What a Woman Needs (31 page)

She flew into his arms and clung to him fiercely. “I thought you left.”

One hug wasn’t going to cut it. Bryan cleared his throat. “No, sweetheart. I’m still here.”

“What are we going to do tomorrow?”

He looked at Beth over Maggie’s head.
Help me out here
, he mouthed because he honestly didn’t have a clue what to say to the little girl.

Beth took her daughter from his arms and, honestly, it felt as if she ripped his heart right along with it.

How the hell was he supposed to walk away?

“Bryan has other plans tomorrow.” Beth settled Maggie on her lap.

Maggie’s head whipped around fast. “You do? What?”

“Um, well, I’m going to help my brother find something in the house where he’s working.”

“Find what?”

“I’m not quite sure. We have to follow a bunch of clues.”

“Like a scavenger hunt?”

“Um, yeah. Something like that.” At least that’s what Sean had said it was. Among a good three dozen curse words he’d thrown in for good measure. He and Liam had volunteered to help if only to stop their ears from burning. Sean had gotten pretty inventive with the curses.

“I’m really good at scavenger hunts. So are Mark and Tommy.” Her big brown eyes—so like her mother’s—blinked at him in such innocence. Too bad he’d seen her in action and knew exactly what she was up to.

The thing was he didn’t mind that she was trying to play him. He
wanted
to take her and the boys along. He liked being with them. And, hell, the more eyes the merrier at the mansion if what Sean had said was true. They were going to need all the help they could get.

“Sweetheart, Bryan has to work quickly so he can get back to his movie. He can’t be watching you and the boys.”

“But Mommy,” Maggie huffed with all the self-righteousness a five-year-old could muster, “that’s why we
hafta
go. We can help and Bryan can go back to his movie really quick.” She looked at Bryan and put her hand on his knee. “Please can we come with you, Bryan? We’re good helpers. Just like with the clothesline. We can help you.”

How was he supposed to say no to that? He couldn’t. “I’m okay with it if your mom is, Maggie.”

Probably not fair to turn it back onto Beth, but he just couldn’t tell Maggie no. He just couldn’t.

The look Beth sent him over Maggie’s head said she couldn’t either and had been hoping he would’ve.

“Okay, Maggie. Fine.” Beth exhaled. “You three can go. But only for a little while. The Martinson mansion is a very big place and I don’t want you running around unsupervised.”

“What’s unsuperwized?” Maggie’s thumb went back in her mouth as if she’d gotten what she’d come to do and anything else was just marking time until she got back to her room.

“It means without someone watching out for you.”

“But Bryan always watches out for us. Don’t you, Bryan?”

Seriously, the little girl was better than a surgeon when it came to eviscerating him.

“That’s right, Maggie. I’m always watching out for you guys.”

“See, Mommy? Bryan’s gonna take care of us. You don’t have to worry.”

Out of the mouths of babes . . .

B
ETH
worried the entire next day. She worried she’d break out into tears, or that she’d tell Jason and Kelsey all about Bryan’s proposal, or worse, she’d tell
Kara
all about Bryan’s proposal and then it’d be all over the neighborhood in no time and once that happened, the media wouldn’t be far behind.

So she kept her mouth shut, the tears at bay—barely—and went about her normal day as if her heart weren’t breaking because a great man would soon be flying out of her life. Again.

He saved her the heartache of saying good-bye. She wouldn’t have been able to fake her way through that, so she was thankful that he’d let the younger three off in the driveway from their scavenger hunt day, waved briefly, and backed out as if he’d be back tomorrow.

They’d both known better.

So here it was, Day One of The Rest Of Her Life Without Bryan, and Kara just couldn’t let the man go in peace.

“I honestly can’t believe he just left. I thought
for sure
there was something happening between you two.”

Beth made a pretense of sniffing the perfume at the department store counter. She had zero interest in shopping today, but there was a petting zoo at the mall and the younger three had been begging to go. She was paying Jason and Kelsey to watch them, so she could have some peace and quiet
she’d thought
. But then she’d run into Kara and once
she’d
realized Beth didn’t have the kids with her, well, that was permission to open the floodgates with questions about Bryan.

“He has a career, Kara. I told you that. You can’t commute to Hollywood from here.”

“Bull. Movie stars do it all the time. They buy private planes and fly in for a day of filming. He could do it if he wanted.”

The thing was, he would do it if Beth had said yes. She knew that as surely as she knew Kara would blab to everyone if she told her about the proposal. So she said nothing on both counts and tried to let the matter rest, because, really, she needed it to. She’d been second-guessing her answer for the past forty-some hours and she wasn’t any closer to a resolution than she’d been when she’d answered him.

“And you guys could go on location with him. I mean, it
is
summer. The kids don’t have school or jobs and you’re a teacher, so you’re free . . . I just didn’t think he was that fickle. I thought he had some substance to him. That he wasn’t all Hollywood. God, you don’t think he was laughing at us, do you? Using us for research for his next role?”

“Bryan’s not like that. He liked everyone.” Loved a few of them, actually. “But it’s his career. Can’t argue with success.”

Kara shrugged. “I just don’t get it. I mean, you’re hot, the kids are great, and it’s not as if you’re after his money. Mike left you guys in good shape.”

If one could call being widowed and fatherless good shape.

Beth bit back the sarcasm. Kara meant well. All her friends did, but they all figured that two years was long enough and time to move on. And while Beth was ready to move on—her time with Bryan proving that—she wasn’t just going to forget Mike. She wasn’t going to say, “oh well, onward and upward.” She’d loved him and she would always miss him. He was her friend and her husband and her lover and the father of her children. She ached that he’d never see them grow up, never know their grandchildren. That her kids would never know Mike as a man when they became adults. Death sucked and there wasn’t a damn thing Beth could do about it.

But you could do something about Bryan . . .

“So do you think you might be ready to date someone else?”

“Someone else? I wasn’t dating Bryan, Kar.”

“I know, but I mean, you know. You kind of got back in the saddle again, as it were, if only looking. And he was nice to look at, you have to admit.”

“Yes, he is.” He’d been great in the saddle, too, but she wasn’t going to admit that.

“So if another good-looking guy came along, you wouldn’t be opposed to going out with him.”

“Kara, you’ve already set me up on a few blind dates. They haven’t worked out so well. That last one didn’t, either. Why don’t we just leave it to fate and see what happens?”

“That’s all fine and good, but I don’t see you making plans to go barhopping with fate any time soon.”

Barhopping. Beth shuddered. She was not going barhopping with anyone. “I don’t want to date that badly, thankyouverymuch.”

“Well where else are you going to meet someone?”

“Why do I have to? I’m doing just fine as I am.”

“Bull. You’ve been alone too long and I saw how you looked at Bryan. You’re coming out of your shell, Beth. You need to strike while the iron is hot before you get too comfortable inside it.”

Beth gave up trying to hide her shudders. She was so not ready to do the singles’ scene. Doubted she ever would be.

Luckily, there was a commotion outside the store as a bunch of security guards went running by, shouting, batons waving, and Beth didn’t have to respond to Kara. Then a mall-wide alarm went off and Beth wasn’t so thankful anymore. Her kids were out there.

She ran out of the store and hung a right for the petting zoo—which was the direction the guards were running.

It was also where the guards were stopped. And where they had a guy facedown on the floor, arms behind his back, a couple of knees holding him in place and two of them talking to . . . her kids.

Oh God.

Beth pushed her way through the crowd of people gathered around. “Jason! Kelsey! Tommy! Mark! Maggie!” They were all there, looking solemn while they answered the guards’ questions.

“Hello. I’m the children’s mother. What happened?” She had to touch each one, herding them around her like a mother duck pulling them under her wings and she didn’t care. She had to make sure her babies were safe.

“Your kids did a great thing, ma’am,” said one of the guards. Hinkle it said on his name plate. “They saw this guy with a hammer—”

“He was gonna smash the jewelry case, Mommy!” Maggie hopped up and down. “Tommy saw it and told Jason and Kelsey. Kelsey ran to the formation boof, and Jason stuck his foot out so the guy tripped. He’s a hero!”

“I saw it, too!” said Mark, unhappy at not playing a part in Maggie’s narration.

“Did not!” said Tommy. Of course.

“Yuh-huh. That’s why I poked you so you could see it, too.”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Boys, that’s not important right now,” said the guard, herding them away from the guy on the floor. “We need you to stand back so we can get him to his feet.”

Yes, it
was
important and their faces fell when the guard dismissed them so out of hand. Right now, it was the most important thing in their world and for him to push it aside like that . . . Bryan wouldn’t have done that.

Bryan. God, she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

“Ma’am,” said another guard, “if you and the kids could step over to the teddy bear shop, we’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“But Mommy doesn’t know anything. She didn’t see. Me and Tommy saw.”

“And Jason,” piped in Maggie. “Don’t forget Jason. He’s the real hero.”

Beth shuffled the kids to the store, running her hands over everyone’s shoulders. “Jason, are you okay?” She wanted to yell at him that he could’ve been hurt and he should have stayed out of the way and let someone else handle it—the same words she’d said to Mike the morning he’d picked up that damn flight at the last minute—but she didn’t because of the look of pride on his face. Jason was actually smiling at people and feeling really good about himself and Beth wasn’t going to ruin that for him for a second. Still, dear God . . . he could have been hurt.

“Yeah, Mom, I’m fine. Guy shoulda looked where he was going.”

“He was,” said Tommy. “He was looking at the watches.”

“Nuh-uh. It was the diamond rings. Those are easier to carry and they cost a lot more.”

“You think you know everything.”

“I know a lot more than you do, Tommy.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Boys.” She mimicked Bryan’s action and put her hands on their heads and turned them to look at her. “Let’s stop the bickering. Just tell the guards the truth and we can go home.”

“But I don’t want to go home.” Maggie tugged on Beth’s shirt. “I want to play with the baby goats.”

“They’re called kids,” said Tommy.

“Hey, they are. You did know that.” Mark was looking surprised. Beth didn’t know why; they’d been in the same classes since kindergarten.

“They are? That’s a silly name.” Maggie slid her hand into Tommy’s. “Thanks for teaching me that. Just like Bryan said.”

“We should call him.” This from Kelsey. Why was Beth not surprised that that was the first part of this whole episode Kelsey would comment on? “Tell him what we did.”

“You mean, what
Jason
did,” said Maggie, now moving her hand and her allegiance to her eldest brother.

“I helped. I ran to call the security guards.”

Maggie scrunched her face and tapped her lip. “You’re right. You did. That was important, too.” She reached for Kelsey’s hand. “I have the bravest brothers and sister in the whole world.”

Of course that would be when the guard started asking Beth questions. She could barely concentrate on what he was asking her as she tried not to cry at all her emotions: fear, pride, love, and a melting heart to see her children banding together.

And then a reporter showed up, sticking the microphone over top of the guard’s head. Beth was pretty sure that violated all sorts of rules and might even have an impact on any trial—

Oh hell. A trial. As witnesses, her kids would have to testify. And Jason had tripped the guy—he’d be star witness number one.

Oh God. The press was going to be all over this.

There was a loud ringing in her ears as all of the ramifications registered. What was about to descend upon them. All over again. The invasive questions. The never-ending interest. Camera crews and news vans staking out her home.

Beth wanted to cry. She’d said no to Bryan’s fishbowl and ended up with one of her own.

It took an hour and a half and giving out her cell phone to six different people before she could get the kids out of there. It took another forty-five minutes for them to talk it out of their systems enough so that she could get a word in edgewise. Just two, but they had the effect she wanted. “Ice cream?”

The conversation changed to flavors and Beth could finally take a breath. She was going to have to talk to Jason and Kelsey. Warn them about the press. The twins, too. Only Maggie hadn’t been part of the thwarted robbery attempt, but with the way Maggie was championing each one of her siblings, Beth had a feeling she needed to warn her, too. She wasn’t looking forward to it.

 • • • 

S
HE
shouldn’t have worried.

And that worried her.

They no sooner sat down at the ice cream parlor booth when the topic came up all over again. By now, Beth had the sequence of events memorized, so she wasn’t surprised when the kids veered slightly off topic.

“So do you think they’re going to want to interview us again?” Kelsey was the one to broach the subject Beth had been dreading.

“Well, they might, honey, but you don’t have to tell them anything else. You guys are all minors, so, technically, they need to go through me. I’ll keep them as far away as I can.”

“But I want to talk to them. We’re going to be famous.”

“We are?” asked the twins. “Cool!” They high-fived each other.

They were talking in unison again.

“I bet they give you a medal, Jason,” said Maggie, her brother’s biggest fan.

“Nah, no one gets medals anymore.” But Jason didn’t look like he’d hate the idea.

“Maybe even your own TV show!” Maggie was bouncing in her seat. “Like a kid detective who stops robbers before they can steal anything. Wouldn’t that be cool?”

“And Bryan can play your boss or something,” said Mark.

“Yeah, then we could see him again,” added Tommy.

“Mommy, when is Bryan coming back? I want to tell him all about my brothers and sister. They’re heroes.” Maggie turned that earnest face Beth’s way and the other four followed.

“I . . . I don’t know, Mags.”

Liar! Tell your kids the truth. That you turned him down to keep them from being in the spotlight and look at them now! Anxious to be on TV. Thrilled to be heroes.
You might want to re-think your decision, Elizabeth.

“Can we call him?” Kelsey pulled out her phone. “Oh. Right. He didn’t give me his number.” She looked at Beth. “Did he give you his number, Mom? Or should I call the maid company and ask them?”

Five expectant, hopeful faces stared at her. Five kids who wanted to see the man Beth had sent away. The man who said he loved her and wanted to marry her. Who wanted to have a family with her.
This
family.

“Um, guys. I have a better idea. How’d you like to go
see
Bryan?”