The jangle of keys pulled him out of his pity party, and he saw Jeff come through the front door.
He froze when he spotted Brad. “What are you doing here?” The dude did not look happy.
Brad unwrapped himself from Jeanne while she opened her eyes and yawned.
“Oh, we’re still here,” she said. Then she spotted Jeff. “Hi, Jeff. How was your dinner?” She scratched her head. She must have temporarily forgotten about the hell that had been unloosed earlier.
Jeff walked over to them and braced his hands on the back of the couch. “It was fine. I didn’t realize you’d be asking someone over. I thought we’d have some time alone once I got back.”
She rubbed her eyes. “Brad sort of rescued me. Before the firefighters got here.”
Jeff’s eyes bulged. “What happened? Are the kids okay?”
Jeanne stared at the floor. “They locked themselves in the bathroom and had the water running and wouldn’t let me in.’
“She called me for some lock picking advice,” Brad said. “And since I was at my brother’s just a few minutes away, I stopped by.”
“And the fire department?”
She twisted her hands in her lap. “Well, Brad wasn’t here yet, and the kids weren’t answering me, so I got really worried and called 911.”
“They were fine,” Brad added. “Although Max gave Jeanne the scare of her life. He was floating in the tub, trying to make us think he was dead.” He hoped he wasn’t getting the kid in too much trouble, but Jeff didn’t look like the violent kind. Brad would know.
“Your rug is kind of wet,” Jeanne said.
“We went over it a few times with your shop vac.”
Jeff ran his hand down his face. “I am so sorry, Jeanne. They can be difficult sometimes, but I thought maybe since you liked kids so much you could handle them.”
“This wasn’t Jeanne’s fault,” Brad said. “I think they’re having some issues with their mother dying. Might want to get some help for them if you haven’t.” Could have helped him when he was a kid. Who knew?
Jeff frowned at him. “I hardly think I need your advice on raising kids.”
“Jeff, he’s just trying to help. I don’t know what I would have done without Brad. I would have had to call you and interrupt your dinner. He was great with them. Got them to bed, read them a story. They were like different kids. It was incredible.”
Jeff look
ed back and forth between the two of them. “I don’t understand why you set me up with her when the two of you …” He shook his head. “Mandy should be home from her dance. Let me go get her, so she can stay here while I drive you home.”
She held up her hand. “Brad and I are just friends.”
“Right.”
Brad stood up and pulled out his keys. “Why don’t I take Jeanne home? I’m headed back that way anyhow.”
“I think that would be for the best.”
THEY WERE QUIET for most of the ride home.
“Okay, Mr. April won’t have kids,” Brad said. His window was open a crack, letting in the cold night air.
Her head bounced against the back of the seat as they rode along. “You’re seriously going to make me do this again?”
“A bet’s a bet, kiddo.”
She groaned. “Let’s talk about something else. Like the residential center anniversary party.”
Talking about business was a good, safe distraction.
“All right. The party’s less than three months away, two hundred guests. We need soup, salad, three entrée choices, six different appetizers, and a great big dessert table and anniversary cake.”
Jeanne nodded. “Good. There’ll be a lot of bigwigs there. Hopefully we’ll drum up some more business.” She grinned at him in the moonlight flooding through the windshield. “I wonder if the O’Haras would give us another shot.”
“Let’s not mention them again.”
When he pulled up in front of her house, he walked her to her door, and she squeezed him tight. “I don’t know what I would have done without you, Brad.”
He squeezed her back and kissed the top of her head. “Anything for you, Jeanne.”
Which wasn’t true. Because he still wasn’t willing to give her what she really wanted.
Chapter 11
JEANNE WALKED into the kitchen at Elegant Eats two weeks later and froze when she saw Brad holding a platter of Caprese salad. “Oh, no. What’s wrong?”
“What makes you think something’s wrong?”
“Something’s always wrong when you make me Caprese Salad. You hate balsamic vinegar, and I know where basil stands on your list of favorite herbs. Low. Real low.” She plucked a stack of tomato, fresh mozzarella, and basil from the tray. “But not on mine.” She grinned and took a bite.