Angel Unaware (18 page)

Then she looked at the expression on Tony’s face. The breath caught in Tony’s throat. A woman sprawled in the snow, in a most unbecoming position, should not have been something he found attractive. But, damn, Tony couldn’t rip his gaze away from her.

The sight of Dora spread-eagled at his feet had his senses churning like a pot of boiling water. Her dark hair had escaped her blue, knit hat and spread out over the white ground. Snowflakes peppered her bright red cheeks and lips, and then instantly melted, leaving behind tiny crystal-like droplets of water. His fingers itched to wipe them away or, better yet, kiss them away.

“See, Uncle Tony?” Penny squealed while continuing to bounce up and down like an out-of-control rubber ball. “I told you she’d be really good at it.”

“Yes, she certainly is,” he said, his voice sounding strange and seeming to come from miles away.

At the sound of his voice, Dora ceased her movements and met his gaze. The answering desire written clearly in her eyes sent his common sense into a tailspin.

He took a step toward her, his hand extended in invitation. Dora took it, and he drew her to her feet. Their faces were so close the puffs of steam emitted from their mouths mixed together. He searched her gaze to see if he’d read it wrong. He hadn’t. The desire was still there, burning just beneath the surface of those dark brown eyes.

Slowly, he lifted his hand to touch her damp skin. Then Jack tore from behind a nearby bush and barked. It broke the spell.

What the hell was I thinking
?

Obviously he wasn’t thinking at all. Had he lost his mind completely, or had his brain disconnected from his logic? Good grief, they were on the front lawn in plain view of all the neighbors, not to mention Penny stood right there watching their every move.

Hastily, he moved away from Dora and cleared his throat of the need choking off his air. “Uh, we’d better go inside. We’re all wet and we need to get into some dry clothing before we all catch pneumonia.” He strode rapidly across the lawn to the front door.

Penny grabbed Dora’s hand and giggled. “I think my Uncle Tony loves you,” she whispered.

CHAPTER 13

After they’d gone inside, Tony had changed out of his wet clothes, mumbled something about going Christmas shopping, and then left the house. A bit disappointed by his hurried departure, Dora had suggested that Penny work on her essay while they shared some hot chocolate.

Shortly after they’d settled in at the kitchen table, Millie had joined them, bearing a box of homemade chocolate fudge. While Penny helped herself to the fudge and regaled Millie with nonstop chatter about their shopping trip, school, her essay, and the snowman they’d made, all the things the child should have been eagerly sharing with her uncle, Dora thought about what Penny had said outside.

Did Tony love her? If the look that had settled on his face while she made the snow angel and the intensity of their kiss the other night were anything to go by, she couldn’t help but at least give it consideration. Rather than bringing her joy, the idea lay on her heart like a lead weight and caused the panic Dora had recently come to associate with the word
love
to come into full bloom.

Tony couldn’t love her. He just couldn’t. That would complicate everything. It was bad enough that she had allowed herself to fall in love with him, but if he loved her in return … Could his heart withstand another disappointment when she left?

And she had to leave him. There was no question about that.

Would it hurt him as much for her to leave as she knew it would hurt her? That Tony might have to bear more pain than he already had nearly tore Dora’s heart from her chest.

You’re being foolish. You’re taking a kiss, a look, and the romantic musings of a six-year-old as concrete evidence of something that only exists in a child’s imagination and your improbable dreams. Tony has said nothing about loving you. Penny is probably wrong. She’s only hoping for something that can never be so she has a complete family again. Yes, that’s it. That Tony loves you is only a figment of Penny’s yearnings and your own vivid, overactive imagination
.

Dora uttered a deep sigh of relief. She was twisting herself into knots over nothing.

“Dora?” Millie’s gentle voice broke into Dora’s thoughts.

Dora looked up from the napkin she’d been pleating and unpleating and was surprised to find that she and Millie were alone in the room. She looked around. “Where’s Penny?”

Millie laughed. “She left a few minutes ago. She said she couldn’t write with all the noise down here.” Her laugh melted into an amused grin. “It never occurred to her, I guess, that she was making most of the noise with her ongoing chatter. I can’t believe the change in that child since you came here. She’s talkative and lively, just like she was before she lost her parents. I’d say it’s nothing short of a miracle.” Suddenly, as though a switch had been thrown, Millie stopped talking. Her expression turned serious, and she leaned forward for a better view of Dora’s face. “Are you all right, dear?”

“Me? Yes, I’m great.”

“Well, from the look of the frown lines in your forehead and that poor, tortured napkin, your thoughts can’t be pleasant ones.” Millie touched Dora’s shoulder. As usual, her touch brought a measure of calm to Dora. “Something you need to talk about?”

For a moment, Dora considered confiding in Millie, but dismissed the idea. Penny had been voicing her dreams, and she’d been reading too much into things, nothing more. There was no foundation to any of it, and, consequently, absolutely no point in discussing it.

“No,” Dora said. “It’s nothing important. Just wondering what to make for supper.” Searching for a change of subject, Dora asked, “Millie, do you know anything about Penny’s Aunt Lisa?”

Millie frowned. “That one.” A sneer colored her usually friendly voice.

Dora had never heard that tone from the gentle woman who seemed to like everyone she met and never had a bad word to say about anyone. However, if what Tony told her about Lisa not attending her brother’s funeral had been right, to someone with Millie’s sensibilities about family, Dora could understand how the older woman would find this apparent snub reprehensible and unforgivable.

“That girl’s bad news with a capital
B
.”

So far, no one appeared to have a good opinion of Lisa Stevens. “Are you basing your opinion of her on the fact she didn’t come to Rosalie and Matt’s funeral?”

A sharp, derisive laugh issued from Millie. “No, dear. There’s more. The funeral is only the tip of the iceberg, Dora. Only the tip.” Millie leaned forward, her face grim. “Rosalie told me that girl gave her parents nothing but heartache from the time she could walk. Rosalie even suspected Lisa’s behavior had brought on her father’s heart attack.” She shook her head. “I can’t fathom how two wonderful people like Matt had for parents, people who were the cream of God’s crop, were cursed with a girl like that.

“Rosalie said that by the time Lisa was thirteen, she was into drugs and booze. She stole her mother’s jewelry to pay for it. Bless them, they tried to get her help, but nothing seemed to work. When she was fifteen, she was arrested for stealing a car. She got off with six months in a juvenile delinquents’ home on that one, but only because she convinced the judge she was only an accomplice and the boyfriend had committed the actual theft.” Millie took a sip of her hot chocolate. “On her eighteenth birthday, she walked out the door, and no one’s seen her since. Matt’s poor parents went crazy trying to find her.” Millie stopped talking and counted out something on her fingers. “She’d be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. My guess is, she’s sitting somewhere in a prison cell by now.” She frowned. “Or maybe worse. What brought her up anyway?”

Considering how little Millie thought of Lisa, Dora wondered if she should tell the older woman about the Christmas card Penny had received from Lisa and the specter of an impending visit from the delinquent aunt. Then she realized that if Lisa did come, Millie would undoubtedly find out anyway.

“She’s not dead, and she’s not in prison. At least it doesn’t appear she’s in prison at the moment anyway. She sent Penny a Christmas card and said she’d see her soon.”

Millie’s mouth formed a surprised
O
. “She’s coming here?”

Dora nodded. “She didn’t come right out and say so, but that’s certainly what her card implied.”

Millie sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Lord, help us all. Did she say what she wanted?”

Absently, Dora stirred her hot chocolate. “Tony thinks she might have changed, and that she’s trying to reconnect with her family.”

“I wouldn’t bet the trash at the curb on her changing. That girl never did anything for nothing. If she’s coming here, you can bet she wants something. My guess is money.” Standing and putting on her coat, Millie gave Dora a look of intense warning. “My mother …” Millie bowed her head in respect, and then made the sign of the cross over her chest. “God rest her soul. My mother used to say that the only way a leopard changes its spots is if someone paints them, but the real leopard is still there underneath all the paint.” She cast Dora a think-about-that look, then, without another word, she let herself out the back door.

Dora frowned and studied Lisa’s Christmas card where Penny had hung it on the refrigerator door next to the one she’d received from her grandparents. If Lisa had as little regard for family as Millie had said, why, out of the clear blue sky, had she suddenly felt compelled to visit her niece? Millie had probably hit the nail square on the head … Lisa wanted money.

Tony wandered aimlessly around the mall peering into shop windows. After the episode on the lawn and the surge of sensations he’d had to fight down concerning Dora, he couldn’t safely stay in the same house with her. If he had, he couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t have done something stupid, like dragging Dora off to the nearest secluded corner and … Escape had been the only option.

As a safe alternative, he’d decided to get his holiday shopping done. But he hated malls and the congestion at this time of year, not to mention the noise. Added to that was the fact that shopping for anything at any time had never been high on his list of favorite pastimes.

However, despite that, he’d managed to fight his way through screaming children, impatient parents, blinded couples who saw only each other, and find a few things for Penny. The shopping bags whose handles were biting into his hands contained a teddy bear that begged its owner for a hug, a doll that wet itself and cried “Momma,” a nightgown with dogs all over it, and a gold necklace with a tiny heart-shaped locket, inside of which he planned to put pictures of her mom and dad.

But a gift for Dora remained elusive. He’d searched store after store and still hadn’t found anything for Dora that was exactly right. He’d looked at silk scarves, perfume, and hat and mittens sets. All but the perfume came across as too impersonal. The perfume had been vetoed because he didn’t feel any scent could match the unusual fragrance of spring that surrounded Dora all the time. The gift he finally got for Dora had to straddle the line between too personal and too impersonal. But he wanted it to be meaningful, to capture his gratitude for all she’d done since coming to be Penny’s nanny. Unfortunately, he had no clue what that could be, and all the saleswomen he’d asked for help in determining that distinction were irritable, impatient, and looked at him as though he’d grown an extra ear.

He’d just rounded the corner of one of the side mall corridors and inserted himself into the throng pushing and shoving their way down the mall’s main thoroughfare when he spotted a huge replica of a winter wonderland in the middle of the aisle. Towering artificial pine trees had been liberally sprayed with fake snow and scattered about the scene. In the center stood a quaint replica of a gingerbread house decked out in equally fake icing at the end of a path bordered with red and white candy canes. In front of the house was a regal-looking empty chair with a sign propped up on the red seat cushion that read:

Santa is feeding his reindeer. He’ll be back in 15 minutes
.

A few children and parents had already lined up in anticipation of Santa’s return.

But the thing that had caught Tony’s attention was what stood to the side of the house—an enormous snowman that closely resembled the one sitting on his front lawn. Almost instantly, he knew what he would get Dora. Spirits soaring, he scanned the stores and spotted the one most likely to have it.

When he entered the jewelry store, he headed straight for the case holding an array of necklaces and bracelets. He hurriedly scanned the necklaces for what he wanted, but saw nothing. Then he saw a rotating case on the counter with gold charms. He only had to turn it once before he saw it, a tiny gold snowman with diamond chips for eyes, onyx buttons, and a ruby mouth.

“I’ll take that one,” he told the saleslady. “And I’ll need a chain for it.”

She removed the charm and laid it beside the cash register. “I think I have just the right one.”