The Bride Came C.O.D. (Bachelor Fathers)

by Barbara Bretton

  "The freezer," said Kiel.

  "We have enough room for all of this?"

  He nodded. "More than enough."

  "Don't I have to do something special before I freeze things?"

  His eyes widened a fraction. "Wrapping the meats and breads might not be a bad idea."

  She nodded. "Okay."

  "You really didn't know that?"

  She met his eyes. "I really didn't."

  He started to say something but caught himself.

  A moment passed.

  He glanced out the window toward the yard and his lab beyond. "I'd better get to work."

  She nodded again.

  He pointed toward the telephone on the wall. "If there's an emergency, dial 88."

  "Fine."

  "You can handle dinner?"

  "Thanks to the neighbors, I can handle dinner for the next six months."

  A second later he was gone. She stood at the window and watched as he crunched his way across the thin layer of snow and ice that blanketed the yard. He paused in front of his lab, pressed some buttons, waited, pressed some more, and then disappeared inside. The sound of the lab door closing behind him sounded like the dull thud of a bank vault being locked for the night.

  Denali shimmered in the distance, snow-covered and bathed in the reddish-orange glow of sunset. Lexi's breath caught in her throat and a feeling of wonder washed over her. Man had yet to create anything more beautiful than the artless magic of nature. Was it any wonder people like Kiel were giving their time and expertise to preserve that beauty for future generations.

  She frowned, retracing Kiel's progress across the backyard. He hadn't seemed to notice any of the beauty right under his nose. Not even the eagle soaring overhead.

  He was an environmentalist who seemed to relate to his environment about as well as Lexi related to housework. Wouldn't you think he'd at least have a window in his lab so he could take a look at the natural world he was so busy cataloguing? His Marcus Aurelius remark to Harry Blackburn had been very amusing but she had the strangest feeling that if push had come to shove, Kiel wouldn't have been able to come up with anything more convincing.

  Call me if there's a problem, Joanna had told Lexi as they said goodbye at JFK.

  "There's a problem," Lexi said out loud as she watched darkness descend upon Denali. "Oh, Joanna, there are a lot of problems."

  He was too handsome, too sexy, too masculine for her own good.

  And he was too needy, even if he didn't realize it yet. Beneath that rock-hard exterior hid a softer heart than he'd probably ever admit to possessing. Had that soft heart been broken by the death of his wife or had his heart been broken before the final goodbye?

  Not that it was any of her business.

  Funny how saying the words "I do" could turn an otherwise intelligent woman into a simpering fool. And his kisses didn't help matters either. This was supposed to be a business venture, pure and simple, but it hadn't taken long for Lexi to realize there wasn't anything either simple or pure about their situation.

  "Time to get a grip, Alexa," she told herself sternly. She'd take care of Kelsey, she'd do her best to keep the house one step away from being declared a health hazard, but when it came to Kiel Brown it was strictly hands off.

  "You had a what? " Ryder O'Neal's voice boomed through the secured phone line in Kiel's laboratory.

  "A wedding party," Kiel said with an edge to his voice. "And it wasn't my idea."

  "Whose idea was it, Lexi's?"

  "Not hers either." Although if she'd had time Kiel was sure she would have sent out engraved invitations and a request for gifts. "The neighbors surprised us."

  "What the hell are your neighbors doing surprising you with a party?"

  Kiel's temper grew hotter. "It was your idea to let them know I was getting married, boss," he snapped. "It was their idea to throw a party."

  "In the local beer hall maybe, but in your house? How did they get in?"

  "Imelda Mulroney's son is a locksmith." Not that Imelda had needed him since Kiel had obligingly left the front door unlocked.

  "Jesus," O'Neal breathed. "Did you--"

  "No," Kiel broke in. "Everything to do with the project is in the laboratory."

  "I'm surprised Mulroney's son didn't give that a try too."

  Kiel thought of the scratches he'd seen around the strike plate but said nothing. He doubted if O'Neal would care to hear the story of Blackburn and that rara avis, the Marcus Aurelius. He listened impassively as O'Neal read him the riot act, stressing the importance and secrecy of his work, the vital nature of Kiel's place in the PAX machinery. When O'Neal stopped for breath Kiel got around to the real reason for his call.

  "This isn't going to work," he said. "She's not what I was looking for."

  "Tough," said O'Neal in the same congenial tone of voice he'd used to dress him down. "She's what we were looking for."

  "She can't even boil water," Kiel complained loudly.

  "I never said we were sending Julia Child."

  "Julia Child would be an improvement." At least he wouldn't be having erotic dreams on an hourly basis over Julia Child.

  "What else is wrong with your new bride?"

  "She has an attitude."

  "So do you."

  "She's asking questions about my work. Just how much did you tell her?"

  "Nothing," O'Neal said. "She thinks you're an environmentalist."

  "The hell she does. I thought PAX operatives were more discreet. She welcomed the neighbors with open arms. I caught her inviting Imelda and Agnes and their cronies back for lunch. You'd better pray we get snowed in for the winter soon or we'll be having overnight guests."

  Silence.

  "Are you there, O'Neal?"

  "She's new," O'Neal said at last. "She's learning the ropes."

  "I'm sitting on top of enough nuclear energy to blast us into the next century, and you send me an amateur." Great, he thought with grim satisfaction. Nothing like bitching about someone else to take the onus off your own shortcomings.

  "We do what we have to do."

  "Why'd you have to do it with me?"

  "Have you read a newspaper lately, man?" O'Neal exploded. "The whole world's going to hell and you're complaining because we sent you the wrong wife." PAX had been hypersensitive since the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.

  Kiel started to list Lexi's deficits but O'Neal talked over him, detailing the disasters unfolding in the Middle East and the Balkans.

  "We're trying to keep a lid on things," O'Neal went on, "but the situation's getting hotter every hour." The nuclear underground was making its move, offering payment in gold for weapons that would give it deadly credibility on the world stage.

  Kiel listened in silence. What the hell could he say? In the scheme of things, Alexa Grace Marsden wasn't even a blip on the screen. All he had to do was keep his hands to himself, his mind on his work, and his fingers crossed that the crazies in this world wouldn't blow everyone to Kingdom Come before he had a chance to score a breakthrough.

  The first was difficult.

  The second was imperative.

  And the third was asking for a miracle.

  Just another day in Nowhere.

  Kelsey's bathtime was much less eventful than it had been the night before. Now that Lexi knew what genital configuration to expect, she found that all she had to worry about was keeping herself from tumbling into the tub with the wriggling child.

  "Hold still!" she said for the fifth--or was it sixth--time. "Let me rinse your hair."

  "I can do it," Kelsey said, her stubborn little chin thrust forward. "Daddy lets me do it."

  "Well, I'm not your daddy and I think I should do it for you."

  "You'll get soap in my eyes."

  Lexi leaned back on her heels and looked at the child in mock dismay. "I will not! I happen to be a first class, world champion shampoo-rinser."

  Kelsey giggled. "No, you're not."

  "Oh yes,
I am."

  Kelsey shook her head and soap flew about the tiny bathroom.

  "You look funny!" Kelsey said, giggling louder. "You have soap on your nose."

  Lexi made a big production out of dispersing the offending bubble of shampoo. "I bet I can rinse all the shampoo out of your hair and your eyes won't sting a bit."

  "Only daddy can do that."

  "I can do it, too."

  "Will you read me a story afterwards?"

  The nanny's name was Sarah and she never had time for stories. "You know I leave at seven o'clock, Alexa," she said. "I can't stay late just too read to you."

  The next nanny's name was Margaret. She lived in but she didn't believe in fairy tales. "No sense filling your mind with a lot of useless nonsense," she'd said when Lexi begged. "You're never too young to learn there are no happy endings."

  Lexi swallowed hard. Where on earth had that ridiculous lump in her throat come from anyway? "Sure I will. But if we don't rinse your hair soon you're going to turn into a waterlogged old prune."

  "You're silly."

  Lexi pushed her sleeves farther up her arms. "I've been called worse."

  The shampoo was rinsed off in record time and Lexi thanked the powers-that-be for the beloved toy poodle who had shared her teenage years. Who would have imagined that washing mud off a dog's coat could help prepare you for motherhood?

  "All done," she announced, lifting the little girl from the tub and bundling her in a big towel the way Kiel had done the previous night. She wrapped a smaller towel around Kelsey's head turban-fashion. "Now where are your pajamas?"

  Kelsey pointed toward the hallway. "In the cupboard."

  "Start drying off," Lexi instructed, "while I go get them."

  The cupboard Kelsey gestured toward was a small linen closet midway between the master bedroom and the child's room. Lexi rummaged through haphazardly folded sheets and towels until she found a pair of ghastly-looking pajamas with some horrid pizza-eating turtles painted on the jacket.

  "These are terrible," she said, carrying them back into the bathroom. "Don't you have any nightgowns?"

  Kelsey shook her head. "I got the Ninja Turtles for my birthday."

  Lexi thought for a minute. "Would you like to sleep in a yellow gown?"

  Kelsey's eyes widened. "Like Belle wore when she danced with the Beast?"

  "Well, not exactly," Lexi said, "but almost as pretty."

  "I can?" Kelsey asked. "Really?"

  "You finish drying yourself off and I'll be back in a jiffy."

  Two minutes later Lexi returned with the jacket of her favorite pair of lemon yellow silk pajamas. Nuns in a French convent had embroidered tiny white roses along the roll of the collar and at the points while a vine of morning glories curled along the lapels and graced the breast pocket.

  "Ooh." The child's sigh filled the bathroom. "That's pretty."

  "I know," said Lexi, thinking about those French nuns and all their hard work. "I must be crazy."

  "I can really wear it tonight?"

  It was Lexi's turn to sigh. "You can really wear it tonight." She slipped the child's tiny arms into the sleeves, buttoned up the front, then rolled the cuffs back three times until they just grazed Kelsey's wrists. The jacket itself reached her ankles. "Now we have to do something about that hair."

  Kelsey, who was staring at her reflection in the foggy mirror, met Lexi's eyes. "Daddy makes two ponytails. He says that's what little girls always wear."

  "Your daddy is a very fine man," Lexi said firmly. "And he's very smart but he doesn't know anything when it comes to little girls."

  "My daddy knows everything." Her small chin was set in the stubborn line Lexi was fast becoming familiar with. "He's the best daddy in the world."

  "I know he is," Lexi said, "but not even the best daddy in the world can fix your hair the way I can."

  "Hair ribbons are stupid," Kelsey said, making a face.

  "How do you know?" Lexi asked smoothly. "Have you ever worn hair ribbons?"

  She shook her head. "Aunt Edie wears hair ribbons to bed and they looked dumb."

  "Okay, no hair ribbons. But I can still make you look as pretty as Belle."

  "Really?" Kelsey didn't know whether to be dubious or thrilled.

  "Really."

  Alexa Grace Marsden might not know much about geography or physics but she defied anyone to tell her she didn't know hair.

  She sat the little girl on the closed lid of the toilet seat and went to work.

  "You have very pretty hair," she said as she gently eased the comb through the tangled waves. "Such a pretty shade of dark brown."

  "My mommy had brown hair too." Kelsey said it in a very matter-of-fact fashion.

  Lexi took her cue from her. "Do you look like your mommy?"

  Kelsey started to nod her head then stopped so as not to disrupt Lexi's ministrations. "My aunt said I did but Daddy never says anything at all."

  Lexi continued easing the comb through the many tangles. Was he broken-hearted with grief and that's why he couldn't speak about his late wife? Why was it that she couldn't quite believe that to be the case?

  Wishful thinking, a small voice mocked.

  "Ouch!" Kelsey turned to look up at Lexi reproachfully. "That hurts."

  "I'm sorry, honey." She kissed the top of the child's head, struck all at once by how tiny she was, by the fragrant sweetness of the damp waves, by the surprising twists of fate that had brought her to this place.

  Remember you're in it for the money, that same small voice reminded her. Don't pretend you care for this child.

  "I do care," she said out loud then stopped, her cheeks flaming with embarrassment. She cleared her throat as Kelsey continued to watch her with open curiosity. "I do care that you have the prettiest hairdo in all of Alaska!"

  She set back to work with renewed enthusiasm, pouring her heart and soul into the project as if her very existence depended upon the outcome. She found a hair clip in the drawer of Kelsey's nightstand. She even retrieved her blow dryer from one of her suitcases and finished off the little girl's bangs with a flourish.

  "You're a vision of loveliness," she intoned as she stepped back to admire her handiwork. "Miss America!" Kelsey reached up to touch her hair but Lexi grabbed her tiny hands and held them tight. "No, no! First you have to see how pretty you look."

  With great ceremony she helped Kelsey to her feet then led her to the mirror over the sink. It wasn't a perfectly lighted boudoir mirror but it would do in a pinch.

  "Voila, mademoiselle!" she said with a flourish. "I present the beautiful Miss Kelsey Brown!"

  The child stared at her reflection for what seemed like the longest time. Lexi found herself shifting her weight from her left foot to her right as she awaited the verdict.

  At last the little girl spoke. "Is that me?"

  Lexi sighed with relief. "Of course that's you, honey."

  "I'm pretty!" said Kelsey, trying to scramble up on the sink so she could get closer to the mirror. "How did you do that?"

  "You always were pretty," Lexi said. "All it took was a little attention to detail."

  Kelsey's eyes sparkled with pleasure. "I want to show Daddy how pretty I am."

  Lexi hesitated. "Your daddy said we should only call him if it's an emergency."

  "This is a 'mergency," said Kelsey. "I've never been pretty before."

  That darned lump was back in Lexi's throat. Daddy, look at me! Don't I look pretty in my new dress? She couldn't have been any older than Kelsey, twirling before her father, being warmed by the look of pride and love on his face.

  "Are you crying?" Kelsey asked.

  "Just a little," said Lexi.

  "Why?"

  "I was thinking about my father."

  "Do you miss him?"

  She nodded, blinking quickly. "Very much."

  "Where is he?"

  "He's--" She hesitated then opted for honesty. "My father's dead."

  Kelsey considered her words. "My mommy is
, too."

  "I know." Her voice broke on the last word. Good grief, this was turning into an emotional minefield.

  "Sometimes I'm sad."

  "Me too," said Lexi.

  "Daddy said that my mommy loved me a lot."

  "I'm sure she did."

  Suddenly the child slid to the edge of the sink and wrapped her arms around Lexi's neck. "I bet your daddy loved you too."

  "I know he did, sweetheart." I want you to have a family, he'd told her not long before he died. I want you to know how it feels to love someone more than life itself. Her father had felt Franklin was the man of Lexi's dreams and all Lexi needed was a push in the right direction. Little did Brandon Marsden realize his daughter would marry an utter stranger in order to collect her inheritance. You meant well, Daddy, but look where I ended up.

  "I'll tell you what," she said to Kelsey. "Maybe we should call your daddy after all and ask him to come in and see how pretty you look."

  The expression on the child's face was worth risking Kiel's wrath.

  She took the child's hand and together they went into the kitchen to make the call.

  Chapter 8

  "I'm going to kill her," Kiel muttered as he stormed across the icy ground toward the back door of the cabin. He'd been deeply engrossed in his work, certain he was about to unravel one of the knottier problems he'd been faced with since beginning the project, when the damn phone rang.

  "It's not an emergency," Lexi had said first thing, "but you have to come over for a minute."

  He'd bitched loudly.

  She’d ignored his objections.

  "Rule number one," he roared as the kitchen door slammed shut behind him. "An emergency means life or death. If you--" He stopped. He blinked his eyes and stared again at the incredible sight before him. "Kelse?" It couldn't be. His little girl wore a New York Yankees cap and played with G.I. Joe.

  The tiny vision in yellow silk beamed at him. "Don't I look pretty, Daddy?"

  It was hard to see through the haze of unexpected tears. He bent down and laid a careful hand against her silky hair. "You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," he said, meaning it with all his heart. He admired his daughter as she twirled about, exhibiting feminine wiles he'd never realized she possessed. She ducked her head to tug at the collar of her nightgown and he saw the cloisonné comb. He'd given that comb to Helena on their first anniversary. It was one of the things she hadn't bothered to take with her when she left. "Why don't you go brush your teeth, Kelse, and I'll come tuck you in when you're ready?"