were both standing against each other for a millisecond, but Mike swiftly retreated to the side of the deck rail.
“A major uh-oh,” she echoed, trying to make her voice sound light and easy. She didn’t want him realizing how wild she’d felt in his arms. How crazy. How totally unlike herself.
“I wasn’t trying to start trouble, I swear.”
“I wasn’t, either.”
“But I did think…there was chemistry. That we’d both likely feel easier with each other once we figured out what was what. We’d already tried being honest with each other-about where we were in our lives.”
“I’m always happier with honesty. No pretending. Not for me. No faking, no denying, none of that nonsense.” She meant it. She’d lived the Prince Charming/princess fantasy her entire life. She was through with it.
He caught his breath. Or most of it. “Amanda. I’d appreciate a friend. I mean it. It’d be good for Ted to be around another woman besides his mother. I’d appreciate hearing how you think he’s doing, from another single parent’s perspective.”
“And I’d appreciate a friend just as much. You’ve already proven to be a friend, Mike. And it sounds as if we’re both going through a lot of the same problems. Grandparent issues. Ex issues. The same culture shock of moving to the suburbs. There are things we could laugh about. Talk through.”
“As long as we don’t let sex get in the way.” Again, those fierce brown eyes met hers.
Again, she saw a different man than the rascal she’d first met. The sharp lines on his brow hadn’t come from a devil-may-care type of guy. “Then we won’t,” she said firmly.
“We’re agreed?”
“Completely, totally agreed,” she said. “You know the lasagna I promised you?”
“Yup.”
She motioned to the rough wood table on his deck. “Let’s try it tomorrow. All of us. Give me a chance to spend a little time with your Teddy. For you to see my daughter. Let’s see if they can be friends together, as well.”
“Good idea,” he said.
She thought so, too. Until she woke that night in the darkness, her whole body turned on by a wildly romantic dream. He was her prince. She was his princess. They were in a wild, erotic, exotic lovemaking fest, chasing each other through the sky, mating in sunlight, then moonlight, then snuggling together on a tuft of clouds.
Oh, no, she thought, too exasperated to sleep now. She got up, got a glass of water, checked on Molly, prowled the perimeter of the house. That kind of dream was not for her. Ever again.
“Okay. Now here’s the deal.” It was all Mike could do to subdue his excited son. Teddy had already run outside naked this morning, completely forgetting his clothes. He’d been conned into dressing-at least putting on a pj top and shorts-before galloping back out again.
They were digging the water garden-alias frog pond-today. The parts that appealed to Teddy, in order, were mud, shovels, water and frogs.
Mike had set up the design as simple as he could. “So…this is how we’re going to do it. We’re both going to dig inside this triangle area.
“Got it, Dad. Can I dig now?”
“In a minute. When the hole’s deep enough, I’m going to put in a liner. You can help me. And then we’re going to set out rocks as a border, kind of make a triangle-shaped place to sit, where we can watch the frogs.”
“Ok. Can I dig now?”
“There’ll be a motor. To keep the water aerated and clean.”
“Yeah. Can I-?”
He heard voices from next door, figured out immediately that Amanda and her daughter had yard work on their Saturday-morning agenda, too.
Their setup was slightly different from his.
For one thing, Molly wore a pink tutu, and had a pink crown on her head, and she did a lot of twirling. On his side of the driveway, Teddy was covered in mud and water inside of three minutes, and had managed to throw dirt everywhere but in the wheelbarrow.
The same sing-song refrain echoed from both yards, all variations of “Look at me, Dad!” or “Look at me, Mommy!”
Her yard had a pitcher with ice cubes and lemonade and cups and napkins.
He used a hose, both to get himself and Teddy clean enough to drink, and then to drink from.
A good hour passed, maybe two. The sun poured down, a hot liquid light. The pond got dug. All it cost were four Band-Aids, heaps of sunscreen, two or three pulled muscles in Mike’s back, several buckets of sweat and a few torn clothes. The water garden was going to be darned nice when it was done, but Mike already knew it’d take eons more hours-after Teddy was in bed.
He stood up, gauging how much more he could get done before lunch, when he suddenly heard…silence. He glanced up, and saw the two redheads standing at the border of their yard. The one in the tutu had her hands on her hips and was staring at him with both disgust and fascination. Molly’s mom looked as delectably dangerous as she had last night-only, last night she’d come undone in his arms. Today, she was wearing white shorts to garden, which he couldn’t believe. And the pretty little bed of day lilies she’d planted looked ready for a garden show.
“We like your water garden,” she called over.
“Your mommy is never going to let you in the house,” Molly informed Mike, which seemed a fair indication he was wearing half the dirt in the yard.
“Molly-” Amanda started to address her daughter, but suddenly the miniature redhead shrieked.
“Mommy! Teddy’s going pee pee outside! I can see it!”
Aw, well. Teddy undoubtedly hadn’t wanted to waste time going all the way in the house to the bathroom when they were having so much fun. It likely never occurred to him that squirting on the back fence might not be the best idea. Mike rubbed a hand over his face, trying to figure out what to say or do, accidentally got a piece of dirt in his eye.
Then the barking started. Slugger had been outside with them, but pretty much he’d just been basking in the sunlight and snoozing-that was, until the Sissy Dog somehow escaped a tether on their back porch and came prancing over, a diamond-studded leash trailing behind her.
Slugger could move fast. It just wasn’t usually his choice.
The girls took off after “Darling.” Mike took off after Slugger. How her dog knew about dog doors, he had no idea, but the little squirt shot into his house, followed immediately by his lovesick hound. Molly tried to crawl through the dog door. Then Teddy showed up and the kids tangled in the doorway.
Normally Mike would have let Amanda through before him, but just then he figured that chivalry was less important than preventing the dogs from having an inappropriate hookup. He might have wished he’d had a fresh shower. That his house looked a little less like a tornado site. That the path wasn’t littered with shoes and toys. Cat screeched from the top of the mantel at the hullabaloo.
The kids were circling, calling for the dogs-at least, until her Molly got sidetracked by a toy. Naturally Teddy stopped to explain the toy to her, and that left only the two adults searching high and low for the dogs-who’d suddenly turned quiet.
“Not a good sign,” Mike admitted to her.
The canines weren’t in the laundry room-which had wash heaped to the ceiling. Clean wash, not dirty wash. All the same, Mike so far hadn’t thought of a reason why it had to be folded or put away when they could both just take stuff off the pile when they needed clean clothes. Amanda shot him a look.
“What? What?”
“Someday your son’s going to get married. Which means you’ll have a daughter-in-law. And she’ll blame you if your son expects her to pick up after him.”
“Huh?”
He pushed into his bedroom first-worried what she’d see-but it was fairly picked up. Just an unmade king-size bed, the sunlight hitting on the steel-gray sheets and striped blanket. “No dogs,” he said when he spotted a jockstrap on the master-bathroom floor, and closed the door as he ushered her out.
There was no sign of the dogs in Teddy’s room, either, but she got a good look. “You decorated to beat the
