The Bridal Path: Danielle (4 page)

And happy, just as Kevin said. She was smiling by the time she went back inside.

* * *

“It’s awfully quiet in here,” Slade observed suspiciously when he returned promptly at five that evening. He looked as if he’d expected to find the house burned down or, at the very least, in ruins. “Where are the boys? Did you tie them up and gag them?”

“They’re taking a nap,” Dani told him. “They were completely tuckered out from painting the porch. Or maybe it was from the fumes of all the turpentine it took to get the yellow paint off them afterward.”

Slade’s blue eyes widened. “You actually let them paint the porch?”

“Daddy supervised–in a manner of speaking, anyway. He has some surprisingly lax ideas about supervision. He sure wasn’t that way when we were growing up. He told me he was encouraging their creativity.”

“Oh, God,” Slade moaned. “What did they paint?”

“Aside from the porch?”

“Exactly.”

“I believe the petunias are now yellow. And you might want to check Pirate for any lingering traces of the flower they tried to paint on his back. I curbed their little imaginations before they could touch up my hubcaps.”

“Dear heaven. No wonder you convinced them to take naps. I’m surprised you didn’t knock them out.”

“I didn’t convince them, exactly,” she admitted. “They sat down to look at a video and the next thing I knew, they were out on the sofa. Should I wake them?”

“Heavens, no,” Slade said.

He said it with such heartfelt fervor that Dani chuckled. “They don’t give you much of a break, do they?”

“They’re just young and energetic, I know,” Slade said. “But sometimes I swear they were put on this earth just to exhaust me.”

“Well, take a break now. I baked cookies earlier. Have some.” She put the plate on the kitchen table. “Milk or iced tea?”

“Iced tea would be terrific.”

She poured him a glass, then sat across from him. “I’m sure most worn-out parents feel that way about their kids at one time or another,” Dani said.

“But every day?” Slade asked.

“Maybe you should explain the concept of quiet time,” she suggested.

“I did. That’s why I bought them each a computer. I thought they’d sit there quietly and play the games I created. I made them practically impossible to beat, so they would be totally absorbed.”

“Did it work?”

“They yell at the computer,” he said wearily. “Then they race back and forth between their rooms to see if the other one is winning.”

“Sibling rivalry,” Dani suggested. “It’s natural. They’re also very protective of each other. You saw how they united to stand up for each other yesterday. That kind of loyalty at their age is terrific.”

He gazed across the kitchen table at her. “Is that the way it is for you and your sisters?”

“Most of the time,” she admitted with a grin. “You haven’t met Sara or Ashley yet, have you?”

“No, but the tales are legendary. I’m sure I even heard a few when I visited here as a kid. A few people have gone so far as to suggest that the three of you were every bit as bad as my kids.”

“Ashley and Sara, maybe,” Dani said with a grin. “Not me. I was an angel.”

He surveyed her intently, then said softly, “I can believe it.”

Dani shivered all the way to her toes. Swallowing hard, she asked, “Do you have brothers or sisters?”

“No. Maybe that’s why I’m constantly amazed by the mischief the boys get into. I was a quiet, only child.”

“A computer nerd,” Dani said, regarding him with skepticism.

“Yep.”

“You don’t look like any computer nerd I ever met,” she said before she realized exactly what she was saying. Embarrassment flooded her cheeks with color.

Slade laughed. “Have you known many?”

“Now that I think about it, you’re actually the first I’ve seen. In person, anyway. Computers have been slow coming to Riverton. People around here believe in doing things the old-fashioned way.”

“Still adding and subtracting with an abacus?” he teased.

“Not exactly,” she quipped right back. “We discovered the calculator recently. It’s improved the quality of life quite a bit.”

He winked at her. “Just wait until I teach you all the tricks a computer can do.”

Dani seriously doubted that learning computer skills would be half as instructional as an hour or two in private with Slade Watkins. Her imagination went into overdrive considering what she could discover with his lips on hers and her hands exploring that fascinating expanse of chest. She flushed just thinking about it.

Unfortunately, her straying thoughts caused her to miss whatever it was Slade had said.

“Hmm?” she murmured.

“I asked if you’d like to have dinner with us tonight,” he repeated. “I could give you a crash course.”

“A crash course?” she repeated blankly.

“In computers. I suspect sooner or later the boys are going to want to drag their laptops over here. You’d better have some idea what they’re up to.”

“Oh.” She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

“Is Dani coming to dinner tonight?” Kevin inquired sleepily, coming over to stand beside his father.

“I’ve asked,” Slade told him. “She hasn’t answered.”

“Please,” Kevin said, regarding her hopefully.

With two pairs of blue eyes focused on her, Dani couldn’t have refused if her life depended on it. Not that she wanted to in the first place.

“Well, of course I’ll come for dinner,” she said.

“Will you bring dessert?” Kevin pleaded. “Daddy can’t cook worth a lick.”

“You haven’t starved yet,” Slade retorted indignantly.

“Almost,” Timmy said from the doorway. “If we’re having Dani over, maybe we should order pizza.”

Slade looked at Dani sheepishly. “Exactly what I had in mind. Is that okay?”

She laughed. “Given the reputation of your cooking, I’d say pizza would be perfect.”

Chapter Three

S
lade wasn’t at all sure what had possessed him to invite Danielle Wilde over for dinner. The house, which had fallen into disrepair after the deaths of his grandparents, was still in a state of chaos. His cooking skills were nonexistent. And he hadn’t spent an evening with a woman other than his wife in over a decade. Idle chitchat had never been his specialty in the first place, which was why he and Amanda had gotten along so well.

Amanda had chattered enough for ten people, which had foolishly led him to believe she found him to be a good listener. Only later had he discovered that she simply liked the sound of her own voice. She hadn’t wanted or needed any response from him. The distance between them had widened and widened until by the time she had been in the terrible accident that ultimately took her life, they were merely coexisting. The boys had been the glue that held them together. For their sakes, he and Amanda had kept up a sad front until her tragic death.

Oddly, now that she was gone, he missed her in unexpected ways. He realized that despite their differences, despite her wandering attention and frequent affairs, Amanda had provided something he needed and had no idea how to create for himself–a home.

He glanced around the old Victorian house he’d visited only a few times as a child and tried to put a finger on exactly where he’d fallen short. The rooms were bright and airy. The furniture was exactly the same as it had been in the Denver home he and Amanda had shared, albeit a little dustier. There were even a few remnants of his grandparents’ belongings, genuine family heirlooms.

Goodness knew, the house looked lived in, he thought as he snatched up a handful of recently laundered underwear that had never made it past the sofa. And it was as charming as he’d remembered, a fact which had lured him back when Denver had begun to feel claustrophobic after Amanda’s death.

Even with the evening sun splashed across the polished wood floors and a soft breeze filtering through the sheer curtains, it lacked something. Maybe Danielle Wilde, whose house practically radiated a friendly, inviting, homey atmosphere, could help him pin it down.

Despite that hopeful thought, he wished he hadn’t impulsively uttered the invitation for tonight. Now he was stuck with it, an endless evening of trying to make conversation with a woman he barely knew.

His only consolation was that the boys were ecstatic. They had even eagerly agreed to help him straighten the place up before her arrival. Of course, their idea of tidying up consisted of tossing everything into the nearest closet, a habit they’d no doubt learned from him. Thank goodness it was summer and there would be no need to hang up their guest’s coat and risk a tumbling of hidden clutter.

He took another quick survey of the downstairs and nodded. “I guess that does it.” He called the boys, who came clattering down the stairs the very first time, for a change. “Did you both wash up and change your shirts?”

Even as he asked, he realized he should have been able to tell without asking, at least about the shirts. Unfortunately, Kevin and Timmy’s taste ran to multiples of the exact same T-shirt. Each of them had at least a half dozen, all in red, except for those that had accidentally fallen into a load of laundry with bleach. Having declared them dorky, they refused to wear the resulting pink shirts anyway.

A close inspection indicated that the clothes they had on now were indeed freshly laundered. Their faces were scrubbed. Even their hair had been plastered down with enough gel to hold it in place through a hurricane. He found their desire to impress Dani Wilde touching. That she had endeared herself to them so quickly was a surprise. For all of their high-spirited mischief, his sons were innately shy, just as he had been at their age.

He thought back to his own childhood. He’d had exactly the wrong sort of personality for the son of a blustery Texas rancher. It had been a bone of contention between them for years, until his father had required a little computer help to organize his growing business interests. Since then a grudging sort of respect had sprung up between them. Even so, it was easier on both of them if they simply avoided each other. He hadn’t been back to Texas in years now. He missed his mother, but not much else.

He grinned at Timmy and Kevin. “You look very handsome,” he assured them.

Relief spread across their faces. “You’re sure?” Timmy asked.

“Very sure.”

“She’s coming,” Kevin announced, racing toward the front door and slamming it open. Pirate dashed out, barking and leaping into the air, convincing Slade that he’d been a circus dog in some previous life or perhaps even before they’d picked him up from an animal shelter.

“Right here, Dani,” Kevin shouted as if she weren’t already parked in their driveway and being besieged by their dog.

Slade watched as both of his boys practically tumbled down the front steps as they ran to greet her. Before he could wonder how she had conquered their hearts so easily, he saw her hunker down to their level and admire their slicked-back hair, their red shirts and their brand-new sneakers. She did it so naturally, so sincerely it made Slade’s heart ache. That was it, of course. The boys craved a woman’s praise, a woman’s warmth and tenderness. They would have gravitated to any woman who offered it so freely.

He sighed as he watched the three of them. That was the one thing he could never give them, no matter how hard he tried. After he had failed so miserably to make Amanda happy, he had vowed never again to move into a relationship in which he would be so completely out of his depth. He understood the complexities of computers far more readily than he did those of women. There would never be another marriage. Never.

Perhaps, though, the boys would be content enough with a woman like Danielle Wilde in their lives, a surrogate mother who would generously give them all the things he couldn’t. Of course, he was jumping to the conclusion that she would be willing to accept such a role in their lives.

He reassured himself that the conclusion was based on sound evidence. After all, she had welcomed them into her home without a qualm, even after that abysmal introduction and the destruction of all those pies. In fact, she had seemed so eager to have them around that Slade had almost felt as if he were doing her a favor, instead of the other way around.

He thought about that off and on all during dinner, as he silently sat back and watched her interaction with Timmy and Kevin. Why did a woman who so obviously adored children have none of her own? How had the men of Riverton missed noticing the way she lit up a room with her smile? Or the way light caught the sparks of red in her brown hair, giving it a rich, burnished sheen?

Slade shook off the unexpected and very male sensations stirring inside him. Surely this wasn’t the reason he’d issued that impulsive invitation a few hours earlier. Surely he’d done it for his sons, not himself. Danielle Wilde was the last woman a man should consider having a fling with. As briefly as he’d known her, he recognized that she was all about permanence, all about settling down and forever.

No, she was definitely not the woman for him.

And yet, he couldn’t deny that there was more laughter that night than he’d heard since they had moved into this beautiful old house. That, he finally realized with a sense of amazement, was what had been missing–the laughter.

He was stunned when he glanced at his watch and realized it was already after ten, well past the boys’ bedtime and too late for the computer lesson that had been the ostensible reason for the invitation.

“Okay, you two, bedtime,” he announced amid the expected groans and protests.

“It’s summer,” Timmy said. “There’s no school tomorrow.”

“But you do have a job now,” Slade reminded them. “Ms. Wilde will expect you to be alert first thing in the morning.” He glanced over to find her trying to hold back a don’t-blame-this-on-me look.

“I guess we forgot,” Kevin said. “Don’t worry, Dani. We’ll get all our chores done.”

“I’m sure you will,” she said complacently.

“Then will you let us play computer games?” Timmy asked. “We could teach one to you.”

She looked properly aghast at the suggestion. “Play indoors on a lovely summer day? I don’t think so. I was thinking it might be more fun if I invited some of the children down the street over for a picnic,” she said casually, drawing wary looks from both boys.