She looked around the room and sighed. It was small for two cribs, one dresser and an ancient changing table, not to mention a shelf system that was beginning to pull away from the wall. This was not exactly what she’d dreamed of for her little ones. Hopefully, if she got the raise she was expecting next month …
“I wanted you to know how sorry I am about Jimmy,” she could hear Mitch saying from the next room.
“His death was a tragedy,” Mimi responded sadly. “You were always such a good friend to him. He idolized you, you know. He missed you so when you went off and joined the Army.”
They chatted a bit more, but Darcy couldn’t make out the words. Darcy bit her lip. So far, so good. Maybe he would just leave now, without ever hearing that she was just a few steps away.
“I don’t know if you ever knew Darcy Connors,” she heard Mimi mentioning, loud and clear.
“Darcy Connors?” Mitch sounded surprised. “Sure, I know Darcy.”
Her shoulders sagged. Oh well. So much for that hope. Nothing was ever easy, was it? The boys were dozing. At least she was getting a little luck there. Very quietly, she crept out into the hall, ready to leap out and stop Mimi from bringing up the children if she possibly could.
“I was so happy when she got the assignment in France,” Mimi was saying. “She and Jimmy became quite close while they were working together over there.”
“I … yes, I guess I knew that,” Mitch replied a bit stiffly.
Mimi was chattering on. Darcy crossed her fingers, hoping she would forget to mention the twins.
“Yes, she came to live with me right after she got transferred from the Atlanta office. And now she and her two—”
Time to make her move.
“Hello there,” Darcy interrupted, bursting onto the scene with a bright smile before Mimi could get the rest of that sentence out. “I thought I recognized your voice,” she said, nodding to Mitch.
He was firmly ensconced on the couch, unfortunately. She wasn’t going to be able to shoo him out the door any time soon. Flopping down into a chair across from him, she kept on smiling.
He gave her a puzzled look and she knew he was wondering why she hadn’t told him she was living with Jimmy’s mom. It just didn’t come up, she tried to convey with a subtle shrug.
Mimi was laughing about the past. “All those long summer days with you and Jimmy playing in the canyon out back, and me driving you to Little League games and buying you hamburgers at Merle’s drive-in.”
“Merle’s Mammoth Mouthfuls.” Mitch grinned. “I remember it all. Some of the happiest days of my life were spent right here in your backyard.”
“You and Jimmy, what a pair.” She sighed. “I’m glad he had you in his life. And Darcy, too,” she added with a smile. “I hope you two get to know each other.”
Darcy and Mitch exchanged a quick, furtive glance. “I haven’t told Mimi yet,” she said quickly. “Told me what?” Mimi asked. Mitch was staring at her, his eyes wide, as though he couldn’t believe his ears, and she suddenly realized what he might think she was talking about.
“That we’re going to be working together,” she reassured him quickly. She turned to look at the older woman. “Yes, we’re going to be working together, Mitch and I. He’s come back and he’s working for ACW. Isn’t that nice?”
“Well, yes,” Mimi said. “I’m so glad, Mitch. I know your mama must be pleased as punch. I haven’t talked to her for years but she always seemed like a gracious lady.”
Mitch looked as though he was still reeling from his brief misapprehension. How he had thought she was going to bring up the Paris incident she couldn’t imagine. But it was pretty obvious he’d thought so, for just a moment there.
“Uh … yes, she is,” he managed to get out.
Mimi smiled at them both. “So where did you two meet? How do you know each other so well?”
“I wouldn’t say we know each other well,” Mitch said hastily.
“No, not at all,” Darcy echoed quickly.
“Well, what was it? You didn’t just meet today, did you?”
Darcy smiled nervously. “Oh, no. We’ve met before.”
She hesitated, glancing at Mitch and reading the wariness in his eyes. Don’t worry, she wanted to tell him. I’m not going to bring up Paris. In fact, she was going to go back a lot further than that.
“Remember that summer, the first time my mother was sick and you invited me to come and stay with you?” she said to Mimi.
“You were still in high school.”
“Yes. It was in August. You wanted to get my mind off my mother and all that. So I came to stay for a couple of weeks. You tried hard to get Jimmy to pay some attention to me, to take me out to where the teenagers gathered, but all he wanted to do was work on that souped-up car he loved so much.”
“Of course! I remember.” She smiled fondly. “I was so mad at him! He would barely give you the time of day. I guess it was a coming-of-age sort of thing with him.”
No. It was the fact that he loved cars better than people. But that wasn’t something she was going to point out to his mother.
“Anyway, you felt sorry for me, so one day you sent me off to the rodeo with a bunch of kids. Friends of Jimmy’s.”
“Did I?”
“Yes. I think that’s the first time I really met Mitch.” She glanced at him. He had the look of a man trying to remember details.
“I’d forgotten all about that,” he said. “Was that really you?”
Their gazes met and something flashed between them, but Darcy ignored it as best she could. “That was me. I was the one who got charged by the bull that got out of the pen.”
He grinned as the picture cleared for him.
“I remember that,” he said as though enjoying the memory.
“And you pulled me out of his path at the very last second,” she added. “My hero.” She tried for a mocking tone but somehow it came out sounding almost sincere.
“I do my best,” he said, managing to hit just the right note of irony, coming off modest and noble at the same time.
She shook her head, but she could have told him more. She could have told him that he really had become her hero that day. She could have recalled everything he was wearing, from the backward baseball cap to the tight muscle T-shirt and the ragged jeans. She might have recited everything he said to her, from, “Hey, watch it kid,” to, “So you turned sweet sixteen yesterday, huh? I hope Jimmy kissed you. No? Well then, I guess I’ll have to do it.”
Even now, the memory of that silly little kiss could curl her toes. But there was no way she would ever tell him that.
Oh, he remembered all right. She’d said something about it when they first met again in Paris and he’d acted like he didn’t remember then. But she could see it in his eyes—he remembered now. The scene played out like a holograph between them—the two of them waiting for the others behind the stadium, the sounds and smells of the rodeo, the August evening heat, the way he’d grinned and tilted her chin up with a curved finger, then bent slowly to touch his warm lips to hers, the way the world had melted around them.
And then the others had come charging around the corner and they’d pulled apart. Mitch was quickly talking and laughing with his friends. But Darcy was in a dream, and she stayed there all the way home.