“Wouldn’t it be better to make a nice salad?” Angie asked, grinning.
“Nice is always better than mean,” Dara teased, winking.
“Does that mean you’re coming to dinner?” Bobby wanted to know.
Dara licked her lips. Swallowed. He could almost see the wheels grinding in her head as she considered all the reasons she should say no. Then she focused a dark-eyed, loving gaze on his children, and he saw the indecision and apprehension disappear. In place of her wary smile there was a warm grin.
“I’ll come,” she told them, “but on one condition only.”
Angie and Bobby probably didn’t even realize they’d taken a step forward. Noah had felt the pull, too, but they were children, without a lifetime of restraint and self-control under their belts.
“What?” they asked.
“That you’ll let me bring dessert.”
The children exchanged a glance before facing her again. What happened next convinced Noah he’d made the right decision, that God had planted the idea in his head and would continue guiding his actions.
“Well, okay,” Bobby began, slowly, quietly. Blue eyes alight with mischief, he added, “So long as it isn’t…”
A moment of silence ticked by before Angie covered her mouth with both hands and giggled. He couldn’t remember the last time his little girl had acted like a little girl. The sight touched him so much that Noah had to swallow to keep tears of gratitude at bay.
“Peanut butter balls!” she shouted through her fingers.
Dara got onto her knees, making herself child size, and held out her arms to them. The children melted against her like butter on a hot biscuit. That quickly, she’d worked her enchantment on them. “No peanut butter balls,” she promised, smiling. “Now, tell me—what’s your favorite dessert?”
“Brownies!” said Bobby.
“Chocolate cake!” Angie insisted.
Standing, Dara turned to Noah. “What time is dinner?” She spoke with the precise diction of a TV news anchor.
“Five o’clock?”
When she nodded, her shining reddish brown curls bounced. “Is your place easy to find?”
He never went anywhere without his trusty pen and pencil. Can’t tell when you might need to work out a problem, he’d found. He flipped open the pad, quickly jotted down the directions, then placed the small sheet of paper into her palm, closing his large hand around hers. “Route 40 west,” he said, pretending not to notice the slight tremor, “left on Centennial Lane, right at the light at Old Annapolis. We’re the fourth house on the right.” He turned her loose. “You can’t miss us.”
She stared at the directions, then looked at him. In school, when the teachers weren’t watching, he’d made fun of the supersensitive male poets who’d written lush prose describing how it felt to be lost in a woman’s gaze. He hadn’t understood a word of their sweet talk, because frankly, he couldn’t get a handle on the why of it.
He understood them now, as he looked into dusky eyes that made Dara seem mysterious and elusive and at the same time vulnerable and sensitive, with a capacity for love like no one he’d ever known.
It disappointed him more than he cared to admit when she blinked, turned that warmth on his children again. “See you in a few hours, then,” Dara said, waving and smiling as he took them by the hand and led them toward the big double doors at the end of the hall. Bobby and Angie turned three, perhaps four times to look over their shoulders, tripping over his feet and their own before he was able to guide them outside.
Clearly, his children were charmed by Dara Mackenzie.
He had a feeling it was going to take a concerted effort on his part to keep her charm from working on him.
The kids had been in the living room for half an hour already, knobby knees poking into the cushions, elbows resting on the sofa back as they pressed their noses to the windowpane. “Where is she?” Angie sighed.
Chuckling, Noah said, “It’s only four-thirty, sweet girl. Miss Mackenzie said she’d be here a little before five, remember?”
“But it’s snowing harder now. Do you think she decided not to come?”
“I think she would have called.”
“But maybe you should call and offer to pick her up and bring her here, Father.”
“Maybe.”
“I saw one car slipping and sliding a few minutes ago. Do you think she was in an accident?”
It surprised him, the way his heartbeat quickened at the possibility. “I’m sure she’ll be here any minute, Angie.” But Noah sent a prayer heavenward on Dara’s behalf, just in case.…
“Do you think she’s…” Bobby squinted, searching his memory for the right word. “Do you think Miss Mackenzie is a punk-shal kind of person?”
“Yes, she seems the punctual type.”
“I hope she doesn’t get lost.”
“She won’t,” Angie confidently assured him.
Noah pocketed his hands and leaned on the door frame as he watched them, heads turning to follow every car that drove up or down the street. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen them looking forward to having a guest to dinner. Fact was, he’d never seen them so excited about company, particularly female company.
A year or so ago, he’d warily ventured back into the dating scene, but only because his wife had insisted that he try, as soon as possible, to find a mother substitute for Angie and Bobby. He might not have considered it even then if Bobby hadn’t asked, “Father, do you ever get lonely?”
The answer had cried out from his heart, from his head. Yes! he’d wanted to shout, yes, I’m lonely. He’d felt the pangs of it day and night, starting on the morning when Francine’s doctor had announced her prognosis. But he couldn’t very well admit it to the boy. The children needed his strength, not his weakness. So he’d said, “Now, why would I be lonesome when I have you and your sister to keep me company?”
Either Bobby hadn’t heard him, or chose to ignore the comment. “I get sad sometimes,” Bobby had said, “because I miss Mother.”
Angie, he recalled, had not agreed. He’d sloughed it off to immaturity; perhaps the girl felt her mother had abandoned them.
“No need to be sad, kids,” he’d said, “because your mother is in heaven now, with Jesus.”
“Is she happy there?” Angie had wanted to know.
Francine had talked so much about paradise in those last, pain-filled days. “Yes, I believe she is.”
Bobby nodded. “Do you think she misses us?”
He’d looked into his little boy’s face, a face so small, so innocent, yet so old and wise. “Of course she does. Your mother loved you more than…more than life itself.”
Angie had sighed heavily and frowned. “Then I don’t see how she can be happy.” She’d met Noah’s eyes and said very matter-of-factly, “I’m sure not happy when I think about how much I miss her.”
They’d been so young when Francine died—Angie, four and Bobby three—too young to remember much about their mother. Or so the experts said.
“They miss the things she did for them,” insisted the Christian counselor Noah had hired. “Have you considered remarrying, Mr. Lucas?”
In truth,