One Mom Too Many

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  The patrolman took off his dark glasses and held out his hand. “Hey, bro. It’s been a few years. How’re you doin’?”

  “A lot better than I was two minutes ago. I’d forgotten you took a job up here after you left the NYPD.” Daniel shook his former classmate’s hand and introduced him to Rose.

  “We’ve met,” Rose said.

  “Nice to see you again, Rose.”

  Daniel opened the car door. “Let’s discuss this little matter out there,” he said, grabbing his jacket. “I’ll only be a minute,” he said in an undertone to Rose as he rolled up the car window. “Old Tim’s not gonna give me a ticket, but he might not want to say so in front of you.”

  WHEN DANIEL CLOSED the car door, St. Paddy began to whine and paw at the wire door to his carrier.

  “Soon you’ll be out of there, little guy,” Rose said. “Right after Daniel gets his ticket fixed we’ll be heading down the road toward home. Or what will be home by the time you’re too big for my apartment.” She’d made some rapid calculations after she’d realized she couldn’t leave the hay barn without this particular puppy with the big brown eyes. Her lease was up in three months, so by the time St. Paddy became too huge for apartment living, she’d be moved permanently to the country. In the meantime, she’d ask her mother to dog-sit during the day once in a while.

  St. Paddy kept pawing at the wire and whining.

  Rose leaned down to peer through the window and couldn’t see much sign of the party breaking up outside. St. Paddy sounded as if he’d lost his best friend, which, in fact, he had. All his friends were gone, replaced by two strangers.

  “Okay, I’ll let you out, but you’d better be good,” she instructed as she slowly unlatched the door.

  St. Paddy came wriggling out with surprising speed. She made a grab for him but he squirmed out of her arms and leaped neatly onto Daniel’s seat. Then he squatted and a growing stain appeared on the seat cover.

  “St. Paddy, no!” Rose pulled him back into her lap just as Daniel opened the car door and tossed his jacket in the back.

  “Daniel! Don’t —”

  He sat. And lifted up again immediately. “What the...?”

  She held tight to the struggling puppy. “I’m afraid that St Paddy...”

  Holding on to the steering wheel so he could elevate his behind away from the wet seat, Daniel gazed over at her. “Lady, your dog leaks.”

  “I’m really sorry.” She bit her lip against the awful urge to laugh. “You were taking so long, and he wanted so much to get out of the carrier.”

  “I can see why. He had business to take care of.”

  “Do you have a towel or anything in the trunk?”

  “I think so. You’d better get him back in the carrier before I open this door, though.”

  “You’re right.” Rose leaned over the back of the seat and tried to maneuver the puppy inside the carrier. It was like putting toothpaste back in the tube. “Sorry. He doesn’t want to go in.”

  “Take your time. I’ll just hang out here.”

  “Daniel, I don’t know if I can do this. He’s stronger than I thought.”

  “Try grabbing him by the scruff of the neck. Like his mother would do if she wanted to move him. Then maybe you can back him in.”

  “Easier said than done.” But she managed it. “Coast is clear,” she said, snapping the door shut.

  Daniel got out of the car with some difficulty, but he returned quickly with a blanket which he folded several times before placing it on the seat.

  “You don’t have anything more ratty than that?” Rose asked.

  “Nope.” He eased onto the seat, closed the door and fastened his seat belt.

  “That looks too good for the purpose.”

  “It is.” He started the engine. “There are all kinds of sentimental memories attached to it.”

  “Oh, dear. I’ll bet your mother gave it to you.”

  He grinned at her. “Nope. Picked this baby out myself when I was about seventeen. It was carefully selected for durability, washability, and a soft, fluffy nap.”

  “You went through all that trouble for a blanket for your bed?”

  “No, a blanket for my car. And it’s been transferred to each car I’ve owned. It’s my make-out blanket.”

  She groaned. “I should have guessed. And here you were pretending that you’re not hell on wheels with women.”

  “I’m not hell on wheels, Rose.” He winked at her. “But I’ve been told I’m heaven on a blanket.”

  8

  DANIEL’S COMMENT about being heaven on a blanket set off a predictable reaction in Rose. She couldn’t remember ever having such an intense response to a man as she had to Daniel. She expected to enjoy their lovemaking very much. What she hadn’t expected, or even counted on, was that he’d be great company during the times when they weren’t involved in the physical side of the relationship.

  She’d experienced that sort of comradeship with Chuck to some extent and had assumed you could have either friendship or sex with a man, but not both. Daniel was demonstrating that she was wrong.

  “Cute little town,” Daniel said as they moved along Main Street at a snail’s pace.

  “You should see it at Christmas, with the white clapboard houses trimmed in evergreen and red bows, and little white lights everywhere.” She was glad the slow pace had calmed St. Paddy. Or maybe emptying his bladder had done the trick. For whatever reason, he wasn’t whining anymore.

  “I’ll bet it’s also nice in the summer, when everything’s in bloom,” Daniel said.

  “It is. And the best thing about it is the weekly paper.”

  “Because it carries your strip?”

  “That’s right.”

  Daniel nodded. “Sounds as if the people here have good sense and a scenic location. Too bad they also run a speed trap.”

  “Luckily you’re friends with the local gendarme.”

  “I guess you could say that. If we hadn’t been friends, maybe he would have locked me up in addition to fining me.”

  “He wrote you a ticket?”

  “Sure did. Apologized all over the place while he was doing it, too. Touching as hell. Just let old Timmy set foot in my town, though. I’ll bust him for jaywalking.”

  Rose gazed at him. “I’d hoped once we got away from the city and our mothers that life would go a little smoother for us.”

  Daniel lapsed into a heavy brogue. “And so it has, lass. We’re headed down the road to your wee cottage, and me mither’s nowhere about creatin’ a brouhaha, and neither is yours. Sure and ’tis a fine day, Rose Erin Kingsford.”

  She laughed, relieved to discover he wasn’t really upset. Many men she’d known would have let a speeding ticket ruin their whole day. “How did you know my middle name?”

  “Called a buddy in motor vehicles.”

  “Oh. Then you know about my—”

  “Speeding tickets? My friend Timmy is an equal-opportunity ticketer, apparently. He told me you’d tried to show a little leg and get the fine reduced the first time around, but an upstanding officer such as himself can’t be bought.”

  “I did not! Your friend has some nerve, saying that.” She was all geared up to defend her integrity when she noticed the wide smile on his face. “He didn’t say that at all. You made it up.”

  “Just so you know, you can try that sort of bribery with me anytime.” He turned to her and waggled his eyebrows.

  “So you can be had.”

  “Absolutely.”

  Warmth coursed through her. They were getting closer to her cottage, closer to being alone — truly, deliciously alone. Except for St. Paddy, of course.

  “Time for you to navigate again,” Daniel said. “We’re almost through town.”

  Rose kept forgetting that Daniel hadn’t been here before. She felt so comfortable with him that it seemed strange he hadn’t been part of her life for a long time. “Take a right at the next stop sign, go over the bridge and take a left, then a
right down the first lane. It’s not marked.”

  “You weren’t kidding about it being tucked away.”

  “That’s what I looked for.”

  “You’re planning to live here someday, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  Daniel was silent for a while. “How soon?”

  “My apartment lease expires in three months.”

  He stretched his arms against the wheel of the car. “Is that the time frame for us? Three months?”

  The question hit her like a blow to the chest. “I...no, of course not. I wasn’t thinking in those terms.”

  “What terms were you thinking in?”

  “Daniel, I thought we weren’t going to question the status of our relationship. I thought we were going to keep things loose, go with the feelings of the moment.”

  “That made a lot more sense when I thought you’d be living on the same island with me.”

  “My moving up here doesn’t have to change anything. Not really. I can still drive down to the city. You can come up here.”

  He turned down the lane that wound its way to her cottage. “I guess you’re right.” He glanced at the pet carrier. “I was wondering how you’d fit a full-grown Irish wolfhound in your apartment. You weren’t planning to try.”

  Guilt assailed her. He’d already made her feel as if she’d been hiding things from him, and she hadn’t even broached the fatherhood issue. Her plan had seemed fine when it was on the drawing board, but now that she was trying to implement it, it seemed hopeless. Yet she couldn’t bear to give up the idea of having a child. The urge had something to do with a strong mothering instinct and a lot to do with continuity. She was the only child of an only child. If she didn’t carry on the line, no one else would. She blamed her Irish heritage for making that important to her.

  But she’d begun to question the wisdom of asking Daniel to provide her with a baby. She’d only known him a short time, but she already suspected it might upset him. He had an ability to care deeply about people, and he might well hate the idea of fatherhood without all the usual connections. The same would probably be true of any man she considered worthy of the task. That was the fatal flaw in her reasoning, which she hadn’t recognized until now.

  They rounded a bend in the road and her little house came into view.

  Daniel braked the car and stared. “It’s an Irish cottage. Or at least it’s the way I picture them. I’ve never actually been to Ireland.”

  “It’s as close to an Irish cottage as I could get. I had the lace for the curtains shipped over, as well as one of those little fireplaces they use for burning peat, although I use wood.”

  “But that’s a thatched roof. Nobody around here knows how to do that, do they?”

  “It took me a long time, but I finally found somebody who’d emigrated just a few years ago. This was the first one he’d done in this country, but now he’s gone into the business. He hadn’t thought anybody would want to try it, but he’s finding out it’s turning into quite the rage.”

  Daniel put his foot on the brake as the car rolled into the driveway beside the cottage. Then he shut off the motor and studied the cottage a moment. At last he hooked an arm across the steering wheel and turned toward her. “It’s perfect for you, Rose. If I hadn’t guessed before that the place belonged to you, I would have once I’d seen it. This is where the creator of St. Paddy and Flynn should live.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I appreciate your bringing me up here. I can already tell it’s a special place for you.”

  “You sound as if this will be the one and only time. I’m sure that we’ll have many —”

  He looked doubtful, a sad smile on his face.

  “What?”

  “I can see that you have a whole game plan mapped out, which you should, because you’re loaded with talent. You’re already somewhat rich and famous from your modeling. This next career will likely take you even further down that road.”

  “You don’t know that’s how it will go, and what if it does? We could still —”

  “I may fit in your life all right now, Rose. But sooner or later, we’ll move in different circles. Even if you don’t realize it, I do.”

  “You’re wrong. Very wrong.”

  St. Paddy began to whimper.

  “We’d better get him in,” Daniel said, reaching for his jacket.

  As Rose opened the car door, she wondered why she should feel so bereft. Daniel had just outlined the course she’d hoped her life would take. Her strip would become famous, make her a lot of money, and she’d live quietly in this little cottage with her child. And without Daniel. The fame and fortune might not separate them, but her decision to have a baby out of wedlock would. What had seemed like the most idyllic existence she could imagine suddenly no longer held the same appeal.

  Daniel took the pet carrier out of the car. “Come on, St. Paddy. You were born to live in this little thatched cottage.”

  Rose grabbed her coat and purse from the back seat and followed Daniel up the curved cobblestone walk. The flower beds lining the walk were covered in mulch, but in less than two months daffodils would trim the cobblestones in bands of yellow.

  “I’ll bet your mother loves this place,” Daniel said as they approached the front door.

  Rose dug her keys out of her purse. “She does. She helped me with everything — the landscaping, the antiques inside, the choice of colors. She said it was a bit like taking a trip back home.” Rose stuck the key in the lock and turned.

  “Has she ever been back to Ireland?”

  “No. When she was married to my dad, he never seemed to have the time, and now that she’s divorced, she doesn’t want to go back and have to explain...everything.” She paused before opening the door and glanced at him. “I suppose that sounds silly.”

  “Not to me. I grew up with that kind of conservative thinking, don’t forget.”

  “I guess you did.” She opened the door and motioned him inside. “Welcome to Rose of Tralee cottage.” She followed him inside.

  She’d wondered if he’d look out of place in the small cottage. To her surprise, he looked as if he belonged there, an Irish man who’d finally come home.

  Perhaps it was because the antiques she’d chosen were rugged country pieces rather than delicate, spindly things. A hutch held pottery plates and bowls, and the trestle table in one corner was solid oak. The couch and rocking chair grouped in front of the stone hearth both looked plenty big enough to hold a man of Daniel’s size. She’d chosen them with an active child and a big dog in mind. But the man standing in the middle of the room hadn’t been part of the picture. Nevertheless, he fit it perfectly.

  Daniel set down the pet carrier on the pine floor and surveyed the room.

  “Do you like it?” she asked with some nervousness.

  “I don’t know a damn thing about decorating, but if I tried to imagine the perfect room, this would be it.”

  She couldn’t keep the grin of satisfaction off her face. “I think so, too. When I’m in Manhattan and the pace is getting to me, I just close my eyes and picture myself here. It takes away all my stress.”

  St. Paddy pawed at the gate of his carrier.

  “I guess we should let him out.” Rose started over toward the carrier.

  “I have a suggestion. Have you ever had a puppy before?”

  “No. I wasn’t allowed.”

  “Then I’m the voice of experience in this crowd. I’ve had two. And what I remember is that we confined them pretty much to the kitchen until they were paper trained. Otherwise...”

  “I get the picture. But we can’t close the door and keep him in there, away from us, all the time. That would be mean.”

  “If I remember right, we used a piece of board high enough that he couldn’t get over it but low enough that we could step over it. We can make him a bed in the corner of the kitchen, and if you have a ticking alarm clock and a hot-water bottle, which sort of substitutes for the oth
er puppies’ warmth and heartbeat, we’re in business.”

  “I’ve heard about those things before. Do they really work?”

  He grinned. “Sometimes. Sometimes the dog drives you crazy, like the breeder said.”

  “I’m really glad you’re here to help me with this puppy, Daniel. I might make a mess of things by myself.”

  “I’m glad I’m here, too.” His gaze caught and held hers for a moment. Then he looked away. “Do you have any scrap wood around?”

  “There should be some in back left over from the renovations. If you’ll go look, I’ll get the windup clock out of the bedroom. I don’t have a hot-water bottle, but I have one of those microwavable gel packs.”

  “That’ll work.”

  She walked toward the bedroom and Daniel headed for the back door, which meant they had to pass each other.

  As they did, he reached out an arm and spun her around to face him. “One for the road,” he murmured, pulling her close.

  Daniel’s kiss, she discovered, could make her forget everything else. The velvet persuasion of his lips reminded her of all they had yet to share, and desire sluiced through her.

  He ended the kiss just as she was getting started. She looked up at him, her knees weak, her brain fuzzy.

  “Don’t lose your place,” he said, releasing her gently. “Right now we have to settle that puppy in.”

  “What if he needs...lots of attention?” For the first time she regretted her impulse.

  “He’s a baby. Babies sleep a lot, and he’s definitely due for a nap.”

  “Oh.”

  “And so am I.” With a wink he was out the door.

  Rose stood there for a full ten seconds before she was able to remember the errand she’d been about to run when he’d pulled her into his arms.

  AN HOUR LATER Daniel had created the barrier across the kitchen doorway and unloaded the groceries from the car. Rose had found a cardboard box to serve as a dog bed and lined it with an old blanket from the linen closet. The clock and microwave pouch were tucked into the blanket. St. Paddy roamed the kitchen sniffing everything while Rose and Daniel watched him get acquainted with his new surroundings.