Daddy Lessons

by Stella Bagwell

Joe moved away from the row of cabinets and Savanna’s eyes followed him as he walked around the large room. He hadn’t dressed for dinner tonight. He was wearing faded jeans, a plain white T-shirt and the same boots he wore to work. As she watched the muscles of his back flex beneath the thin cotton, she decided Marlon Brando should never have worn that T-shirt all those years ago in On the Waterfront. Now men like Joe went around in them, turning a girl’s thinking to a pile of mush. It was decadent.

  “Well, I saw how much it meant to Megan,” he said, “and I realized it would be better for you to go and keep her pacified than to have you stay here and run the office.”

  “Is that the only reason?”

  He stopped his pacing and looked at her. Savanna felt a jolt as his blue eyes connected with hers.

  “That, and you will be a help to me at the meeting. There’s always a lot of numbers to present at one of these things.” His brows pulled together in a quizzical frown as he noted a flicker of doubt on her face. “Why? What other reason would I have for asking you to go?”

  Savanna had never been a nervous person, but something was making her decidedly edgy. She wasn’t sure if it was the way Joe’s blue eyes kept sliding over her or simply the fact that she was going out of town with him.

  Sliding off the bar stool, she smoothed a hand down the front of her dress. “Uh—forget I asked. Right now I’d better get home. When did you plan on leaving?”

  “I’ve already called Will Rogers Airport. There’s a flight leaving for Houston at eight thirty-five Monday morning. We’ll need to be there in plenty of time to get our tickets and check in.”

  Even though there were all sorts of doubts about this trip whirling around in Savanna’s head, she nodded and gave him the cheeriest smile she could muster. “I’ll be ready.”

  Walking over to her, he said, “I’m going to have a cup of coffee. Would you like to join me before you leave?”

  A giant yes was in her throat just screaming to get out, but Savanna determinedly tamped it down and shook her head. She was already spending too much time with the man and thinking things about him that were definitely dangerous. No, she needed to go home, regroup and convince herself that she could make this trip with him and Megan and still keep her senses intact.

  “Thank you, but I drank a cup earlier.”

  He shrugged. “Then I’ll walk you to your car.”

  Suddenly wary of his unexpected show of manners tonight, Savanna glanced up at him. “Oh, that isn’t necessary. I can find my way back out.”

  Joe reached out and took hold of her upper arm. “I’ll walk with you anyway,” he said, his expression quietly daring her to protest.

  Too stunned to argue, Savanna allowed him to lead her out of the house and down the driveway to her car.

  Once they were standing beside the little orange car, Savanna turned to face him. “Please tell Megan how much I enjoyed meeting her.”

  He studied her for a long moment. “I think you really did enjoy my daughter tonight.”

  She frowned at him. “You sound surprised.”

  Joe knew there wasn’t any logical reason to keep holding her arm. But he did anyway. Her skin was like warm satin against his fingers and he knew if he were to lean down and touch his lips to hers, he would find them even softer.

  “I didn’t know how you’d take her. She’s—I’ll put it this way, discretion never enters her head before she opens her mouth.”

  An indulgent smile curved her lips. “Well, it’s obvious she’s very proud of you.”

  Joe grimaced. “I don’t know why. In the fathering department I’ve let her down more often than not.”

  He was selling himself short as a father, Savanna mused sadly, just as he seemed to sell himself short as a drilling contractor. What could possibly have gone so wrong in his life to make him think in such a way?

  “I don’t know about that,” Savanna said. “But I do know that simply spending time with her is really what Megan wants from you.”

  The tips of his fingers began to move ever so slightly against the side of her arm. Savanna didn’t know if he was aware of what he was doing, but to her it was an intimate, inviting touch and one she knew she should pull away from. But to be this close to him with the night cloaking them with damp heat was mesmerizing, making it impossible for her to move.

  “And how do you know that?” he asked. “Is that what she told you?”

  “No. But I’m a daughter. I know. Our daddy is the first man we fall in love with. Megan needs to know you love her back.”

  Joe grimaced. “Megan thinks loving her is letting her go to public school.”

  Savanna’s brows lifted, then soft laughter parted her lips. “Maybe it is, Joe.”

  It wouldn’t do for him to spend very much time around this woman, he realized. She had an easy way about her that made him want to relax, let his guard down and say to hell with the worries on his shoulders.

  “Not in my opinion. I want her to have more than what a public school can offer.”

  “Megan might want something else,” Savanna observed.

  Joe made an impatient sound in his throat. “Of course she does. She wants to go to proms and dances.”

  Savanna’s brows lifted in disbelief, then, laughing, she grabbed hold of both his hands. “There’s nothing wrong with dancing, Joe. In fact, there’s much to be said for dancing.”

  “Yeah, and it’s all negative,” he said, his face marred with a frown.

  Savanna laughed again. “You do know how to dance, don’t you, Joe?”

  She was holding on to his hands, clasping them to hers as though she’d known him for years. Joe knew he should pull away from her and put an end to this nonsense. But her touch was seductive, and her laughter soothed the frayed edges of his heart.

  “A little,” he muttered reluctantly.

  Tightening her hands around his, she cast a daring look up at him. “Show me.”

  “Wh-what?” he stuttered with disbelief.

  “Show me you can dance. Whirl me around the driveway and I’ll explain all the good points of dancing.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  She smiled at him. “I know. But I’m not dangerous. I promise.”

  She was dangerous. Especially to his peace of mind. But tonight, just for the moment he wasn’t going to think about that.

  Drawing her into his arms, he guided her into a simple two-step. “If the neighbors look out and see us, they’ll probably call the cops.”

  Savanna giggled. “No, they’ll just be angry because they weren’t invited to the party.”

  “We’re having a party?” he asked mockingly as they moved around the concrete driveway.

  “It feels like it to me.”

  Joe couldn’t tell her what it felt like to him. To have his hand spanning the side of her waist, the tips of her breasts brushing against his chest, was filling him with an urge to simply crush his mouth onto hers until he was drunk on the taste of her.

  “So what are these benefits of dancing you were going to enlighten me on?”

  Like the fingers of a lover, shadows were touching his cheeks and lips. Savanna had to fight the urge to cover those shadows with her own fingers, to draw his head down to hers and kiss his mouth until it softened and smiled back at her.

  “Well, of course, the most obvious is the physical exercise, then there’s hand and foot coordination,” she said as she desperately tried to shake herself back to reality.

  “Jumping rope will achieve the same results,” he observed.

  Savanna shook her head hopelessly. “Maybe so, but dancing teaches other things like…personal relations.”

  His brows lifted skeptically and Savanna’s lips spread into a provocative smile. “Well, we are relating, aren’t we? One on one?”

  If she thought he’d allow Megan to learn this sort of personal relating, she was out of her mind. And what the hell was he doing, anyway, dancing his secretary around on the driveway without one note of m
usic?

  He stopped abruptly and dropped his hands away from her. Savanna looked up at him questioningly.

  “Well, isn’t that enough proof for you?”

  “Proof?” she asked, her hands still resting against the middle of his chest.

  Irritated at the blank, dreamy look on her face, he snapped, “Proof that I can dance, damn it!”

  His sudden change of voice snapped Savanna back to the present and she jumped back from him as if he were a hot coal. “Oh, well, yes, I believe you must have danced once or twice. Years ago, when you were young.”

  Incredulous, Joe stared at her as he tried to figure out what had insulted him the most. The idea that she thought he was old, or that he couldn’t dance. “Ms.—I mean, Savanna, you—”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t mean for that to sound critical. But I would have enjoyed a few twirls and dips.”

  Joe would like to dip her, he thought, right over the hood of that orange car of hers. Before he let her up, she’d know she’d been kissed. And she’d definitely know he wasn’t old!

  “But we can do that next time,” he heard her saying.

  Next time? Joe would run like hell before he allowed her to talk him into anything like this again.

  “I doubt it. I’m not too big on dips and twirls.”

  Laughing, Savanna climbed into her car and shut the door. Yet when she looked out the window at him, the smile on her face was touched with regret. “That’s not surprising.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, annoyed with himself because he didn’t yet want her to go. She exasperated him, but she also made him feel good. And that didn’t make a lick of sense.

  “It means that if we were a comedy team, you’d always have to be the straight man, Joe. And when I say straight, I mean starched-stiff straight.”

  “Well, fortunately for you, we have to run a drilling company together, not play a Vegas nightclub.”

  Laughing, Savanna clapped her hands together. “You made a joke, Joe! A dry one, I admit. But I liked it.”

  Before Joe could say anything to that, she started the engine then reversed the car onto the street. With a little wave she called, “See you in the morning.”

  Joe lifted his hand in acknowledgment, then turned and started back to the house. It wasn’t until he reached the porch that he burst out laughing.

  Immediately the light over his head flashed on and Megan opened the front door in his face.

  “Daddy, is something wrong out here?”

  Joe smiled at his daughter. “No. Everything is fine. Why?”

  “I thought I heard a noise. Like someone laughing.”

  Dear Lord, he thought, laughter was such a rare thing around this house, his own daughter thought something was wrong when she heard it.

  “That was me. I just told Savanna a joke before she left.”

  Surprise widened Megan’s blue eyes. “You told a joke? Daddy, are you feeling all right?”

  Stepping into the house, Joe curled his arm around his daughter’s shoulders. “I feel fine, honey.”

  In fact, for the first time in a long time Joe felt relaxed, almost happy. Had one evening with Savanna Starr done that to him? Dear God, he hoped not. Otherwise, this trip to Houston was going to get him into deep trouble.

  Chapter Seven

  Savanna crossed her legs and glanced out the window of the DC-9. Finally, after a forty-minute delay, the rain and lightning had finally quieted to a harmless drizzle. In a matter of minutes the plane would be airborne and on its way to Houston.

  “Are you afraid to fly, Savanna?”

  Savanna turned her head toward the deep sound of Joe’s voice and was suddenly taken by the fact that he seemed so close to her. She’d never noticed the seats on this particular airline being so jammed together before. Joe’s knee was only inches from hers and his face so near she could see the little flecks of dark blue circling the pupil of his eyes, the faint shadow of rust red whiskers beneath his skin.

  “No. I like to fly,” she answered.

  Joe’s eyes dropped to her hands. “I wasn’t sure. The way you were tugging and twisting your fingers together, I thought you might be a little anxious about taking off.”

  She was anxious about taking off with him! After she’d driven home to her apartment Friday night, she’d lain awake for hours, remembering how it had felt to be touched by him, the way his face had looked down at her as he’d danced her around the driveway. And she hadn’t forgotten anything over the weekend. He was getting to her. She didn’t know why or how he was doing it. She only knew that when she looked at him now, she saw an altogether different man than the one who had growled at her for being late. Last week she’d wanted to bop him over the head for that. Now she wanted to kiss him. It was crazy!

  Smiling, Savanna did her best to sound as breezy as she could. “Oh, no. I’m fine. Just wondering what Houston will be like. I’ve been there before. But that was years ago.”

  “I can tell you what Houston will be like in three words,” he said blandly.

  Her eyebrows peaked as she studied his face. “Really. Tell me.”

  “Huge, hot and humid.”

  Disappointed, Savanna grimaced. “Is that all?”

  “That’s all I’ve ever noticed.”

  “I’m not surprised,” she murmured.

  His silent look demanded she explain. Savanna licked her lips and said, “I mean, you don’t seem very interested in the superficial look of things.”

  Hell, Joe silently cursed, what did she know? He was sitting here now wondering how he was going to keep his eyes off her long enough to persuade Leonard Brown and his business cronies it was time to drill for gas.

  She was a beautiful woman. But then, he’d come to that conclusion the moment she’d first walked into his office with grease marks on her dress and face. Today she was wearing pink silk. At least, Joe believed it was silk. Whatever the fabric, it was soft and flimsy and so thin that when she moved a certain way he could see the texture of her lace bra beneath it.

  As if that weren’t enough to distract him, her skirt certainly finished the job. It was close fitting, cream colored and came to a stop just below her knees. The left side of it, the one next to Joe, was split upon her leg. And even though the opening was supplied with buttons and buttonholes, she’d obviously decided to leave them all undone.

  Joe was finding it hard indeed to keep from reaching over and fastening the whole thing back together. At least then he might be able to look at something besides her thigh.

  A few minutes later the plane began to taxi down the runway, then pick up speed. Joe glanced across the aisle at Megan to make sure she had her seat belt safely fastened, then back at Savanna, who was waving out the window. “I don’t think anyone can see you from here, Savanna,” he said dryly.

  The plane lifted smoothly into the air and the Will Rogers Airport was suddenly behind them. Savanna turned away from the window to look at Joe. “Well, my friend Jenny is down there and I promised I’d wave goodbye.”

  “You’re only going to be gone for one night,” he observed.

  She gave him a wan smile. “Yes, I know, but Jenny thinks you might be devious and lecherous and that you’re really more interested in my body than you are in signing a contract.”

  Joe stared at her blankly, as though her words had been just too much for his mind to absorb.

  Savanna gave her hand an inconsequential wave, then recrossed her legs. “Frankly, I told her that was the most hilarious thing I’d ever heard. Don’t you think so, too?”

  He grimaced. “Can’t you see me dying of laughter?”

  Even though he looked like a judge about to hand down a life sentence without parole, Savanna began to chuckle. “Don’t worry, Joe, I told her I didn’t think you liked women. At least, not in that way.”

  Glancing over at Megan, Joe was relieved to see his daughter had on earphones and couldn’t hear their conversation. “In other words, you cut my m
asculinity to shreds.”

  Her lips parted with surprise. “Not really. I mean, she knows you have a daughter and that you obviously…liked women thirteen years ago.”

  “It was so nice of you to explain all of that to her. I really like the idea that you discussed my sex habits with someone I don’t even know,” he voiced sarcastically.

  Savanna shot him an offended look. “I wasn’t discussing you. I was defending you. Or did you want her to think you really are lecherous? Besides,” she went on before he could answer, “I don’t know anything about your sex habits.”

  “That’s right, you don’t. And that’s the way it’s going to stay,” he assured her.

  “I wouldn’t even pretend to be interested,” she said, then turned away from him and reached for a magazine on the back of the seat. Quickly she flipped through the pages without seeing them, then, heaving out a short breath, she looked back over at Joe. “Maybe I shouldn’t say anything but—well, now that we’ve managed to get on the subject of sex, I think you ought to know that Megan is hoping you’ll give her a brother or sister.”

  Joe twisted around in his seat so that his stunned face was only inches from Savanna’s. “Did I hear you right?”

  Savanna’s eyes roamed over the lean, bony angles of his features, the provocative line of his lips, then finally settled on his piercing blue gaze. Oh, yes, she thought, there were plenty of women who would find him attractive, and even more who would be willing to marry him and give him a child. Did he realize that? she wondered.

  Nodding, Savanna said, “She wants a sibling, and since her mother has no intentions of giving her one, she’s pinned her hopes on you.”

  Joe’s head swung back and forth in disbelief. “That’s ridiculous. And she shouldn’t have been discussing it with you, anyway.”

  Savanna told herself not to be insulted. After all, he was probably in a small state of shock and didn’t realize what he was saying. “Who should she be discussing it with?”

  “Me,” he retorted, tapping his fist against his chest.

  Savanna gave him a patient smile. “She intends to. But right now she’s probably afraid you’d just tell her to forget it.”