Secret Service Dad

She rummaged in the picnic basket, found the celery-and-peanut-butter sticks wrapped in a plastic bag and handed them to Jake. With a calculating glance at Mike, she took out two round bundles wrapped in foil and handed him one. “I think I should warn you this is a different kind of hamburger.”

Mike unwrapped the foil bundle and stared at the green and brown contents. “It sure looks different. Is it really a hamburger?”

“It’s made from tofu and vegetables. I love animals too much to eat meat,” she added, looking horrified at the thought.

Mike grimaced. “No meat?”

“No.”

Mike hid his trepidation. Of course, a lover and collector of kangaroos and the Lord knew what else would never eat meat. He was afraid to ask if she had any chickens in that zoo of hers.

Since she was feeding Jake, eating a veggie burger without comment seemed to be the least he could do.

“Sure,” he said bravely. “May I pay you?”

Charlie frowned. “I thought this was a favor between friends!”

Mike hid a smile. Friendly. He was making some progress after all, but knowing Charlie, he wasn’t quite sure how much and in which direction—good or bad. “Er…okay. The next favor is on me.”

Ten minutes later, Charlie caught sight of Mike covertly rolling up the remains of the veggie burger in its foil wrapping. She hid a smile. She was willing to bet that after a visit to her zoo where he’d meet her pets, Mike wouldn’t order meat for a while either.

Mike gazed around the grounds. Women were packing the picnic baskets, younger children were on the verge of falling sleep, older children were playing games and the men were still drinking beer. “You haven’t taken any security precautions, have you?”

“No. Why would I?” Charlie asked. Mike was obviously back to looking at everything as though it were a threat. “This is my home and these people are friends.”

“Maybe so,” he replied. “But the fact remains you’ve invited a hundred people to visit you without a security check. To top it off, you have a zoo full of exotic animals that are probably worth good money. In my book, those are damn good reasons for having some kind of security precautions.”

With Mike reverting to the all-business persona who saw danger everywhere, Charlie’s pleasure cooled. “Don’t you ever let yourself relax?”

For a moment he looked surprised. “Not when it counts.”

“Ridiculous. I told you, most of these people are my friends.”

“Heck,” he answered as he searched the area for Jake, “with everyone wearing the same T-shirts, they all look alike. You’ve given anyone who doesn’t belong here a perfect cover.”

He covered his eyes with a hand and squinted into the sun.

“Looking for suspects?” Charlie covered the picnic basket with a small cotton towel and got to her feet.

“No. At the moment, I’m looking for Jake. See the green balloon moving over there? That’s Jake. I tied the balloon to his overalls. Best security idea I ever thought of,” he added with a satisfied grin.

Charlie swallowed a tart remark. Maybe Mike was human, after all.

“When does this tour of yours begin?” Mike asked. “I’d like to get Jake home before he falls asleep on his feet.”

“I was going to do the tour first,” Charlie said after a thoughtful glance around. “But maybe I’ll wait until after we have a few games.”

“That’ll wake everyone up, for sure,” he said dryly. “Are you really the only hostess of this shindig?”

“Mostly.” She took a whistle out of her pocket. “Kids’ games first, then it will be the grown-ups’ chance.”

“To make fools out of ourselves?”

“Don’t knock it, Mr. Wheeler,” she said with a sassy smile. “If you lightened up a little, you might even have some fun like a normal human being.”

Mike gazed after Charlie as she walked to the middle of the grassy area. He couldn’t help admiring her swaying hips, the inviting smile that lit up her face when she glanced back at him over her shoulder and the way her silken hair blew across her shoulders in the afternoon breeze.

Charlie was wrong about him, he thought as he smothered a smile. He was not only human, he was beginning to feel more normal by the minute.

Charlie was a handful, but it was her innate sensuality and the way that damned T-shirt strained against her breasts that made his body warm and his thoughts turn to subjects best left unexplored.

The attraction wasn’t only physical, he admitted wryly. To give the lady credit, there was her intelligence, her wry sense of humor and the unlikely way she managed to march to her own private drummer and still come up smelling like a rose that made him want to get closer to her.

What he didn’t approve of was the side of her personality that put her squarely in the middle of any trouble that came along. And he hated the way she managed to get him mixed up with her in her latest disaster.

Whoever the real Charlie Norris was, she was an intriguing bundle of womanhood that any red-blooded man could appreciate. Except that he had no room in his life right now for anyone but Jake.

Becoming involved with a woman, Charlie Norris in particular, would definitely be a mistake.

A voice came over a loudspeaker. “Attention, everyone! Attention! We’re about to start the mother-and-son relay races. Mothers, get ready!”

Mike watched as the balloon attached to Jake floated back over in Charlie’s direction. He smiled fondly and started to follow his son. It wasn’t strange the kid was attracted to Charlie. She had the kind of warmth and vitality that kids instinctively were drawn to.

He reached Charlie just as Jake slid to a halt in front of her. And was just in time to hear the words that made his head spin and the bottom drop out of his world.

“Miss Charlie, everybody here gots a mommy except me. Would you please be my mommy so I can race, too?”

Chapter Four

Mike’s smile faded. Of all the words his mind and certainly his heart weren’t ready for, it was mommy. Charlie Norris, of all people! The last woman who would fit the bill!

That was going too far and too fast, he thought as he ran his fingers through his hair and tried to put the smile back on his face. Oh, Charlie was attractive enough, he’d give her that. Smart, too. Maybe too smart for her own good. But maternal? Hell, he thought as he gazed at her over Jake’s head, of all the words that he could have used to describe Charlie, maternal wasn’t on the list. She was too flighty to be a responsible parent.

Except maybe when it came to that kangaroo she’d treated like a baby. As far as he was concerned, mothering an animal, no matter how admirable, didn’t count.

“Sorry about that,” he muttered. “I don’t have the slightest notion where that came from.” He put his hands on Jake’s shoulders.

With a quick shake of her head, she put out a hand to stay him. “Don’t worry, Mike. I understand. He’s only a little boy. Kids usually say what they think one minute and forget it the next. Besides,” she added with a grin, “I’ll only be his mother just long enough for the race.”

Charlie tried to hide her reaction to the look of panic that passed over Mike’s eyes. The way his clear blue eyes turned a deep gray spoke louder than anything he could have said. He obviously regarded her as the last woman he would care to have for Jake’s substitute mother.

She decided to let the incident pass. Being asked to play mommy may have given her a twinge or two, but she had the picnic to see to and a life of her own afterwards to enjoy.

She smoothed the little boy’s unruly hair away from his face. “You’re on, Jake, if it’s okay with your father,” she said, gazing at the virile man who often occupied her thoughts. Of all people to be Jake’s father! Why was the man she was attracted to so clearly not the man for her?

“I wanna go with Miss Charlie now,” Jake said stubbornly. He grabbed Charlie’s hand and tried to pull her along with him. “Bye, Daddy.”

Mike knew when he was licked. He let go of Jake’s shoulders. “Come right back when the race is over.” Too late. Jake and his temporary mother were already on their way.