FATHER IN TRAINING (11 page)

"Yes."

"And you've recovered?"

Sandy
paused.
Recovered
wasn't the word she would have chosen. That implied an emotional bereavement. She missed Thomas, but she hadn't mourned him as the lost love of her life. "I'm making a fresh start, if that's what you mean."

"It's good enough."

"How long have you lived here?"
Sandy
asked.

"Three years."
Elizabeth
placed the last can in the pantry and turned the empty box over. While she worked the bottom free so the box could
lay
flat, she stared off into the distance. Her brown eyes took on a dreamy expression. "I met Travis the second day I was here. He pulled me over for speeding."

Sandy
stared at her. "That sounds really romantic."

"Oh, it was." She laughed. "I know it doesn't sound like much, but I had appendicitis, and he rushed me to the hospital. While I was there, he took care of Mandy, and when I was released, he insisted I stay with him while I recuperated. I didn't know a soul in town, I had a new job I wasn't going to be able to start and he was just there. My own personal knight in shining armor." She picked up another box and looked inside. "Glasses," she said, rustling the tissue they'd been wrapped in.

"Cupboard next to the sink,"
Sandy
said, pointing.

Elizabeth
carried the box around the piles in the center of the floor and set it down. "
Jordan
says the reason Jessica is the first girl born to the Haynes family in four generations is that we're the first couple to be in love and faithful to each other." She pulled out the first glass and set it on the shelf.
"I
think it's because my mother is one of four girls and her mother is one of six girls. All the relatives on her side of the family only ever have girls. Maybe our body chemistry only likes girl sperm. Of course, I would never tell
Jordan
that and ruin his theory."

Sandy
cleared her throat. She emptied the box of plates and bowls and moved on to one filled with plastic food-storage containers. "How is
Jordan
? I mean, I knew him in high school. I'm curious as to how he—"

"Turned out?"
Elizabeth
grinned. She had a pretty, heart-shaped face with big eyes and a ready smile. "He's the quiet one of the bunch. He still keeps to himself. Travis calls him the black sheep because he became a fire fighter instead of a sheriff. He's still single," she added hopefully.

"No, thanks. Jordan and I were destined to be friends. We tried dating for a while, but it never worked out."

Elizabeth
crossed the room. When she was standing next to
Sandy
, she spoke in a quiet voice. "What were they really like in high school? Were they as wild as everyone says?"

Sandy
remembered her few dates with
Jordan
. He never tried to kiss her, so she couldn't speak to that reputation. She thought about the afternoons she'd spent in the Haynes family's kitchen, helping Kyle with his homework, listening to Craig, the oldest, brag about his exploits with the college girls or just talking with
Jordan
. "I think they were lonely. Their father was never here, their mother was angry all the time. I don't want to blame her, she lived in a difficult situation, but I think she could have done better for the boys. She should have taken them away, or not left so abruptly." She shook her head. "I shouldn't be second-guessing the poor woman. I can't imagine what it must have been like living with their father."

"Have they changed?"
Elizabeth
asked.

"No. They're still good-looking charmers with the ability to make a woman weak in the knees."

"Oh?"
Elizabeth
raised her eyebrows. "Is it all the Haynes men who make you react like that or is it just Kyle?"

"Just—"
Sandy
clamped her mouth shut. "I see Travis has been teaching you how to grill prisoners."

Elizabeth
laughed. "Your secret is safe with me." She leaned closer. "Travis has this trick he does with his cowboy hat. It's silly, really. He takes it off and tosses it across the room. It always lands exactly where he wants it to." She rolled her eyes. "Drives me crazy. All he has to do is toss that damn hat and I'm putty in his hands. The worst part is he knows it and uses it against me. I can't stay mad at the man for more than two minutes at a time."

Elizabeth
walked back over to the box on the counter and continued putting away glasses.
Sandy
bent over and thrust a handful of plastic covers onto a bottom shelf. She would organize them later. But instead of thinking about tidy stacks of food containers, she remembered how Travis had placed his hand on the small of
Elizabeth
's back as he'd escorted her into the house. She could see the look on his face as he'd stared down at his sleeping daughter. Thomas had never been one to bother with polite gestures and he'd never sat still long enough to watch the children sleep. If he wanted to play with them and they were napping, he just woke them up.

"Travis says Kyle was hurt the worst by his mother leaving,"
Elizabeth
said.

Sandy
flattened the empty box and reached for another. "He was. I'd forgotten about that, but I do remember when it happened. It was summer, right after Kyle turned fifteen.
Jordan
called and asked me to come over. All four boys were sitting there, around the kitchen table." She frowned at the memory. "They looked lost. Even Craig who was already on his own. I cooked dinner, I don't remember what,
then
sat up with Jordan and Kyle. Travis left to do something."
Sandy
remembered a pretty redhead who'd come by to offer comfort, but she didn't think
Elizabeth
would want to hear about that.

"I'm sure he was with a woman,"
Elizabeth
said evenly. "Don't look so surprised that I guessed. Travis has been very honest with me about his past. I know why his first marriage failed, and the names of all the girlfriends he can remember. He spent a lot of time believing he didn't have what it takes to be a decent husband or father. I don't mind about what happened before he met me. As long as he doesn't try what his father did."

"Yeah, that was pretty awful." At least Thomas had been faithful to her. It hadn't been enough, but she consoled herself that things between them could have been worse. She fingered her ring.

"Kyle believes—"
Elizabeth
stopped and stared at her. Her brown eyes widened. "Oh, no. I'm so sorry. I didn't realize. When Kyle asked me over to help you and wanted us to meet, I sort of assumed … I'm sorry."

"What?"
Sandy
asked, baffled.

Elizabeth
pointed to the ring
Sandy
still wore. "You must have loved your husband very much. I shouldn't be going on about Kyle when you're still in mourning. I'm sorry."

"Please don't apologize. I'm not still in mourning. I do wear the ring to remind me of Thomas, but not for the reasons you might think." She used this symbol of their marriage as a talisman against making the same mistake twice. She didn't want to get involved with someone who refused to grow up. Someone who wouldn't take his responsibilities seriously, and who would rather have a good time than do what was right.

"He must have been a special man,"
Elizabeth
said.

Sandy
was saved from answering when Kyle came in the room. He was carrying another casserole dish. He set it on the counter. "Nichole and Mandy have become fast friends," he said. "The TV and VCR are working great. Travis is assembling Blake's bunk beds and Lindsay is unpacking her clothes. The kid has a lot of them, huh?"

Sandy
blinked. She didn't know which question to address first. "What's that?" she asked instead, pointing to the foil-covered dish.

Elizabeth
started to chuckle. She put her hand over her mouth to muffle the sound, but even so, Kyle glared at her. "It's a casserole," he said, then turned to
Elizabeth
. "What's so funny? I'm just being neighborly."

Sandy
wondered how long those words would come back to haunt her. "It's very nice, Kyle," she said.

"It's a yam casserole," he told her.

"Yams?"

"Don't you like them?"

"Sure, it's just… Thanks, really."

Elizabeth
burst out laughing. "I knew it. Oh, Kyle, come over one afternoon and I'll teach you to make something else."

He frowned at his sister-in-law.
Sandy
didn't know what was going on, but it was pretty obvious his male pride had been bruised. "I'm happy with the yams,
Elizabeth
. Everyone else seems to like them."

"They're delicious, but maybe you could try branching out. Maybe a different
vegetable,
or something with meat."

"I'll go help Travis," he said, addressing no one in particular. He stalked out of the room.

Elizabeth
continued to laugh, then finally quieted and wiped her eyes. "I shouldn't be so hard on him."

"What's the problem? Is the casserole awful?"

"No, it's wonderful. You're going to love it. It's just that it's all he knows how to make. It doesn't matter if it's a barbecue, the holidays or something like this. If he's expected to bring food, Kyle shows up with his yam casserole." She leaned over and lifted the foil, then plucked out one of the miniature marshmallows and stuck it into her mouth.

Elizabeth
eyed her speculatively. "You should be honored. Now that I think about it, Kyle has only made his yams for family. He must think you're very special."

Sandy
felt a blush climbing up her cheeks. She turned back to the box she'd been unpacking and started working. She didn't want to think about that. She didn't want to know why Kyle was being so nice to her. She was afraid if she allowed herself to hope, she would do something foolish, like maybe start to care. And she couldn't. Not about him. She knew exactly what she wanted in a man. This time she wasn't going to make a mistake. Kyle Haynes couldn't be more wrong for her.

Chapter 6

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^
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K
yle
stood on
Sandy
's porch and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He stared at the door.

Leave, he told himself. She didn't want him around, and he wasn't the sort of guy who showed up where he wasn't welcome. She'd made her feelings clear. Friends. Neighbors. Nothing more. So why was he standing here about to make a fool of himself? Why couldn't he resist her?

Maybe it went back to high school. Maybe deep inside him, some fourteen-year-old kid wanted his second chance. The years they'd been apart had done nothing to change his attraction to her. He only had to think about her, to see her smile, or watch her touch one of her kids, and he started wishing he was the kind of man who believed in love, marriage and forever. But he didn't. He believed that people he cared about left him. Sooner or later, whether they'd intended to or not, they disappeared.

So he left first. Because it was easier and safer. So what the hell was he doing standing on
Sandy
's porch? She wasn't the short-term affair type. She was a responsible woman, a widow with three kids. They had nothing in common. He should be grateful she was pushing him away. But he wasn't. He couldn't stop thinking about her, wanting her, wanting to be with her. He would either have to get over it, or get used to making a fool of himself.