Broken (2 page)

“Thanks.” He stood there saying nothing more, and she didn’t know what to do either. So she turned to walk away. A wave of loneliness hit, but she ignored it. She was used to loneliness even when dating.

As Ciera started to push her cart, a small hand tugged at her pants leg, and she stopped. She found Melly at her side. After Melly caught her attention, she turned to her daddy, and the small hands flew, making signs. Ciera blinked, impressed. At her age, she seemed to be pretty fluent with sign language. Not that Ciera knew even one word. No, that wasn’t true. She recalled a girl who had taken the language in high school, and Ciera had watched as she signed for the word “and” one day. The sign stuck, and that was the only word Ciera knew how to make.

“We can’t disturb her party, Melly,” the man said.

Melly’s face crumpled, and she stomped a small foot, hands curling into fists. Even silent, she could throw a hissy, Ciera thought, amused.

The daddy signed back to Melly, and the two of them had a nice little silent argument. Ciera didn’t know if she should creep away or wait until it was over. She was so curious though and wished she knew what they said. At last, the man made some sort of chopping motion in his palm, and Melly folded her arms over her chest, lips tight.

“Is everything okay?” Ciera ventured. She found she didn’t want to leave.

The man turned kind eyes in her direction. “Melly wants to invite you to her party.”

Ciera’s mouth fell open. “But she… I…”

“You should tell her no. I’ve spoiled my daughter, and I almost never tell her no. Hence the face I’m getting now.” He scratched the back of his head. “She thinks since you’re both born on the same day, you should celebrate together. She doesn’t understand that there must be thousands of people born today. We can’t celebrate with them all.”

Ciera got that he wanted her to say no, and she knew she
should
say no. Who needed her to bring down their party anyway? She’d heard her ex-husband had a new wife. The news had hit her hard. Not because she still loved that jerk but that it reinforced she wouldn’t be having a baby any time soon. Not without a man, that was for sure.

“Thanks for the invite, Melly, but…” Ciera glanced at her cake. She’d put it back. What was the use of eating it alone?

“Come,” the man said, and Ciera glanced at him.

“Huh?”

He smiled, and she caught her breath. He was gorgeous when he was serious and hot as hell when he smiled. The straight white teeth, the strong jaw, and those eyes. She blinked a few times and looked away.

“Come to the party,” he said.

“You don’t know me.”

A hand appeared before her with a big palm and strong fingers. Ciera placed her hand in his, and he held it in a firm grip. “Nathan McAvoy, and this my daughter, Melody McAvoy.”

“Ciera Treat. Nice to meet you both,” Ciera said. “I don’t want to get in the way of your fun.”

“It’s settled,” he assured her smoothly and produced a business card.

She took it. “You’re a plumber?”

He chuckled. “Melly likes to collect the cards. I have no idea where she got this one, but here I’ll write the address and my number on the back.”

“Wait, Nathan. Are you nuts? I could be some dangerous criminal. You don’t know me from Eve, and you have to think about your little girl. Come to think of it, I shouldn’t even have been talking to her without you by her side.” She waved a finger at him. “You shouldn’t have let her wander off.”

Only after she had finished lecturing the man did she realize she should have kept her big mouth closed. He’d probably get pissed off and tell her about herself. When he said nothing, she assumed he was steaming up to it and thrust the card out to him. She raced with her cart toward the front of the store. Embarrassed and kicking herself, she darted into a line and kept her head low.

“Damn, you’re an idiot,” she grumbled under her breath as she unloaded the cart into her car. A cute man invited her to his daughter’s birthday party, and she ran off like a scared child herself. That was after she had basically told him he sucked as a father. “Good job, Ciera.”

When the last item was tucked into the car, she slammed the trunk and walked around to the side. The prospect of spending Sunday afternoon in her apartment alone stretched ahead of her. She’d eat too much cake and ice cream and fall asleep in front of the TV.

Movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she turned her head. Nathan navigated a cart with Melly in his arms, hugging his neck and crying. That quick, tears wet Ciera’s eyes. She’d made Melly cry! Ciera couldn’t leave things like they were. If nothing else, she could give the little girl a gift. She wrenched the back door of her car open and sorted through the portfolio there. The bear design that she had put together for a client who canceled after all her hard work was there. Melly might like her daddy to hang it on her wall because the artwork was intended for a children’s book cover.

Ciera covered the piece with tissue paper and slammed the door, then ran over to the father and daughter. Nathan turned cool but not hostile eyes on her, saying nothing. Ciera almost lost her nerve. Melly sniffed and raised her head from her daddy’s shoulder. “Um.” Ciera swallowed. “This is something I did a while ago. You might like it as a birthday present, Melly.”

Nathan’s eyebrows shot up, and Ciera froze. Damn it. She didn’t know them, and she was giving his daughter a gift. Why the hell was she in the twilight zone? Ciera took a step backward. Nathan set Melly on her feet.

“What do you say?” he asked her quickly.

Ciera touched an open palm to her lips and extended it toward Ciera.

“That means thank you.” Nathan tilted his head as if asking when she planned on handing the gift over. Ciera jerked forward and held it out. Eager hands tore the tissue paper. Ciera winced.

“That was to protect, uh, never mind. I’ve got more.”

Tiny chirps like a little bird erupted from the small girl. Her eyes were wide, and she whirled around to show her daddy. He stooped to her level and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They signed with one hand to each other.

After a few moments, Nathan looked at her, and this time the expression was warmer. “She happens to love bears and has several in her room. You couldn’t have given her a more perfect gift. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I felt like sh—uh, poop—for making her cry.”

He laughed. “You made up for it with Melly, Ciera, but what about me?”

Tingles raced over her arms, raising goose bumps. “Say what now?”

He signaled for Melly to climb into the car through the open door and turned back to Ciera. He stepped closer to her, one side of his mouth curling upward. Ciera caught a whiff of something spicy and manly, which ignited the desires she had buried.

“So you’re an artist?”

“I am, sort of. I draw a little, but most of my clients hire me for doing cover art. They’re independent authors trying to scrape a living from their gifts just like me.”

“I think you have a lot of talent, and I’d like to discuss it with you. Will you come to the party?”

“Nathan.”

“Will it help if I say I’m a karate master?”

She gawked at him. “Are you?”

“No, but I am ex-military. I think I can take you if I need to,” he teased.

Her heart thumped painfully. “Oh… Wow, okay. Sure. I’ll come.”

He presented her with the card again.

“I’m sorry about Melly. She’s too sweet to cry.”

“That’s how she gets her way, the crocodile tears.” He leaned forward, bringing his face so close to hers. She forgot to breathe. “I bet you wrap men around your finger all the time.”

Ciera rolled her eyes. “Who me? No, not lately. Not ever.”

“That’s hard to believe.”

She shrugged. “What time?”

“Four.”

She waved the card at him as she started away. “See you then.”

Chapter Three

Ciera shook her head when she arrived at the address Nathan had given her. No wonder he wasn’t worried about her having his address. The place wasn’t his house at all. He had arranged to have the event at a facility that catered children’s parties.

As soon as Ciera entered through the front entrance, high-pitched screams blasted her. She paused to look around and spotted at least a dozen children running, laughing, and screaming as they climbed on the slides and ran through the maze.

“You must be Ciera.”

Ciera spun around at the deep but feminine voice that was almost accusing. The white woman standing behind her had folded her toned arms over her chest. Slender with long auburn hair, she surveyed Ciera from head to toe, and Ciera imagined, found her lacking.

“Nathan said ‘a friend’ might stop by, but since
I’ve
never heard of you before today, I’m wondering who you are. So, who are you?”

“Who I am is none of your business,” Ciera shot back, not liking the woman’s attitude. “I’m here for Melly’s party, and like Nathan said, I’m a friend.” After shooting her mouth off, it occurred to Ciera this woman might be Nathan’s wife, and if she was, she had a right to be pissed at some strange person showing up. Whether that was true or not though, Ciera wasn’t going to be spoken to like she was trash that blew in off the street.

The woman glanced around and stepped closer. Her straight back and precise way of moving put Ciera in mind of her dad. Not another military person. She’d had her fill, and when she had met Nathan he’d said something about it. She had dismissed it because she had given up being impressed with that background a long time ago. Ex-soldiers were heroes, and she was deeply grateful for their service. Everything about dealing with them wasn’t peaches and cream though.

“I can spot your kind a mile away,” the woman said.

Ciera bristled. “I know you’re not going there.”

“You see a man with his disabled little daughter, and you think you can use her to slip in and get yourself a new boyfriend. Well, it’s not going to happen here. So you can go back to where you came from.”

“Listen, bitch—” Ciera began.

“Ciera, you came.”

She clamped her lips together, and the glare morphed to a smile as Nathan approached. His smile settled over his features, and she’d forgotten in the few hours since she’d seen him how amazing his eyes were. While she tried to pull herself together, a tiny body zipped past him and hurtled toward Ciera’s knees. Melly threw spindly arms around her legs, looking up at her.

Ciera bent down. She had an urge to scoop Melly into her embrace but resisted touching her. “Hey, there. Looks like you’re having fun.”

Melly nodded. She signed like crazy while bouncing on her toes. Her daddy translated.

“She’s saying you have to come on the slide with her. You’ll like it.”

Ciera almost squawked in alarm. “Oh no, sweetheart, I’d get stuck. That’s for the kiddies.”

“Oh why don’t you join her, Ciera?” the woman said, whose name and relation to Nathan she still hadn’t learned. “I slid down twice.”

She would. The woman was fit, putting Ciera in mind of Sarah, the mother from the movie
Terminator
when she was in jail. Ciera could see this one in a ponytail, cute, barefoot, and jogging like it was as natural as breathing. Meanwhile, Ciera would pass out if she ran to the end of the block.

To Ciera’s surprise, Melly cut big hazel eyes in the woman’s direction, and a sharp expression of dislike came over the little face. Then she took Ciera’s hand and tugged her forward. Ciera smirked and shrugged at the woman as she followed Melly. They approached a table with piles of gifts, and amid them with a special place of honor was her picture.

“Wow, you’ve cleaned up, Melly,” Ciera teased. “I think I need to be three again.”

Melly signed, and Ciera looked to Nathan, but he hadn’t followed them. She looked over to where she’d come into the building to find him speaking with the woman. They appeared to be arguing. Melly tugged her hand, drawing her attention.

“I’m sorry, sweetie. I don’t understand what you’re saying. I never learned sign language.”

Melly pouted.

“But I’d like to learn sometime.”

The little girl’s face brightened. She ran off, and Ciera sighed. She dropped onto a bench at the table, wondering why she was there. Being around kids hurt because she had none of her own. She liked watching them and hearing their high-pitched voices, listening to the funny things they said. Since she was an only child, she didn’t have nieces or nephews to spoil. Her closest friend was single and childless. Ciera’s experience with little ones was nonexistent. Maybe that’s why the author hadn’t liked her work for the children’s book. Because she had no insight? Yet, Melly had liked it.

Melly appeared again with paper and a pen and shoved it into Ciera’s hand. Then they both looked down at it doubtfully. “Can you write, Melly?” she asked.

Their eyes met, and they both burst out laughing.

“Wow, we’re seriously challenged right now,” she joked.

“I can help.” Nathan sat on the bench beside her, and his thigh bumped hers. Ciera’s breath grew shallow. She tried to scoot over without him noticing, but she caught the amusement in his eyes. “So what were you two talking about?”

Ciera groaned. “I have no idea.”

Melly tugged his sleeve and signed. He nodded. “Ah, I see. She says you were jealous of her gifts.”

Ciera laughed. “Are you sure she’s three? I think she’s some kind of genius.”

His chest puffed a bit bigger with pride. “She’s pretty smart for her age.”

One of the other kids, a boy with thick glasses, ran over to grab Melly’s hand. As they turned away to go play, Ciera noticed the hearing aids behind both ears. “He’s deaf?” she whispered.

“Yes, Melly just started at the school for the deaf about two months ago. They take kids from three years old. Most of the kids here are students there.”

“So you taught her sign language? I don’t know anything about it, but she seems so fluent.”

He looked sad, and she bit her cheek, thinking she shouldn’t have said anything.

Ciera decided to change the subject before she could bring him down at his daughter’s party, which should be a happy event. “Is the woman I just met her mom?”