Sugar Springs Read online

  Her mouth flapped open and shut like a fish taking in water while both girls giggled.

  “You also agreed to let our daughters know that we care for each other.” His voice softened, took on more feeling, but he focused to keep it light. Wouldn’t do for his daughters to see he was too big of a sap.

  Kendra snorted, Lee Ann turned red, and Candy took pity on her mother and patted her hand.

  He took in both of his daughters then and turned serious. “What do you think about that? You okay with your mother and me dating? We don’t know where it may or may not go yet, but we want to try. See what’s there.”

  And he couldn’t help but think that it would work, because there was a lot there.

  Once he headed to Florida, he’d fly them down occasionally, and he’d come back as well. His contract would put him off the clock at one on Saturdays and he wouldn’t have to be back until Tuesday morning. With an early-morning flight, he could come up for two full days on weekends. That would have to be enough. For a while.

  If he played his cards right, he might one day prove himself the man his foster parents had tried to make him into. Lee Ann had been right, they’d actually cared for him—unlike the foster parents in the other homes he’d been placed as a kid—and they’d been doing their best to see that he grew up to be responsible. If he were to be honest with himself, he could attribute a lot of what drove him through college to the Monroes, and until he’d found out they weren’t around anymore, he hadn’t realized that he’d wanted to run into them.

  He would have liked for them to see that he’d made something of himself. See that their faith in him had paid off even though he’d been immature in the way he’d left, hurting and embarrassing them on his way out. They’d deserved an in-person apology, and the fact that he would never get to give it to them was something he now had to live with. Turning his mind back to the here and now, he pretended nonchalance as he cut off another bite of pancake.

  “What do you say?” He looked from one girl to the other. “No promises at this point, but are you okay with us seeing if we can make a relationship work?”

  Kendra answered immediately. “Will you promise not to kiss in public anymore?”

  He was pretty sure his eyes bugged out as bad as Lee Ann’s. “You saw us...uh...kiss?”

  “Yuck, no,” Kendra said, grimacing. “But Sadie texted us last night and told us her mom heard from her sister who heard from Gina Gregory that you two were practically eating each other’s faces off on the porch. Not cool, Dad.”

  Lee Ann covered her face with her hand, but he suspected she was laughing as much as hiding embarrassment.

  “And where...” he started, but had to stop and clear his throat. “Where did Gina Gregory hear it?”

  Kendra shrugged. “Probably Grandma.”

  Yeah. Probably Grandma.

  “Okay, no more kissing in public.” He wanted to kiss Lee Ann any chance he got, but he had daughters to think about now. And he was in the middle of Gossip Central. He looked at Candy, aware she’d remained quiet throughout the exchange. “How do you feel? You okay with your mother and me dating if we promise not to kiss in public?”

  Candy glanced at her mother, then back at him. “Does this mean you’re not leaving at the end of the year? Or are we going with you?”

  “We’re not going anywhere,” Lee Ann said, reaching over to pat the back of Candy’s hand where it lay on the table. “Your dad and I are just dating.”

  He nodded, deciding not to bring up the idea of their visiting him yet. That might be too much to handle at once. “The rest we’ll figure out when the time comes.”

  “But how do you date like that?”

  “Well, I’ll be here at least another four weeks.”

  Kendra rolled her eyes. “Dating for four weeks isn’t enough. Candy’s right. How do you date when you’ll be somewhere else?”

  “We’ll talk on the phone,” Lee Ann added. “And when he comes to visit you two, he and I will see each other then.”

  He glanced at her, hoping she realized that he’d be coming to visit all three of them, not just the girls. And then the thought of all the time he wouldn’t be seeing them hit him. Being separated from any of them for weeks at a time would be rough.

  Candy pursed her lips as she put thought into the matter. Before he could guess at what was going through her mind, she lasered her gaze on her sister. “I guess it’s sort of like liking a guy you have no classes with. You rarely get to see him, but that doesn’t stop you from going all silly every time he’s near. Especially after he kisses you.”

  “Candy!” Kendra screeched and jumped to her feet. “You promised!” She was halfway across the kitchen before she stopped and muttered, “Can I be excused, Mom?”

  Cody smiled into his hand at her manners, even though she was clearly distraught.

  “If you think you have to,” Lee Ann began, “but I would prefer if you’d come back to the table and tell us about this boy. He sounds pretty special, if you’ve let him give you a kiss.”

  Cody didn’t point it out, but the deepening color on Kendra’s face suggested it hadn’t been a matter of her letting him.

  “I’d rather not talk about it, Mom.” Kendra remained in the center of the room, her arms wrapped tightly around her stomach and her head bowed. “Can’t I just go?”

  “In a few minutes.” Lee Ann patted the seat where Kendra had been. “Come sit and tell us about him. Please?”

  Kendra returned to the table and in very few muttered words, explained that he was an eighth grader who played basketball and that even though he’d given her just a tiny kiss, she didn’t really think he liked her that much.

  “He’s the hottest guy in the whole school,” Candy added for their benefit. Kendra shot her sister a deadly glare, but Candy only shrugged. “Well, he is.”

  Lee Ann rubbed Kendra’s arm. “I remember the first boy I had a crush on. James Christian. I was in ninth grade and he was a junior.”

  A little sigh escaped from Lee Ann, and a tiny flare of jealousy breathed to life inside Cody. If he wasn’t mistaken, James Christian was one of the two doctors in town. The unmarried one.

  “But even though the thing I wanted to do most of all was run up and tell him how I felt, I knew that would just scare him off.”

  What? He eyed her. A seventeen-year-old boy would not be scared off if someone as hot as Lee Ann told him she liked him.

  “Why?” Kendra looked at her mother, her face stricken as if she’d already made the biggest of mistakes.

  “Because guys like to be the ones to take the first step. It makes them feel like they’re in charge, but us girls have to be the ones to make it happen. We just don’t let on that that’s what we’re doing.”

  What kind of asinine logic was this? “How old is this guy? Fourteen?”

  Kendra nodded. “Almost.”

  “And you think fourteen-year-old boys are more comfortable making the first move?” he said, directing the question at Lee Ann. “While girls play some silly game trying to get their attention?”

  “Of course.” Her tone was short and to the point.

  “Honey, at fourteen, boys don’t need anything extra to notice girls.” He turned his attention back to his daughter. “Whether you realized it or not, I guarantee you he noticed you well before you did him.”

  “But he didn’t ever talk to me even though I waited near the boys’ locker room three times.”

  He eyed Lee Ann. “That’s because the last thing boys want to do at that age is take the first step and risk getting turned down. We’re pretty fragile, even if we don’t act it.”

  “I think you’re too far removed from their age group, Cody.” Lee Ann faced Kendra. “Trust me, sweetie. Be nice, smile, talk to him, but don’t throw yourself at him.”

  He shook his head and stared straight into Kendra’s eyes. “If you went up and kissed him first, he’s already head over heels for you. Trust me. You’ve got his attention and
he’s wishing right now he had the nerve to call you up and ask you out.”

  Lee Ann gasped. “She’s too young to date.”

  “That’s not the point.” He pulled out his phone. “Call him.”

  “Don’t you dare. It’s too early. She would have no good reason to call a boy this early on a Saturday morning.”

  “She calls him this morning because she likes him.” He smiled at his daughter. “Trust me. That’s reason enough, and he’ll love it.”

  Kendra glanced at the phone in his hand, clearly uncertain about what to do. She chewed the inside of her lip and peeked at her sister. Candy shot him a look, studied him, then nodded. “I think you should do it.”

  “But what will I say?” Kendra whispered.

  He opened his mouth to interject but caught Lee Ann’s look. Instead of showing anger, the look was more tender. She shook her head and motioned at the girls as if to tell him not to interrupt the sisterhood while in the middle of a serious conversation.

  Candy shrugged. “Our party is next Saturday. Ask if he’d like to go.”

  Kendra sucked in a breath. “You think he would?” She chewed the inside of her lip before asking, “You think I should?”

  “He’s hot, Kendra. And I think Dad’s right. I saw the look on his face after you kissed him. He likes you. No doubt.” Her eyes lit up. “I’ll bet he’d dance with you.”

  Though he knew the last thing Lee Ann wanted was to see her daughters growing up, and certainly not by chasing after a boy, Cody was struck by the fact she didn’t step into the middle of their conversation, even when Kendra tentatively reached out and took the phone.

  She mumbled about having to look up the phone number, and then Cody glanced over at Lee Ann and winked. Their babies were growing up. Kendra liked a boy. A single tear in the corner of Lee Ann’s eye was nearly his undoing. Had he messed up by pushing this? It didn’t feel wrong. He stood and reached out his hand to her. “Let’s give her some privacy.”

  Lee Ann followed without complaint, even putting her hand in his. He wrapped his fingers around hers and pulled her to his side. As they entered the family room, he bent to her ear. “Did I mess up bad?”

  Shocking him, she turned into his chest. “Not at all. You’re right. If she likes him that much, she shouldn’t sit back and wait.” She sniffed. “Though that boy’s mother is going to kill me for letting her call so early.”

  “She’ll get over it.” He lifted her face and wiped away a tear. “Why are you crying? Did I overstep my bounds?”

  She shook her head. “You were perfect. I was just moved by the thought my daughter is old enough to get her heart broken.” More tears rolled from her eyes. “Oh, Cody. What if he breaks her heart? There’s nothing I can do to make sure he doesn’t.”

  “Sweetheart,” he whispered and kissed the tears away. “You have to let them do it on their own.”

  “I know.” Her voice wobbled.

  “Trust me, it’s not easy knowing what this boy thinks every time he looks at her, either.” He gave her a slight grin before lowering his head and touching his mouth to hers. Warm lips quivered beneath his, and salty tears mixed with their kiss, but she didn’t press for more, and neither did he. They merely clung to each other with the faintest of touches.

  When they pulled apart, she tucked her head into his chest and he pulled in a ragged breath. She meant so much to him. Running a hand down her back, he struggled to find the right words to let her know how much he cared.

  “Yuck,” Candy said from the doorway, her smile negating the word.

  Lee Ann made no move to pull away, so he gave her a little squeeze. “You and your sister never answered my question. Are you okay with me dating your mom?”

  Kendra stepped into the doorway with her sister, a grin splitting her face. “We think it’s the bee’s knees.”

  He had no idea what “the bee’s knees” meant, but it sounded like a good thing. And Kendra’s mood seemed to have ratcheted up a couple notches. The call must have gone well.

  Lee Ann grinned up at him. “We’re the bee’s knees. That’s pretty darn good.”

  His throat grew tight as she glowed in his arms. “Fantastic,” he mumbled. He needed to get her alone.

  She put some space between them as if sensing his thoughts, but remained inside the circle of his arms. “So this boy, Kendra Gayle. What’s his name and is he going to the dance with you?”

  “Derrick Johnston. He said he’d love to.” Her eyes seemed to melt as she confirmed what he’d suspected. “Is it okay that I said we could pick him up?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Lee Ann’s words and expression were exactly as they should have been, but her body was tense. Letting go was not easy for this woman. He tightened his hold in a quick, supportive way, and was rewarded with her body softening into his. She may not have liked letting her children make their own mistakes, but in the end she was willing to do the right thing.

  “Now, I don’t want to hear of you throwing yourself at him anymore, young lady,” he said, his voice turning into what he suspected might sound like a father confronting his daughter’s first date. All three ladies gaped at him, but he just shrugged. “He’s a teenage boy. I don’t want to have to hurt the kid before you get finished with him yourself. Any more kissing and he might think you’re offering more than a tiny kiss.”

  Kendra’s eyes widened, and she bobbed her head. “I promise.” She gulped. “Can I...maybe...hold his hand if he doesn’t do it first?”

  Oh, Lord, he wasn’t any more ready for this than Lee Ann was. He said “I suppose,” but he wanted to shout “Keep your hands to yourself.” “I’ll go with you to pick him up. I’d like to meet him before he thinks he can dance with you.”

  She nodded, her head and long hair bouncing up and down once again, and he marveled at the fact he’d gone from having no connections to anyone anywhere to having two kids and was now going to be picking up a boy for one of them to take to a dance.

  It was nearing eleven when Cody turned his car onto Lee Ann’s street and headed toward her house. They were as silent inside the car as it was on the darkened road before them. They’d driven the twenty miles over to the nearest town and had found a small but nice bar and restaurant with a local band. The music had been an eclectic mix, and Lee Ann had thoroughly enjoyed herself. If Cody’s constant need to find excuses to touch her was a gauge, she’d say he’d enjoyed himself as well.

  Though the night had gone perfectly, and conversation had never come to a lull, they seemed to have hit a rut. Neither had spoken during the last five miles as they’d neared her house.

  Or maybe it was simply nerves. Lord knew she was nervous.

  Should she invite him into her house? Suggest they go to his place? Were they actually going to make love?

  She glanced across the cab at him and knew the answer to the last question. Yes, they were going to make love. She couldn’t imagine either of them had the thought to do anything else. This was fourteen years in the making and she was more than ready for it.

  He turned around at the end of her street and drove back up until they were directly in front of her house, then put the car in park and shut off the lights. He didn’t turn off the engine.

  Why did she feel like the seventeen-year-old she’d once been? “You’re coming in, right?”

  His fingers, wrapped tight around the steering wheel, loosened one at a time, and he seemed to be concentrating on breathing to match the moves. When the last finger released from the leather, he turned to her, and she almost melted on his seat at the look in his eyes. It was an enticing combination of desire, need, and desperate hope. But hope for her to see him—who he was, not simply that he wanted to be with her. “Yes, I’m coming in.”

  She nodded and reached for the door handle, but before she got it opened, his words stopped her. “You know everyone will know if I go in there with you, right? Are you okay with that?”

  All was quiet on the street, and the
few houses around them even had their lights out. That didn’t mean one of her neighbors wouldn’t wake in the middle of the night and notice Cody’s car parked there or see it sitting right out front as they made their way to church in the morning.

  Only thing worse than skipping church in a small town was skipping it to frolic with a man. Though she really thought she had a pass because, from what she heard, most bets were on her to win him over. They wanted to see her settled down with a “nice man,” and the consensus was that Cody had grown up to be a nice man.

  But everyone knowing also meant that the girls would find out. Not that they wouldn’t guess anyway—they didn’t live in the dark about such things—but she’d always been so careful to uphold good moral standards around them. She hated to relent on that now, yet there was no way she wasn’t spending the whole darned night with Cody.

  Her shoulders slumped as she plopped back against the seat and looked over at him. “What are we supposed to do, then?”

  The streetlight caught his smile as he leaned across the cab and pressed a hard, quick kiss to her lips. “I need to run up to the apartment and let Boss out anyway. Why don’t I let you out here, then I’ll go get Boss, and he and I will walk back down. Either that or we can just go to my place. I just hate to leave my car in front of your house all night. It might embarrass the girls when they hear about it.”

  She liked that it was the girls he was concerned about and not merely the fact people would be talking about him. “Sounds perfect. I’ll go in and...” She shrugged. “Freshen up.”

  He brushed his lips across her cheek, starting a trail of heat that quickly wound down her body, and she couldn’t help but push closer and turn her face into his for a full kiss. He didn’t disappoint. Too soon they were both overheating.

  Getting caught making out in the car would be about as bad as having his vehicle parked in front of her house all night. “Go,” she whispered, pushing him back from her. “Hurry. And bring back a toothbrush. I’m not letting you out of here until tomorrow.”