What a Woman Needs (15 page)

She stood up. “Bryan, can you keep an eye on Maggie? I’ll be right back.” She was so done with this crap.

 • • • 

W
HOA,
there, kiddo! You almost knocked me off my seat.” Bryan straightened up and settled Maggie on his knee, trying to get his wind back as he watched her mom climb down the bleachers. Well, to be truthful, her mother’s backside as it swished down those bleachers had a hand in stealing his breath, but Maggie had done the rest of the job with a knee to his gut.

“You came, Bryan! Just like you said you would.”

Her smile finished the wind-stealing job. “Well, sure I did. Why say it if you’re not going to do it?”

Maggie kissed his cheek, removing the residual air from his lungs. “Jason said you wouldn’t. That you were too busy to come. I told him he was wrong and now you showed him.”

He ran a surprisingly shaky hand over her hair. “I always stand by my word, Maggie. You can count on that.”

Oh God, what was he doing? He shouldn’t be here, telling her she could count on him, or dispensing fatherly advice to Mark or compassion to Tommy. Holding Maggie in his arms and on his knee, happy as shit to have her there. And being close to Beth . . .

One of her friends had a hungry look in her eyes, and the other was starstruck, but he only had eyes for Beth. He’d seen her sitting in the stands the moment he’d gotten out of his car in the parking lot. Like a beacon, the sun had shone on her hair and it’d called to him. He’d seen her smile light up her face and it was as if she’d bewitched him; he’d half floated across the grass to get to her.

He would have floated all the way up the bleachers if not for the ref’s whistle and Tommy and Mark’s words. Their argument had pulled him out of the fog he’d been in ever since the boys had asked him to come today when all he’d been able to think about was being with Beth and her family.

The stands around them erupted in cheers, and Bryan dragged his gaze off Beth as she walked on the track to watch the boys high-fiving another kid who was walking around with the soccer ball tucked proudly under his arm.

“Oh, look, Mrs. Harte! Ben made the goal!”

The woman—Jenna?—finally stopped staring at him and started cheering. “Go, Benny!”

Her son looked up and shook his head.

“Crud. I forgot he doesn’t like that name,” his mom muttered.

“Most boys outgrow their nicknames before their moms do. My grandmother still calls me—” Bryan shut his mouth.
That
was personal. He didn’t need it bandied about in the media. Besides being embarrassing, his grandmother would be hurt if people made fun of her nickname for him. And “Baby Bry-Bry” wasn’t something he wanted to be known by. Only Gran could call him that and get away with it.

He had to admit he liked when she did. Usually it was when he had her wrapped in a big hug and she’d whisper it in his ear. “You’re my favorite, Baby Bry-Bry.”

He knew it wasn’t true, that she called each one of them her favorite, but it’d always made him feel special. Wanted. Loved. He’d needed that in the years after their parents had been killed.

“What’d she call you, Bryan?” Maggie tugged on his collar.

“A special nickname just for me. It’s private, Maggie.”

“I don’t have a private nickname. Kelsey calls me Mags. Jason calls me runt.”

“Older brothers can be annoying. I know, I have two.”

“I have three brothers. Tommy and Mark don’t call me names, only Jason. And Kelsey. But that was only ’cause she was ’barrassed because she didn’t want you to know she likes you.”

He could see the interest perk up in the women. Great. Kelsey wouldn’t appreciate this gossip getting around any more than she’d appreciated Maggie’s glee-filled disclosure.

“You shouldn’t have told me, Maggie. You knew it’d hurt her.”

Maggie’s lips twisted and she stopped patting his arm. “I guess.”

“Did you apologize to her?”

“No.”

“I think you should when we get home.”

Maggie’s face lit up with a smile exactly like her mother’s and it was one more reason for the air in his lungs to take a hike.

“
Are
you coming home with me? I thought you didn’t want to live with us?” Maggie’s voice raised an octave and a few decibels. The two women’s interest suddenly was no longer on the game.

Great.
Beth
didn’t need this kind of gossip getting around. “Just like some people go to an office, or a restaurant, or stores to work—”

“Or an airplane.”

“Or an airplane. Just like they all go to work, I go to your house to work. I don’t live there.”

“But you could. We need a daddy. Grandma said so the last time she and Grandpa came to visit.”

Out of the mouths of babes. And grandparents.

Though, if he were honest with himself, he had to say that he kind of liked the idea.

And that thought seared across his brain, jump-started his nervous system, and buried itself somewhere in his chest cavity. Right near his heart.

G
IVE
me the camera.”

“Back off, lady.”
Click, click
.

The asshole didn’t even stop taking pictures. Beth had a feeling he’d taken them during her entire walk across the park.

“That is my child in those pictures and I won’t allow you to sell those photographs.”

“Her face will be blurred. That’s the way we do it with minors.”

“And mine?”

“Look, lady. Bryan Manley is big news. You’re big news. The two of you together could pay my rent for a year.”

“Rent? This is about your
rent
?” Beth wanted to rip the camera from this guy’s hands, but she’d get in more trouble for that than allowing pictures of her to surface. She didn’t need a mug shot on top of that. “We’re talking about my
family
. My privacy. My life. How can you justify your rent for my family? Haven’t you people done enough damage? Do you know what it’s like to have to calm my children down when the cameras won’t stop? Answer their questions about why people won’t leave them alone? And now you’re going to thrust me into the spotlight again?”

“Then you shouldn’t be hanging out with a movie star. Kinda goes with the territory, ya know?”

“I’m not
hanging out
with him. He works for the cleaning service. He’s doing a job. Leave him alone.”

“Seem awful protective of someone who’s working for you. Like you got something to hide.”

She fisted her hands, trying desperately not to rip his face off. Forget about the camera. She took a deep breath and counted to ten, knowing it’d do no good. Not when he threatened her family.

She tried another tactic. “What’s your name?”

“No way, lady. I’m not telling you that. I don’t need to be sued.”

“Then who are you going to sell these pictures to?”

“Again, not telling you. I don’t need you making any threatening moves before I get paid. Once they’re theirs, sue all you want. I’m in the clear.”

“Not if you touch me you’re not.” In a move even she wouldn’t have expected, Beth ripped her own shirt sleeve and messed up her hair. “One word. One shout from me and this is over. Don’t make me do it.” She had her hands on the waistband of her shorts.

“Jesus, lady, you’re crazy.”

“No, I’m a mother protecting her children. I’ll do whatever I need to in order to save them from the hell you’re about to put them through. Give me the memory card.”

“No way.” He took a step back, thankfully not taking any more pictures.

Beth tugged her shorts and the button popped free. She took a step toward him. “One more step and I start yelling.”

The guy looked hesitant. Good. Let him wonder if she was serious.
She
wasn’t wondering; she’d do whatever it took to get those pictures and protect her family.

She opened her shorts a little more. “You willing to risk it? I’ve got nothing to lose that you’re not going to lose for me with those pictures.”

The guy looked around as if he was expecting someone to jump out of the trees around them.

Beth took a deep breath, surprisingly calm for what she was about to do. She opened her mouth to scream.

“Don’t.” The photographer choked on the word. “I can’t risk it. My career will be over on the suspicion alone. My wife . . . she’ll leave.”

“Is it worth it? Paying your rent this way? For all you’ll lose?” Beth kept one hand on her shorts and held out the other. “Give me the memory card.”

The guy looked like he was ready to bolt.

“Don’t do it, Steve.”

He looked at her, his eyes wide.

“Steve McAllister. It’s on your camera bag. I can ID you.”

“Shit. Motherfucking shit.”

“Give me the memory card, Steve.” She wanted to keep saying his name; let him know she knew it.

“Fuck.” He looked at the back of the camera. Then at her. Then at the trees behind them.

“Give me the card, Steve, or I scream. Now.” She ruffled her hand through her hair for good measure. “You willing to risk everything?”

“Fuck no, lady.” He opened the camera and took out the card. “Keep your fucking pictures. Your privacy’s toast anyway. Everyone knows who you are. Who your kids are. Who your husband was. You’ll never get any peace.”

She didn’t rise to his bait. She just took the memory card and stuck it inside her bra. Now if he went after it, she really would have something to pin on him.

“If I see you again, I’ll tell your wife you came on to me for a story. I’ll make her believe me; don’t think I won’t.”

She had the satisfaction of watching him blanch. Good. Now he knew what it was like to have his family and his personal life threatened.

 • • • 

S
HE
was surprisingly calm as she headed back to the bleachers. She’d worked on her hair, zipped up her pants, but the button was gone and the rip in her shirt was going to be attributed to getting stuck on a tree branch.

“Mommy!” Maggie scrambled off Bryan’s lap and bounded down the bleachers to her. “Can Bryan come to the ice cream parlor with us? Can he?”

“Okay, sweetheart.” Why not? She was looking her worst, feeling grumpy, and her clothes were ripped. Absolutely the best time to be seen out and about with Bryan Manley, who managed to look scrumptious in a uniform that ought to suck his masculinity right out of him.

“Beth? Are you okay?” Bryan walked down after Maggie, concern etched all over his handsome face. And curiosity etched all over Kara and Jenna’s. “Where’d you go?”

“I thought I saw the Dynert’s dog.” Poor Muffy had been missing for over a week. Beth felt bad about using the Dynert’s loss, but she would do anything to protect her family. And that, right now, included Bryan. He didn’t need to know about the photographer.

“Was it, Mommy? Is Muffy coming home?”

She cupped Maggie’s chin, sad to have to tell her daughter yet more bad news. “No, honey, it wasn’t Muffy. I think it was a fox.” A sly, cunning one that she’d outwitted, thank God.

“Oh.” Maggie’s bottom lip quivered. “I miss Muffy. I wish she hadn’t left, too.”

Oh hell. Beth felt about six inches tall. She shouldn’t have used the dog as an excuse, but it was all she could come up with. And even then, she wasn’t sure Bryan completely believed her.

She tugged her shirt down over her missing button. Maggie’s solemn face tugged at Beth’s heart. “We can go looking for her tomorrow if you want.”

“Yes. I’d like that.”

She patted Maggie on the back. “Okay, then. How about we round up the boys and head out for ice cream?”

“That match isn’t over yet,” said Bryan.

Yes, Bryan saw way too much and the look he was giving her said he had questions.

“Oh. Right.” She glanced at the field. Both boys were sitting out right now, so at least she wasn’t missing their playing time. But she couldn’t have risked having the photographer get away with those photos, so if she’d missed them playing for a fraction of one game, she missed it.

More cheers erupted around them while they headed back to the stands and within ten minutes the game was over, the twins’ team had won, and the younger three kids were shouting their ice cream orders at her.

“Hang on, guys, I’m not the waitress. Tell her when we get there.”

“Are you coming with us, Bryan?” Mark circled his shin guards on the end of one finger.

Beth grabbed them to keep them from flying away. That hard plastic could be painful.

“Yes, Bryan is coming. And I’m sure he’ll order something fabulous, too.” She grabbed the gym bag and stuffed both boys’ shin guards inside.

“Can I ride with you, Bryan?” Tommy asked, running to Bryan’s side without waiting for an answer.

“Me, too!” Mark, of course, joined in.

“Well, I don’t kn—”

“It’s fine with me, Beth.”

“Can I come?” Maggie asked.

“But Maggie, Mom needs kids with her,” said Mark.

“Jason and Kelsey can go with her. They don’t talk anyway so Mom can have her piece of quiet.”

Bryan ruffled Maggie’s hair. “Maybe your mom
wants
to talk. Maybe you should go with her.”

“But I want to go with you!”

Bryan looked at Beth. “Is that okay with you?”

It was so okay it was almost scary. No, scratch that. It was downright scary. Her kids had glommed onto him like nobody’s business and if she’d
wanted
this to happen, it wouldn’t have.

Question was,
did
she want it to now that it had?

 • • • 

T
HE
love fest only continued at Buster’s Ice Cream Shoppe, with the younger ones clamoring to sit next to him. Beth had had to play referee, since there were only two places beside Bryan, convincing Tommy and Mark to switch off every half hour while the other one sat across from him. This, luckily, kept Kelsey out of the rotation, but her oldest daughter sat at the corner where she couldn’t miss looking at Bryan.

It was an odd thing to feel jealous of your own kids, but Beth did. Bryan was so natural with them, laughing and cracking jokes. He even got Jason to open up about where he’d gotten his hair cut: his girlfriend’s mom.

He had a girlfriend? Beth almost fainted at that news. How had she missed her eldest child reaching that milestone?

God, she felt like such a failure as a parent at times, especially now, watching them all with Bryan. He had a natural affinity for kids and it extended to more than just her kids. She’d watched him when the game had ended and all the kids had wanted to shake his hand. Bryan Manley was someone in this town and they all wanted a piece of him.

As did she.

There, she admitted it. It was hard not to. Bryan was starting to fill most of her thoughts during the day. She woke up thinking about him and went to bed thinking about him—aching for him. Got to watch him work around her home all day. He’d even begun clipping the hedge beneath her kitchen window. She’d argued that it wasn’t part of his job description, but he’d countered with, “Mac says to always make sure the customer is satisfied. So that’s what I’m doing.”

She knew other ways he could satisfy this client . . .

Beth gasped and shoved a big, cold spoonful of dessert into her mouth. The end of this month couldn’t come quick enough.

Because if she kept thinking about things like him satisfying her, she would, too.