Unexpected Father. Carolyne Aarsen
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Didn’t mean she had to like it, though.
* * *
No one important.
Well, that was probably true, Denny thought, dropping his hat onto his head, watching Evangeline as she walked—no, swayed—toward the customer. Though Andy had showed him a picture of his daughter, Denny hadn’t been prepared for her effect in real life.
Tall, willowy, her long dark hair spilling in curly waves over her shoulders. Her tilted smile and the way her green eyes curved up at the corners combined to make her look as if she held some curious secret that would make you laugh if she told you.
“Cute as a button,” her father had described her. His own beautiful little princess tucked away in her own little tower. Andy had told Denny that she lived above the bookstore.
Denny glanced around the building with its old-fashioned high ceilings and heavy-beamed wood trim. The large front windows flanking the door spilled light into a store chock-full of bookshelves weighted with paperbacks, hardcovers, picture books, kids’ books....
He was never much of a reader and it made him nervous to see so many books packed into one place. But he could picture Evangeline here. She looked exactly like the princess Andy always talked about with such fondness.
Evangeline laughed at something her customer said as they walked to the cash register, the customer’s arms full of books.
“You’ll like this book, Larissa,” Evangeline said as she rang up her customer’s purchases. “I’m thinking of suggesting it for book club. You coming?”
“I heard Captain Jeff Deptuck is coming now,” the woman named Larissa said with a teasing tone. “Anything happening there? He is a fireman, after all. Perfect hero material.”
“Oh, please. I’m still getting over Tyler.”
The woman waved that off. “Tyler is an idiot. You and he were a waste of time.”
“Besides, Jeff has his eye on Angie, another new member of the book club,” Evangeline returned.
Denny smiled at the interaction. Though he didn’t have a clue who they were talking about, the tone and subject of the conversation was familiar. How often had he heard his three younger sisters teasing each other about boys they liked or didn’t like? For a moment he missed the three of them, wished they could be back on the home place again. Him, his three goofy sisters, his foster brother and his uncle.
He dismissed that thought as soon as it was formulated. Thanks to his ex-wife and their divorce, that time was behind all of them. He had to look to the future now. Take care of himself.
Find the peace that had eluded him ever since his parents died.
Then the woman left and Evangeline turned back to him, the smile and sparkle in her intriguing eyes disappearing as quickly as storm clouds over the sun.
Again he caught a trace of sorrow deep in her eyes, then the glitter of tears, and he felt as if, somehow, he was partly to blame.
“Hey, I’m sorry,” he said.
Evangeline slipped the paper from the sale into the cash register and shoved the drawer shut. “What are you sorry for?” she muttered. “You didn’t do anything.”
“I dunno,” he said with a shrug. “I learned from my sisters that if they’re crying, it’s because I did something wrong or said something wrong, so it’s easier to apologize.”
“I wasn’t crying,” she said.
Denny pushed down a sigh. Of course she wouldn’t admit to it. He lifted one hand as if surrendering. “Sorry. I should know that, too.”
“What do you mean?”
Denny clamped his mouth shut. When would he learn? Dealing with women was like trying to predict the weather. Just when you thought you had the direction of it, a storm would blow in and everything changed.
“So your dad told me you knew everything about the ranch,” Denny said, trying to return to a more practical discussion. “That you could show me around.”
Evangeline nodded, blinking quickly. She looked as though she was going to cry again.
He restrained a sigh, his practical nature warring with the big brother in him that hated seeing his sisters sad. The part that always made him feel as though he had to fix things.
“You’re not okay, are you?” he asked, resting his hand beside hers on the counter. “You look kinda pale.”
Evangeline snatched her hand back, tucking it under her arm as if the casual contact bothered her.
“I’m fine. Just fine,” she said through lips that had grown tight and hard. “Did you want to see the apartment now?”
Denny’s frown deepened. She didn’t seem fine. “You sure? I can come another time if—”
“You’re here now,” she said. “May as well see where you’ll be living for now.”
Okay. Obviously he had overstepped the invisible boundary. “Sure. Of course.”
Lesson learned.
She opened the old-fashioned cash register again and pulled out a key. She walked around the long wooden counter and wove her way through the stacks of shelves. Denny followed; still amazed that one place could hold so many books, surprised that people would want to buy them.
At the back of the store she opened a door that led to a hallway separating the bookstore from the apartment behind it. She crossed the hall and unlocked another heavy wooden door.
She stood aside as he walked into the room. A couple of worn leather recliners flanked the fireplace. To his right, shelves, also filled with books, lined one wall. He guessed the doors on either side of the shelves led to bedrooms.
A couch directly in front of him faced the recliners, and to his left he saw a small kitchen and another door leading to, he suspected, a bathroom.
“Looks cozy,” he said, releasing a sigh of satisfaction. Though he knew he would only stay here until he could move onto the ranch, it would be perfect for now. Just enough room for him.
“The fireplace doesn’t work,” Evangeline said. “My grandfather put it in when he renovated this place but my dad never hooked it up.”
“Grandfather?”
“My mother’s father. He was the one who owned the store. He set up the apartment upstairs where I live. My mother inherited it from him and my father from her when she...when she died.” Her voice faltered.
“And you got it from your dad?” Denny asked.
Evangeline shook her head. “He still owns it.”
“And the ranch?”
“Belongs to my father, as well. He inherited it from his parents.”
Just as he had when his parents had died, Denny thought. Only Denny had been nineteen, too young to run a ranch on his own. Thankfully his uncle had stayed on to help him take care of the ranch and his three sisters and foster brother. It was tough, but they’d managed.
And then Lila came into the picture....
“It’s summertime,” he said, turning his thoughts to the future and his plans. “I doubt I’ll need a fireplace.” He flashed her a grin, hoping to ease some of the tension he sensed in her.
“There’re two bedrooms off the living room,” she said, indicating with a lift of her chin the doors by the shelves. “One has a queen-size bed, the other a single.”
Denny didn’t care about the rooms, but he didn’t want to appear rude, so he followed her, stopping in the doorway. The room looked like any other bedroom. Bed. Closets. Windows with flowered curtains that matched the flowered bed covering Evangeline