by Shirley Jump
“How do you know I’m not married?”
“I...well, I...I assumed because, well, there’s no ring and...” She cursed the heat in her cheeks. Why did the man make her stammer?
He grinned. “You checked my hand to see if I was married?”
“Only because I didn’t want to intrude upon your life if you were with someone else. This,” she said, gesturing toward Maddy, who had dashed over to the fence outside the mountain lion enclosure and was peering into the shaded space, looking for the sleeping cat, “is a lot to take in, and even more so if you had a wife and kids already.”
“Auntie P, where’s the big kitty?”
Peyton bent down and pointed to a long tawny body curled in a ball under the shade of a thick oak tree. “He’s right there. Taking a nap.”
“But it’s not nap time,” Maddy said. “I wanna see him.”
“You want to see some lazy nappers, check out these sloths.” Luke pointed to a trio of sleeping animals in the next enclosure, flopped among the branches of a man-made tree. Bugs fluttered around them, but the sloths paid them no mind.
Maddy scampered over to the next cage, and the one after that, her mood a little lighter with each sleepy animal who had apparently decided 10:00 a.m. was early enough to call it a day. “They’re so silly.” She waved at the sunbathing otters, who barely even raised an eyelid in response.
Luke slipped into the space beside Peyton. The zoo was beginning to fill with children and adults, raising the noise level around them. “So it doesn’t matter to you personally if I’m married? Only for...this.”
Instead of answering him, Peyton turned to follow Maddy to the antelope exhibit. Miniature antelopes were mixed in with fully grown ones. Peyton waited, sure that Maddy would make a comment about mommy antelopes and baby ones—something she always noticed before—but Maddy just gave the animals a cursory glance before moving on to a towering birdcage. Peyton bit back a sigh. “This is all that matters right now, of course.”
Luke chuckled. “Of course.”
She shot him a glare. “I am not interested in you on a personal level, Luke. At all.”
Uh-huh. Which is exactly why her gaze kept straying to his broad shoulders. His muscular calves, his long fingers. His lips. His eyes.
“Good. I’m glad. Takes the mess of attraction out of the equation.”
“You think being attracted to each other would be messy?”
He leaned in close, his breath warm against her throat. His pulse ticked in his neck, and the dark scent of his cologne whispered between them. The air filled with Luke...just Luke.
“Doesn’t sex always mess up everything?”
“Sex?” she whispered the word, so low and sharp, it almost sounded like a curse. “Who said anything about that?”
“Isn’t it always part of the conversation between a man and a woman?”
“You think a man and a woman can’t be just friends?”
“Sure they can. If the man is a eunuch.”
Maddy turned around. “Auntie P, what’s a you-knock?”
Peyton sent Luke a glare, but he just grinned back. “One of those things you will learn about when you are older. Oh, look, did you see the sign for the zebras? Want to go see them, Maddy? You love zebras.”
Maddy just nodded and smiled, none of the usual excitement in her face. She was being good—she almost always behaved—but the whirling cloud of joy and discovery that normally surrounded her had morphed into something dark and gray, listless. Like a sail that had lost its wind.
Peyton bent down and took both of Maddy’s hands in her own. “Sweetie, are you feeling sad today?”
Maddy shook her head but her eyes welled and her lips pressed into a tight line.
“I bet you wish your mommy was here,” Peyton said softly. The words choked Peyton up, but she kept her composure. If she cried, if she showed that weakness, then she was afraid that it would make this harder on Maddy. “I do, too. She loved the zoo, didn’t she?”
Maddy looked as if she wanted to say something, wanted to open up, but then she glanced away, and the moment passed. “Can we go see the zebras?” The space behind Maddy’s eyes filled with that wall that Peyton knew too well. Stones built out of the holes in Maddy’s life, the yawning cavern that stretched ahead for a girl who had lost her mother.
Peyton wanted to draw Maddy close, hold her tight and promise her everything would be all right, that nothing bad would ever touch her life again. But the words would be a lie, and they both knew it. So instead, Peyton nodded, forced a bright, happy smile on her face and said, “Zebras it is. Let’s go.”
The other kids ran ahead of their parents, running zigzags past the lines of strollers and rented plastic red wagons for the little ones. The volume of excitement rose and fell in waves around them, while the animals watched with bored expressions. Maddy stayed close, falling into place between Peyton and Luke, her little light-up shoes making a spark from time to time. But her mood was still somber, her gaze cast on the winding paved path.
“Cool shoes,” Luke said. “When I was a kid, we didn’t have shoes that lit up. Just boring old regular shoes.”
“These’re my favorites,” Maddy said. “Auntie P bought ’em for me.”
“Well, if I had shoes that lit up, I’d be making them do it all the time. What happens when you do this?” Luke stomped on the ground.
Maddy did the same. A shower of lights burst from the LEDs running along the sole. She did it again, and let out a little laugh when the LEDs responded with a strobe of red lights. “They lights up a lot.”
“That is cool,” Luke said, giving her an admiring smile. “Let’s stomp to the zebras.” He stepped forward, stomp, stomp, stomp.
“Like elephants?”
“Yup. Though it helps if you do this, too.” Luke leaned forward, pressed his arm to his cheek and swung it like a trunk, then stomped again.
Maddy giggled, actually giggled, and followed along behind Luke, stomping and swinging her arm. The other adults in the zoo looked on with amusement, and maybe a little envy, because Luke had that rare ability to let go and be as much of a kid as the child with him.
At least that was the emotion running through Peyton. Envy at his easy way, envy at his intuitive grasp of making a kid happy and, most of all, envy at the way Maddy was laughing. Peyton would have paid any amount of money to hear that laugh in the past few weeks, and here, in the space of five minutes, Luke had broken down that wall.
“Come on, Auntie P! Be a elephant!” Maddy swung her arm and stomped ahead.
“Yeah, come on, Auntie P.” Luke grinned at her and did the same.
“Oh, I can’t.” Peyton shook her head and walked like a normal adult. “You guys go on ahead.”
“Come on, you have to do it. We’re at the zoo. What better place to act like an elephant?”
She shook her head again, her cheeks heating. “I’d feel silly.”
“Oh, that’ll pass.” Luke took her hand and swung her arm forward. “You heard Madelyne. She wants her Auntie P to join in on the fun.”
“Luke, really, this is silly. You guys just go.”
Luke met her eyes, while Maddy waited to the side, watching the adults. “Didn’t you ever act silly as a kid?”
She glanced over at her niece. The swarm of kids entering the zoo parted like a wave around the three people stopped on the path. “I was never really a silly kid.”
Luke reached up and cupped her jaw, a momentary touch, but coupled with the searing connection in his eyes, the light caress of his fingertips along her skin sent shock waves through her veins. “Every kid should have time to be silly. It’s part of growing up.”
“Some kids have to grow up too fast.” She cut her gaze away. “That’s part of growing up, too.”
“Nobody should have to grow up too fast.” Luke’s hand touched her cheek again, his thumb tracing a half-moon along her cheek. “Take some time to be silly, Peyton. Better late than never.”
&nb
sp; “Okay,” she said, if only to get him to release her. She stepped back, bent her head a little and brought her arm alongside her nose. “There.”
“Oh, no, you have to stomp and swing. Like us. Let’s show her, kid.” Luke and Maddy repeated their elephant walk, going ahead of Peyton two by two.
Like a father and daughter.
Dare she hope that maybe he would be a real part of Maddy’s life? That he would help fill those gaping wounds in Maddy’s life?
Peyton came up behind them, laughing too hard to act like an elephant. The three of them stopped in front of the zebras, a wide-open plain dotted with the striped animals, a trio of elephants, a pair of giraffes and a lone ostrich. Maddy delighted over the animals, spending nearly an hour running along the fence, peering past the posts and asking questions about each and every animal. She was as busy as a bee on the first day of spring, flitting here and there, her little shoes making sparks along the paved path.
And most of all, Maddy was happy. Having fun. Because Luke had gotten her to stomp her feet and trumpet her arm, and forget the shadows that troubled her. It was the best moment Peyton could have hoped for, and exactly the kind of moment she had come to Stone Gap for.
Would Luke really stay in Maddy’s life after the two weeks were up? Would he be there to make her laugh, encourage her to act silly?
Maddy ran over to Peyton. She was out of breath and tiny beads of sweat dotted her forehead. “I’s tired, Auntie P.”
Peyton bent down and lifted Maddy’s long curls off her neck, giving her a moment of cool air. “I’m not surprised. You were busy talking to all the animals.” Peyton waved toward a bench located in a shady copse of trees between the main path of the zoo and the splash pad to the rear. “Let’s take a load off for a few minutes, then go get lunch.”
Maddy clambered onto the bench, settling her body against Peyton’s left side. A minute later, she was asleep, falling into a fast, deep nap, something Maddy had done since she’d been born. Peyton had never known anyone who could fall asleep so quickly and so deeply, then be back up again a few minutes later, ready to tackle the rest of the day. If there was one thing Peyton had been grateful for when she’d brought the newborn Maddy and Susannah into her home, it was Maddy’s ability to sleep.
Luke sat on Peyton’s right side, leaning forward and peering around at Maddy. “She’s out that fast?”
“Yup. She’s always been like that. Even when she was a baby. I’d put her in her crib, and five minutes later, she’d be asleep.”
“You put her to bed every night? What about Susannah?”
“She was...busy.” Out on dates. Out at bars. Just plain out. Peyton didn’t add that. It wasn’t right to speak ill of the dead, and never right to speak ill of the sister who had brought the precious Madelyne into the world.
“That kid is the definition of busy. I’ve never known anyone with so much energy.”
Peyton laughed. “Look in the mirror. You were like a tornado when you were young. Going here, there, running this, running that.”
“Me? Nah, I was the lazy one.”
Lazy was never a word she would have associated with Luke. Irresponsible, yes, a charmer, yes, a serial dater, for sure. But lazy...no, never him. “You were captain of the football team—”
“Because no one else wanted the job.”
“Class president—”
“Again, no one else wanted the job.”
“You worked part-time at your dad’s garage and—” She put up a finger to stop him when he started to protest. “You were at every party that anyone threw in Stone Gap.”
“Which was my main job.” He grinned. “That doesn’t make me anything other than a party animal.”
“Maybe so, Luke, but you also had a lot of good qualities.”
Surprise lit his face and curved across his lips. “You think I have a lot of good qualities?”
“You made Maddy laugh and smile today. That’s the only quality I care about.”
He reached up and cupped her jaw, just as he had earlier, only this touch was more tender, softer. “And what about you? Did you laugh and smile, too?”
She swore she could feel her heart beat in the places where he touched her. “Maybe.”
His thumb traced across her bottom lip. Heat chased through Peyton’s veins. “Ah, Peyton, you are a stubborn woman.” But the words held no malice.
“I prefer to think of myself as strong, not stubborn. Somebody has to be in charge and make sure everything happens on time and the way it’s supposed to. Someone has to be the one who keeps it together so that no one else falls apart.” She tore her gaze away from his hypnotic blue eyes and glanced at her watch. Calm, cool, collected. Not at all affected by Luke’s touch, or his cologne, or his warmth. Or every inch of him. “Speaking of which, it’s time for lunch. I should wake Maddy and—”
“Let her sleep another five minutes. The world won’t end if you do.”
Her eyes connected with his again. “Oh, it might. It very well might.”
His gaze dropped to her lips, then back to her eyes. Hunger colored the blue dark, and heat rose in the space between them. A heartbeat passed between them. Another. The shaded bench seemed a million miles away from the busy zoo, lost in the quiet of the shrubs and trees that had carved out their own private niche. “I’m going to kiss you, Peyton.”
Anticipation warmed her, made her want in ways she hadn’t wanted in a long, long time. “I...I... We shouldn’t.”
“You’re probably right. But when have I ever done what I was told?” He grinned, then leaned in and caught her mouth with his own.
Chapter Four
The kiss was a mistake. An accident.
Or at least that’s what Luke told himself for the first five seconds, when his lips met hers and she sat there, ramrod still, for a blip of time. Then something softened between them, a wall crumbling, and she leaned first into the touch of his hand against her face, then into him. And in that moment, Luke wondered if any of this was an accident, or if a part of him had intended to kiss Peyton ever since that first day when she’d shown up on his porch.
Her lips were hot beneath his, and her perfume, something with a dark floral scent, lured him closer, made him think of hot summer nights with a breeze drifting into open windows, the two of them in a bed, tangling in the sheets, their bodies slick with sweat, the rush to be in her, with her, overpowering every other thought. He tangled one hand in her long blond hair, the other going around her waist, drawing her closer, breast to chest, thigh to thigh, an electric current charging every place they touched.
Then a kid let out a shriek from the splash pad. The piercing sound broke the spell between Peyton and Luke, and she jerked away from him. “That...that shouldn’t have happened.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But it did.”
She pushed her hair away from her face. The movement seemed to drop a mask of calm over her features. The flush in her cheeks dissipated, and her breathing evened out. In an instant, it was as if the kiss had never happened. “I’m not here for...that.”
“Me neither. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in you.”
“And I’d be lying if I said I was interested in you.” She brushed at her skirt as if kissing him had left her dusty, or as if she just wanted to whisk away the memory of his touch. “I’m here so you have a chance to get to know your daughter. Nothing more. And I mean that, Luke. Nothing more.”
“Then why did you kiss me back?”
“I...” She opened her mouth, closed it. “I didn’t mean to. I got caught up in the moment and—”
“Overcome by the heat? Swept away by the romantic atmosphere of a children’s zoo?” He shifted closer. Still, she kept her distance, stood strong and cool, dispassionate. If he hadn’t been there himself, he wouldn’t believe that ten seconds ago this same woman had been leaning into him, letting out soft mews of desire. “Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy that. Don’t pretend it was nothing.”
/> “It wasn’t anything, Luke, and the second you accept that is the second we can move forward.” She bent over, roused Madelyne and helped the little girl into a sitting position. “Come on, sweetie. Time to wake up. Let’s go get some lunch, and then see the rest of the animals. Okay?”
The air between him and Peyton had chilled. She was as cordial to him as she would be to her dry cleaner. He told himself he didn’t care, but damn it, he did.
She intrigued him, this grown-up, confident, capable Peyton Reynolds. He saw all the order and schedules in her life and wondered what it would be like to get her to let go, to see her with her hair down—literally. Even now, with her hair loose around her shoulders, everything about her seemed restrained, as if her entire body was held in place by extra-strength hairspray. For a moment there, a brief, sweet, hot moment, that control had been relaxed. The taste of that other Peyton—the Peyton she could be—lingered in his mouth, pooled desire in his gut.
But she was right on one thing—neither one of them was here today at the zoo for what had happened on that bench. They were here for Madelyne, so he could get to know his daughter, and so that Peyton could bring some joy into the life of a kid who seemed to carry a cloud over her head. And rightly so.
He thought of the childhood he’d had—all the creeks he’d explored, trees he’d climbed, adventures he’d embarked upon. He’d had a good childhood, the kind that would have made Norman Rockwell fill a gallery. Every kid deserved that.
Especially his own.
Peyton held Maddy’s hand, heading for the food court on the right side of the path. Madelyne kept looking over her shoulder, though, watching the kids on the splash pad with a longing that was nearly palpable. Luke caught up to Peyton and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, before we eat, why don’t we take her over there?” He nodded toward the splash pad.
Madelyne stopped walking and looked up at Peyton, silent.
“It’s lunchtime,” Peyton said.
“And the world won’t fall off its axis if we stop for a little fun.”
“A schedule is important—”