“Henrietta must understand that your hands were tied legally.”
“In her head, yes. In her heart, I doubt she’ll ever forgive me.” He gave Heather a wry look. “Not that there’s anything new in that. Henrietta’s made it her life’s work to hold a grudge against me.”
“Why?”
“Because I foolishly let her down once, a long time ago. The woman has a good memory.”
“But you keep coming back,” Heather pointed out.
“So I do. Somebody told me once that persistence is a virtue. Henrietta might take exception to that, but I figure one of these days I’ll wear her down.”
“And then what?”
“I’ll marry her, of course, assuming we’ve both retained enough mental capabilities by then to repeat the vows,” he said wryly.
Heather chuckled. “Maybe you need a new strategy.”
He stared at her. “I’m listening.”
“Flowers, maybe. All women love flowers.”
“Henrietta’s allergic. She claims she sneezed for a week the first time I sent roses. That was thirty years ago and she’s never let me forget. Said I was trying to kill her.”
“Candy?”
“Won’t touch it. Says she gets all the sweets she needs in her own pies and cakes.”
“Is there something else she’s fond of? Does she collect anything?”
“Henrietta lives and breathes this diner. It’s as much her home as that place she lives in a couple of blocks from here. The customers are her family. She fusses and fights with ’em like they were, too.” He shook his head. “No. I’m afraid the usual courting would be wasted on her. Not that I haven’t given it a try from time to time.”
“Well, there has to be something,” Heather said, undaunted. “I’ll think about it.”
The judge regarded her curiously. “Now why would you do that, young lady? You barely know me or Henrietta.”
Heather patted his hand and gave him a wink. “I’m a romantic. I like happy endings.”
His expression brightened. “I’ll be much obliged if you can figure out how to go about getting one for the two of us before we’re both too danged old to enjoy it.”
Todd didn’t set foot in the diner all weekend long. Henrietta was about to storm over to his place to check on him, but Heather managed to talk her out of it.
“Give him some time,” she begged. “He needs to wrestle with this news I’ve dumped on him. It just hit him out of the blue, but he’ll adjust. That’s what Todd does. He accepts facts, searches for solutions and moves on.”
But when he hadn’t surfaced by midweek, even she began to get concerned. Since the ever-busy Starlight was the last place she wanted to confront him, she decided a drive to the studios might be in order. She could explain her presence simply by saying that as an actress, naturally she was curious about the production facility Megan had created.
Wisely, though, she opted to leave Angel with Henrietta. The two of them were already thick as thieves. Heather couldn’t help thinking what a shame it was that Henrietta hadn’t had kids of her own years ago. But she was making up for it now with Sissy, Will and, lately, Angel.
Angel trailed “’Retta” around like a little shadow, mimicking her activities. She insisted on helping to set the places at the booths—all of which had to be reset the minute her back was turned—then carried a “coffeepot”—an empty plastic milk jug that Henrietta assured her was better for little hands—from booth to booth, pretending to pour. She chattered away at her imaginary customers as she went.
When real customers came in, she was often the first one to reach the table, greeting them with her sunny smile and asking, “Take your order?” as if she could actually do it. Fortunately Henrietta was never so far away that she couldn’t step in and actually write down whatever order the grinning customers gave.
“Where you going?” Angel asked when Heather headed for the door.
“Just to run an errand,” Heather told her. “You’re going to stay and help ’Retta.”
“Okey-dokey.”
She turned and toddled off to find Henrietta without a backward glance. After all this time being Angel’s primary caregiver, Heather wasn’t at all sure how she felt about such ready abandonment. Today, however, it suited her purposes.
Following Henrietta’s carefully written directions, she drove to the outskirts of town, where she had no trouble at all finding the production facility. Unfortunately the first person she ran into was Jake.
“What are you doing here?” her lawyer asked.
“I thought maybe I could see Todd.”
“Not a good idea.”
“Why?”
“He’s grumpier than a bear with a thorn stuck in its paw, for one thing. For another, Megan’s protective instincts have kicked in. She knows something’s wrong and she’s pretty sure you’re the cause of it. She won’t welcome you and I won’t have her upset.”
The door to the facility opened and Todd looked out. “Jake, what’s up?” He spotted Heather and the color seemed to drain from his face. “I’ll handle this,” he said tersely.
Jake hesitated uncertainly, then shrugged. “Whatever you say.”
When he’d gone, Todd scowled at her. “What are you doing here?”
“I just thought I’d take a look around.”
“It’s not a tourist destination, Heather. It’s a place of business.”
“Believe it or not, I know my way around a studio, Todd. I know not to talk when the red light is on. I know to stay out of camera range. I even know how to tell which camera is live at any given moment.”
He winced. “I know that. I just meant—”
“You just meant that you don’t want me anywhere around you.”
“Not at work.”
“If not at work, where? You haven’t been by Henrietta’s in days. She’s about to send out a search party.”
“I’ll get by sooner or later.”
“She’s worried about you. Worse than that, she’s blaming me because you’re staying away. She’s figured out what’s going on, Todd. I didn’t say a word. She’s seen us together, knows we’ve known each other longer than a few days. All it took was a good long look at Angel for her to figure out the rest.”
“That’s all I need,” Todd muttered. “Henrietta’s like a pit bull once she gets a notion in her head.”
“Then stop by and ease her mind.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll make it sooner rather than later.”
When she didn’t take that as his final word and simply go away, he jammed his hands in his pockets and stared at her. “What? Is there something else you wanted?”
She started to say yes, that she wanted him to be a part of his daughter’s life, but he already knew that. That was exactly why he’d been giving the diner a wide berth.
“Angel’s been asking about you, too,” she said, instead, trying to gauge his reaction.
Surprise flitted across his face, then disbelief. “Why would she ask about me? She doesn’t even know me.”
“She’s afraid we really did send you to your room for not eating your dinner that night last week. She thinks we locked you in. And if we could do it to you, we could do it to her. She’s worried.” It was only a slight stretch of the truth. Angel
had
expressed concern that night.
“Tell her I’m just fine.”
“She won’t believe me. She needs to see you for herself.” Admittedly it was a sneaky tactic, but she told herself it was only a tiny fib, and if it got Todd and Angel together again, it was worth it.
His gaze narrowed. “You’re making that up just to get me back to the diner, aren’t you?”
She regarded him innocently. “Would I do a thing like that?”
“In a heartbeat,” he retorted succinctly.
“Well, I guess the only way to find out for sure is for you to come in and check out her reaction for yourself.”
“Heather—”
“Think it over, Todd. Are you willing to give a little girl sleepless nights, just because you’re a coward?”
“Jeez, Heather, you are shameless,” he said, but amusement tugged at his lips. “Using that little girl—”
“You work with what you’ve got.” She grinned unrepentantly. “See you, Todd.”
“Tonight,” he agreed finally.
Impulsively, she rested her fingers against his cheek, then stood on tiptoe and touched her lips to his. “I knew you’d see it my way.”
Before she could step away, he captured her hand and held it in place, then slowly turned his head and pressed his own kiss to her palm. A shudder swept through her. Her gaze flew up and clashed with his.
“What was that for?” she asked.
His hands were jammed in his pockets again. He shrugged. “Old times, I suppose. Why’d you kiss me?”
More shaken than she cared to admit, she couldn’t seem to find her voice at first. “Old times,” she finally echoed in a whisper.
“Maybe old times for us are best forgotten,” Todd suggested.
“Never,” she said vehemently. “Because of those times, we have a beautiful little girl.”
“Something you’re not likely to let me forget,” he retorted.
She regarded him with dismay. “Is that what you want? Now that you know she exists, could you really forget about her? Even if we left, would you be able to get the image of your daughter out of your head?”
“I could try,” he said, a plaintive note in his voice.
“But why would you want to?”
“Because it would be for the best.”
“You’re wrong,” she told him. “I might have made a mistake in not telling you about Angel from the very beginning, but if you turn your back on her, you’ll never forgive yourself.”
Before she could say more, before she could express her disappointment in him, she turned away and headed for her car.
“I’ll see you tonight,” he said quietly.
“Whatever.”
She noticed as she drove away that he was still staring after her, his expression troubled.
7
T
odd stood outside the studio for several minutes after Heather had driven away. The woman was going to be the death of him. He’d caught sight of her driving up, guessed her intentions and bolted from his office, hoping to intercept her before she came inside. The last thing he wanted was for Megan to spot her and link Heather to the funk he’d been in. It was just bad luck that Jake had gotten to her first. Seeing the two of them with their heads together had been enough to make his stomach churn. If Jake was already in on the secret, then Megan would surely pry it out of him sooner or later, ethics be damned.
Oh, yes, Heather was going to turn his life upside down, no doubt about it. She was going to keep right on poking at him until she got her way. If the stakes hadn’t been so high, the risk so great, he would have given in now, accepted a role in Angel’s life and been done with it.
But he couldn’t and that was that. He would fight her as hard as he had to.
When at last he walked back inside, he found Jake waiting for him in his office. Since Jake was seldom far from Megan’s side these days, Todd guessed the man had something serious on his mind. It wasn’t all that difficult to figure out what it was.
“You want to talk about Megan’s schedule again?” he asked, hoping he was wrong and that it was something that simple and impersonal, something professional. He charged ahead, assuming that he’d gotten it right. “I’ve made it as light as I could and still keep her on the air. She’s champing at the bit because the pace of the tapings has slowed down. She seems to think we should be taping more, not less, so she’ll have shows in the can when she takes time off to have the baby. She has a point. Unless you want her maternity leave to last less than a week, we need a backlog of shows.”
For once, Jake didn’t pounce on the suggestion that Megan return to a more demanding schedule. “This isn’t about Megan,” he said mildly.
Todd’s hand stilled over the taping schedule he’d been about to pull from its place on the wall behind him. “Oh?”
“It’s about Heather,” Jake said, then added, “and your baby.”
Todd sank into his chair. “You know, then? I was afraid of that.”
“I’m representing her. I thought you should know.”
“So much for loyalty,” Todd groused. “Isn’t there a conflict in there somewhere?”
“I don’t see one.”
“Megan might,” Todd suggested, hoping that would be enough to get Jake to drop the case.
“I don’t discuss my cases with my wife. And even if I did, are you so sure she wouldn’t want me to help a mother get what she deserves from her child’s father?”
To be truthful, Todd wasn’t sure of that at all, but he did know that Megan would at least listen to his side of things before jumping into the fray. That was more than he could say for Jake, even though he considered him a friend—particularly these past few months when he and Jake had been united in saving Megan’s syndication deal and making her life easier.
“Are you so desperate for clients that you have to take on a case that puts the two of us at odds?” he asked.
“You know better,” Jake replied quietly. “Heather came to me with a legitimate legal matter. If there had been another attorney to send her to here in town, I would have done it.” His gaze narrowed. “Are we really going to have a problem over this? It’s not personal, Todd. It doesn’t have to turn into a fight. I know the kind of man you are. You don’t walk away from responsibilities.”
“It seems damned personal to me. And believe me, if this is about me taking legal custody of that little girl in any way whatsoever, there will be a fight. It’s not going to happen, Jake.”
“Todd, be reasonable. The girl needs a daddy. You’d make a fine one. I can’t see why you’re so all-fired set against it. How much time have you actually spent with Angel since the two of them got to town? You haven’t even given the idea a chance, have you?”
“It doesn’t matter why I’m against it. I am, so let’s just start from there when you’re working your legal magic. You prove she’s mine and I’ll fork over whatever child support seems right. Beyond that, I won’t agree to anything. And since you’re Heather’s attorney, from here on out, I don’t think you and I should be discussing this at all.”
Jake seemed taken aback by Todd’s unyielding attitude, but he nodded slowly. “Okay, you’re probably right about that. Once you hire an attorney, I’ll go through him.”
“I have no intention of hiring an attorney.”
“But—”
“Like I said, if Angel’s mine, I’ll meet any reasonable request. I don’t need to have an attorney making this any more complicated than it is already. I’ll make my offer to Heather. She can run it by you if she wants, then we’ll sign whatever papers are necessary.”
“She wants more than money,” Jake reminded him, despite Todd’s vehement insistence that anything else was out of the question.
Todd felt besieged, especially since he knew that what Heather wanted was not an unreasonable demand. If he’d been a different man with a different past, he wouldn’t fight her. He’d
want
to spend time with his child.
But there was no point dealing with what-ifs. He was who he was and there was no forgetting the past. God knows he had tried every way he knew how, but it was always with him. Every time he was behind the wheel of a car, it came back to him.
“She’s not going to get it,” Todd said flatly.
“Okay,” Jake said. “Let’s go about this one step at a time. I’ll schedule the blood work so we’ll know exactly what the situation is. Then we can go from there.”
“You do what you have to do,” Todd said, just as Megan walked in.
She stared first at Todd, then at her husband, clearly sensing the tension in the air. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Jake said, leaping up to usher her into a chair. “Sit. You shouldn’t be on your feet.”
“Jake, will you please stop it,” she begged with evident frustration. “If you two are arguing over my schedule again…”
“We aren’t,” Todd said, inadvertently opening the door for more questions.
Fortunately Jake stepped in. He whipped a sheet of paper from his pocket. “The doctor said you should take it easy. It says so right here.”
Megan scowled at the paper. “Give me that.” She snatched it from his hand, balled it up and tossed it to Todd. “Burn that.”
Todd grinned. “With pleasure.”
Jake frowned. “I have more copies.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Megan said. “I’m going to find the entire stash and burn those, too. And just for the record, it also says on there that I should continue to get a moderate amount of exercise, or have you conveniently forgotten that?”
Jake shrugged. “I must have missed it,” he said without apology. “We’ll go for a walk later, if it’s not too chilly.”
“Let’s get back to what was going on in here before I walked in,” Megan suggested. “Tell me the truth. Were the two of you arguing?”
Todd knew better than to head down that path. “Nope.”
“Just talking,” Jake agreed.
“About?”
“This and that,” her husband said. He latched on to Megan’s hand. “We’ve got to run. I’ll take care of that matter, Todd, and let you know the particulars.”
“The particulars of what?” Megan asked, trailing after him reluctantly.
“Nothing for you to worry your head about,” Jake told her.
Megan rolled her eyes. “I’ll see you later, Todd, and be prepared. Whatever you two are up to, I will find out.”
“Duly noted,” he told her. He knew he’d been living on borrowed time from the moment Heather set foot in town. Despite Jake’s claim to ethical considerations, his own determination to keep the matter private and Heather’s promise not to let word get out, too many people already knew—or had accurately guessed—the facts. Megan was not the kind of woman to stay out of the loop for long. Well-placed sources and timely leaks were how she kept her magazine and her TV show one step ahead of the trends.
To her credit, she hadn’t asked about Heather’s presence in Whispering Wind, and by now she had to know about it. It was a small town, and Heather’s soap role would have brought her instant attention. But as far as he knew, Megan hadn’t caught so much as a glimpse of Angel. It was only a matter of time, though. Todd shuddered when he thought of what would happen when she finally honed in on the secret.
Heather was on pins and needles waiting for Todd to keep his word and show up at the diner. Every time the door opened, she glanced over, then sighed with disappointment when another of the regulars entered.
“You looking for somebody in particular?” Henrietta asked.
“No.”
“You’re a terrible liar, girl. Which man is it you’re hoping will show up?”
“Which man?”
“I notice Joe’s not here tonight. He’s been making himself scarce the last few days, same as Todd. You chase off any more of my customers, I’ll be out of business.”
Heather winced. She certainly didn’t want Henrietta to lose business because of her. “Sorry.”
“I was joking,” Henrietta soothed. “Must not be much good at it. Look around here. The tables are filled. I haven’t seen this many ranch hands in here in years. Word must be getting around that I have a pretty new waitress.”
Yes, Heather thought, there did indeed seem to be an awful lot of men crowded into the booths tonight. Young, rugged cowboys with friendly smiles and twinkling eyes. She’d been so busy serving heaping plates of Henrietta’s spaghetti, she hadn’t paid much attention to the gender of the customers. None of them was Todd, that was all she cared about. She’d finally sent Angel upstairs with Sissy, who’d promised to read her a story and then watch her favorite video with her for the umpteenth time.
The door opened again and Heather’s gaze shot to the latest arrival. It was Joe Stevens. He stared around in surprise at the crowd.
“You giving away food in here tonight?” he asked. “Can’t think of anything else that would get these motley ranch hands to leave the comfort of the bunkhouse and their nightly poker games.”
“They’re all paying customers,” Henrietta assured him. “You’ll have to join one of these gangs or sit at the counter. Unless you want to wait.”
He shook his head. “The counter’s fine.” He slid onto a stool and grabbed a menu.
“You take his order, Heather. I’ll get these plates over to table seven,” Henrietta said.
Heather nodded, poured Joe a cup of coffee and set it in front of him.
“Where have you been?” she asked.
“Miss me?” he asked with a grin.
“Henrietta did,” she corrected him.
“Had to take a run down to Denver for a few days,” he said, then studied her with that impudent grin still firmly in place. “You sure you didn’t miss me even a little bit?”
“I’m sure. But I was worried you might have taken offense the other night,” she told him candidly.
“Sugar, it would take more than a brush-off like that to keep me away from Henrietta’s food.” His grin spread. “Maybe I’ll try again one of these days and you’ll be in a more receptive frame of mind.”
“Joe—”
“One of these days, Heather. No need to dig in your heels now. It’ll just make it harder for you to change your mind later.”
She laughed. “Your ego’s obviously tougher than I thought.”
He winked. “Keep that in mind, why don’t you.”
Just then the door opened and Jake’s secretary came in, took one look around at the mostly male crowd and silently whistled. She took an empty seat at the counter, which hiked up her tight skirt, and grinned at Heather. “If I’d known you were going to start pulling in every bachelor in town, I’d have been over here sooner,” she teased.
“They’re here for Henrietta’s spaghetti,” Heather insisted.
“Yeah, right,” Flo said. “Henrietta’s been serving that same spaghetti since I came to town and I’ve never seen a crowd like this.”
Joe’s gaze settled on Flo as if he’d never seen her before. Heather seized on that promising flash of masculine interest and introduced the two of them.
“Are you both having the spaghetti?” she asked.
“Suits me,” Joe said, without taking his gaze from Flo.
He was looking at her as if she were some sort of fascinating exotic bird, Heather thought. Given Flo’s short skirt and snug sweater, Heather had a very strong feeling that she wouldn’t need to worry about Joe’s unwanted attention anymore.
“Me, too,” Flo agreed, equally distracted.
Heather headed toward the kitchen to place the order and ran into Henrietta coming out with a loaded tray.
“Matchmaking?” Henrietta inquired.
“Not intentionally, but it sure looks as if it might work out that way.” Something in Henrietta’s expression suggested disapproval. “What do you think?”
“I think he could do better,” she said succinctly, then turned right around and went back into the kitchen, food and all.
Heather followed her. “You don’t like Flo?”
Scowling, Henrietta put the tray down. “I didn’t say I didn’t like her.”
“But you don’t approve of her for Joe, right?”
Henrietta sighed. “They’re both grown people. They’ll do what they want without my say-so.” She paused, then added pointedly, “Same as you.”
“What does that mean?”
“Take it however you want,” Henrietta said as she grabbed up two more salads, added them to the tray and left Heather staring after her.
“Now, what on earth was that about?” she asked.
“She gets riled up when things don’t go to suit her,” Mack answered as he expertly flipped burgers. “It’ll pass. I ought to know. She spends most days riled up at me about one thing or another. If I experiment with some spice she hasn’t personally okayed, you’d think I was trying to ruin her business.”
Heather chuckled at the cook’s disgruntled expression. “Remember the clientele,” she said. “These folks can’t take a lot of change all at once. You have to ease ’em along. Henrietta knows that.”
“Henrietta’s worse than the whole lot of them.” He shook his head. “Talk about being set in her ways. But like I said, her moods pass.”
Henrietta being riled up was plain enough, but what had set her off? Flo Olsen and Joe Stevens? Was she irked because she’d wanted something to happen between Joe and Heather? That didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Hadn’t she warned Heather to stay away from him since she intended to leave Whispering Wind? Or was it simply Flo she objected to?