Stef Ann Holm (18 page)

Mackenzie
was
beautiful. He was proud she was his. But if any of his boys ever put a hand on her, got close to her, even asked her to a movie, he’d kick their ass.

At the baggage carousel, they waited for Mackenzie’s luggage to slide onto the ramp.

“So everything went okay on the flights?” he asked, repeating himself, then silently cursing.

“Yes.”

“How many bags do you have?”

“Two.”

“Are you hungry?”

“Yeah…kind of.”

“We’ll get something to eat on the way home. What are you in the mood for?”

“I don’t care.” She shrugged. “A hamburger.”

He’d take her to Rainey’s, a small café on the main highway that was quick and easy; they served the food hot off the grill, not too greasy. He didn’t know many people in Hailey so their meal should be quiet and uninterrupted.

He ran his hand through his thick hair again, not caring if he messed it up. Racking his brain for something useful to say, he finally voiced a thought that had been lingering in his mind for days. “Mackenzie, thanks for coming. Thanks for giving this a chance.”

She gazed into his face, looking up at him. He appreciated her height and figured she had to be five foot ten. He was glad she was tall. Like him. Her eyes were green-gold reflections that he easily recognized, because he stared at them daily when he shaved—but their expression was unreadable.

Mackenzie’s wide-eyed innocence was merely a smoke screen. He saw through the layers of hurt, the years that she had suffered, and it just about killed him. Her voice was low and composed, yet softly commanding as she countered, “I’m not promising anything.”

Drew felt strangely comforted that she’d even offer that much. “I’m not asking. Let’s just see how things go.”

Drew’s house is gi-normous. Bigger than I imagined. All this space for one person. It’s like a mansion. The rooms are never-ending, the backyard so big I can’t see where it starts or stops. He’s got a batting cage, a waterfall, a hot-tub and a creek. He showed me, and he wanted me to be impressed. I could tell.

I wish I hadn’t been, but I was.

It’s 2:04 in the morning and I can’t sleep. You’d think with the time change, I would have crashed hours ago. But I’ve only laid here, in this big bed, the softness of fine sheets and smells of fresh linens surrounding me.

I keep thinking about Brad and Misty. About how they went behind my back. I could cry. But I don’t have any tears left to cry anymore. It still hurts, though. Deep inside my chest. Such a betrayal…I want to scream. It’s not fair. I loved him.At least I thought I did. I wanted him to love me, not sleep with Misty Connors!

But there’s nothing I can do about it. And thankfully I’m gone for the rest of the summer so I don’t have to see either one of them.

Me and Drew ate cheeseburgers in Hailey before coming here. I thought Kissimmee was backwoods. Red Duck is as small as a puddle, and Timberline isn’t even a real town. It’s nothing but a big parking lot.

When I first saw Drew’s house, I thought it was a motel. The Silverwood Motel down by the Gaitlin River is half its size. The outside has a rustic feel that Momma would have loved. She always had a fancy for pine trees and laying in a hammock in the shade.

Drew gave me a tour and told me to make myself at home. Now how can I do that if this place isn’t a home?

I noticed he doesn’t have any family pictures up. Momma had tons of me and her, my grandma on my momma’s side, Aunt Lynette and some of my cousins. Our Beagle, Sally, before she died. Pictures of our trip to Disneyworld, one of me and Momma with the albino gator at the Nature Reserve.

Drew Tolman only has photographs of himself. I don’t think he’s stuck up, but that front room, where the big bookcase is, all that’s in there is stuff from a baseball career. Seems like that’s all he has to show for himself. Him wearing a baseball uniform, or with other baseball players, team managers, some pictures of him at dinners and shaking hands with people.

I got a funny feeling in my chest looking at it. What a lonely way to live not to have family memories to remind you of all the love in your life.

Me and Momma, we had each other and I am so grateful I have Aunt Lynette now.

Seems to me, Drew doesn’t have anybody.

I don’t want to feel sorry for him.

So I won’t.

We’re going up to the lake today after we get some breakfast at this place called Opal’s Diner.

When I got up this morning, Drew was sitting on the patio feeding a duck pieces of bread. He said it was Daffy, a mallard that hung around.

He let me feed it. Daffy takes the pieces right out of your hand. We didn’t say much to each other, then Drew got this look on his face and he said something to me that made my heart quiet down to a slow beat.

He asked me how I wanted him to introduce me to his friends, that people were going to ask who I am. He didn’t want either of us to be uncomfortable and it was better we figured out an answer together.

I understood what he meant.

“Who’s the mystery girl, Drew?”

We came up with a reply that we could both live with.

But as I’m getting ready to spend the first whole day with my real daddy, I realize that the simplest of truths might as well be a lie.

“T
his is Mackenzie. She’s a family friend.” Drew handed a rope line to Lloyd Zaragoza, who’d elbowed his portly body next to Drew’s sleek boat to check everything out.

Lucy watched the exchange from a lounge chair beside Sue Lawrence.

“Welcome to the dock,” Lloyd replied, his grin broad and big. “I’m the mayor out here and if you need anything, I’m the man to ask. Can I get you a cola from my cooler?”

Mackenzie smiled with a sweet innocence. “Ya’ll don’t have to go to any trouble.”

“No trouble a’tall!” Lloyd snapped right back. He pivoted an about-face on his bare feet and made a beeline for his boat.

Sue shook her head. “Lloyd sure loves it when someone new comes to the dock. He can feed them stories and they’re not going to tell him they’ve heard them all a dozen times already.”

Lucy smiled at Mackenzie. She liked the look of the young girl. She had a fresh face, a beautiful pair of eyes, and her complexion was like a bowl of honeyed cream. She was tall and attractive, maybe Jason’s age.

Jason and some of the boys from the team were on the other side of the dock batting tennis balls into the water for Dent Gaines’s black lab, Harley. He was known as Devil Dog to those on the dock because his tail was like a whipcord and he was always nosing into a bag of chips or swimming in circles around the boats and springing up onto the upholstery.

As soon as Drew arrived, everyone paused and looked at that expensive, glossy black boat of his. Lucy couldn’t imagine it being worth a quarter of a million dollars, but Sue insisted.

Drew hadn’t readily noticed her, but now he gave her a glance. Lucy looked away. If she were smart, she would never let him come near her again.

Her rule of thumb should be that she never date a client. That might not have been in the personal chef handbook, but it was still an excellent—and wise—thought to keep in mind.

Yet on the flip side, she felt connected to someone when she talked to Drew—him, of all people. Thank God she had survived the mourning period after her divorce, where she’d been sad and hadn’t wanted to deal with relationships. But within the last several months, she’d been starting to feel like her old self again. She noticed men more often, noticed how they looked into her eyes, how they bantered with her or spoke politely, what body language they conveyed while they had her full attention. She was definitely ready to find someone and start over, and not let her past heartbreak hold her back.

But should she invest, even marginally, in the town’s former ball player with an extroverted ego and a smile that could win him anything he desired?

Not hardly. She was too aware of the troubles in store if she fell for him. There was a path of red flags waving—just like those on the street corners of the main highway that pedestrians used for crossing through traffic. A flag for his past, a flag for his cloudy drug usage—which he had not explained, yet somehow, she’d been relieved that, apparently, it hadn’t been a totally hideous mess. A flag for Jacquie. Make that two flags for the Realtor.

Even so, Lucy’s gaze drifted back toward Drew, making a long and leisurely examination of him through the discreet cover provided by her sunglasses.

He wore a pair of printed swim trunks and a straw panama hat that made him look more appealing than one man had a right to. A cigar was clamped between his lips, but unlit. He tossed the butt in the open cooler on his boat, then threw his head back in laughter at something Dave Lawrence said. Reaching for a cold bottle of beer, he cracked the top and handed it to Dave. The music boomed on his boat, classic rock and roll.

Drew’s smile flashed and he stepped onto the dock, went to put a hand on the small of Mackenzie’s back. But he immediately reconsidered, lowering his arm as if he remembered himself. Mackenzie slanted him a glance and didn’t readily smile, and was clearly thankful when Lloyd all but ran up and shoved a can of cola at her after pulling the tab.

“Here you go, young lady!” Lloyd’s barrel torso, with its curly hair carpeting front and back, glistened with sweat. “So where are you from?”

“Florida.”

“Migh-tee fine marlin fishing out that way.”

The light breeze blew her long brown hair around her face and she caught a slight strand and hooked it behind her ear. She had on a pair of silver hoop earrings. “My daddy used to go deep-sea fishing all the time when he wasn’t out on a haul.”

Drew had been skipping through song selections on the state-of-the-art CD player when his hand froze. His action wasn’t enough to draw attention, but it was enough for Lucy to take notice because her gaze had been fastened on him. The lightness in his expression darkened. Mackenzie and he exchanged a quick look, but it was over in a matter of seconds.

“What’s your daddy do?” Lloyd asked, the white patch of sunscreen on his nose starting to melt.

“He was a big rig truck driver. But he and my momma parted company some years ago.”

“Divorce is as common as a fruit fly these days.” Lloyd took a big sip of beer, a visible belch working up his throat, but he had the good grace to hold it there. “I’ve been on a first name basis with it four dang times.”

Mackenzie’s mouth curved into a smile. “Momma said one divorce was enough for her. She wasn’t ever getting married again.”

“Wise woman!” Lloyd smiled back. “Next time, you bring her on down here with you. I’d like to meet her.”

With that, the brightness in Mackenzie’s eyes paled. “My momma’s passed on.”

It was Lloyd’s turn to blanch. “I’m forever sorry to hear that.”

“H-hey, C-Coach!” Matt ran up to Drew, the ends of his hair wet and a map of goose bumps on his arms and chest. He’d jumped into the reservoir to swim with Devil Dog, but the water temperature was still below sixty degrees.

“Matthew, come get your towel,” Lucy said, standing and holding it out for him. She wrapped his narrow shoulders in the soft terry and gave his upper arms a vigorous rub.

“That’s good, Mom,” he moaned, ducking away from her and reaching into an open bag of potato chips sitting on an empty deck chair. “Hey, Coach,” he said, crunching, “this is a killer boat. Can you take me for a ride in it?”

Jason and the other boys showed up, less to look at Drew’s boat and more to check out Mackenzie.

“Yeah,” Nutter exclaimed. “Can we, Coach? You took us out last year and we haven’t been on it yet this year.” He said to Jason, with a gap-toothed grin, “Dude, he goes so fast, it’s like we’re freakin’ hydroplaning and going to flip over.”

“Drew Tolman,” Sue said sternly, “you had better not be going that fast with these boys onboard.”

“Can we, Coach?” Matt pressed.

Jason’s eyes were on Mackenzie, something Lucy didn’t fail to miss. Her son had never had a girlfriend, but he was at that age where he did like girls. He’d gotten the job at Woolly Burgers, and the few times Lucy had gone in to talk to him a moment, the teen girl who had waited on them that night was hovering around. Lucy had told Jason the facts of life, but she supposed it was time for a refresher. Times like these, she wished Gary were around so he could do the honors. But he was about as reliable as a Yugo.

“I’m Jason,” Jason said to Mackenzie, shifting his weight to expand his chest a bit more. He wore navy trunks, no shirt, his pale chest void of hair. But his voice had dropped some time ago. He could use a haircut and a little more grace in the way he walked. He was gangly, all leg and limb. Lucy figured he’d probably top out at about six feet like his dad.

“Hi. I’m Mackenzie.” The way she said “Hi” sounded like buttered rum and flowed just as warm through the air. There was definitely something appealing about a Southern accent, and Mackenzie wore hers with apple pie sweetness.

“Okay, get on.” Drew motioned to Lloyd to loosen the anchor ropes from the cleats. “I’ll take you for a trip to the dam. We can see what the water level’s at.”

“For real? Bang-o-rang!” Matt exclaimed.

The boys filed onto the boat, the white leather upholstery like a blanket of ivory. There ended up being five boys and Mackenzie. Drew took the helm, then to Lucy’s surprise, glanced at her. “You want to come, too?”

She hadn’t given it any thought until this moment, and her first reaction was to say no.

But Lucy had been bucking convention these days in ways she hadn’t anticipated. And someone had to make sure Drew kept the boat at a decent speed. After all, her babies were onboard.

“You go, Lucy.” Sue nudged her forward. “Keep him in line.”

Lucy wrapped a lime-green scarf around her long hair to pull it into a ponytail. “All right, Drew. Someone has to keep an eye on you.”

As she took his hand to climb on, he said beneath his breath, “Sugar, you can look at me all you want.”

Drew moored the boat on one of the floating docks by Overlook Dam so the kids could take dives and run around.

There used to be an entire town underneath them. Back in 1898, they’d found silver along the old creek’s banks. Big Eddy Murdock had struck it rich, but eight years later, the ore had been mined out, and the town had been fully deserted by the early twenties. Floods wiped out what was left, leaving outbuildings ruined by silt-laden waters. Murdock, Idaho, was abandoned until 1973, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided to construct a $327-million dam for flood control purposes.

Drew had told Mackenzie about the dam’s history as they’d launched at Big Eddy’s Marina. Backing the Hummer to the water’s edge, the boat trailer’s tires rolling underwater, he’d unhooked the cable, and on impulse, told Mackenzie to get behind the wheel and pull forward.

Seeing his slight daughter gunning the big engine of the four-wheel drive SUV had made him smile. But at the same time, made him sad. He’d missed being there for her driver’s training classes, the day at the DMV when she got her license…and a boatload of other milestones in her life.

When she’d talked about Bobby Wilder being her daddy, there was nothing Drew could do but listen and curse himself for the jerk he’d been. The only saving grace was the fact that maybe, in time, he could make things up to her.

They had the whole summer, and he was going to do his damn best to get things right, to take his time, to listen to her, to be there for her if she needed him.

Sharing his world was top on his list, which was why he’d wanted to bring her to Overlook today. This was where his friends gathered, where good times were always had. He had a feeling she’d like it, and so far, she’d been laughing and smiling. A lot.

He noticed she took an interest in Jason Carpenter. At this point, Drew wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Mackenzie might’ve had a boyfriend before. She was seventeen, beautiful, an easy personality to be around. Then again, maybe Caroline had frowned on that sort of thing. Caroline had been fairly strict, yet loving.

Hell.
Drew didn’t know diddly about Mackenzie’s love life. Didn’t want to. He’d have to give Lynette a call. There were certain things he’d always asked about—if Mackenzie were doing well in school; if she’d been sick; if she needed any extra money or wanted to buy a special something. But his daughter’s dating habits had never been one of the things he’d inquired about.

“Good Lord, you couldn’t get me in that water for anything,” Lucy said, her voice breaking into Drew’s thoughts.

While the outside temperature had to be in the high seventies, the water was still holding residual winter runoff from the snow. It was damn cold.

Drew leaned his butt against the side of the driver’s chair, his arms folded over his chest. “You want something to drink?”

“Do you have any bottled water?”

“Yep.” Drew pulled up the lid to the cooler and grabbed two.

Water from the cooler’s melting ice dripped from the plastic bottles. Lucy gave a throaty gasp when droplets ran down her bare, tan legs. Drew’s gaze slid across the smooth expanse of her thighs, knees and ankles.

She had on a pair of lower-riding knit shorts and her bathing suit top. Her skin looked soft and his fingers ached to run over the hollow of her throat and trace her collarbone. The shade of brown in her eyes was like caramel-chocolate, the lashes sweeping upward with a light coverage of mascara. Probably waterproof. Until he’d read
Seventeen
magazine, he hadn’t known something like that even existed. She’d put clear lip gloss or balm on her lips. They were shiny and very tempting.

He admired the shape of her sexy mouth, the top and bottom lip almost a mirror of the other. She didn’t have a noticeable bow to her upper lip, but rather, a fuller mouth—like Julia Roberts. Actually, now that he thought about it, in some ways Lucy did kind of look like the actress. Same hairstyle, same mouth. But the eyes were very different. So was the nose.

Telling himself to stay away from her had been good in theory, so what was she doing on his boat, long legs stretched out in front of her, butt up against the hull, and sneaking looks at him as if he were the best thing since a pair of four inch heels?

The boys on the dock were horsing around, showing off for his daughter. Nutter pushed Brownie into the water, then Brownie laid his palm on the surface and fanned them with a wide arc of spray. Matt did a cannonball and almost landed on top of Brownie.

Mackenzie stood here, laughing and basking in the attention. Her smile went straight to Drew’s heart. The flush on her cheeks was proof she was shy—to a degree. He was glad about that. There was so much he didn’t know about her. Wanted to know. Sometimes he got shortsighted, frustrated with himself and the situation. He wanted to know everything, and to know it yesterday.

“She’s very pretty,” Lucy said, putting the mouth of the water bottle to her lips. “I see the family resemblance. Who’s she related to?”

Drew swallowed, glad the next song on the CD player was loud and kick-ass. “You like KISS?” he asked, ignoring her question.

“I remember them,” she replied, giving him a sidelong glance. A hint of a question lingered in her eyes. She was just going to have to wait. He had nothing else to add. What could he say?

He and Mackenzie hadn’t thought that far in advance. He was an only child, so saying Mackenzie was his sister’s kid wouldn’t work. Maybe a cousin on his father’s side. That sounded good. But right now, he wasn’t sure if he could work out enough of the details to make it all sound credible.