Gift Wrapped Dad

“Oh, Will,” she murmured. “I’m sorry.”

Will felt the adrenaline leak out of him like air from an open valve. Krista had tipped her head to one side and was looking at him as if she was genuinely sympathetic. He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t sorry, that he could have made love with the other woman if he’d have wanted to. He just hadn’t wanted to.

Turning away from the sympathy in her expression, he clenched his jaw and began to make his way to his car. Moments ago he’d felt as if he was standing at bat in the first inning of a brand-new game. Now it seemed as if, in the blink of an eye, the game had been rained out.

He didn’t want anyone’s pity, least of all Krista’s. Okay, he thought to himself as he stuffed his crutches into the car and drove away. Maybe she hadn’t looked at him with pity in her eyes, but there had been sympathy. And that was almost as bad.

Will tried to imagine that he was lacing up his cleats and stepping up to home plate. In his imagination, he gripped the bat in his hands, measuring its weight. Unbidden came the image of Krista’s satin-covered skin filling his palms.

Scowling, he flipped on the radio and turned up the volume. He let his mind go blank as he drove back to his plain gray apartment.

Three

“Look out. Here they come!” Tommy called from the back door.

Krista tweaked Tommy’s nose as her best friend, Gina Harris, somehow managed to get all three of her daughters through the door and into the kitchen. Since Krista’s schedule was open until her ten o’clock session with Will, she’d offered to watch the triplets while Gina went to the dentist first thing this morning. In return, Gina would drop Tommy off at school.

The next few minutes were a flurry of activity as three bonnets were removed and three toddlers scampered around the kitchen, then darted into the next room, three pastel streaks of lace, ribbons and perpetual motion.

Krista, Tommy and Gina all poked their heads into the living room where the triplets began pulling Tommy’s old baby toys from a cardboard box. Other than Tommy, Gina’s twenty-two-month-old girls, Sarah, Beth and Abby, were the most adorable children Krista had ever seen.

“Did I really used to play with those toys?” Tommy whispered.

“You sure did,” Krista answered, smoothing her fingers over a stubborn lock of hair near the back of her son’s head. The instant she lifted her fingers, the hairs sprang up again.

“Wow,” Tommy whispered in awe. “Three babies at once. That is so cool.”

Cool was Tommy’s favorite word.

“Tommy,” Krista said. “Have you brushed your teeth?”

The boy nodded. “I just have to get my backpack and I’ll be ready to go.”

Instead of turning toward his bedroom, he looked up at Gina and said, “Did you know that only one out of every nine thousand, two hundred and seventy-three babies born is a triplet?”

Gina and Krista exchanged a smile before Gina answered, “No, Tommy, I didn’t know that.”

“I saw this really long equation in the Professor’s Book of Formulas at the library the other day, and the librarian said that’s what it meant. I thought it was cool and I thought you might want to know.” With that, he hurried toward his bedroom, those few stubborn hairs on the very top of his head swaying to and fro with every step he took.

Leaning toward Krista, Gina whispered, “I don’t think that professor figured Taylor’s stamina into that equation, do you?”

Krista shook her head and rolled her eyes. Ever since her best friend had met and married Taylor Harris, little innuendos about sex had become commonplace.

“I doubt they could have figured in your stamina, either, Gina. Now, why don’t you tell me what the girls are going to need while you’re gone.”

She listened intently as Gina listed everything the triplets might require, from the location of diapers and a change of clothes to the crackers and apple juice she removed from the bag on the counter. Krista wasn’t aware of anything amiss, but halfway through, Gina stopped talking and eyed her critically.

“What?” Krista asked.

“It just occurred to me that you’re in an awfully good mood this morning and the coffee isn’t even on.” Without another word, Gina strode across the kitchen and inspected a used mug.

“There are two mugs here, and I happen to know that Tommy is allergic to chocolate,” Gina said shrewdly.

“Oh, that one’s Will’s.”

“Will?”

“Will Sutherland.”

“You mean a man was here?” Gina asked, her voice rising an octave.

“Yes,” Krista answered. “But not the way you’re thinking.”

“How do you know what I’m thinking?”

“Because I know you. Ever since you met Taylor, you’ve had an X-rated mind.”

Gina smiled and pushed her chin-length blond hair out of her face. “Maybe you’re the one with the X-rated mind, Krista.”

Will had said something similar last night. For heaven’s sakes, was it really that obvious?

Even now she was a bit surprised by the ease with which she and Will had talked last night. After eight years, she would have thought they’d be a little uncomfortable with each other. She had no intention of allowing their relationship to go beyond patient-therapist-friend, but she had enjoyed his company.

He’d looked tired when he’d left. Why wouldn’t he? He’d driven across two states, settled into a new apartment and had begun a new therapy program. He’d always had incredible stamina, but his fatigue, along with the fact that he’d confided in her about what didn’t happen between him and his former therapist, made her feelings toward him shift, swell, soften. She’d gone to bed humming last night, and she woke up the same way. For the first time in years, she hadn’t needed a cup of coffee to clear her mind and begin a new day.

“Krista, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many sparks in your eyes,” Gina declared.

“These are sparks of battle,” she said. “I’m a little surprised by them myself.”

“This guy must really be sexy to have you in this good a mood first thing in the morning.”

“For heaven’s sakes, Gina. Our children are in the next room.” Krista glanced around. Finding the coast clear, she smiled grudgingly and said, “As a matter of fact, he is. But I’m not going to give in to the attraction. Forewarned is forearmed.”

“I don’t know,” Gina declared. “Maybe you should give another man a chance.”

Krista didn’t mind Gina’s candor. These conversations were as natural to them as the friendship they’d formed five years ago. Caring people made the world go round. They also made life worth living. Besides, Krista enjoyed teasing Gina just as much.

The voice of a singing dinosaur carried to their ears. Evidently, Tommy had turned the television on for the girls.