Miss Liz's Passion

She grinned at his look of delight. “A small present.”

He chewed on his lip thoughtfully, then finally said, “I’m really hungry. Could I have a hamburger?”

It wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind, but he was looking at her so expectantly, she shrugged. “Why not? I’m sure we can find someplace nearby for a hamburger and maybe even some french fries.”

“Great, but what about my dad?”

Liz wasn’t much in the mood to talk to Todd Lewis about anything, but regulations demanded it. “If you give me the number, I’ll call him at his office and get his okay.”

Kevin’s face fell. “He doesn’t work in an office. You can’t call him.”

“What about a cell phone?” she asked.

“He only uses it for work, I don’t know the number.”

She should have realized that the minute she’d made the first call last week and gotten only an answering machine. “Where does he work?”

“He builds stuff. You know, like shopping centers and things. He’s building one now that’s really neat.”

Liz made one of those impetuous decisions that occasionally got her into very hot water. She didn’t believe in breaking rules, but she sometimes bent them in two if she thought it would help one of her students. Right now, Kevin needed all the positive reinforcement she could give him. She’d brave a lion in his den, if that’s what it took. Todd Lewis seemed only slightly less formidable.

“Do you know where it is?”

“Sure. He takes me with him lots on the weekends. Sometimes we even go by at night, if he has to go back and work late.”

It didn’t sound like any sort of lifestyle for a young boy, Liz decided, and only added to her conviction that Todd Lewis was treading dangerously close to being an unfit father. Yet Kevin always spoke of his father with such obvious pride. He clearly idolized the man. That intrigued her.

“Come on, then,” she said to Kevin. “Let’s go see him.”

When they found Todd Lewis, he was standing with one dusty, booted foot propped on a steel girder that was about to be hoisted to the third level of a future parking garage. A yellow hard hat covered much of his close-cropped brown hair and shaded his face. A light blue work shirt was stretched taut over wide shoulders. Liz found herself swallowing hard at the sight of him. He was bigger—at least six-foot-two and probably two-hundred pounds—more imposing and more masculine than she’d imagined. He made her feel petite and fragile and very much aware of her wrinkled shirt, the run in her hose and the fact that she hadn’t stopped long enough to put on lipstick.

His eyes, when she got close enough to see them, sparked with intelligence and curiosity. At the sight of his son running toward him, those eyes filled with something else as well, a warmth and concern that startled her and made her wish for one wild and timeless moment that the look had been directed at her.

“Dad, this is Mrs. Gentry,” Kevin blurted with a wave of his hand in her direction. Something in Todd Lewis’s self-confident demeanor seemed shaken by that announcement, but there was no time to analyze it because Kevin was rushing on. “We came to see you because we’re going to celebrate, but Miss Gentry said we had to get your permission and we couldn’t call you, so I showed her where you are. Is it okay?”

There was another flash of amazement in those clear hazel eyes. An errant dimple formed in that harsh, tanned face. “A celebration?”

“Yeah. I got all my homework right. Mrs. Gentry helped me while we were waiting for you. I told her you were coming, but that sometimes you got really busy and forgot things. You know like you did when you had that date last week and she came to the house all dressed up and you were working on the car.”

Liz noted that Todd Lewis nearly choked at that. She figured the revelation served him right.

“Sorry,” he said. “I told him to tell you I’d be there today or tomorrow.”

He didn’t sound the least bit repentant. Before she could stop herself, she reminded him, “And I asked you to come in today. I’m sure if you’d explained things to your boss, you could have arranged for the afternoon off.”

“I am the boss,” he said matter-of-factly. “And I can guarantee you that I didn’t get the title by walking off the job in the midst of a crisis just because of some damned whim.”

Liz had to do some quick revising. She glanced around at the sprawling mall with its Spanish-style architecture, man-made lakes and fountains already bubbling. Even weeks away from completion, it promised to be spectacular. How on earth could a man in charge of all this run a business without an office? Perhaps he was one of those laid-back eccentrics who delighted in going his own way and was talented enough or wealthy enough to get away with it. She, however, didn’t operate that way.

“It was hardly a whim, Mr. Lewis. If I hadn’t thought it extremely important, I wouldn’t have requested the meeting.”

“Demanded.”

“Semantics, Mr. Lewis. The point is that you did not come. Again,” she added.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, this time sounding genuinely apologetic. “Your earlier notes…” He gazed pointedly at Kevin. “They seem to have gone astray.”

She felt some of her tension and antagonism begin to ease. That put things in a slightly different light. She should have guessed that Kevin hadn’t passed them along to his father.

“And the phone messages?”

He stared at her blankly. They both turned to gaze at Kevin. He was staring at his shoes.

“Sorry, Dad. I guess maybe they got erased.”

Todd Lewis sighed wearily. “We will talk about all of this later, son.” He smiled at Liz and shrugged. “I guess that explains that. I really am sorry. No wonder you had such a lousy impression of me.”

Liz blushed as she thought of the barely veiled charges she’d leveled at him in her last note. She probably owed him an apology of some sort. Still, he had ignored that one. He wasn’t entirely blameless. Or was he?

“You did get the note I sent yesterday, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well…” If she’d expected to intimidate Todd Lewis with a cool stare and an unyielding attitude, she’d vastly underestimated him. Those hazel eyes pierced her without once wavering.

“It is nearly five o’clock, Mr. Lewis,” she stated pointedly, not sure why she felt the need to attack rather than be conciliatory. Perhaps it was because she wasn’t one bit happy about the way her pulse had been skipping erratically ever since she’d gotten within five feet of Todd Lewis.

He grinned. Her pulse leapt. She wanted to attack. Yes, indeed, that was it. An instinctive and vitally necessary response.

“Thank you for enlightening me,” he retorted. He held out his hand, displaying a forearm that was bare to the rolled-up sleeve of his shirt. “I don’t wear a watch on the job. I don’t like clock-watchers.”

She wasn’t sure whether he was referring to himself, his employees or her. Either way, if he’d hoped to rattle her, it was working. She couldn’t take her eyes off that muscular forearm. If the man weren’t quite so large or quite so masculine, she’d be tempted to grab it and experiment with that self-defense technique she’d learned at her last karate lesson. The prospect of flipping him onto his backside cheered her considerably.

“You know what I meant,” she said stiffly. “I expected you at 3:30.”

“And I had hoped to be there,” he said so solemnly that she knew he was mocking her. “You know Miss Gentry…”

He made it sound as though she were some dried-up old prune. “Mrs. Gentry,” she retorted.

He shrugged indifferently. That faint suggestion of amusement continued to play about his lips. “You may be in charge of your classroom, Mrs. Gentry, but I’m in charge around here. Unfortunately at a construction site things are apt to go wrong according to whim, rather than your rigid schedule. If you can think of some way to make these girders do your bidding, more power to you. I’ve had a helluva time with it.”

This time he waited expectantly. Liz felt her insides quiver. Possibly with fury. More likely with something entirely less rational. The man was positively maddening. And far too attractive. She suspected the two characteristics were probably related. She realized she was gripping the handle on her purse so tightly the leather was biting into her flesh. She tried to relax. When that didn’t work, she went for the jugular.

“You’ve already explained that you run the company, Mr. Lewis. You don’t strike me as the sort of man who’d be foolish enough to believe he’s either indispensable or indestructible. I’m sure you have assistants who could handle any crisis that occurs in the brief time it would have taken for you to keep an appointment with me.”

He simply scowled at the note of censure. “That’s not the way I do things,” he said with finality. “Now what was so all-fired important that it couldn’t wait another twenty-four hours?”

She glanced at Kevin and hesitated. She’d already said far more than she should have in front of him. What on earth had gotten into her? “I don’t think this is the time or place to be discussing this.”

“You picked it,” he reminded her.

“Mr. Lewis!”

He stared at her intently, then finally nodded. “Kevin, go into the trailer and ask Hank if he’ll take you to the top of the garage. It’s another story higher since the last time you were here.”

“Oh, wow! Great, Dad. Thanks.” He bounded off without a second glance at either of them.

Todd Lewis watched Kevin until the door of the construction trailer slammed behind him. Then once again he propped his foot on a pile of girders, put his elbow on his knee and said, “You were saying…”

Liz sighed at the challenge and tried very hard not to stare at the way his jeans stretched across his hips. “Mr. Lewis, I did not come here to argue with you. I came to ask permission for Kevin to have a hamburger with me as a reward for working so hard this afternoon.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just want to check out his irresponsible father firsthand?”

The teasing glint in his eyes unnerved her. Again. “I’m sorry for some of the things I suggested in the note.”

“But not all?”

“Kevin is a problem.”

“Maybe you just don’t know how to manage him.”

The cool, unexpected taunt struck home. Liz practically shook with indignation. It was a welcome relief after all those other feelings she’d been experiencing.

“Don’t you dare try to turn this into my failure, Mr. Lewis. Since you are so cognizant of your responsibilities, I’m surprised you don’t pay more attention to Kevin. Surely he counts among them. If you had, you would have noticed long ago…”

Her furious tirade faltered as his expression suddenly became all hard angles. She’d seen pictures of cold, merciless dictators who looked less severe. His eyes glinted dangerously. She actually shivered as he took a long stride to tower over her. For an instant she regretted the impulsive tongue-lashing.

“I do know my son. He’s a good kid. Maybe a little high spirited, but that’s all to the good in a boy. Kevin and I do just fine,” he said in a voice that chilled. “We don’t need some high-minded do-gooder interfering in our lives. If he’s having a problem with his schoolwork, we’ll talk about it. Otherwise, you stay the hell out of our lives.”

She flinched under the attack, then dared to glower right back at him. This was too important for her to back down now. “I can’t do that. Kevin is in trouble in school and that’s my responsibility.”

“Fine. I said I was more than willing to talk about his schoolwork. I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon, no matter what the damn girders do. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be getting back to work.”

He strolled away without a backward glance. Before Liz could fully recover from the unnerving confrontation, she saw the burly, redheaded man who’d accompanied Kevin to the top of the skeletal structure join Todd Lewis. Hank, that was his name, she recalled as she watched them. For some reason, she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the encounter between the two men. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was seeing a drama of some sort unfold. Suddenly, with a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach, she realized that Kevin wasn’t with them. Even from a distance, she thought she could see Todd Lewis’s complexion turn ashen.

Unaware that she had even begun to move, she found herself not more than a few feet away. She heard Todd Lewis’s harsh oath and Hank’s apology.

“I swear, Todd, I thought he was coming right back to you. You want me to get the men together?”

“Not yet. What exactly did he say?”

“He asked me for some quarters for the soda machine, then he took off. That’s it. Last I saw him, he was in the trailer getting a drink. If he’s not there and he’s not with you, I don’t know where the hell he could have gone.”

Hesitantly, Liz touched Todd Lewis’s arm. “You think he heard us arguing, don’t you? You think he’s run away.”

He turned on her, his shoulders tense, his jaw tight. That furious stance might have frightened her, if she hadn’t looked into his eyes. There was the expected flash of anger, but there was also panic and a touching vulnerability.

That glimpse into Todd Lewis’s soul removed forever any lingering doubts she might have had about the depth of his love for his son. It also left her shaken in a way she couldn’t begin to understand.

Chapter 2

Todd felt like strangling somebody. Right now it was a toss-up whether it should be Hank or Elizabeth Gentry. He glowered at both potential victims, then muttered a curse under his breath. There was no point in blaming them. They looked every bit as worried and dismayed as he felt. Besides, he was the guilty one. He knew how sensitive Kevin was, how easily hurt. He should never have been discussing him where Kevin might overhear the argument. The kid had a way of popping up when you least expected it. Sending him off with Hank had been no guarantee he wouldn’t be back ten seconds later.

“Hank, you take your car and head east,” he said finally, fighting to think clearly through the haze of self-recriminations. With great effort, he kept his voice calm and reasonable. “I’ll go west on foot. He can’t have gotten too far.”

Hank, the most easygoing man he’d ever known, looked downright uncomfortable.

“What is it?” Todd demanded impatiently.

“Don’t forget he had those quarters. He could have taken a bus.”

The already tense muscles across Todd’s shoulders knotted. Only the quiet presence of Elizabeth Gentry kept him from uttering a whole arsenal of swear words. He closed his eyes and imagined shouting every one of them at the top of his lungs. Even the imagery had a restorative effect.

“Okay,” he said with the careful deliberation of a man battling hysteria. He clung to his businesslike ability to remain calm in a crisis, to put his emotions on hold until every last detail had been handled. “Then we’d better take both cars. We’ll meet back here in an hour. If you find him, call me.”

To his amazement he sounded decisive and controlled. He felt as though he were splintering apart.

“What about me?” a soft voice interrupted. “What can I do?”

Todd stared at her. “I think you’ve done enough for one afternoon,” he said in a cutting tone that brought Hank’s head snapping up. Elizabeth Gentry stared back at Todd. She appeared serene and unfazed by his bark, but there was fire in her eyes. That look challenged him to put aside his animosity for Kevin’s sake or further establish her impression of him as a jerk.

“Oh, hell,” he said finally. “Come with me.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if I took my own car? I’ll drive south toward the school. He might have gone back that way.”

“I think school’s the last place he’s likely to head,” Todd retorted, wondering why the hell she’d bothered to ask his opinion, since she had every intention of doing exactly as she pleased.

Her cool demeanor slipped just a bit at his pointed sarcasm. Then her chin jutted up. “Fine. I’ll go north. Let’s just stop wasting time.”

With that she stalked off, her head held high, her back as ramrod straight as he’d once imagined it to be. The effect, though, wasn’t at all what he’d anticipated. Thoroughly bemused, he stared after her.

How had he gotten it so wrong? Kevin’s teacher was no prim, dried-up Victorian maiden. Far from it. She was all ripe curves and passionate indignation. Even with his son missing and his anger fueled, he’d still had the most overpowering urge to tangle his fingers in that flame-red hair of hers and hush her with a breath-stealing kiss. Desire had slammed through him with the force of a hurricane sweeping across the Florida keys. Its unexpectedness had stunned him.

Her amber eyes had challenged him in a way that made his heart pound louder and faster than any jackhammer. Her derision had irked him. Her sensuality had provoked him. The hell of it was, she was also married. Mrs. Gentry. The combination was enough to set off warning bells so loud only a man stone deaf could ignore them. Elizabeth Gentry spelled trouble and it had very little to do with her threats about Kevin.

One good thing had come of the encounter: he knew with absolute certainty now that she would never turn her disagreement with him into a public squabble with the authorities. She’d only used the threats to assure Kevin’s well-being. He’d seen the genuine concern and affection in her eyes, the caring that ran as deep and true as a mother’s fierce protectiveness. It was a look that could make any man less wary than he fall in love. It was a look he couldn’t ever recall seeing in Sarah’s eyes, at least not toward the end.

With a disgusted shake of his head, he snapped his attention back to Kevin’s disappearance. Still muttering apologies, Hank had already followed the teacher to the parking lot. Todd sprinted to his own mud-streaked, battle-scarred pickup. Gravel flew as he spun out onto Kendall Drive, forcing his way into the stream of rush-hour traffic. Locked into a slow-moving crawl, he kept his eyes peeled for some sign of a small, proud boy walking dejectedly along the edge of the highway.

His impatience mounted with every block. Horn honking, he tried weaving through traffic, but it was a wasted effort. No lane was moving any faster than a snail’s pace. With each quarter mile he covered, his panic deepened. So many terrible things could happen to a kid, especially in a city the size of Miami. Kevin was all he had, all that meant anything in his life. If anything happened to him… He couldn’t even allow himself to complete the thought.

His heart thudded heavily as dismay settled in. This was pointless. He’d already covered miles without seeing any sign of Kevin. If he had gotten on a bus, he could be anywhere. If he hadn’t and if he’d come this way, Todd would have found him by now.

Praying that Hank or Elizabeth Gentry had had better luck and just hadn’t called, he finally turned the truck around and went back to the nearly deserted construction site. The crew, unaware that there had been any sort of a crisis, had left in his absence and only one car remained in the lot—hers. In an odd way it reminded him of her. It was an ordinary, small blue Toyota, sedate and practical. Only the sunroof hinted at her sense of daring.

Had she found Kevin, he wondered as he hurried toward the trailer. If she had, he thought he might be able to forgive her anything.

He swung open the door of the trailer and saw the two of them—laughing. Her laughter was low and full-bodied. Kevin’s high-pitched and raucous. Her arm was around the boy’s shoulders as they studied a drawing done in red marker. The quiet intimacy of the scene, the suggestion of family, made Todd suck in his breath. For an instant an irrational fury clouded his vision, overriding his relief. He’d been out searching, his stomach knotted by worry and they were in here laughing like two thoroughly happy conspirators.

“Where’d you find him?” he asked. His curt tone drew startled glances from both of them.

“Hi, Dad,” Kevin said cheerfully, obviously oblivious to his father’s mood. Todd regarded him suspiciously. He was not behaving like a child who’d run away in anger.

“We’ve been waiting for you. See what I did. Mrs. Gentry says it’s pretty good.”

A surge of righteous outrage burst inside him. “Go to the truck,” he said, his voice tight.

“Dad?” Kevin’s voice was puzzled, his expression confused. He stared up at his teacher, which only infuriated Todd more. Since when had Kevin turned to someone other than him for instructions.

“Now!”

Shoulders slumping and lip quivering at the shouted command, Kevin started toward the door.

“I think you’d better let me explain,” Elizabeth Gentry said. She spoke quietly, but there was an edge of steel in her voice. He knew instinctively it was her classroom voice. It probably terrorized the kids. He ignored it.

“Kevin, you heard what I said.” His voice was calmer, but no less authoritative.

She stepped closer to Kevin and put a protective hand on his shoulder. She glared defiantly at Todd, the look meant to put him in his place. He had to admire her spunk. Under less trying circumstances, he might even find it a turn-on. Right now, it was only an irritant. He scowled right back at her.

“Save your attempt at intimidation, Mr. Lewis. When I found Kevin, I realized that in my desperation to find him, I forgot to get your number. Kevin did not run away. Don’t take your frustration out on him or, for that matter, on me.”

He stared from her to his son and back again. Swallowing hard, he tried to regain control over his temper. “I don’t understand.”

“Tell your father what happened,” she urged. When Kevin appeared to be hesitant, she smiled at him. “It’s okay. Tell him what you told me.”

“I went to get a drink. Hank gave me the money. And there was this cat.” He regarded Todd hopefully. “It was a great cat, Dad, but he’d gotten all wet. I guess he fell in that big mud puddle in back of the trailer. Anyway, I tried to get him so I could clean him up, but he ran. I chased him across the field. When I came back, you were all gone. I must have been gone longer than I thought, ’cause Mrs. Gentry says you all were worried. I’m sorry I scared you.”

Relief rushed through Todd. A cat! Kevin had been chasing a stupid, wet cat. He massaged his temples. The pounding in his head began to ease as his tension abated. He stared at Elizabeth Gentry and gave a small, apologetic shrug before grinning sheepishly at Kevin. “Did you catch the cat?”

“No,” he said, obviously disgusted. “He was too fast. Anyway, he ran inside a garage. I guess he must belong to somebody.”

Suddenly exuberant, Todd picked Kevin up and swung him in the air. “You want a cat that badly?”

“Not really. I’d rather have a dog, but you said we couldn’t have one, ’cause we’re not home enough.” He recited Todd’s old argument without emotion. “I just wanted to play with this one.”

“Maybe we’ll have to rethink that,” Todd said. He caught Elizabeth Gentry watching them. She was smiling, but there was something about her eyes that got to him. She looked sad. He couldn’t imagine why. Everything had turned out just fine. His son was safe. He felt like celebrating.

“I’d better be getting home,” she said, the flat declaration tempering his mood.

Suddenly uncertain, he said with awkward sincerity, “Thanks for helping with the search.”

“I’m glad it wasn’t really necessary. I will see you at the school tomorrow, won’t I?”

The woman had the tenacity of a terrier with an old sock. He grinned. “I promise not to stand you up again.” He took her hand, holding it just long enough to confirm the solemnity of his commitment. Her grip was firm, her skin like cool silk, but she trembled. That tiny hint of vulnerability set off warning bells again. He released her hand, but not her gaze. The air sizzled with electricity.

“Hey, you guys, what about my hamburger?”

Todd glanced away at last to stare blankly at Kevin. When he looked back at Elizabeth Gentry, her cheeks were flushed, her eyes hooded.