Designated Daddy

by Jane Toombs

  “Not all redheaded women are sexy,” he said, deliberately misunderstanding her to provoke a reaction.

  “You know what I mean!” She glared at him, then shook her head, obviously realizing she’d been had. “You got me again, so now you’re two up. Just you wait.”

  He grinned, pleased to have lured her from the gloomy aftermath of her dream into a lighter mood.

  When at last Heidi, clean and dry, fed and burped, finally succumbed to Mr. Sandman, Steve laid her gently in the cradle and covered her. He offered his hand to help Victoria rise from the couch, but she ignored it, getting up on her own. He took the hint. Separate beds for the rest of the night.

  He could hardly complain, considering, but he longed to have her beside him. Not only for the lovemaking, but because it was beginning to feel right to know she was there, even when asleep.

  When Victoria woke the next morning, she saw the sky was overcast, though the rain had stopped. Before noon, though, a drizzle began, as much mist as rain but wet all the same.

  “Looks like an indoor day up here,” Steve said. “Might be better down in Aylestown—sometimes the mountain gets bad weather when the valley doesn’t. We could take a spin and see. You could pick up those baby vitamins and look for chair pads. Whatever.”

  “Sounds good to me,” she said. “I’ll get Heidi ready.”

  After the baby was strapped into the back seat carrier and they were settled in the front, Steve started the van, cursed and turned off the engine.

  “Something the matter?” she asked.

  “The add oil light came on. Have to check the level.”

  He got out and lifted the hood. After a few minutes he returned, scowling. “No oil in the damn thing. The warning light must be faulty or I’d have noticed before now.”

  Victoria knew enough about cars to realize if you drove one that was out of oil you risked seizing the engine.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked.

  “Nothing for it but to hike down the hill to Hanksville and pick up a couple quarts,” he said.

  “In the rain?”

  “It’s not an emergency. We’ll wait until the rain stops.”

  The discovery the van was out of oil left Steve in such a bleak mood she hesitated to initiate any conversation that wasn’t essential. She understood he blamed himself, which she thought was foolish. Sure, he could have kept a can of oil around for emergencies, but it was no big deal that he hadn’t.

  Finally the silence drove her into speech. She stalked over to where he was gloomily gazing out at the drizzle and demanded, “Why do you have to be such a perfectionist? Things like this happen to everyone.”

  “Not to me,” he said grimly, turning to look at her. “Slipups like this could get a man killed.”

  Victoria rolled her eyes. “That’s carrying it a tad far. So you depended on the add oil light to warn you when the supply ran low, and it malfunctioned. Is that your fault?”

  “I could have checked the oil level more often,” he muttered.

  “You told me we were in no danger here at the cabin. What does it matter that we have to wait until tomorrow to get oil so we can have wheels again? You said yourself there’s no emergency.”

  “None I can foresee, but then emergencies tend to be unforeseeable.”

  “Okay, no argument there. But no one is perfect. If you were, people wouldn’t be able to stand you—me included. Maybe your father expected you to be, but you certainly must know that’s an impossible goal by now. Perfection for any human being is unobtainable.”

  That got a reluctant grin out of him. “Are you telling me you like me exactly the way I am?”

  “Well, if I could, I’d make a few changes here and there. Perfection isn’t one of them, though.”

  He didn’t say anything for a time, so she went into the kitchen to see about lunch. He followed her, saying, “I hate being stuck indoors.”

  “So go out and chop wood. A few drops of rain won’t melt you.”

  “I can see you’re fresh out of sympathy.”

  Joker, who’d been sleeping by the baby’s cradle, got up and ambled to the front door, asking to be let out. Steve obliged, then said, “When he comes back in we’ll get to smell wet dog. What a treat.”

  “Whatever is the matter with you?” Victoria demanded, exasperated. “I never expected you to be a moper.”

  Steve shook his head. “A moper. What a label. Okay, guilty. I’m just not used to failing.”

  She turned with a wooden spoon in her hand and shook it at him. “I’m not going over that again. It’s your father’s voice saying you failed, not mine and not the voice of reason. Let it go, can’t you?”

  About to make a crack about how living across the hall from Alice the psychologist had influenced her, Steve held back his words. His father’s voice? He went back to the window to think that one over.

  Whether she was right or not, he decided, he was behaving more like a ten-year-old than an adult. Get over it, Henderson, he chided himself.

  The mention of his father had triggered a errant memory. “Do you play cribbage?” he asked.

  “I’ve heard of the game. That’s about it,” she told him. “Why?”

  “I just remembered that a cribbage board and a deck of old cards came with the cabin. My dad taught me when I was a kid. Haven’t played in years, but we could give it a whirl. Beats moping.”

  She gave him a quick smile. “Most anything does.”

  After lunch, he got out the board and the little pegs to keep track of the players’ scores. Victoria proved to have a knack for the game and they played most of the afternoon with time out for Heidi. The end result was a tied score and an improved mood as far as Steve was concerned. He’d actually had fun.

  By nightfall the drizzle had ceased, though clouds still hung low on the mountain. Victoria began to wonder if Steve was going to ask her to spend the night in his bed and, if he did, what she was going to say. She was no longer angry with him but it still hurt that he’d violated her trust. First, by not being completely honest from the beginning, and secondly, by not trusting her enough to tell her the truth much earlier than he finally had.

  Last night’s lovemaking in the chair had been wild and unexpected—she hadn’t had time to make a conscious choice. Thinking about it made her knees weak, but that didn’t mean she’d say yes if he invited her into his bed tonight.

  He could call her a sexy lady all he wanted to but she certainly didn’t intend to made any such offer to him. Or even accept his. Not until she was clearer in her mind about everything that had gone on between them since the beginning.

  When time came to go to bed and he hadn’t indicated in any way whether he intended to sleep alone or planned to ask her to join him, Victoria refused to accept her disappointment. This way made it easier, after all.

  She had to admit to some regrets, though, when she curled up alone in her own bed. No matter how reluctant her mind might be, her body definitely wanted to be in his bed rather than this one.

  The following morning turned out to be clear and sunny, but the foliage was so wet they put off the hike to Hanksville until the afternoon to give things a chance to dry off.

  Willa came by before noon with a mess of green beans from her garden. Invited inside, she sat down and said, “Dang things all ripen at once and I’m not canning this year. The more I got to thinking on it, the more I made up my mind to no more·mountain winters. Not much better wintering down there in the valley, so I believe I’ll give Nevada a try.”

  “I’ll be calling my sister’s brother-in-law soon,” Steve said. “I’ll ask him to let my sister know about finding you a place.”

  Willa nodded. “Be a help, that would. One thing we all got to face, nobody gets any younger. Course, you two got a lot of young years ahead yet.”

  “We’re hiking down to Hanksville after lunch,” Victoria said. “Would you like to stay and eat with us?”

  “Take you up on that quick as
a snap, I would, but I got a woman coming up to get some herb drops from me for her rheumatiz. Said she’d be arriving today about noon so I’d best get back. My simples are good enough, but climbing up the mountain’s good exercise ‘n’ I always figure that helps her rheumatiz.”

  Victoria nodded. Willa was using a layman’s term for arthritis and she was right about exercise being a help. Heaven only knew what was in her “drops,” but with herbal medicines gaining recognition today, it could be the old woman knew what she was doing.

  Willa did accept a cup of tea and got to hold Heidi for a few minutes. “You ever bring this ’un to see your sister in Nevada, maybe I can see how she’s growing once I get settled there,” she said to Steve.

  “You and my sister will get along famously,” he assured Willa. “She’s not like me at all.”

  Willa grinned at him. “You’re not so bad on more acquaintance. Wear pretty well, you do.”

  After she left, Victoria decided Willa was right on. Despite the reservations she, herself, had about him, Steve did wear well.

  Lunch over, she inserted Heidi into the pouch and set off with Steve and Joker for Hanksville. Again the squawking jay followed them for a time.

  “He’s another early warning system,” she said, glancing at Steve.

  Though she’d managed to coax him from his dour mood yesterday, his talk of emergencies had made her wonder if he was still keeping vital information from her. Had his extreme reaction to the van being out of oil been based on something he hadn’t told her?

  Steve nodded, but made no comment to her remark about early warning systems, giving her no clue at all as to whether he might or might not think they needed more protection than Joker would provide.

  Though the afternoon was warm and pleasant, Victoria’s mood was not as easy and relaxed as the first time they’d made this hike.

  Steve must have sensed this because he said, “Worrying about the climb back up?”

  “Not really,” she said, forcing lightness into her tone. “If I collapse on the upward trail, I figure you’ll put on Heidi’s pouch, baby and all, sling me over your shoulder and tromp on, complete with innumerable quarts of oil. Unless you’re in your Bluebeard persona—then, who knows?”

  He chuckled. “Even if I did grow a beard, it wouldn’t be black, much less blue-black,”

  “No problem, you could always dye it blue.”

  With a woof, Joker took over into the underbrush after a chipmunk, causing a brief halt. Steve shouted, “Heel!”

  After a minute or two, the dog reappeared, looking guilty and fell in obediently behind Steve as they walked on. After being told what a good dog he was, Joker’s tail began to wag again and he bounded ahead.

  Victoria caught Steve eyeing her assessingly and shook her head. “No way. Don’t even let it cross your mind.”

  He grinned. “Why not? Life would be a lot easier for men if we could get women to obey a few simple commands, that’s for sure.”

  “Women are not dogs to be ordered around!”

  “I have to agree—they’re more like cats.”

  Since cats rarely obey any order, she decided to take that as a compliment. Glancing down at the baby in her pouch, she saw Heidi had fallen asleep. Going on hikes must agree with her.

  “I don’t know much about them,” Steve said, apparently having followed her gaze, “but she’s obviously a wonderful baby.”

  “Top of the line,” Victoria agreed.

  They exchanged congratulatory smiles. Though neither of us can take credit for who Heidi is, Victoria told herself, we do keep her happy and content. She knows we love her.

  Which brought back her jabbing little needle of worry about not knowing all she needed to.

  “Steve,” she said, “are you really sure we’re not in any danger up here in the mountains?”

  “Danger? You mean bears or mountain lions?”

  “You know I don’t. Are you sure there isn’t more you need to tell me? If I’m operating blind, how can I tell what to do or not do?”

  “In the world we live in, no one is entirely safe,” he began.

  “Don’t give me generalities. I want specifics. Is Heidi safe up here?”

  He took so long to answer, she thought he wasn’t going to. But finally he paused and turned to look at her. “I honestly don’t know,” he said. “I hope so. That’s the best I can do.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Victoria carried the burden of Steve’s words with her the rest of the way down the trail. He hoped Heidi was safe but he couldn’t be sure she was. Why? Victoria knew asking would bring her up against a stone wall. Damn the man.

  Before this she’d assumed the village was totally harmless, but now she felt uneasy about going there, about being away from the cabin.

  Which didn’t make much sense. If danger pursued them, the cabin wouldn’t be safe, either. But did it? Steve had really given her no reason to think any of them were in peril at the moment.

  Stop worrying, she told herself firmly.

  Just before they reached Hanksville, Steve snapped Joker’s leash on. As before, he stopped at the gas station pay phone. She was about to head across the street to the general store when Joker whined, pulling at the leash Steve held.

  “He wants to go where Heidi goes,” Victoria said, reaching for the leash, glad she’d have the dog with them to ease her mind.

  “Good dog,” Steve told him, handing over the leash to Victoria.

  When she reached the store, Victoria tied Joker outside, telling him to stay. Inside, she located the baby vitamins, paid for them, then walked around looking for pads for outdoor chairs. She hadn’t really expected to find any—Aylestown was a more likely source—and she didn’t.

  Since there was nothing else they needed, she left the store, retrieved the dog and glanced around. Her survey confirmed her feeling there was absolutely nothing in this sleepy little place to alarm anyone. Since Steve was still on the phone, she decided to stroll along the sidewalk toward the little park on the river.

  At the end of the sidewalk, she stopped, suddenly nervous about going any farther alone. Even though she could see or hear nothing tangible to be afraid of, she’d rather be with Steve right now.

  There was no reason to feel so exposed on this deserted sidewalk, but she did. Making up her mind, she said, “Change of plan, Joker,” and tugged at the leash.

  She stepped onto the weedy grass between the sidewalk and the street, ready to cross over to the gas station side to where Steve was. Noticing a car pulling out of the station toward her, she waited.

  Instead of driving past, the car crossed to the wrong side of the road, taking her aback as it pulled up beside her. Before she had time to react, a man in a dark jacket leapt out and lunged at her, making a grab for the baby. Joker snarled, yanked the leash from her hand and, teeth bared, charged at the man, who tried to fend him off.

  The attacker let out a yell when Joker bit his leg. As he struggled to get away, to Victoria’s horror, he jerked a gun from under his jacket and aimed it at the dog.

  “No!” she screamed, flinging the package of baby vitamins at him.

  The man flinched, but the gun fired and Joker yelped, letting go of the man’s leg.

  “Freeze!” someone yelled. Steve! With his gun drawn. She hadn’t been aware he’d brought it along.

  Instead of obeying, the man jumped back into the car and, tires screeching in a U-turn, roared off. Steve stared after the car for a moment, tucked the gun away, then dropped to his knees to examine the dog. Joker, licking his side, allowed Steve to take a look.

  “The bullet just creased him, thanks to you,” he told Victoria. “What’d you throw at that guy?”

  “Heidi’s vitamins. Oh, Steve, he tried to take her away from me!”

  By now a small crowd was gathering, attracted by the gunshot. Undeterred, Steve hugged Victoria, baby and all, close to him. “Thank God you’re both okay.”

  “Hey, mister, what happened?�
� a teenaged boy asked.

  “Drive-by shooting, I guess,” Steve said, releasing her. “Luckily no one got hurt.”

  “Whoa, you mean you didn’t know that guy in the car?” the kid persisted.

  “Never saw him before and neither had the lady. Must have been some kind of crazy.”

  “Lot of that going around,” an older man said. “See it all the time on the news. Never expected such a thing in Hanksville, though. We ain’t exactly what you’d call a high-crime area.”

  “If you’ll excuse us,” Steve said, “we’ll be getting on. The lady’s pretty shook up.” He bent and retrieved the end of Joker’s leash. The dog was pressed closely against Victoria’s legs, obviously worried about the baby’s safety.

  The teenager picked the small bag containing the vitamins from the ground. “This your package?” he asked Victoria.

  She took it, saying, “Yes, thank you,” surprised she sounded so calm when her insides were still churning.

  Her legs seemed to work all right, though, no matter how rubbery they felt, so she had no trouble keeping up with Steve as he urged her through the nowdispersing crowd. She was amazed that none of this had frightened the baby.

  “Gonna see if I can find the bullet,” she heard the teenager saying as she and Steve walked away with the dog.

  He kept her moving until they reached the trail and the trees closed around them. Then he paused and said, “I’ll take the baby.”

  Involuntarily she glanced over her shoulder.

  “He won’t follow us,” Steve assured her as he donned the pouch while she held Heidi.

  “How can you be so sure?”

  He shrugged, inserted the baby deftly into the pouch, then gave Joker a pat, saying, “Good dog.”

  “Joker saved us—saved the baby anyway,” Victoria said. “Whoever that man was, he had no interest in me. He wanted Heidi.”

  “I’m going back to pick up the oil I left at the station,” Steve said. “You stay here.”

  Victoria swallowed.

  Her expression must have given away her apprehension because Steve said, “He’s long gone. Sit down and rest until I get back. We’ve got a long climb ahead of us.”