Grace laughed. She was having fun. Lots of fun. The kind of fun they probably would have had if she and Danny had let their relationship develop slowly. They were so different that they"d desperately needed time to get to know each other, to become familiar with each other"s worlds, and to integrate what worked and get rid of what didn"t. From Danny"s eagerness to learn and his curiosity, it was clear something was missing in his world. And from the way he reacted to the simplicity of her life it was obvious she wouldn"t have been able to stay the same if they"d actually had a relationship. That was also why Sarah needed both of them. Neither one of them was wrong in the way they lived. It was all a matter of choices.
They spent over double what Grace normally allotted for food, but Danny paid the bill. When she tried to give him her share, he refused it, reminding her that she"d paid for the first week"s groceries. Another proof that Danny was innately fair. A good man. Not the horrible man who tossed her out of his office when she told him she was pregnant. But a man trying to get his bearings after the loss of a child.
At two o"clock that afternoon, with Sarah napping and Danny standing about three inches behind her, Grace got out her soup pot.
"Could you watch from a few feet back?"
"I"m curious."
"Well, be curious over by the counter." He stepped away from her and to keep the conversation flowing so he didn"t pout, Grace said, "Soup is good on a chilly fall day like this."
Danny leaned against the counter and crossed his arms on his chest. "I think you"re showing off."
"Showing off?"
"I doubted your abilities, so you"re about to dazzle me with your spaetzle maker."
She laughed. "The spaetzle maker doesn"t come into play for a while yet. Plus, there"s very little expertise to soup," she said, dropping the big pot on the burner. "First you get a pot."
He rolled his eyes.
"Then you fill it halfway with water." She filled a large bowl with water and dumped the water into the big pot on the stove. "You add an onion, one potato, a stalk of celery and a chicken."
He gaped at her. "You"re putting that entire chicken into the pot?"
"Yes."
Now he looked horrified.
She laughed. "Come on. This is how my grandmother did it." While he stood gaping at her, looking afraid to comment, she reached for the chicken bouillion cubes.
His eyes widened. "You"re cheating!"
"Not really. The only thing bouillion cubes accomplishes is to cut down on cooking time."
"It"s still cheating."
"I"m starting to notice a trend here. You"re against anything that saves time."
"I want to learn to cook correctly."
She shrugged. "I need to be able to save time." With everything in the pot, she washed her hands then dried them with a paper towel.
"Now what?"
"Now, I"m going to take advantage of the fact that Sarah"s still napping and read."
"Really?"
"Even with the bouillion cubes, the soup needs to cook at least an hour. It"s best if we give it two hours." She glanced at the clock on the stove. "So until Sarah wakes I"m going to read."
"What should I do?"
"Weren"t you working on something last night?"
He pouted. "Yeah, but I can"t go any further because I left an important file at my office."
She sighed. "So I have to entertain you?"
He actually thought about that. For a few seconds Grace was sure the strong man in him would say no. Instead he laughed and said, "Yes. Somebody"s got to entertain me."
Grace only stared at him. The night before she would have sworn he was firmly against getting involved with her, but today he was happy to be in her company. It didn"t make sense- Actually it did. The night before they were both considering sleeping together. Today they were making soup. Laughing. Happy. Not facing a life choice. Just having fun in each other"s company. No stress. No worries. And wasn"t that her real goal? To make him comfortable enough that Sarah"s stays with him would be pleasant?
That was exactly her goal. So she couldn"t waste such a wonderful opportunity.
"Do you know anything about gardening?"
"No."
"Ever played UNO?"
He gave her a puzzled look. "What"s an Uno?"
"Wow, either you"ve led dull life or I"ve been overly entertained." Deciding she"d been overly entertained by a dad who couldn"t do much in the way of physical things, Grace had a sudden inspiration. "If your mother"s an expert at rummy, I know you"ve played that."
He glanced down at his fingernails as if studying them. "A bit."
"Oh, you think you"re pretty good, don"t you?"
"I"m a slouch."
"Don"t sucker me!"
"Would I sucker you?"
"To get me to let my guard down so you could beat me, yes." She paused, then headed to the dining room buffet and the cards. "If you think you have to sucker me, you must not be very good."
"I"m exceptional."
She grinned. "I knew it."
Just then, a whimper floated from the baby monitor on the counter.
Grace set the cards back in the drawer. "So much for rummy. I"ll try to get her back to sleep but I"m betting she wants to come downstairs."
"Why did she wake up so soon?"
"She probably heard us talking. That"s why she didn"t roll over and go back to sleep. She wants to be in on the action."
"Great. We"ll play rummy with her in the high chair."
She paused on her way to the steps. "We could, but wouldn"t it be more fun to spend a few minutes with Sarah first?"
He nodded. "Yeah. You"re right."
As Grace went up the steps Danny took a long breath. He, Grace and the baby had had a good time shopping. He and Grace had had fun putting away the groceries and getting the soup into the pot. Now they would spend even more time together, and no doubt it would be fun.
He rubbed his hand across the back of his neck. The whole morning had been so easy-so right-that he knew he was correct in thinking that a friendship between him and Grace gave him the family, the connection, he so desperately wanted. But he also knew he was getting too close to a line he shouldn"t cross-unless he wanted to fall in love with her and make their family a real family. He didn"t want to hurt her, but right now, in his gut, he had an optimistic sense that he wouldn"t. And the night before he"d seen in her eyes that she wanted what he wanted. For them to fall in love. She didn"t have to say the words for Danny to know that she trusted him. She believed in him. He"d hurt her once, yet she trusted that he wouldn"t hurt her again.
She believed in him and maybe the trick to their situation wouldn"t be to take this one step at a time, but to trust what Grace saw in him, rather than what he knew about himself.
He walked into the kitchen and lifted the lid from the pot. He sniffed the steam that floated out and his mouth watered. Even if soup was simple fare and even though he absolutely believed Grace had cheated with the bouillion cube, it smelled heavenly. He"d trusted her about spending two weeks here with her and Sarah, and had acclimated to being in a family again, albeit a nontraditional one. He"d trusted Grace about the soup, and it appeared he would be getting a tasty dinner. He"d trusted her about relaxing with Sarah and he now had a relationship with his daughter.
Could he trust her instinct that he wouldn"t hurt her? Or let her down the way he"d let Lydia down?
Grace came down the steps carrying smiling Sarah.
When the baby immediately zeroed in on him, he said, "Hey, kid."
She yelped and clapped her hands.
"She does a lot of screeching and yelping. We"ve got to teach her a few words."
"Eventually. Right now, I think playing with the blocks or maybe the cone and rings are a better use of our time."
Danny was about to ask what the cone and rings were, but he suddenly had a very vivid memory of them. He saw Cory on the floor, brightly colored rings in a semicircle in front of him. He remembered teaching Cory to pick up the rings in order of size and slide them onto the cone.
And the memory didn"t hurt. In fact, it made him smile. Cory had always had an eye for color. Maybe Sarah did, too? Or maybe Danny didn"t care how smart Sarah was or where her gifts were? Maybe his being so concerned about Cory"s gifts was part of what had pushed Lydia away from him?
Forcing himself into the present, Danny glanced around. "Where"s the toy box?"
"I don"t have one. Sarah"s toys are in the bottom drawer of the buffet in the dining area."
He walked over to it. "Curse of a small house?"
"Yes. This is the other reason I hesitated to talk with you about opening an investment account for me. I definitely need something with more s.p.a.ce and I"m considering buying another house, and if I have extra money that"s probably where it will go."
He opened the bottom drawer, found the colorful cone and rings and pulled it out. Returning to the area that served as a living room, he handed Grace the cone and sat on the sofa.
As Grace dumped the multicolored rings on the floor in front of Sarah, Danny cautiously said, "You know, we"ve never made a firm decision about child support."
She glanced up at him with a smile. "Yes, we did. I told you I wouldn"t pay you any."
Her comment made him laugh and suddenly Danny felt too far away. He slid off the sofa and positioned himself on the floor across from Grace with Sarah between them, using the baby as a buffer between him and the woman who-whether she knew it or not-was tempting him to try something he swore he"d never try again. Even the idea of trying was new. He was shaky at best about trusting himself, and Sarah"s happiness also tied into their situation. He couldn"t act hastily, or let his hormones have control.
"Actually I think if we went to court a judge would order me to pay you something. So, come on. Let"s really talk about this."
Grace busied herself making sure all the rings were within Sarah"s reach. "Okay, if you want to pay something every month, why don"t you put a couple hundred dollars a month into a college fund for Sarah?"
"Because she doesn"t need a college fund. I can afford to pay for schooling." He took a breath, remembering that the last time they"d broached this subject she"d made him stop-the same way he made her stop when they got too far into his past. But resolving child support for their daughter was different than rehashing a past he desperately needed to forget. They had to come to an agreement on support.
"Look, I know you don"t want to talk about this. But we have to. I don"t feel right not contributing to her day-to-day expenses."
"I already told you that we"re going to be sharing custody," Grace said as she gently guided Sarah"s hand to take the ring she was shoving into her mouth and loop it onto the cone. "I will have her one week, but you will have her the next. Technically that"s the way we"ll share her expenses."
"I"d still like to-"
"Danny, I have a job. My house is nearly paid off. When I sell it, the money I get will be my down payment for the new one. I have a plan. It works. We"re fine."
"I know. I just-"
Though Danny had thought she was getting angry, she playfully slapped his knee. "Just for one afternoon will you please relax?"
He peered at her hand, then caught her gaze. "You slapped me."
She grinned. "A friendly tap to wake you up, so you"ll finally catch on that I"m right."
This was what he liked about her. She didn"t have to win every argument. She also knew when to pull back. Before either one of them said something they"d regret, rather than after. It was a skill or sixth sense he and Lydia had never acquired. Plus, she had wonderfully creative ways of stepping away and getting him to step away. Rather than slammed doors and cold shoulders, she teased him. And she let him tease her.
"Oh, yeah? So what you"re saying is that friendly tapping between us is allowed?"
"Sure. Sometimes something physical is the only way to get someone"s attention."
"You mean like this?" He leaped behind Sarah, caught Grace around the shoulders, and nudged her to the floor in one fluid movement, so he could tickle her.
"Hey!" she yelped, trying to get away from him when he tickled her ribs. "You had my attention."
"I had your attention, but you weren"t getting my point, so I"m making sure you see how serious I am when I say you should take my money."
She wiggled away from him. "I don"t need your money."
"I can see that," he said, catching her waist and dragging her back. "But I want to give it."
He tickled her again and she cried, "Uncle! I give up! Give me a thousand dollars and we"ll call it even."
"I gave you more than that for helping with Orlando," he said, catching her gaze. When their eyes met, his breathing stopped. Reminded of the bonus and Orlando, vivid images of their weekend came to Danny. He stopped tickling. She stopped laughing. His throat worked.
In the year that had pa.s.sed he"d all but forgotten she existed, convinced that she had lied about her pregnancy and left his employ because she was embarra.s.sed that her scheme had been exposed. Now he knew she"d been sick, dependent upon the bonus that he"d given her for expenses and dependent upon her parents for emotional support that he should have given her.
"I"m so sorry about everything."
She whispered, "I know."
"I would give anything to make it up for the hurt I caused you."
"There"s no need."
He remembered again how she had been that weekend. Happy, but also gracious. She wouldn"t take a promotion she hadn"t deserved. She wouldn"t pry, was kind to Orlando, never overstepped her boundaries. And he"d hurt her. Chances were, he"d hurt her again.