Daddy Lessons

by Stella Bagwell

  “That’s right,” Savanna said as she ruffled her fingers through her short blond hair. “Megan is thirteen. She needs a friend and she also needs help with her daddy.”

  “Why? What’s wrong with the man, other than being a handsome stuffed shirt?”

  Savanna made an impatient gesture with her hand. “Jenny, the man knows next to nothing about fathering.”

  Jenny’s eyes widened. “And you’re going to teach him?”

  “Well, someone has to,” Savanna insisted.

  Shaking her head, Jenny laughed softly, then raised her eyebrows at the champagne-colored lingerie Savanna tossed onto the bed.

  “Uh-huh, I can see you’re definitely going to have an interesting evening,” the older woman said.

  “Hmph, Joe McCann will never get that close to me,” Savanna said with confidence.

  Jenny laughed again. “Never say never, honey.”

  Chapter Five

  Savanna was late. Again. Pulling over to the side of the street, she carefully studied the city map. She’d never been in this part of town before and she was surprised to see that Joe lived in such a high-toned residential area. He seemed more like the ranch-house-in-the-suburbs type, but then he wasn’t your everyday typical man, either.

  Savanna pushed her sunglasses back up on her damp nose and shoved the map back into the glove box. It looked as though she was finally on the right street. Hopefully, two more blocks would put her at the right house.

  Pulling the car away from the curb, she continued on down the street. As she drove, she couldn’t help but notice the massive brick houses on either side of her were all quiet. No children were playing in the front yards. And definitely no orange Beetles sat parked in the driveways. These people drove cars with trunks bigger than her whole vehicle and air conditioners cold enough to turn a person’s knees blue.

  Well, Savanna’s little car had an air conditioner, too, she thought humorously—two windows to roll down. But that didn’t bother her. Savanna’s family had never been rich. Comfortable, but not rich. And Savanna herself had never been impressed with money or things. She cared more about the inside of a person, not the outside trappings.

  A minute later she circled a cul-de-sac and spotted the pickup truck Joe drove to work. With a sigh of relief she stopped her little car behind it, quickly powdered her face, then dashed up the steps to the front entrance.

  Before Savanna had a chance to ring the bell, the door jerked open and a tall young girl with a head full of brown curls stood smiling back at her.

  “Hi, Savanna! We’ve been waiting on you!”

  She eagerly grabbed Savanna’s hand and tugged her into a large foyer.

  “It’s nice to meet you, too, Megan,” Savanna said with a laugh, then glanced up to see Joe watching the two of them from an arched doorway. As her eyes met his, her heart began to race like a deer in flight.

  “Late again, Ms. Starr. What happened, did you have another flat?”

  He was teasing. Savanna didn’t know how she knew it. Especially when there wasn’t the merest hint of a smile on his face. But she did know it and the fact left her feeling warm and just a little sassy.

  “Not this time, Mr. McCann. Why, were you getting impatient for my company?”

  A quirk of amusement touched his lips as his blue eyes swept down her face, then lower to the short little dress hugging her figure. “No. My supper,” he said.

  As Savanna looked back at him, she decided there was a hungry look in his eyes, but she had to wonder if it was solely for food.

  Don’t be ridiculous. She instantly scolded herself for thinking such foolishness. From his attitude so far, Joe McCann didn’t particularly like her, much less find her desirable.

  With that reassuring thought, she gave him a little smile and said, “Sorry. It was never my intention to keep a hungry man waiting.”

  Joe didn’t smile back at her, but the glint in his blue eyes told Savanna he was close to it.

  Clearing his throat, he said, “Ophelia has everything ready and waiting. Or would you rather have a drink before we have our supper?”

  “A drink isn’t necessary,” Savanna assured him. “I’m ready to eat whenever you two are.”

  “Then we’ll go on into the dining room.”

  With one hand he motioned for her and Megan to precede him out of the foyer and down three wide carpeted steps. They immediately entered a long living room furnished with a couple of chesterfields done in burgundy-colored leather and two hunter green armchairs, along with a deacon’s bench and several more pieces of furniture. Heavy drapes were pulled across a wide expanse of windows, shutting out the waning sunset.

  At one end of the room a massive stone fireplace with a slightly elevated hearth took up a major part of the wall; at the opposite end was an arched opening that led into the dining room.

  As the three of them approached it, Savanna could see a long cherrywood table set for three. Just beyond it, a bay window with a cushioned seat looked out over a large flower garden.

  “This is lovely,” Savanna said as Joe helped her into her chair.

  “I’m glad you like it, Ms. Starr.”

  He took the seat just to the right of her at the head of the table. Megan took the seat directly across from her. Feeling the young girl’s gaze traveling curiously over her, she looked across at Megan and gave her a smile.

  “Thank you for inviting me, Megan. It was very nice of you.”

  The teenager’s face glowed with excitement. “I’m really glad you’re here, Savanna. I was afraid you might not come.”

  “Oh? Why did you think that?”

  Megan darted a brave glance at her father, then grinned at Savanna. “Well, I was afraid Daddy might try to talk you out of it. You see, he’s not the sociable type.”

  “Megan!” Joe warned in a low voice.

  Laughter spilled from Savanna, filling the room with the tinkling sound.

  Joe looked at Savanna with an annoyed frown. “Don’t encourage her.”

  Savanna curbed her laughter, but a smile remained on her face. “Your daughter was simply stating the obvious, Mr. McCann,” she told Joe, then glanced across the table at Megan, who appeared to be watching the two adults with obvious interest. “Your father was gracious enough to make an exception tonight, Megan.You should thank him for that.”

  “Oh, I do!” she exclaimed, then turned a sweet smile on Joe. “Thank you, Daddy, for letting me have a dinner guest tonight.”

  Put like that Joe couldn’t remain annoyed with either of them. And suddenly he wondered what it would be like living with two precocious females instead of just one. He was a man who valued his privacy. Even his mother, whom he’d always felt relatively close to, called him a loner. Yet he found himself wondering how it would be to have Savanna’s laughter continually filling this house? To always have her lovely face across from him at the supper table?

  The questions came out of nowhere and for a moment Joe was addled with surprise. Since he and Deirdre had divorced, he’d never imagined any woman living in this house with him. He didn’t know why Savanna was putting such family-type notions into his head. But one thing he knew for sure, he had to stop it. Megan was all the family he wanted or needed.

  “You’re welcome, Megan,” he said to his daughter. “Now shall we eat?”

  “Yes! I’m starved!” She picked up a large salad bowl filled with fresh greens and passed it to Savanna. “You first, Savanna. You’re the guest.”

  As Savanna filled her salad plate and sprinkled it with oil and vinegar Megan asked, “Have you ever eaten catfish fillets, Savanna? That’s what we’re having tonight.”

  “No. I don’t believe I have. I’ve eaten trout and baked salmon, but not catfish.”

  “Ooh, then you’re in for a treat,” Megan told her. “This is fried crispy.”

  Savanna laughed. “I’ve discovered that a big part of the food in this area is fried.”

  “Where did you last live, Ms. Starr?�
�

  She passed the salad bowl over to Joe. As he took it from her, their eyes clashed and for a brief moment Savanna’s breath hung in her throat.

  “Seattle, Washington,” she answered quickly. “A large insurance company needed to update their computer system, so my dad was busy there for several months before we had to move.”

  “It must have been quite a switch for you to come from such a cool, rainy climate to Oklahoma’s blistering heat,” he said as he took a portion of salad from the bowl.

  “Actually, I’m enjoying it. You can’t imagine how tiresome the fog and rain can be after a while.”

  “Did you have a boyfriend there, Savanna?” Megan asked, her eyes shining with curiosity.

  “Megan! That isn’t something you should be asking Ms. Starr,” Joe scolded.

  From the corner of her eye Savanna could see Joe’s lips stretch to a thin line of disapproval and when he spoke again it was with the same growl Savanna had first heard yesterday outside his office door.

  “Ms. Starr’s personal life is none of our business,” he added.

  Seemingly undaunted by her father’s rough voice, Megan giggled as she stabbed several pieces of lettuce onto her fork. “Daddy, why do you call Savanna Ms. Starr? That sounds so…unfriendly.”

  “It’s not unfriendly. It’s respectful,” Joe corrected his daughter.

  “Sure, if you’d only just met her. But you know her now. Why don’t you call her Savanna? And Savanna, why don’t you call Daddy Joe? That sounds much nicer than mister.”

  Savanna glanced over at Joe’s dour expression. He hardly looked as though he wanted to get on a first-name basis with her. After all, she was his secretary. Being here in his home tonight didn’t change that fact.

  Looking to Megan, she said, “Well, Megan, since your father is my boss, I—”

  Suddenly Joe’s voice interrupted. “If Ms. Starr doesn’t mind I’ll call her Savanna,” he said to Megan, then arched an inquiring brow at Savanna. “And you may call me Joe. That is, if you want to,” he added in a lazy, taunting way.

  “That’s, uh, fine,” she told him, trying her best to sound casual, even though his suggestion was whirling all sorts of implications through her head.

  He’d invited her to call him Joe, she thought with amazement. Only minutes after she’d met him, she’d thought of him as simply Joe. Yet to call him by that name seemed such an intimate thing to do. Which was silly, she told herself. He was just a man, not unlike any other man she’d worked for.

  Who was she fooling? a little voice inside her groaned. Joe wasn’t like any man she’d ever known in her entire life. Including Terry.

  Drawing in a much-needed breath, Savanna finally managed to pull her eyes off him and look around the large dining room.

  “Your home is beautiful, Joe. Have you lived here long?”

  “Ever since I was a small child.”

  “Daddy and Mommy lived here when I was born,” Megan put in. “That was a long time ago.”

  “Yes, you are getting to be an old lady,” he told her, the hard line of his mouth suddenly softened by an indulgent little grin.

  Savanna glanced at Joe and was immediately surprised by the deep affection she saw on his face. Not that she hadn’t already decided that he loved his daughter. She just hadn’t expected him to show it. Especially in front of his secretary.

  “I’m thirteen,” Megan reminded him.

  Joe groaned, albeit good-naturedly. Savanna laughed and said, “I think we were living in Boston when I was thirteen. I’m not sure, since we’d probably lived in a dozen places by then. But I do remember my boyfriend at that time. He had orange-red hair and a freckled face, and he chewed bubble gum all the time.”

  “Ugh,” Megan groaned with distaste. “He sounds gross. Why did you like him?”

  Even though Megan had asked the question, she could feel Joe watching her, waiting for her answer as though she were about to reveal some deep dark secret about herself.

  She shifted uncomfortably on the seat and told herself he wasn’t really interested in her or her childhood. He was merely being polite.

  “Because he was very nice to me,” she answered Megan’s question. “And we had lots of fun playing tennis together.”

  “Having fun is important to you, isn’t it, Ms.—I mean, Savanna?” he asked.

  Vexed by the tone of his voice, she looked at him. “You make it sound like having fun is committing a crime.”

  “Not at all. It’s just more important to some than others.”

  “Life is too short not to gather as much enjoyment from it as possible,” she said with conviction.

  Joe couldn’t remember the last time he’d really enjoyed living. His college days, perhaps? Before he’d married Deirdre? When he’d still believed he was going to have a meaningful career in geoscience and a family to call his own. That was a long time ago, he thought cynically, before he’d learned what life was really all about.

  “I like playing tennis, too,” Megan spoke up. “So does my mom. She taught me how.”

  Savanna would have been surprised if the young girl had said her father had taught her how to play the game. Even though he looked very athletic, she couldn’t imagine Joe doing anything so frivolous as playing sports.

  “You must be missing her,” Savanna said.

  Megan shrugged as though her mother being out of her life was no big deal, but the lost look on her face told Savanna otherwise.

  “A little. But I got a letter from her today and that was nice.”

  “I’ll bet she’s missing you as much as you are her,” Savanna said gently.

  Megan shrugged again. “Well, she’s really busy now unpacking everything. Did Daddy tell you that she moved to Africa? Near the Congo?”

  Surprised to hear that the former Mrs. McCann had totally left the country, Savanna glanced at Joe, then back to his daughter. “No. He didn’t. Does she plan on living over there for long?”

  “At least for the next five years. You see, my stepdad is a doctor and he wants to volunteer his services. I wanted to go with them, but Mom said no way. She’s going to be living where there’s not any modern schools or anything like that for me to go to. Besides, she thought it was time for me to live with Daddy.”

  Savanna didn’t know whether to feel sad for Megan because she’d had to tell her mother goodbye, or glad for Joe because he was finally getting the chance to be a father to his daughter. Either way, it couldn’t be easy for the two of them to suddenly be thrust together after all these years of being apart.

  Joe laid his fork across his empty salad plate. “Megan, you and Savanna look as though you’re almost finished with your salad. Why don’t you go get the main course from the kitchen.”

  “Sure. I’ll be right back.”

  “Do you need my help?” Savanna asked as Megan jumped to her feet.

  “No, thank you. I can manage. You just keep Daddy company.”

  She disappeared from the room and Savanna found herself alone with Joe. Yet being here with him like this was nothing like sitting in the office of McCann Drilling. This was his home and he’d invited her here. She was trying not to put too much stock in that, but she couldn’t entirely forget it.

  “That girl is so—”

  Joe’s voice broke off helplessly and Savanna laughed. “She is totally unlike you. I can tell you that.”

  He frowned. “Should I take that as a compliment to Megan or an insult to me?”

  A smile still on her face, Savanna shook her head and reached for her water glass. “It was just an observation. Megan is a lovely girl. I like her. I like you, too. It’s just that the two of you are very different.”

  His eyes dropped to his plate and for a brief moment Savanna saw a shadow pass across his face. “Perhaps Megan would have been more like me if Deirdre and I had stayed together. Maybe it’s good that she’s not.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  As he lifted his eyes back to her, his mouth
twisted with cynicism. “Come on, Savanna, you and I both know I’m not really a likable person. I don’t pretend to be.”

  No, she had to admit he wasn’t an easy person to warm up to. But for some reason she had. She hadn’t lied when she’d told him she liked him. She did. Something about Joe McCann touched her. And that scared the very part of Savanna she’d carefully locked away from the world when Terry had died.

  “How old was Megan when you divorced?” she asked him.

  “Three. Since then I’ve had a weekend here and there with her and a couple of weeks in the summer.”

  The regret she heard in his voice tore at Savanna. “Well, obviously your ex-wife doesn’t want to keep Megan away from you.”

  “No, Deirdre never tried to keep me from our daughter. Our divorce wasn’t a bitter one. We both decided we simply had different goals in life. I—well, I just wish we could have made it work for Megan’s sake.”

  Was he really wishing that for Megan or for himself, Savanna wondered. Maybe he was still in love with the woman. Was that why he had such a bitter, cynical outlook on life, because he’d lost the woman he loved and couldn’t get her back? No, Savanna didn’t think that was the case. Joe didn’t appear to be a man in love with anyone or anything.

  “Staying together simply for the sake of a child doesn’t always turn out for the best,” she told him. “Besides, you’ve got your chance with Megan now.”

  Sighing, Joe put down the fork and leaned back in his chair. Savanna’s gaze followed his strong arms as he crossed them across his chest.

  “Yeah. I’ve got another chance with her now. But I don’t know anything about teenaged girls.”

  Her smile was full of encouragement. “Neither does any other man until they raise one of their own.”

  “Don’t anyone starve to death yet! I’m coming,” Megan announced as she pushed her way through a swinging wooden door at the back of the room.

  Megan’s return with the food prevented Joe from saying more. He was glad. He’d already said too much to Savanna. He didn’t know what the hell it was about her, but she had a way of making words spill out of his mouth that he’d never intended to say. If he wasn’t very careful, Joe thought, she was going to have him behaving like a blabbering fool.