Pinky Promise (Riverbend Romance 2) (5 page)

~*~

Ian turned the corner onto Kelly’s dead-end street just in time to see a pink bicycle tip over in the driveway. The child was wearing a helmet and Sophie’s clothes. He pulled in a sharp breath. Was his daughter okay?

Kelly extricated Sophie and gave her a high-five, which Sophie returned with little enthusiasm, pointing at her knee. Kelly crouched and kissed Sophie’s knee as Elena, also wearing a helmet, righted the bicycle and pushed it to the top of the barely sloping driveway.

He pulled to a stop at the curb. On the one hand, Kelly hadn’t asked about teaching Sophie to ride a two-wheeler. On the other hand, the image of Kelly pressing a kiss to his daughter’s knee would be forever imprinted in his memory.

Sophie ran toward him as he exited the Jeep. “Daddy! Did you see? I can ride a bike.”

He scooped her in his arms and nuzzled her little neck until she giggled. “I saw you take a tumble. How’s your knee?”

She squished his throat with her hug. “It’s okay. Kelly kissed it better.”

There she stood, halfway up the driveway, watching him, casual in faded jeans and an untucked flannel shirt, her hair pulled back with a tie. How had Sophie managed to get the first kiss from Kelly’s pink lips? It hardly seemed fair, even if it was a scraped knee. He smiled at Kelly, and she waved at him before turning back to her daughter. Suddenly his entire day brightened.

“Okay, Elena. Make sure there are no cars coming then give it a try.”

Elena straddled the bike and pushed off. She pedaled down the driveway and turned onto the street without toppling, the beaded spokes clickety-clacking as the pink handlebar streamers rustled. She turned carefully in the roundabout, the front wheel wobbling until Ian was sure there’d be another casualty.

“Keep pedaling!” called Kelly. “Go faster so you don’t fall.”

Elena rode past Ian and onto the driveway before sticking both feet on the pavement to stop the bike. “I did it, Mommy! I did it.”

“You sure did. Good job, baby girl.” Kelly looked at Ian, a grin on her face. “I guess I’d better quit calling her that. She’s growing up so quickly.”

Sophie slid from his arms and ran to Elena. “Is it my turn?”

Ian followed her. “I can’t believe how quickly time is going by.” He also couldn’t believe how short a time he’d known this mother and daughter. Was it really only a week?

“I guess I should have asked before letting Sophie ride Elena’s bike. I promised Elena weeks ago that we’d work on it during spring break. She wants to ride to the park one day soon.”

“Looks like I should find a bike for Sophie, then.” He hadn’t even thought about it before. In Calgary they’d lived in a high-rise with no safe riding place nearby. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d ridden. Probably if he got one for Sophie, he should consider buying one for himself. Small towns were different. He needed to adjust.

Kelly nudged Sophie’s head as Elena wheeled the bike to the top of the driveway. “This time go faster, and you won’t fall over. You can do it.”

Ian’s hands twitched with the desire to cushion his daughter, but if she was game even after hitting the pavement once, how could he hold her back? Kelly was right. Sophie was growing up. Instead of trying to stop it, he needed to give her a safe place to fail.

Sophie grabbed the handlebars and swung her leg across the bike. She narrowed her gaze and bit her lip. Nothing if not determined, that one. She gave a little push and began to pedal.

“Go, Sophie, go!” shouted Elena.

When she lost control, she got both feet on the ground instead of falling. Ian caught the set of her jaw as she balanced then pushed off again, this time more successfully. Wow.

“Good job, Sophie!” called Kelly. “Keep pedaling.”

Ian should probably be watching his daughter as she mastered a new skill. Instead, he found himself gazing down at the blond head beside him.
 

Kelly’s ponytail flipped when she turned and glanced up at him. “She’s doing well.”

“Yeah, she is.” He was totally caught in her clear blue eyes. “Thanks for teaching her.”

Time held still for a long moment before she pulled her gaze away and back to the street. “Okay, Sophie, keep going. Can you make it all the way around the circle? Go faster!”

That seemed to be today’s mantra from the bike-riding lesson.
Don’t stop, or you’ll fall over. Keep pedaling.
Could he apply that to Kelly? There was danger in rushing their relationship, for sure. The faster he pedaled, the more it would hurt when he fell. But if he took it too slow, the danger of falling and getting hurt was just as great. Either way, it wasn’t just he who would be hurt. It was Kelly, too, and both little girls.

Sophie and Elena were already in so deep he couldn’t protect them from the potential pain. Maybe they’d be lifelong friends even if nothing came from his... friendship... with Kelly. Kids were resilient. They’d get over it.

Ian shifted closer to Kelly as Sophie circled and pedaled back, her entire face lit up beaming.

“I did it! I did it!”

For half an instant, the girls were focused on each other. Ian took the opportunity to tuck Kelly against his side and whisper into her sweet-smelling hair. “Thank you.”

She pulled away immediately, but glanced up with a little smile. “Enough bike-riding today.”

Elena pouted. “But I wanted to—”

Kelly gave her the
mom look
.
 

Ian managed not to snicker.

The little girl’s shoulder slumped, but she took the handlebars and pushed the bike to the back gate, Sophie at her heels.

“Have time for a snack?” Kelly looked up at him. “I promised the girls, but we stayed outside longer than I expected.”

“Sure.” He’d swing by Canadian Tire on the way home and pick up a bike and helmet for Sophie. It might not be her birthday yet, but the time had definitely come for wheels for both of them.

Remembering his plan to pedal faster, he looped an arm over Kelly’s shoulder as they walked toward the gate. She didn’t shrug away.

Chapter 6

“Are you getting anything done inside?” Ian teased Kelly when he found her sitting on the front lawn for the fourth afternoon in a row. Those two girls now rode up and down the block with ease, pretending their bikes were horses.

She turned off her tablet and laid it on the grass. “Not much, but I’ve certainly caught up on my reading.”

“Oh?” Ian lowered himself beside her, brushing his shoulder against hers. “Fiction? Nonfiction?”

“Fiction.” Her face flushed.

Interesting. “What genre do you like?”

When she didn’t respond right away, he leaned closer, nudging his elbow against her arm. “Must be romance novels.”

She bit her lip.

Ian chuckled. “Nothing wrong with that. Reading is good. I like to read epic fantasy, myself.”

Still no answer.

“So, tell me about the one you’re reading now. What makes it interesting?”

Both hands were clenched in her lap. “We can talk about something else. Did you notice how well both girls are riding?”

“I did.” Ian extricated one of Kelly’s hands and caressed it with his own. “Being interested in love and romance is a good thing.” Unless she was reading the explicit kind, but he couldn’t imagine that. He nuzzled her hair. “Romance itself is a pretty good thing.”

“Ian...”

Keep pedaling. Don’t stop or you’ll fall off.
“Kelly,” he said softly.

“I — why are we talking about this?”

“Because I’m attracted to you even more than my daughter is. And that’s saying something. Do you know she talks about you as much as she talks about Elena when we get home?”

He felt Kelly take a deep breath and let it out slowly. She pulled her hand away and shifted so they weren’t touching. “Ian, what happened to Sophie’s mother?”

Had a cloud covered the late-March sun? Seemed the warmth and brightness had disappeared. “Her name was Maria. We got married too young and too soon after we met.” Ian hoped there wasn’t a lesson in that second part. “It was a mistake from the start. Maria didn’t want to be a mother. She blamed Sophie for losing her figure and, generally, wasn’t very nurturing. She left us when Sophie was a baby, and died in a plane crash not long after.”

“I see.” Kelly glanced at him, her face unreadable. “That must’ve been rough.”

“I wasn’t a very good husband. I figured Maria should be happy taking care of the house and Sophie, but she wasn’t. I never stopped to figure out what she wanted. In retrospect, what she wanted had nothing to do with me or our child.” He sighed deeply. “I regret a lot of things, but I don’t regret Sophie. She’s a good kid.”

“You’ve done a great job with her. She’s well-adjusted and fun to have around.”

Ian’s heart swelled with pride for his daughter. “Thanks. She makes it easy.”

Kelly nudged him. “Don’t sell yourself short.”

He took the opportunity to clasp her fingers again. Hey, she’d touched him first this time. “While we’re having confession, what about Elena’s father?”

Kelly stared at the girls so long that Ian checked to make sure they were okay. If calling bikes Philippe and Maximus and pretending they were horses was fine, so were the girls.

“Brief college romance gone sour,” she said at last. “Needless to say, the pregnancy was unexpected. He thought I should terminate. I believe life is God-given. He said he wanted nothing to do with the situation. I came back to Riverbend, took another semester of college courses online, gave birth to Elena, and took a minimum-wage job in retail when she was six months old. I don’t know what I would’ve done without my mom’s support.”

He studied her profile, but she didn’t look at him. “Sounds rough. When did you start with the town?”

“Two years ago. I heard about the opening through the friend of a friend of a friend. All this—” she waved her hand at Elena “—is not how I planned my life when I was growing up.”

“I bet.” He tucked a strand of her blond hair behind her ear.

“I did a lot of things wrong,” she said at last, firing him a quick glance. “And I hated having her in daycare as a toddler. Without government subsidies, I couldn’t have done it. It’s easier now that she’s in school. But even so…” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine my life without her. She brightens every day.”

“I know what you mean.” Ian needed to choose his words carefully... but not stop. “Being a single parent is a tough job, however a person gets there.” He rubbed his thumb around the palm of her hand. “Someday your prince will come.”

She glanced at him, biting her lip.

He couldn’t resist running the thumb of his free hand across her lips. Maybe he was here already.

~*~

Kelly felt herself drowning in Ian’s dark eyes. That touch reminded her what else her lips could do. Not that she needed any reminding. She’d been thinking of little else but a kiss from Ian all week. It wouldn’t take much encouragement from her at this moment. She only needed to lean a little closer, and he’d take it from there.

“Is that kissy stuff?” asked Sophie in a stage whisper.

“Shh,” Elena replied. “Almost.”

Ian’s eyes crinkled in amusement as his hand swept Kelly’s face. Then he reached out and snagged Sophie around the middle, tumbling her into his lap. “What’s all this talk about kissing?” He nuzzled into his daughter’s neck with several loud smooches.

Sophie giggled and squirmed, but he didn’t release her for a long moment.

“Now that’s all the kissy stuff you need to know about,” he said when Sophie struggled to her feet, shrieking with laughter.

Kelly’s gaze latched onto Elena’s wistful expression. Oh, man. Life was totally out of control.

Ian reached for Elena. “C’mere, you.” He pulled her to his knee and wrapped one arm around her. “Do you need some kissy stuff, too?”

Elena melted against him with a little nod.

He gave her a smack on each cheek, rubbing his short stubble against her soft skin. Elena grabbed his face between her two little hands. “Mr. Ian, would—”

Kelly cleared her throat. “Elena.” When her daughter sighed and looked at her, Kelly held up her baby finger and wiggled it. “Remember.”

Elena gave her a sour look and leaned back against Ian’s shoulder. Sophie launched onto her dad’s lap, and Ian snuggled a little girl with each arm.

Longing filled Kelly. Could this be a reality? Could she and Ian and their daughters become a real family?

Too soon. She wasn’t ready to give her heart away yet. Only, maybe her heart had already done a flying leap just like Sophie.

~*~

“Daddy, I’m hungry.” Sophie’s elbow dug into his knee.

“Me, too.” Elena flopped back onto the grass, her arms spread wide.

Ian glanced at his watch. How had it gotten to be 5:30 already? No wonder the girls were starving. Kelly probably had something planned for her household, and he’d overstayed his welcome. Or had he?

Kelly scrambled to her feet. “Wow, the afternoon got away from me.”

Maybe he could redeem this. “Why don’t I order in pizza?” He watched Kelly closely as Elena bounced to her feet, grinning. “Unless you have other plans.”

Kelly shot him an unreadable glance, and he raised his eyebrows. “Please?” he mouthed.

“Yay! Pizza!” Sophie grabbed Elena and they danced in a circle.

“Sounds good.” Kelly shook her head.

That didn’t add up. He probably shouldn’t have asked in front of the girls. “What kind do you guys like?”

“Hawaiian!” yelled Elena.

Sophie pulled away and looked at her friend in horror. “That’s yucky.”

Finally something the two didn’t have twin-brain about. “I can order plain, too, Sophie.” He turned to Kelly. “How about you?”

She chuckled. “Hawaiian is good for me, too. Or anything that doesn’t have hot stuff or anchovies.”

He couldn’t resist. “Not a fan of heat?” He pointed at her tablet lying on the patio table nearby and waggled his eyebrows.

“Ian Tomlinson, has anyone ever told you you’re a brat?”

He winked. “Not since I was ten, but you can tell me anytime you like.”

“Oh, you. Once again, I see I’m outnumbered. Why don’t I put together a tossed salad while we wait?”