The Man Upstairs (You, Me & The Kids)

by Pamela Bauer

  “They’re still creepy,” she said on a shiver, straightening her sleeping bag.

  “He probably crawled in through the opening. The zipper wasn’t shut all the way,” Quinn said as he unzipped the door and pushed aside the flaps.

  Sara wasted no time following him outside, mumbling, “I’m not staying in there. At least out here I can see what’s crawling around.”

  Dena heard him say, “Looks like a perfect morning. Sun’s shining, lake’s calm.” He tied back the entrance flap so that those inside could see out.

  “Are we going fishing?” Kevin asked, crawling out of his bag.

  “We sure are. The question is, do we want to go before or after breakfast?” Quinn asked.

  The consensus was that it would be better to eat first, fish later.

  “I’m not doing anything until I shower.” Sara’s voice carried on the still morning air.

  Dena understood the sentiment. Having slept in her clothes in a tent made her wish she could hop in a hot shower about now, too. She scrambled outside and told Sara as much.

  “You know where it’s at,” Quinn said, nodding toward the hill behind them where the building with the public showers was located. “I’m going to set up the fishing rods.”

  “I’m not going fishing,” Sara stated in her usual defiant tone.

  Dena knew the young girl couldn’t stay behind by herself, and said, “Maybe I won’t go, either.”

  Quinn looked as if he wanted to protest, but he simply shrugged. “Okay. I’ll take Jeremy, Kevin and Bethany.” He leaned into the tent and said, “You three want to go out on the pontoon and catch some fish, don’t you?”

  Their enthusiastic responses told Dena that she’d be left alone with Sara. A challenge probably far greater than trying to bait a hook or take off a fish.

  Actually, everything at the campsite turned out to be a challenge. Dena had no experience cooking for six people, let alone trying to do it on a two-burner camp stove. Cleanup was an equally difficult challenge, having to heat the water before dishes could be done and using a small plastic container for a sink. Quinn took everything in stride, relishing the obstacles the outdoors presented. It didn’t seem to bother him when the children complained, either.

  Not so Dena. She liked peace and quiet and harmony. With four kids there was constant commotion. It didn’t help that Sara was so obviously unhappy. No matter what anyone said or did, she seemed determined not to have a good time.

  Dena was at a loss. She had no idea how to help a kid who’d just lost her parents in a terrible accident. It was obvious from Sara’s behavior that she wasn’t looking for help from Dena. If anything, she seemed to resent her presence, bristling whenever Dena tried to talk to her.

  Quinn didn’t miss the tension between the two of them, pulling Dena aside to ask, “Are you sure you don’t want to come fishing? I’ll tell Sara she has to come.”

  She put a hand on his arm. “No. If you do that, she’s going to resent me.”

  He put his hands on his waist. “It seems to me she’s resenting just about everything anyway. Do you really think it’ll matter?”

  She chewed on her lower lip. “Probably not, but I just feel so bad for her. She’s hurting.”

  “I realize that, but the pain isn’t going to go away by her being difficult. She can bring her CD player and her headset and just sit on the pontoon. She doesn’t have to fish,” he told her.

  Dena wondered if he wasn’t right. “Maybe it is better to do everything as a group.”

  A few hours later, however, Dena wasn’t so sure. Although Sara was no longer sullen, she was still very quiet. She sat off to one side of the pontoon, her headset on as she listened to CDs. She was polite to everyone, but Dena could see that she was unhappy.

  That was the pattern for the rest of the day. In every activity, Sara was a reluctant participant. The other three kids couldn’t get enough of Quinn’s attention, yet when it came to Sara, the kinder Quinn was toward her, the more prickly she became. To Dena’s amazement, he didn’t give up, but kept encouraging her and giving her every opportunity to have fun.

  He showed all of the kids the same amount of attention. Dena had expected that Jeremy would be impressed by him. He was, after all, a hockey player. But even Bethany was charmed. Dena thought Quinn was a bit like the Pied Piper. Instead of a flute he used his athletic ability to lead the kids on all sorts of fun escapades. They fished, they tossed a Frisbee, they hiked, they played catch, and by the time they had roasted hot dogs for dinner, they were all yawning.

  Dena offered to do the cleanup and told the kids to go into the tent and get ready for bed. Quinn was soon at her side.

  “They’re bushed,” he said, nodding toward the tent.

  “They should be. You kept them busy.”

  He smiled. “Yeah. I didn’t do too badly, did I?”

  She shook her head. “You have a lot of patience with all of them.” In a lower voice she added, “Even Sara.”

  He sighed and stepped closer to her so he could lower his voice, too. “I think I saw a hint of a smile when we were watching those baby ducks trail after their mother.”

  Dena sighed. “I wish there was something I could do.”

  “Have you tried talking to her one-on-one?”

  She nodded. “It didn’t do much good.” Dena didn’t want to tell him that Sara behaved as most women did around her—as if she needed to be on her guard. If Quinn was hoping the two of them would bond female to female, he was in for disappointment. “I think she’s determined not to have any fun.”

  “She’ll come around in time,” he said with confidence. “I predict that by tomorrow night she’ll have a smile on her face just like the rest of them.”

  But Sara looked pretty much the same, slumped in the back seat of the SUV on the ride back to the city, as she’d looked on Friday afternoon when they left. Unhappy.

  Dena didn’t think it was possible that she could have complained more on Sunday than she had on Saturday, but she was certain that if she’d kept score, she would have had more marks on the second day of their camping trip. But then, it had been a difficult day for all of them. The warm spring weather had been pushed away by a cold rain that had them finally admitting defeat, packing up the tent and heading home.

  Dena was as relieved as Sara that their camping experience was over. The weekend hadn’t gone as smoothly as she’d hoped it would, either. She’d made a mess of the cooking, struggled with the camping chores and was marginal at best when it came to the sporting activities.

  She was quiet on the trip home, and Quinn didn’t seem to mind. As the windshield wipers swished back and forth across the glass to clear away the drizzling rain, she wondered what thoughts were going through his mind.

  She found out later that evening when he showed up at her door with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

  “Got time for a nightcap?”

  She should have said no. It was late and she had to work the next day. She pulled him by the elbow into her apartment. “I have time for you.”

  He smiled. “That’s what I like to hear.”

  She pushed him toward the love seat. “Sit and I’ll get us a corkscrew.”

  “No need,” he said, setting the glasses down on the trunk that doubled as a coffee table. He pulled a corkscrew from his pocket and wiggled it in midair. “I came prepared to celebrate.”

  “What’s the occasion?” she asked.

  He worked the cork loose and said, “We survived the weekend.”

  She smiled. “Just barely.”

  “It was difficult, wasn’t it?” he said, pouring the wine into the glasses.

  She nodded in agreement. “We probably shouldn’t have brought my niece and nephew. Taking care of two kids is enough work without adding two more.”

  “I’m not talking about the work of taking care of the kids, Dena.” He handed her a glass. “Camping with kids is fun.”

  “You didn’t think it was difficult?”<
br />
  “No, what was difficult was sleeping in the same tent as you and not being able to touch you.”

  The look on his face sent a shiver through her. She lifted her glass to his and said, “Here’s to more romantic settings than a tent.”

  He clicked his glass against hers and took a sip. “Four kids kept me awake—not because they were a lot of trouble but because they were in between you and me in that damn tent.”

  “They’re not here now.” And Dena wanted to make the most of their privacy. She placed her hand on his thigh, then slowly moved it up his leg.

  It was all he needed. Before she could utter another word, the wineglasses were on the table, their clothes were on the floor and they were behind the silver screen separating her sitting room from her bedroom.

  It was the first time they had made love since Quinn had come home with the children. For the past couple of weeks she’d wondered if things would ever be the same between them, but once his hands began their intimate exploration, she knew that nothing had changed. Magic happened when she was in his arms.

  There was no use pretending he wasn’t someone special in her life. When she was with him, she felt as if everything was right in her universe, and she told him with every movement of her body.

  When their passion was spent, she lay cradled in his arms.

  “I didn’t come down here for this,” he said on a satisfied sigh.

  She raised herself up on one elbow and said with a sexy smile, “Yes, you did, and I’m glad. I’ve missed you.”

  He kissed her tenderly. “I’ve missed you, too.”

  “I wasn’t sure if we could get back what we had before…” She didn’t finish her thought, not wanting to mention the tragedy that had changed their lives. She rubbed her hand across his chest.

  A sparkle lit his blue eyes. “I was hoping you’d say that it was better than what we had before.”

  She grinned. “Of course it was. I thought that went without saying. But I mean this. Being here together…it’s as if nothing’s changed.”

  “But things have changed,” he said on a sigh. “And I have two kids upstairs.” He placed a hand along her cheek. “As much as I hate to say this, I should be getting back up there.”

  “I wish you didn’t have to.”

  “Me, too.” She nodded in understanding and he pushed aside the covers to swing his legs over the side of the bed. “Of course, there is always tomorrow night.”

  “I thought you said you had to take Sara to some program at her school tomorrow,” she said, slipping her robe over her naked body.

  “I do. You could come along,” he suggested, reaching for his pants.

  She shook her head. “She doesn’t need me tagging along.”

  He looked as if he wanted to protest, but simply reached for his shirt and pulled it on. They went over their schedules, trying to figure out when they could squeeze in some time together during the upcoming week.

  As they slowly made their way to the door, he said, “I’m glad you came along on the camping trip. You were great, by the way.”

  “Yeah, great at making a mess of pancakes on a camp stove.”

  “It was your first time. You weren’t supposed to know the tricks of the trade,” he told her.

  She chuckled sarcastically. “It’s okay. You won’t hurt my feelings if you speak the truth. Let’s face it. I won’t ever be asked to give demonstrations at the camping show.”

  “Maybe not, but you were a good sport about the whole thing.”

  “I didn’t have much choice, unless I wanted to look like a total idiot in front of my niece and nephew.”

  He kissed her again. “You could never look like an idiot.”

  “I sure feel like one sometimes when I’m around kids. I guess it shouldn’t come as any great surprise. I mean, I haven’t exactly been around them much.”

  He put a finger under her chin and tilted her head up until her eyes were looking into his. “You really don’t feel comfortable around them, do you?”

  “Not the way you do. It’s like I don’t speak their language.”

  “We can change that. Just hang out with me and you’ll be talking kid-speak in no time at all,” he said on a lighthearted note, but Dena knew he was suggesting something more serious.

  She should have reminded him that she wasn’t interested in getting that kind of experience at this time in her life—she was focusing on her career.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and cuddled closer to him. “By the end of next month it won’t matter. We’ll go back to being just the two of us. It’s more fun that way, don’t you think?” she asked, sliding her hand into his waist in a tempting manner.

  “Much more fun.” He reached for her roving hands and brought them to his lips. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you tomorrow.” He kissed her one last time, then left.

  Dena crawled back into the bed that still held traces of his scent. She pulled the pillow close to her face and inhaled the lingering fragrance, wishing she could turn back the clock so they were once more two carefree adults who enjoyed each other’s company.

  Only they weren’t carefree. At least he wasn’t for another six weeks. She’d have to be patient—as difficult as it would be.

  “HI, AUNT DENA.”

  Dena didn’t expect to find her nephew on the steps of 14 Valentine Place when she got home from work on Monday. He wasn’t alone. There was another slightly smaller boy with glasses sitting next to him.

  “Jeremy, what are you doing here?”

  “I came to visit you. Aren’t you happy to see me?”

  She gave him a quick hug. “It’s always nice to see you. I’m just surprised, that’s all. How did you get here?”

  “We rode our bikes.”

  She looked questioningly from him to the boy beside him.

  “This is my friend Zach,” he said, introducing his friend.

  The boy mumbled a hello shifting from foot to foot.

  Dena smiled politely, then unlocked the door. “Have you boys had dinner?”

  “Yeah. It’s past seven o’clock.”

  Dena glanced at her watch. “You’re right. Are you supposed to be out this late on a school night?”

  He chuckled. “Seven o’clock isn’t late.”

  A glance around the neighborhood confirmed those words as several kids played in the yard next door. “Does your mom know you’re here?” she asked.

  “Mom knows I was coming over here. She doesn’t care. I told her I was going on a bike ride.”

  Dena wasn’t convinced and suggested he come inside and call her. She pushed the door open and motioned for him to enter. “Want something to drink?”

  “I am kinda thirsty,” he said, and followed her inside. Zach trailed behind him.

  Instead of taking them up the stairs to the second floor, Dena led them into the kitchen, which to her relief was empty. “How about a juice box?” she asked when he’d finished his phone call home.

  “Sure,” both boys answered.

  Dena grabbed a bottle of iced tea for herself and joined them at the table. “So you two were just out riding around on your bikes and decided to pay me a visit?”

  Jeremy nodded. “I thought it would be cool for Zach to see where you live.”

  Dena suspected that it wasn’t her home that had aroused their curiosity, but the fact that she lived in the same building as Quinn Sterling.

  Her suspicions were confirmed when her nephew asked, “Does Quinn eat dinner down here in this kitchen?”

  “Sometimes,” she answered, then changed the subject, asking the two boys about school and whether or not they’d made any plans for the summer. They answered her questions, but it was obvious by the way their heads kept turning toward the doorway that they had hoped to see Quinn.

  “I told Zach all about our camping trip,” Jeremy boasted proudly. “We had fun, didn’t we?”

  “Yes, we did,” she agreed.

  “Quinn Sterling is cool, i
sn’t he?”

  “Very,” she agreed.

  “Is he your boyfriend?”

  “He’s a friend, yes.”

  “Is that his red Ferrari out back?” Zach wanted to know.

  Dena hadn’t seen the cars out back because she’d taken the bus that day and had come up the front walk. She got up and went over to the window. Sure enough, next to the garage was a red Ferrari. She’d never noticed it before and wondered if it could possibly be Quinn’s.

  “Well?”

  “I don’t know whose car that is,” she said, letting the curtain fall back into place.

  Jeremy looked at her as if he didn’t believe her.

  “You rode in Quinn’s car,” she reminded him. “It’s a silver SUV.”

  “Yeah, a Lincoln Navigator. That’s what I told Zach, but he thought a hockey player would have a Ferrari, too. I heard some professional athletes have like five cars.”

  “Maybe he has a friend visiting him who drives a Ferrari,” she stated simply, then headed back to the table.

  “There might be another hockey player upstairs?” Jeremy asked, the possibility causing both boys’ eyes to widen.

  If Dena had any doubt that her nephew had come to visit Quinn, it was now erased. Footsteps on the stairs told her he was about to get his wish. Seconds later, Kevin came galloping into the kitchen.

  “Hi, Jeremy. Guess what? I get to go get an ice-cream cone!” the seven-year-old said as he slid onto the chair next to Dena’s nephew.

  “Who’s taking you?” Jeremy asked.

  “Quinn.” Seconds later the hockey player strolled into the kitchen, looking more attractive than Dena imagined possible. He wore a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that outlined the firm muscles in his arms and chest. Dena’s heart thumped as he smiled at her.

  “Hi! What’s up?”

  Before she could answer, Jeremy was off his chair and dragging his friend Zach over to meet him. Once again Dena saw how easy it was for Quinn to entertain the boys. He didn’t look the least bit annoyed by their never-ending stream of questions, answering each one patiently.

  “Is that your Ferrari out back?” was one of the questions Jeremy asked.

  “No, it belongs to a friend of mine. He needed to borrow my SUV so we swapped cars for a day.”