“That’ll be $34.28. Having a party, huh?”
Hunter came to with a start and looked down the checkout counter. He’d spent thirty-five dollars on dessert? Good grief. Well, it would be worth it in the long run. He hoped. “Here you are.” He handed over two twenties and waited for his change.
“$5.72. There you go. Have a good night. Enjoy your ice cream, kids.”
Aaron and Mikie smiled shyly. Robby grinned and nodded. Karen was the only one who actually got a thank-you out. He was going to have to work on their manners.
Still, they were cute kids, as far as children went, and Johanna was obviously crazy about kids. Thoughtfully, Hunter buckled bodies in and stowed the ice cream in the trunk of the car. “Anybody who takes their safety belt off before this car is in the garage with the engine off, dies. Hear me, Aaron?”
“I won’t do it again, I pwomise.”
“And no unbuckling anybody else to get them into trouble.”
“Okay.”
“I mean it.”
Hunter watched Aaron nod solemnly in his rearview mirror before grunting and cranking the engine. Maybe he had Aaron sufficiently cowed. Maybe. In the short time he’d had the children he’d learned it was a mistake to think in absolutes.
“All right, here we go. Keep it down to a dull roar, okay? Uncle Hunter needs to pay attention to his driving. I really don’t feel like wrapping us around a pole on the way home.”
Hunter strategized as he drove down the quiet streets. He was good at reading people, figuring out what made them tick. It was why he was good at his job. If you wanted to sell major manufacturing systems, you learned how to do that in a big hurry. An effective businessman made small talk with people who liked to chat. He took sports fanatics to the stadium in Chicago or the Hoosier Dome in Indy. Clients who were more into the arts got museum tickets, symphony concert tickets, architectural tours of the city. Whatever it took.
So, what did he know about Johanna and what would his best approach be?
She liked kids. Had to, or she wouldn’t surround herself with them. In the world BK—before kids—Hunter would have run as hard and as fast as possible to get away from such a woman, no matter how good-looking she was, but Hunter had entered an alternate world and he was not running away, no indeed.
At any rate, the obvious thing to do here to keep Johanna interested was to surround her with his children. Hunter would make sure they were clean and threaten them with their lives so they’d behave. Hunter nodded thoughtfully. It should work. He nodded more forcefully as he pulled into the garage. His kids were as good—no, better—than any others he’d seen to date. Of course that wasn’t saying much in his book, but women thought differently. To his way of thinking, Johanna was a goner.
“Kiss the competition goodbye,” he told himself as he pulled into his garage. “You’ve done it again, Hunter old boy. The woman won’t know what hit her.”
Chapter Three
Johanna enjoyed her time with Hunter and the children. Heck, she’d grown up with the give-and-take of a large family. Teasing Hunter’s niece and nephews was especially fun because she carried no responsibility for them. At the end of the evening she’d be going home, leaving Hunter with the nitty-gritty, day-to-day bedtime-ritual stuff, as well as the long-term physical and personal development stuff. Well, at any rate he was responsible for the long-term development stuff for the short term. How long would the children’s parents be gone, anyhow? Hunter seemed to be going to a lot of trouble for a brief period.
Karen had shown her the paint color she’d picked out for her bedroom, a too-sweet cotton-candy pink. Johanna’s hands felt sticky just looking at it. She lavished praise. After all, she wasn’t stuck painting the walls that nauseating color.
Mikie had proudly displayed his new junior bed. He was a big boy now. Johanna was suitably impressed and politely watched as he drove his toy trucks down the wrong side of the road on the track-imprinted play carpet Hunter had installed in Mikie and Aaron’s room. After the second pileup, Johanna heartily hoped Mikie did not plan on long distance driving as a viable career choice. Then again, what did it matter? Johanna wasn’t the one who’d have to teach him right from left, the physics of impact with a large object or see him through to a driver’s license later on.
“I went off the starting block and you didn’t. That makes you a chicken heart.”
“Does not.”
“Does, too.”
“You only went in ’cuz you fell when Coach Jo yelled.”
“Uh-uh.”
You know, kids’ squabbles were a whole lot funnier when the kids belonged to somebody else. Johanna was having difficulty smothering a smirk as she listened to the byplay.
“Uh-huh,” Karen shot back, then turned on Johanna. “Coach Jo, how come you yelled like that? Did you see a spider or something? I hate spiders.”
“Karen yells real loud when she sees one, especially if it gets in bed with her.”
The mere thought made Johanna shiver, and she had to wonder how the spider got into Karen’s bed. After all, she had brothers herself, a fact that made her naturally suspicious.
“Do not.”
“Do, too.”
Johanna cleared her throat and glanced at her wristwatch. “Just look at the time,” she exclaimed. “Why, it’s almost eight-thirty! I need to get home or I’m going to miss my bedtime.”
Aaron studied her in wide-eyed amazement. “But Miss Johanna, eight-thirty is our bedtime, Mikie’s and mine. Even Karen and Robby gets to stay up until nine o’clock and you’re lots older than them.”
“Nine o’clock? Wow. Karen and Robby are lucky ducks, huh?” She sighed. “Poor me. If I’m not in bed on time I’ll be in lots of trouble. Gotta go, guys. Come give me a hug, then I’m out of here.”
The four of them crowded forward, squeezing and hugging as though starved for affection. Johanna wondered about their parents again. Her own mother had no choice but to be gone much of the time. Relatively older at the time, Johanna had still hated her absence. How could these little ones possibly understand their parents’ desertion? Wherever they’d taken themselves off to, she certainly hoped it was worth the separation anxiety their children were suffering.
And not just the children were suffering.
Hunter looked tired, Johanna thought as she glanced his way for the thousandth time that night. Darn, but he was prime male material. The least she could do was get the kids started in the right direction, she supposed. He looked as if he could use the help and she didn’t mind lending a hand—as long as she could still go home to her own life at the end of the day.
Giving the closest two a nudge, she started them on their way. “Let’s see who can brush their teeth till they shine the most, okay? Uncle Hunter can be the judge, and you can make a chart and draw a star by your name if you’re the winner. I bet Uncle Hunter would get a little prize for whoever has the most stars at the end of the week.”
The kids took off like a stampeding herd.
“I’ll be first done.”
“Nuh-uh. I’m gonna beat you.”
Johanna called after them. “First doesn’t count, Robbie, unless it’s also the best.”
“Karen already gots a cabity. So she shouldn’t win no way.”
“You’re