The Single Dad's Second Chance (9 page)

The statement was so patently absurd that Andrew almost laughed out loud. “I don’t know what you think constitutes a parade, Carol, but Rachel is the first woman I’ve ever invited into this house or introduced to my daughter.”

His response didn’t appease her. “Then why this one?” she asked him. “Why now?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe because I’m finally ready.”

“I’m not a prude,” Carol told him. “I understand that men have certain...needs.”

He was tempted to challenge the implication that women didn’t have the same needs, but that was definitely
not
a conversation he wanted to be having with Maura’s grandmother, so he bit his tongue.

“If all I wanted from Rachel was sex, I wouldn’t have brought her home to meet Maura.”

“I just think it’s too soon. I mean, how long have you even known this woman?”

“Too soon for whom?” he challenged, then shook his head, dismissing the question. “I appreciate that this is a difficult situation for you—”

“Do you?”

“I do,” he assured her. “But my relationship with Rachel is none of your business.”

Her lips thinned.

“Thank you again for bringing Maura home.”

“There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my granddaughter,” she assured him.

As Andrew closed the door behind her, it occurred to him that her statement sounded more threatening than reassuring.

* * *

While Andrew was occupied with his former mother-in-law, his daughter was busy spreading the goodies from her birthday party loot bag out on the table.

“There’s some pretty cool stuff here,” Maura said, nodding her head in approval.

Rachel surveyed the contents: purple bouncy ball, a bottle of bubble liquid, colorful ponytail holders, glittery nail stickers, a package of sugar-free bubble gum and a gift card for the movie theater.

“That is impressive,” she agreed.

“Grandma says it’s junk.”

“Then I guess she won’t want to share your bubble gum.”

Maura giggled. “She doesn’t chew bubble gum. ‘It’s unladylike,’” she said, in a fair imitation of Carol Wakefield’s superior tone.

There was plenty that Rachel could say in response to that, but she bit her tongue. Whatever her impression of the older woman, she was the little girl’s grandmother.

“What’s going on in here?” Andrew demanded, standing in the doorway with his fists on his hips. “Do I hear giggles? You know the rules—there are no giggles allowed, young lady.”

Of course, his mock severity only made the child giggle some more.

“Look what I got, Daddy,” she said, gesturing to the scattering of items.

“Wow. It almost looks like it was
your
birthday.”

“Next time we go to the movies, I can buy my own ticket,” she told him.

“And mine?”

“Maybe Rachel’s, too,” she said.

Andrew ruffled her hair. “You’re feeling better now?”

She nodded. “Can we play a game?”

He looked at Rachel. “What do you think?”

“Please,” Maura added.

Rachel knew she should go home and let Andrew have some quiet time with his daughter, but the little girl was looking at her so beseechingly, there was no way she could refuse. “What kind of game?”

“We have Candy Land,” Andrew said.

Maura wrinkled her nose. “Candy Land’s for babies.”

“What do you want to play?” her father asked her.

“Five Card Draw.”

Rachel’s brows lifted. “You want to play poker?”

“My brother babysat one night and turned her into a card shark,” Andrew explained.

Maura grinned proudly.

“I’m not sure I know how to play poker,” Rachel admitted.

“I’ll teach you,” the little girl said.

Andrew retrieved a deck of cards and a tray of poker chips from the dining room sideboard. While he shuffled the cards, Maura explained the basics to Rachel.

“The dealer gives you five cards. You look at your cards and decide what you wanna keep or trade—but you can’t trade any more than three.

“Unless you’ve gotta ace,” she clarified. “Then you can show your ace and trade the rest.

“After everyone has made their bets—that’s putting a chip in the middle of the table—the new cards are dealt and the best hand gets all the chips.”

“How do I know what’s the best hand?” Rachel asked.

“I need help with that, too,” Maura admitted, then went to a drawer in the sideboard and pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper. “I can never remember if a straight beats a flush, so Uncle Nate made me a chart.”

So Rachel spent the next hour playing poker with Andrew and his daughter—and the little girl trounced the adults soundly every time. Even when Rachel was feeling pretty confident looking at the four sixes in her hand, Maura bested her by laying down four tens.

“She has to be cheating,” Andrew lamented, tossing his cards onto the table. “No one is that lucky all the time.”

“I don’t cheat,” Maura said indignantly. “Uncle Nate says it’s just the luck of the draw.”

Andrew pushed his chair away from the table as the phone started ringing. “He probably cheats, too.”

While he went to the other room to take the call, Rachel gathered up the cards. “Maybe we should play Candy Land next time,” she said. “I’m pretty good at that game.”

“You really like Candy Land?” the little girl asked.

“It was one of my favorite games when I was a kid.”

“I didn’t know it was that old,” Maura said, so solemnly that Rachel couldn’t help but laugh.

“Even my mother played Candy Land when she was a little girl,” she told the child.

“Do you still have a mommy?”

She nodded, suddenly aware that her innocent comment might have opened a whole can of worms.

“My mommy’s dead,” Maura told her.

Rachel nodded again. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“But maybe, someday, I could get a new mommy.”

No, not just one can of worms—a crate filled with cans, Rachel decided. “Maybe you will,” she said lightly.

“But she’ll have to be someone my daddy likes.”

“That would probably help,” she agreed.

“Daddy likes you,” Maura said.

Thankfully Andrew’s return prevented her from taking the conversation any further.

Chapter Nine

M
aura had a secret.

A big secret. So big it felt like it filled up everything inside of her until she might burst if she didn’t tell somebody.

She decided to tell Kristy, because she was her best friend and best friends told each other everything. When the bell rang to indicate the start of recess, they grabbed their coats and headed out to the playground. They were only halfway across the field when the secret burst out of her.

“My dad has a girlfriend.”

Kristy stopped dead, her eyes big. “Really?”

Maura nodded. “Her name’s Rachel, and she has brown hair and blue eyes and she smells like vanilla cupcakes.”

“Are they gonna get married?”

The question dimmed her excitement, just a little. “I don’t know.”

Kristy continued toward the monkey bars, and Maura fell into step beside her. “My mom’s getting married to her boyfriend and I get to be a flower girl in the wedding and then I’m gonna get a baby brother or sister.”

Maura already knew all of that because Kristy told her the same thing almost every day. Except the baby part. She thought that might be new.

“Maybe my daddy and Rachel will have a baby, and then I can be a flower girl, too.”

“They hafta get married before they have the baby,” Kristy said as she swung herself up onto the top of the structure.

Maura sat down on top of the steps her friend had just climbed. “How come?”

Kristy hooked her feet through the bars and let herself fall back, so she was hanging upside down, her arms dangling toward the ground. Maura could do the same thing, but Mrs. Patterson said it was dangerous. If the teacher caught her, she’d get in trouble. Kristy didn’t care about getting in trouble.

“’Cuz that’s how it works,” her friend explained.

Maura wished she knew half the stuff that Kristy did.

“Oh—and they hafta kiss,” Kristy said, as if she’d just remembered that part.

“’Cuz kissing means they really like each other.”

Kristy looked funny nodding while she was upside down.

“I think my daddy kissed Rachel.”

“Didya see it?”

She shook her head.

“You hafta see it to know for sure.” The bell rang to signal the end of recess, and Kristy dropped down from the bars.

Maura decided that she would watch more closely the next time Rachel came over.

* * *

When Andrew and Rachel started dating, it had occurred to him that Maura might be resistant to him spending time with another woman. For more than three years, it had been just the two of them. She spent time with each set of grandparents, of course, and with his brothers and various cousins, but no one else—aside from Sharlene—had been part of their day-to-day ritual. As a result, he wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d balked at any change in that routine.

It didn’t take long for him to realize that his concerns were completely unfounded. Not only did Maura not mind when he included Rachel in their plans, she was disappointed if a day went by that she didn’t see her. His daughter’s easy acceptance of and obvious affection for Rachel should have eased his mind... So why did it make him
un
easy?

He was torn—not about his feelings for Rachel. Those were unequivocal. He wanted her with an intensity that he couldn’t ever remember experiencing before. Of course, the more than three years that he’d gone without sex might have something to do with it, but he suspected that Rachel herself was the biggest factor.

“So tell me about her.”

He looked up to find his mother in the doorway of his office. “Who?”

“Whoever is responsible for that smile on your face.”

He scrambled for a plausible explanation. “Our sales rep in Alabama.”

She shook her head. “No way were you thinking about business.”

“I never could fool you, could I?”

She went to the coffeepot on the other side of the room and poured herself a cup, a sure sign that she was settling in for a chat.

He held back a sigh. “Her name is Rachel Ellis.”

She brought the pot to his desk and topped up his cup, then lowered herself into a chair across from him. And because she was his mother, he found himself opening up.

“She’s... I know this sounds corny, but she’s unlike any other woman I’ve ever known. She’s beautiful and sexy, but it’s more than that. There’s just something about her that when I’m with her...she makes everything brighter.”

Jane smiled. “She makes you happy.”

“Yes, she does.”

“How long have you been seeing her?”

“A couple of weeks.”

“Has Maura met her?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“How did that go?”

“Well, once Rachel got over the shock that I had a child, it went well. She’s great with Maura—comfortable and natural. And Maura absolutely adores her.”

“And that worries you,” she guessed.

“A little.” He picked up his mug, sipped his coffee. “Maybe more than a little.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t realize how much Maura missed having a mother. Because I tried so hard to do everything right—to be everything she needed.”

“You’re a wonderful father.”

The conviction in her tone made him smile, until he remembered, “But Maura wants a mother.”

“Oh.” She sipped her coffee. “She told you this?”

He nodded.

“Before or after she met Rachel?”

“Before. When she learned that her best friend’s mom getting married again meant that Kristy was getting a new dad.”

“That’s not so surprising,” Jane assured him. “She’s an almost-seven-year-old girl who wants a ‘real’ family like her friends.”

“I know,” he agreed. “But now...I can see the hope shining in her eyes every time she looks at Rachel. And I know she isn’t thinking about a mother in abstract terms anymore—she wants Rachel to be that mother.”

“Is Rachel not interested?”

“I don’t know. We’ve only been dating a few weeks—it seems a little premature to even be asking those questions.”

“Maybe for most people,” she acknowledged. “But your situation is different.”

“Because I have a child to think about.”

She shook her head. “No. I mean, yes, of course, you do. But that isn’t what I meant.”

“What did you mean?”

“Of all my children, you’re most like me—you lead with your heart, even if you don’t realize it.”

He scowled at that.

She laughed. “A son never wants to hear that he’s like his mother, does he? But it’s not a bad thing, Andrew. You fell in love with Nina so quickly—and even though we cautioned that you were both too young, your feelings didn’t change. Even when you went away to different schools, you remained steadfast and loyal. You were seventeen when you decided that you were going to marry her and, ten years later, you did.

“I didn’t think you would ever get over losing her,” Jane said softly. “And it broke my heart to see how badly you were hurting and know there was nothing I could do to help. Thankfully you had Maura, and you were able to pull it together for her, because you knew that she needed you.

“But you lived in limbo for a long time. I know it was partly because you were grieving and partly because you were so focused on your duties as a father you couldn’t think about anything else. I’m happy to see that you’ve opened your heart and are actually living again.”

He wasn’t sure he agreed with her summary of the situation. His history with Nina was indisputable, but she was getting way ahead of herself with respect to his feelings for Rachel. Right now, he was just trying to take things one day at a time.

“So when do I get to meet her?” Jane asked.

“I’ll keep you posted.”

Of course, she wasn’t satisfied with that vague response. “Sunday,” she decided.

“Any Sunday in particular?”

“This Sunday. Bring her to dinner.”

“I’m not sure she’s ready to meet the family,” he hedged.

“Or that you’re ready for her to meet the family?”

“Maybe.”

“Look at it this way,” his mother suggested. “If she hangs around until dessert, you’ll know she has staying power.”

* * *

The more time Rachel spent with Andrew and Maura, the more she began to realize that her concerns had been unfounded. Whenever he and his daughter planned an outing, they invited her to go, too. Aside from Maura’s gymnastics classes and piano lessons, they didn’t venture out very often during the week. Andrew was diligent about the child’s eight o’clock bedtime on school nights, and that was okay with Rachel. It didn’t matter to her what they did; she just enjoyed being with them.

But one Wednesday night, in celebration of the perfect grade Maura had received on her spelling test, Andrew decided they should go out for dinner. He let his daughter choose the venue and she decided on Valentino’s.

Rachel had been wary about joining them, worried that Gemma might make too much of the fact that they were together. As it turned out, Gemma had taken the night off, so Marco was filling in for her.

Rachel was relieved to avoid a steely-eyed interrogation from her friend and pleased, as always, to see Gemma’s charming brother-in-law.

He lifted her hand and touched his lips to the back of it. “You get more beautiful every time I see you,” he told her.

“And your flirtation skills are more polished every time I see you.”

“Are you alone tonight?” He flashed the smile that had no doubt made countless female hearts sigh. “Because I would be happy to neglect my duties and share a glass of vino with you.”

“Then we would both face Gemma’s wrath,” she warned him. “And actually, I’m meeting...friends.”

She glanced around the dining room, looking to see if Andrew and Maura were already there. She spotted him almost immediately.

Marco sighed. “Ah,
bella,
you’re breaking my heart.”

“The extensive trail of ex-girlfriends behind you would suggest your heart is indestructible.”

“I used to think so,” he agreed. “Until I saw the way you smiled at him. Obviously he makes you happy.”

“He does,” she agreed.

“You let me know if that ever changes.”

She laughed. “Not in this lifetime, Marco.”

He guided her to the table where Andrew and Maura were seated.

Rachel and Andrew both ordered the penne with sausage and peppers; Maura had the three-cheese ravioli. While they ate, Maura happily regaled the adults with stories about recent happenings at school, most of them centering on her best friend, Kristy, with the occasional reference to other classmates and their teacher, Mrs. Patterson.

“Anyone for dessert?” Marco asked, when he’d cleared away their plates.

“Ice cream,” Maura immediately replied. Then she turned to her father. “Please, Daddy. Can I have ice cream?”

“I think a perfect spelling test warrants a reward,” Andrew agreed.

“With chocolate sauce and the cookie bits and whipped cream,” Maura told the waiter. “No strawberries.”

“Did I hear correctly—did you write a perfect spelling test?” Marco asked the little girl.

She nodded.

“No mistakes at all?”

She shook her head.

“In that case, you are entitled to exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to frozen dairy delights.”

Maura’s eyes went wide. “What does that mean?”

He bent down to whisper closer to her ear. “It means that you get to come into the kitchen to make your own sundae.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely,” Marco confirmed. “As long as your dad says it’s okay.”

“Can I, Daddy?”

“Sure,” he agreed.

Marco pulled back her chair for her and offered his hand. Rachel had to smile, amused by this proof that he could charm females of any age. Or maybe it was Maura who had charmed Marco, she considered, as they went off together to the kitchen.

“You have a truly wonderful daughter,” she said to Andrew.

“I’ve been warned that will probably change when she hits puberty.”

“It probably will,” Rachel agreed. “But for now, simple things like ice-cream sundaes and sleepovers still put a smile on her face.”

“I don’t know what I was thinking when I agreed to the latter,” he admitted.

“You were thinking that it would make her happy.”

“I was,” he agreed. “But I’d be a lot happier if I was the one having a friend sleep over.”

Her brows lifted. “Any friend in particular?”

His hand settled on her thigh, beneath the tablecloth. “One name in particular comes to mind.”

“Maybe Kristy’s mom will reciprocate and invite Maura to stay at her house next week.”

Before he could respond to that, Maura came back with her ice cream in an old-fashioned tulip glass: two scoops of vanilla dripping with gooey chocolate sauce, sprinkled with cookie crumbles, toffee bits and mini-M&M’s with a mountain of whipped cream topped with three cherries.

“Three cherries?” Andrew said.

Maura grinned. “One for me, one for you and one for Rachel.”

* * *

Friday night, the night of Maura’s sleepover, Rachel decided to make her own plans. But Holly had a date, most of her other friends were working or already had other plans, and even her nephews were busy, leaving her to her own devices. She didn’t really mind. She’d been working long hours lately and spending almost every free minute she had with Andrew and Maura, so she figured it was a good idea to give herself some space.

After she closed up the shop, she went to Buy The Book to pick up her favorite author’s latest release. When she got home, she was surprised to find Andrew’s car parked in one of the visitor spots by her apartment building. And the man himself standing outside the doors.

“I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by to see what you were doing tonight.”

“My plans include leftover lasagna, a glass of Chianti and—” she held up the book she carried “—a date with Eve and Roarke.”

“Could I tempt you to change those plans with the offer of a juicy steak, a glass of merlot and a date with me?”

More than the meal, she was tempted by the idea of being with him. “I thought Maura’s sleepover was tonight.”

“It was,” he agreed. “Until Kristy woke up with chicken pox this morning.”