“Wait!” Alicia called out after her. “You forgot Kiwi.”
The back gate slammed, and Dani was gone.
Jake had been in a panic from the moment he realized Danielle and the dog were gone. He’d decided to let her sleep in until nine on Sunday morning, knowing she had to be exhausted from her trip. It wasn’t until after he’d fixed breakfast and had gone upstairs to wake her that he’d realized they were missing.
Hurrying back down the stairs, Jake had just reached the bottom step when the front door flew open and Danielle blew in. She attempted to brush past him, but Jake held his arm out and stopped her.
“Where have you been, Danielle?” Jake demanded.
She stepped back and glared at him. “Would you drop the concerned father act? I took Kiwi out. Okay?”
“Kiwi?” Jake repeated. He thought for a second and said, “The name suits him. Fruity name for a fruity-looking dog.”
“He isn’t fruity-looking!” she argued.
“Sure he is,” Jake said, “but do you think it’s safe to leave Kiwi outside alone?”
“Kiwi isn’t alone,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I left him with a new friend I just made. And if you’ll get out of my way, I came to get my bathing suit.”
Jake looked down at his watch. “I don’t think the clubhouse pool opens until noon, Danielle.”
She looked at him as if he were stupid. “Did I say anything about the clubhouse pool? My friend has her own pool.”
“And who is your new friend?”
Danielle pushed past him and started up the stairs.
“I repeat,” Jake called out after her. “Who is your new friend?”
“I guess that would be me,” a voice said.
Jake turned around. Alicia was standing in his open front doorway holding Danielle’s fruity-looking dog.
Jake grinned. “Yeah, I can see what you mean about kids and dogs always hating you on sight.”
“Believe me,” Alicia said, walking in his direction, “no one is more surprised than I am. Kiwi came over first because he smelled my cinnamon rolls. And Dani came looking for him. I don’t have a clue why they both decided they like me.”
Alicia bent down and placed Kiwi on the floor.
Jake couldn’t resist teasing her a little further when she stood up. “And if I’m not mistaken,” Jake said, “this is my side of the street. The side of the street where you assured me you never intended to be again.”
She frowned and nodded toward the stairs, signaling that Danielle might hear them. Grabbing his arm, she led him back to the front door. “Look,” she whispered. “Dani asked if she could swim in my pool.” She glanced nervously toward the stairs again. “I told her I didn’t even know you. And then she insisted that I come over and introduce myself. So don’t flatter yourself for one second that I’m on your side of the street for any other reason than asking your permission so your daughter can use my pool.”
Jake started to tease her further, but Danielle appeared at the top of the stairs. She had her bathing suit on, a towel across her arm, and a smug smile on her black-painted lips that told Jake Danielle thought she’d outfoxed him by dragging Alicia into the picture.
Jake turned back to Alicia and said, “If you’re sure Danielle won’t be any trouble, she can come swim. Later.”
“Later?” Danielle bellowed.
Alicia took the hint and hurried out the door.
Kiwi hurried out the door right behind her.
“Your choice, Danielle,” Jake said when she stomped up to face him. “You can swim later. Or not at all.”
She looked as if she wanted to slap him.
Jake said, “And the next time you decide to go out, I expect you to tell me.”
“And I expect you to stop treating me like a baby,” she shouted. “I’m not your little ladybug anymore. Got it? I’m thirteen now. And like I told your stupid friends last night at the cookout, I prefer to be called Dani! D-A-N-I. Not hard for even an imbecile to remember.”
Jake was still stalled on ladybug.
He was touched she still remembered the pet nickname he’d called her when she was little. Jake said, “I realize you prefer Dani, but I named you Danielle and Danielle is what I intend to call you. I also don’t think I’m being unreasonable asking you to eat your breakfast first, and make your bed before you leave. Then you can go swimming.”
“And I think everything you said just plain licks!”
“Licks?” Jake repeated.
“Yes, licks!” she said, stomping toward the kitchen. She called over her shoulder, “Sucks would be a huge step up!”
Jake hid a smile. His grown-up little ladybug didn’t have to like it, but at least she was doing what he said.
He’d take that.
For now.
After eating her stupid breakfast, and after making her stupid bed, Dani hurried back down the stairs. She was still wearing her favorite one-piece shocking pink bathing suit and her matching pink sandals, and again she had a towel she’d taken from her bathroom slung over her arm.
She headed for the front door, but she stopped before she reached for the door handle. She stood there for a second, then turned and walked back down the hall and into the kitchen. Jake was sitting at the kitchen table, reading the Sunday morning paper.
“I’m going to Alicia’s now,” Dani told rather than asked him.
He looked down at his watch. “Be back by noon.”
Dani put her hands on her hips. “Can I ask why?”
He looked up from his paper and said, “You don’t want to outstay your welcome for one thing. And it isn’t up to Alicia to feed you lunch.”
“I don’t eat lunch,” Dani lied.
“You do now,” he said and went back to reading his paper.
Dani whirled around and stomped back to the front door. When she started across the street, Jake’s friend Tish was standing on her front porch talking to his other friend Jen. They both waved.
Dani hesitated for a second, but she finally threw her hand up and kept on walking. Alicia had been right about her bad manners. She didn’t like being rude, even if her being rude had been part of Natta’s master plan. She’d always hated the way Natta talked to everyone, herself included.
Natta had told her once that being a bitch had its virtues. That people respected you when you wouldn’t let them run over you. But Dani wasn’t sure respect was what anyone had for her grandmother. She’d seen the looks on people’s faces too many times after Natta walked away—they were not looks of admiration.
Besides, Natta’s instructions had been to make Jake miserable, not everyone else. And she did have to live in this godforsaken neighborhood until Jake wised up and sent her back home to LA, didn’t she?
Satisfied she’d done the right thing by waving back to Jake’s friends, Dani hurried through Alicia’s back privacy gate. When Alicia wasn’t outside by the pool, however, it made Dani worry that thanks to Jake’s stupid rules, Alicia might have changed her mind about letting her swim.
She breathed a sigh of relief when Alicia walked through the French doors that led out to the patio. She was holding Kiwi in her left arm, and she was holding a bottle of what—shampoo?—in her right hand.
Alicia held the shampoo out and nodded toward the pool house at the far end of the pool. “Wash your hair first,” she said. “Those fake streaks in your hair will turn bright green from the chlorine in the pool.”
Dani draped her towel over one of the chairs sitting around the patio table. “I don’t care if the streaks turn green,” Dani told her. “Bright green works as well as purple and pink, I guess.”
“But I care,” Alicia said. “I don’t want that dye in my pool.”
Dani hadn’t thought of that. She reached out and took the bottle of shampoo.
Alicia held her hand out palm up. “You’d better let me keep your fake nose ring, too. If you lose it, it could clog my pool drain. Losing it would also put an end to you irritating your father.”
“Good idea,” Dani said. She reached up, unclipped the nose ring, and handed it over. But Dani looked back over her shoulder at Alicia as she headed for the pool house.
She liked the way Alicia talked to her, as if she were an equal, not some little kid. And she really liked the fact Alicia wasn’t trying to mother her to death as if she were some pathetic charity case because her mother was dead.
Dani smiled as she opened the pool house door.
Alicia was treating her just like a friend.
She’d take a friend over a mother any day.
Chapter 12
Alicia smiled when Dani disappeared into the pool house, deciding maybe she was better with kids than she ever imagined. The dye wouldn’t have hurt the pool, of course, and she really had no idea if the chlorine would have turned the streaks in Dani’s hair bright green. It was also highly doubtful that the nose ring would have clogged the drain.
Alicia’s goal had only been to get rid of the masquerade so Dani could get back to being herself. It was obvious World War III was taking place right across the street. In Alicia’s way of thinking, if she could ease some of the tension between Jake and Dani, Jake would be able to focus on his daughter, Dani would begin settling into her new life, and she would be free of both of them.
And yes, she—Miss Dogs Always Hate Me—was still holding the dog. She couldn’t very well have left poor Kiwi outside alone when she’d gone in for the shampoo, could she? Besides, he really wasn’t any trouble. And he was a lap dog.
Lap dogs loved being held.
Alicia walked back to the patio table, sat down, and placed the lap dog back onto her lap. Kiwi’s nose instantly sniffed toward the table. “Okay, you little beggar,” Alicia said. “One more tiny bite, but that’s all. I can’t imagine cinnamon rolls are good for even lap dogs.”
“Who are you talking to?”
Alicia’s head jerked up to see Tish peeping around the privacy gate. Tish didn’t wait for an answer. She pushed the gate open and walked in Alicia’s direction. She laughed when she saw the dog.
“Alicia Greene,” Tish said, shaking her head. “You are such a big liar. I thought you hated dogs.”
“I don’t hate dogs. Dogs hate me,” Alicia said. “Except this dog, I mean,” she corrected. “I don’t know why, but he likes me.”
“Jake’s dog, you mean,” Tish clarified with a grin.
“I think the dog belongs to his daughter,” Alicia informed Tish at the same time Dani walked out of the pool house.
“You mean that daughter?” Tish said, grinning even wider.
Alicia frowned at her. “The dog ran off and Dani came looking for him. I invited her to swim. So what?”
Tish waited until Dani dived into the water before she looked back at Alicia and said, “So what? When have you ever invited the twins or Sonya over to swim?”
Alicia said, “When have you and Jen ever given me any indication that you wanted the twins and Sonya to come over and swim? You’re always talking about how much fun the kids have at the clubhouse pool playing with all of their friends.”
“We’ve never asked you, because we know you don’t like kids,” Tish said.
“I do like kids,” Alicia argued. “Kids don’t like me!”
Tish looked over at Dani, who was now swimming laps in the pool. “Well, that kid obviously likes you.” She took a closer look. “What happened to her? She looks normal now.”
“Lower your voice!” Alicia scolded. “She’ll hear you.”
Tish grinned again. “Well, aren’t we protective all of a sudden?” She plopped down onto the chair beside Alicia. “Anything you want to confess, Miss suddenly turned Mama Bear?”
Alicia groaned. “No, Tish. There isn’t anything I want to confess. There isn’t anything to confess!”
“You know what I think?”
Alicia groaned. “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“I think you’ve decided you like Jake a lot more than you expected. And that’s what his daughter and his dog are doing here now.”
Alicia gasped, leaned forward, and whispered, “How dare you suggest I would try to use Jake’s daughter and her dog to get to him!” Alicia quickly looked back over her shoulder to make sure Dani hadn’t heard what she said.
“Well, there’s no reason to get so upset about it,” Tish said. “I’m actually proud of you, Alicia. You’re always so prim and proper, I didn’t think you had it in you to plot and plan your way into a man’s life.”
“You’re impossible!” Alicia huffed. “And regardless of whether you believe me or not, Tish Jones, even if I were interested in Jake, I’d never stoop so low as to use his daughter to get close to him!”
Tish looked across the pool again. So did Alicia. Dani was sitting on the end of the diving board, squeezing water from her long, dark, and now streak-free hair.
“Poor kid,” Tish said when she turned back to face Alicia. “She’s really had a rough time of it, hasn’t she?”
“Yes, she has,” Alicia said. “And if you and Jen hadn’t kept giving her the poor orphan look last night, she’d probably be at your house right now instead of mine.”
Tish seemed surprised. “Is that what Dani said? That Jen and I were giving her the poor orphan look?”
Alicia nodded.
Tish sighed. “Okay, I take back the accusation I just made, Alicia. Dani’s obviously found a friend in you. And whether you believe me or not, I’m serious when I say she couldn’t have picked a nicer person to choose for a friend.”
“Now you’re just trying to suck up to me,” Alicia said, “and it isn’t going to work.”
Tish said, “I’m not sucking up. But it does make sense why Dani singled you out. You look like a model yourself, and you don’t have kids of your own, so she doesn’t have to compete for your attention.”
Alicia groaned. “Dani didn’t single me out, Tish. I told you. She was looking for the dog!”
“It doesn’t matter,” Tish said. “She likes you. And because she does like you, maybe you can make her adjustment to life in Woodberry Park a little easier.”
When Alicia didn’t comment, Tish said, “What I came to tell you is that Zada called and said she and Lizzie were coming home today. Jen and I are going over to see them later. Want to come?”
“Sure,” Alicia said as Tish stood up from the table. “Call me when you’re ready.”
A few seconds after Tish left, Dani walked back to where Alicia was sitting. She picked up her towel, and as she dried herself off, Dani said, “I heard what Tish said about me looking normal now. And you didn’t have to worry that I heard her. I was trying to look that way on purpose.”
“Well, you look beautiful now,” Alicia said, “so don’t worry about it.”
“You can throw the fake nose ring away, too,” Dani said. “It’s starting to make my nose sore, and Jake doesn’t seem to care anyway.”
Alicia just had to ask. “Do you always call your father Jake?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Dani asked. “He sure hasn’t earned the right to be called Dad.”
Alicia started to take up for Jake, but after Tish’s accusation, Alicia decided maybe it was better if she changed the subject where Jake was concerned. For whatever reason, it did appear that Dani had singled her out for a friend. In all fairness to Dani, she should remain neutral in the battle going on between father and daughter.
Alicia said, “That was a great butterfly stroke you were doing a few minutes ago. Are you on a swim team back in LA?”
Dani shook her head. “No.” But she brightened when she asked, “Did you really think my butterfly stroke was good?”
“Almost perfect,” Alicia said. She got up from the chair and placed Kiwi on the cushion. “Let me see you do the butterfly again. I was on a swim team all through high school. Maybe I could give you some pointers.”
As they walked toward the pool, Alicia added, “I think they have a swim team at the middle school you’ll be attending,
Dani. Maybe you should try out for the team.”
Dani shook her head. “I plan to be back in LA by the time school starts.”
“Too bad,” Alicia said. “I bet you would have made the team.”
Dani looked over at her. “You really think I could have made the swim team here?”
“With your perfect form, I guarantee it,” Alicia said.
Dani lowered herself into the pool, but she turned back to face Alicia. “Just in case Jake does make me stay until December, would you be my swimming coach for the summer?”
A million reasons why she should say “no” flashed through Alicia’s mind. But the hopeful look on Dani’s face—the first child who had ever truly liked her—canceled out each and every one of those reasons.
“Sure,” Alicia said before she changed her mind. “Show me your butterfly stroke again.”
Jake looked down at his watch when he heard the front door open. It was twelve noon on the dot. Kiwi trotted into the kitchen first, Danielle right behind him. She frowned when she looked around the kitchen.
“Where’s the big lunch you were going to force me into eating?”
Jake almost missed the question. The streaks in her hair were gone. So was the nose ring. He managed to keep a straight face when he said, “I thought we’d go out to lunch today. Maybe ride into Chicago so I could show you the city. We could also eat dinner in the city later, if you like. Maybe even take in a movie.”
She rolled her eyes. “And if I don’t like?”
“You’re going anyway,” Jake said and grinned at her.
She rolled her eyes again. “Whatever,” she said. “I guess anything’s better than sitting around here all day.” She turned on a dime and stomped out of the kitchen.
Kiwi started after her, but thought better of it. Jake bent down and picked the dog up when he started scratching at the leg of the kitchen chair Jake was sitting on. He placed Kiwi on his lap. The dog sat up on his haunches, pawing the air.
“She should have named you Bottomless Pit,” Jake told the dog, then pinched off a piece of his leftover toast.
Happy with the treat, Kiwi gobbled it up, then jumped down from Jake’s lap and trotted out of the kitchen. By the time Jake cleared off the kitchen table and loaded the dishwasher, Danielle had reappeared.
Dinner First, Me Later? Page 10