This one did.
They wouldn’t get a chance to test it, as they had its prototype. She would have to trust that Kaleb had got it right. Besides, if they tried and it crashed and burned as the last one had, they wouldn’t have time to start over.
That disastrous flight hadn’t been Kaleb’s fault. It had been hers for letting go of the string.
But the result of her goof up? Well, that had been pretty spectacular. She could only thank her lucky stars that a police officer had retrieved the string and set her and Kaleb back on their feet.
But watching him as he painstakingly checked the new kite after each addition, she had to admit he was pretty damned hot. And not just in the looks department. He’d been kind to Chloe, even as he looked uncomfortable whenever he had to work directly with her.
Some men just didn’t like children.
But he’d been married. So what had happened between him and his wife? Had they disagreed over whether or not to have kids?
Or maybe they’d had some and Kaleb, for whatever reason, hadn’t got visitation rights. He’d never mentioned having children, though.
Kaleb picked up a foam roller and went over each of the claw stickers one by one, making sure they were tightly adhered to the body of the kite.
“Did you really make the last one purr?” Roxy asked.
He sent her a quick grin. “I know right where the purr buttons are, so yes.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her sister’s eyebrows shoot up. Roxy jabbed a thumb toward Chloe. “Little pitchers, big ears.”
“I’m talking about the kite, Roxy. Those cutouts you grumbled about earlier? They’ll vibrate in the wind and make a kind of purring sound.”
When she looked skeptical, Maddy pointed out one of the gill-like slits that lined the cat’s torso. “It works. I heard it when we flew the unpainted version.”
Kaleb nodded. “It’s one of the reasons the paint had to be lighter in those areas. The plastic has to be able to flutter in order to make the sound.”
“Well, I’ll be.” Her sister looked at the kite again.
Chloe’s feet got dangerously close to the edge of the chair as she tried to see what they were talking about. Kaleb scooped her up, one arm under the backs of her legs, making her squeal with laughter before he turned her so she had a clear view of Jetta’s twin. “Pretty, pretty kitty!” she declared.
Maybe the purring was overkill. Chloe seemed more taken with the way the kite looked than with its functionality. Maybe if it survived its maiden flight, Maddy could buy it off Kaleb and put it on her daughter’s wall. A sweet memory of a fun event.
These were the kinds of memories normal fathers made with their children.
Maddy gritted her teeth. Kaleb was not Chloe’s father, and he never would be. She needed to get that notion out of her head immediately. Not that it had ever been there in the first place, but she needed to be careful. Chloe had taken a liking to this man. So had Roxy.
So had she. It was time to dial back on the Dr. McBride fan club. She held out her arms for her daughter, only to have Chloe nestle closer to Kaleb’s chest, wrapping her tiny arms around his neck.
Maybe he sensed her unease, because he knelt on the floor next to the table. “What do you say we go to work on Roxy’s kite next? We still have some more fur to glue to it.”
This time her daughter willingly let go of him. “Can I help glue?”
Roxy stepped forward and took Chloe by the hand. “Oh, most definitely. We’re about to make ourselves a flying unicorn. How does that sound?”
“Not too much glue,” Kaleb warned. But when he acted as if he was going to follow them, Maddy touched his arm.
“Hey. Can I talk to you for a minute?”
He tucked his fingers into the pockets of his jeans, hooking his thumbs over the tops of them. “Sure. What’s up?”
Now that she had made her mind up to say something, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. She glanced over to where her daughter and Roxy were busy working. “Chloe is young...and...” Taking a deep breath, she tossed the rest of the sentence out before she could back out. “She seems to be developing a tiny bit of a crush on you. If you could keep that in mind when you’re around her, I would appreciate it.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “As in you want me to watch my p’s and q’s.”
“Or maybe maintain a little distance between you and her.”
“Between me and her.” His head tilted. “And what about you? Should I keep my distance there as well?”
Maddy’s mouth watered. That hadn’t been exactly what she’d been trying to say. “I’m a big girl. I think I can handle myself.”
“Can you?”
Okay, the man was playing word games, and she had no idea what he meant by that. But if he wanted to lob a few serves her way, she could match him stroke for stroke. “You can bet on it.”
“I might like to take you up on that wager.” Rubbing his chin with his thumb, he paused, something dark flashing in his eyes. But before she could look closer, it winked back out.
“Don’t worry, Maddy. I’ll keep my distance from your daughter.” He took a step closer, reaching out to take a strand of her hair and sliding it over her temple. “But I have no intention of keeping my distance from you.”
FOUNTAIN PARK WAS awash with people on the big day. There were kites of every shape and size imaginable.
Kites weren’t the only things being celebrated today, it would seem.
“Why didn’t you tell me it’s your birthday?”
Kaleb had overheard Roxy offer to take Chloe off her hands, so she could go home and celebrate by soaking in a hot tub.
“I’m trying to forget I’m another year older.”
Older? The woman was stunning. And right now, he was trying to keep his eyes on Maddy’s sister, as she tugged the string to her kite, and off the birthday girl and the image of her naked in a sea of frothy white bubbles.
Roxy’s kite made it off the ground and hung suspended for a minute or two. Suddenly, it began to spiral out of control, plummeting to the ground in the strong wind.
“I warned her about that glue and using too much fur,” he muttered as it crashed and burned—the first casualty of the day. Luckily for Roxy, though, all the kites’ prototypes were on display in the gathering tent, including her furry unicorn. It made sense, because once the kites were sent into the air, anything could happen. Including smashing into dozens of pieces. And since Roxy’s looked as if it had exploded on contact, it was a good thing.
“I can’t believe it crashed so soon. Is ours going to do that?”
“It shouldn’t.” He said it with as much conviction as he could muster, but kite-flying was more an art than a science. There could be a defect that avoided detection, even in the most flawlessly executed design. Even in the most beautiful creation.
Like the human body. His daughter had been