She frowned at his warning. “I am not the least bit interested in that old man.”
“I know better.”
“You don’t know anything about it.”
“Care to test me?”
“You cannot blackmail me, Todd Winston.”
He laughed. “Don’t look now, but I just did.”
“You tried. That doesn’t mean it worked.”
“I guess we’ll see about that.” He glanced toward the door. “Why, there’s the judge now, right on time. I wonder if he’d like a little company for dinner.”
Color flamed in her cheeks. “You stay away from him, you hear me?”
“And you’ll steer clear of my relationship with Heather?”
She looked torn, but finally gave a curt nod. “As long as you don’t do anything to hurt her or that little girl.”
He nodded with satisfaction. “Deal.”
He turned to go, but Henrietta put her hand on his arm to catch his attention.
“If you send them away, it’s going to hurt them, Todd.”
He sighed heavily. “Not half as much as I would if they stayed.”
The diner had pretty much cleared out when Flo came in for a cup of coffee and a piece of pie.
“You’re late,” Heather said. “Joe’s already come and gone.”
“I know. I was watching from across the street.”
Heather gave her a sharp look. “Why? I thought the two of you hit it off the other night.”
“We did. He’s a terrific guy. That’s the trouble. He’s not going to be interested in a woman like me, not when he knows my whole story.”
Heather glanced around, saw that Henrietta was with the judge, who was the last customer, and that Angel was curled up and fast asleep in a booth. She poured a cup of decaf for herself and took a seat opposite Flo. Over the past few days, she had developed a real fondness for the flamboyant, plainspoken woman who was only a few years older than herself.
“Tell me,” she suggested. “What’s so awful that it would make Joe not care about you? He looked pretty interested to me.”
“He is. At least, he said he is. He called me at Jake’s and asked me out the other day, but I turned him down. It’s one thing to sit in here and flirt with him. It’s another to let it progress to anything more. He doesn’t deserve someone with all my baggage.”
“What baggage is that?”
Flo stared at her untouched pie, looking miserable. Her usually flawless makeup was smudged and her eyes were red-rimmed, as if she’d been crying. It was such a contrast to her usual devil-may-care demeanor that Heather was concerned.
“Flo, tell me. I promise I’ll just listen. No judging, no advice, unless you ask for it.”
“I told you the other day. I’ve got a kid,” Flo said finally, as if that were some sort of character flaw.
“So? Why is that a problem? A lot of men aren’t put off by single moms.”
“It’s not that,” Flo said. “It’s because she lives with Megan and Jake, instead of me. I glossed over it the other day, but the truth is I pretty much abandoned her.”
“But you’re back in her life now,” Heather reminded her. “Isn’t that what you told me?”
“I know, but that’s gotta look weird to Joe. If somebody else is my kid’s legal guardian, he must think it’s because I was really lousy at it. And the truth is, I was.”
Her expression turned sad. “I don’t know why I didn’t appreciate Tess more when she was with me. I guess I just felt overwhelmed all the time. I hadn’t told her father a thing about her. We were close for a while, but I was living in Laramie, and he just stopped coming around. When I found out I was pregnant, I never called him up and told him. I figured it was
my
deal, right? I should have been more careful.”
Her story was all too familiar. Heather could empathize completely. “I know exactly how you felt,” she said at once.
“You do?” Flo said, staring at her. “You don’t think I was awful, not telling him?”
“I pretty much did the same thing with Angel’s daddy,” Heather admitted. “I’m trying to make it right now, but it’s not working out the way I thought it would.”
Flo blinked, her eyes widening as understanding registered. “Todd?” she breathed in a hushed tone. “He’s Angel’s daddy?”
Heather hesitated, then nodded.
“Oh, boy. No wonder he looks shell-shocked most of the time these days. That’s why you were in to see Jake, isn’t it?”
“Yes. So you see, I do know what you were going through.”
“But you never walked out on Angel.”
Heather hesitated. “In a way, that’s what I was planning to do when I came here. Not for good. Just to get a break. I couldn’t handle doing it all on my own anymore.”
“That’s exactly how I felt, like I was going to do Tess more harm by keeping her with me than by giving her up.”
“Have you considered fighting for custody now?”
“Once in a while I think about it, but I’m not really ready. Tess is happy. I think she’s finally forgiven me for walking out on her. She’s real lucky to have so many people in her life who care about her. And I’m finally getting the rest of my life together. Megan made Jake hire me, mainly to drive him nuts, I think. I’m actually turning out to be a pretty decent secretary, though. Not that he has that much for me to do.”
Her expression turned despondent again. “Anyway, you can see why a man like Joe, a man who stuck it out with a woman through the most terrible time of her life, no matter how it hurt him, would never understand that I walked out on my own kid.”
“Maybe you’re not giving him enough credit,” Heather suggested. “He strikes me as a pretty decent guy, who’d try to see your side of things. For all you know, he’s already heard the whole story. It must have been a hot topic here in Whispering Wind for a while. Why not just be up-front with him and let him decide, rather than making the decision for him? You might be surprised by how things turn out.”
“You really think so?” Flo asked hopefully.
“I think it’s always better to take a chance and know for sure than to do nothing and spend the rest of your life wondering.”
“Are you going to take a chance with Todd?”
Was that what she wanted? Despite all her claims, did she want him back in her life for herself as much as she did for Angel?
Maybe so, she admitted to herself. Unfortunately the decision wasn’t up to her.
“I don’t know,” she told Flo honestly.
“Sounds to me like you’re pretty good at handing out advice, but not at taking it.”
“You could be right,” Heather conceded.
But Todd was here and her life was in New York. Maybe it wasn’t much of a life, but it was the one she wanted. Why start working on something that didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of being successful? Better to concentrate on bringing him and Angel together and leaving it at that.
“But you can’t recapture the past or dwell on past mistakes,” she told Flo. “You can only move forward. And that’s advice both of us would do well to remember.”
9
O
ver the next few days, Heather found herself settling into a surprisingly comfortable routine in Whispering Wind. She’d always been adept as a waitress, but she’d never particularly enjoyed it before. But here it was as if she were at the hub of a very small universe, in which the customers were rapidly turning into friends. The pace was leisurely. She had time to pause and chat, to ask about their families, to fill them in on Angel’s latest skill.
And while most of them knew by now that she’d once been on a television soap opera, they were more curious than awed. Even the ones who’d recognized her from the show accepted her as a friendly newcomer to town, rather than the villainess she’d portrayed on TV.
Equally important, Angel loved being the center of attention in the diner. And though she apparently hadn’t made the leap to the conclusion that Todd was her daddy, she always gravitated toward him whenever he was around, much to his obvious discomfort.
Even though there had been no real sign that his resistance was weakening, Heather was determined to wait Todd out. Sooner or later, he would come around and do the right thing. That was what Todd was all about. Pressuring him would accomplish nothing. She also thought the blood-test results would go a long way toward hastening his acceptance of the facts. He and Angel had been tested on Tuesday and preliminary results were due back anytime.
Since she knew exactly what the results would show, there was no anxiety for her during the wait, as there clearly was for Todd. Each time she saw him, he looked like a man awaiting sentencing for a felony, but at least he no longer stayed away from the diner.
In the meantime, she was finding the slow-paced rhythm of small-town life oddly satisfying, a welcome break from the struggles and frenetic pace back in New York. Because Henrietta was a morning person and Heather wasn’t, Henrietta took the early shift most days. Heather had time then to feed Angel, bathe her, take her along while she skated to the park, pushing Angel’s stroller in front of her. There Angel spent time playing on the swings and feeding her beloved ducks, before Heather went to the Starlight at eleven to get ready for the lunch crowd.
The park was where Jake found her on Wednesday morning. He sat down beside her on the bench.
“Nice day,” he observed.
Despite her faith in those test results, her stomach churned, anyway, at his unexpected arrival. “You didn’t come out here to talk about the weather, did you?”
“Nope.”
“The preliminary results are in?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“The blood types are compatible.”
Of course. “I told you they would be. Have you told Todd?”
“I’m heading out to the studio to tell him in person. Do you want to come along?”
She shook her head. “It’s better if you do it. He’ll believe you. He still doesn’t trust me. A part of him desperately wants to believe I’m trying to put something over on him. I wish I understood why, but I don’t. Not really. It’s not like him to be so cynical and suspicious.”
“I think a part of him knows the truth and it scares him,” Jake suggested. “That’s why he’s been so blasted tense. If he accepts the truth, then he has to deal with the guilt. Even though you made the decision to keep the pregnancy from him, he’ll find some way to blame himself for not knowing about it, for not being there to help you through it.”
“If that’s true, if this is just about guilt, what do you think he’ll do when he knows for sure?”
“Heather, you’ve known him longer than I have. What do you think he’ll do?”
She wished that what she
wanted
him to do matched what she
thought
he’d do. “He’ll insist on doing the right thing, or at least what he sees as the right thing. He’ll start throwing money in my direction.” She regarded Jake despondently. “Whatever it is, it won’t be enough. Angel needs her daddy. Jake, you should see her with Todd. I haven’t said a word, but she clearly senses a connection. She doesn’t let his cool responses put her off. She crawls into his lap whenever he’ll let her. If I give them enough time, I just know she’ll break through that reserve and he’ll come around.”
“How much time are you willing to give? Can you stay here indefinitely?”
She’d been thinking a lot about that the past few days. The urgency to get back to her life in New York had faded. Although she missed being on stage, missed the adrenaline rush of going to auditions, she didn’t miss the struggle just to stay financially afloat. Here she and Angel had everything they needed without her feeling as if she had to work two jobs.
With people like Henrietta and Sissy pitching in to spend time with Angel, she no longer felt overwhelmed. With a good friend like Flo, who understood what she was going through, this was turning out to be exactly the break she needed, much more like a vacation than what she’d envisioned when she’d made the plans to come.
She
could
stay awhile. It wasn’t as if she was abandoning her dream. She was just getting her batteries recharged. She would go back to New York revitalized, take Broadway by storm.
“Through the summer, anyway,” she said, making up her mind. “This is too important to rush.”
Jake nodded his approval. “Good. Then when Todd starts making offers, I’ll tell him that the terms for settlement include some form of custody.”
She’d been telling Todd exactly that since she’d arrived. He didn’t seem to be getting the message. “What if he flatly refuses?” she asked Jake. “I can’t very well
make
him spend time with her.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when the time comes,” Jake said. “For now, let’s just see where these preliminary test results and a little patience get us.”
Angel spotted Jake just then and came running over from the edge of the pond.
“Hiya, Jake!”
“Hey, sweetheart. How are the ducks today?”
“Hungry. I needs more bread, Mama.”
“You’ve already fed them all the stale bread Henrietta gave you. That’s enough for today. Otherwise they’ll get so fat, they’ll waddle.”
Angel giggled. “Mama, that’s what ducks do. They waddle.”
Jake winked at her. “You are so smart. I hope when my little boy or girl gets here, he or she is as smart as you.”
Angel looked intrigued. “You gonna have a baby?”
He nodded. “In a few months.”
“How long is that?”
“A long time, sweetie,” Heather told her, thinking that Megan wasn’t even showing yet. She had to wonder if they would even be here when the new baby arrived in the fall.
“Can I hold the baby?” Angel asked as she crawled into Jake’s lap.
“Of course you can,” he said. “You can come out to the ranch and play with the baby any time you want.”
Her eyes widened. “You gots a ranch?”
“Yep.”
“’Retta told me ’bout ranches,” she said, surprising Heather. “You gots horses?”
“Lots of horses.”
She patted his cheek. “I come see, okay?”
Jake laughed. “Anytime.” He glanced at Heather. “In fact, why don’t you drive out after work tonight? It’ll still be daylight in case that rattletrap you bought conks out on you.”
Heather hesitated. “I don’t know.” She glanced pointedly at Angel. “Megan might…” She didn’t finish.
“If you ask me, it’s time to call in the big guns,” he said, clearly guessing her worry. “Besides, Todd is coming over for dinner at six. Maybe the two of you can spend some time talking about the latest development while I take Angel to meet the horses.”
“Please, Mama,” Angel begged, clinching it.
“Okay,” Heather agreed, lured by the prospect of some time alone with Todd away from the diner. “I’ll try to get off by seven, which should get us out there by seven-thirty, right?”
“That’s perfect. Todd will have time to let his food and this news digest before you get there. Shall we save you some dinner?”
“No, thanks. I’ll grab something during my shift at work. Angel, too.”
Still holding Angel, Jake stood up, then put the little girl back on her feet. “I’ll see you later. If anything comes up during my meeting with Todd, I’ll let you know, so you won’t be caught off guard tonight.”
“Thanks, Jake.”
Although she hadn’t been anxious while awaiting the test results, Heather had a feeling she was going to be a wreck by nightfall, until she could gauge Todd’s reaction to the news firsthand.
Todd had almost backed out of going to Megan’s for dinner. Jake’s news about the blood test hadn’t really come as a shock, not after all these weeks of gazing into Angel’s green eyes. A part of him had been trying to face the possibility for some time now. But knowing with almost absolute certainty that he was a father shook him more than he cared to admit. He wasn’t sure he wanted to spend an entire evening with Megan surreptitiously studying him the way she’d been doing at the studio lately.
Unfortunately he’d realized that trying to get out of the dinner at the last second would only stir up her suspicions more. So he’d gone.
Now he sat at the dinner table, enduring more stares, trying to make strained small talk with Jake that didn’t involve a pint-size person. If it hadn’t been for Tess’s excited chatter about her plans for the last week of school and her upcoming summer vacation, it would have been a very tense evening.
When the doorbell rang at seven-thirty, he was almost relieved, though he found it somewhat worrisome that Jake didn’t seem to be the least bit surprised.
“That must be Heather,” he announced. “I’ll get it.”
As soon as Jake left the room, Todd frowned at Megan. “I didn’t know you’d invited Heather out here.”
“I didn’t. Jake did.”
“But you knew?”
“Not until just before you arrived.” She regarded him with feigned innocence. “Why? Does it bother you? I thought you two were old friends.”
“You know perfectly well we were more than friends, the operative word being
were.
”
“And now?”
“And now we’re not,” he said flatly, even as he wondered about the truthfulness of that. On some level, didn’t he want more, even though he knew the potentially disastrous consequences of such a desire?
Before Megan could question him about his claim, Jake led Heather into the dining room. Todd hadn’t thought things could get any more complicated, but then he spotted Angel tagging along in her wake. She caught sight of Todd and ran to his side.
“Up,” she demanded.
He reached for her instinctively, settling her on his lap. He realized as he did so that he’d almost gotten used to holding her, that the baby-powder smell of her had gotten as familiar and as much a part of his visits to the diner as the rich aroma of Henrietta’s coffee.
Megan’s gaze shot from him to Angel, then back again. “Oh, my,” she mouthed. Aloud, she asked, “Now, Heather I know, but who is this?”
“I Angel,” his daughter announced.
“Well, I’m Megan,” his boss responded. “And I am very glad to meet you.”
Megan’s eyes glinted with sudden determination. “Tess, why don’t you take Angel out to the barn? I’ll bet she’d love to see the horses.”
Clearly fascinated by the undercurrents, Tess balked. “What about dessert?”
“We’ll have it when you come back.” Megan glanced at Heather. “Would you like to see the horses, as well? Jake?”
It was less question than command. Jake dutifully stood. The traitor was probably anxious to be gone when the inquisition began.
“Come on, Heather,” Jake said with a rueful glance at Todd. “I think we’ve all been dismissed.”
“Maybe I’ll come along, too,” Todd said.
But before he could even stand up, Megan’s gaze locked with his. “Sit.”
Not another word was spoken as everyone except the two of them left the room. Then Megan turned to him with a fascinated expression. “Well?”
“What?”
“She’s yours, isn’t she?”
Todd sighed. He saw little point in denying it. “So they tell me.”
“What do you intend to do about it?”
“I’m putting a financial settlement together.”
“And then what?”
“They’ll go back to New York,” he said, desperate to believe that was the way it would turn out.
“And then what?” she persisted.
“Nothing.”
She stared at him, her eyes wide with shock. “That’s it?” she asked indignantly. “You’ll just cut your daughter out of your life except for a monthly check she and her mom will get in the mail?”
Todd winced. She made it sound so cold-blooded, so completely uncaring, when the opposite was true. He was protecting Angel. “It’s for the best,” he said defensively.
“Says who? Is that what Heather wants?”
“Not exactly.” He frowned at her. “This really isn’t any of your business, you know.”
She beamed at him, clearly undaunted. “Maybe not, but that’s never stopped either one of us before. That’s why we make such a good team. We don’t back off when we believe in something.”
“Megan, I will work this out.”
“Just like you always do,” she scoffed. “With logic and reason.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m here to tell you that logic and reason don’t have a thing to do with the emotional ties at work here. If you doubt that for an instant, take a good long look at me and my history, first with Tex and now with Tess. Stop fighting what your heart is telling you to do.”
He scowled. “How the hell do you know what my heart is telling me to do?”
“I just know, okay? I saw it in your eyes when those two walked into the room. Listen to your heart,” she repeated, then stood up, clearly satisfied that she’d delivered her message and that he’d heard it and mentally filed it away, as he always did with her commands.
“Now, why don’t we take a stroll to the barn and join the others?” she said, perfectly aware that the barn held all sorts of dangers he preferred to avoid.
“I’d rather eat dirt,” he muttered, even as he trailed after her.
“I heard that.”
“I meant for you to,” he retorted.
It was no huge surprise that within ten seconds of their arrival at the barn, everyone except him and Heather had disappeared. Megan was better than any director he’d ever worked with at getting people on and off stage. He wasn’t even sure how it had happened, but here they were, facing each other, neither of them quite sure what to say.