Daniel's Daddy. Stella Bagwell
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them, too.”
Daniel perked up and looked eagerly at his father. “Can I, Daddy? Can I go see Hannah’s house?”
“Maybe. If we have time,” Jess told him.
She told Daniel goodbye, then walked out of the kitchen. Jess walked close behind her.
“Thank you for the cake and coffee, Hannah. It was thoughtful of you,” he said.
Pausing, she turned to him. “I wanted to do it,” she explained simply.
“Not many people—” He stopped, looked away from her, then swallowed as the utter loss of his father swept over him once again. “When my father became a recluse, he lost touch with everybody around here. I’m glad you remembered him.”
He looked at her then and Hannah was surprised at the ache of grief she felt for him. “Like I said, I wanted to do it, Jess. And if you…need my help for anything, let me know. I go to the cemetery quite often, so I’ll keep an eye on your father’s grave for you…if you’d like.”
Once again, he was struck by her genuine kindness. There weren’t too many people like her left in the world. People who did things for others simply out of the goodness of their hearts and not for something in return.
“I’d appreciate that very much,” he said, feeling more awkward than he could ever remember. He’d never been around a woman like Hannah before and he wasn’t quite sure that he’d behaved as he should have. But what the hell, he’d be leaving in a couple of days. He’d more than likely never see Hannah again. Besides, when had it ever mattered to him what a woman thought about his manners? Women were something to be enjoyed, not worried over, he reminded himself.
She reached out her hand. He extended his and she quickly shook it. “Goodbye, Jess,” she said, her eyes shyly skittering away from his. “And good luck to you.”
“Goodbye, Hannah.”
She turned to continue toward the living room. Jess took a step after her. “I’ll see you out,” he said.
She shook her head. “No. That’s not necessary. Enjoy your coffee.”
Jess stood and watched her go on out the door. What a strange visit, he thought. And how different Hannah Dunbar was from the vague memories he had of the pale, skinny girl who sat alone in the school cafeteria and ate her lunch out of a brown paper bag. The girl he’d sometimes winked at just to see her blush.
The memory caused a corner of his mouth to curve into a wan smile. Maybe he remembered more about Hannah Dunbar then he realized.
Chapter Two
By nightfall the rain had stopped. Jess took Daniel to a nearby café where home-cooked meals were served smorgasbord-style. Jess was glad to see Daniel hungry and eating his fried chicken and accompanying vegetables. He’d been afraid the trip up here and the ordeal of the funeral might have upset Daniel, but thankfully his son seemed to be taking it all in stride.
They had ice cream for dessert, then Jess, deciding neither he nor Daniel was ready to go back to the old house just yet, drove the two of them out on the interstate for a few miles. The desert highway was more or less empty, other than a freight train headed west. Stopped at the railroad crossing, Daniel watched the long line of cars until it disappeared into the far darkness. After that, Jess turned their truck back toward Lordsburg. He still had a lot of things in his father’s house he needed to go through and the sooner he could get it done and over with, the better he’d like it.
“Can we go to Hannah’s house now?” Daniel asked, breaking into his father’s dismal thoughts.
Surprised by the request, Jess looked at his son. “You must have really liked Hannah,” he said.
Daniel nodded. “She was nice.”
“You think so, huh. Well, I think she thought you were nice, too.”
Daniel bounced his legs up and down on the vinyl seat. “I wish Hannah could be my mommy.”
Jess very nearly slammed on the brakes. “You what!”
“I wish she could be my mommy,” Daniel repeated with exaggerated patience. “You know I don’t have one.”
Jess let out a weary breath. Oh, do I ever know it, he thought guiltily. “I know you want a mommy, son. But I—” He stopped midsentence and glanced curiously at Daniel. “Why do you wish Hannah could be your mommy?”
The little boy shrugged one shoulder, then the other. “Just because. Because she’s nice. And she smells good. And she’s pretty.”
So Daniel thought Hannah was pretty and he wanted her to be his mother. Jess couldn’t have been more shocked. Not because Daniel had asked outright for a mother. He’d been hounding Jess for some time now on the subject. But he’d never gone so far as to pick out a specific woman for the role. And Hannah was very different from any of the women Daniel had been around, including Louise, the woman who’d been his baby-sitter since the child’s infancy. What was it about Hannah that had prompted Daniel to say such things?
“Well…I guess that is true,” Jess began slowly, knowing if he didn’t say something soon, Daniel would start to question him. “Hannah is nice and pretty.” Jess had never thought of her as pretty, but through the eyes of a child, people often looked different. And now that he thought about it, he had to admit that there was something about her that stirred him, too. Something soft and feminine and even sexy. “But I really doubt she wants to be a mommy.”
“Why?”
Jess stifled a sigh. He should have been expecting that. “Why? Well, she’s not married. And only married ladies want to be mommies.”
“Then you could marry her, Daddy. Louise says if you got married, I’d get a mommy.”
Jess silently cursed the older woman for opening her mouth about such things to Daniel. And how on earth could a boy who wasn’t quite four yet remember such a thing?
“Well, that’s true,” Jess was forced to agree. “But I don’t want to get married.”
Daniel folded his little arms across his chest and pushed out his lower lip. Jess braced himself for the whining and pleading to come. But after one, then three, then five miles passed and Daniel remained stubbornly quiet, Jess ventured a hopeful look at his son.
“We’re still buddies, aren’t we?”
“Yeah,” Daniel said, but without much enthusiasm.
“You haven’t forgotten that we’re going to that baseball game when we get home. Tracie and Dwight will be there.”
Jess’s friend, Dwight, was also a fellow border patrolman and Tracie was his wife. Since they didn’t have any children yet, the couple doted on Daniel. And Daniel was crazy about them. But tonight, the mention of their names only brought a glum nod from Daniel.
After that, Jess decided the best thing to do was let the matter drop. In a few days, when Daniel was back at home with Louise, he’d forget all about this thing with Hannah. Jess couldn’t start worrying and fretting just because Daniel thought he wanted one certain woman to be his mother.
He wasn’t going to worry, Jess muttered to himself as he turned the truck down a residential street. Who was he kidding? He worried about Daniel all the time. He was constantly asking himself if he was doing the right things for his son, spending enough time with him, teaching him what he should know and more than anything, giving him the love he knew the child needed.
A kid needed love from two parents. Jess knew that better than anyone. So he made an extra effort to give his son his time and his affection. But that was hard to do when his job demanded he work long hours. And in two weeks, Louise was moving to Tucson to live with her sister.
Two weeks? No, it was less than two weeks now, he realized. That’s how long he had to find some kind, gentle, trustworthy