He gestured, shook his head. “Why am I telling you this?”
“Maybe because it’s hard to go it alone,” Marissa said. “It sounds like you’re doing all the right things, and it’s obviously a rough time for her.” She frowned. “Is she doing any kind of parenting class, Lamaze, anything with other kids who are also pregnant?”
“She starts the end of the week. You think that’ll help, maybe? Maybe she feels kind of isolated.”
“Yeah.” Marissa thought, fleetingly, of herself at fourteen—feeling like a hippopotamus in her flowing dress while all the other girls wore their skinny jeans.
“Trust me when I say this is a rough age for all the kids, but if there’s anything to set you the tiniest bit apart, it’s that much harder. She’s pregnant, she’s new and she’s Native American, which sort of makes her exotic around here.” She smiled. “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s not exactly a wildly integrated community.”
Humor flickered over his eyes—eyes that crinkled upward at the corners just as she remembered. In detail. With a little ripple of despair, she decided he was just sinfully delectable.
“I noticed,” he said. “I don’t want to live in a city. Red Creek might have some flaws, but at least I don’t have to worry about her getting on the wrong side of some gang.”
“Do you mind if I make a suggestion?”
“No—please. I’m open to anything.”
“I’ll have her come in every afternoon and see if I can get her on track with school, maybe let her know there’s someone else in her corner. We can start a check-off system to help her get her homework in. And it’s probably going to help a lot to get her into her pregnancy class.” She straightened. “But it also occurs to me that there’s someone in town who would be more than delighted to help you mother this lost child.”
He looked puzzled. “Mother?”
She chuckled. “Yeah. Louise Forrest—er, Chacon, I guess it is now. Jake’s mother.”
“You know Jake and his mother?”
He didn’t recognize her at all. With a grin she said, “We have met, Robert. I’m good friends with Lance.”
His body went soft with surprise, and she saw the knowledge and recognition dawn on his face. “Oh my God! I know who you are now. Marissa.” His gaze moved with frank astonishment over her body. “My God! You’ve lost…you’re so much—” He stopped, clamped his mouth shut, took a breath.
Marissa laughed.
“Sorry,” he said. “That was really rude.”
“Not at all. It’s very common lately.”
“You’ve lost a lot of weight.”
“Almost a hundred pounds.” She gestured like the Duchess of York. “And trust me, I love it when people are amazed.”
His eyes made the journey over her figure once more, this time frankly appreciative. “You look terrific.”
“Thanks. Now, about Louise…”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Yeah, Louise is a great idea.”
“Day to day, it’s just getting through. Sometimes just minute to minute.” She smiled. “I teach them all day, remember. But when you run into something troubling, Louise might have good advice.”
He nodded. “Thank you,” he said, and held out his hand. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the interest you’ve taken.”
Marissa stood and clasped the long brown hand in her own, allowing herself at last to experience the slightly heady sensation of standing close to him, holding his hand and smiling up at him. “My pleasure,” she said, and made to draw away.
But he held on, tightening his fingers slightly. “You were always beautiful, you know.”
Marissa, stricken to the core, was afraid he’d see too much if she let him hang on a second longer, and she pulled away, hiding her emotions under a well-mannered smile. “Thank you. And thank you for coming.”
At the door he paused. “Do you want to know what she loves?”
“I’ll wait until she’s ready to tell me.”
He nodded. “All right. Thanks again.”
He closed the door behind him and Marissa sank against the desk, swallowing the weird rush of emotion his simple, clear words had given her. You were always beautiful. Not exactly the words she would ever have expected to come from the lips of a jaded, brooding man who only crooked his finger and had women from thirteen to seventy flocking to his side.
Then she realized with a wry little smile that it was exactly what she should have expected. The great power of a ladies’ man lay in his understanding of a woman’s most private, most revered hungers.
Reaching for her purse, she chuckled. He’d certainly zeroed in on Marissa’s.
There was a card from her sister in the mailbox when she got home, and Marissa laughed when she opened it. The front showed a beachy guy in worn white cutoffs, smiling hunkily, and the inside said, “Just wanted to send you something fun to break up your day.”
Marissa had mailed out the exact card, for no particular reason, to her twin sister, Victoria, only three days before. They were identical twins, the only children of their obscenely wealthy and overly protective parents. What nature began in the womb, the isolation their parents had imposed had completed; the pair had an almost uncanny bond, as if they were one mind in two bodies.
When she walked in, still smiling, the phone rang.
“I just got it,” she said into the phone, knowing by a twin’s intuition exactly who was on the other end. “I should have known.”
Victoria laughed. “I don’t even know why we bother. Next time, just buy the card and keep it and so will I, and we’ll both save the postage.”
“Ah, what fun would that be?”
Victoria changed gears. “Enough of that. Who is he?”
It startled Marissa. “Who?”
“Some man. Don’t lie. I felt it, right in the solar plexus.”
Marissa chuckled. “Well, he’s really no one. A cute parent, that’s all. Sweet talker.”
“Mmm. He must be hot, that’s all I have to say. I’m going to come see for myself. Can I come visit? Maybe stay for a week. Or a month?”
“Really?” Marissa cried. She had not seen her sister in more than two years, largely due to Victoria’s hectic and worldly schedule. “That would be so fantastic!” She smiled to herself. “I have quite a surprise for you.”
“And I have one for you.” She laughed softly. “I can’t imagine that we’ll duplicate each other this time.”
