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Zach came skipping around the side of the already-framed room addition. “Hi, Mr. Reynolds,” he called out, his expression eager as always. “What cha doin’? Can I help?”
Matt grinned. Laura might be a pain in the neck but Zach was a great kid. A great fatherless kid, Matt corrected himself—and it showed. The boy was painfully eager for a man’s company.
“I can always use a good helper.” He waved Zach up beside him. “I was just hoping someone would come along to drive in a nail for me.”
“I can do it!” The earnest, freckled face looked almost ecstatic.
“You know,” Matt said slowly, “I kinda think you can.”
While Zach pounded away, both hands on the hammer, at a nail already started, Matt felt a curious warmth spreading through him. All little boys needed a man around the house. But considering how obstinate this little boy’s mother was, that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Poor kid.
Running up the front steps of the Review, Laura met her boss’s great-granddaughter coming down. Jessica was a real sweetie, unlike her moose of a father.
“Hi, honey,” she greeted the girl. “Drop by to see your grandpa?”
The girl stopped short and her blue eyes widened. “Yes, but don’t tell,” she said quickly.
Peculiar response. “Okay, if you don’t want me to,” Laura promised. Automatically she reached out to brush back brown hair falling across Jessica’s eyes, nearly obscuring her vision. Poor little thing; her hair always looked like a haystack. And it would be so pretty if something were done with it.
The girl looked up with wide eyes. “Does my hair look awful?” she asked anxiously. “I combed it this morning, honest.”
“It looks just fine.” Laura finished smoothing the bangs out of the way. “Your hair is really very pretty.”
“It’s awful!” Jessica batted at it. “I wanted to cut it since second grade but Daddy won’t let me. He likes long hair but it gets in my way all the time.”
“Why don’t you braid it, or wear a ponytail?” Laura suggested; a reasonable solution, she thought.
Jessica’s lower lip thrust out. “Because I don’t know how,” she muttered.
“Well, for goodness sake, if that’s the only problem—!” Grabbing the girl’s hand, Laura guided her back up the steps. “Come inside. I can teach you in five minutes.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
And she did. Then she bought Jessica a can of soda and they spent another half hour talking—“Girl talk,” Jessica said smugly.
“That’s right,” Laura agreed, admiring the long braid swinging neatly between the girl’s shoulder blades. “Feel free to drop by any time you need help with your coiffure.”
“My what?”
“Coiffure. That’s hairdo in French.”
“Coiffure.” Jessica preened. “I didn’t even know I had one!”
Because you don’t have a mother, Laura thought, feeling infinitely sorry for the pretty little girl before her. And that father of yours apparently isn’t doing anything to help you out, either. You’re growing up fast and there’s so much a girl needs to learn.
Poor Jessica really needed a woman around the house, but considering how pigheaded her father was, that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Poor kid.
“Hi, Daddy.”
Matt looked up from the building plans he’d been perusing to see his daughter skipping across Laura’s lawn. She looked different and for a moment he didn’t realize it was because her hair was in a neat braid instead of hanging free around her face.
She looked nice. He wondered who’d done it for her.
She preened before him, turning her head this way and that. “Like my coiffure?” she inquired coyly.
Zach, playing in the grass with a square of sandpaper, frowned. “What’s a cough-your?” he wondered.
Jessica grinned broadly. “A hairdo, silly.”
Matt smothered his smile. “So who braided your hair and taught you such a big word?” he teased his daughter.
She pointed to Zach. “His mother!”
Zach clapped his hands together. “Hooray for Mama!” He looked expectantly at Matt.
“Yeah, hooray,” Matt responded, less than thrilled with the news. “So where have you been?” he asked Jessica.
“Around.” She said it with airy superiority.
“Does your sitter know where you are?”
“I told Mrs. Brown I was going over to the crafts workshop at the school.”
“But you didn’t?”
Zach stood up. “I’m glad you came to my house, Jessie. Want to play?”
Her gaze shifted from the little boy to her father and back again. “Daddy—”
Zach tugged on her hand. “Jessie, I got a new video. Want to watch it?”
Matt frowned. “Jessica, I asked if you’ve been to the crafts workshop at school.” Even in a town as small and friendly as Rawhide, he didn’t like the idea of her wandering around anywhere she chose to go.
She nodded without meeting his gaze. “So now can I go see Zach’s video? It’s probably some baby thing but—”
“It’s not a baby thing!” The little boy’s face turned red. “It’s got a horse and a dog and a cow—”
Matt gave in. “Run along, kids. Jessica, I’ll call you when it’s time to go.”
“Okay.”
He watched them hurry away, the little boy putting his hand trustingly in Jessica’s. Nice kids, both of them.
But now he had to figure out where to relocate the damned door so he could put this project for the picky Mrs. Gilliam behind him.
But Jessica’s hair did look good.
. Zach’s baby-sitter gave the kids an apple and a glass of lemonade each, put in the new video and departed to fold laundry. It only took a couple of minutes for Jessica to decide that, Zach’s opinion to the contrary, this was a film for little kids.
Zach finally looked around at his fidgeting guest with a frown. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
“This movie is boring.”
“It’s not neither boring!” He clenched his hands.
Jessica gave him a superior glance. “It is to me,” she said. “Besides, I’m thinking about something important.”
“Important?” Zach swiveled around on his seat on the floor before the television.
Jessica examined her surroundings for lurkers. Then she whispered to Zach, “Can you keep a secret?” She felt as if she’d bust if she didn’t tell someone what she’d done.
Zach made a big X on his chest with one forefinger. “Cross my heart and hope to die!”
“Okay, then.” She licked her lips and leaned forward. “I’m gonna get a new mother!”
“A new—?” His expression lightened as if he’d just caught on. “You are? Who?”
“Don’t know yet. I put an ad in my grandpa’s newspaper.” She pulled out the newspaper she’d picked up in his yard on the way in, turned to the appropriate page and read her ad proudly.
“My mama is pretty and nice and likes kids and pets,” Zach said when she’d finished. Suddenly he frowned, then asked sharply, “Can I get a daddy that way?”
“You mean, put your own ad in the newspaper?” She thought for a few moments. “Well, I don’t know but I don’t think so. In the first place, you don’t have any money to pay for it.”
“I have a whole dollar that the tooth fairy left last week,” Zach objected hotly.
“That’s not near enough.” Jessica couldn’t help thinking what a child he was. “Besides, a mother is probably easier to find than a father.”
“But I already got a mother!” He looked on the verge of tears. Just then his big old orange cat, Lucy, crawled onto his lap. He clutched Lucy so hard she let out a resentful yowl before cuddling up to him.
And at that very moment, Jessica suddenly had a really brilliant idea....
“You again?”
Jessica laughed and ran to hug her grandfather. “Aren’t you glad to see me, Grandpa?”
He grinned. “You know I am.” He gave her a skeptical look. “Did you see your ad?”
She nodded eagerly.
“Didn’t you like it?”
“I love it!”
“Then...?”
“I’ve already got an answer!”
He stared at her in astonishment. “But how? The ad’s barely had time to hit the streets.”
“I don’t care, I’ve got an answer! I didn’t know what to do with it so I brought it to you.” She handed him a sheet of paper identical to the one her ad had been written on.
Again, he opened the paper and together they read, “‘Deer Prens Charmng. My mama is nise and prety. Pleas pik her my dady is dead. Love, Zach G.’”
“He’s just a little kid,” Jessica explained in her grandfather’s ear. “I told him how to spell ‘prince’ but he still goofed it up. And he got confused on ‘pretty’ and left out a ‘t’—” She glanced at her grandfather and stopped speaking abruptly.
It almost looked as if Grandpa had tears in his eyes.
CHAPTER TWO
THE next day was Saturday, which wasn’t Laura’s favorite day to work. But this assignment was special: the announcement of the Citizen of the Year in Rawhide, Colorado. The name of the small city’s honored citizen would be announced at the annual potluck picnic in the park, to which the entire community was invited.
That meant old and young alike, so Laura and Zach set off for the park shortly after eleven o’clock. Parking in a field designated for that purpose, Laura hauled out her contribution to the festivities—her famous apple pie. She also carried a tote bag containing a reporter’s notebook and a camera. Zach skipped along happily at her side.
The day was balmy and bright, one of those Rocky Mountain highs songwriters immortalized and locals cherished. Well-known because of her association with the newspaper, Laura responded to waves and greetings from almost everyone they passed.
This was one of the things she loved about living here—the friendliness of the people and the neighborliness of the town. Everyone had welcomed her when she’d arrived three years ago to take the job of life-styles editor of the Review. She’d been a widow with a three-year-old child, both of them strangers from the big city of Chicago, and both somewhat fragile emotionally.
But the citizens of Rawhide had taken the newcomers to their collective hearts—with a few notable exceptions, one of whom suddenly loomed before her as she rounded the last vehicles parked at the edge of the grassy parkland.
Matthew Reynolds: wouldn’t you just know. And beside him was his best buddy, Dylan Cole.
Matt tipped his cap and Dylan tipped his cowboy hat. Both grinned broadly, their attention focused on the pie she carried.
Zach tugged at Matt’s hand, his little face beaming. “Hi, Mr. Reynolds. Hi, it’s me, Zach!”
Matt grinned down at the boy. “It sure is.” He nudged Dylan with his elbow. “You know my helper Zach, don’t you, buddy?”
“Yep.” Dylan offered a hand to the boy. “How you doin’, partner?”
Zach put his little hand in that of the big man grinning at him. “Okay,” he said shyly.
Matt patted the boy on the head. “Any chance your mama is carrying one of her famous apple pies for this potluck?”
Zach nodded his head vigorously. “Uh-huh. And she’s got another one just like it at home!”
Matt looked shocked. His gaze swung from the boy to the mother. “You holding out on me, Laura?”
She smiled sweetly. “And not for the first time, either.” She nudged Zach forward. “Come on, honey, I need to put this pie down and then we’ll see if any of your friends are here.”
“Okay.” The boy gave Matt a last wistful glance before turning away.
That’s what came from having Matt bumbling around with her remodeling project, she thought self-righteously, following the boy weaving his way through the crowd. Thank heaven, the job would be finished soon—she devoutly hoped—and then surely Zach would get over this bad case of hero worship.
