by Gina Wilkins
The principal, a kind-eyed, brusque-voiced woman named Mrs. Montgomery, personally took them on a tour, chatting easily the entire time. She told them about the parent-teacher organization that she was quite sure both Connor and Mia would want to join, and the monthly assemblies at which students were recognized with rewards for good grades and good behavior. She showed them the pristine cafeteria with its colorful muraled walls, and the media center filled with books and computers and whimsical mobiles dangling from the ceiling.
“This will be your classroom, Alexis,” she said, stopping at a door with a glass pane through which they could see a young woman standing in front of about twenty students at desks. “Your teacher’s name is Miss Chen, and I think you’re going to like her a lot. Everyone does.”
Tapping on the door, she ushered them in and introduced them to Amy Chen, who looked to be barely out of her teens, but was probably in her mid-twenties, only a year or two younger than Mia. The teacher welcomed Alexis with the now-predictable enthusiasm, then introduced her to the class, who said in unison when prompted, “Hi, Alexis.”
“Alexis will see you in the morning,” Mrs. Montgomery announced. “I’m sure you’ll all be nice enough to make her feel right at home.”
“She can sit by me,” a little girl with red-orange pigtails tied with white ribbons said, motioning eagerly to the empty desk beside her. “My name’s McKenzie.”
“All right, McKenzie, we’ll all get to know each other tomorrow,” her teacher instructed, smiling wryly.
“McKenzie will take your daughter under her wing,” she added in an undertone to Mia and Connor. “She’s the most outgoing student I have. And by outgoing, I mean talkative,” she added with a laugh.
Deciding to correct the teacher later about her relationship to Alexis, Mia only smiled as the principal led them out of the room again.
Later that afternoon, Connor helped Mia and Alexis carry shopping bags into Alexis’s bedroom. Some of the bags held the school uniforms they’d stopped to buy on the way home. Mia and Alexis had selected enough of the mix-and-match pieces to make up several outfits. Enough, Mia had assured him, to last for most of the school year.
Both he and his credit card were happy to hear that.
He duly admired the bedding and accessories they showed him, telling them they’d made very nice choices.
Mia looked at the new decor items and then critically at the off-white walls. “Would you mind if I paint in here?” she asked him.
“Oh, yeah. Sure.” All the walls in his house were painted the same off-white they’d been when he bought the place. Although the neutral color had been fine with him, he supposed a child would prefer a brighter color.
Mia nodded in satisfaction. “A soft yellow would be nice in here, don’t you think, Alexis?”
“That sounds pretty,” Alexis agreed eagerly.
“I’m not sure when I’d have time to paint…”
Mia shook her head. “We wouldn’t need your help,” she assured him. “I’ve painted rooms before. It’s not that difficult.”
“I can help,” Alexis volunteered.
Mia smiled at her. “Absolutely. We girls can handle this, can’t we?”
Alexis dimpled up at her. “Absolutely,” she repeated adorably.
Looking at them grinning at each other, Connor was aware of an odd pang inside him. They seemed to be bonding very quickly. Alexis was obviously taken with Mia, and the feeling was apparently mutual.
Was he feeling a bit excluded? Maybe a little envious that this seemed to be coming so easily to Mia? If so, he should get over it, he told himself firmly. He should be extremely grateful instead that the arrangement they’d made seemed to be getting off to a good start. And he was grateful, of course. It was just…
Just nothing, he thought with a slight shake of his head. Everything was fine.
“So, if you two have everything under control here,” he said lightly, “I think I’ll join my study group for a few hours. I’m getting behind on my lecture notes.”
Mia waved a hand in a gesture of teasing dismissal. “Go. We’ll be fine. If you’re not home in time for dinner, I’ll keep a plate warm for you. Or you can call if you eat with your group.”
“I will. Thanks.”
He hesitated a moment longer. Should he kiss Alexis goodbye? Was he supposed to do that whenever he left? Did she even want him to?
Mia touched the child’s shoulder. “Why don’t you give your daddy a hug and thank him for all your new things?” she suggested in a murmur he could just hear.
Her expression shy again, Alexis approached him. “Thank you for all my new things,” she recited dutifully.
She still seemed to be avoiding calling him anything. He supposed that would come with time.
Leaning down, he gave her a quick hug. “You’re welcome, honey. I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Okay.” She was already turning back to Mia.
He looked that way himself. When the thought crossed his mind that he wouldn’t mind giving Mia a goodbye hug—or even better, a goodbye kiss—he decided it was definitely time for him to go. All this family stuff must be going to his head.
“See you,” he said to both of them, and turned a bit more quickly than necessary to make his escape.
Chapter Four
“Where have you been lately, Connor? We’ve all been worried about you.”
Connor responded to Haley’s question with a faint smile. “I’ve been pretty busy the past few days. My, uh, my daughter moved in with me yesterday. I needed to get things in order for her.”
His words were met with a moment of startled silence, as he had expected. The other four members of his study group looked at each other, then back at him. Again, it was Haley who spoke. “Did you say your daughter?”
He nodded. “Alexis. She’s six.”
“And she’s living with you now?”
“Yeah.”
“Dude,” Ron drawled, shaking his head slowly, “how are you going to handle that? I mean, I even had to give my dog to my brother because I didn’t have time to care of him.”
“Ron,” Haley chided him in a stage whisper. “A child is not a dog.”
Something about that struck Ron as funny. He started to laugh, but muffled it quickly when Haley gave him another fierce look.
Ignoring their habitual bickering, Anne searched Connor’s face with a frown. “I didn’t know you had a daughter. You’ve never mentioned her.”
He gave an awkward laugh, wondering exactly how much he should share. “I didn’t know I had a daughter either,” he said after a moment. “Her mother and I split up before she was born. Her mother died recently and left Alexis for me to raise.”
“Wow.” Haley shook her head in amazement. “You must be feeling gobsmacked.”
“That’s one way of putting it.”
Hosting again that day, James waved everyone to the table. “I just offered everyone coffee, but maybe you’d rather have a beer?” he asked Connor. “A double bourbon?”
Laughing more naturally now, Connor shook his head. “Thanks, but coffee will be fine.”
He piled his books and computer at his usual place at the table, which was already cluttered with everyone else’s study materials. And then he reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the photo of Alexis. Weren’t dads supposed to share pictures of their kids? “This is my daughter.”
Haley snatched the photo out of his fingers. “Oh, she’s adorable. Look at that dimple in her chin. Connor, she looks just like you.”
Anne took the picture next. “She is pretty. Is she as sweet-natured as she looks?”
“She really is,” he admitted in near bemusement. “You’d be amazed at how easily she’s adapted to all of this.”
Ron studied the picture in turn. “Funny. She does look like you. But on her, it looks good.”
Connor chuckled. “Thanks a lot.”
Setting cups of coffee on the table, James glanced at the
photo. “Cute kid. Where is she now?”
Slipping the photo back into his pocket, Connor took his seat, as did the others, and picked up his coffee cup. “You remember me mentioning my friend, Mia?”
“The schoolteacher who helps you study sometimes?”
He nodded. “She moved in with us. She’s going to take care of Alexis while I’m studying.”
Ron grinned. “Always suspected there was more between you and Mia than you admitted. Something about the way you talked about her.”
Connor shook his head. “No, it’s not like that. She has her own room. She’s—well, she’s sort of a nanny for Alexis for the next year or so. Until Alexis is well settled in and I can make other arrangements. I think it’s going to work out fine. Alexis seems to be bonding with Mia very quickly.”
Anne frowned. “Won’t that be a problem when Mia moves out? I mean, if Alexis becomes too close to her?”
He didn’t want to think that far ahead just now. It was all he could do to make it through a day at a time. “We’ll deal with that when it comes. Besides, Mia and I are very close friends. She’ll always be a part of my life, and Alexis’s, too, now.”
“Hmm. You’ve never tried living together before, right?” James asked a bit cynically.
“Well, no. But we’ve known each other for three years. We’ve spent a lot of time together.”
James shook his dark head, his eyes world-weary, older than his years. “Not the same. Trust me.”
Connor thought uncomfortably of his broken marriage. Gretchen had become bored with the habits and routines they had fallen into after the honeymoon phase ended. Everything he did had seemed to annoy her toward the end, and they’d spent more and more time arguing or not speaking at all. Later he had wondered if her affair with her boss had been the cause of her dissatisfaction with him or the result, but whatever the reason, they’d clearly been unsuited.
He would hate to think that he and Mia would ever end up like that, resenting each other, avoiding each other’s company, impatient to be free of each other. Was James right? Had he and Mia made a mistake agreeing to spend so much time together?
“So, you’re a dad now.” Ron studied him thoughtfully. “How weird does that feel?”
“Very,” he admitted.
“The dad of a pretty little girl, no less. You’ll have boys sniffing around in six or seven years.”
He scowled. “She’s only six.”
“Have you seen how fast girls grow up these days?”
Connor felt a shiver of dread course down his spine. He didn’t even want to think about dealing with his daughter and boys.
“Leave him alone, Ron,” Haley ordered with a shake of her head. “You have plenty of time to worry about things like that, Connor.”
“But not so much time to worry about the gross anatomy exam Monday,” Anne fretted, typically already worrying about school again. “Maybe we should start going over the nerve charts?”
He didn’t want his family issues to interfere with his friends’ study time, so Connor quickly agreed. He resolved not to think about what was going on at his home for the next couple of hours, although he wasn’t sure how successful he would be with that.
The house was quiet when Connor entered at almost nine that evening. Setting his keys on the sparklingly clean kitchen counter, he walked into the living room, expecting to find Mia and Alexis there. He was only half-right. Mia sat alone on the couch, a stack of essays in her lap as she made notes on one with a red pen. The television was on, tuned to a news channel, but the volume was so low he could barely hear the commentary.
“Hi,” he said, not sure if she’d heard him come in.
She looked up with a smile. “Hi. Did your study session go well?”
“Yeah. We got through a lot of material. Sorry it took so long, we let the time get away from us.” He had at least remembered to call to tell her that his study group was ordering Chinese food, so there was no need for her to keep a plate warm for him.
“That’s okay. I’m glad you got a lot accomplished.” She set the papers aside and stretched as if she’d been sitting in the same position for too long.
The movement made her thin green sweater strain against her breasts and rise to show a peek of flat tummy above the waistband of her jeans. Realizing the direction his gaze had gone, Connor made himself look away quickly. If they were going to live together comfortably, he needed to take such intimate glimpses in stride. There was no reason at all for his heart rate to suddenly be uneven—so why was it?
“Where’s Alexis?” he asked a bit too abruptly.
Mia didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary in his behavior, to his relief. “She’s in bed. You and I forgot to discuss it, but I think eight is a good bedtime for school nights. Is that okay with you?”
“Uh, yeah, sure. Whatever you think best.” He had no real idea what time a six-year-old should be in bed, but eight sounded about right.
“She didn’t argue with me. Not that she ever does. But I think she was tired. She was sound asleep fifteen minutes later when I peeked in at her.”
“She didn’t sleep all that well last night, I guess.”
“That’s certainly understandable, considering the upheaval in her life.”
“Yeah.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “Is there any coffee?”
“There’s decaf in the carafe. I made a pot right after I put Alexis to bed. It should still be hot. And I made a peach cobbler for dessert tonight. There’s quite a bit left, if you want some.”
His ears perked up at that. “Peach cobbler? Yeah, that sounds great. Thanks.”
She started to rise, but he waved her back down. “I’ll get it. You certainly don’t have to wait on me. Want me to bring something back for you?”
Settling back into the cushions, she shook her head. “I’m okay, thanks.”
He nodded and turned toward the kitchen. A few minutes later he carried his coffee cup and a generous serving of cobbler back into the living room. “Will it disturb your reading if I eat this in here?”
“Not at all. I’ll enjoy the company,” she assured him, looking up again from a page covered liberally with red marks. “Feel free to turn up the TV or change the channel. I can pretty much concentrate through a hurricane.”
They were being so polite. Almost formal. It wasn’t like them—but then, they’d never actually lived together before, Connor reminded himself. He was sure they’d settle back into their easy rhythm soon. At least, he hoped they would.
“I take it things went well with you and Alexis this evening?” he asked, settling into a chair.
“Very well. She really is an incredibly well-behaved child. She has yet to argue with anything I’ve said. She’s almost a little too obedient.”
His eyebrows rose at that. “That’s a bad thing?”
Smiling wryly, Mia shook her head. “No, of course not. I just worry that she’s trying too hard to please us. I want her to feel free to be herself.”
“She’s still getting used to this,” he said with a slight shrug. Just as he and Mia were, he added silently. “I’m sure she’ll loosen up with time. She’ll probably throw a tantrum or something. Will that make you feel better?”
Mia laughed and picked up another essay. “Okay, you’re probably right. I’m probably overthinking everything. I guess I’m still just a little nervous about all of this responsibility.”
“Tell me about it,” he muttered beneath his breath. “Great cobbler,” he said more clearly, scooping up another spoonful. “Really good.”
Without looking up from the paper, Mia replied, “I’m glad you like it.”
He finished his dessert in silence, letting her finish her work without interruption. He tried to pay attention to the news reports on the television, but his gaze kept drifting back to Mia. She looked very much at home on his couch, with her gleaming brown hair tumbling around her face, her slippered feet crossed casually in front of her.
Occasionally she tapped the end of her pen against her lower lip as she frowned at a paper. Each time she did so, his attention focused on her soft, unpainted mouth. Sometimes she frowned and bit her lower lip as she made notes in a margin, and he found himself wanting to smooth away those tiny bite marks before she did any harm. She shifted her weight on the couch and he caught another glimpse of skin below the hem of her sweater. Pale, very soft-looking skin.
Realizing that he was becoming aroused, he almost bolted out of his chair, his spoon rattling loudly against the now-empty dessert bowl. “I’ll, uh, put these in the dishwasher,” he said when Mia looked up at him in startled question. “And then I’ll study at the kitchen table for a while. Let me know if there’s anything you need, okay?”
Her expression a bit quizzical, she nodded. “I’m fine, Connor. I’ve been making myself right at home here, so don’t feel as though you have to play host all the time. I’ll finish grading these papers, then check on Alexis, and then I’ll probably turn in early tonight. I’m a little tired myself.”
“Okay. So, uh…okay.”
Feeling like an idiot, he carried his dishes into the kitchen.
If this arrangement was going to work out, he was going to have to keep his contrary male hormones in line, he warned himself sternly. He had always found Mia attractive, but he’d managed to control himself around her before because he didn’t want to risk ruining a perfect friendship. Considering his dismal record with relationships, he’d begun to expect disaster. He certainly didn’t want to ruin things now, after Mia had made such a great sacrifice on his behalf.
He could handle this, he promised himself. Within a few days, this would all seem quite natural. He and Alexis and Mia would all be quite comfortable together here, and he’d probably not even notice those enticing little things about Mia that he’d obsessed about tonight. Like her skin. And her lips. And her…