LITMIR.BIZ

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him up?”

      “No wife. No children. So there’s no reason you can’t.”

      “Then I guess we could come by for a little while but I’m not making any promises about the parade.” Laura Jo looked down at Allie.

      “Great. I’ll expect you about two. Here’s my address.” He pulled out a calling card, turned it over and, removing a pen from his pocket, wrote on it. “I’ll have Gus all bathed and waiting on you.”

      Allie giggled. “Okay.”

      Mark looked at Laura Jo. “See you tomorrow.”

      She gave him a weak smile and he grinned. He was already looking forward to the afternoon.

      Laura Jo wasn’t sure how she’d managed to be coerced into agreeing to go to Mark’s. Maybe it was because of the look of anticipation on Allie’s face or the maternal guilt she felt whenever Allie asked to do something and she had to say no because she had to go to work or school. Now that she was in a position to give her child some fun in her life, she couldn’t bring herself to say no. But going to Mark Clayborn’s house had to be one for the record. She didn’t really know the man. She’d admired him with a young girl’s hero worship. But she knew little about the man he had become. He’d been nice enough so far but she hadn’t always been the best judge of character.

      She’d searched for a sound reason why they couldn’t do it. Marsha certainly hadn’t been any help. It was as if she had pushed her into going. For once Laura Jo wished she had to work on Sunday. But no such luck.

      Allie was up earlier than usual in her excitement over the possibility of being in the dog parade. Jeremy had been almost as bad, Marsha said, when he ran to meet them at the car later that day.

      “So are you looking forward to an afternoon with the handsome, debonair and rich Dr. Mark Clayborn?” Marsha asked with a grin.

      They’d had a lively and heated discussion over a cup of coffee late the night before about Mark. Marsha seemed to think she should develop him as an ally in funding the single mothers’ house. Laura Jo wasn’t so sure. That was a road she’d promised herself she’d never go down again. She wasn’t ever going to ask her parents or her society friends for anything ever again. That certainly included Mark Clayborn.

      After today she didn’t plan to see him again. This afternoon was about Allie and seeing a smile on her face. That only. Allie had been begging for a dog for the past year but they didn’t have a lifestyle that was good for taking care of a dog.

      Laura Jo pulled her aging compact car off the winding, tree-shaded road into the well-groomed, riverbed-pebbled drive of the address she’d been given. The crunch made a familiar sound. Her own family’s place just a few miles down the road had the same type of drive, or at least it had the last time she’d been there.

      The foliage of the large trees with moss hanging from them gave the area a cozy feel. Soon she entered an open space where a sweeping, single-story beach house sat with a wide expanse of yard between it and the bay beyond.

      “Do you see Gus?” Allie strained at her seat belt as she peered out the window.

      “Now, honey, I don’t want you to get your hopes up too high. Gus may not like being dressed up.” Laura Jo didn’t want to say “or you.” Some owners thought their dogs loved everyone when they often didn’t.

      “He’ll like it, I know he will.”

      “I think he will, too,” Jeremy said from the backseat.

      Laura Jo looked at him in the rearview mirror and smiled. “We’ll see.”

      She pulled to a stop behind a navy blue high-end European car. To Mark’s credit, it wasn’t a sports car but it was finer than Laura Jo had ever ridden in, even when she’d still been living with her parents.

      Her door had hardly opened before Allie ran toward a basset hound, whose ears dragged along the ground. Not far behind him strolled Mark. For a second her breath caught. He had all the markers of an eye-catching man. Tall, blond wavy hair and an air about him that said he could take care of himself and anyone else he cared about. It was a dazzling combination.

      She’d been asked out a number of times by one of the men at the hospital, but she’d never had a man both irritate her and draw her to him at the same time. That was exactly what Mark Clayborn did.

      He looked down with a smile at Allie, with her arms wrapped around Gus, and Jeremy, patting him, then at Laura Jo.

      Her middle fluttered. If it wasn’t for all the baggage she carried, her inability to trust her judgment of men, maybe she might be interested. She’d let Allie have her day and make a concerted effort not to see Mark again.

      “Hey. Did you have any trouble finding it?”

      “No trouble. I knew which one it was when you told me you lived in Fairhope.”

      “Really?”

      “I remember passing it when I was a kid.” She’d been aware all her life where the Clayborn summer home was located.

      He glanced back to where the children played with the dog. “I think they’re hitting it off.”

      Laura Jo couldn’t help but agree.

      “Allie, did you bring some clothes for Gus? I got a few things just in case you didn’t,” Mark said, strolling toward the kids and dog.

      “They’re in the car.”

      “I’ll get them, honey,” Laura Jo called, as the kids headed toward the large open yard between the house and bay. “Don’t go near the water and stay where I can see you.”

      She walked to the car and Mark followed her. “You’re a good mother.”

      Laura Jo glanced at him. “I try to be.”

      “So when did Allie’s father leave?”

      Laura Jo opened the passenger door then looked at him. “When I was three months pregnant.”

      Mark whistled. “That explains some of your standoffishness.”

      She pulled a large brown sack out of the car and closed the door with more force than necessary. “I’m not.”

      “Yeah, you are. For some reason, you don’t want to like me, even when you do.”

      She was afraid he might be right. Thankfully, squealing in the front yard drew their attention to the two children running around as a dog almost as wide as he was tall chased them.

      Mark checked his watch and called, “Allie and Jeremy, we need to get started on what Gus will wear because the parade starts in a couple of hours.”

      The kids ran toward them and Gus followed.

      “Why don’t we go around to the deck where it’s cooler? We can dress Gus there,” Mark said to the kids.

      Mark led the way with the kids and Gus circled them. Laura Jo hung back behind them. Mark was good with children. Why didn’t he have a wife and kids of his own? She imagined she was the only one of many who didn’t fall at his charming feet.

      The deck was amazing. It was open at one end. Chairs and a lounge group were arranged into comfortable conversation areas. At the other end was an arbor with a brown vine that must be wisteria on it. Laura Jo could only envision what it would look like in the spring and summer, with its green leaves creating a roof of protection from the sun. She’d love to sit in a comfortable chair under it but that wasn’t going to happen.

      “Allie, why don’t you and Jeremy pull the things you brought out of the bag while I go get what I bought? Then you can decide how to dress Gus.”

      Allie took the bag from Laura Jo. With the children busy pulling feather boas, old hair bows, purple, green and gold ribbon from the bag, Laura Jo took a seat on the end of a lounge chair and watched.

      Mark

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