The Super Mum

“I could make cocoa to take along, and I baked a batch of cookies when I got home. We can take those, too.” She didn’t have the reputation of being Super mom for nothing.

“A woman who actually bakes!” he commented with a grin. “You’re a lost breed.”

She laughed, a bit self-consciously. “I like to cook and experiment with recipes. Especially desserts.”

His gaze slid over her fitted green wool jacket and black leggings. “You mustn’t eat them.”

She blushed, feeling foolish. “I eat my share. I’m just so busy running from one job to another and taking care of the kids, I must burn it off.” She began to fold the ladder.

“I can get that. Does it go in the garage?”

She nodded. “You can come into the house and go through the breezeway off the kitchen. I’ll round up the kids and tell them to get ready.”

Olivia and Michael, who were watching TV, looked interested when Angela introduced David. After she explained they were going to go sledding, they gave a “whoop” and ran to their rooms to dress warmly.

Standing in the foyer, she called up the stairs. “Anthony. Come here a minute, will you? Mr. Moore is here.”

Anthony came to the top of the stairs and gazed down at her and David.

“Come on down,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t be rude. She’d been firmer with him since the day he’d locked himself in his room, and he wasn’t happy about it.

When he reached the bottom step, David extended his hand to him. “Hi, I’m David Moore.”

“I don’t need anyone to take me to the movies or treat me like a kid,” Anthony said defensively.

“I guess you don’t. And you’re old enough to know what you want to do. But I thought all of us could try out this snow. I put tubes in the back of my SUV and I’ve got a toboggan, too. Or, you can take your own sled. I thought we’d all go.”

Anthony looked at his mother. “You’re going to go sledding?”

“I just might. I’m not over the hill yet.” She didn’t know why she’d said that.

“You could break something,” Anthony mumbled.

David laughed. “Maybe you and I will just have to make sure she doesn’t.”

It was obvious that Anthony was fighting a battle within. He didn’t want to go along with David, but he liked the idea of sledding. Or tubing. Or tobogganing. “Olivia and Michael are going, too?”

“Sure. We can all use the fresh air,” Angela remarked, as if it weren’t a big thing to go on a family outing. They rarely did that anymore. Since Jerome left, outings emphasized his absence. Not that he’d been great at family activities. When they were married, he’d worked late and had always done his own thing on weekends.

It had taken Angela too long to catch on to what her husband’s own thing was. But she had caught on and had confronted him with a woman’s bracelet she’d found in the pocket of his suit jacket. Then her next-door neighbor, Judith Martin, had told her she’d seen Jerome and a redhead having a late dinner at Entrée, a trendy restaurant in town that another one of her neighbor’s owned. Jerome had insisted it was a business dinner, but she’d figured otherwise. He’d taken the woman to that particular restaurant so it would get back to her. He’d wanted out. She’d suggested counseling, but he’d just laughed, hurting her big-time when he admitted he wasn’t meant to be monogamous—it simply wasn’t in his nature.

When he’d left that evening, he’d seemed happy about changing his life. She’d cried herself to sleep every night for about two weeks. Then, after a heart-to-heart with her sister, she’d known she was better off without him. He’d chipped off a piece of her heart, though, and although it had been three years, the wound hadn’t completely healed.

“Do you know where my boots are?” Anthony asked, being practical.

“I think they’re in the basement. While you change, I’ll get them. Tell Olivia and Michael to put sweaters on under their parkas.”

Anthony made a face, then ran up the stairs.

By the time Angela found the kids’ boots and her own, David was back in the kitchen, shedding his coat. “If I help you, we’ll get out of here sooner—before Anthony changes his mind.”

The truth was, she wasn’t used to having a man in her kitchen anymore. Since her divorce, she’d become independent in every sense of the word and in every part of her life.

“What would you like to help with?” she asked cautiously.

“I make great hot chocolate, with milk and an instant mix. Is that what you were planning on doing?”

“Actually, it was.” When she smiled at him, she felt that heart-twirling sensation again.

Trying to chill, trying to ignore tingles running through the body she no longer knew, she motioned to a lower cupboard. “Saucepan is down there. Hot chocolate mix is in that jar.” She pointed to a mason jar on the counter next to a row of ceramic canisters.

When she reached above her to get a thermos from the upper cupboard, she had to stand on her tiptoes. But the thermos was pushed back on the shelf, just out of her reach.

“Here, let me.” He was behind her then, and she could feel the strength of him…the heat of him…smell his limy scent as he reached above her.

“I’m too short,” she mumbled. “Megan can reach up there. She must have put it there.”

“Megan?”

“She’s my sister. She lives in the apartment above the garage. She usually helps me with the kids, but she’s away on business now. My neighbor across the street has been helping out.”

When he lowered the thermos, he set it on the counter, and they were very close, his elbow brushing hers.

She had to get a grip. She was going to be in the presence of this man the whole afternoon, and she couldn’t act like an idiot.

“I noticed Anthony’s name is different from yours.”

Making the decision to take back her maiden name hadn’t been easy, because she hadn’t wanted to affect the kids, who had of course kept Jerome’s surname of Buffington. But she’d needed that piece of paper reiterating her independence in that way, too. “I took back my maiden name after my divorce.”

“Bitter divorce?”

“It could have been more amicable, I guess, but we tried to put the kids first.”

“But now your ex-husband isn’t putting the kids first?”

This man was a stranger, yet he deserved to understand the situation so he could relate to Anthony. “Jerome isn’t the most dependable man on earth. He’s missed his last two dates with the kids. Anthony, especially, has reacted to that. I’m afraid he thinks his dad doesn’t love him. I’ve called Jerome and left messages but he doesn’t call back. The truth is—I think he sees my number on his caller ID and ignores us.”

“And this is why you called the community center?”

“We had an incident earlier in the week. Anthony locked himself in his room. A neighbor suggested the Big Brother program. I’m willing to try anything. I don’t want him to turn into a defiant teenager.”

Nodding solemnly, David moved a few steps away to retrieve the packets of hot chocolate.

Angela felt as if she could breathe again.

Now that he knew something about her, she wanted to know more than statistics about him. “Is your family around here?”

After a moment’s hesitation, he explained, “My dad lives about an hour north and I have a sister another half hour from there. I don’t see them as much as I should.”