Daniel's Daddy. Stella Bagwell

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      “I’m gonna eat pancakes,” Daniel said to Hannah as the three of them traveled the short distance to the café.

      She smiled at the boy, finding his dimpled grin as charming as his daddy’s. “Oh, that sounds good,” she told him. “Are you going to eat yours with blueberries or without?”

      Daniel made a face and stuck out his tongue. “Yuk! Not blueberries.”

      Jess glanced over at Hannah, who was sitting as close as she could possibly get to the passenger door. “I think my cooking has ruined Daniel on blueberry pancakes. They didn’t turn out too good.”

      “They were lumpy and burnt,” Daniel reminded him.

      Hannah laughed and the warm, tinkling sound washed over Jess and lifted his heavy spirits.

      “You don’t remember that!” Jess joshed his son.

      “Yes, I do,” Daniel insisted.

      Jess chuckled. “Okay, so you do. Just don’t go telling Hannah anything else about my cooking. Okay?”

      Daniel giggled and Hannah glanced over at father and son. If Jess did the cooking, maybe there wasn’t a woman in their lives, Hannah pondered.

      Quit your wondering, Hannah quickly scolded herself. It was none of her business whether Jess had a wife or Daniel had a mother. She was merely an old acquaintance, someone who’d just happened to live across the street from Jess while they were growing up. Just because she was having breakfast with the man didn’t mean she was anything special to him.

      But it did mean something special to Hannah. It had been so long since anyone, other than the women in her church group, had shown her friendship or invited her places.

      Looking out the window beside her, she thought back to how many times as a young teenager, she’d imagined herself riding down the street with Jess Malone. The tough, devilishly handsome bad boy that every girl wanted—even the good girls.

      Now, here Hannah was, fifteen years later, doing just what she’d once imagined. But why? And where were all those other willing girls? Why was she here in this truck with him and Daniel, instead?

      The café was very full, but Jess managed to find an empty booth in the back. After they ordered, the waitress brought coffee, ice water and orange juice to the table. Jess pulled a drinking straw out of one of the glasses of water and stuck it in a glass of juice before handing it to Daniel.

      “Do you like living here, Hannah?” Jess asked as he reached for his coffee.

      Hannah, who was stirring cream into her coffee, glanced up at him. “Do I like it?” she repeated blankly, not sure what his question was about. “I suppose—I’ve never lived anywhere else.”

      “Did you ever think about leaving?”

      As her eyes glided over his handsome face, she decided she’d better not take in too much caffeine until their food arrived. She was as shaky as a leaf in a windstorm and looking at him only made it worse. “Not really. It wasn’t possible to leave while mother was alive and needed me.”

      “But she doesn’t figure into the picture anymore.”

      Shaking her head, she curled her hands around the coffee cup. “No. Mother no longer needs me to care for her. But I like my job here and the woman I work for.” Briefly, her eyes met his. “Why do you ask?”

      Jess shrugged. Why was he asking? Just because he’d had that one wild notion about her and Daniel didn’t mean she’d ever consider such an idea. Or would she?

      “Just curious. I live in Douglas, Arizona, now.”

      “I heard someone say a long time ago that you lived in El Paso,” she said.

      “I did. But I was transferred a few years ago.”

      She didn’t ask him anything, but Jess could see that she wanted to.

      “I work for the U.S. Border Patrol,” he said, volunteering the information.

      “My daddy wears a gun and badge,” Daniel told her proudly. “But he won’t let me touch the gun ‘cause guns are too dangerous.”

      That jolted Hannah. The last thing she’d expected Jess Malone to be was a lawman. Although Hannah should have known he wasn’t the type to sit behind a desk. No doubt a gun and uniform looked perfect on him. And the adventure of it all surely suited him. He seemed like a man who would always need excitement in his life.

      “I didn’t know,” Hannah said to Jess. “Do you like it?”

      He nodded, then frowned. “I’d like it if I didn’t have to worry about—” He stopped, then glanced at Daniel. Since the boy seemed to have his attention on another table where a couple of young children were breakfasting with their parents, Jess went on. “Leaving Daniel alone.”

      Something clutched Hannah’s heart. “You…mean…like if you had a bad accident?”

      Jess grimaced. “I guess that’s a nice way of putting it.”

      “Your job is that dangerous?” she asked, not liking to think that he could possibly get hurt or even killed in the line of duty.

      Shrugging, Jess lifted the coffee cup to his lips. “Sometimes. But I’m trained to handle myself, and I doubt my job puts me in any more danger than your average truck driver. Still, there are no guarantees in life and if something should happen to me—well, Daniel would be alone.”

      Hannah let out a long breath. He was implying that Daniel didn’t have a mother! Could that be true?

      Jess sipped his coffee, then lowered the cup to its saucer before he continued. He didn’t know why he was getting into all of this with Hannah. She was little more than a stranger. Yet something about her gentle face and shy smile encouraged him to confide in her.

      “But I’ve got a more immediate problem,” he went on when she didn’t say anything. “Daniel’s baby-sitter is leaving in a week and a half. She’s an older lady and she’s decided to spend her retirement with her sister in Tucson. I can’t blame her for that. But I don’t know what I’m going to do without her. She’s helped me with Daniel from the time I first brought him home from the hospital.”

      Confused and more curious now than ever, Hannah couldn’t stop herself from blurting out, “But what about Daniel’s mother? Does she have a job, too?”

      The question brought a cynical snort from Jess. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen her in nearly four years.”

      Hannah gasped before she could stop it. “You haven’t? But why?”

      He’d often told himself he was over Michelle’s desertion. But he hated to admit to anyone, much less another woman, that he and Daniel hadn’t been worth a backward glance to Michelle.

      “She moved on.”

      Hannah couldn’t have been СКАЧАТЬ