And her emotional involvement with his daughter created problems for her she wasn’t sure she could handle. As much as she loved all children, she found herself drawn to Darcie Warrick more than any other child. Perhaps because she recognized the need in Darcie, the hungry longing for a mother, just as Lori Lee’s maternal instincts called out for a child of her own.
Maybe she needed another dog. Or even a cat. Aunt Birdie had two dogs and four cats, and treated them all like spoiled children. Lori Lee had bought Tyke four years ago when he was three months old. She had wanted to have someone waiting for her when she came home. Someone to keep her company. Someone besides other people’s children on which to lavish her love and attention.
The doorbell rang. Gasping, Lori Lee jumped. Who on earth? Glancing at the mantel clock, she noted it was after nine o’clock. She got up, tightened the belt around her black velvet robe and went to the door. Peering through the viewfinder, she saw Eve Nelson standing on her front porch. Although puzzled by the woman’s unexpected visit, Lori Lee opened the door and greeted her guest with a smile.
“Please, come in, Eve,” Lori Lee said.
“Thanks.” Eve walked into the small marble-floored foyer. “I apologize for not calling first, but I felt it was important that we talk, face-to-face, and I was afraid if I called first, you might not see me.”
“May I take your coat and purse?”
“No. I won’t be here long.” Eve unbuttoned her beige wool coat.
“All right. Why don’t we go into the den?” Lori Lee motioned the direction with a sweep of her hand. “I was just having a cup of cinnamon tea. Would you care for some?”
“No, thank you.” Eve followed Lori Lee into her warm, cozy den, decorated in an eclectic fashion. Antiques blended with several secondhand store finds—new mixed beautifully with old.
“What’s wrong, Eve? You seem upset.” Lori Lee sat on the sofa, then indicated for her guest to be seated.
Eve shook her head. “No, I’d rather stand. I probably have no right to be here, but after Rick told me what happened, I felt I had no choice.”
“I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Lori Lee gazed quizzically at Eve. “Exactly what did Rick tell you?”
“He said that he overslept and didn’t pick up Darcie from twirler practice, so you brought her home.” Eve wrung her hands repeatedly and shifted her weight from one foot to the other and then back again. “When you brought her home, you chewed him out and told him he was an irresponsible father. You even accused him of staying out all night, tomcatting around.”
“He didn’t deny it.” Had Rick sent his sister here to defend him? If he was innocent, if he had an explanation for his actions, why hadn’t he come himself to confront her?
“I cannot believe you accused him of such a thing, or that you could actually believe Rick is an irresponsible father. His whole world revolves around Darcie. Everything he’s doing, he’s doing for her.”
“I don’t doubt that Rick loves his child, but his actions indicate a lack of responsibility. Whenever he picks her up at the studio, he’s always late, and today he didn’t even show up.”
“He tries to catch a nap every evening. His alarm didn’t go off today.”
“If he stayed home at night he wouldn’t need an afternoon nap, would he?”
“You’re wrong if you think Rick wants to be gone at night. He’d much rather be home with Darcie, but—”
“But what?” Lori Lee interrupted, nervous and agitated at the realization she might have misjudged Rick. “If he’s not out tomcatting around at night, why would he need a nap in the evening?”
“Because he works two jobs,” Eve said. “At seven-thirty, four nights a week, he leaves Darcie at my house and goes to a garage he rented up on North Main. He’s restoring a ’59 Corvette for your friend, Powell Goodman. Rick doesn’t get in until after midnight and he’s up at five every morning to do the laundry, clean the apartment and fix breakfast.”
“He’s working two jobs?” Lori Lee asked, an incredulous look in her eyes. “But why?”
“Because he wants to take out a loan to buy Bobo Lewis’s half of the business when Bobo retires. He used his entire life savings to buy into the business to start with, and now he’ll have to borrow a substantial amount of money. He needs as much up front as he can possibly earn.”
A sad, heart-wrenching realization came over Lori Lee. She understood Rick’s reasoning without Eve explaining any further. “He wants to be a respected businessman so that people here in Tuscumbia will accept Darcie.”
Tears welled up in Eve’s brown eyes. “I’ve never seen a man try so hard. This need he has to give Darcie everything he wanted and never had is eating away at him. You have no idea what a financial burden it is on him to pay for Darcie’s lessons and buy her costumes. And...” Eve hesitated as if carefully considering what she was going to say. “You can’t imagine how much your opinion of him matters.”
“How could I have been so stupid? Oh, Eve, I said some terrible things to him. You have every right to be upset with me. I’m glad you came over and set me straight. I owe Rick an apology.”
“Yes, you do.” Eve sighed, then smiled weakly. “I don’t want you or anyone else thinking badly of Rick, assuming he’s the way he used to be. He’s changed a lot because of Darcie. He’s trying to be a good father. Your accusations were totally unfounded.”
“I appreciate your talking so honestly with me,” Lori Lee said. “I promise that I’ll speak to him. I’ll apologize.”
“Thanks, Lori Lee. Rick needs all the support he can get, but especially from people like you.”
“What do you mean, people like me?”
“People he used to know years ago who always looked down on him.”
“I never...” Lori Lee didn’t finish her sentence, realizing that she had been a part of the crowd who’d indeed looked down their noses at Rick and other people like him. And she was still a part of that same crowd. “I want Rick to succeed, and I’ll do whatever I can to help see that Darcie is accepted by the other girls.”
“She’s crazy about you, you know.” Eve nervously adjusted her shoulder bag. “She talks about you all the time. You’ve helped her already, more than you know.”
“I’m very fond of Darcie,” Lori Lee admitted. And I could easily love her far more than would be good for either of us.
“I need to be going. I appreciate your understanding of the situation. Please continue being a good friend to Darcie. And...well, be Rick’s friend, too, if you can.”
“Thanks for coming by.” Standing, Lori Lee smiled graciously at Rick’s sister. “I’ll walk out with you.”
Lori Lee stood on the front porch until Eve hopped in her Bronco and started the engine, then she went back inside and locked the front door. Hesitating in the foyer, she suddenly realized what she wanted to do—what she had to do. She was going to see Rick tonight and tell him how sorry she was for jumping to all the wrong conclusions. Even if they could never be anything more, maybe they could be friends. She had a feeling that Rick didn’t make friends easily, and if there was one thing he could use in this town, it was someone in her crowd to befriend him and his child.
The concrete block garage on North Main Street had once been a service station back in the sixties. Now, with peeling paint, broken windows and grass growing through the cracks in the driveway, the place appeared deserted, except for the light on inside. Lori Lee parked her Riviera in front, then got out and glanced up and down the street. It was nearly ten o’clock. Most people were snug in their warm homes, no one anywhere around to wonder what Lori Lee Guy was doing out alone on North Main late at night. The cold February wind whipped through Lori Lee’s jeans. Hurrying to the entrance, she tried the handle and found the door locked. She pounded her gloved fist against the metal door.
She had argued with herself over the pros and cons of seeking Rick out tonight. She could have waited until tomorrow and called him.
That would have been the sensible thing to do. But when it came to Rick Warrick, she found it difficult to always be sensible.
No matter how many times the rational part of her brain warned her of the foolishness of this action, her heart had urged her not to wait. She had wrongly accused Rick. She needed to make amends. He had spent a lifetime being judged by other people’s standards. He’d been condemned for being a loner, an outsider, a brooding hell-raiser.
Rick flung open the door. Lori Lee jumped back to avoid being knocked sideways. He glared at her, his brown eyes narrowing speculatively.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
She looked at him, all six feet four inches of hard, lean man. Grease streaks smeared his forehead and the edge of his jaw. His ragged jeans and thermal underwear top were stained and dirty. An unruly lock of his long black hair hung over one eye.
She tried to speak, but her vocal cords wouldn’t cooperate, issuing only a squeaking sound. She gazed up at him pleadingly. The howling wind whirled dead leaves and scattered debris around Lori Lee’s ankles. Shivering, she crossed her arms over her chest and gripped her elbows in an effort to stay warm.
“Come on. Get in here before you freeze to death out there.” Rick closed and locked the door behind them, then clasped her shoulder, jerking her around to face him. “What do you want?”
“We need to talk,” Lori Lee told him.
“I think you already said just about everything you wanted to say. I don’t have time to listen to any more of your parenting lectures.” He noticed her looking over his shoulder, surveying the garage’s interior and Powell Goodman’s disassembled vehicle. “By the way, how did you know where to find me?”
“Eve.” She cleared her throat, then lowered the jacket hood from her head and swung her head to free her hair. “Your sister stopped by my house and explained everything to me.”
Damn, he wished she wouldn’t do that. Swing her hair that way. Lori Lee had the most beautiful hair. It fell below her shoulder blades in thick, blond waves. He’d gotten more than one hard-on wondering what it would be like to have that mass of gold spread out on his pillow as he plunged deeply into her welcoming body.
“So Eve set you straight on a few things, huh? I still don’t understand what you’re doing here.” Releasing her shoulder, he glowered at her. Why hadn’t Eve left well enough alone? He never should have told his sister what had happened. He’d had no idea she’d confront Lori Lee.
“I came to apologize,” she said.
Rick grunted, then turned his back on her and stomped over to the Corvette. “Go home. Leave me the hell alone.”
She instinctively knew that he was more hurt than angry. She had been the one who’d hurt him, and it was up to her to make amends.
“It’s not very warm in here,” she said, determined to stay and make Rick listen to her. “Isn’t there any heat?”
“Kerosene heater.” He nodded toward the small round heater near the back of the garage. “It mostly knocks off the chill. The place isn’t insulated and what windows aren’t broken are cracked.”
“I had no idea anyone still used this place for anything.” She walked toward him, careful to avoid stepping on the various tools and car parts lying about on the floor. “It should have been condemned and torn down years ago.”
“The rent’s cheap,” he told her. “That’s all that’s important to me.”
“I take it that this—” she pointed to the shell of the vehicle “—is Powell Goodman’s ’59 ’Vette. He told me he was having it restored, but I had no idea you were doing the work. That is, not until Eve explained about—”
“You’re dating Powell, aren’t you?” Rick jerked a orange rag from his back pocket and wiped the grime off his hands.
“Yes, Powell and I have been seeing each other for a couple of years now.”
“Sleeping with him?”
Lori Lee gasped, then wished she hadn’t when she saw the smirky grin on Rick’s face. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
“Are you going to marry him?”
“He’s asked me,” she said.
“What’s keeping you from saying yes?”
For one thing she wasn’t in love with Powell. For another, she didn’t think he really loved her. Like Tory, Powell thought of her as an asset, someone to impress his friends and associates. She was not only decorative on a man’s arm, but she possessed the type of breeding and taste some men thought essential in a mate.
“If Powell were the right man, you’d be willing to risk everything to be his wife.”
Lori Lee froze to the spot. Her gaze clashed with Rick’s, and she knew he saw the truth in her eyes. She hated being exposed this way. “Powell would make a fine husband for almost any woman,” she said. Rick took several steps toward her. “I’m seeing Jimmy Davison, too.” Rick moved in on her. “You remember Jimmy, don’t you?”
Rick slipped one arm around her waist, then cupped her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “If you really came here to apologize, then I’m listening. And if you want to make it up to me for condemning me unjustly, I know just the way.”
When he lowered his head, intent on kissing her, Lori Lee shoved him away. “No, Rick. I—I did come to apologize, and to tell you that I’d like to be your friend. And Darcie’s friend.”
Lifting his eyebrows in a skeptical gesture, he stared at her, then broke into hearty laughter. “You want to be my friend?”
“Yes. After Eve explained about your working two jobs and the reason why, I understood and sympathized. If you and Darcie are going to fit in around here, you’ll need help. I know Eve and Tom will do their part, but I’m in a position to smooth the way, especially for Darcie.”
“Why would you want to help me and my daughter?”
Lori Lee wanted to be honest with him without revealing her innermost feelings. If she allowed Rick to see how vulnerable she was to him and to his child, he might well take advantage of her and plunge them all into a situation that could lead only to disappointment and hurt for everyone.
“I admire what you’re trying to do,” Lori Lee said. “I was wrong to call you an irresponsible parent and to accuse you of...well, of—”
“I believe your exact words were tomcatting around.”
“Don’t remind me.” Reaching out, she clasped Rick’s arm. “I’m sorry that I jumped to all the wrong conclusions, that I assumed you were the same old Rick.”
He glanced down at her hand circling his forearm. Before she could protest, he grabbed her and pulled her into an intimate embrace. With his face leaning into hers, he whispered against her lips. “I thought you kind of liked the old Rick.”
“I was fascinated by you, but I was also afraid of you,” she admitted breathlessly.
“How do you feel about me now?” he asked, brushing her lips lightly with his own. “Do you find the new Rick fascinating? Are you still afraid of me?”
“I respect you for wanting to make something of yourself so you can give your child a better life than the one you had.” When he laid his cheek against hers, she closed her eyes, savoring the rough, bristly feel of his beard. Rick smelled of grease and sweat and pure masculine power. Lori Lee swallowed hard. “And yes, you still fascinate me and still frighten me. You have an effect on me I can’t explain.”
“Lori Lee,” he groaned her name just as he took her mouth.
Pure pleasure spiraled through her as he kissed her with tender possession. When she didn’t resist, he deepened and strengthened his assault. He grabbed her by the back of her head, pressing her into his marauding mouth. She should tell him to stop, but she couldn’t. She should tell him that all she had to offer was friendship, but she didn’t. She should warn him that they had no future together, but she suspected he already knew.
Lori Lee gave herself over to the moment, to the sweet, glorious feeling of being in Rick’s arms, of taking and giving pleasure almost beyond enduring. He always had and always would be for
bidden to her. A man not to trust. A temptation to be resisted. But she couldn’t resist him, didn’t want to resist him, tonight.
“You have no idea how much I want you,” he mouthed the words against the pulse throbbing in her neck. “Every time I look at you, I get hard and all I can think about is making love to you.”
Her body quivered. Her stomach fluttered. “Rick, please...I didn’t come here for this. I came here to...”
But when he kissed her again, she forgot what she was saying, forgot why she was protesting. All she wanted was Rick. Here. Now. Hot and wild and filling her body with his strength.
Caressing her buttocks, he lifted her into his arousal. Standing on tiptoe, she rubbed against him, then ran her fingers up his neck and into his hair. Grabbing his hair, she held his face to hers, and took charge of their kiss, commanding him to return her passionate forcefulness.
Cupping her back end, he lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his hips and draped her arms around his neck. He kissed her, his tongue thrusting into her warm, wet mouth. He carried her toward the old, battered wooden table in the back corner of the garage. Holding her against him with one arm, he reached down and swiped the stack of clean rags and assorted tools off the table. The tools hit the floor with a loud clatter.
Rick sat Lori Lee on the table, then unsnapped and unzipped her jeans. “If you don’t want this as much as I do, honey, say so now, ’cause in a couple of seconds I’ll be too far gone to stop.”
Who was he kidding? He was past that point already. He was in the if-anyone-tries-to-stop-me-I’ll-kill-them stage. At this precise moment, nothing mattered except making love to Lori Lee. Here. Now. As soon as humanly possible.
His sex strained painfully against the crotch of his jeans. “I’m in a world of hurt, baby.”
Lifting her hips, she pulled her jeans off and tossed them on the floor. She was already beyond reasoning. She acted purely on instincts and feelings. “Don’t talk. Don’t talk. Just—”
A Child of Her Own Page 7