A Gleam In His Eye

Someone who liked kids as well as the young swim coach obviously did surely wouldn’t mind their being underfoot, so Hunter plowed on. “I can see you’re ready for your own workout,” he said with a nod at her swimsuit. “But I could stop off somewhere on the way home, get some stuff for ice cream sundaes. I could give you the address—it’s not too far—and you could come by the house when you’re through.”

“Oh, I don’t—”

She was going to refuse and Hunter didn’t want that. In fact, he wouldn’t accept that. “Karen and your Aubrey seem to be hitting it off together. After swimming as hard as they did Aubrey could probably use a sugar infusion. I bet she’d like to come along.” He said it just loud enough for the little girl to hear. He hadn’t been raising children long, but he’d already learned the unbelievable pressure the little sweethearts could bring to bear when they wanted something. And what little kid wouldn’t want ice cream?

Aubrey did not disappoint him.

“Oh, please, Johanna. Can we please go, huh? Can we? Please?” Aubrey folded her hands together in front of her in a supplicating, prayerlike fashion and looked up at her older sister pleadingly. “Will and Steve didn’t even have to swim tonight ’cuz Chris got those tickets to the Silver Hawks game at Covaleski Stadium. They’re probably having tons of fun. They get to do everything and I hardly ever get to do nothing. Please?”

Johanna rolled her eyes. It was a standard line that every one of her siblings used. Each and every one of them was surely the most abused child in the history of the world. “I hardly ever get to do anything,” Johanna corrected her. “If you’re going to whine, at least do it correctly.”

“I hardly ever get to do anything,” Aubrey repeated dutifully. “Please?”

She shouldn’t let her get away with it, but the truth was Johanna wanted to go herself.

“It’s a school night,” she said, feeling duty-bound to point out.

“I didn’t have any homework.” Aubrey quickly inserted the reply, sensing Johanna’s wavering as only a child can. “And you made me practice piano before we came. And ice cream’s pretty good for you. We made it at school one time. It has milk in it. I saw.”

Johanna had to grin. What a little con artist. “Along with an equal amount of sugar, but what the heck, it’s been a traumatic day. We could all use a little comfort food.”

“Yes,” chorused Aubrey and Karen together. Karen pumped her fist in the air.

“When Charlie gets here, tell him to take Grace home and check homework for me,” Johanna directed her sister. “You can just wait for me to finish up here.”

The two girls saluted and raced off with Robby in hot pursuit.

Hunter stood there holding a now quietly sobbing, hiccuping Mikie, and feeling as if Aaron was a permanent attachment. It wouldn’t be much longer before he’d forget what life was like with free use of both legs. The three of them dripped water onto the concrete pool deck. His hair was hanging in his face and water rivulets ran down his neck in a decidedly uncomfortable fashion. It was not a setup he would have chosen for asking a woman on a first date. Unfortunately, he had a feeling of foreboding that this was about as good as it was going to get. Probably for years to come. Hunter gave Johanna clear, concise directions and squished his way out of the pool area, lugging Aaron with every step he took.

So much for Mr. Suave Sophisticate.

He sighed. How the mighty were fallen.

He took the two small boys into the boys’ locker room, shifted the nozzle on the hand dryer to point down, punched the button and stood them underneath the blast of hot air in a fruitless attempt to dry them out a bit.

Hunter borrowed some towels from the lost and found to spread along the leather seats of his pride and joy. He still cringed as he buckled in those sodden little bodies. His own soggy self wasn’t doing the car’s seats much good, either. He thought of Johanna’s sleek, wet body when she’d stepped out of her shorts and shirt. Now, a body like that, he’d let ruin his leather any day of the week.

“Come on, kids, let’s get a move on here,” Hunter said, suddenly in a hurry. How had they left the kitchen? Were there dirty dishes in the sink? Damn, he couldn’t remember. He needed to shower, put some dry clothes on. Hunter felt his chin. Maybe he should shave. His five o’clock shadow tended to be heavy.

He stopped at the grocery store on the way home and froze in his damp clothes while he picked up the ice cream and various assorted toppings. He probably went overboard a bit on the topping part, but what the heck, he wanted to make a good impression. Johanna needed comfort food, he’d see she got it. Anything that would buy him time with her.

“That’ll be $34.28. Having a party, huh?”

Hunter came to with a start and looked down the checkout counter. He’d spent thirty-five dollars on dessert? Good grief. Well, it would be worth it in the long run. He hoped. “Here you are.” He handed over two twenties and waited for his change.

“$5.72. There you go. Have a good night. Enjoy your ice cream, kids.”

Aaron and Mikie smiled shyly. Robby grinned and nodded. Karen was the only one who actually got a thank-you out. He was going to have to work on their manners.

Still, they were cute kids, as far as children went, and Johanna was obviously crazy about kids. Thoughtfully, Hunter buckled bodies in and stowed the ice cream in the trunk of the car. “Anybody who takes their safety belt off before this car is in the garage with the engine off, dies. Hear me, Aaron?”

“I won’t do it again, I pwomise.”

“And no unbuckling anybody else to get them into trouble.”

“Okay.”

“I mean it.”

Hunter watched Aaron nod solemnly in his rearview mirror before grunting and cranking the engine. Maybe he had Aaron sufficiently cowed. Maybe. In the short time he’d had the children he’d learned it was a mistake to think in absolutes.

“All right, here we go. Keep it down to a dull roar, okay? Uncle Hunter needs to pay attention to his driving. I really don’t feel like wrapping us around a pole on the way home.”

Hunter strategized as he drove down the quiet streets. He was good at reading people, figuring out what made them tick. It was why he was good at his job. If you wanted to sell major manufacturing systems, you learned how to do that in a big hurry. An effective businessman made small talk with people who liked to chat. He took sports fanatics to the stadium in Chicago or the Hoosier Dome in Indy. Clients who were more into the arts got museum tickets, symphony concert tickets, architectural tours of the city. Whatever it took.

So, what did he know about Johanna and what would his best approach be?

She liked kids. Had to, or she wouldn’t surround herself with them. In the world BK—before kids—Hunter would have run as hard and as fast as possible to get away from such a woman, no matter how good-looking she was, but Hunter had entered an alternate world and he was not running away, no indeed.

At any rate, the obvious thing to do here to keep Johanna interested was to surround her with his children. Hunter would make sure they were clean and threaten them with their lives so they’d behave. Hunter nodded thoughtfully. It should work. He nodded more forcefully as he pulled into the garage. His kids were as good—no, better—than any others he’d seen to date. Of course that wasn’t saying much in his book, but women thought differently. To his way of thinking, Johanna was a goner.

“Kiss the competition goodbye,” he told himself as he pulled into his garage. “You’ve done it again, Hunter old boy. The woman won’t know what hit her.”

Chapter Three

Johanna enjoyed her time with Hunter and the children. Heck, she’d grown up with the give-and-take of a large family. Teasing Hunter’s niece and nephews was especially fun because she carried no responsibility for them. At the end of the evening she’d be going home, leaving Hunter with the nitty-gritty, day-to-day bedtime-ritual stuff, as well as the long-term physical and personal development stuff. Well, at any rate he was responsible for the long-term development stuff for the short term. How long would the children’s parents be gone, anyhow? Hunter seemed to be going to a lot of trouble for a brief period.

Karen had shown her the paint color she’d picked out for her bedroom, a too-sweet cotton-candy pink. Johanna’s hands felt sticky just looking at it. She lavished praise. After all, she wasn’t stuck painting the walls that nauseating color.

Mikie had proudly displayed his new junior bed. He was a big boy now. Johanna was suitably impressed and politely watched as he drove his toy trucks down the wrong side of the road on the track-imprinted play carpet Hunter had installed in Mikie and Aaron’s room. After the second pileup, Johanna heartily hoped Mikie did not plan on long distance driving as a viable career choice. Then again, what did it matter? Johanna wasn’t the one who’d have to teach him right from left, the physics of impact with a large object or see him through to a driver’s license later on.

“I went off the starting block and you didn’t. That makes you a chicken heart.”

“Does not.”

“Does, too.”

“You only went in ’cuz you fell when Coach Jo yelled.”

“Uh-uh.”

You know, kids’ squabbles were a whole lot funnier when the kids belonged to somebody else. Johanna was having difficulty smothering a smirk as she listened to the byplay.

“Uh-huh,” Karen shot back, then turned on Johanna. “Coach Jo, how come you yelled like that? Did you see a spider or something? I hate spiders.”

“Karen yells real loud when she sees one, especially if it gets in bed with her.”

The mere thought made Johanna shiver, and she had to wonder how the spider got into Karen’s bed. After all, she had brothers herself, a fact that made her naturally suspicious.