meeting any man as obnoxious as Joe McCann. Which was really too bad, she thought. He had the rough sort of looks that turned women’s heads. And she’d be lying if she didn’t admit to herself that just for a second, when she’d walked through the door, he’d turned hers. His tall, well-muscled body was without an ounce of fat. His face was lean, too, with strong, bony features and eyes as blue as a western sky.
But Savanna wasn’t in the market for a man. Especially a man like this one, who looked as though he rarely smiled, if ever. No, she’d tried romance before and her young heart had wound up shattered. She wasn’t ready, or brave enough, to set herself up for that kind of pain again.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t read minds, Mr. McCann. However, I can read faces. And at the moment I’d say yours looks about as happy as a hound with a flea on its back.”
Joe rubbed his fingers against his throbbing temples. The woman might be an irresponsible oddball, but she’d certainly gotten that much right. “What did you come here for in the first place?”
His voice had suddenly gone weary and dull. As Savanna watched him scrub his face with both hands, she wondered if he was physically ill. Could that account for his waspish attitude?
“I came here to work. But I thought—”
“I believe it would be safer for both of us if you didn’t think, Ms. Starr!”
Savanna’s teeth ground together. She’d be crazy to be concerned about the man. He wasn’t ill. He was an ass! Still, she couldn’t entirely ignore the desperation in his eyes or the fatigue on his face. It was plain to her the man needed help—he just didn’t quite know it yet.
Thankfully, the telephone finally quieted. Joe dropped his hold on her arm and took a step back. He didn’t know why he’d grabbed hold of her in the first place. Normally he wouldn’t lay a hand on any employee. Particularly a woman. But something about Savanna Starr was making him act totally out of character.
Tingling from his touch, Savanna stared at him, her mind spinning as she watched him rake a hand through his wavy blond hair.
“Are you suggesting you still want me?” she asked incredulously.
Joe’s blue gaze swept over her petite but very shapely form. Savanna Starr. What kind of name was that? he wondered. It sounded like something a damn Hollywood producer would make up.
Walking over to his desk, he glanced back at her to see she was still standing in the middle of the room, staring at him with eyes the color of a fawn’s coat in summer. He’d never seen such rich brown eyes on a blonde before, but then Joe rarely looked at women that closely. Since he and Deirdre had divorced, he hadn’t had the time or the urge to involve himself with a woman. McCann Drilling took all his attention, and he figured that was the way it always would be. “If you think—”
Before he could go on, the telephone began to ring again. Grimacing, he motioned with his hand for Savanna to answer it. “Get that. And if it’s my daughter, Megan, tell her I’m out in the work yard and that I can’t talk to her now!”
Savanna quickly walked over to the desk and picked up the telephone.
“McCann Drilling,” she said cheerfully. “May I help you?”
“Who are you?” A young female voice blurted the question.
Savanna glanced uncertainly at Joe McCann. Right now she didn’t know if she was a secretary or an unemployed mediator.
“I’m Savanna.”
“Oh, you’re the one who’s taking Edie’s place?”
“That’s right. And who are you?”
“I’m Megan. Joe is my daddy. I need to talk to him.”
Obviously the girl had been forewarned there would be a change in secretaries at her father’s office, Savanna concluded. “Well, Megan, right now your father is unable to come to the telephone. Perhaps I can help?”
The young girl let out a huge sigh of frustration. “I doubt it. But I guess I could tell you, anyway. I want to go to the library, but Ophelia, the housekeeper, isn’t here this morning. She won’t be here until two this afternoon! And I’m only thirteen. I’m not old enough to drive.”
“Oh, I see. Well, you are in a fix, aren’t you? I don’t suppose you’d settle for watching some videos until the housekeeper is there to take you?”
Megan groaned loudly. “What videos? Joe—I mean, Daddy doesn’t even have a VCR. He’s old-fashioned and says time spent in front of the TV isn’t productive.”
Savanna couldn’t help but smile at the girl’s imitation of her father’s voice. “Perhaps you could walk, Megan. Is it very far from your house?”
“Eight blocks,” she said glumly. “But Daddy would never let me walk. He says it’s too dangerous for kids to walk on the streets nowadays. Especially for a girl.”
Savanna dared another glance at Joe McCann and was surprised to see he’d skirted around the desk to stand beside her. At the moment he was shaking his head and mouthing the word no. Savanna couldn’t believe he was being so overprotective. It wasn’t as if the girl was a kindergartner!
“That’s true in many cases,” Savanna said, careful not to go against anything her father might have already instructed her. “But if you had a friend to walk with you, then he might consider it.”
She looked up to see Joe still shaking his head. A burst of anger suddenly spurted through Savanna. Didn’t the man remember what it was like to be thirteen years old, out of school on summer vacation and stuck in the house alone with nothing to do?
“Well, I just came here to live with Daddy last week. So I don’t really know many people,” she said, then suddenly her small, dispirited voice brightened. “But there is someone I’ve made friends with. Cindy. She’s my age and lives across the street. She’d want to go with me!”
If Megan had just now come to live with her father, Savanna mused, that could only mean Joe McCann was widowed or divorced. She didn’t know why that bit of news should strike a nerve in her, but it did. So did the lost, lonely sound in Megan’s voice. Savanna knew what it was like to be in a strange place surrounded by unfamiliar things and people she didn’t know. Joe McCann probably didn’t understand that. But Savanna did. She’d spent her whole life living in places where she felt as if she didn’t belong and that no one cared whether she was around or not. In fact, she was still searching for that place she could call her real home.
“Tell you what, Megan. As soon as your father comes back in the office, I’ll talk to him about it. In the meantime, why don’t you call Cindy and see if she can go.”
“Gee, thanks, Savanna. And please beg him if you have to. I can’t stay in this dreary old house all day!”
Begging Joe McCann was the last thing Savanna intended to do. Aloud, she told Megan, “I’ll do my best. ’Bye, now.”
“So where is Megan wanting to trot off to now?” Joe demanded the moment Savanna hung up the phone. “You should have told her an emphatic no.”
Then why didn’t you answer the phone
