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Authors: Karen Rose Smith

Forever After (3 page)

BOOK: Forever After
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 Navy and pale green priscillas fluttered away from the windows with each gust of stormy wind.  Darcy thought about closing the windows and turning on the air conditioner, but with a storm brewing, she decided against it.

She crossed to Jenna and dropped down beside her.  "Are you very hungry?  I think we should wait a while to see if the thunderstorm blows over before we leave."

"I can wait.  Just so McDonald's doesn't run out of Chicken McNuggets."

Fast food was Jenna's favorite, so whenever she stayed with Darcy, Darcy indulged her.  "Do you want to play a game?"

"Sure," Jenna answered, but her eyes were still fixed on some imaginary scene Darcy couldn't share.  Darcy hooked her finger under Jenna's chin and smiled at her.  "Maybe you can beat me at Crazy Eights."  She offered her hand to the little girl and Jenna took it.

The thunder clapped as they left the bedroom and hopped down the steps to land with giggles at the bottom.  Darcy's living room was a conglomeration of styles.  At the moment "untidy" was a kind word for its condition.  Baseball cards dotted an oriental rug in shades of rose and green that covered the hardwood floor.  The sea-foam green loveseat was littered with Jenna's favorite doll and two of its outfits.  Unfolded laundry tumbled over on a velour recliner.  Sneakers Darcy had pried off lay under the oval marble-topped table.

Jenna plunked on a chair at Darcy's round oak dining room table, resting the heels of her sneakers on the rung of the plank bottom chair.  She toyed with the hem on her red tee shirt.  "Darcy, is Mommy going to marry Chuck?"

Darcy forgot about her messy living room.  "I don't know.  Do you think she might?"

Jenna played with the hair along her cheek.  "She and Chuck hug and kiss.  She and Daddy used to do that sometimes."

Darcy sat down across from her little friend.  "How do you feel about it?  Would you be glad if your mom married Chuck?"

Jenna gnawed on her lower lip.  "She's not sad anymore when she's with Chuck.  She doesn't cry anymore, either."

Darcy knew it was important for Jenna to talk about her feelings.  When Darcy's mother died, her father had encouraged her to cry and talk and remember.  Jenna needed the same encouragement.  She had lost her father in a sense and the situation in which she found herself was confusing.

"Your mom does seem happier.  Are you happy?"

Jenna's thoughts were apparently following their own course.  "Mommy told me it wasn't my fault when Daddy left.  I thought I did something bad.  But she said I didn't."

Darcy patted Jenna's hand in reassurance.  "Your parents both love you very much, but they were having trouble loving each other.  Your dad didn't move out because of you.  I hope you know that."

Jenna lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug.  "I guess so.  But I get mixed up.  Mom says she and Dad don't love each other, but they both love me.  If Mommy marries Chuck, will I have two dads?"

Darcy felt totally out of her depth.  "I guess you will."

Rain began pounding against the side of the house as Jenna admitted, "Daddy doesn't like Chuck.  He always asks me about him.  How often he sees us.  Stuff like that.  I wish he wouldn't."

Darcy squeezed Jenna's hand.  "Tell him that, honey.  Tell him you don't want to talk about your mom and Chuck--"

Their conversation was interrupted by the doorbell's chime.  Darcy hopped up and crossed the living room to the small foyer.  When she saw who was standing on the other side of the screen door, she halted.

Seth Hallaran's smile was casual, but his eyes were serious.  Droplets of rain dotted his hair and wet spots marked his yellow polo shirt and khaki shorts.  Curly black hair escaped the parted plackets at his throat.

Blast the man!  It wasn't fair for him to cause such an upheaval to her nervous system.  Those grey eyes could start palpitations half-closed.

"This is a surprise."

"Not unwelcome, I hope."  His smile broadened.

"I'm not sure yet."  She felt unprepared for company, especially his.  She was braless under a peach tube top that bared her midriff.  Her white knit shorts suddenly felt skimpy.  McDonald's was no night out.  Seth Hallaran, on the other hand...

"You weren't around when I picked up my car.  I wondered if Pickering had given you any more grief."

She'd left the garage early to run errands, maybe subconsciously so she wouldn't be there when Seth picked up his car.  But he was here now, she thought, as thunder rumbled again and rain poured in sheets behind him.  It would be inexcusably rude not to invite him inside.

Before she could, Jenna popped up beside her.  "Who is it?"

The lawyer who wants to take you away from your mom.  "A customer from the garage."

"He's wet.  Are you going to ask him in?  He's not a stranger, is he?"

Jenna knew all about not talking to strangers.  Repressing the memory of Seth's naked torso, Darcy admitted, "No, he's not a stranger.  C'mon in, Mr. Hallaran."  Darcy opened the screen door.

"Too formal.  Call me Seth."

"Me, too?" Jenna asked hopefully.

He stepped inside and crouched down to her eye level.  "You, too.  If you tell me your name."

Jenna looked up at Darcy.  When Darcy nodded, the little girl introduced herself.  "Jenna Winston."

Seth's eyes found Darcy's and she knew he identified the name immediately.  But he returned his attention to the child.  "That's a very pretty name."  He pointed to the picture on her tee shirt.  "That was a great movie."

"I have the DVD.  I watch it a lot."

Seth smiled and stood.  "I bet you do."

Jenna scampered to the sofa.  Seth scoped the room.  His line of vision fell on a pink bra peeping out from under a hand towel and he grinned.  His gaze returned to Darcy and appreciatively scanned her legs.

She felt herself blush.  "I wasn't expecting company."

"You don't have to consider me a guest."

What should she consider him?  No, better not answer that.  Geez, he was long from his knees to his waist.  And from his waist to his shoulders.  He'd look fantastic in tight jeans, a tuxedo.  Actually he'd look fantastic in anything!

"I'm hungry," Jenna announced.  "If we can't go to McDonald's, what can we eat?"

Darcy swiftly catalogued what was in her freezer and cupboards.  "How about tacos?"

"Yea!  Mom says they're too messy.  Is Seth gonna eat with us?"

Darcy kept her eyes on Jenna.  "He might have plans."

"No plans."

His tone brought her gaze to his.  There was something in his eyes, as if a lonely apartment waited for him too often.  That was hard to believe for a man of his stature.  "You're welcome to join us.  But only if you help chop."

"Chopping I can handle.  Lead me to the tomatoes."

Darcy set him up at the chopping board with a sharp carving knife.

Seth looked warily at the blade.  "You live alone and you keep this for self defense?"

She recognized a clever way to get information when she heard one.  She answered without analyzing her reasons for telling him what he wanted to know.  "I live alone and I use it to fillet chicken breasts."

Darcy let Jenna get out the frying pan and open the box of taco shells while she defrosted ground beef in the microwave.

When Seth glanced at her, she said, "Mr. Pickering picked up his car, too.  It was working fine when he left.  I hope it keeps working."  She took plates out of the upper cabinet and asked Jenna, "Do you want to set the table?"

"Uh huh.  It's more fun than standing here watching."

Seth chuckled as she scampered to the dining area.  "To have that amount of energy again."

"You don't?"

"Year by year it seems to ebb."  He finished the tomatoes and started on the lettuce.

"I'm not sure it has anything to do with age.  I think energy comes from attitude.  If you do something you love, the energy's there.  Pops had as much energy as I did until he was seventy.  He loved the garage and working with cars.  He never thought about retiring."

Seth looked at her quizzically.  "Does that mean when the energy's gone, you should change professions?"

His interest in her answer was more than mild.  The intensity was back in his eyes.  "Maybe not professions, but it's time to make some change."

"That's what I've done."

"I don't understand."

"Custody law was the only law I practiced until a month ago.  It was wearing me down.  That's why I came to Hershey to practice with my old college roommate.  He has a general law practice.  I might not stay, but I need the change for now."

He might not stay.  If she needed a reason, that was a very good one not to get friendly.

Darcy's silence stretched across the kitchen until Jenna came back in.  "Are just forks okay?"

"That's all we need."

Seth watched Darcy as she prepared the tacos and wondered why she'd suddenly distanced herself.  He thought he'd been making progress.  She was so spontaneous one minute, so cautious the next.  Yet it wasn't a game of hot and cold; he was sure of that.

They loaded their taco shells in the kitchen and took them to the dining area.  Once they settled in and Darcy had made sure Jenna had plenty of napkins, she asked Seth, "Do you miss Philadelphia?"

"I miss the structure my life had there.  I don't have any attachment to the city itself."  Or to anyone there.  Strangely, it made him sad to think about leaving his life behind without regrets.

"Structure?"

He took a bite out of his taco and was rewarded with sauce all over his fingers.  After using a napkin, he answered.  "Yeah.  Work, work, work and more work.  Between the courthouse and the office, I hardly saw my apartment.  The cleaning lady was probably more familiar with it than I was."

"You're not that busy here?"

"It's different.  Everyone seems to move a little slower.  Maybe I'm pacing myself differently.  I don't know."  He never thought he'd reevaluate his life at the age of thirty-four.  Maybe he was having a mid-life crisis a few years early.

When Darcy bit into her taco, the result was the same as Seth's.  But instead of using a napkin, she licked her fingers one by one.  Seth watched the sensual twirl of her tongue on each one, feeling it deep in his body.  He shifted in the wooden chair.

Jenna's taco broke in half and landed on her plate.  Salsa ran down one corner of her mouth.  Seth smiled, picked up one of her napkins, and gently wiped her chin.  "Are those your baseball cards over there?"

"Um hm.  Chuck just got me some."

"Is Chuck one of your friends at school?"

She giggled.  "Noooo.  He's Mommy's, uh, he's Mommy's friend."

"I see."

"Chuck loves Jenna," Darcy said defensively.

Jenna seemed to miss the thread of tension pulling tighter.  "He's taking me and Mommy to an Orioles game sometime soon.  Do you go to baseball games?"

"Sometimes.  Not as much as I'd like."  Darcy kept silent and watched him warily as he finished his first taco.  He asked, "What were you and Jenna going to do tonight?"

"Play Crazy Eights," Jenna answered.  "And I'm staying overnight too.  We're having a pajama party.  Do you want to stay too?"

Seth could see the inaudible groan on Darcy's face.  "I've never been to a pajama party.  What do you do?"

"Watch TV.  Eat popcorn.  Maybe ice cream.  Sometimes Darcy lets me put on her jewelry and shoes."

Seth chuckled.  "It sounds like fun.  But I can't stay tonight.  Maybe another time."

"Can we have chocolate chip cookies for dessert?" Jenna asked Darcy.  She told Seth, "Darcy's cookies are even better than Mom's."

He gazed at Darcy, saw the intelligence sparking her eyes, her sweet mouth, her agile fingers, her wonderful hair.  "I'll bet Darcy can do a lot of things well," he murmured.

Jenna gave his comment obvious thought.  "She's best at fixing cars and making cookies.  Her meat loaf's hard, and sometimes her cakes have a hole in the middle."

Darcy rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.  "I can't let you write my resume."

"What's that?" Jenna asked.

Seth explained, "It's a paper that tells the person you want to work for exactly what you can do."  He winked at Jenna.  "I'm sure Darcy could get any job she wanted with the right employer."

Just then, Darcy's bare leg accidentally brushed his.  She jerked hers away.  Did he affect her the way she affected him?  He hoped so.

Heightened color marked her cheeks.  "I'm glad I own my own business so I don't have to worry about pleasing an employer.  I like making my own decisions."

"And standing or falling with them whether they're right or wrong," Seth added, understanding the way she felt.

"Exactly."

"That's one of the reasons I don't know if practicing law with Vic will work.  I'm not used to a partner."  As soon as it was out, he wondered why he'd voiced his doubts to Darcy.  He usually protected his privacy.

The phone rang and Jenna asked eagerly, "Can I get it?"

BOOK: Forever After
12.16Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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