She shrugged. “It’s worth thinking about, isn’t it?”
“Okay, I’ll think about it.” He shot her a wary grin. “Something to do while the princesses are singing.”
Her answering smile transformed her face briefly, giving him a glimpse of what she might have looked like had her tragic past not left indelible traces on her young features. Her eyes shimmered like a cloudless sky reflected in a calm lake, and the worry lines creasing her forehead disappeared as if erased.
He felt another unexpected tug of attraction, sudden and primitive, that lingered even after her smile faded into the careworn lines he’d become accustomed to. He cleared his throat as Maddy and his father reemerged from the back room with the bait containers. “Okay, we’ll see you around seven-thirty.”
“Foley, I’m heading into the office to type up my report. You coming?”
“Uh, yeah.” Foley’s gaze moved quickly from her to Sam and back again. “Call us if you need us.” He fell in step with Kristen as she headed for the exit.
“Bye, Miss Kristen!” Maddy called from behind the counter.
Kristen lifted her hand to Maddy, shot Sam an enigmatic look and left the bait shop, Foley on her heels.
“She seems like a nice girl,” Beth Cooper commented, patting Sam’s back as she passed on her way back to the front counter. “Too sad about what happened with her mama.”
Sam dragged his gaze away from the empty doorway. “I know the basics—her mother killed her brothers and sisters and tried to kill her. But what else do you recall about it?”
His mother gave him an odd look. “That’s pretty much all I remember. The news reports at the time were vague.”
“What happened to the mother?”
“I don’t think she went to jail. I want to say maybe the state mental hospital or something like that.” Beth’s gaze was quizzical. “You’re awfully interested in Detective Tandy all of a sudden.”
“Stop it, Mom.”
Her smile faded. “Just be careful, okay? Maddy’s at a ripe age to get attached to a woman in your life. She’s old enough to wonder why her mother doesn’t ever come around.”
He’d bent over backward to make excuses for Norah to Maddy, more for his daughter’s sake than his ex-wife’s. But Maddy was nearing school age, and she’d soon start wondering why everyone else in her class had a mommy to take care of them. One day his excuses wouldn’t be enough.
One day, he’d have to explain that not all mommies wanted to be mommies, and there was nothing she could have said or done or been to make a difference. It was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life.
No point in making it harder by letting another woman so clearly not cut out for motherhood break his daughter’s heart.
“YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS.” Kristen stared at Carl Madison, shaking her head. “Carl, there’s got to be someone else—”
“I could find someone else,” the captain of detectives conceded. “But Foley says the child already likes and trusts you. And honestly? You need to do it for yourself.”
“Don’t do that.” Kristen glared at her foster father, her anger festering. “You’re not my father anymore.”
“You never let me be,” he said bleakly.
Guilt stoked her anger. “All I ever wanted was to be left alone to get on with my life. That’s still all I want.”
“You’re not getting on with your life. You’re hiding behind your badge and your attitude, avoiding anything that scares you or challenges you. I’m not talking to you as a father now,” he added when she opened her mouth to protest. “I’m your boss, and this is a job I think you can do if you put your mind to it. Are you telling me I’m wrong?”
Nostrils flaring, Kristen looked away from Carl. “I don’t think Sam Cooper will agree to it.”
“I think he’ll agree to anything that will keep his daughter safe from another attack.” Carl’s voice dipped an octave. “Fathers are like that.”
Kristen stood up, her legs trembling with pent-up anger and a healthy dose of apprehension. “It’s a terrible idea.”
“But you’ll do it?”
“I don’t have a choice, do I?” She left his office, giving the door an extra-hard push as she shut it behind her. The slam echoed down the corridor behind her.
Foley looked up as she entered the bull pen, making a face at the sight of her scowl. “Good afternoon to you, too.”
“Carl wants me on full-time babysitting duty with Maddy Cooper,” she growled.
Foley’s eyebrows lifted. “Really? I was betting he’d tell you not to go on your movie-night date with Sam Cooper.”
She shot him a dark glare. “It’s an informal interview with a crime victim at his home.”
“Over popcorn and movies.”
“The popcorn and princess movies are for the kid.” Kristen crossed to her desk, grabbed her purse and headed for the door before he asked more questions.
“That kid’s got a thing for you,” Foley said as she passed.
“Then maybe she’ll remember something new and tell it to her new best buddy,” she retorted.
“That’s not fair, Tandy. And you’re not that cold.”
She stopped in the doorway and turned back to look at him. “I have to be that cold, don’t I? Especially if I’m going to be Maddy’s best friend 24/7.”
Foley shook his head. “I don’t think that’s what Carl had in mind. I know Sam Cooper won’t put up with it.”
She sighed, leaning against the doorjamb. “What am I supposed to do? Blow off the assignment? Do you really believe there’s not going to be another attempt to grab that kid?”
“No. I think someone brazen enough to send photos to her daddy is brazen enough to try to snatch her again,” Foley conceded. “But I’ve seen you with kids. You look like you’re allergic. I keep waiting for you to break out in hives.”
She pushed away from the door frame and swung her hair over her shoulder. “I’m not good with kids.”
Foley’s expression was full of pity. “It’s not that you’re not good with them, Tandy. You’re afraid of them.” When she didn’t answer him, he added, “Are you going to do what Madison wants?”
She left without answering, her chest tight with dread.
“LET’S GET SOMETHING straight,” Sam murmured to Kristen an hour later after Maddy had squeezed out from between them to go to the bathroom. “Clearly, you’re not the maternal type.”
Kristen’s eyes met his. The vulnerability that flashed there for a moment stunned him, but it disappeared quickly, leaving her expression unreadable. “No, I’m not.”
“Then, I think from now on, we should limit your interactions with Maddy to formal visits.”
Her gaze remained steady, but Sam saw a flicker of something in the depths of her blue eyes that might have been pain. Again, it slipped away as quickly as it had come. “I was afraid you’d say that,” she murmured. “But—”
Maddy came back into the room and bounced onto the sofa between them. “Unpause!” she said brightly to her father.
Sam hit Play and the syrupy strains of a princess love theme filled the room, ending the conversation with Kristen for the