His big, hazel gaze wandered the room briefly before settling on her. He smiled, his eyes lazily moving on. Suddenly, recognition flooded his face.
“Mr. Tyler?”
“Hello, Cody.”
His mouth dropped open, his eyes growing impossibly large in his small face. He shot a panicked look at his mother. “Am I in trouble?”
Heller hurried across the room to slide an arm about his narrow shoulders. “No, of course not.” Yet, she didn’t know what Mr. Tyler wanted. She eyed him uneasily. It must be important, for him to visit her twice in less than twenty-four hours, and he had said that it involved Cody. She tightened her embrace, as wary in her way as Cody, when Jackson Tyler walked forward and bent at the waist, his big hand reaching out to cover the top of Cody’s head.
“Must be a shock to wake up and find the principal in your home,” he said, humor softening the tones of his deep voice, “but you don’t have a thing to worry about. I just want to talk to your mom about a certain advertisement you drew.”
Cody’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Really? Oh, boy! I knew it’d work!”
“Now don’t blow things all out of proportion,” Tyler warned gently. “This business isn’t nearly as simple as you seem to think.”
“What business?” Heller asked, puzzled. “What advertisement? What are you talking about?”
Jack Tyler straightened and slid a glance down at Cody, his thick brows lifting. “Didn’t tell her, hmm?”
Cody shook his head. “She’s too selfish suffishenly,” he said with dead certainty.
Tyler chuckled. “Selfish suffish—Ah. I’ll remember that. Self-sufficient types can pose problems.”
Cody grinned, and Jack Tyler winked conspiratorially. Heller folded her arms and began tapping a toe, too exhausted to exercise her patience. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on here?”
“Exactly my intention,” Tyler said, glancing around at the small room. He stroked his mustache and seemed to reach a decision. “How does breakfast sound?”
She blinked at him. “Breakfast?”
He nodded. “If you’re going to work two jobs and stay up all night, you ought at least to eat properly. I’ll have you back within the hour, promise.” He made a small gesture in Cody’s direction. “And it’ll give us a chance to talk—in private.”
Heller looked down at Cody’s bright, expectant face. He gazed at Jackson Tyler with an oddly covetous expression. What on earth was going on here? Well, there was only one way to find out. She pushed aside the physical exhaustion and met Jackson Tyler’s gaze with curiosity.
“Just let me brush my hair and wash my face.”
Cody literally jumped into the air, smacking his hands together with glee. “All ri-i-ight!”
Heller placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. “Don’t wake your brother and sister.”
He ducked his head apologetically, still grinning. “Sorry.”
“And get dressed. It’s not polite to run around the house in your underwear.”
He nodded compliance. She smiled approvingly and tilted his face up for a kiss. He flung his arms around her neck and smacked her noisily on the mouth. She noted that she didn’t have to bend as far as she had only a month or so ago. He was growing up, this first-born son of hers, and much too quickly from her perspective. She wondered what had put that sparkle in his usually solemn eyes and what it had to do with Jackson Tyler.
“I’ll only be a minute,” she promised, her gaze wandering once more to the big man standing in the middle of her small living room. She turned Cody toward the bedroom he shared with his brother and sister and ushered him down the hall, leaving him at the door with a whispered admonishment to be very quiet. He nodded and slipped inside the room.
Heller hurried on down the hallway to the bathroom. Quickly, she tidied herself, her mind whirling with questions. She wished she had time to change clothing, but she knew that would only delay the answers she needed to quell her concerns. Besides, this was a conference, not a date. She only hoped that whatever Jack Tyler had to say would not threaten the sanctity of her family. God knew they were already holding on by a thread.
Jack waited uncomfortably for Heller Moore to return. Taking her to breakfast had been a stroke of genius. Not only could Heller eat a proper meal in a relaxing setting, he could tell her about the advertisement without embarrassing either her or Cody more than necessary. In addition, it might allow him to deal with the situation without disappointing the boy. He’d read the hope and delight in Cody’s sleepy eyes when he’d mentioned the advertisement and had known what the boy was thinking. It did Jack’s ego no harm to think the kid was pleased with the prospect of him as a stepfather, however unlikely the scenario, and he’d realized how embarrassed the boy would be to learn of his mistake—not to mention his mother’s embarrassment at having his foolish scheme revealed in front of another party.
That other party was even then studying him with narrowed, blackened eyes, as if he were a piece of merchandise on a shelf. He curbed his impulse to tell her to mind her own business, and settled for asking a few politely framed questions in the guise of small talk. In short order he learned that she was the baby-sitter, trading her services for a place to sleep on Heller’s couch, meals and a little spending money. Obviously she didn’t put herself out more than she had to, and she hadn’t displayed excellent judgment in letting him in without so much as a glance at his face or a word of explanation.
He was warning her about the dangers of opening the door to a stranger when Heller returned, still wearing the faded uniform but looking a bit revived. He winced inwardly at the scathing words he’d planned for this small, spunky woman who worked two demanding jobs just to keep her family together in this little trailer. Buying her breakfast seemed a mild atonement for jumping to conclusions. He opened the door for her, noting the quirk of her lips as she marked that small courtesy. Was courtesy such a useless commodity in her life then? It seemed so.
She went straight to his car, waiting beside it with a small, wry smile until he opened the door and helped her inside. Thanking him with a nod of her head and that quirk of her lips, she buckled her seat belt. He walked around the car and slid in beside her. His hand fell automatically to the sheet of paper that lay facedown on the seat between them, but she put her head back, closed her eyes and sighed, exhaustion evident in the slump of her shoulders and the slack muscles of her face. He picked up the paper, folded it and slipped it into his shirt pocket. It could wait until she’d eaten.
The local cafe had already seen its morning rush and was enjoying the lull before the bustle of preparing for the lunch crowd. Jack waved at the middle-aged waitress sipping a cup of coffee at a table near the kitchen door. She smiled and got up, making her way toward the booth into which he and Heller Moore settled. Heller pulled a menu from beneath the napkin dispenser, murmuring, “I’m starved.”
“Morning, Jack!”
He smiled at the waitress, another one of those women who worked unbelievably hard for far too little compensation and looked it. How long, he found himself wondering, before Heller’s face and hands began to show the kind
