LITMIR.BIZ

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of get-ups were they wearing?

      With an inner smile, he waited until they finished their song before pecking lightly on the door. Two heads swiveled in his direction.

      “Daddy!” Jade dropped something onto the table and clambered off her chair. She ran toward him, nearly tripping over a long, white dress that looked suspiciously like a well-used wedding gown. Taking a moment to hike the yards of wrinkled satin and lace into one hand, she stumbled onward, lime-green high heels clunking against the wooden floor.

      Mood elevating with every step his baby took, Jesse opened the door and stepped inside the living room.

      “My, don’t you look beautiful,” he said.

      But Jade was having none of his compliments. She got right to the point. “The teacher made me ride the bus ’cause you didn’t come.”

      “I’m sorry I was late, Butterbean. Your teacher did the right thing sending you to Lindsey where you would be safe and happy.”

      “Where were you? I got scared. I thought you were dead like Mommy.”

      A searing pain cut off Jesse’s windpipe. Of course, she’d think that. That’s why he always made a point of being exactly where she expected—to allay her well-founded fears.

      Lindsey appeared in the living room. “Your daddy is here now, Jade, and he’s just fine.”

      “Jesus took care of him the way you said.”

      A serene smile lit Lindsey’s eyes. “Yes, He did.”

      Jesse didn’t know what was going on with their talk of Jesus and decided not to ask. He looked to Lindsey, grateful for her care of Jade, but not wanting to tell her where he’d been. Wearing a hat with peacock feathers sticking out the top, and a rather bedraggled fake fur stole over someone’s old red prom dress, she looked ridiculously cute. If he hadn’t felt so guilty, he would have laughed.

      “I’m sorry for putting you out this way.”

      “Jade is no problem. But we were a little concerned about you.”

      Exactly what he didn’t need—Lindsey’s concern, although he knew it was there, felt it day in and day out as she carefully avoided subjects she’d discovered were painful or taboo. Always, that gentle aura of peace and inner joy reached out to him.

      “I had some personal business to handle which took much longer than I’d planned. Somehow the time got away from me, and by the time I rushed over to the school…” He lifted his hands and let them fall.

      “Well, you’re here now.” Lindsey smiled that sweet, tranquil smile that changed her face to a thing of beauty. Jesse tried, but failed, to resist the pleasure that one motion gave him.

      And then she made things worse by asking, “Are you hungry?”

      An unbidden rush of warmth filled him from the inside out. Coming to this house and this woman was starting to feel far too natural and way too good.

      “Come on, Daddy. Come see. We’re making a tea party, and I’m the queen.” Skirts sweeping the floor, Jade led the way into the kitchen and lifted an odd-shaped bit of bread from the table, thrusting it at him. “I made this guarding angel for you.”

      “Tea, huh? And an angel sandwich.” He took the offering, examining the small figure with all due seriousness. “Sounds delicious. Anything I can do to help?”

      Lindsey nodded toward a plate of fresh fruit. “You could slice up the apples if you’d like.”

      “Lindsey.” Jade’s plaintiff protest drew both adults’ attention. She eyed her father skeptically. “He can’t come to the tea party without dress-up clothes.”

      An ornery gleam flashed in Lindsey’s brown eyes. “She’s right, Dad. Tea requires formal attire.”

      Before he could object on purely masculine grounds, Jade rushed off, returning with a purple boa, a tarnished tiara, and a yellow-and-black satin cape. “Here, Daddy, you can be king.”

      Lindsey laughed at the pained expression on Jesse’s face and in return, received his fiercest glare of wry humor.

      “I’ll get you for this,” he muttered under his breath as Jade dressed him, carefully twining the boa around his neck before placing the crown on his head with a triumphant—if somewhat crooked—flourish.

      Lindsey wrinkled her nose at him and adjusted her stole with a haughty toss of her head. “Mess with me, mister, and I’ll find you a pair of purple plastic high heels to go with that dashing feather boa.”

      Jesse surprised himself by tickling her nose with the aforementioned boa. “I’m the king, remember. Off with your head.”

      She laughed up at him, and he realized how much smaller she was than he, and how feminine she looked in a dress, even a silly outfit like this one. Out of her usual uniform of jeans and flannel, she unsettled him. Lindsey was a pretty woman as well as a nice one.

      One more reason he needed to find the answer to his questions and get out of here. He couldn’t get attached to a woman he’d eventually have to hurt.

      For all his searching today, he’d found no record of this farm or the transaction between his stepfather, Les Finch, and Charles Mitchell. If he didn’t find something next time, he’d be forced to ask the clerk for information, a risk he hadn’t wanted to take. Asking questions stirred up suspicion. Someone was bound to want to know what he was up to. Sooner or later, word would filter back to Lindsey and he’d be out of a job and out of luck. Discretion made for a slow, but safer, search.

      Lindsey whacked his shoulder with her boa. “Are you going to slice that fruit or stand there and stare at my glorious hat?”

      Her humor delighted him. “The hat does catch a man’s eye.”

      Lindsey and Jade both giggled at his silliness. Even he wondered where the lightheartedness came from. He’d had a rotten afternoon, but the warmth of this house and the company of these two females lifted his spirits.

      Taking up the stainless-steel knife, he sliced an apple into quarters. “What kind of sandwiches are we making?”

      “Baloney and cheese.”

      “Ah, a gourmet’s delight.” Placing the apple slices on a plate in as fancy a design as he could manage, he plucked a few grapes and arranged them in the center.

      Lindsey clapped a slice of wheat bread on top of the meat and cheese. “And afterwards, we’ll make sugar cookies.”

      “With sprinkles,” Jade chimed in, her face a study in concentration as she pushed the metal cutters into the sandwiches.

      “Jesse, why don’t you arrange the fancy sandwiches on this plate while Jade finishes cutting them. Then we’ll be ready to eat.”

      They were only sandwiches. Bread, baloney, cheese and mayonnaise. He could do this. Looking at his beaming child instead of the Christmas shapes, Jesse made a circle of sandwiches on the platter.

      “What about the tea?” Jade asked.

      “Oh. The tea!” Lindsey clattered across the floor in her high heels, opened a cabinet and removed a quart fruit jar. “I hope the two of you like spiced tea.”

      “Hot tea?” Jesse asked doubtfully.

      She dumped a healthy amount of the mixture into a blue ceramic teapot. With a twinkle in her eye, she admitted, “Spiced tea tastes a lot like apple cider. Grandma taught me to make it. It’s a conglomeration of tea, orange drink mix, lemonade and a bunch of yummy spices.”

      “Sounds better than hot tea,” he admitted, pointing an apple slice at her before popping it into his mouth. “Maybe I can stand it.”

      Lindsey sailed across the floor and tapped his hand with the spoon. “Even the king has to wait until we all sit down together.”

      “Meanie.”

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