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Stepping out the back door, she stopped at the wood bench outside Lloyd’s Barbershop, the store to the right of the diner. She yanked the clip out of her hair. Hard as she tried, she couldn’t squelch the tears. Her throat tightened and her eyes smarted. She’d been so sure she could stand on her own, so sure that once she’d taken this stance against marriage to Ryan Noble that her family would acquiesce. But nothing was going as she planned. Nothing.
Cooking a meal was the last thing on Sam’s mind tonight. He didn’t mind cooking, but he hated thinking about what to cook night after night. More often than not, he gave in to his daughters’ pleas for their favorite food, pizza, so he figured a hamburger at Herb’s ranked a close second to a home-cooked meal.
The afternoon had proved long and tense. Not wanting Arlene to be alone, he’d left the girls at the office in the trustworthy hands of Trudy, his assistant and dispatcher, and his girls’ great-aunt, then he’d gone to the hospital. While there, he’d contacted Arlene’s son in Reno, and a daughter who lived in Fallon, and told them the doctor was keeping their mother in the hospital for observation. He offered reassurances that she was doing fine.
He wasn’t.
Sheriff Sam Dawson no longer had a nanny for his daughters. Weary from the events of the day, he wished for a simple answer to his problem, for a way to manage until he found someone to stay with the girls.
A dull headache promised to strengthen if he didn’t pop in a few painkillers soon. While he drove with the girls toward the diner for dinner, they’d grown quiet again. He didn’t think they were fretting. Earlier, when he’d returned to the office, he’d been met by gloomy faces and their concern for Arlene. Sam had quieted their distress, and worked hard to stir their smiles while they’d settled in the vehicle and fastened seat belts.
Now Annie seemed engrossed in a new book, and Casey was humming to her stuffed dog.
They seemed okay. But what did he know? He was never sure if he was doing the right thing. Being a single dad was tough. He’d never expected to be one, to raise the girls alone. Life without Christina had been difficult, harder than he’d ever imagined. He should have known, expected that. She’d made a difference in his life. She’d come into it when he’d needed someone the most.
She’d been his life, and when she’d died, so had he. For weeks nothing had mattered. He’d been so damn selfish. He’d been thinking only about himself, his pain. Back then, pressure had crowded his throat daily. It was the girls who’d saved him.
They’d given him only a little time to grieve. He’d wanted more. He’d wanted to wallow in self-pity, to let grief crush down on him. But how could he? Life kept intruding. One of them needed new shoes or had a dentist appointment. There were new books to read, a carnival in town, a birthday, Christmas.
His daughters wouldn’t let him bury himself in his misery. So he put on a good show. He smiled and laughed because of them. It was his way of telling them everything would be okay, even though it wasn’t.
Then during the past months, the terrible ache that had rooted itself within him no longer attacked him with his every breath. Time healed pain. With good intentions, everyone had said that would happen. He hadn’t believed them, hadn’t believed any woman would reach inside him again, would make him smile. Or love again.
In the rearview mirror, he saw Annie look up from her book. “Isn’t she pretty, Daddy?”
He assumed she was talking about some picture in the book.
“And nice,” she went on.
“Who?”
“Jesse.”
A dimpled smile came to mind. So did shapely legs.
“I like her,” Casey announced.
That was a remarkable feat. Casey was stingy with her approvals.
“Do you like her?” she asked.
Like? Maybe. Desire, absolutely. And he wasn’t thrilled about that. It was dumb thinking, he berated himself. He hardly knew her.
“I want a hamburger,” Annie informed him.
Sam zipped into the parking lot adjacent to the diner.
“Can I have one?”
“Me, too,” Casey piped in.
“Sure.” He switched off the ignition, watched the girls bound out of their sport utility vehicle. They looked more eager than usual about going into the diner. That made him edgy, especially since Annie’s comments about Jessica Scott.
Previously he’d learned from Arlene that his two angels thought they needed a mommy, and their daddy had been too busy to find them one. The truth was he hadn’t been looking. He’d had the love of his life. He truly believed a man didn’t get that gift twice.
“Daddy, look.” Annie pointed in the direction of the bench near Herb’s. “There’s Jesse.”
Sam rounded the front of the vehicle to see them racing toward her and calling her name. “Jesse, Jesse.”
He thought she looked tired, but she sat with her back straight as if she was balancing a book on her head. The orange glow of sunset caressed her glossy hair. Hanging loose now, it fell to her shoulders.
From a distance, her smile looked weak. In what seemed like an affectionate gesture, she touched his daughter’s shoulder. Closer now, Sam noted the suitcase at her feet, and guessed Thunder Lake’s newest resident had a problem. “Hi.”
A moment passed before she looked up, swung pale, watery eyes toward him.
Tears. Things had gone from bad to worse for her, Sam deduced. His natural instinct with someone he knew would have been to offer a comforting shoulder. But this woman was a stranger. “Annie, take Casey and go in. Get us a booth.”
Nothing was simple with Annie. She liked schedules and predictability. Any deviation from what she expected made her ask a dozen questions. “Aren’t you coming?”
“I’ll be there in a minute.”
A frown grabbed hold on her face. “Where should we sit? What if there aren’t any empty tables?”
Here goes, he thought. “Sit in any booth.” The parking lot wasn’t full, so he doubted they’d have a problem finding one. “And both of you can have a soda tonight,” he said, knowing that treat would hurry them into the diner.
They rewarded him with pleased smiles and took off.
Sam focused on her again. “I usually force milk on them,” he said lightly to gauge her mood, determine how down she was.
Though she looked tired and worried, a slim smile lit her face.
“I thought you’d want to know what happened with Arlene, Mrs. Mulvane,” he said while he sat on the bench beside her. “She got to the hospital in time.”
“Oh, I’m so glad.”
“The doctor said she’ll be fine. Thanks to you. Arlene said she would have never thought she was having a heart attack, she would have written off the pain as heartburn. The doctor said she’d have suffered a lot of heart damage if she hadn’t gotten to the hospital when she did. Because of you, she didn’t.”
“I really didn’t do anything. You did.” A flush that made her look younger had swept over her face. “But I’m glad everything worked out for her.”
“Me, too. She’s a nice woman.” As she smiled again, Sam tapped the bottom of her suitcase with the toe of his boot. Not getting involved never entered his mind. This went beyond an obligation to his job. She looked so damn lost, so vulnerable sitting there. “You have a problem?”
In a resigned more than a helpless gesture, she shrugged. “It’s nothing.”
He didn’t believe her for a moment. Whether or not she liked it, he couldn’t accept her simple answer. He was used to sticking his nose in others’ business. “You had a tough day today. You never waited on tables before, did you?”
A throaty soft laugh answered him. “That’s obvious, isn’t it?”
Sam stared at her lips and felt an uncharacteristic impatience. “You try hard.”
She looked less tense, less annoyed. “That was nice. Thank you.”
“But that didn’t help, did it?”
She shook her head. “’Fraid not.” As a breeze whipped around her and tossed her hair, she raised a hand to brush back strands.
Sam saw no point in beating around the bush. “Did Herb fire you?”
As if sensing it was pointless to pretend she had no problem, she admitted, “Yes, I don’t have a job anymore, but I can’t blame Herb. I dumped spaghetti on the lap of the mayor’s wife.”
Despite the seriousness of her personal dilemma, a laugh tickled Sam’s throat. He would have loved to have seen that. Eunice Wilson was big on herself—too big. In her opinion, her husband’s political office had made her one of Thunder Lake’s most prestigious citizens. “What are you going to do now?”
When her eyes darted to him, he swore he saw panic in them. Hell, he’d been a cop too long. Shyness probably accounted for her quick looks away.
“I’m not sure.” Head down, in what he interpreted as a small show of nerves, she fiddled with the strap of her shoulder bag. “Tomorrow I’ll look for another job. Cory thought I’d find one without any trouble.”
He gave her credit. She hung onto that bright smile as if her life depended on it.
“And if I don’t find one here, I’ll go somewhere else.” She should have stopped then, but she rushed more words. To Sam, it was a sure sign she was nervous, maybe hiding something. “I like to travel, so I move around a lot.”
“Jesse. Jesse,” Annie yelled as she charged out of the diner and toward them. “Don’t you work here anymore?” Looking as if the world’s worries rested on her shoulders, she braked a few inches from them.
The smile she gave his daughter was meant to soothe. “No, I don’t.” Annie swung a distressed look from him to her. Obviously seeing it, too, she offered an excuse to ease away his daughter’s concern. “But it’s all right. I wanted to look for a different job anyway.”
When her hand fluttered to the handle of her suitcase, Sam couldn’t help wondering if all that she owned was in it.
“You did!” Delight sparkled in Annie’s eyes. “That’s good!”
Sam came to attention. What was happening here?
Looking as if she’d burst with joy, Annie bounced in place. “Daddy has a job for you, don’t you, Daddy?” There was no stopping her now. In the same breath, she declared, “Daddy’s looking for a mommy. He could give you a job.”
“A nanny.” Sam wondered when he’d lost control of the moment. “What she meant is I need a nanny, not a mommy.” Actually, seeing his daughter’s cheery, satisfied grin, he wasn’t sure what she meant.
Chapter Four
By the flash of humor in Jessica Scott’s eyes, Sam guessed he looked as stunned as he felt.
“Thank you, but I couldn’t,” she said, rescuing him.
Annie’s brows pinched together. “But—”
“Annie, we’ll ask around for her. See if someone is looking for help.” He touched his daughter’s shoulder. He would not let a six-year-old maneuver him into a corner. Before the conversation reverted back to her choice for a nanny, he urged her toward the diner. “Come on. We need to join your sister.”
“Why can’t Jesse be our new nanny?” She repeated that question at least five times during their dinner.
Aware of strength in numbers, Casey joined in. “Why can’t she, Daddy?”
“We like her.”
“Uh-huh.” Casey nibbled on a French fry. “We like her. Don’t you?”
“This isn’t about liking her.” Everyone knew nannies had gray hair and orthopedic shoes. “I don’t even think she’d want the job.”
Questioningly Casey tipped her head. “Why wouldn’t she?”
How innocent they were. Sam ran a finger down her nose to make her giggle. Not everyone thought they were angels like he did. “Drink your soda.”
“Who’s going to take care of us then?” Annie cut in.
Good question, Sam mused. The whole incident with Arlene could have been worse if Jess hadn’t helped. Jess. So he thought of her that way. Wasn’t that warning enough? He would be asking for trouble if he hired her. Only a dumb man willingly brought a woman into his house who stirred more feeling in him than any woman had in almost two years.
But she really was good with the girls. Oh, hell. He could stifle whatever attraction was simmering for her. More important was getting someone for his daughters.
Despite their certainty that she’d be perfect for them, he needed to know more about her than her name. “I’ll be right back.” He left them, scoffing down a favorite dessert, chocolate cream pie, and crossed to Herb.
Herb told him that he liked her. That’s what everyone said. After he asked Cory a few questions, Sam called the motel owner from Herb’s office phone. According to Josie Colten, Jess hadn’t charged the room on a credit card. Sam deduced that meant she believed in paying cash for everything, or she’d filed bankruptcy and had no credit. Who knew if she’d suffered hard times?
Herb believed she needed money but she’d refused when Cory had offered her some. Sam figured she was proud. He considered that a good trait. He believed if a person had one good trait they possessed others. He wasn’t naive, but he was a fair lawman, one who never judged everything in terms of black or white. To be too rigid was just plain stupid.
Both girls angled expectant looks at him when he returned to the booth.
“I’ll ask her,” he told them.
“Yippee!” Casey bounced up and down on the booth seat.
“We’ll try her.” He’d already listed reasons to offer her the job. Besides showing common sense for the girls as well as Arlene, he’d seen a gentleness in her touch with Casey. He considered himself a good judge of character, and felt the girls would be safe with her. They certainly liked her. And she needed the job. “Remember. She might not work out,” he reminded his daughters.
“Yes, she will,” Annie insisted.
“We’ll see.”
With no room, no money, and no job, for privacy Jessica strolled to the nearby gas station and the public phone instead of using the phone inside Herb’s Diner. She hated to admit defeat, but she had no choice. She had to call home.
Inside the phone booth, she left the door open and fished in her shoulder bag for coins. How much would she need for a long-distance phone call?
“Jesse, Jesse.” She heard the sweet little voices a second before Annie and Casey appeared at the door.
Through the glass, Jessica observed their father’s approach.
Casey squeezed into the booth as if needing to get closer. “Jesse, will you be our nanny?”
“Will you, Jesse?” Annie asked, crowding in, too.
Standing behind them now, their father gave her that killer smile again. “Girls, let me talk to her.”
Casey whirled around, inched out of the booth behind her sister. Halting beside him, she tugged on his hand, forced him to bend over. “Make her, Daddy,” she said in a low whisper.
“I’ll do my best,” he whispered back. “We’re serious,” he said when the girls stepped away. “We’d like to offer you the nanny job. It’s full-time. Live-in.”
