Long-Lost Mom

“Don’t worry.” She hugged him back now and offered a watery smile. “The school is pretty crazy. No one’ll notice my missing report.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Mr. Ridgeway got caught kissing Mrs. Taylor, the new second-grade teacher.”

“Your kidding!” Of course she wasn’t. Even Sara couldn’t have made that story up. “What happened?”

“Mr. Taylor found them playing tonsil hockey in the storage closet and punched Mr. Ridgeway’s lights out. Now Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Ridgeway are gonna lose their jobs, I think.”

“Tonsil hockey?” Stone asked, shocked at what his ten-year-old daughter knew.

“Yeah.” She frowned. “I’m not exactly sure what that is, but it sounds pretty gross.”

“I see,” Stone said solemnly, but he couldn’t contain his wide grin. “They’re in big trouble, huh?”

“Yup.”

His first thought was that Jenna would love this.

“Daddy, don’t fall in love with her!” Sara squeezed him tight and begged him with her baby blues. “Please, don’t.”

“Sara-”

“She didn’t really steal my stuff,” Sara admitted, blinking another huge teardrop down her distressed face.

“Really,” Stone said dryly as he patted her back. “Look, honey, I understand how you feel, but you can’t go around making up stories like that. We’re close enough that you can tell me anything. No lies, okay?”

Sara stared at her shoes.

He tipped up her chin. “’Kay?”

“’Kay,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. She’s really…sort of nice, I guess. Even when I’m not.”

“So if she’s nice, what’s the problem?”

“It’s Mommy.”

His heart stopped. “What about her?”

“When she comes back, she won’t want you if you’re married to someone else.”

Oh, boy.

Before he could figure out how to deal with this unexpected turn of events, the bus pulled up and honked.

“Sara, wait,” he said when she leaped to her feet. “After school we need to talk about this. About your mom.”

With the maturity of someone much older, Sara’s gaze searched his face. “You know,” she breathed. “You know where she is. Don’t you!”

“Yes, honey, I do.”

“You promised to tell me!”

“I just found out, and I’m telling you now, like I promised I would.”

“When do I get to see her?” Horror and hope and fear crossed her face all at once. “She does want to see me, doesn’t she?”

“More than anything in the world.” Jenna had promised to abide by his decision about Sara, and that had gone a long way toward allowing him to trust her, but Stone no longer felt he had the right to keep them separated. Sara needed her mother. “If it all goes as planned, then you’ll see her after school.”

Sara bounced off toward the bus looking happier than Stone could ever remember. “Love you, Dad!” she called over her shoulder, waving wildly.

Dad?

When had she stopped calling him Daddy? He stood there, torn between joy and sorrow. His baby was growing up.

Dad.

He rubbed the grittiness from his tired eyes, startled to feel moisture there. As the bus pulled away, he caught sight of Sara’s beaming face in the window.

She loved him.

With all his heart he hoped she still felt that way when she found out the truth. When she learned the woman she thought of as Cindy was really her mother. When she realized how her father had fallen for both.

It was infuriating that he still harbored a fear of Jenna hurting him, but he knew why. Nothing in his life had hurt as badly as when Jenna had left him.

But even that fear wasn’t enough to keep him from what he suddenly wanted with all his heart.

Jenna, back in his and Sara’s life.

Kristen poured the hot tea, smiling through the rising steam at Jenna. “It’s all over the papers.”

“And on the news,” Jenna added, unable to hold back a wide grin. “Just think, Rand Ridgeway finally got caught with his zipper down.”

They burst into laughter.

“I just wish,” Kristen said, sobering, “that he could have gotten in trouble sooner-ten years sooner.”

“Better late than never.” Jenna refused to continue to run her life on bitterness or anger. Instead, she was concentrating on the things that mattered-loyalty, affection… love.

“I like your new look,” Kristen said softly. “Not the hair, silly,” she said with a laugh when Jenna tucked a strand behind her ear. “The inner look you’ve been sporting lately. All that new belief in yourself and the people around you. It really shows, honey. You’ve changed. And it looks good on you.”

Uncomfortable with the compliment, Jenna shifted her weight uneasily. “Maybe you could tell that to Stone. And Sara, while you’re at it.”

“Is she warming up to you yet?”

“Not exactly.” Jenna grimaced when she took a sip of the tea, then added a generous helping of sugar. “Yesterday she called me a dork when I tripped.”

“I love you-you know that now.” Kristen’s eyes sparkled with good humor. “So I can say this-you’re not exactly graceful. Remember the time you took a swan dive, down that flight of stairs at school? Landed on your tush right in front of Bobby Parker?”

And a million other kids, who’d laughed at her for weeks. One more thing in a very long list that had added up to zero self-confidence. “Very funny,” Jenna said, remembering her past humiliation. “But the truth is, Sara booby- trapped me with a long piece of string. I nearly killed myself in there yesterday. Then she told Stone I tripped her-on purpose.”

“Really? What did Stone say?”

“He told her to watch her big old feet more.”

“He stuck up for you.”

“Yeah, but don’t get excited. He still isn’t exactly thrilled with me.” Although, she had to admit, he never let it show in front of Sara. He always treated her with the utmost courtesy and made sure Sara did the same. Even in the sticky situation of keeping the truth from his daughter, he never wavered in doing what he believed was right. “That girl has an attitude to match…well, quite frankly, it matches her father’s.”

Jenna’s office front door had opened with a blast of chilly morning air just as she finished her sentence. Too late she realized why Kristen’s eyes were wide with warning and that the tall shadow behind her meant the worst possible thing had just occurred.

Stone had heard her.

Grimacing, she turned to face him. “Oh. It’s you.”

“Attitude and all,” he said with a mock salute.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right,” he assured her, shutting the door, “especially when you mean it.” He leaned back against the wood and gave her a look so divided between sizzling passion and annoyed fury, she didn’t know if she was excited or terrified.

He didn’t waste time on pleasantries, although he did pause to glare at Kristen. “Well, now your being here makes sense.” He shook his head. “Hope you had a good laugh, both of you.”

“No,” Kristen said quickly. “We never did that.”

He looked at Jenna, and whether he realized it or not, his expression softened slightly. “However it happened,