Angel Unaware (20 page)

If looks could kill, Tony would have been prostrate on the floor preparing to meet his Maker. Lisa flung open the door, then paused to glare at him. “You haven’t heard the last of this,” she whispered, her voice dripping venom.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” he threw back, his own voice rife with the same poison. “However, as far as I’m concerned, this is the end of the conversation.”

“Don’t be so sure,” she spat and hurried out the door.

When Dora came downstairs after tucking Penny in for the night, she found Tony sitting at the kitchen table, an untouched cup of coffee clutched in his hands and an uneaten piece of pie in front of him. A troubled frown creased his broad forehead.

She was certain Lisa’s visit was on his mind. He hadn’t talked about it, and having already witnessed his ability to keep his emotions bottled up, she wasn’t sure prodding would get him to do so, but her curiosity got the best of her.

“So, what did Lisa have to say?” She sat down across from him and waited.

He sighed heavily and set the cup down with an angry
thunk
. “She says she’s been straight for three years, and now she wants to see Penny, wants to become a part of her life.”

An unfinished
but
hung in the air between them.

“And?” More than that had to have transpired in the living room.

“And I’m not going to let her.”

Opinions of his decision warred inside Dora. On one hand, Lisa was Penny’s aunt, one of the only living connections to her father. A child left without her parents needed family … all of her family. On the other hand, Lisa’s disreputable past and her aptitude for causing trouble within the family presented a huge stumbling block. Could Lisa be trusted?

Because Dora had never known what it was like to have a family, the idea of Penny being deprived of even one of her relatives didn’t set well with her. With only that in mind, she would have encouraged Tony to allow aunt and niece to try to establish a relationship.

However, considering Lisa’s past history, she could easily see why he’d decided what he had. In the life of an addict, three years was a drop in the bucket of time. Even after three years, it was not unheard of for them to slip off the wagon and return to their old ways. The idea of Penny being anywhere near Lisa if and when that happened made Dora shiver with fear.

But it wasn’t her decision, and she was beginning to wonder if it was really Tony’s, either.

“Shouldn’t you talk this over with Penny?”

Tony’s head snapped around. His face had taken on an angry red hue, and his dark eyes bore into her like hot coals. “For God’s sake, Dora, Penny is only six. She has no idea what this is all about, what dangers are inherent with allowing Lisa into her life. Why in the name of everything I hold dear would I let her have a choice in this?”

“Penny may be only six, but she’s a very smart little girl. I think she already senses something.”

He stood so suddenly and with such force that his chair teetered on two legs before dropping back onto all four with a loud
thunk
.

“As long as I have control of whom my niece interacts with, Lisa will not get within a hundred miles of Penny. Period.” He strode from the room and stomped up the stairs.

The next morning, the air in the kitchen was thick enough to slice and heavy enough to break the back of a strong man. When Penny skipped into the room and proudly announced that her essay was done and she’d be turning it in to her teacher, it was a wonder the child didn’t pick up on the false cheerfulness Dora and Tony injected into the praise they showered on her for her accomplishment. Other than that, neither of them spoke.

Shortly after Penny’s arrival at breakfast, Tony left his half-eaten eggs and announced he was going to work. Penny watched him leave with trepidation written all over her face.

“Is Uncle Tony mad at me?”

Dora started. “No, sweetie. Why would you think such a thing?”

Penny shrugged and swirled her spoon through her cereal. “He didn’t even say good-bye.”

Putting her arm around Penny’s shoulders, Dora hugged her and placed a kiss on the child’s copper curls. “He’s got a lot on his mind. He probably forgot.” When Penny didn’t seem appeased, Dora forced a chuckle. “If it makes you feel any better, he didn’t say good-bye to me, either.” From the corner of the kitchen Jack barked. “And he didn’t say good-bye to Jack, either.”

Jack charged the table, his tail moving back and forth like a leaf caught in a strong wind. He licked Penny’s hand.

If Jack
was
Calvin—and Dora had not yet decided one way or the other—he was most assuredly showing his more sensitive side for a change.

She leaned down next to the dog’s ear, patted Jack’s head, and whispered, “Way to go, Calvin.”

Jack ignored her, and, as though he truly were the dog Penny believed him to be, he continued to wag his tail and lick Penny’s hand. However, before Dora turned away, she could have sworn the dog winked at her.

“Dora, can angels do magic?”

Penny’s out-of-the-blue question caught Dora totally by surprise. “Uh … Angels can do special things, but we don’t call them magic.”

Her brows knitted in concentration. “What do you call it?”

This made Dora think for a minute. “I guess we call them miracles.”

For a long time, Penny pondered Dora’s explanation. Then she said, “Can you make a miracle thing so Uncle Tony is happy?”

CHAPTER 15

During the following days, both Dora and Tony waited for Lisa to pay a return visit. When it didn’t happen, Dora assumed Lisa had accepted the idea Tony would not bend on his decision to keep her away from Penny and had returned to Texas. Dora made every attempt to get back to life as usual and focus on her mission.

On the other hand, Tony continued to be as uptight as he’d been right after Lisa’s visit, and nothing she or Penny said or did made any difference. His short temper and inattentiveness made it quite clear to Dora that Tony feared they had not heard the last of Lisa and that she would cause some kind of trouble. The type of trouble remained a mystery to Dora … but not for long.

Dora had just finished ironing and hanging the freshly laundered curtains when the front door burst open, and Penny raced down the hall and into the kitchen.

“I won! I won!” she cried, jumping up and down and waving a sheet of paper in her hand.

“That’s wonderful, but what did you win, sweetie?” Penny stopped jumping long enough to throw Dora an impatient glance. “The essay contest. I won!” Immediately, she launched into another round of excited jumps.

Behind her Tony beamed like a proud papa. “Mrs. Johnson said Penny’s essay was by far the best in the class.” Dora swept Penny into a bear hug and swung her around the kitchen. “Congratulations, Penny. That’s fantastic news.” She set her back on her feet. “So that means you get to read your essay at the winter show, right?” “Yup.” Penny beamed with pride. Even Jack ran in circles around Penny’s legs, looking excited for her.

Tony came forward and sat at the table. “Are you going to tell us what you wrote about?” As he spoke, he reached for the paper Penny was holding.

She snatched it out of his reach. “Nope. It’s a surprise.” She called Jack and in a hail of giggles, streaked from the room and up the stairs.

Tony shook his head and laughed. “She’s guarding that like Fort Knox. Guess we’ll just have to wait until showtime to see what she wrote.” He stood and went to the refrigerator. After taking out a can of beer, he leaned against the refrigerator door, popped the top, and stared at Dora.

“What?” she asked, his intent study of her sending chills racing up and down her spine.

“Nothing,” he said. “Just looking.”

Heat rose into her cheeks, and she turned away to fold up the step stool she’d used to reach the curtain rod. He intercepted her.

“Let me do that,” he said, taking it from her hands and skimming his fingertips over her skin as he did.

Dora snatched back her hand and rubbed at the skin to get rid of the tingles still dancing over her flesh.

He stood the stool next to the cellar door and turned back to her. “I’ll take that down into the basement later.” Dora waited for him to leave so she could catch her breath. Instead, he relaxed against the cellar door, crossed his arms over his chest, and locked his gaze on her. From his eye movement Dora could tell he was taking in her hair, her face, her figure. Instead of the tingles of awareness going away, they intensified with each phantom brush of his gaze over her body. When he took a step in her direction, she knew in her heart that she would not move away because the desire in her matched what she saw glowing in his dark eyes.

Then the front doorbell rang.

Tony whispered a string of curses that included,
If it isn’t the damned dog, then it’s something else
.

A grin crept across Dora’s face as she watched Tony slam his palm against the kitchen door and disappear down the hall. He had no idea how close she’d come to falling in his arms. The grin immediately vanished.

She hadn’t even been thinking about stopping it before it went too far. Instead, she’d simply surrendered her will to him. What made it even more alarming was that each time this unbelievable attraction reared its head, she found it harder and harder to resist, and easier and easier to give in.

Just the thought made her knees go weak. She grabbed the back of a chair to steady herself as Tony came back through the door carrying an envelope. His face was fixed in a deep frown.

“Bad news?” she asked innocently.

“Well, since there’s a lawyer’s address in the upper left corner of this envelope, and I had to sign for it, I’d say that’s a pretty good guess.” He threw the letter on the table as though it had burned him.

“Aren’t you going to open it?” she asked him. He didn’t answer. “Tony?”

He stared at it for a long time. In his gut, he knew it had something to do with Lisa and Penny. Illogically, he didn’t want to know what was in it. Logically, he knew he had no choice.

Then again, maybe he was borrowing trouble, and this had nothing to do with either Lisa or Penny. Maybe it had something to do with the construction project. Either way, staring at it would not tell him anything.

Without a word to Dora, he picked up the letter, slid his finger under the flap, and extracted the folded sheet of paper. Pausing for a moment, he opened the stiff paper and read silently. His heart dropped, and his stomach heaved as snatches of the words that glared at him from the white sheet sank into his brain.

…
Your presence at a hearing concerning the custody of Penny … courthouse conference room
… And the name that stood out more than all the other words …
Lisa Stevens Randall
.

Lisa was going to try to take custody of Penny from him. “Damn her!” he spat and threw the letter back on the table. “Damn her!”

“What?” He looked up to see Dora’s pale face. Fear reflected in her eyes. “What is it?”

“Lisa. I have to meet with her and her attorney on Friday to discuss the custody of Penny.”

Dora’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, no. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I have to think about it, but one thing I do know is that I’ll fight her all the way, even if I have to go into debt to pay the attorneys.”

Impotent rage rose up to choke him. He swallowed it back. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. He wanted to punch something, anything. Anger mixed with terror. He couldn’t lose Penny, too. He just couldn’t.

“This came too quickly after her visit. I’d stake my life on it that that bitch had this planned long before she showed up here.” The words felt like hot coals being torn from his throat. “There’s not a lawyer I know of who could have gotten it into the works so fast.”

Flinging himself into a chair, Tony buried his face in his hands. No matter how he tried to organize his thoughts, he felt like his mind was going in thirty directions at once. “What am I going to do? When I agreed to be Penny’s legal guardian, I never dreamed I’d end up fighting to keep her. What if the judge decides I’m not a good uncle? What if I lose her, Dora?” Pain, deep and cutting, sliced through him.

Dora stood beside him and laid her hand on his shoulder. “You won’t lose her. Rosalie knew you’d take care of Penny and love her. Otherwise she never would have left her in your care.”

Her touch was like awakening from a long nightmare. As though, with that one simple gesture, she’d swiped away the cobwebs and untangled his thoughts. Suddenly his mind was crystal clear. He couldn’t let Penny go, and it had nothing to do with Rosalie or Lisa. He might never be able to give Penny material things, the things Lisa and her rich husband could, but he could give her the one thing that mattered most—love. Letting her walk out of his life without doing everything he could to fight Lisa would kill him. He might not be the best substitute for a dad, but he was by far not the worst.

If Lisa thought for one minute that he’d bend to her will like a tree in the wind and let her take that little girl away from him, she needed a serious reality check. Penny was his and she’d remain his until, when she was of legal age, she left him of her own free will.