When he nodded, she grabbed the pot and walked over to him. She had to touch him, wrap her hand around his to hold his cup steady. Meeting his gaze, she saw the dark intensity in his eyes and wondered again what the sensitive mission and all the others since had entailed. Her first obligation was to protect Faith. Before she brought father and daughter together, she needed to know more about him. Besides, he said he’d only be there temporarily. Was it right to reveal this secret knowing Faith would be heart broken when he left her? If anyone knew how that felt, it was Maggie.
She took one step away from him, then another and another until she was across the room and could form words again.
“Can you tell me what skills brought you to your commanding officer’s attention? Or would you have to kill me then, too?”
“I don’t think that’s classified. It was actually two things. Physical—”
“There’s a surprise.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth she wanted them back with a fervor she reserved only for chocolate. “What I meant was, you were in pretty good shape. From rodeoing. As I recall,” she finished lamely.
A slow, sexy grin curved up the corners of his lips. “Endurance was a factor. And intensity.”
She’d been the focus of that intensity once upon a time. It had been pretty seductive. And the primary reason why she’d been relieved when he’d said he wouldn’t be in Destiny for long. She didn’t want to chance having such concentrated scrutiny land on her for any extended length of time. Historically, she didn’t handle it well.
“What other ‘know-how’ brought you attention?”
“I took to computers like a wild mustang takes to the open range.”
“There’s that Texas boy I knew and—”
What? Loved? Not anymore. No way, no how. Nope.
She shook her head. “So you’re good with those ornery little contraptions? Maybe you’re just the man I need.”
One dark eyebrow rose. “Oh?”
She ignored the way her heart hammered, her hands shook and her knees wobbled. “Y-yeah. My computer is a mean-tempered, lazy, stubborn, good-for-nothing pile of chips, hard drive and disks.”
“Froze up on you?”
“That seems like a big leap.”
“Nine times out of ten the level of frustration you just ex pressed usually means the computer froze up. Want me to take a look?”
“More than you could possibly know.”
He walked to the desk and leaned over to study the screen. He turned the machine off and waited several moments before booting it back up again. Not that she even wanted to get close, but before she could move in to peek over his shoulder, he touched some keys, then straightened and looked at her.
“I think it will work for you now. If you talk nice.”
“What did you do?” she asked reverently. Then she held up a hand. “Never mind. If you tell me you’d probably have to kill me and I really don’t want to know that badly.”
He laughed. “It’s easy.”
“Maybe for you. I don’t mind admitting I’m technologically challenged. And I have a great deal of respect for people like you.”
His smile dimmed, then died. What had she said?
“Thanks for the coffee, Maggie.” He walked to the sink and rinsed out his cup. “I’ll get out of your hair. You have to go to work and Faith has camp.”
“How did you know that?”
“You mentioned it last night, when you said it was time to go home.”
“Oh.” He was a sharp one. She would tuck the information away. “We’ve got time. I could fix you breakfast—”
He shook his head. “I have an appointment. But thanks anyway. I’ll let myself out.”
And then he was gone. The man dropped in and out of her life with about as much notice and the same potentially destructive force as a stealth bomber.
“Faith, it’s time to go.”
Maggie put the finishing touches on her daughter’s lunch and snapped the lid closed on her lunch box. As she put the dirty peanut butter knife in the sink, she noticed the mug Jack had used just a short time before. She rubbed her finger around the rim. It was cold; his mouth was warm. She remembered from last night. She’d never for got ten.
“Faith Elizabeth, we’re going to be late.”
The sound of the slider made her turn around. “What were you doing outside?” Maggie asked.
“Jensen is next door talking to Jack.”
Her daughter stood in front of her, the clean denim shorts and powder blue T-shirt she’d put on a short while ago now sporting dirt stains.
“How do you know this?” Maggie asked.
“I heard them talking,” she answered vaguely, digging the toe of her sneaker into the vinyl kitchen flooring.
“Have you been climbing the tree between the yards and spying on him?”
The child shook her head and Maggie marveled at how well she did the wide-eyed-innocent act. Did the ability come from herself—or Jack?
“I didn’t have to climb the tree, Mom. He was talking really loud. Something about the damned will. What does that mean?”
“First of all, that’s not a word we repeat, young lady.”
“Will?”
“You know good and well that’s not the one. Second, he was talking about his grandmother’s will, what she wanted to happen with her things after she died.”
Faith’s blue eyes suddenly filled with shadows, so like the way her father’s had just a short while ago. “I miss her, Mom.”
“Me, too, sweetie.”
“Do you think Jack is sad, too?”
“I’m sure he is. He was very close to her when he was younger.”
“I wonder why he didn’t come back,” Faith said.
Because finding something he was good at was more important than his grand mother. Or me, Maggie thought sadly.
“I couldn’t say.”
“While I was in the backyard,” the child continued, careful not to in criminate herself, “I heard them say something about selling the house.”
“It makes sense. Jack’s job is in the army. He doesn’t need to keep it,” Maggie explained.
“Sure he does.”
“Why? Because a person can’t have too many houses?”
“Yeah,” Faith agreed. “I hope he doesn’t sell it.”
“Even to someone who might have a little girl just your age?”
“I’ve already got friends my age. Kasey and Stacey are my best friends—ever.”
“I can’t imagine Jack hanging on to the house. Like you said—he hasn’t come back until now. Why wouldn’t he sell it?”
Faith shrugged her thin shoulders. “I dunno. But I hope he keeps it. I wish he’d stay, Mom.”
Uh-oh, Maggie thought. Incoming—as in heart break. Faith couldn’t possibly have any clue about her relationship to the mysterious stranger next door. Yet she’d begun a bond. No doubt because he’d plucked her out of the stock pen last night. In her daughter’s eyes, he was the proverbial man in the white hat. And she didn’t know what to say to insulate the child’s fragile feelings.
“C’mon, sweetpea. We have to get going. And there’s no time for you to change out of those clothes you got tree dirt on. If I’ve told you once, I’ve said it a hundred times—stay out of the tree. You’re going to get hurt.”
“Aw, Mom, climbing trees is as easy as pie.”
“Here’s your lunch box.” When the child took it, Maggie touched her shoulder. “No argument. No editorializing. Just do as I say—no climbing trees.”
“Yes’m.”
They hurried out the front door and Maggie turned to lock it. Then she moved down the steps and to the car. As she opened her door, she noticed Jensen walking to her BMW parked at the curb in front of the house next door.
“Hey, Jen,” she called. “How’s it going?”
The other woman turned, then smiled and waved when recognition hit. “Hi, Maggie.” She put on her sunglasses. “I’m fine. Did you
hear? Taylor and Mitch got engaged last night.”
“Give them my best wishes.”
“I will, but right now Jack could use a friend.”
“What’s wrong?”
Jensen tucked a strand of mahogany hair behind her ear. “You’ll have to ask him. If he wants to say anything, he will. Attorney-client privilege.” She shrugged. “You off to work?”
“Yeah. What about you?”
“I’m going into Destiny to scout possible locations for a branch office for my firm.”
“Really? I didn’t know you were expanding.”
She looked down at her hips, then grinned. “Not me per son ally. This area is growing fast and the partners see a lot of potential.”
“Would you be working out of the new office?” Maggie asked.
“I don’t know. It’s all still in the planning stages.” Her clipped tone and tight mouth told Maggie that her friend had some reservations.
If she did decide to stay in town and work the new office, Maggie would be surprised. Jensen associated Destiny with some un pleas ant memories. The husband she’d lost after just a single year together had grown up here, too. Maggie wondered if she knew that she was lucky to have had even a year with the love of her life. It was more than she’d had—not that Jack was the love of her life. But there was something to be said for closure.
“Hey, I don’t want to keep you two. Hi, Faith,” Jensen called.
“Hi,” the girl said. They watched Jensen get into her car and drive away. “Mom, there’s Jack.”
Maggie shifted and saw him on the front porch. He looked—what? Angry? Annoyed? Like a volcano about to erupt? Sad? She and Faith had had some time to deal with the older woman’s death, but she suspected that he was just beginning to. Did he need someone to talk to?
Faith ran around the car and raced up the steps next door. “Hi, Jack.”
“Hey,” he said. “Don’t you have to go to camp?”
She nodded. “I wanted to see if you were okay about G.G. Dot.”
“You called her that before. Why?”
Maggie rested her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “Your grand mother didn’t like being called Dottie or Mrs. Riley and especially not ‘ma’am.’” That produced a slight smile from him. “She said she was old enough to be Faith’s great-grand mother and asked us to shorten that to G.G. Dot.”
Maggie prayed she’d put the right amount of offhanded casual into the explanation. What she’d told him was the truth—just not quite all of it.
“Are you all right, Jack? Faith said she heard loud voices—”
“Yeah,” the child chimed in. “You said something about the damned will—”
“That’s enough,” Maggie said. “Remember what I told you about that word?”
“Yes’m,” she said, hanging her head.
“Go sit in the car and wait for me.”
“Yes’m.” She started down the steps. “’Bye, Jack.”
“’Bye.” He looked at Maggie. “She heard me?”
“I’m sorry. She likes to climb the tree in our backyard. There’s one big limb that over hangs your side. I’ve told her over and over not to go up there. I’m terrified she’s going to get hurt. But—”
“She’s stubborn. Like her mother.”
Maggie glanced over her shoulder at the child who’d just slammed the car door. “I guess the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“Good one,” he said, the corner of his mouth quirking up.
“Thanks. But seriously, are you okay?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I just found out something that really ticked me off.”
She held her breath. Did he know about Faith? Had G.G. Dot put something in her will? Maggie could feel the pulse at the base of her neck pounding. “Do y-you want to tell me what’s wrong?”
“You bet I do,” he said angrily.
Chapter 4
Jack briefly wondered why Maggie was staring at him as if he’d cut the pigtails off Faith’s favorite doll. He couldn’t blame her. His show of temper was completely out of character. Army training and ten years of structured military life had in grained the habit to not tip off his feelings. And he was good at what he did. But the terms of the will had shaken him more than a little—specifically the directive from his grand mother—G.G. Dot.
That sounded so like her—to treat Faith as if she was a member of the family. Dottie Riley had never made a secret of the fact that she’d wanted him to settle down and have a family of his own. Since he hadn’t, Gran obviously had adopted Maggie and Faith when they’d moved in next door.
“Jack, what’s wrong?” Maggie asked. “Say something. You’re scaring me.”
That just goes to show what happened when he was released into polite society. You can take the boy out of the military, but you can’t take the military out of the boy. How could he handle living up to the rules his grand mother had set? How could he not?
“Jack?” Maggie put her hand on his arm. “Tell me.”
She looked as if she were bracing for a life-altering announcement. Actually, only his life would be affected, and not permanently.
“Okay, Mags. Here goes. By the terms of the will, I have to live in Gran’s house for a year before I can sell it.”
He watched Maggie’s face, waiting for her reaction. The fear in her expression faded to puzzlement. Frankly he’d expected the fear to stay put—because he would be next door. He looked closer and noticed the splash of freckles across her small nose, the sun glasses perched like a headband to keep her red curls tamed, the flecks of light and dark green and gold that made up the hazel in her eyes. She was full of hues and shades of color—a fire cracker.
And he was stuck there for a year. It was wrong. He didn’t belong here. It had been less than twenty-four hours and already Faith was in hot water for repeating a word she’d heard him say. And Maggie would tempt a card-carrying, dyed-in-the-wool, vows-of-poverty, chastity-and obedience-dedicated monk to question his calling. His grand mother must have been one cookie short of a dozen when she’d had this will drawn up.
“I don’t under stand.” Maggie blinked and shook her head. “It doesn’t make any sense. How can she force you to stay? What does it say?”
“The terms state that if I fail to live in the house for three hundred sixty five consecutive days, the house will be sold and the money donated to Destiny’s rock museum.”
“Are you sure?” She took the sun glasses from the top of her head and put them over her eyes.
He leaned one shoulder against the porch overhang support and continued to stare at her. Between her hair and eyes she was all the colors of the rainbow. Until seeing her again, he hadn’t realized how colorless his world had become. But cir cum stances had made him what he was. Black, white and gray were safer for him and for everyone else. What had his grand mother been thinking with this will thing?
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“The town has a rock museum?”
“There must be one,” he said. “I guess. How should I know? The point is that Jensen said the will is simple and straight for ward. It doesn’t take a lawyer to interpret. If I don’t live here for a year, some stupid useless rocks will be the beneficiary of her estate.” He studied her mouth, the way it curved up at the corners. “Are you laughing at me, Maggie?”
“No. Of course not. Heaven forbid.” But her lips tilted up as far as they could go without laughing. “So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t have a choice. I can’t abide the thought of the proceeds from the house going to anything so frivolous. And I suspect she knew I would feel that way. I’m going to live in the house.”
“But what about the army?” she pro tested. “Don’t you have an obligation?”
“I’ve given ten years to the army and never asked for special favors.” His mind was racing. “Gran had something up her sleeve, some reason she wanted to keep me here. I just wish I knew what it was.”
�
�I know.”
“You do?” He straightened and stared at her. “Did she say something to you? Care to en lighten me?”
Maggie re treated a step. Jack swore she looked like she hadn’t meant for that to slip out. Like she wanted those words back in the worst way.
“She didn’t confide in me. That’s not what I meant.” Maggie glanced over her shoulder. “It’s just a guess really. I think she wanted you to spend some time here in Destiny.”
“Why?”
“I guess to remind you about family—”
“There’s nothing for me here now. She was the last of my family.”
“It’s more than that. I think she wanted you to remember that Destiny is your roots.” Maggie shrugged.
Her lifting of shoulders was meant to be casual, but she looked tense enough to snap in two. Especially when he’d made the remark about Gran being the last of his family. “Destiny has nothing for me. Not anymore.”
“You can argue till hell freezes over,” Maggie pointed out, “but G.G. Dot is sitting on a cloud in heaven and she’s having the last laugh.”
“Now there’s an interesting visual,” he commented.
“Unless you’re willing to turn this house over to Rocks ‘R’ Us, you’ve got some decisions to make. So what are you going to do? About the army, I mean. Don’t they have rules about not coming back when you’re supposed to?”
“It’s time I called in some favors. I’ll have to extend my leave.”
“Yeah, a three-hundred-and-sixty-five-day ex tension. Will that be a problem?” she asked, trying to act casual.
What was going on with Maggie? She wasn’t laughing now. It had finally sunk in that he wasn’t leaving right away. But why should she care if he hung around for a year? She didn’t know how he’d changed. If he could help it, she never would. He could hide in the jungle in de finitely, Gran’s house in Destiny was hardly even a challenge.
He folded his arms over his chest. “I’ll arrange for a leave of absence. For personal reasons. Since I’ve been threatening to quit I don’t think they’ll mind giving me some time off. But I don’t want to hold you up. Don’t you have to get to work?”
“Yeah. But now I have to ask why?”
If You Don't Know By Now Page 4