Doorstep daddy (7 page)

_{When he finally eased his mouth away, he said, "Might as well be in for a lion as for a lamb."}

_{Callie panted for breath, her head dizzy. He would be in for something if she didn't watch herself. Boy, did she have to watch herself.}

_{Callie called in the pizza order while Richard cleaned
up the Japanese-dinner mess. The kids, no surprise, were delighted with the change.}

_{"Don't tell Mom," Joey said to Callie. "She thinks pizzeria pizza is too oily and has lots of fat."}

_{"No sweat," Callie replied. She winked at Joey.}

_{Joey grinned.}

_{Anything to take her mind off Richard's disturbing kiss, she admitted. Both disturbing kisses. They had shaken her to her toes, each in its own way. She tried to keep her emotions in balance, but like Amanda, she was all too aware of the male and all too gooey-eyed in his presence.}

_{She did bounce back to earth a bit when Richard discovered he didn't have enough cash in the house to cover the bill. The delivery person wouldn't take a credit or debit card.}

_{Callie sighed and got the cash from her purse. "You really know how to treat a girl right, my friend."}

_{He looked humiliated. "I'm sorry. I haven't had a chance to go to the bank lately."}

_{"I'm teasing you," she said, giggling. "But you are one heck of an interesting date."}

_{He laughed wryly, finally seeing the humor in the situation. "Boy, I am a hot date, all right. A hot potato you ought to drop."}

_{"I'll hang in there - until I get my money back." She saw his face. "I'm teasing, I'm teasing. You don't have to repay me."}

_{"That wasn't the part that worried me."}

_{Callie regained her equilibrium during dinner. The kids were great, just themselves, and that made the meal easier. She liked the simple fare, the uncluttered attitude and the general company. The meal Richard had originally planned, while more elegant, wouldn't have been
as much fun. Right now she could have been back home in the small row house with her brothers and sisters. She liked the feeling, even though she didn't want to.}

_{When the kids split for other venues, she and Richard lingered over after-dinner sodas yet again. Her lot on dates with him, she thought in amusement. But her curiosity about him got her.}

_{"Tell me what a diplomat does," she said.}

_{"Mostly I go out to the airport and make sure the entry paperwork for a shipment isn't screwed up," he replied. "I also pay bills here in Philadelphia as necessary for the country I represent. I help any businesspeo-ple traveling through the region. Once I had to straighten out hotel reservations when a troupe of Balinese dancers appeared at the Spectrum."}

_{"Is Indonesia your country?" she asked. She wasn't sure whether she was awed by the exotic idea of his being a diplomat or deflated by its reality.}

_{"Only one of them. I actually represent most of the Micronesian states now." He chuckled. "I import from them, and after I gave an old office telephone system to Fiji, they asked me to be the local consul for them. Many countries tap someone they know in a city to be consul, usually someone who does business with them or has family connections in the old country. After Fiji, more and more Pacific Rim countries came to me. They made a kind of business conglomerate of the post after that. I pretty much cover them all."}

_{"Wow. Do you go over there often?"}

_{"A couple times a year for my own business, but sometimes for diplomatic reasons. I import and export goods, mostly clothes and furnishings. And chili mix. People in Sumatra are big on Southwest chili. Don't ask me why."}

_{She sighed with envy. "You've been around the world, and I haven't been farther than Disney World."}

_{"That's like being on another planet," Richard said, laughing.}

_"True."

_{"What do you do at the County Office on Aging?" he asked. 'I was surprised by that. I would have thought you'd be a teacher or a child-care worker. You're really good with kids."}

_{Callie waved a hand in dismissal. "I love kids, but I've also had enough of them, believe me. Since I was the oldest of six, I had to raise my brothers and sisters. My parents aren't rich - you saw that. I told you about Gerri's quirk. Mine is working with older folks. They're on the opposite end of the caregiving, which is refreshing.}

_{"What do you do there?"}

_{She liked that he was curious about her, too. It felt nice to have a man interested in her. "Lots of paperwork mostly. I help people find housing and nursing care or point them to other resources they need. I track statistics, local and federal, make reports, write grants and get federal funding however I can. It's a glorified secretarial position."}

_{"I bet it's never dull."}

_{Callie chuckled. "Most people think it is. And sometimes it truly is, but not often. Usually I'm run off my feet."}

_{"You have classes, too, at night. You mentioned them. Are they related to the job?"}

_{He had a wonderful habit of focusing in on her face, as if anything she did or said was of immense importance to him. What a gem, she thought. A gem with exactly the kind of baggage she didn't need. "I'm also
finally going to college. At night. It'll take me about eight years to get my degree in liberal arts, but I'm getting it."}

_{He grinned. "Wow. So you didn't go right after high school?"}

_{"I couldn't." She shrugged. "I had a scholarship to Temple, but I had to help my family, so I couldn't go then."}

_{"That's obscene!" Richard exclaimed, outraged. "Why couldn't the next oldest take over or something?"}

_{"There was more to it than that," she said. "It was just a tuition scholarship, so it only covered half the cost. We didn't know other tricks to make college more affordable. Lots of things that I eventually learned for my brothers and sisters I didn't know for me at the time." She shrugged again, then smiled. "College won't be handed to me, Richard, and so it'll be all the sweeter when I graduate."}

_{"You amaze me." His tone was gentle.}

_{Callie felt a change in attitude from him. A softer Richard would be hard to resist. He
was
hard to resist. "I'm a normal person."}

_{"Hardly. You sacrificed yourself for your family, a rarity these days."}

_{"Lots of people do it. You're sacrificing yourself for others right now."}

_{"I'm an adult - that's different. Lots of people don't help like you have. Especially not at your age. You're still helping people in your job - "}

_{"It's a normal job."}

_{"Not the way you go about it, I'll bet. And you help idiots like me - " "Anyone would." "No one has until you."}

_{"Maybe you just needed to ask."}

_{"I didn't ask you, Callie. You just bullied your way in, for which I'll be eternally grateful."}

_{Amid the half-empty soda glasses and leftover pizza slices, he took her hand. "I think you really are my guardian angel."}

_{Chapter Four}

_{Callie's flesh tingled and she was far too aware of him as a man to be any kind of angel to him. He provoked the most temptingly sensuous thoughts and feelings in her.}

_{"I didn't do anything, Richard. Don't make it out to be more than it is, okay?"}

_{Her voice sounded too reedy to be firm. In fact, she sounded very wishy-washy to her own ears. He had to hear it, too.}

_{"You should take more credit, Callie, for being a beautiful person, inside and out." "I'm neither."}

_{Why couldn't she pull her hand away? Why was she mesmerized like a rabbit in front of a hungry lynx? "You're both."}

_{He leaned forward and kissed her again. She responded instantly, just as she had before in the kitchen. This kiss was even more glorious somehow, for she had already tasted its like once and anticipated its effect again. Richard didn't disappoint her. Her body shivered with delicious pulses as his tongue mated with hers.}

_{"Uncle Richard!"}

_{They broke apart in a flash of panic. Callie glanced
to the doorway, expecting to have been caught - certainly Amanda's indignant tone indicated that - but no one stood on the threshold.}

_{Amanda appeared an instant later, and Callie realized the girl had called out, giving an innocent warning of her approach. Good thing she had, Callie admitted, seeing Joey trailing behind the girl. Callie needed a diversion, and Amanda had enough to cope with, let alone catching her guardian kissing the socks off her prospective first boyfriend's aunt.}

_{"Jason won't give over the TV," the girl said angrily. "We wanted to watch something, but he's playing video games."}

_{Richard groaned. "The daily argument. Amanda, you know the game's hooked up to that television. He can't just move to another one."}

_{"Well, I can't take Joey to my room to watch mine," she very sensibly pointed out, her cheeks carrying a tinge of pink.}

_{"How about we hook the game system to your television tonight?" Callie suggested, grateful to have Richard focused on something besides herself.}

_{"I don't want my brother in my room," Amanda announced.}

_{"Oops. I forgot. Little brothers and big sisters' bedrooms do not mix," Callie said. "My brother Steve was the snoop police in my room if he got the chance."}

_{Joey grinned at the mention of his uncle. Steve was almost hyper, extremely enthusiastic about everything.}

_{"We'll put the video game on my television in my room," Richard said, getting up. "But this
one
time, okay?"}

_{Amanda beamed at him. "Okay."}

_{Callie hid a grin, proud of Richard. He was sympa
thetic and yet set boundaries for the future. He might have hope, after all.}

_{"No! No! No!" Jason shouted when told of the change. He danced around evasively while holding tightly on to the joystick as he still played his game. "If I stop now, I'll get killed!"}

_{"Uncle Richard!" Amanda exclaimed in protest.}

_{"Poopies!" Mark shouted, running around the den in further chaos.}

_{"Boy, somebody's gonna hate me." Richard said.}

_{"Jason's not far from the end of this section he's in," Callie said, recognizing the game the boy played. "When he gets there, he can save and he won't die. Then you can move the system to your television. I'll change Mark. Joey, maybe you'd like to take Amanda for a short walk outside in the meantime. It's not too cold out, and there's supposed to be a full moon. It'll be nice for a walk."}

_{"Sure, Aunt Callie. I'd like that," Joey said with a happy grin. Clearly, walking a girl under a harvest moon appealed to him. He turned to Amanda. "Would you like to go?"}

_{"Sure," Amanda said, looking at him with adoring eyes, television and everything else forgotten.}

_{It pays to have an in with one of the crush twins, Callie acknowledged.}

_{"What am I supposed to do in the meantime?" Richard asked.}

_{"Stand there and look pretty until Jason's done." "I can do that." Everyone giggled.}

_{"All righty then." Callie picked up Mark. "Let's go, kid. I bet you're going to be president when you grow
up, since you have to announce everything you do. Either that, or you'll be a game-show host."}

_{"Poopies!" Mark shouted again.}

_{"I rest my case."}

_{Later, when she and Richard cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher, Richard said, "You're becoming a very important person in my life - "}

_{Callie sat a glass down with a dull thud.}

_{" - and in an incredibly short time."}