Unexpected Father

She was frugal, and when she returned to St. Louis she got a job at a branch library that paid enough to provide a reasonable life-style for a young mother and child.

Day care was trickier, but she had managed through careful budgeting to put Kevin in a cheerful, responsible center when he was younger. And once he started school she arranged her work schedule so that she could get home most days before he did. When she had to work weekends or the evening shift, she paid a mature, neighborhood teen to baby-sit.

She had planned carefully, and she had worked to give Kevin a good life. The only thing she hadn’t been prepared for was the fierce love she felt for the boy she considered her son. She had never known an emotion like it, and she found it humbling.

She reached up now to touch the locket with the picture of her and Marybeth and Kevin when he was a baby. Her fingers fumbled when they didn’t find it. Hannah went into the bathroom, turned on the light and searched the mirror, even shook out her T-shirt. But it was gone.

“Oh, damn,” she whispered under her breath. She must have lost it while she was working outside. It could be anywhere in the grass.

She knew she should just go to bed and worry about it in the morning, but the locket was important to her. It was virtually all she had left of her sister, all Kevin had left. It was the only photograph she had found when she’d sold the house.

A single lamp burned in the living room, and Hannah surmised from the flickering bluish light under the door of the main bedroom that Esther had retired to watch the old movies that were her addiction.

Hannah had insisted she could sleep on the convertible couch, and Esther had reluctantly given in.

Hannah went about quietly rummaging for a flashlight, finally coming across one under the sink. Slipping out the door, she closed it softly behind her and switched on the flashlight. It flickered errantly but steadied when she shook it. Good, she thought. It was especially bright, just what she needed.

She could smell the herbs that Esther had planted near the door as she stepped off the concrete block onto the ground. She stood quietly a moment, letting her eyes adjust to the dark. She walked a few more steps into the yard, pausing to look up at the sky. The stars seemed unnaturally bright to her after years of living in the city where streetlights muted the sky.

But she wasn’t here to stargaze. The most likely place for her locket was around the foundation where she’d been hammering most of the day. In the starlight she could see the section of house frame in place over the subflooring, like a skeleton against the sky. It gave her a strong sense of satisfaction to know she had helped put it there.

She was on her knees a moment later, crawling along the foundation, feeling in the grass with her hands while she shone the light on the ground.

“It’s a bit dark to hunt mushrooms, you know.”

She was so startled that she jumped, banging her head against one of the cross braces.

“Ow!” she cried out, losing her balance and ending up sitting on the grass, her back against the foundation. She rubbed her head where it hurt and glared up at Jordan, who looked like a giant silhouetted against the starry sky

“Are you all right?” he asked, kneeling in front of her. He put his hand on her shoulder as if to check

“I’m. .fine,” she managed to snap. “What are you doing out here?”

“That’s what I was asking you,” he said.

“You didn’t ask,” she corrected him indignantly. “You just made some nitwit remark about mushrooms.”

“Nitwit,” Jordan muttered under his breath, and even in the dark she could see his frown. “Speaking of nitwits, I’m not the one skulking around in the middle of the night.”

“And just what would you call what you’re doing?” she demanded.

“I was sleeping—at least until you started shining that damn beacon all over the place.”

“Sleeping?” she repeated in disbelief. “Where?”

“In my camper,” he said irritably, and she squinted at the driveway, barely able to make out the shape of his truck.

Hannah realized she was still clutching the flashlight in her right hand, and she pointed it at Jordan’s face, still confused as to why he was here.

“Will you cut that out?” he complained. “You’re going to blind me in a minute.” The hand on her shoulder had tightened, infuriating her all the more.

“You’re the one who scared me half to death,” she said, pointedly aiming the light at his face again. “What were you doing creeping up on me if you were sleeping?”

“I told you,” he said, his voice rising. “The light woke me up. You were shining it around the yard like some halogen come-on at a car lot.”

“‘Come-on!’” She was truly furious now, and she moved to get to her feet, succeeding in nearly blinding him with the light once more. “You certainly have a big ego if you think I’m coming on to you, buster!” she informed him, waving the light about in her agitation.

Jordan took hold of the flashlight, but Hannah held on obstinately.

“I didn’t say you were coming on to me,” he argued.

“Well, I certainly was not,” she insisted.

“Hannah!” he said between clenched teeth. “Will you kindly let go of the flashlight!”

But she wasn’t about to do anything he wanted, kindly or otherwise. She jerked back on the flashlight and felt her sneakers slip on the wet grass.

The next thing she knew she was on her back with Jordan hovering over her. One of his hands was braced beside her head while the other held the flashlight. She was still so angry with him that she pushed against his chest to put some distance between them. Instantly she was aware of the hardness and warmth beneath her hands, and she froze.

The expression on Jordan’s face changed, as well. He had been irritated with her before, she knew, but now there was something akin to confusion sweeping his features.

He stared at her a long moment in the dark, his hand curled around the flashlight so tightly that his knuckles stood out in stark relief. His face was only inches from hers. An old memory came rushing back of this same face so close to hers as he made love to her. He was the man who had tutored her in the art of lovemaking, and even though it had been one time only, she had never forgotten it.

Hannah had to bite back a groan as her fingers lessened their pressure to fan out over his chest. She couldn’t look away from his face. He was even more mesmerizing now than he’d been seven years ago.

Slowly his mouth lowered to hers as if he wanted to stop himself but couldn’t. Hannah felt her breath release on a sigh as his lips finally touched hers. Her hands curled around the fabric of his shirt.

She could feel him start to draw away, but then he gave in to the need that they both felt and deepened the kiss. Hannah responded, her hands moving to the back of his neck, touching his hair and letting her fingers luxunate in the silkiness of it. She was kissing him back with all the need of a woman who had not felt the touch of a man for too long.

When Jordan raised his head, she saw something new in his eyes, something that made her wary.

“I’ve been wanting to do that all day,” he told her, his breathing not quite slowed to normal. “And there are a million other things I’ve been wanting to do, too.”

The blood rushed to her face as the full impact of what she’d just done hit her. He had been toying with her, luring her into his bed again, and he was sure he had made her compliant. She was so mortified that she abruptly dropped her hands from his neck and tried to stand up.

But he was ahead of her, standing and pulling her to her feet by her shoulders. She felt a rush of cool air across the dew-dampened back of her clothes.

“You can forget about those other things you’re wanting to do,” she said, trying to will her voice to coolness when she still felt out of breath. “I’m not interested.”

“No?” he said, investing the word with both skepticism and amusement. He caught her arm, pulling her to him, and for one breathless moment she thought he was going to kiss her again. But he made no move toward her. “There’s no sin in wanting someone, Hannah. And we’re hardly strangers.”

“We’re strangers as far as I’m concerned,” she told him, standing stiffly in his grip. “I made a mistake a long time ago, and I don’t intend to repeat it.”

He abruptly let her go, and Hannah turned, hugging her arms to herself as she hurried toward the trailer. She thought he said something softly, something she couldn’t quite make out, but she went on without missing a step. It sounded like “We’ll see.”

Once inside, she ran a weary hand through her hair. She had left the flashlight with him, and she hadn’t looked for her locket, but right now she was glad just to have escaped without humiliating herself any more than she had. She stood at the side of the window, looking out into the dark and letting her heartbeat slow to normal.

He was far too attractive and far too sure of himself. And she was...