Getting Lucky (6 page)

TJ pulled his dad into a quick hug. “You’re the best man I know,” he said gruffly.

And that was why he still felt a twinge of regret that Thomas was
not
Hope’s father. Thomas was definitely a better man than Dan.

Thomas cleared his throat. “Well, I raised some pretty great men too.”

TJ blinked and nodded, turning away before he did something really uncomfortable, like cry.

He walked his dad to the front door. Thankfully, Hope stayed in the kitchen, maybe sensing that the men needed a moment alone.

“This all became your project pretty quickly,” Thomas commented as they stepped out onto the porch.

“What was I supposed to do?” TJ asked more sharply than he’d intended. “She was in my front yard telling me she thought she was my sister.”

Evidently, he could say the word now that he knew it wasn’t true.

That comment made Thomas grimace. “I didn’t even think of that.”

“I couldn’t just tell her to hit the road.”

Thomas nodded. “Of course not.”

“I
am
concerned about her getting close to Dan, now that you pointed out all of the possible complications.”

Thomas looked at him. “For Dan or for her?”

Good question. “Both.”

“It’s not your decision to make, son.”

“But we know Dan. It’s up to us to be sure that this doesn’t hurt Hope.”

“Ah, so more
her
.”

Dammit
.

“You’re getting very involved here,” Thomas said.

Yeah. He was. Unintentionally. He was going to need to be careful around this woman. With Michelle, he’d gotten involved knowing full well what he was getting into and he’d done it anyway. With Hope, it was happening accidentally. He didn’t know her, didn’t really know how this was all going to play out. Yet here he was in the middle of it.

“So the sooner we figure this out, the better,” TJ said.

“I promise I’ll figure something out as soon as I can.”

His father left and TJ headed back into the house. Now what? He and Hope were going to have to kill time together for a day or two? Sure, what could possibly go wrong in that plan?

But she was gone when he went back into the kitchen. She must have exited out the back door. TJ breathed deeply. He wasn’t disappointed she was gone. Sure, he might be even more intrigued by her now that he knew a little bit about her life, but he didn’t want any intrigue in
his
life. He liked things straightforward and routine. He liked knowing what to expect. Boring was good. Welcome, even, after having Michelle around.

And clearly, Hope needed some space. That made sense. She needed to think about the new information she had as well and make some decisions. If she decided she wanted to leave everything alone and
not
meet Dan, things would be a hell of a lot easier.

At that thought, he glanced back through the living room. Her car was still parked out front, so she hadn’t snuck around the side of the house and jumped in her car at the first opportunity. Okay, that was good. Or was it? She was sticking around, at least for now. Was that a good thing?

Hell, he didn’t even know how he felt about all of this now. If she left, what difference did it make? She now knew which man in the photo was her father and that he’d been madly in love with her mom. Maybe that was enough for her.

But how could that be enough? TJ couldn’t imagine life without his family. Yes, it would be quieter and he’d have a lot less worry and frustration in his life. But he couldn’t imagine having a quiet dinner alone
every
night. Or spending holidays without chaos and laughter. Or not having four other houses he could go to at any time and be welcomed and feel completely at home.

Hope had a trailer and a car. Presumably, she had a house or apartment back in Arizona too, but she had no family. Presumably, she also had a job, friends, maybe even a bigger car somewhere. But she still didn’t have family. Except for Dan. And Peyton.

TJ blew out a breath. It didn’t seem that straightforward and boring were in his near future.

He wanted this woman to know her family. However small and imperfect they might be, they were still hers.

TJ felt strongly about family. Always had. He’d been raised in a solid, loving home where people stood by one another no matter what. He had a lot of friends, but he knew for a fact that wasn’t the same as those bound to him by blood. Family was forever. Family was the people there long before and long after most friendships started and ended. He’d also learned a lot about friendship from being with Michelle.

Many of his friends had stood by him when things had gotten crazy and Michelle had turned his life into an episode of the Maury Povich show. Many of them had stood by him when it had all fallen apart and the most private parts of his private life had become public gossip. But with Michelle being a hometown girl—and the
other guy
, Colby, being from Sapphire Falls as well—their group of friends had been divided when their relationship broke apart. The only people he could count on to be there for him, no matter what happened or what was said, was his family and Dan. Dan had been there for him through all of it. They’d shared more than one bottle of whiskey during that time. Dan was a drunk, but he was a good guy.

It made TJ even more determined to figure out a way to make this work for Hope and Dan. Even with his own demons, Dan had been there for TJ, and he would be there for Hope too. And maybe Dan needed someone who would really truly be there for him, as well. God knew Thomas and others had tried. But again, family was stronger. Maybe Hope, his
daughter,
the child created from his one true love match, would give Dan a reason to put the bottle down and would give him some light in his life.

Light seemed like the right word when TJ thought of Hope. She seemed full of light.

And that ridiculous thought went right along with him thinking of pixies.

Jesus. She was making him crazy.

TJ puttered around the house for a while but found himself checking out front every few minutes to see if Hope had come back. Not that he cared. He was just curious.

But by the time an hour had passed since she’d left the house, and he was watching for her more than he was watching what he was doing inside, he knew he had to go find her.

He had stuff to do. He couldn’t go chasing her all over the countryside.

And where was she? There wasn’t anything out here but pastures and cornfields and trees and the pond.
He
knew how relaxing and comforting it could be alone out here, but what was the Arizona hippie girl going to do in the middle of a cornfield? And if she’d headed the other way, she would have found the road.

She needed to stay away from the road.

If anyone drove by, they would definitely stop. He wasn’t afraid for her safety. It was more the churning of the rumor mill that would result. Even if she were wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt like most of the girls around here, anyone driving by would know she didn’t belong. Add in her swirly skirt and her long, white-blond, pink-tipped hair and jingly jewelry and bare stomach and… TJ frowned as he lost his train of thought.

Oh, yeah—she would no way go unnoticed by anyone driving the road past his house.

And if she was walking through the pasture, it would only take her about two miles to end up in Travis’s pasture that butted up against TJ’s. And if Travis met her… Well, TJ didn’t really want to think about how that might go.

That meant TJ had to find her before anyone else did.

She could be walking in the woods that bordered his property, or at the manmade pond he and Travis shared. Either was a great choice for meditative thinking, but they were
his
spots. He didn’t share them.

TJ pulled a cap from the hooks by the back door and put it on as he headed out. He should just go check on her. Just to be sure she was okay and hadn’t gotten lost on her way back to the house.

The pond was only a five-minute walk from his back door and he decided to try there first. He’d built a wooden dock on his side to fish and swim from. He could also launch a small boat from the dock to fish in the middle of the pond they had stocked with bluegill, largemouth bass and catfish, but TJ preferred to fish from the dock and the big wooden chairs he’d built for that exact purpose.

As he approached the pond, he heard nothing but the birds and insects and his chairs were empty, but as he stepped up onto the wooden boards and could see over the backs of the chairs, he realized he’d guessed correctly.

Hope was at the end of his dock.

Dammit
.

This was his spot. This was where he came to think and be alone. And now
she
was here.

Blowing in, taking over, stirring things up and soaking in to everything. Why did women always do that to him?

As he moved farther down the dock, he saw past the top of her blond head to her bare back.

Bare. She was sunbathing again. Topless this time.

He tripped over one of the wooden slats and the thunk of his boot against the dock as he caught himself got her attention. She was on her stomach, thank God, and she turned her head toward him.

“Hi,” she said with a smile.

Hi? Seriously? She was half-naked on his dock—his special, solitary spot—stretched out to soak up the sun like a damn cat.

And then all he could think about was petting her.

Fuck
.

“I was starting to worry that you’d gotten lost,” he managed.

She started to sit up and he put his hand up.

“No!” he said loudly.

She hesitated and then gave him a grin. She’d been lying on top of her shirt, so she gathered it against her breasts as she sat and tucked her legs under her like she had on the car hood. Holding the flimsy white top against her breasts was covering herself in only the very strictest terms. Her palms cupped the mounds under the shirt, giving him a perfect image of their size and shape.

He shoved his good hand into his back pocket and resolved to stay where he was. There were at least twenty feet between them, and that didn’t seem like quite enough.

“It’s gorgeous out here,” she said.

More so now
ran through his mind, but he just nodded.

“I took a walk and found this place and couldn’t make myself leave,” she said.

He felt similarly about the spot. Even before there’d been a gorgeous, half-naked woman here. Hell, partly
because
there were no gorgeous half-naked women here. Until now.

“You’ve been gone for quite a while.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize you were keeping track.”

“Just got a little worried.”

“About me?”

“Well, if you go missing, I’m the first person they’re going to suspect, right?”

She laughed and he felt it like a punch to the gut.

“But no one knows I’m even here,” she pointed out.

“My dad does.”

“He’d cover for you,” she said confidently.

TJ chuckled, surprised as he did that she could make him laugh. “Yeah, he would. But now that I know you’re okay, I’ll leave you alone.” He took a step backward, knowing that he should actually
turn
as he walked away but not quite ready to lose the view.

“I’ve been thinking about everything,” she said, getting to her feet.

Damn. She wanted to talk.

Why he felt it was his responsibility to be her sounding board, he couldn’t explain, but he stopped walking.

“And?” he asked.

“I’m wondering if there’s a way for me to meet him—Dan, I mean—without telling him who I am. Maybe get to know him just a little. I’d love to simply
talk
to the man who my mom fell in love with.”

TJ frowned and took a few steps forward without thinking. There were a number of things in her answer that he wanted to know more about. But for some reason, the first thing he said was, “He was madly in love with her. How do you know she was in love with him?”

“The photo.”

“The one that has my dad’s name on the back?” TJ asked. “Why?”

“I figure she wrote your dad’s name because she was afraid she might forget it. She didn’t write Dan’s—that must mean she knew she’d always remember it. And I found it in her journal. There are other pictures in boxes and stuff, but that was the only one in her journal.”

“And all of that means she loved him?” TJ asked.

“And my last name.”

TJ took another couple steps forward. “What do you mean?”

“I didn’t figure it all out until I was about ten, I guess. I finally put it together that most kids had their dad’s last name and that my mom’s parents’ last name was Warren. I figured Daniels was my dad’s last name. When I asked mom about it, she just said that she changed her last name before I was born. She never told me it had to do with my dad, but…”

TJ shoved a hand through his hair. “Wow.”

She smiled. “My mom had boyfriends, but no one was ever serious. I think it’s because she still loved Dan. Even after all these years.”