Waiting for You (RightMatch.com Trilogy) (10 page)

Joe hadn’t made the connection to what he’d done with Evie Falk and Dana’s reaction with Ruth’s predicament. Saving people was his job, but he saw the similarity now.

“I’ve tried to make up for my unintentional part in her accident the best I can,” Ruth continued. “And I’ve learned to live with my guilt. Dana’s adjusted to all that, too.”

“I—I’m glad.”

“And if you want to stay in her life, you’ll have to work on tamping down your resentment of me.”

“Am I going to get a chance to stay in her life?”

“Yes.”

Cops were suspicious by nature and he wondered if anyone could be this forgiving? “Why are you doing this? You have the power to get rid of me.”

“I don’t want to get rid of you. I want, have always wanted, Dana to find a loving relationship with a man. The only one she’s ever really cared about was that idiot Jacques, who dumped her without even trying to adjust to her situation.”

Dana had mentioned the jerk.

“She’s afraid to have a relationship with a man. She’s afraid to trust another one.”

“What about Craig?” The guy she’d dated when Joe was making his decision.

“Milquetoast, compared to you.”

He allowed himself a chuckle.

“I’m going to tell you this, and I’m trusting you not to use it against her.”

He nodded.

“She likes you, Joe, a lot. She’s never been interested in any man as she seems to be in you. Her feelings for you are special. I think a relationship between you two holds great possibilities for you both.”

“Thank you for telling me that.”

“In return, I want your promise to go to any extremes you have to not hurt her.”

“I promise. Of course.”

She straightened. “Now, that’s over; we have one more thing to talk about. Sit down for this.”

Like an obedient school child, Joe sat, but Ruth remained standing. He often did that to gain advantage of suspects. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I know about your father’s illness. Furthermore, I know you haven’t told Dana about him.”

For a moment, the lights seemed dimmer, the air harder to breathe. The reaction hadn’t happened in a long time. “I don’t talk about my father.”

“I guessed as much.”

“H-how do you know?”

“I researched you, of course. You don’t honestly think I’d let my girl get involved with someone I hadn’t done a background check on?”

“Apparently not.”

“You’re easy to find on the internet. Home town boy makes good at Syracuse. Your older brother is a big shot. Your younger one a boy genius. Bios of your family talk about your father’s ALS, and Spence has the fundraiser every other year.”

“So you connected the name Moretti.”

“I connected the dots, yes.”

His whole body was stiff with opposition to this discussion, but Dana was worth fighting for. “And?”

“I have to ask you outright if you’re capable of dealing with Dana’s condition when it’s bound to bring back what happened with your father and his illness. I take it he ended up in a wheelchair.”

Joe nodded. “My brother asked me the same question.”

Now Ruth’s eyes were filled with concern. And maybe a bit of fear. “What did you say?”

“Yes, I think I can deal with the connection. I
want
to. That’s the best assurance I can give you. Dana and I already talked about there being no guarantees in a dating relationship.”

“I’ll accept that for now. But you have to tell her about your father’s condition.”

“I will. In my own time.”

“No, now.”

“I’m going to have to take a stand here, Ruth. I know my mind and don’t think it’ll be an issue. But I’ll tell her in my own time.”

Ruth’s brown knitted. “People have hidden resentments and difficulties that they aren’t even aware of. Your unconscious mind could be keeping you from telling Dana, could be sublimating the connection with her and your father. And it could surface at a very bad time and hurt you both.”

“Ruth, I can hardly deal with my conscious mind most of the time, let alone deal with my inner id.” He swallowed hard. “I need time.”

“I don’t know.”

“I have to do this my way.”

“All right,” Ruth said reluctantly. “But if you don’t tell her in what I consider a timely manner, I will.”

“Fair enough.”

“Are we done here?”

Ruth watched him. “No, one more thing.”

Joe arched a brow.

“I want you to paint this office and bathroom.”

“Really, why?”

“Because my guess is, Dana’s not going to be happy about my insistence on keeping you in her life and she won’t want to see you for a while. This way, she’ll have no choice. You seem physically able to paint a few rooms.”

“I am. When can I start?”

The woman had a stellar smile. “As soon as possible.”

Chapter 6

“Daddy, I cooked you breakfast.” Joe’s daughter Kara was in the kitchen, dressed in dancewear like Dana’s, when he came out of his first-floor bedroom, showered, ready to work at Devlin Dance Studio. He wore old paint-spattered cutoffs, battered sneakers and a Syracuse T-shirt, all of them ready for the rag bag. Funny how he was looking forward to a day of menial work. And to seeing Dana. She’d been cool to him when he’d said good-bye yesterday, but he was hoping proximity would help warm her up.

“Thanks, honey. You didn’t have to do this.” He glanced at the clock. “What time do you have to be at dance camp?”

“Nine. But we can go early, so you can drop Kaelyn off at art class first.” She slid pancakes onto a plate and placed them in front of him, accompanied by a kiss on the cheek. All he really wanted was coffee, but he picked up his fork and dug in. “Where is the little munchkin?”

“In bed upstairs.” After the divorce, Joe had remodeled the whole second floor of his newly purchased Cape Cod into two girls’ bedrooms. The kids had been hurt by the split between their parents and he’d wanted to make coming to stay with him as comfortable as possible. He’d do anything for his girls. “Kae sleeps till the last minute.”

His daughters were different in physical appearance, but more so personality-wise. Kara was always up early and a perfectionist, especially in dance where she performed gracefully, with ease, in front of hundreds. Kaelyn was last minute on everything. She preferred to be behind the scenes, which he believed was one reason she liked the solitary effort of art.

Kara served her own food, then joined him at the table. At least she ate well, unlike some of her other anorexic dancer friends. “What are you going to do today after you drop us off?” She took in his clothes. “Paint?”

“Uh-huh.”

“At Uncle Spence’s?”

“No, at a dance studio in town.”

Without looking at him, she poured a modest amount of syrup on her plate and asked casually, “Which one?”

“Devlin Dance.”

Kara’s fork clattered to her plate. When her head snapped up, her brows were raised and her eyes wide. “Shut up.”

Joe knew teen lingo and didn’t take offense. “Honest to God.” The solemn oath in their family. No lie could be told with that vow accompanying it.

“Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Dad, that’s the best dance studio ever. The real Dana Devlin owns it. I
love
her. I’ve got DVDs of most of her performances and I’ve watched them all twice.”

“Honey, you know what happened to her, right?”

“Yeah. It’s so sad, but she still demonstrates and wrote the whole curriculum for her school.” Her eyes widened. “And she just won that award. My dance teacher said she was green with envy.”

“Then why don’t you take dance at Devlin’s?”

“I’m good enough, but her studio’s hard to get into.”

She certainly was good. In June, she’d had a solo in her recital, which had brought the roof down. And he’d been mind-boggled that the beautiful child up on stage was his. Even just looking at her and Kaelyn, he sometimes experienced the same emotion.

“Their classes are small. And the waiting list a mile long. Mom calls them every year, but they enroll previous students first and
nobody
drops out. When girls graduate, they take a few new people, but I’m too far down on the list.” Kara frowned. “How do you know her?”

Joe hadn’t wanted to tell the kids about his online-dating search. The internet was rife with predators and he didn’t want
them
to think they could go online to find boyfriends. “I met her through some people I know. I’m painting as a favor to her.”

Kaelyn, his seven-year-old, stumbled into the kitchen. Her curly hair needed combing, but she was dressed in cute shorts and top.

“Hey, sleepyhead.”

“Hi, Daddy.” Like Kara, she kissed his cheek and grinned when she caught sight of the table. “Pancakes!”

Kara started to get up.

Joe said, “Sit, Kara, and finish your meal. I’m done. I’ll make some for Kae.”

As he fixed Kaelyn’s breakfast, he listened to the girls’ conversations. Kara told Kaelyn what Joe was doing today—which Dana still knew nothing about. Kaelyn responded with suitable awe about the dance studio, which apparently her sister had told her about. But when he turned around, he saw a shadow of sadness on his younger daughter’s face. Whereas Kara was as graceful as a gazelle, Kaelyn wasn’t. She had artistic talent that she’d gotten from her mother, an interior designer, but felt bad about her physical awkwardness. He made a note to be more aware of that.

After a pleasant half hour with his daughters, Joe dropped them off at their respective destinations and then, truck already packed, he headed for Devlin Dance. Yesterday, all Dana had said to him was,
No matter what Ruth thinks, I’m still mad at you. Don’t talk to me. And go away.

Not a chance, he thought, not one freakin’ chance. Sure, there were tons of hurdles to mount in this relationship, but he’d be damned if he didn’t give it the old college try!

o0o

While Ruth was out doing errands, Dana had come into the studio early Friday morning to make sure the rooms and the schedule were ready for the weeklong workshop to start on Monday. The girls were all good dancers and had taken classes from her for years. Still, they had a lot to learn. Even when she’d been at the top of her game, she herself had never stopped taking classes. Now she could think about that time in her life without gut-wrenching pain and only a modicum of sadness. She glanced over at a row of DVDs that had been made through the course of several years of her career. Though she’d come a long way, she’d never been able to watch one of those, and they were displayed only because she let the girls borrow them.

There was a clatter from the front of the studio. Ruth rarely came in that way, as they had a private entrance in the back. Dana waited a bit and heard more noise. She was about to roll away from her desk when Joey appeared in the doorway. “Hi, pretty lady.”

Her eyes narrowed, though her heart did a little two-step at seeing him. God, he was overwhelmingly male. “What are you doing here?”

He held up a paintbrush. “I’m gonna spruce the place up.”

“You’re kidding, right? I told Ruth to hire some people to do that.”

“She hired me yesterday.” Leaning indolently against the doorjamb, he smiled at her. He had several of them—one of pure joy, one tinged with sadness and this one—cocky as all hell. “I got a lot to make up for, remember. Ruth’s a hard taskmaster. I won’t get out of line again.”

Though she appreciated his irreverent humor online, this was not a joking matter. “Is nothing sacred to you?”

His expression turned serious. “My girls.”

She couldn’t very well criticize him for that. From what he’d told her online, he was a great dad, a trait she admired in a man. Her own father had always been focused on her career. When it had ended, he’d tried his best, but the crux of their relationship was gone.

“As a matter of fact, my girls and I were talking about you this morning.”

“You and your daughters? Why?”

“I think I told you Kara takes dance.”

“You mentioned it online when you found out I was a dancer and were about to tell me where yesterday.”

“Are.”

“Excuse me?”

“From what I saw yesterday, you still
are
a dancer.”

At his observation, her whole body suffused with pleasure. It curled all warm and fuzzy inside her. No one, not one single person, ever referred to her as a dancer anymore. “Kara?”

“She talked about this studio as if it was Buckingham Palace and you were the Queen of England.” Someone had once called her the Queen of Dance. “She’s watched your DVDs and couldn’t say enough about you.”

“That’s sweet. You never did tell me where she takes lessons.”

“Dance Dimensions.”

“It’s a good school.” She looked around as if a thought struck her. “Joe, I’d take her here as a favor to you, but what if we don’t…if you and I don’t…”

“I understand. I’d never want her in the middle.”

“And I don’t socialize with my students or their families, though they invite me to things.” And some of them felt she was aloof because of it. Dana preferred to think she was being professional.

“I just hate to sacrifice Kara’s needs because of me.” He was thoughtful. “But maybe you can help me with something else because you know girls. It’s Kaelyn I worry about most. She’s a klutz, but a budding Van Gogh. Still, she feels inferior because Kara shines at dance and gets all the attention.”

“I’m sorry. Maybe she’ll outgrow it.”

“She needs help. I’ve got to think about this some more. If you have any suggestions let me know.” He pushed off the wall and crossed to her desk. “I gotta start painting. Ruth said I have to finish today.” Bending over, he kissed her quickly on the mouth. “I’m glad you’re not mad at me anymore.”

“I am.” She had to battle back a smile. “I forgot.”

He smoothed a hand down her hair and left.

In minutes, he returned with a ladder, a can of paint and brushes sticking out of his pocket. He headed to the bathroom to start in there. At least she wouldn’t have to look at him. She’d simply ignore him.

Even if he did turn a small radio on low and begin to sing with a tune.
Brown Eyed Girl
substituting
blue
for brown. She quelled another smile.