Ghost Moon (29 page)

‘‘Chloe has her moments, but no one can say she’s not smart.’’ Olivia pulled out of his arms. ‘‘You need to get back to work. And I need to go pick up Sara and Chloe. We can talk about this later.’’

‘‘Wait a second.’’ He put his hands on either side of her face, tilted it up to his, kissed her mouth, and looked down at her consideringly. Then he grinned. ‘‘You were mad as fire at me when you marched in here, and now you’re smiling and your eyes are glowing and your lipstick’s all gone—what’s Ilsa going to make of that, I wonder? And Phillip?’’

‘‘This is going to be embarrassing.’’ Olivia groaned as the truth of what he was saying hit her. Pulling away from him, she smoothed her hair with her hands as best she could, and bit her lips so that the absence of lipstick might be less noticeable.

Seth laughed. ‘‘Look at it this way: We’ll give them something to talk about.’’

‘‘There’s a happy thought,’’ Olivia muttered, and headed for the door.

Seth was right behind her, reaching around her to open the door for her.

‘‘Try to look as grouchy as you did when you came in,’’ he whispered teasingly in her ear, his hand on the knob. ‘‘And remember to tell Carl that going dancing on Friday is
out
.’’

Before Olivia could reply he pulled the door open, and she suddenly felt like the leading lady on the play’s opening night: All eyes were on her.

Olivia was flustered, and she knew her cheeks pinkened as both Ilsa and Phillip looked her up and down. Ilsa’s eyes held compassion at first—obviously she thought Olivia had just endured a major chewing out— then widened with growing surprise. Phillip’s gaze was dark with disapproval from the beginning. Of course, he’d surprised her with Seth before, and must have had an inkling about what was going on behind Seth’s closed office door.

The third occupant of the room, a black-haired, swarthy-skinned man who was not quite as tall as Phillip but had an air about him of one who expected everyone around him to jump to his bidding, merely had appreciation in his gaze as it ran over Olivia.

‘‘Niko!’’ Seth said affably, moving around Olivia to shake the client’s hand. ‘‘Sorry to keep you waiting. Come on into my office, and I’ll show you the plans we’ve drawn up for the
Athena
. She’ll be magnificent. . . .’’

With Phillip trailing, the three men went into Seth’s office and closed the door.

Olivia was left alone with Ilsa, who was still looking at her wide-eyed, her work suspended as she stood beside the file cabinet with a folder forgotten in her hand.

But whatever Ilsa might have been thinking, she had too much tact to put it into words.

Olivia escaped with a smile and a quick good-bye, grabbing purse and blazer and hurrying out the door to pick up Sara and Chloe from school.

CHAPTER 44

SETH GOT HOME AT A LITTLE AFTER FIVE, which was extremely early for him. Olivia was sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by seven little girls in brown uniforms, all busy gluing Popsicle sticks together to make bird feeders. She was wearing ancient jeans worn thin enough at the knees to be turned into next season’s shorts, a baggy olive-green T-shirt, and sneakers without socks. Her hair was twisted up in a knot at the back of her head, and secured with a pencil. Tendrils escaped to straggle around her face. Her makeup had long since worn off, and she had glue on her fingers and her right cheek. When Seth stepped through the back door, she looked up to see who it was and her breath caught.

He’d added a camel sport coat to the navy pants, blue shirt, and yellow tie he’d been wearing earlier, and he looked good enough to eat.

He paused just inside the door, looking surprised to find a gaggle of chattering girls around his kitchen table.

‘‘Brownie troop,’’ Olivia said by way of explanation as he met her gaze, and smiled at him.

‘‘Oh,’’ he said, and smiled back. His eyes were dazzlingly blue, she thought, and his mouth . . . She had to fight the urge to stand up, walk to the door, throw her arms around his neck, and kiss that curved-into-a-smile mouth.

Not in front of the girls, she reminded herself.

‘‘Daddy!’’ Looking up from her bird feeder at last, Chloe greeted him with a smile. ‘‘You’re home early!’’

‘‘Yup.’’ He strolled over to where she was sitting, placed a hand on her shoulder, and looked down at her Popsicle-stick creation. ‘‘Great job, honey-bug. Uh, what is it?’’

The girls all giggled at his ignorance.

‘‘A bird feeder!’’ Chloe said indignantly. ‘‘Olivia showed us how to make them. We’re going to sell them at the carnival.’’

‘‘Oh.’’ Seth nodded as if he knew just what she was talking about, which Olivia was willing to bet dollars to doughnuts he didn’t. ‘‘Hello, Sara.’’

‘‘Hi, Seth.’’ Sara, whose bird feeder was further along than anyone else’s because of her diligence in the face of distraction, glanced up at him, focused, and awarded him a beaming smile.

‘‘The Christmas carnival at school,’’ Olivia clarified, standing up and wiping her hands on a damp paper towel. ‘‘The Brownies have their own booth this year.’’

‘‘And we’re going to have the best stuff there, and make a ton of money to pay for our spring camping trip,’’ Ginny Zigler boasted. Tall and bone-thin, with glossy dark blond hair pulled back from her face into a curly ponytail, Ginny was, as Olivia had already figured out, Chloe’s best friend. Like Chloe, she had a strong personality, and Sara tended to be subdued in her presence.

‘‘You know all the girls, don’t you, Seth?’’ Olivia asked casually. To tell the truth, she doubted that he did. In any case, without waiting for his answer, she introduced them, gesturing at each one in turn.

‘‘Katie Evans, Tiffany Holt, Mary Frances Bernard, Shannon McNulty, Ginny Zigler. Say hi to Mr. Archer, girls.’’

‘‘Hi, Mr. Archer,’’ they chorused dutifully.

Seth smiled and nodded. And looked at Olivia again.

‘‘We’ll be finished here in a few minutes. The girls get picked up at five thirty.’’

‘‘Oh.’’ Seth’s eyes met hers, slid down to her mouth. ‘‘Where’s Martha?’’

‘‘Gone into town to visit her daughter. She’ll be back about six.’’

‘‘Mrs. Morrison, can you help me with this? My fingers keep getting stuck to the roof.’’ Shannon’s voice was plaintive. Olivia moved around to help her, smoothing the glue out with her fingertips. Wiping her hands on the paper towel again, she looked up to find Seth’s eyes on her.

‘‘I’m going to go up and change clothes. I’ll be down again in a few minutes.’’

‘‘We’ll be here,’’ Olivia said, smiling at him again. She just couldn’t seem to
not
smile at him.

‘‘Mrs. Morrison, are we going to paint them today?’’ Mary Frances asked.

‘‘No, not today. We have to let the glue dry really well first. We’ll paint them next week.’’ Seth left the room as Olivia answered. Her gaze followed him until she realized what she was doing. Then she forced her attention back to the girls and their project.

By the time Seth came back downstairs, the bird feeders were lined up on the kitchen counter to dry, and the girls were playing in the backyard.

He was wearing chinos that looked almost as old as her jeans, a faded denim shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and boat shoes. The casual clothes suited his athletic build, and the denim shirt made the blue of his eyes seem very bright.

‘‘Where is everybody?’’ Seth asked, looking around as he came through the swinging door.

‘‘Outside.’’ Olivia was washing her hands in the kitchen sink. He came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and kissed the back of her neck, which her casual upsweep had bared. A shiver of pure pleasure raced down Olivia’s spine. She finished drying her hands, turned, and slid her arms around his neck, smiling up into his eyes.

‘‘I came down to help,’’ he said in a complaining tone, as he pulled her close.

‘‘Too late,’’ Olivia murmured, going up on her toes to kiss him. His mouth was hot and hungry as he kissed her back, and Olivia felt herself go weak in the knees.

‘‘Did I tell you that you’re nice to come home to?’’ he murmured against her mouth a moment later.

Nice to come home to
. That had such a wonderful ring to it. A cozy, permanent ring.

Smiling a little, she shook her head.

‘‘You give this place a heart,’’ he said, kissing the corner of her mouth. ‘‘I don’t think I could face this house right now, if you weren’t in it.’’

She saw the pain flare in his eyes.

‘‘Oh, Seth, I know you’re hurting,’’ she said, and turned her head so that her mouth found his. She kissed him softly, gently, a lover’s kiss, filled with exquisite tenderness. ‘‘We’re all hurting, everyone who loved your mother. But I know you’re hurting most of all. I wish I knew something that would take away the pain.’’

‘‘Livvy . . .’’ He took a deep breath when she slid her mouth along his bristly cheek to nibble at his earlobe. She could feel his chest expand against her breasts, his arms tighten around her waist. ‘‘You take away the pain.’’

He kissed her again, his mouth hard and hot. When he lifted his head, they were both breathing hard, and his body was pressing hers back against the counter. The evidence of his arousal was unmistakable between them.

‘‘Okay, I think we’d better call a halt,’’ he said after a second, lifting himself away from her with obvious reluctance. He turned so that he was leaning back against the counter beside her. His hands curled around the beveled edge on either side of his body as he looked at her. ‘‘I have a great idea: How about we all, you, me, Sara, and Chloe, go out for pizza?’’

Olivia took a deep, steadying breath. Her pulse was racing and her body tingled and ached. But overriding her desire to drag him off to bed immediately was delight that he had thought of taking Chloe and Sara on an outing. As a father, he was making giant strides. The smile she gave him sparkled. ‘‘That sounds wonderful! The girls will love it. But I have to clean up a little bit first. I can’t go anywhere like this.’’

His eyes moved over her. He didn’t have to say it for her to know he found her beautiful. It was there in his eyes.

‘‘Go wash your hands and face, and put on some lipstick, or whatever it is you women do, and come back. Don’t change clothes. I like the way you fill out those jeans.’’

He grinned wickedly at her, and Olivia couldn’t help it: She leaned toward him, dropped a quick, heated kiss on his mouth, and fled before he could grab her.

CHAPTER 45

SETH WAS SMILING AS HE WENT OUT THE kitchen door to watch the girls at play. They shouted and ran, paying no heed to him at all. Birds twittered, frogs and insects traded insults back and forth, peacocks trolled the hedge line for grubs. The late afternoon sunlight was beautiful, he thought, and realized with a sense of shock that he rarely saw it. He’d been working such long hours for so long that the softly diffused golden light that spilled over the backyard was a novelty to him. He sat in the rocking chair that his mother had favored, took an instant to acknowledge both the pain and the comfort that sitting in her chair brought him, and then deliberately moved his thoughts on to something else.

Livvy. Just thinking of her made him smile, and burn at the same time. Who ever would have thought that the plump little girl who used to follow him everywhere would grow up to claim such a big chunk of his heart?

Not he. Never in a million years.

Like this impossibly big, run-down old house, and the Boatworks, and his family, and, in fact, the entire town of LaAngelle, Livvy was part of the fabric of his life. She fit into it seamlessly, and she always had. Maybe that was why it had taken him so long to realize the truth: He didn’t just want to take her to bed and keep her there for a month of Sundays. He was in love with her.

Whoa, he cautioned himself as the full force of that hit him. He loved Livvy, of course. He had always loved her, from the time he had first set eyes on her as a chubby-cheeked baby through her maddening metamorphosis into a teenage sexpot, and beyond. He’d loved her when he’d quarreled with her the night she’d run away with that bastard Morrison, he’d loved her the whole time she was gone, and he’d loved her when she came back to LaAngelle. But that was a different kind of love, a careless, familial love, a protective, big-brother sort of love that had only now and then been marred by transient feelings of lust.

What he felt for her now was all that, and more. A whole lot more.

He loved her, and he was in love with her. Truly, madly, deeply, as the saying went.

Just the thought of his life without Livvy in it made him go cold with fear. It would be like someone suddenly extinguishing the sun. He wanted her to love him back, to lavish love on him like she did on Sara, like she seemed ready to do on Chloe. He wanted her for himself, and he wanted her for Chloe. Livvy and Sara, he and Chloe: a family. The
start
of a family. There’d be more. Livvy was made to raise children. She was as loving and giving a person as he had ever known.

He wanted her forever.

The knowledge scared him a little. Go slow, he cautioned himself. He’d been married once, and divorced. Chalk up one colossal mistake. Until shortly after noon today, he’d been engaged to be married a second time. Chalk up another mistake, not quite so big because he’d aborted in time but with the potential for major disaster. Now he was in love with Livvy.
Really
in love, which, with the wisdom of hindsight, he could see he had never been before. Livvy was not a mistake. What he felt for her was fundamentally different than what he had felt for Jennifer, or Mallory. He knew it as surely as he knew the sun would rise in the morning. But still, it couldn’t hurt anything to just go slow.

For Chloe’s sake, and Sara’s sake, as well as Livvy’s and his own.

Give them all time to get used to being a family together, before he said or did anything that would make it official.

There was no rush, after all. He could take weeks, or months if need be. The one thing he and Livvy had was plenty of time.

As long as Carl, and every other man, stayed out of the picture. Seth half smiled as he remembered how violent he had felt toward his younger cousin when Livvy had announced that he was taking her dancing on Friday. Over my dead body, was his first thought. His second? No, over Carl’s.

He was going to take his time, but he was going to make sure that Livvy stayed exclusively his while he did it. Which shouldn’t be a problem, he thought. From now on, he was going to keep her busy day and night. Especially night . . .

‘‘Fatty, fatty, two by four, can’t get through the kitchen door!’’

That childish taunt, repeated twice, broke through Seth’s reverie like a bucket of cold water. Startled, he looked out over the backyard to find that Chloe and her friends had scrambled up the old rope ladder that hung down from the tree house he’d built as a boy high up in the ancient live oak near the perennial garden. Apparently unable to make it up the ladder, Sara clung precariously halfway up, her body and the ladder bent into an L-shape. As he watched, she slowly and clumsily managed to climb back down to the ground.

‘‘Fatty, fatty, two by four . . .’’

‘‘Whoa!’’ he yelled, shooting up from the rocking chair like a rock from a catapult and striding to the porch rail. ‘‘Just one darn minute there! Sara, come here. The rest of you, Chloe, you and your friends, you come here, too.’’

There was instant silence, and then they scrambled to comply. Sara, her face miserable, was the first to reach him. He waited for them on the bottom step, arms crossed over his chest, a frown on his face. The other girls, his guilty-looking daughter included, after climbing one after the other down the ladder in apprehensive silence, came toward him in a group. For a moment Seth wished vainly for Olivia, and even glanced around to see if, perhaps, she might be somewhere in view. But she was not. He was going to have to handle this as best he could himself.

‘‘It’s all right, Seth. Really. It doesn’t matter,’’ Sara muttered as she reached him, her face miserable. Looking at her, Seth felt a shaft of real anger shoot through him. Maybe it was true that kids were cruel, but they weren’t going to be cruel to Sara if he could help it. She was a sweet kid, with a kind heart, and he was fond of her for her own sake quite apart from the fact that she was Livvy’s girl.

‘‘It’s not all right,’’ he told her firmly, stepping down onto the concrete walkway that connected the back steps with the parking area. He put his hands on her shoulders, and turned her to face the other girls, who approached en masse, looking faintly scared. Shooting Chloe in particular a reproachful glance as the whole group stopped just a few feet away, he tried to do his best for Sara.

‘‘Okay, I heard you all calling Sara fat,’’ Seth began. He could almost feel Sara cringing beneath his hands, but he kept them on her shoulders and held her in place, facing her tormentors. The other girls—his own darling daughter, the other pretty little things who looked like butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths—looked up at him wide-eyed.

‘‘Ginny said it first,’’ said one. She had dark hair that tumbled around her shoulders and pale skin, and was not particularly skinny herself.

Not knowing for sure which one Ginny was, Seth let that pass. Besides, it was irrelevant.

‘‘It doesn’t matter who said it first,’’ he said ruthlessly. ‘‘What matters is that it was said at all. The point is that you hurt Sara’s feelings. I want you to apologize, all of you, right now.’’

A chorus of sweet little voices murmured various versions of ‘‘I’m sorry.’’ Seth’s mouth twisted. He didn’t know why, but his gut told him that just getting them to apologize wasn’t going to get the job done.

‘‘All right, I want all of you to line up,’’ he said. ‘‘Side by side, shoulder to shoulder. You, too, Sara.’’ He gave her shoulder an encouraging pat.

When they were more or less lined up—he had to reposition a few of them—he walked back and forth in front of them, hands clasped behind his back like a drill sergeant. Except for small matters of size and shape and hair color, they all looked so alike in their brown dresses that trying to tell them apart seemed hopeless. Except, of course, that he knew Chloe and Sara. Chloe was already starting to frown at him, but the other girls, including Sara, were big-eyed as they watched him.

‘‘Okay, you’re the tallest.’’ Abruptly he pointed at a little girl with a glossy brown ponytail.

‘‘That’s Ginny,’’ one of the others piped up.

Seth nodded solemnly. ‘‘Ginny’s the tallest—but you’’—he pointed at another girl—‘‘are taller than she is’’—he pointed to a third—‘‘and you’’—he pointed to a fourth—‘‘are the shortest. Okay, let’s line up according to height.’’

Looking surprised, the girls all shifted positions until they were lined up from tallest to shortest.

‘‘Okay, sing out,’’ Seth directed. ‘‘I want to hear your names. In order.’’ He pointed.

‘‘Ginny,’’ said the first one.

‘‘Shannon,’’ said the next.

‘‘Mary Frances.’’

‘‘Chloe.’’

‘‘Katie.’’

‘‘Sara.’’

‘‘Tiffany.’’

‘‘Very good.’’ Seth surveyed them again. ‘‘Now everybody stick out her right foot.’’ The girls, giggling a little now, complied. Seth looked at the extended feet with a frown. ‘‘Okay, let’s line up by foot size. Biggest first, all the way down to the smallest.’’ The girls complied, with much measuring of feet to see who stood where. ‘‘Okay, sing out.’’ He pointed.

‘‘Ginny!’’

‘‘Mary Frances!’’

‘‘Shannon!’’

‘‘Katie!’’

‘‘Sara!’’

‘‘Chloe!’’

‘‘Tiffany!’’

‘‘Good job,’’ Seth approved. ‘‘Now let’s try—hair color. From lightest to darkest.’’

This time the girls were really giggling as they lined up.

Seth pointed.

‘‘Chloe!’’

‘‘Tiffany!’’

‘‘Ginny!’’

‘‘Katie!’’

‘‘Shannon!’’

‘‘Mary Frances!’’

‘‘Sara!’’

‘‘You’re doing great,’’ Seth said, encouraged. ‘‘Let’s try one more thing. Let’s line up by—noses. Who’s got the biggest nose?’’

The girls were giggling hysterically as they pressed their faces together to measure nose size. When at last they were in order, Seth pointed at the first.

‘‘Ginny!’’

‘‘Mary Frances!’’

‘‘Tiffany!’’

‘‘Katie!’’

‘‘Shannon!’’

‘‘Sara!’’

‘‘Chloe!’’

‘‘Okay,’’ Seth said, knowing he had to sum up his little exercise so that they would get the message. ‘‘I hope you ladies noticed that every time you lined up, the order changed. Some of you are tall, some of you aren’t so tall. Some of you have big feet.’’ This produced a chorus of encouraging giggles. ‘‘Some of you have big noses.’’ More giggles. ‘‘The point is, you’re all different. Each one of you is like a snowflake. You’re unique and beautiful in your own way. So it’s silly to tease somebody for being taller than somebody else, or having a bigger foot than somebody else, or being fatter than somebody else, and I don’t want to ever hear of it happening again. Every one of us has special things about us. That’s what makes us snowflakes and not’’—here his inspiration failed—‘‘mashed potatoes.’’

‘‘Daddy, that’s dumb.’’ Chloe groaned, while the other girls, Sara included, giggled.

Seth shrugged apologetically. ‘‘I know, but I mean it anyway. No more teasing. Now go back and play.’’

They scampered off. Sara hung back a little.

‘‘Thanks, Seth,’’ she said, smiling shyly at him. Then, to Seth’s surprise, she gave him a quick, fierce hug. Before Seth could react, she was running off to join the other girls.

With that hug, Sara cemented her place in his heart. Like Chloe and Livvy, Sara now belonged to him, too.